Some Suggestions for Game Updates

[wwwattic]

1. Game performance optimization is insufficient. This is extremely important!

2. The game’s graphics and character animations still have room for improvement.

3. We’d like to be able to customize the size and carrying capacity of our backpacks, or craft backpacks in-game to increase the total number of items we can carry—these backpacks should be classified as a piece of clothing.

4. Online multiplayer with friends sometimes has unstable connections.

5. We’d like the difficulty of the books and reading feature to be lowered. (This system is currently tedious and requires reading too many books.)

6. We need a wider variety of weapons, especially guns.

7. We need zombies with more diverse appearances, not just zombies in different colors.
8. Add more rewarding advanced quests—Level 6 and Level 7 quests—that require different quest types from previous ones and offer something fresh.

9. Provide higher-tier building blocks than the current ones—such as blocks made of forged steel—to reinforce the shelters we build.

10. Be able to recruit pets (such as dogs or jaguars) to assist with surveillance, attacking enemies, or knocking them unconscious.

11. We’d like the battery tiers to be more clearly defined, with each tier offering distinct attributes. Higher-tier batteries should have a longer lifespan and greater power output, among other benefits. (If the tiers are clearly defined, we’d like to be able to replace the batteries in items we’ve already crafted—such as motorcycles—in the future, so we don’t have to rebuild them from scratch to use higher-tier batteries.)

12. Add functionality to drones, such as the ability to command them to fly to or return from a specified location or to another online teammate, and to deliver goods to your own shelter or to your online teammates. After delivery, you should be able to recall the drone to your side; other teammates who spot your drone should also be able to place items inside it, allowing for the mutual transfer of supplies. This would be a lot of fun.

13. I hope you’ll take a closer look at mod sites to see what common mod features are available, and then have the developers directly add these features to the game’s settings, so players no longer have to download common mods separately every time. For example: the Large Backpack mod, etc.

14. More automated devices, such as mining machines, etc.

 

[bdubyah]

Kind of sounds like you want a totally new game..

 

[Riamus]

1. Game performance optimization is insufficient. This is extremely important!

2. The game’s graphics and character animations still have room for improvement.

3. We’d like to be able to customize the size and carrying capacity of our backpacks, or craft backpacks in-game to increase the total number of items we can carry—these backpacks should be classified as a piece of clothing.

4. Online multiplayer with friends sometimes has unstable connections.

5. We’d like the difficulty of the books and reading feature to be lowered. (This system is currently tedious and requires reading too many books.)

6. We need a wider variety of weapons, especially guns.

7. We need zombies with more diverse appearances, not just zombies in different colors.
8. Add more rewarding advanced quests—Level 6 and Level 7 quests—that require different quest types from previous ones and offer something fresh.

9. Provide higher-tier building blocks than the current ones—such as blocks made of forged steel—to reinforce the shelters we build.

10. Be able to recruit pets (such as dogs or jaguars) to assist with surveillance, attacking enemies, or knocking them unconscious.

11. We’d like the battery tiers to be more clearly defined, with each tier offering distinct attributes. Higher-tier batteries should have a longer lifespan and greater power output, among other benefits. (If the tiers are clearly defined, we’d like to be able to replace the batteries in items we’ve already crafted—such as motorcycles—in the future, so we don’t have to rebuild them from scratch to use higher-tier batteries.)

12. Add functionality to drones, such as the ability to command them to fly to or return from a specified location or to another online teammate, and to deliver goods to your own shelter or to your online teammates. After delivery, you should be able to recall the drone to your side; other teammates who spot your drone should also be able to place items inside it, allowing for the mutual transfer of supplies. This would be a lot of fun.

13. I hope you’ll take a closer look at mod sites to see what common mod features are available, and then have the developers directly add these features to the game’s settings, so players no longer have to download common mods separately every time. For example: the Large Backpack mod, etc.

14. More automated devices, such as mining machines, etc.

1. They update that all the time and will continue to do so.
2. Certain graphics are still being updated, but most graphics will not change significantly.
3. They might add backpacks you can use to add inventory space, but they really aren't necessary. They already added a lot of space to vehicles.
4. Connections usually have little to do with TFP. You are either playing P2P, in which case the host is in complete control over their local connections when hosting and TFP can't do anything about that. Or you're playing on a server and the server owner or the company that rents out the servers are the ones with control over the servers. TFP doesn't run servers and can't control them. TFP can do things to help improve connections, but most issues are unrelated to the game or TFP and entirely related to the host or server.
5. You can already adjust or remove magazines.
6. Not necessary. And I tend to use a mod that adds a lot of weapons, yet I still say it isn't necessary. This game has clearly defined types of weapons and that's a good thing for this game. It doesn't need a bunch of random weapons. You have plenty of other games you can play if you want a game with tons of weapons.
7. They are diverse. The only similarities come from higher tiers - feral, radiated, blue and orange. They could remove tiers and just add enough new zombies to equal the same number of tiered enemies, but that is a LOT of work. This works. People would obviously prefer not having the tiers like this, but it works and it's the best we're likely to get.
8. They are already adding new quests.
9. Forged steel is already used for building blocks.
10. They have repeatedly said no to pets. Pathfinding for pets is problematic in a voxel game and that is why you have a drone. If they ever did add some kind of pet, it would be almost guaranteed to just stand in place or wander a specific small range of where it's placed... and I wouldn't expect even that to happen. There are other games if you want a pet.
11. Batteries levels already affect power output. There isn't any reason for them to change how long they last. Add a way to charge them and you'll never run out anyhow. It's unlikely they'd allow changing batteries in the vehicles, and there's little reason to do so. They have talked about engines gaining quality levels that would affect speed, though. So those would be possible to change. The battery really doesn't matter. Consider that you can change your car battery to a variety of different ones and the most it really affects is how well the car starts.
12. Using your drone as a delivery service has been suggested before. It could happen, but allowing it completely removes inventory management, which is an important part of the game. But since we can already place crates anywhere and store as much as we want, it isn't the end of the world if they added that. But it's still not needed.
13. There will always be mods. Most things mods add are things that aren't good for vanilla even if some players like those things. However, they do sometimes add things to the game that there was already a mod for. Not necessarily because there was a mod for it, but often just because it's what they want for the game or even just what people who aren't using mods (especially console players) are requesting often.
14. We don't need automated mining machines. There's no need. You can easily get enough resources very quickly in this game. Mine for 30 minutes and you'll have more of that ore than you'll need for most of the game unless you're going crazy with stuff. And that is without adding some perks into the mining skill, which can speed that up significantly. Most ores aren't even used in any large quantities.

 

[wwwattic]

1. They update that all the time and will continue to do so.
2. Certain graphics are still being updated, but most graphics will not change significantly.
3. They might add backpacks you can use to add inventory space, but they really aren't necessary. They already added a lot of space to vehicles.
4. Connections usually have little to do with TFP. You are either playing P2P, in which case the host is in complete control over their local connections when hosting and TFP can't do anything about that. Or you're playing on a server and the server owner or the company that rents out the servers are the ones with control over the servers. TFP doesn't run servers and can't control them. TFP can do things to help improve connections, but most issues are unrelated to the game or TFP and entirely related to the host or server.
5. You can already adjust or remove magazines.
6. Not necessary. And I tend to use a mod that adds a lot of weapons, yet I still say it isn't necessary. This game has clearly defined types of weapons and that's a good thing for this game. It doesn't need a bunch of random weapons. You have plenty of other games you can play if you want a game with tons of weapons.
7. They are diverse. The only similarities come from higher tiers - feral, radiated, blue and orange. They could remove tiers and just add enough new zombies to equal the same number of tiered enemies, but that is a LOT of work. This works. People would obviously prefer not having the tiers like this, but it works and it's the best we're likely to get.
8. They are already adding new quests.
9. Forged steel is already used for building blocks.
10. They have repeatedly said no to pets. Pathfinding for pets is problematic in a voxel game and that is why you have a drone. If they ever did add some kind of pet, it would be almost guaranteed to just stand in place or wander a specific small range of where it's placed... and I wouldn't expect even that to happen. There are other games if you want a pet.
11. Batteries levels already affect power output. There isn't any reason for them to change how long they last. Add a way to charge them and you'll never run out anyhow. It's unlikely they'd allow changing batteries in the vehicles, and there's little reason to do so. They have talked about engines gaining quality levels that would affect speed, though. So those would be possible to change. The battery really doesn't matter. Consider that you can change your car battery to a variety of different ones and the most it really affects is how well the car starts.
12. Using your drone as a delivery service has been suggested before. It could happen, but allowing it completely removes inventory management, which is an important part of the game. But since we can already place crates anywhere and store as much as we want, it isn't the end of the world if they added that. But it's still not needed.
13. There will always be mods. Most things mods add are things that aren't good for vanilla even if some players like those things. However, they do sometimes add things to the game that there was already a mod for. Not necessarily because there was a mod for it, but often just because it's what they want for the game or even just what people who aren't using mods (especially console players) are requesting often.
14. We don't need automated mining machines. There's no need. You can easily get enough resources very quickly in this game. Mine for 30 minutes and you'll have more of that ore than you'll need for most of the game unless you're going crazy with stuff. And that is without adding some perks into the mining skill, which can speed that up significantly. Most ores aren't even used in any large quantities.

As a sandbox survival game, I believe players should be free to play however they want. For example, with the 3.0 update, many customizable options have been left up to the players—and that’s exactly how it should be. Everyone’s playstyle is different, so it’s better to let players adjust the settings themselves rather than forcing them to play this sandbox survival game according to a set of rigid rules.

 

[LittleNightma]

As much as I would love to have a furry friend, drones are already a pain to path correctly, let alone an actual animal meant to follow you.

 

[wwwattic]

As much as I would love to have a furry friend, drones are already a pain to path correctly, let alone an actual animal meant to follow you.

I remember that in a previous survey, there was a suggestion to make bandits our friends. If that can be implemented, could the same be done for pets?

 

[LittleNightma]

I remember that in a previous survey, there was a suggestion to make bandits our friends. If that can be implemented, could the same be done for pets?

Probably, but I think it's also them weighing whether or not they want to put forth the effort, time, and resources into providing tamable animals/pets which could be spent on bandit and zombie AI instead.

 

[Riamus]

I remember that in a previous survey, there was a suggestion to make bandits our friends. If that can be implemented, could the same be done for pets?

That would refer to faction standing. They have been consistent in stating that you will not have a human (bandit) companion following you around any more than you'd have a pet. No NPC companions per TFP.

As a sandbox survival game, I believe players should be free to play however they want. For example, with the 3.0 update, many customizable options have been left up to the players—and that’s exactly how it should be. Everyone’s playstyle is different, so it’s better to let players adjust the settings themselves rather than forcing them to play this sandbox survival game according to a set of rigid rules.

Most of what you listed wouldn't have anything to do with sandbox options. Sandbox options are mostly things that you do with XML... minor things that are already in the game but just need tweaked in one way or another. Longer days? Just change the XML for the day length. Sandbox settings are mostly not for new features.

Also keep in mind that if you added everyone's list of sandbox options they'd like to have, you'd have thousands of options... perhaps tens of thousands. That's not viable. They have to choose options that are the best fit for vanilla and how they want the game to play. If you want pure sandbox, that's what the creative menu and god mode are for. If you don't want pure sandbox, then you're going to be limited by certain things no matter what. Sandbox options allow some control over things, but will never allow full control. They aren't going to entirely break mechanics just because some people don't want to deal with those. In some cases, they can add an option to disable those mechanics for people, but with mechanics, it'll usually be an on/off rather than a bunch of individual options.

Something like adding a pet isn't a sandbox option. It is something that would require a LOT of development time and they've repeatedly said no to it.

There isn't anything wrong with asking for stuff. You never know... TFP might add something you ask for. But as long as you're asking on a public forum, you'll have people who disagree with you or point out what the devs have already said about it.