Ideas for the POI/RWG team!

[VoidSeeker977]

Right now the Roads are very boring and bland.  Literally just gray lines snaking across the map.

What if you created specific Road/highway/backroad POIs?  Strips?  Say 20-30 blocks long (or however long feels right) you could create the straight road, the bend in the road, the T-junction and the 4-way.  (with variations for which end connects to which end (a straight road connecting to an intersection, mile markers whatever)

Then get the Algorithm to multiply and stamp these road tiles end to end connecting towns to villages and or cities!

I think it would also be neat if you created power stations (big or small) that spawn around the maps that provide power to regional power grids (i.e. the hydro-poles) you could connect all POIs to the grid (some could be damaged, like Hydro-poles which could create gaps in the grid).  Players could connect to the grid with a wiring tool or bridge the gap in the grid with one.  

The power grid could start up or down, or go out after so many days at random prompting a quest from the traders to get the power running again!

Just a few thoughts of mine

 

[Suxar]

I think it would also be neat if you created power stations

And who supplies coal or gas there on an industrial scale? And who has been servicing them for the last 5 years?
What power plants (and other complex engineering structures) in the conditions of the apocalypse?

 

[GuardianReaper0]

Right now the Roads are very boring and bland.  Literally just gray lines snaking across the map.

What if you created specific Road/highway/backroad POIs?  Strips?  Say 20-30 blocks long (or however long feels right) you could create the straight road, the bend in the road, the T-junction and the 4-way.  (with variations for which end connects to which end (a straight road connecting to an intersection, mile markers whatever)

Then get the Algorithm to multiply and stamp these road tiles end to end connecting towns to villages and or cities!

I think it would also be neat if you created power stations (big or small) that spawn around the maps that provide power to regional power grids (i.e. the hydro-poles) you could connect all POIs to the grid (some could be damaged, like Hydro-poles which could create gaps in the grid).  Players could connect to the grid with a wiring tool or bridge the gap in the grid with one.  

The power grid could start up or down, or go out after so many days at random prompting a quest from the traders to get the power running again!

Just a few thoughts of mine

I personally like the way that the roads snake across the map. 
 

As far as the power suggestion goes, it could be an interesting concept. However, I would think rather than them all being connected that it just be certain areas. Perhaps enabled as “special missions” that are one off missions rather than repeating, as a mission to restore a power plant of some kind, and can have them in each region. 
 

Once activated, they would make great base locations too. Especially for players that don’t want to build a base from scratch.

Upon activation of the power, additional lights would activate throughout towns, and it could even add new special zombie types around town. (A “conduit” zombie comes to mind. Electrically charged, stun batons and electric fences don’t faze it, and if struck by it, it applies electric damage to you.)

Lots of fun possibilities.

And who supplies coal or gas there on an industrial scale? And who has been servicing them for the last 5 years?
What power plants (and other complex engineering structures) in the conditions of the apocalypse?

If it were made into special missions like this, restoring power would include players providing a fuel source. A couple different power plant types could be implemented. 
- Coal powered in Forest, Burned Land, Snow

- Fuel powered in Desert

- Nuclear Powered in the Wasteland (give “irradiated material” as a material guaranteed in loot bags dropped by glowing zombies, meaning not EVERY glowing zombie drops a bag, but when they do, it’s a green bag that has that item as well as other loot)

- Additionally could use Super Corn to craft into “irradiated material” at a fairly steep cost though.

 

[Suxar]

If it were made into special missions like this, restoring power would include players providing a fuel source.

The power plant burns a wagon of coal in a couple of hours. A wagon, not a box. Do you have to dig up half the map for that?

 

[zztong]

RWG currently has the ability to place "Gateway" Tiles out along the road system. They can be an Intersection, Straight, or T. When they're not being used as a transition from road to settlement they make for interesting encounter areas on the map.

One complication with Tiles for parts of the roads between settlements is that Tiles can sometimes contain distinctive landmarks. If RWG uses those too often then it is much easier for Players to spot the repetition. If you wanted to do the entire map with a Tile system you would need a vast number of Tiles and you would likely lose the ability to have very tall mountains since each Tile has to get back to ground level (so to speak) so it presents a consistent interface with its neighbors.

 

[GuardianReaper0]

The power plant burns a wagon of coal in a couple of hours. A wagon, not a box. Do you have to dig up half the map for that?

1. It doesn’t have to be realistic.

2. You’re under the assumption it would be a massive power plant. The cities really aren’t THAT big (so not realistic) so I wouldn’t expect the power plants to be either.

3. There are consumables, armor, and perks to increase yield.

4. They could add a way to convert wood into coal.

 

[Riamus]

The idea of tile based roads sounds nice until you realize how tiles and repetition works.  We already notice all the duplicate tiles in towns.  And those have a lot of variation on POI since multiple POI are on each.  As ZZTong mentioned, you would need a LOT of tiles to not steer repetition constantly.  And repetition doesn't look good.   It is already hard enough to avoid that if you are using only vanilla tiles and POI.

You also have to consider that terrain elevations change between towns unless you have very flat terrain.  But you're are flat.  If you look around in the game in the wilderness, you can see how tiles cut into our stick above terrain.  Doing that constantly along roads isn't going to look good. 

The best option is to have either more "country tiles" (tiles that appear along roads as is they were very small towns), which we have to a small extent, or else create new small towns that will appear (mostly done in rwgmixer).

As far as working power plants, I don't see any reason for them.

 

[warmer]

This is from my RWG tweaks to the biome.xml I have been trying to make a more blown up and broken pois. This is a sub biome I made for a carpet bombed cul de sac. It would be sweet to have more wasteland specific destroyed POI, now we have 5 very small ones by default.

I'd love a destroyed apartment complex, and more broken/burned buildings. The end of the world is to "CLEAN" in my opinion. It needs to learn into the Fallout vibe more for wasteland.

 

[zztong]

This is from my RWG tweaks to the biome.xml I have been trying to make a more blown up and broken pois.

I like adding Decorations to biome.xml as well. Decorations can land sort of pell-mell and if you make the probability too high, or the Decoration too large, they can end up interacting with each other.