But there is one option you don't have. You can't endure the storm outside.
If a storm gave you a strong debuff instead of just draining your health, you could take the risk of staying outside, but you would need to adjust your strategy. For instance, if your attacks were slowed down and your stamina regeneration was reduced, you would need to avoid power attacks.
At the moment, zombies outside temporarily have feral senses during a storm and move faster. If you were outside, you would have to take that into account. But when you're in a POI, it doesn't matter anyway.
I can fight back against a zombie. Try punching a storm.
Why do you insist that the storms should cause damage to the player instead of saying, “We'll make it harder for the player to survive if they insist on staying outside”. In my opinion, it's a much more interesting game mechanic than just a boring “you're outside and take damage, you're inside and don't take damage.”
I would say those are two very different things. You can't fight the storm. You can't punch it or shoot it. Currently, you just take damage, and the only two things you can do are try to replenish your HP with medkits or bandages, or go inside.
On the other hand, if you have debuffs, you can adjust your strategy for fighting zombie. It's the same if you have a broken leg, for example, or are thirsty or hungry. Do you fight the same way when you're injured as when you're healthy? Probably not.
That's 3 comments saying "do something" but without actually saying WHAT something. The feedback you'd prefer something other than damage is valuable, but unfortunately only of very limited value without more.
For instance you say "debuffs" Ok, lets look at debuffs:
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Move slower: When has a player EVER enjoyed moving slower. Especially if you're already weighed down with items and in heavy armor where moving any slower may as well be immobile. Plus you can just ignore this using a vehicle. And if vehicles move slower or are disabled then people are going to hate that too and its going to cause second order issues. For example our base is a mansion up a curvy road on top of a mountain. Mini bikes and bicycles already have to turbo just to make it up. Make them slower and they are incapable of going uphill.
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Attack slower: Easily ignored by using ranged weapons. Punished some weapons heavily while other weapons can more or less ignore even modest attack speed debuffs.
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Blinded/limited visibility: Basically just results in stay inside or take damage but with the added frustration of the player feeling lost. Also could potentially be ignored via minimap/compass guidance. Also could potentially impact performance.
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Max HP lowered: Prolly the most viable but if it goes away when you go indoors its not very impactful.
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Stamina/Stamina Regen: Try being infected at more than stage 1/2. Most people do not like this feeling at all. Many will gladly go intentionally die just to not put up with the Stamina regen debuff. And ofc this stacks with infection/food/water.
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Unpreventable loss of food and water like Dysentery: Incredibly punishing early game if heavy, completely ignorable mid to late game.
Still, to show good faith I'll do the best I can to cobble together something that is impactful but doesn't make anything too yucky. Something that addresses your concerns hopefully. But this does not mean it would be a good thing to implement as there may be ramifications or design realities I have not considered. Since any particular debuff would be too punishing instead the goal is to pair much lighter hp loss with a spread of very light debuffs that overall add up to being very unfavorable.
An attempt at a storm effect that is MORE debuff oriented.
In this idea of storm effects Storm effects progress in stages like Infection does, worsening with more exposure and SLOWLY recovering while indoors or post storm, like taking meds to slowly cure infection. It's not a light switch that turns on and off. Storm stage progresses similar to infection while inside the storm with each damage proc starting or slightly adding to the stage progression and becoming shelted "applies a cure" slowly reducing storm stage. This curing effect gets canceled upon next storm damage proc much like infection. (hopefully allows them to re-use and repurpose infection code for a different system to reduce dev work).
Going out into a debuff storm should be stage based and have the following effects:
Stage 1: Up to 30 seconds of storm exposure.
- You take 1 damage every 10 seconds. This is far lower, but will still add up over time. Fortitude spec can "tank" through this better. Good. That's a feature of that build.
- You suffer an abrasion (-25 max hp, cured over time or by aloe/first aid bandage/kit) Abrasion reapplies at each stage increase.
- Increase Food and water use from exertion 5%. (Like a reverse Iron Gut.)
- Carry Capacity -1
Stage 2: 30 - 60 seconds of storm exposure.
- Damage per 10 seconds increased to 2.
- All attributes reduced by 1
- You become Fatigued (-20 max hp, cured over time or via vitamins). Fatigue reapplies at each stage increase.
- Food and water increase from exertion worsens to 10%.
- Carry Capacity -2
Stage 3: 60-120 seconds of storm exposure.
- Damage per 10 seconds increased to 3.
- All attributes reduced by 2
- You become Fatigued (-20 max hp, cured over time or via vitamins)
- You suffer a laceration (-25 hp, resistance to bleeding reduced 15%) Laceration reapplies at each stage increase.
- Food and water increase from exertion worsens to 15%.
- Carry Capacity -4.
Stage 4, Final Stage: 120+ seconds of storm exposure.
- Your vision blurs similar to the beer effect.
- Damage per 10 seconds remains 3.
- All forms of healing reduced by 50%
- All Attributed reduced by 3.
- You become Fatigued (-20 max hp, cured over time or via vitamins)
- You suffer a laceration (-25 hp, resistance to bleeding reduced 15%, cured over time or by sewing kit)
- Food and water increase from exertion worsens to 20%.
- Carry Capacity -6
Off the cuff after giving it some thought that's the best I have. Something that DOES inflict SOME damage, but a survivable amount of damage. Something where debuffs matter but doesn't overkill the debuffs on any "gameplay" area. (movement, attack speed, etc) Something that you can't simply shake off from stepping inside and something that actually kinda gives Fortitude a bit of an advantage that makes sense for its design. And something that becomes progressively more punishing and likely deadly even if its prolly not gonna kill you via its direct damage that often. That's the best I can do offhand though.
You've been critical of the current storm, so tell me, what do you think of this one?
