Dark Sun
Refugee
After playing around with the biome progression up until the snow biome in my second latest world, and up until the desert biome in my first experimental playthrough, combining this with shared sentiments from friends and forum users alike, I feel I've come to a point where I can make my sound and fair judgment on the whole system. I wanted to like the biome progression, and I was cautiously optimistic on the depth of the biome-related challenges, but unfortunately, I say with a heavy heart that I am more than a little disappointed with its current implementation, and I know it can be so much more. This post serves as a depository of my honest thoughts and constructive feedback, and in tandem my own personal suggestions on how to improve and even overhaul the system as a whole, within realistic expectations.
Pt. 1: What is my problem with the biome progression challenges? It is the design philosophy, and all issues stemming from this are merely a symptom of it. Currently, the whole approach feels like a nothing burger set of uninspired mediocre shopping list chores, ranging from quick rudimentary tasks such as harvesting a small amount of a particular resource or naturally growing plant, or looting a tiny handful of containers (even bird's nests), to drawn out burdens including playing a game of Where's Waldo, involving the player driving around the biome on a scavenger hunt for the biome specific zombie, and killing the required amount.
Touching back on the former, these feel very rushed (development/planning wise) and don't contribute anything particularly interesting. They're meanwhile accompanied by tasks that almost operate on a conflicting design philosophy. So on one hand, they're telling you to get in and get out as soon as possible, and on the other, they're holding you down with a chain and ball and telling you to stick around for a while, accomplishing little to nothing except performing the aforementioned task of driving around and hunting down the special biome zombie. This one feels very artificial in particular, and not at all compelling to pursue, but you have to anyway. I have a mutual friend who drove around an hour in the wasteland hunting down mutated zombies, and he has expressed his sentiment that it was not at all fun or engaging.
In short, as they are currently designed, the biome challenges encourage you to get in and get out as soon as humanly possible (with two exceptions), and do not incentivise the player to stick around in the long-term. (I know it is a sandbox, and the player can pursue these aspirations regardless, but I digress.) Not only can the player complete all of the challenges in less than an in-game day, it's expected them to. As a result, they feel like irrelevant, uninspired placeholders serving as functional roadblocks with no creative imagination behind them, and offer very little in terms of replayability. I say this with all due respect. <3
Finally, let's move onto the final challenge that you'll likely complete to earn your biome badge: surviving in the biome for x amount of tens of minutes. This adds to the slog feeling towards the end of the marathon, combined with the kill biome zeds task. Ironically, I actually encourage to increase the length of time, drastically. Here's why.
Pt. 2: How would I improve upon the framework of the system in place? So, I have established that from my perspective, the biome challenges in their current form do not incentivise the player to bunker down in the biome even into the mid-term, or even the late early-term. This is an unfortunate misstep, in my opinion. These biome challenges should feel meaningful and the badges should have to be earned rather than given away like candy. <3 The challenges themselves seem like an afterthought or a historical footnote.
What can be done about this?
My suggestions are as follows:
• Increase the timer to survive in the biome up to a minimum of an in-game week. Incentivise them to establish an outpost, to explore, loot, mine, slay zeds, and meanwhile participate in the completion of additional goals. Allow them to get to know the biome and grow attached to it, instead of carelessly discarding it and moving onto the next zone of interest once they've collected their milk and butter from aisle 3. Of course, if the player is turned off by this committment, they can always disable the biome survival bundle in its entirety.
Additionally, the duration of the biome smoothies would have to be notably increased as a result, from 5 minutes to perhaps up to half an hour. Chugging biome smoothies as often as you drink any beverage, or much sooner, would get old real fast.
• Replace the "loot x amount of containers" challenge with one involving the successful completion of a handful of trader-related missions. For example, in order to earn your badge in the burnt forest, Jen could 'instruct you' to complete a minimum of 5 T2 jobs. (I suggest less than the required amount of 10 to tier completion, so the player doesn't feel like it's a waste of time to accept similarly tiered quests for Rekt.) An additional challenge could be accepting the opening trade routes questline.
• Scale the required amount of resources to harvest in each progressively more difficulty biome. Harvesting 500 nitrate with a stone axe or a crude iron pickaxe in the burnt biome seems fair - it's short and easy, but it nonetheless requires some worthwhile amount of investment - but once you get up to steel or motor tools, which you'll inevitably have by the time you reach the snowy plains or wasteland, this particular challenge may require no less than 5 seconds to complete. It may as well not exist at all in the finish. My two cents, it could go as follows: harvest 500 nitrate / 1500 oil shale / 3000 coal / 4500-6000 lead.
• Survive a blood moon in the biome. This could be a part of the active questline towards earning your biome badge, or it could be slotted in as a bonus challenge for a large amount of XP and/or a reward from the trader. This would, again, encourage the player to plant their boots into the biome for a while, instead of simply sticking their nose in and out like how it is now.
• Killing x amount of biome zombies can remain as is. If the player is spending a week or more in the biome, it would be very unusual or them not to exterminate the required amount of kills to complete this task organically over time. The way it is currently implemented, as I have previously expressed, it's artificial (requiring you to go out of your way to hyperfocus on nothing but it), easily making it a tiring task.
Note: Challenges not mentioned here, such as wearing any non-primitive armour in the burnt forest, or crafting smoothies / harvesting the plants needed to craft them, can remain as is.
Overall, I see potential in this direction of player progression, but it needs some serious tweaking and a complete reimagining of its design philosophy in order to not feel like a prototype footnote for each biome. It is far too simple (and as a result, misguided) in its approach as it stands, and hopefully this feedback will make its way TFP's way and discussions can be had around the core message of this post: give the player a nudge out of the door and bring them on an adventure, progressing from biome to biome, while inhabiting each region for a decent period with no strings but instead rewards attached, without it feeling like an artificial roadblock ala the quest limit toggle (which is a whole other can of worms, heh). These quests deserve to be recognized, to serve not as mere chores but as expeditions, to feel meaningful and to not only add to the experience, but to feel right at home baked in with the rest of the game and its intended progression path.
Thank you for reading. I know this was a long one. Wishing you all a lovely day. <3
Pt. 1: What is my problem with the biome progression challenges? It is the design philosophy, and all issues stemming from this are merely a symptom of it. Currently, the whole approach feels like a nothing burger set of uninspired mediocre shopping list chores, ranging from quick rudimentary tasks such as harvesting a small amount of a particular resource or naturally growing plant, or looting a tiny handful of containers (even bird's nests), to drawn out burdens including playing a game of Where's Waldo, involving the player driving around the biome on a scavenger hunt for the biome specific zombie, and killing the required amount.
Touching back on the former, these feel very rushed (development/planning wise) and don't contribute anything particularly interesting. They're meanwhile accompanied by tasks that almost operate on a conflicting design philosophy. So on one hand, they're telling you to get in and get out as soon as possible, and on the other, they're holding you down with a chain and ball and telling you to stick around for a while, accomplishing little to nothing except performing the aforementioned task of driving around and hunting down the special biome zombie. This one feels very artificial in particular, and not at all compelling to pursue, but you have to anyway. I have a mutual friend who drove around an hour in the wasteland hunting down mutated zombies, and he has expressed his sentiment that it was not at all fun or engaging.
In short, as they are currently designed, the biome challenges encourage you to get in and get out as soon as humanly possible (with two exceptions), and do not incentivise the player to stick around in the long-term. (I know it is a sandbox, and the player can pursue these aspirations regardless, but I digress.) Not only can the player complete all of the challenges in less than an in-game day, it's expected them to. As a result, they feel like irrelevant, uninspired placeholders serving as functional roadblocks with no creative imagination behind them, and offer very little in terms of replayability. I say this with all due respect. <3
Finally, let's move onto the final challenge that you'll likely complete to earn your biome badge: surviving in the biome for x amount of tens of minutes. This adds to the slog feeling towards the end of the marathon, combined with the kill biome zeds task. Ironically, I actually encourage to increase the length of time, drastically. Here's why.
Pt. 2: How would I improve upon the framework of the system in place? So, I have established that from my perspective, the biome challenges in their current form do not incentivise the player to bunker down in the biome even into the mid-term, or even the late early-term. This is an unfortunate misstep, in my opinion. These biome challenges should feel meaningful and the badges should have to be earned rather than given away like candy. <3 The challenges themselves seem like an afterthought or a historical footnote.
What can be done about this?
My suggestions are as follows:
• Increase the timer to survive in the biome up to a minimum of an in-game week. Incentivise them to establish an outpost, to explore, loot, mine, slay zeds, and meanwhile participate in the completion of additional goals. Allow them to get to know the biome and grow attached to it, instead of carelessly discarding it and moving onto the next zone of interest once they've collected their milk and butter from aisle 3. Of course, if the player is turned off by this committment, they can always disable the biome survival bundle in its entirety.
Additionally, the duration of the biome smoothies would have to be notably increased as a result, from 5 minutes to perhaps up to half an hour. Chugging biome smoothies as often as you drink any beverage, or much sooner, would get old real fast.
• Replace the "loot x amount of containers" challenge with one involving the successful completion of a handful of trader-related missions. For example, in order to earn your badge in the burnt forest, Jen could 'instruct you' to complete a minimum of 5 T2 jobs. (I suggest less than the required amount of 10 to tier completion, so the player doesn't feel like it's a waste of time to accept similarly tiered quests for Rekt.) An additional challenge could be accepting the opening trade routes questline.
• Scale the required amount of resources to harvest in each progressively more difficulty biome. Harvesting 500 nitrate with a stone axe or a crude iron pickaxe in the burnt biome seems fair - it's short and easy, but it nonetheless requires some worthwhile amount of investment - but once you get up to steel or motor tools, which you'll inevitably have by the time you reach the snowy plains or wasteland, this particular challenge may require no less than 5 seconds to complete. It may as well not exist at all in the finish. My two cents, it could go as follows: harvest 500 nitrate / 1500 oil shale / 3000 coal / 4500-6000 lead.
• Survive a blood moon in the biome. This could be a part of the active questline towards earning your biome badge, or it could be slotted in as a bonus challenge for a large amount of XP and/or a reward from the trader. This would, again, encourage the player to plant their boots into the biome for a while, instead of simply sticking their nose in and out like how it is now.
• Killing x amount of biome zombies can remain as is. If the player is spending a week or more in the biome, it would be very unusual or them not to exterminate the required amount of kills to complete this task organically over time. The way it is currently implemented, as I have previously expressed, it's artificial (requiring you to go out of your way to hyperfocus on nothing but it), easily making it a tiring task.
Note: Challenges not mentioned here, such as wearing any non-primitive armour in the burnt forest, or crafting smoothies / harvesting the plants needed to craft them, can remain as is.
Overall, I see potential in this direction of player progression, but it needs some serious tweaking and a complete reimagining of its design philosophy in order to not feel like a prototype footnote for each biome. It is far too simple (and as a result, misguided) in its approach as it stands, and hopefully this feedback will make its way TFP's way and discussions can be had around the core message of this post: give the player a nudge out of the door and bring them on an adventure, progressing from biome to biome, while inhabiting each region for a decent period with no strings but instead rewards attached, without it feeling like an artificial roadblock ala the quest limit toggle (which is a whole other can of worms, heh). These quests deserve to be recognized, to serve not as mere chores but as expeditions, to feel meaningful and to not only add to the experience, but to feel right at home baked in with the rest of the game and its intended progression path.
Thank you for reading. I know this was a long one. Wishing you all a lovely day. <3
