What are some things that should be in the Cataclysm?

[BushElito]

Well then two things:
Is Triffid available as a faction in JSON?
And would this need C++ code? Asking this because I haven’t used C++ for awhile.

[mlangsdorf]

Triffids are currently a monster faction, and you have to special case monster factions in the C++ code so that NPCs are allied to them. I could fix that if you were writing a Triffid Evangelist NPC faction.

Otherwise, you can pretty much write a new faction in JSON, including missions and faction specific locations. See the Guide for 1st time contributors which talks a bit about adding new NPCs and new NPC factions.

[Esther]

I think Mycus guides would be an interesting NPC to have, too! The marloss cycle is directly created as a conversion mechanism for humans, and the idea of marloss proselytizers who are either in the cycle or have transcended it is far from outlandish.

[Feathereddragon]

What if finely sharpened has a damage but but dissipated in a dozen or so hits?

T. professional butcher. I like sharp things.

[mlangsdorf]

Marloss Evangelists are a proposed faction that I’d love to see someone pick up and write. If not, I’ll write them if my backlog of coding tasks ever gets completed.

The Evangelists have a pretty good pitch for desperate survivors: eat these berries, and you never have to worry about food again. Plus you heal extremely fast, and you have allies against zombies. It’s pretty much all upside.

It’s really unfortunate that any community that knows what the Mycus is will pretty much set the Evangelists on fire as soon as they understand what the Evangelists are offering.

[nameless_survivor]

Neutron Purge Device for labs. Basically a small neutron bomb or a system with a similar effect integrated with the facility. When activated will completely purge the facility of both organic and mechanical enemies but leave the lab intact (will kill the player too if you don’t get out in time). High computer skills required to activate properly, and should be somewhat difficult to get to as well, but it might be a better option than clearing the entire facility manually depending on the size and what is presently infesting it (@Maverick’s escaped shoggoth horde is an excellent example of a neutron purge worthy situation). Besides, who on earth would build a lab for researching horrifying/dangerous shit without adding a self destruct or “kill everything inside” button.

More useful data downloads from computers in military bases and labs. Recipes, blueprints, and last known locations of military forces and science teams (potential salvage sites for weapons, armor, military vehicles, technology, etc).

Remote control drones, both off the shelf variety and things like military/police bomb disposal robots. It would be nice to scout out cities, bunkers, etc remotely with something relatively disposable. Would be good as a distraction too.

[Esther]

Are NPC factions json, C++, or both? I think a marloss guide could be codeable if I work through this inner turmoil I find myself in.

[mlangsdorf]

" Otherwise, you can pretty much write a new faction in JSON, including missions and faction specific locations. See the Guide for 1st time contributors which talks a bit about adding new NPCs and new NPC factions."

[TooDAMNMuch]

animal feces, no seriously, we could find edible berries in bear droppings, pretty sure pinecones and other seeds should be in most of them too, plus the infamous cat-crap-coffee.

[TooDAMNMuch]

also being deaf should actually make you deaf, i’ve never understood why i can still hear sounds like doors opening/closing, moving through brush and so forth if my character is “deaf”. (is it a soundpack workings limitation i bet? can’t change their volume while playing or something?)

but at the same time, maybe there could be a way for deaf characters to place a hand or head to the ground/wall/etc and try to sense vibrations for some feedback too.

[QuietCoyote]

It’s a soundpack thing most likely.

You can hear vibrations, but it would have to be something like an explosion or gunshots.

[Esther]

I always thought that some sort of macro system would be lovely to have. I’m not sure how to implement it , but ideally you could press a key to start or stop macro recording, and enter a series of keys that’d be replicated.

For instance, you could hit the key, access your inventory, pick your pocket knife, and open the cut menu, then stop recording. The macro would be saved to an unbound entry in a macro menu, and you could assign it a key, which would open the “cut up an item” menu immediately from your pocket knife.

Ideally the macro would only enter a series of input commands, so that you could bind multiple different knives across saves to the same key and have it work; for instance, you could bind your crowbar to t and then record the series ita to open your inventory, choose your crowbar, and activate it to pry something, all in one keypress. It also has the potential of doing things like letting you bind food to # and being able to press # to eat some food on demand, for instance. The potential is very high, and it would solve a *lot* of the “too many keypresses” issues once you learn.

Maybe you could even bind multiple macros to the same key, and it would run them sequentially. You could draw your weapon from your scabbard (bound to S) by binding it to iSa and have another command to sheathe it by using iSa{Enter}, and activating one would switch to the next one to activate, so you could do something like:

–> iSa
iSa{Enter}
ifE (chew some caffeineated chewing gun after you kick some ass)

Both bound to the same key, and each activation, the macro to use when the button is next pressed, it goes down the list sequentially:

iSa
–> iSa{Enter}
ifE

And then:

iSa
iSa{Enter}
–> ifE

It would then loop back to iSa, and you could press the key three times to draw a weapon from a scabbard, sheathe it, and then chew some bubblegum you bound to f.

Depending on how input is handled, I feel like this could range from “very easy” to “Necronomicon” to implement in the super basic form. Sequences would probably be a bit harder.

[anothersimulacrum]

I too would like macros, but hearing why they don’t exist, I agree that they aren’t a good idea.

Macros in cdda? Recording inputs

I’m not interested in having a macro system. In games that have one, there’s a tendency to keep around terrible UI and just say you need to set up macros for automating things, where what really needs to happen is that feature should be baked into the game.

For example, if creating two-by-fours is a time sink, we need to fix that in the game, not paper over it only for some players with a macro system.

[Esther]

That’s a shame. I wonder how some things can be fixed in-game without making way too many keybinds. I think a “reuse last used item” key would be easy and solve a lot, though.

[Hof1993]

These little guys.

[Hof1993]

A trailer tow system. So one can make and attach a camper.

[LordSunder]

Soil Rant:
Not sure if this has been suggested before, but I’d like to see dirt in the game. Soil. When we dig a pit, where does it all go? Could we collect a bunch of it in a wheelbarrow, and use it to make plantable tiles of dirt indoors, like people have been debugging for ages? Or maybe pile a bunch of it up with corded plant fibre (withered plants/straw) and logs to make wattle and daub walls for your survivor shack? Otherwise, it would be cool to have patches of soil walls underground, and potentially clay walls in certain areas, although I’m not sure about coding the generation of such patches. It would also be nice to be able to bury things, if only so we could have graves/stashes that can be unearthed for random pre-cataclysm stuff. I’m not sure how this latter portion would be coded, because I’m uncertain if the coding for safes is capable of retaining contents (if you decide, for whatever reason, to bury something) and whether the mechanics check for opening them is hardcoded in C++. I have no experience with C++ coding, so that’s probably out for me. Otherwise, I’m fairly sure I could make some of this stuff (soil item as byproduct of digging pits, sod walls, some other uses for soil), just unsure about how to upload it.

Other geographical stuff:
Otherwise, lakes large enough to boat on, and more reasons to go in the water in the first place. I hear marble deposits can be found from the paleozoic, and that might help spice up the underground a bit. Who doesn’t want nice marble flooring? While I’m thinking about it, a small morale boost for admiring stuff you just built might not be amiss, to give a bit more reason to build stuff the hard way.

Oh, and straw being a byproduct of cutting long grass. Straw seems unusually rare for something so simple to produce, and is used in way too many innawoods recipes to be so difficult to find. And why can’t we cut grass with anything other than a sickle/scythe? It might be slower, but surely we could use anything sufficiently bladed to do the job.

tl;dr: soil item, craftable dirt tiles, buried treasure, lakes, marble, and straw being widely available.

Edit: I just downloaded the latest experimental, and apparently someone or a group of somebodies was thinking along similar lines. There’s soil and coffin sealing and apparently lakes, so kudos, whoever that was. Not sure if you can use soil in the ways I was suggesting, but if not, I guess I’ll work on that.

[anothersimulacrum]

Could we collect a bunch of it in a wheelbarrow, and use it to make plantable tiles of dirt indoors, like people have been debugging for ages?

As of yesterday, you can!

Otherwise, I’m fairly sure I could make some of this stuff (soil item as byproduct of digging pits, sod walls, some other uses for soil), just unsure about how to upload it.

Please make these things, because right now Planters are the only construction that uses soil. The guide for contributing will explain how to do so if you are unsure.

[Tom_The_1st]

Something that always puzzles me is that you only ever see the standard American MRE…
Surly the Military Surplus stores or preppers/collectors would have imported some MREs/Rations from other N.A.T.O. Countries, primarily Britain with it’s versatile and nutritious 24hr Operational Ration Pack…

[crazykiddeath]

I’ve had a few of those years ago, they weren’t actually too bad for the most part. I don’t think the ones they have now are the same though, do they still have horrible orange powder stuff and arse blockers (biscuit browns and biscuit fruits) in?