Win Condition

Game Talk The Lab
1

After playing factorio I realized it bothers me that there is no way to end a game of cataclysm without dying. Factorio has a goal: launch a satellite. But, you are not forced to complete it. I have 100+ satellites and am still building and improving my bases. I came up with a way to “win” CDDA for people who feel like they have done all they can:

Build a transmitter that attracts every zombie for hundreds of miles. For the next 100 days the spawn rate is raised to ridiculous levels. On day 101 “Original Subject” spawn near by. Activating an item crafted from their unique loot means you have rid the region of zombies and the survivors can start the process of rebuilding civilization(the game ends). However, if the transmitter is destroyed it explodes in a giant fireball of doom and destruction killing you and everyone else. If it looses power its quantum entanglement field destabilizes and it explodes in a giant fire ball of doom and destruction w/ similar effects.

I’m hoping this will encourage the construction of heavily fortified bases since there is no point to them currently. Also, since it will be extremely hard to leave your base for a long period of time supply levels become an issue that normally endgame players don’t have to think about.

(each update will be in the next color in the drop-menu)

Basic Rundown of my plan:

-Book found in lab gives you ideas about how to attract every zombie in the region.

-You build a device requiring very large amounts of resources.

-Mount the device on a vehicle(has to be outside).

-Upon activation the device drains more power than my Deathmoblie, a moderate amount of noise, acts as a dome light and “wandering hoard” spawn points on steroids fill a 4 map tile radius around it.(not on the same tile though)

-There is no turn device off option and the only way to remove it is through the console. Oh, and if it either gets destroyed or looses power it explodes killing you automatically.

-After a period of time(I randomly picked 100 days) the device stops, the spawn points go away and a group of unique Z’s appear.

-You can craft a trophy from stuff looted from the unique Z’s.

-Activating the trophy displays a message saying you feel a great sense of accomplishment. Then prompts you as to whether you wish to retire to the countryside and live in peace since the zombie threat is (mostly gone) i.e. game over or continue exploring searching for your next great challenge.

So far I have:

-Added: vehicle part “Quantum Noise Maker” -as of now only consumes power.(1.5 minireactors worth)constant 42 sound. floodlight’s lighting.

-Added: book “PE065-Radiation Effects Test”-contains recipe for “Quantum Noise Maker”,“Pandora’s Box”

-Added:items “Zombie Essence”,“Pandora’s Box”-as of now useless objects. Pandora’s box will be end item, cardboard box w/13 Zombie Essence.

In Progress:

-Modifying copied code from the hoard spawning.

-Making the boss enemies “Original Subject”[color=yellow]-Necromancer Hulks w/ AOE raise the dead anyone? Just consider the number of corpses after a 100 days of solid wall spawning. [/color]

2

One thing I would add is the option to continue playing after the “win” event is done but not mandatory. We do not need another fallout 3 fiasco…
As for what you are working on, maybe hard coding a way for zombies to go towards the item? They ignore lack of light, smell, sound, ect and just go towards it, not the player however.

3

Meh. I don’t really like the idea of really winning. You can’t unfuck the planet. Much like Fallout, life finds a way, and even humanity might find a way, but the world is changed for good.

What I WOULD want is a way to quit without suiciding. I don’t even need a random epilogue that explains what happens in the distant future, something more like a retirement option in Dwarf Fortress.

Though really, just changing the “commit suicide?” prompt to a simple “quit game?” prompt and skipping the memorial generation would abstract the idea away in a trivial-to-add manner.

4

Or you can you know, save, then not open the save again…

OTOH if you want to go through the code and change all references to suicide to “stop playing permanently”, I’d probably merge it.

5

Hmm. I will admit that making the quit command less grimdark is really not worth the effort of a PR. If the concept of DF-style retiring and unretiring characters, with the possibility of their actions being simulated until you resume control, was a thing, it would make sense to add that.

But yeah, I tend to just delete the save instead of quit. =w=

6

My plan is to make my “Original Subjects” have an item with 100% drop rate and the win event will be triggered by activating something crafted from them. ex:loot cores from the subjects. once you get 10 you can craft “a bottle of cores.” The game will end once you activate it but your free to do whatever until then.(the z spawn pool will be empty though…other things aren’t going to be effected for now)

The real reason why i’m adding this is so I can justify making a base with the outer wall being a car covered in turrets and the like.

7

My next big project is making that something worth doing, been held up by some other random crap though.

8

Just add death by old age to the game…

9

He fought zombies for life. Every day, all the time, nonstop zed killing. He conquered lands and rescued towns. His followers have expanded the search for others, bringing them all under his protection and care. His base is now the size of a town square, and perfectly fortified. He was a mucho macho manly man, who could rip zombies to shreds with the hair on his arm. He could carry 200 volume, without any clothing. He once hauled an entire car through a river, and killed zombies while doing it.

He died when he got old and fell down the stairs. Death by old.

10

I think in a way, you “win” when the game is no longer challenging to you.

Or you generate enough terrain that it takes to long to copy/move your save to the newest experimental.

11

I think about 95% of this is a way of providing a challenge to end-game characters. Basically you will be playing ‘Defense’ using your survivor and his base instead of a new person in some random building. Afterwords if you survive you have the option of ending the game with some sense of accomplishment.

12

You can do all the same things without adding something that goes against the game tone and lore.
However if you want to add it as a mod instead of in the main game, no problem :slight_smile:

13

One thing I’d LOVE to see is an extra game mode that’s more focused. My idea was for something like “campaign mode” where you select a certain scenario which can have a few features, like a locked character preset, premade map, require a certain set of mods, specific goal, etc. It could be free form, just try to survive with this character preset in this map, or it could have a specific goal, like try to make it from the evac shelter in the top left corner of the map to the refugee center in the bottom right corner, and so on. It could even track stats and have some sort of stat page at the end so players can compare how they did on a scenario.

14

In my not so humble opinion if there was a goal other than survive it wouldn’t be CDDA anymore(ascii besiege maybe?). The new scenarios are great in this respect because they add flavor and circumstance without changing the overall feel of the game. I don’t want to change the overall game I just want to be able to end a game with out feeling empty inside.

but,[quote=“Enke, post:9, topic:10761”][quote=“CIB, post:8, topic:10761”]Just add death by old age to the game…[/quote]
He fought zombies for life. Every day, all the time, nonstop zed killing… He was a mucho macho manly man, who could rip zombies to shreds with the hair on his arm…

…He died when he got old and fell down the stairs. Death by old.[/quote]
I would love to play this, a ridiculously strong/skilled but with the effects of very old age: slow moving, needs a nap in order to get through a day, brittle bones weak to bashing dmg, can’t remember recipes half the time and needs the books, but can hit a Z in the face with an 55-gallon drum of gasoline from 20+ tiles away and send a flaming ex-companion flying after it.

15

That’s why you add it as a separate game mode.

16

There not being a ‘win’ condition in the main game IS a major part of the ‘overall game’. Adding something where you somehow stop the monster incursion and start rebuiling the world makes the game even more ‘un CDDA-like’ than having a game run where you have a specific mission.
Again, both would be perfectly fine as mods, they’re not required to preserve the tone of the game.

17

Your probably right… with the addition of boats I thought about adding the ability to “retire to a far off land out of the destructive reach of the cataclysm” i.e. bug out to an uninhabited island but it seemed too boring given that this is a game of mutant cyborgs smashing though things in nuclear dooms day tanks. Although, maybe adding a whole batch of different ways to retire would be help keep that free open world feel.

18

I don’t think it’s a good idear to give cataclysm sourvivors the ability to end their existence for as long as we can’t end our lives without dying.

19

When factions get worked on more, the ability to retire to one of them may be an idea…

20

For now I am going to focus on the zombie hoard attracting part because I think there are a lot of potential uses for being able to trigger hoard spawns in game.(Quests, zombie Thunderdome, convoy/guard jobs ect.) I’ll figure out the rest when I’m done.