Thoughts on 2.0 (Dev stream)

[User]

Sorry in advance for so much text. Thank you to the developers for their hard work on 2.0, and I'm looking forward to trying it. I imagine easily thousands upon thousands of hours were spent working on it, and dealing with Unity.

I'm not a huge fan of the smoothies being the temporary survival item. Both it and the biome badges aren't really thematic at all imo, especially for the wasteland. Why not something like a handmade temporary respirator for the burnt forest? Or some kind of pills or syringe for the wasteland using the cool new animations? It just seems kind of silly wacky for no reason. It's akin to the 'strength', 'fortitude', etc mods being introduced in the past. It doesn't really make sense in-world.

I'm surprised they didn't go with a equipment approach, with gathering materials exclusive to a certain biome to craft or trade for an item that allows for immunity to the biome hazard.

Really like the consumable animations. Same with the tree/clearing generation changes. Generation genuinely looked INCREDIBLE in the stream. Wilderness certainly looked more interesting. I was somewhat sad to see so many cave poi's shown, but still being poi's. I feel like randomly generated caves would add lots more intrigue to exploring the wilderness, instead of mostly just bouncing from poi to poi theme park style, and would also add some verticality to the world which would be fun- since I don't believe anything except for predetermined poi's actually really carves into the ground. Would also be fun emergency hiding places, mines, or earlygame bases, even if they were just simple one room caves.

I'm kind of hoping zombies also take some damage from storms? I think it could be a lot of fun as a risk/reward aspect the player can take advantage of to the detriment of their HP. Given the new extra strong zombies and the 1 block crawling, I think we can have them die from fall damage and take more damage from stuff like fire. As it stands, the zombies are just weirdly resistant to anything that isn't player damage, and it sort of stifles some creative methods of taking them out.

I'm still holding out hope for a quality selector for creative mode like there is with crafting. I don't think it would be hard to implement and would be a nice qol improvement.

Any balance changes regarding stuff like dire wolves? They seem extremely strong, tanky, and fast for showing up within the first week and (at least for me always) the first horde, unless you have a good gun.

the immense damage combined with the critical injury system stack the odds against using melee, with stuff like stuns or concussions just being an instant death. I'm pretty sure you also can't outrun them, they just catch up immediately and blitz the player. This isn't fun to me. They'd be just as scary if they were rarer, and were more engaging to fight rather than purely a glorified stat check, or being forced to cheese it. Given enemies don't get knocked back or flinch almost at all when hit and instead move forward(??), this makes meleeing fast enemies even more frustrating unless you stun-lock. If the perk books weren't so rng, I think the player might stand a better chance, but several of the perks are really useful, and getting unlucky not finding them can massively gimp melee effectiveness. It's sort of like the super sledge perk in New Vegas, except that wasn't RNG.

They're also broken-level quiet until they attack, with silent footsteps? The strong zombie animals just generally seem like a use a machine gun or just die situation if they get the drop on you.

Also, not sure if its a bug, but crippling/removing a dire wolf's legs does literally nothing? They still sprint at full speed and nothing changes. You can't even outrun them if they're missing a leg! I tested it, and they just run like normal right now.

The random wandering hordes sometimes having stuff like that early on seems a bit overboard too. This kind of stuff is fine in the wasteland or something, but earlygame forest/burnt forest, it seems a bit crazy.

Will we be able to shoot the frostclaw projectile? I wasn't sure in the dev stream. Would be fun.

It looked like well insulated is gone? I know it was useless before, but I was almost hoping that certain armors and that perk might reduce different biome storm damage or increase the temporary time you're allowed in a new biome, which would be fun, and align well with the current system.

I really appreciate the little icons when changing graphics settings seen that show the quality level clearly, stuff like that is just an objective improvement. I also like that the magical floating exclamation mark has been replaced!

FSR/DLSS is very much appreciated.

Also, in the future, I think adding options to hide HUD elements would be greatly appreciated. The difficulty indicator and the new storm warning indicator espescially, just for people who might like to have more of a surprise/need to take more caution when exploring. Since this is already a feature with the blood moon warning, I don't see why this isn't an option.

More roaming zombies is very cool. I much prefer them to sleepers overall. Feels a lot more accurate, instead of zombies waiting perfectly for a button press or trigger to come out of 50 cupboards or hiding in the ceiling tiles.

The mastery perks and the general tab are very nice, looking forward to that. Same with some of the perk changes I saw. Very cool.

I don't love more tanky zombies, especially when the tankiest ones are also the fastest when feral (bikers), which seems like a strange balancing decision to me. I just think it could have been done better. Maybe a new leveled variant of zombies that has extremely high bullet resistance, but dies extremely quickly to melee? Maybe enemies that get faster the lower their health becomes? Encouraging targeting and precision? I don't know.

Potential resistance to explosions and fire sort of worries me for horde nights, does that just means spam the m60 or bust? Do they have a specific weakness perhaps? That would be fun, but it seems more like they're just a stat increase. My only concern there is the game turning out in lategame akin to games like fallout 4 with a scaling system that makes every enemy a painful sponge to kill at higher levels.

I think the new resources associated with the biomes are really cool, having stuff like mushrooms being found more commonly in one biome encourages going back to scavenge, and adds more reason to explore.

Very much looking forward to 2.0. Despite some concerns, I'm going to happily play as soon as experimental releases.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I really like the storms themselves! The visuals are really cool! The only standout for looking a tad odd was the burning forest particles seen in the youtube video posted by tfp, but that one might have been changed.

 

[zztong]

I'm still holding out hope for a quality selector for creative mode like there is with crafting. I don't think it would be hard to implement and would be a nice qol improvement.

Just a note, if you keep changing the spelling of your search you get a different randomized quality value with each letter.

It looked like well insulated is gone? I know it was useless before, but I was almost hoping that certain armors and that perk might reduce different biome storm damage or increase the temporary time you're allowed in a new biome, which would be fun, and align well with the current system.

I didn't notice they were gone; reducing storm damage does seem like a neat application for them, though I'm not sure I'd equip it compared to the perceived value I would get from other armor mods.

 

[User]

Yeah. My immediate thought went to it maybe being something that when invested into on the skill tree, could allow venturing into harder biomes earlier by reducing the hazard damage, and increasing the time you have before it damages you, potentially getting better loot early/midgame. The storm damage reduction was more of a bonus. So it definitely wouldn't be for everyone, but might be fun for people doing challenge runs or risky looting. I don't know, just a crackpot idea, I'm no developer

 

[Riamus]

Sorry in advance for so much text. Thank you to the developers for their hard work on 2.0, and I'm looking forward to trying it. I imagine easily thousands upon thousands of hours were spent working on it, and dealing with Unity.

I'm not a huge fan of the smoothies being the temporary survival item. Both it and the biome badges aren't really thematic at all imo, especially for the wasteland. Why not something like a handmade temporary respirator for the burnt forest? Or some kind of pills or syringe for the wasteland using the cool new animations? It just seems kind of silly wacky for no reason. It's akin to the 'strength', 'fortitude', etc mods being introduced in the past. It doesn't really make sense in-world.

I'm surprised they didn't go with a equipment approach, with gathering materials exclusive to a certain biome to craft or trade for an item that allows for immunity to the biome hazard.

Really like the consumable animations. Same with the tree/clearing generation changes. Generation genuinely looked INCREDIBLE in the stream. Wilderness certainly looked more interesting. I was somewhat sad to see so many cave poi's shown, but still being poi's. I feel like randomly generated caves would add lots more intrigue to exploring the wilderness, instead of mostly just bouncing from poi to poi theme park style, and would also add some verticality to the world which would be fun- since I don't believe anything except for predetermined poi's actually really carves into the ground. Would also be fun emergency hiding places, mines, or earlygame bases, even if they were just simple one room caves.

I'm kind of hoping zombies also take some damage from storms? I think it could be a lot of fun as a risk/reward aspect the player can take advantage of to the detriment of their HP. Given the new extra strong zombies and the 1 block crawling, I think we can have them die from fall damage and take more damage from stuff like fire. As it stands, the zombies are just weirdly resistant to anything that isn't player damage, and it sort of stifles some creative methods of taking them out.

I'm still holding out hope for a quality selector for creative mode like there is with crafting. I don't think it would be hard to implement and would be a nice qol improvement.

Any balance changes regarding stuff like dire wolves? They seem extremely strong, tanky, and fast for showing up within the first week and (at least for me always) the first horde, unless you have a good gun.

the immense damage combined with the critical injury system stack the odds against using melee, with stuff like stuns or concussions just being an instant death. I'm pretty sure you also can't outrun them, they just catch up immediately and blitz the player. This isn't fun to me. They'd be just as scary if they were rarer, and were more engaging to fight rather than purely a glorified stat check, or being forced to cheese it. Given enemies don't get knocked back or flinch almost at all when hit and instead move forward(??), this makes meleeing fast enemies even more frustrating unless you stun-lock. If the perk books weren't so rng, I think the player might stand a better chance, but several of the perks are really useful, and getting unlucky not finding them can massively gimp melee effectiveness. It's sort of like the super sledge perk in New Vegas, except that wasn't RNG.

They're also broken-level quiet until they attack, with silent footsteps? The strong zombie animals just generally seem like a use a machine gun or just die situation if they get the drop on you.

Also, not sure if its a bug, but crippling/removing a dire wolf's legs does literally nothing? They still sprint at full speed and nothing changes. You can't even outrun them if they're missing a leg! I tested it, and they just run like normal right now.

The random wandering hordes sometimes having stuff like that early on seems a bit overboard too. This kind of stuff is fine in the wasteland or something, but earlygame forest/burnt forest, it seems a bit crazy.

Will we be able to shoot the frostclaw projectile? I wasn't sure in the dev stream. Would be fun.

It looked like well insulated is gone? I know it was useless before, but I was almost hoping that certain armors and that perk might reduce different biome storm damage or increase the temporary time you're allowed in a new biome, which would be fun, and align well with the current system.

I really appreciate the little icons when changing graphics settings seen that show the quality level clearly, stuff like that is just an objective improvement. I also like that the magical floating exclamation mark has been replaced!

FSR/DLSS is very much appreciated.

Also, in the future, I think adding options to hide HUD elements would be greatly appreciated. The difficulty indicator and the new storm warning indicator espescially, just for people who might like to have more of a surprise/need to take more caution when exploring. Since this is already a feature with the blood moon warning, I don't see why this isn't an option.

More roaming zombies is very cool. I much prefer them to sleepers overall. Feels a lot more accurate, instead of zombies waiting perfectly for a button press or trigger to come out of 50 cupboards or hiding in the ceiling tiles.

The mastery perks and the general tab are very nice, looking forward to that. Same with some of the perk changes I saw. Very cool.

I don't love more tanky zombies, especially when the tankiest ones are also the fastest when feral (bikers), which seems like a strange balancing decision to me. I just think it could have been done better. Maybe a new leveled variant of zombies that has extremely high bullet resistance, but dies extremely quickly to melee? Maybe enemies that get faster the lower their health becomes? Encouraging targeting and precision? I don't know.

Potential resistance to explosions and fire sort of worries me for horde nights, does that just means spam the m60 or bust? Do they have a specific weakness perhaps? That would be fun, but it seems more like they're just a stat increase. My only concern there is the game turning out in lategame akin to games like fallout 4 with a scaling system that makes every enemy a painful sponge to kill at higher levels.

I think the new resources associated with the biomes are really cool, having stuff like mushrooms being found more commonly in one biome encourages going back to scavenge, and adds more reason to explore.

Very much looking forward to 2.0. Despite some concerns, I'm going to happily play as soon as experimental releases.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I really like the storms themselves! The visuals are really cool! The only standout for looking a tad odd was the burning forest particles seen in the youtube video posted by tfp, but that one might have been changed.

I can live with smoothies being the temporary protection. It is kind of a joke thing, which is common in this game. Badges are odd, though. Far better to change the icon to something that fits better

As far as using items to craft equipment to protect you from the biome, they didn't want you to make the protection for others. They want everyone to have to earn it themselves, so getting loot to make it isn't the best approach. It could be done by adding a new mechanic that binds loot to the player, but this works without a new mechanic.

They said zombies didn't take damage from the storms because they don't want you to just lure them into the storm and let the storm kill them for you. That is something I agree with them about.

A quality selector would be nice, but it is easy to just add and remove a letter until I get what I want.

I think dire wolves are fine as they are. Horde night isn't hard because you should have good defenses set up so they can't even reach you. The rest of the time, just about them unless you can attach from up high. We need hard enemies, even in the early game.

Roaming (wandering) zombies are still a sleeper volume. They will still be placed in similar places as you are used to. But if they are in the main part of a room, they may now be wandering around a little in the room instead of standing still.

 

[OneManStanding]

I generally agree with the biome-thing, although it's not a game breaker. The badge system doesn't feel as involved as spending time perking into an ability (maybe in the general perks?) which lets you survive in the place or designing an armor or cosmetic component to help your survival using rare ingredients. At the moment it seems like you do a couple of basic tasks and that's it -- you're in. Hope they develop the idea more later as I like the idea of a barrier stage to the other biomes.

 

[murky water]

I think dire wolves are fine as they are. Horde night isn't hard because you should have good defenses set up so they can't even reach you. The rest of the time, just about them unless you can attach from up high. We need hard enemies, even in the early game.

please remember not everyone who plays is a veteran. i have never killed a direwolf even with my friends helping. that thing is basically a game-over if it sees you for us.

 

[LittleRedSonja]

I think it was interesting to watch. Maybe a little too long for the content in the video but ok, it is more difficult to make a short and to the point video when streaming compared with an edited video, I guess .

I like that there are many new things, I understand not all the things are for everybody, we all have different tastes, but one good thing is that most of the stuff will have a game option to switch it on/off, that is always a very good point and I am thankful that TFP include lots of game options .

I wish they had showed and talked a little more about the wardrove system, get a little more into details, but I understand you talk 1 h about each new feature in the game hehe .

I do not know, some things I might like more, others a little less, but I am quite excited about playing 2.0, frankly, and the stream was a good appetizer .

 

[Riamus]

please remember not everyone who plays is a veteran. i have never killed a direwolf even with my friends helping. that thing is basically a game-over if it sees you for us.

Yeah, things are harder when you're new to the game. But you won't be new long. The game is really pretty easy compared to most games once you learn how it works, especially on the default settings. The best thing is to just make sure it can't reach you. Attack from a few blocks up, such as from a roof where there isn't access to reach you and it'll be easy. For horde night, you just want to make sure it can't get to you and you'll see that it's easy. I've had one run around for most of horde night and killed other things without worrying about it and it didn't have any chance to attack me. For horde night, the cops and vultures are the more dangerous enemies.

I think it was interesting to watch. Maybe a little too long for the content in the video but ok, it is more difficult to make a short and to the point video when streaming compared with an edited video, I guess .

I like that there are many new things, I understand not all the things are for everybody, we all have different tastes, but one good thing is that most of the stuff will have a game option to switch it on/off, that is always a very good point and I am thankful that TFP include lots of game options .

I wish they had showed and talked a little more about the wardrove system, get a little more into details, but I understand you talk 1 h about each new feature in the game hehe .

I do not know, some things I might like more, others a little less, but I am quite excited about playing 2.0, frankly, and the stream was a good appetizer .

What else did you want to see about the wardrobe? I think they covered everything. Scrap armor to unlock the look of it, then select that look in the wardrobe. Use the hide option to hide something, like a hat/helmet. That's about all there is to it, I think.

 

[LittleRedSonja]

A few things:
1- Will they be dyable? They said in the past that armor dyes would be back in 2.0. Is that still the plan?
2- Will they unlock for a certain character profile, for a certain player, for all playthroughs or only for the current playthrough where you "unlock" the cosmetic, but not in future playthroughs.
3- How will it work for the DLC cosmetics? Since DLC are supposed to be "cosmetic only" I do not expect them adding actual armor with stats and what not. How will those cosmetics unlock. Will we have to find another kind of item every game to "unlock" those DLC cosmetics? Will they be unlocked from the beginning for any game?
4- Will DLC cosmetics be visible for other players in multiplayer that perhaps do not own that DLC? Will all players have to own a cosmetic DLC if it is "active" in the server?
5- Will the cosmetics be able to be shared with other players in multiplayer or will they be tied to the player that "unlocks" them?
6- Will there be an option to "Unlock all cosmetics" in game options, so you can use the cosmetics from day one?

To name only a very few of the things that they did not talk about and I would like to know . Which I understand, because you cannot monopolize the stream talking only about one feature that much, but that does not mean I would have liked to hear a little more about it .

 

[Elwynne]

My views are generally positive looking at all the updates on this and the dev stream. The end game certainly needed more challenge, so more/tougher zombies is kinda good, although the bolder throw seems a tad overpowered? More Zombie types in general would be nice.

I like the zombie crawl idea, although seems a bit counter intuitive if they can crawl through spaces we cannot if I understand correctly, that's I suppose a sacrifice to gameplay mechanics.

I really really like the idea of the storms, though as pointed out above, its a glaring opportunity for well insulated to have a use.

My main gripe is the idea of gating in an open world. I get the logic, but have seen gating sadly spoil a fair few games.

By limiting loot levels in different areas, they just make the game less open world. The requirements seemed pretty easy to obtain that I've seen though so hmm. I kinda explored all the biomes anyway, so this just limits game immersion and the consumable and >.> Badges <.< taste a bit naff.

I'd be fine with smoke rolling in like storms are going to in the forest biome and a gas mask mod for your head gear being used to counter it or hiding in a building a la storms; or a radiation cloud in the wasteland and Rad medicine shots preventing damage. Dust storms for the desert and blizzards in the snow would be other examples, but like the storms not some constant gating.

The "encouraging" of exploration by limiting loot just seems a poor direction.

However as this is 7days, we have as always the on/off options and mods to make amends so all hope is not lost.

 

[Riamus]

A few things:
1- Will they be dyable? They said in the past that armor dyes would be back in 2.0. Is that still the plan?
2- Will they unlock for a certain character profile, for a certain player, for all playthroughs or only for the current playthrough where you "unlock" the cosmetic, but not in future playthroughs.
3- How will it work for the DLC cosmetics? Since DLC are supposed to be "cosmetic only" I do not expect them adding actual armor with stats and what not. How will those cosmetics unlock. Will we have to find another kind of item every game to "unlock" those DLC cosmetics? Will they be unlocked from the beginning for any game?
4- Will DLC cosmetics be visible for other players in multiplayer that perhaps do not own that DLC? Will all players have to own a cosmetic DLC if it is "active" in the server?
5- Will the cosmetics be able to be shared with other players in multiplayer or will they be tied to the player that "unlocks" them?
6- Will there be an option to "Unlock all cosmetics" in game options, so you can use the cosmetics from day one?

To name only a very few of the things that they did not talk about and I would like to know . Which I understand, because you cannot monopolize the stream talking only about one feature that much, but that does not mean I would have liked to hear a little more about it .

1) They said not at this time, but maybe in the future.
2) Considering he was using the same account he had been testing earlier and didn't have anything unlocked, I expect them to only unlock for the player in the current game. Just my guess, though.
3) If a DLC is cosmetic only (I'm not sure if they have ever verified which way they are going with that), then you couldn't scrap it to unlock it, so that would have to just be unlocked by default if you bought the DLC. A lot of games with similar systems do it that way. Again, that's a guess.
4) It would make sense for everyone to see what you are wearing. So I don't think they need the DLC to see what you are wearing. They just can't wear it themselves.
5) Definitely not shared. If they are cosmetic, you can't share them. If you gave someone what you were wearing, it wouldn't be the cosmetic item. These are not transmogs like in Diablo, where you are editing the item itself. And if they just gave you armor and let you trade it, you could start a lot of games and keep trading it to people who don't have the DLC. I can see people trying to make money off doing that. Definitely a no.
6) Considering what they said about unlocking them, I doubt it. I think if they had that as an option, they would have mentioned it But maybe they will add that at some point. Seems like something they would not add, though.


Hopefully that helps some until streamer weekend.

 

[LittleRedSonja]

Thanks Riamus

 

[murky water]

the cops and vultures are the more dangerous enemies.

ugh, the vultures bully my friend so bad. i just got halfway decent at the spear because of 'em

 

[Kalnazzar]

Loving the new updates — major props to The Fun Pimps for all the hard work! That said, I’d love to see some creative additions in the future:

• A Zoo POI and Carnival POI would be amazing for atmosphere and loot variety. Imagine a haunted zoo overrun with mutant animals, or a creepy fairground crawling with Clown Zombies!
• The new Yeti in the Snow Biome is awesome — more mutated animals like that across other biomes would really spice things up.
• What if we had mutated plants that released a toxic purple fog — through spit, spray, or clouds — and maybe even plant-based zombies where vegetation uses the undead as hosts? They could glow slightly where the poison spreads.
• Lastly, while I appreciate the storm warning system, I’d personally prefer badass sound design and immersive visual cues over the giant flashing warning box. Let us feel the danger, not just be told about it.

Really excited about the direction the game’s heading — just wanted to share some ideas I hope you’ll consider down the road. Keep up the great work

 

[LittleRedSonja]

Oh a Carnival POI would be so fun! Even a theme park too, I would love to see that! It would be the perfect POI for the zombie clown I made for my "ZombiePack" mod, all the variant colors of clowns spawning in there, haha, fun and terrifying at the same time.

If it is not included as official I hope some of the awesome POI builders we have in the community makes one . Pretty please hehe .

 

[Lax]

So if you enter a Biome without a badge and immediately go into shelter, will you still take damage in shelter once the timer runs out?

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

So if you enter a Biome without a badge and immediately go into shelter, will you still take damage in shelter once the timer runs out?

Yes, from the explanation and video. There are two different damage types. entry to biome is a timer then constant damage.
Storm if outside constant damage. If entry to biome without a badge and a storm comes up, storm may be mitigated, but the
timer continues.

 

[Roland]

By limiting loot levels in different areas, they just make the game less open world.

The "encouraging" of exploration by limiting loot just seems a poor direction.

You have to look at the game with fresh eyes. To those of us who played the game with no loot caps it feels punishing to now have those things but for a brand new player who never played the game any other way, loot caps are exactly the type of exploration incentive that will make the game fun. When they learn that the burnt forest will have better loot and then the desert will have even better loot and then the snow biome will have even better loot and then the wasteland will have even better loot they will want to go to those places with higher risk for the higher rewards.

It is possible to shake off the old way and embrace the new. Some people are able to do it better than others. If it is impossible for you then you can turn off the biome progression and still have the storms. But if you can manage to forget about how it used to be there is a lot of fun and the idea that as you explore into the more dangerous areas you will find better loot really is a much better mechanic than being able to find everything everywhere.

The other plus to this is that people can more easily control the way they play the game. If I want to mostly craft everything then I can stay in the forest and find books that will eventually push my ability to craft beyond the loot caps so I won't be finding stuff that is better than I can craft and I can play a very crafty style game. But if I like finding the good stuff and don't necessarily care about crafting my own gear or don't want to wait until my crafting ability progresses via magazines then I can push ahead into the tougher biomes and find loot beyond what I can craft and play a more scavenger centric game.

 

[Riamus]

You have to look at the game with fresh eyes. To those of us who played the game with no loot caps it feels punishing to now have those things but for a brand new player who never played the game any other way, loot caps are exactly the type of exploration incentive that will make the game fun. When they learn that the burnt forest will have better loot and then the desert will have even better loot and then the snow biome will have even better loot and then the wasteland will have even better loot they will want to go to those places with higher risk for the higher rewards.

It is possible to shake off the old way and embrace the new. Some people are able to do it better than others. If it is impossible for you then you can turn off the biome progression and still have the storms. But if you can manage to forget about how it used to be there is a lot of fun and the idea that as you explore into the more dangerous areas you will find better loot really is a much better mechanic than being able to find everything everywhere.

The other plus to this is that people can more easily control the way they play the game. If I want to mostly craft everything then I can stay in the forest and find books that will eventually push my ability to craft beyond the loot caps so I won't be finding stuff that is better than I can craft and I can play a very crafty style game. But if I like finding the good stuff and don't necessarily care about crafting my own gear or don't want to wait until my crafting ability progresses via magazines then I can push ahead into the tougher biomes and find loot beyond what I can craft and play a more scavenger centric game.

I would point out that the game in no way tells the player there is a loot cap unless that's something they are adding in 2.0. Players who don't read the patch notes will play 2.0 (either as new players or veterans) and wonder why they can't find better loot. The only thing that pushes the player to a new biome are the open trade route quests and those are easy to ignore even if you aren't really trying to ignore them because if you take a new quest after getting that, that open trade route quest will no longer show unless you happen to open your quest list, which isn't really required unless you're taking multiple quests at once. This isn't like a game that has a clear path to follow and you understand that you'll get better stuff as you follow that path. Instead, if you stay in a biome (we'll say the forest for this example), you'll continue to get harder zombies and harder horde nights but not better equipment. That isn't a normal way for games to handle such things. If you are capping loot somewhere, then everything caps there so there is a clear indication to move on instead of a confusing situation of not knowing why you can't find better equipment while still having harder enemies.

 

[Elwynne]

You have to look at the game with fresh eyes. To those of us who played the game with no loot caps it feels punishing to now have those things but for a brand new player who never played the game any other way, loot caps are exactly the type of exploration incentive that will make the game fun. When they learn that the burnt forest will have better loot and then the desert will have even better loot and then the snow biome will have even better loot and then the wasteland will have even better loot they will want to go to those places with higher risk for the higher rewards.

It is possible to shake off the old way and embrace the new. Some people are able to do it better than others. If it is impossible for you then you can turn off the biome progression and still have the storms. But if you can manage to forget about how it used to be there is a lot of fun and the idea that as you explore into the more dangerous areas you will find better loot really is a much better mechanic than being able to find everything everywhere.

The other plus to this is that people can more easily control the way they play the game. If I want to mostly craft everything then I can stay in the forest and find books that will eventually push my ability to craft beyond the loot caps so I won't be finding stuff that is better than I can craft and I can play a very crafty style game. But if I like finding the good stuff and don't necessarily care about crafting my own gear or don't want to wait until my crafting ability progresses via magazines then I can push ahead into the tougher biomes and find loot beyond what I can craft and play a more scavenger centric game.

I get the logic as I said; not view it as punishing, but limiting. Just am not keen on it as a philosophy, my views were generally positive, I just don't like gating.

If you turn what you write on its head, this change limits my ability to go to the desert on day2 for instance. Or spot a poi in the snow and just do it, didn't need an incentive. It removes the freedom of spontaneity - gating.

Also brand new players may get so freaked out by dying when entering other biomes you may put em off exploration if they not know the game well.

But hey its just my opinion dropping in the pond, some folks may like it.