Radio Towers & NPC Recruitment

[nameless_survivor]

It would be cool if you could reactivate radio stations or transmitter towers to get in touch with factions or random survivors. Maybe you could broadcast propaganda for a faction, or even recruitment messages for your own group to try and convince NPCs to come and join you. Success could be based off the speech skill, with a really high skill gaining LOTS of new recruits to show up at your outpost.

How awesome would it be to make an Arcturus Mengsk style broadcast thanks to a high speech level, and have a shitload of well equipped NPCs show up to join you in clearing a city or something.

[Eastwardrope91]

You can “reactivate” them kinda the bigger ones in the city you can install a thing in them to make them a repeater but it doesn’t work unless you have a quest for it I think.

[nameless_survivor]

Yeah I’ve seen that, I figured it was either for a quest or an unimplemented feature. When I first started playing I fought my way to a radio station near the city center. I was hoping to contact other civilian survivors, or what was left of the government/military, or some other group I could join up with to better my chances of survival. I was extremely disappointed.

[Eastwardrope91]

I think two way radios can somewhat but only if you’ve met them.

[nameless_survivor]

That’s definitely good to know, I kept one, but have been pulling the batteries out of the rest I find and then dropping them or eating the radio to fuel my internal furnace.

What I’m talking about here would be complete strangers showing up, NPCs that spawned because of your broadcast. Folks showing up to help, at the very least temporarily, because you have won their hearts and minds with the knowledge of a threat which needs purging, promises of loot, or because they have been convinced to believe in your cause.

[Eastwardrope91]

I think you can do something similar with the camp system.

[nameless_survivor]

There is a camp system? Know where I can find how it works?

[Eastwardrope91]

NPCs have a tutorial. Ask them to set up a camp in an area and they’ll tell you about it as well as start it. Then you need more NPCs to actually build it. It costs to get setup but it can be worth it.

[nameless_survivor]

My current character is filthy rich, both in terms of money and resources. I already have a bunker in a good spot. Do I just need to recruit an NPC? Like the merc at the Survivor Center. Also, does he only charge you once to hire him, daily, etc?

[Eastwardrope91]

Need is one time cost but you need two people to build it and a large tent or 4 damaged tents to start then a shot load of mundane resources like wood, nails, and such on. Then you need time. After a few levels you’ll be able to send out people to get new guys it’s low chance high risk but it works. It uses the speech skill and their gear and combat skills to determine if they will accept and if they will be safe.

[nameless_survivor]

Do they have to be built above ground? I was considering building everything underground, to hopefully suppress any noise. Also, for the “Vault City” vibe. Any way to co-opt existing structures? The military bunker I’m using has a bunch of beds and lockers and a kitchen already, so I’d rather live comfortably underground than in some shitty tents. Also, if I excavated deeper, would it reduce the chances of any noise attracting hordes from above?

[mlangsdorf]

It doesn’t actually use their gear at all, which drives me nuts and which I plan to fix, but that work is queued up behind the other 17 patches to fix other parts of faction camps that drive me nuts.

And no, you can only start a faction camp in a completely empty field above ground. Another thing I plan to change, but see previous paragraph.

[nameless_survivor]

And no, you can only start a faction camp in a completely empty field above ground. Another thing I plan to change, but see previous paragraph.

Is that update coming to experimental any time soon? I’d rather hold off and continue to gather resources than have to pull up stakes and rebuild if I’d be able to build underground in the near future. I’d like to build an underground vault city eventually.

[mlangsdorf]

Factions camp being anything other than above ground is at least a couple of months away.

[nameless_survivor]

I can wait. I presume I need oceans of nails, wood and rock?

[Eastwardrope91]

Best place like he said is a plain, but there are better places but at minimum you must I’ve a 3X3 map tiles of plains the better places are near forests a river and a swamp(rare combo). The forest gives you better materials the river gives you water (I think that’s for you) and I have no idea what a swamp gives you (again I think it’s for you) and expansions give you access to the tools within and give you the ability to make other bits and bobs you might not be able to make. It’s pretty good but I wish it could be under ground I mean people can build under ground but it should be more expensive as building a house is less material extensive than digging it out as it takes time to mine a room out and then costs materials to build supports and materials to furnish it as necessary and more to light it as you can’t use natural light under ground with out a hole outside.

[mlangsdorf]

Several hundred logs, 2000 or so two-by-fours, roughly 250 rocks, 1500+ nails, 90 long ropes or vines, 24 sheets of glass, 50 pipes, 12 sheet metals, and various bits and pieces. Your NPCs can scavenge stuff and cut logs for you, and soon they’ll be able to forage for food, but there’s still a huge amount of stuff you need to acquire.

[nameless_survivor]

Does the land have to originally be clear, or can I cut down a 3x3 area of a forest and have it work?

Speaking of which, something you guys might want to add is having the map tile change if the terrain changes. Ex: I had to completely eradicate a forest infested with fungus. Instead of forest tiles, they should have had a fungus icon or something as the infestation progressed, then each tile changed to field as I burned it down and the percentage of trees dropped below say 10%.

[Eastwardrope91]

You have to have map tiles that are fields building and rubble in them have no effect that I have seen. But I agree that map tiles should change for thing like that.

[nameless_survivor]

Any way to debug that on the map? I have a REALLY nice spot where my bunker is, but its got trees around it.