To summarize: FP made a game I can’t finish, according to my own rules – a game that I just can’t enjoy as I have before. I mean I can still play it, but there is something missing, you know? That illusive “je ne sais quoi”. And that definitely is not just the matter of adjusting loot tables. It is the matter of persistent promoting of looting at a cost of crafting. Promoting “dumb luck” instead of thoughtful character development. The matter of game that abandoned realism in favor of its own inconsistent ruleset. Some examples:
- The farm plots needs 100 clay soil, which is over 6 times as much soil as a topsoil block; Even if one could compress so much material in the same volume of space, it would have been so hard that one could not push the seed in;
- The auger can be “researched” before the crucible, which is necessary to make steel, but auger is made out of steel. So HOW the first guy (or girl) who designed the auger was able to do it without the major component?!?
- The exploding or fire steel crossbow bolts and steel arrows can be learned through separate schematics, but somehow once you can make them, you still can’t make regular steel bolts or arrows – and yet the recipes clearly show that those are the same bolts and arrows, just with something attached to them;
- Crafting tools or weapons requires MORE resources as you gain the skill (by advancing main perk), but some other perks make you use LESS resources when crafting. Which way is skillful use of resources counted in this reality?
- Food cooked from fresh ingredients has a 4% chance of getting you really sick, but a can made from rotting flesh does not (can of sham);
- Boiled water has a chance to give you dysentery, and eaten yucca fruit has a chance to make you sick, but if you just squeeze it into boiled water, the result is perfectly safe to consume.
I have only one thing to praise really: the game runs better in A18 – optimization team did well.
I have a plan about what to do next: I will mod the ***t out of this game, either by finding mods that have something I want, or I’ll add/change it myself (I have been checking out the game files for a few last days). This will include several key elements which, I think, will make the game harder and yet more enjoyable:
a) I will put back taken out recipes for parts and items; not because I need them, but because they should be in the game if I want to craft those items. I will also bring back crafting T6 items.
b) I will add permissions to craft most items that now can be crafted only via schematic to some perk for instance steel tools will be added to Advanced Engineering T4, alongside the crucible, which I will move from T5 ( and move mechanical tools to T5). I also might add a new workstation for making steel – a new forge. Many mods have them and I fail to see why FP would not put them into the game. I mean what is the better way to restrict creating a steel tool than to restrict access to the workstation at which one can make steel tools? The recipe for it will be added to least common chest (or maybe I will add a new chest in T5 POI, depends how hard it will prove). And maybe the trader will have it.
c) I will add the recipes for tool heads – fire axe head, hammer head etc. They will require forge and anvil for iron and forge and crucible for steel (or maybe said new advanced forge for steel). Handles you can make in hand, but one cannot form a metal part without heating the metal and forming it while it’s hot (not without industrial machines with casting forms).
d) I might add a new workstation for creating firearms more advanced than blunderbuss and sawed off shotgun. With the same principle as the advanced forge for getting the schematic.
e) I will remove rotting flesh from cooking recipes and remove the sickness chance on eating/drinking freshly cooked food/drinks. Instead I might add a permanent chance of getting sick if you do not clean yourself up (with soap made from animal fat and coal). Or maybe I’ll add food spoilage like the one in Starvation mod.
f) I will remove rotting flesh from farming plot recipe, replace it with plant fibers. I will make the count of soil required into something reasonable. Maybe I’ll even add a “cleansing machine” workstation for creating the farm plots. I will also remove recipes for seeds, but add seeds to traders offer. I mean there was a contagion event (Madmole mentioned radiation, but it could not be that because there is no anti-radiation cure in this game), and all food and plants are contaminated, right? Seeds are more resilient, and those found or bought are pre-event seeds free of the virus/bacteria. And you farm then only in clean farm plots.
g) I definitely will bring back iron ore – I just can’t look at mining scrap iron
h) I will remove the “growing cost” mechanics from recipes. I probably will also remove “less cost” mechanic from perks, but that is something to ponder on (whether it will actually make a difference). The “magical parts” might even stay in the game – one will not have to gather them for weeks to make a decent tool or weapon.
i) I will either revert to old repair style or introduce more costly repair kits. My initial thought was to make one repair station with contents of which you repair stuff, but that would be too stationary solution (although most realistic one). So now I am pondering on one repair kit with 10 repair charges (it would require changing the repair mechanic itself) or bundle of repair kits. Both made with say 10 forged iron, two duct tapes, one glue, two pieces of wood, two oils, cloth, small rock, one brass, and one lead. The idea is that you make disposable kit with simple tools and bolts, screws and screw washers, pliers etc. and you fix with it until the contents run out, than make another one. Because one can’t fix everything with duct tape, unless in a joke.
j) I will make the increment of XP increase per level 2%, not 5%, so that the character can actually make it to level 300 in affordable amount of time. Might have to change gamestage increase a bit, as well, but this will require testing.
Those changes should make this game feel worth playing again, for me off course. I do not expect FP to include them in their further work on this game. Frankly my idea of this game and their idea are become two things more and more apart. I thought this game would be a single-player or multi-player RPG where once one learned how to, one would be able to create a safe-haven base (or many such places) for NPC’s. Make contacts, trade, do various quests (not only search&destroy). Rebuild the society, even. Find a cure for the infection. FP are making this, in my opinion, into an action game with more places to loot and no main plot (so far). That really makes me sad.
