Have been a proponent of this sort of ‘expanding alienation threat’ for months. I even think that survivor settlements/territories could use a modified system similar to this to model setting up encampments, defenses, clearing hazards, farming/managing resources and
As to this creeping difficulty ramp having little/no promised loot at the moment. Cataclysm is only passingly a Roguelike, yet not a Dungeon Crawler. There is no need to justify a hazard’s existence by adding reward a la ‘the treasure chest behind the orc.’ Instead thwarting, or at least surviving, the hazard is itself the point.
The primary reasoning for mobile bases and an ever expanding map is NOT to supply a limitless amount of freshly unlooted towns and easily accessible resources, but because the starting locale runs out of fun challenges (and it was simpler and faster to generate new landscape as a stopgap measure than code complex behaviors.) Thus migratory challenges (such as hordes) and invasive challenges (such as expanding threats) are increasingly proposed and introduced.
Indeed may I point out that if the the progressive cataclysm were properly pre-modeled on newly generated zones there would be LESS reason to live as a nomad, as those areas would not have benefited from the player stopping, culling and pruning away hostile forces.
As time progresses distant towns would ideally be overrun with highly evolved mutants and established xenofauna, be picked clean of resources by now deceased or distant scavengers (human or otherwise), have been blasted to ruination, or be protected under the neo-feudal auspices of the local survivors (who don’t take kindly to strangers nabbing their fuel and rations.)
