New Beginnings

[ShootDangit]

Having discovered this game a month or two ago I have found it quite enjoyable. I wish to give back to those who have made something that entertains not only me and many others but to also make the game more fun. To that end I have begun a project to create the New Beginnings mod. It currently works with a few bugs on the non sdl windows bleeding edge version. I wanted to get a feel for interest in the mod and if it would be worth working on with the end goal of hopefully getting mainlined. This mod does alter a bit of the core game and below is a summary of how it works currently followed by where I want to take it upon completion.

New Beginnings

This mod changes how the game starts. Due to this each New Beginning alters the difficulty level of the early game. The first changes take place when making a new character.

On the Professions tab you will now notice two columns one for profession one for vehicle. The profession column contains 37 different professions from the easy: Soldier start to the far more difficult Office Worker. These professions determine not only starting equipment but also starting location.

The vehicle spawns a guaranteed vehicle with all parts between yellow and light green and between 10 and 50 percent gas near your starting location. This part is currently very buggy but ironing out the kinks is top priority.

I will post screens when I get a day off am on my smart phone at work right now. If this sounds like a mod you would like please leave suggestions or feedback here. If you would like to help me with code by lookint at what I have and seeing if you can help find bugs or mistakes shoot me a PM. Have a good one have to get back to work.

[Stevensonz]

hmmm would be good if for example soldiers and police would start in heavily infested zombie location and be rated as difficult. I.E Outbreak Defense protocol sent you to the front lines and the lines being broken you have to escape with your minimal gear and it being difficult.

Example Fema camp being raided by a horde of zombies scenario with you as the last surviving soldier surrounded from all sides and armed with only a handgun with a few ammo and a combat knife trying to fight your way out. (Epic Difficulty?)

[TheGrifter]

VERY interesting. I have a question for you.

How did you manage to get vehicles to spawn via professions? I’m looking to create a certain doctor of Journalism for my mod, and he has everything BUT the car.

[ShootDangit]

To answer your question in is a bit complicated and is the source of the most bugs. It keeps spawning in bad areas or on top of other stuff. I will send the code to you in a PM when I get some time and maybe you can help figure it out.

[Shoes]

This sounds like something that’s been discussed a lot and it sounds like you’ve got it all and more!

Are you familiar with github? It is the platform that we share code on. I would suggest throwing your code up on there; it would greatly increase the chances of it getting merged into the main game.

Soron posted a how-to for github : http://smf.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?topic=1063.0

edit : Also, being on github, others and review and comment on your code to help

[kilozombie]

This seems VEERRYY interesting. I like the idea of so many professions. However, it might be difficult to balance them all, however I don’t really care- with so many, you can role-play nearly anyone you want! I’m excited for that, as well as the whole thing about starting with a vehicle. I know it’s harder to get those early-game than it was in Cataclysm Roguelike so it would be cool to get a quick start.

[retrohazard]

My idea for balancing the professions would be to give the player 2 choices. Average joe: Where you start with no special equipment, traits or skills, And Random: you can start as a random profession with random gear from that profession and traits and skills associated with it. They can either be negative, positive, or a mixture of both. Example of a Good profession: Construction worker. Knowledge of construction, starts with a tool belt and a couple tools, and a hard hat. Example of a bad profession: Drug addict. You start with meth and an addiction to drugs. You will have the Addictive personality trait. And then there could be Equally good and bad professions. Example would be businessman: start in a suit and dress shoes. Maybe be a skilled liar, but have strength and dexterity penalties maybe starting at 6-8 strength/dexterity.

[Morrigi]

I would play this if it was uploaded. +1.

[Rivet]

I like the sound of this.

[Misha]

I would play this if it was uploaded. +1.

Seconded.

[ShootDangit]

So the airconditioner went out at home so I am in a hotel. I wanted to post some details of the mod. Will get a github this weekend and post the code on there. So here are a few of the professions. Will post more as I get time.

New Beginnings Professions:

Unemployed: 0 pts. Starting location: Random House. Starting Equipment: sneakers, jeans, t-shirt, 5 marijuana, Gamebox. Traits: Loner. Iron Stomach.

McD’s: 0 pts. Starting location: Random Fast Food Restaurant. Starting Equipment: sneakers, t-shirt, apron, uniform cap, cell phone. Traits: Skilled Minor, Gourmand.

Librarian: 0 pts. Starting location: Library. Starting Equipment: sneakers, jeans, t-shirt, pen light, messenger bag. Traits: Fast Reader, Packmule.

Cashier: 0 pts. Starting location: Megastore. Starting Equipment: sneakers, cargo pants, polo-shirt, baseball bat. Traits: Resourceful.

Have to fix dinner Will post custom traits definitions and custom item properties.

After Dinner edit:

Items: The new clothing items are just remains of existing items. The gamebox is a handheld videogame device powered by batteries than improves moral anytime you wait.

Traits:

Loner: Gains a bonus to morale when traveling alone.

Iron Stomach: Allows you to eat rotten food without throwing up. You can still suffer food poisoning.

Skilled Minor: You have a knack for performing menial repetitive tasks and you can sometimes cut corners. Simple recipe craft time (those that require one skill only and only 2 or less points to craft.) and a very slight chance of producing two of an item with the ingrediants for one. Must be a simple recipe.

Resourceful: Allows you access to some special recipes.

Flint and Steel: Scrapmetal + rock. Funtions as lighter with 1000 charges instead of 100.

Key to the City: Screwdriver + Scrapmetal. Works as lockpicks.

Still: Steel Tank + Pipe + Keg + Rubber hose. Must start a fire in same tile and required for following recipes.

Bio-diesel: Water + Rotten meat. Works like Gasoline.

Moonshine: Rotten veggies or fruits + sugar. Potent alcohol very flamable.

Security Light. Lightstrip + Light Amp goggles. Motion sensing light. Turns on with movement within six tiles.

Flood Light: 20 Flashlights + Scrapmetal + pipe. Stationary light that projects a bright cone of light very far. Gives the glare condition to living creatures.

Red-neck canon: 3 chunks of steel + 2 pipe. Stationary mortar that can launch the following ballistics up to 40 tiles. Intelligence and Perception determine accuracy. Even perfect shots vary a few squares randomly and chance to blow up based on condition of canon. The canon has a chance to become damaged with each shot.

Nail Bomb: tin can + 20 nails + weapon powder. Large explosion radius high damage to fleshy targets not much to buildings.

Flare: Aluminum can + magnesium. Light emitting projectike that can set things on fire.

More to come later. Code for everything will be up by Sunday then debugging can commence.

[DWC]

This sounds good and all, but starting in a restaurant full of zombies doesn’t really make sense. A survivor would not be hanging out at work a week after zombies took over the town after all.

Improvised lockpicks make sense, people make them out of hacksaw blades and the metal inserts in windshield wiper blades.

The game really does need a way to make moonshine, but it takes a few days.

Not every rock is flint or anything that will cause a spark and flint and steel is a crappy firestarter anyways, especially since it’s always raining in New England.

‘red neck cannon’ is bigoted and offensive and it should have some kind of propellant source, something aerosol and flammable like a spud gun or it’s ammunition should include gunpowder.

Just my thoughts on it, everything else sounds pretty good.

[Morrigi]

I suggest that the biodiesel production process be modified slightly.

First, x amount of meat chunks or tainted meat gives 1 unit of fat, with the tainted meat recipe requiring at least three or four times more for balance reasons.

Second, this fat goes through the Transesterification process, which sounds really complicated but in-game would simply involve using fat and bleach in a recipe to create the fuel.

And ta-da. a more realistic way of creating biodiesel.

EDIT: Derped up the hyperlink, fixed.

[ShootDangit]

To clarify a few points:

Starting in a restaurant full of zombies doesn’t happen. There are zombies around yes. New Beginnings is set right as the outtbreak gets out of control.

Not every rock is flint… but not every rock is suitable for a hammer to make a crowbar from a pipe. Not every rock is rendered in the game hence the simple recipe. Wet and rainy wood is difficult to light period. Could always change recipe to battery + steel wool though flint and steel is carried even in wet climates by military personel.

Not sure how “red-neck canon” is bigoted or offensive unless it has to do with differences of meaning to different cultures. I live in the southern US. Redneck is not an offensive term down here. It is sung about in country music. A lot of us take pride in being called rednecks. That said if the term really does offend you it wasn’t my intent. Names are easily changed.

Morrigi we could do that if that is more popular. A lot of the goal of this mod is to add fun things wothout making it tedious since you have to navigate the crafting menu for each step in your method. I wouldn’t be opposed to upping the rotten meat cost and keeping the recipe simple.

[Morrigi]

Meh, I just want to make a death machine running off zombie corpses.

Also, can one engine be made to run on more than one fuel type?

[Zireael]

Where can I find this mod?

[youtoo]

one of the kickstarter rewards was for ‘scenarios’. this mod could be used for that so the guys dont cover the same work. you might want to talk to kevin about this. if you can get the framework for this going, the full time dev can work on something else.