Good day to you. First, I want to say, we love the game. It's one of my all time favorites. Please read this with that in mind.
I play with a small group of friends on a private server for games like this. When I got hooked on it, I set up a Linux machine and hosted a giant map. The early portions of the game are sooooooo additive. Finding a hoe took us days of searching and looting and trying to find traders. Something so simple as that added enough of a cause to keep me logged in way past my bed time.
In a few weeks, all of us agreed that the 'stress' was gone. Even death and deleting all your inventory was little more than a inconvenience since we had 4 tons of everything and could simply craft new 'whatever' and be pretty much right back in the saddle.
We even let the base get overrun to see what would happen. Nothing really. A little damage. But, nothing that made any of us worry that 'all our crap would be gone'. We also ran with friendly fire, so accidentally killing each other was always a threat too.
Which brings me to the things that we, as a group, felt might help keep that 'stressful interest' to encourage long term play.
1. Perma Death setting
The obvious option is to restart the game. Great for single player. Not so much for a group. If one person dies then, we're not starting over. That player should. It would be awesome to have a graveyard with headstones for RIPers.
2. Destructive Zombies setting
Have them tear down everything. If they breach the encampment, and can't find a living target then destroy the equipment, boxes, walls, until there isn't anything left.
I think those two items, coupled with the escalation of the Zombie strength and difficulty settings would help instill the game with that 'fear' that made the game so freaking awesome at the early levels when you had to hide like hobos in Bob's Diner hoping nothing heard you.
Anyway. Our two cents. Have a great day you guys. I'll keep an ear to the ground for what's coming next. For now, we've moved on.
I play with a small group of friends on a private server for games like this. When I got hooked on it, I set up a Linux machine and hosted a giant map. The early portions of the game are sooooooo additive. Finding a hoe took us days of searching and looting and trying to find traders. Something so simple as that added enough of a cause to keep me logged in way past my bed time.
In a few weeks, all of us agreed that the 'stress' was gone. Even death and deleting all your inventory was little more than a inconvenience since we had 4 tons of everything and could simply craft new 'whatever' and be pretty much right back in the saddle.
We even let the base get overrun to see what would happen. Nothing really. A little damage. But, nothing that made any of us worry that 'all our crap would be gone'. We also ran with friendly fire, so accidentally killing each other was always a threat too.
Which brings me to the things that we, as a group, felt might help keep that 'stressful interest' to encourage long term play.
1. Perma Death setting
The obvious option is to restart the game. Great for single player. Not so much for a group. If one person dies then, we're not starting over. That player should. It would be awesome to have a graveyard with headstones for RIPers.
2. Destructive Zombies setting
Have them tear down everything. If they breach the encampment, and can't find a living target then destroy the equipment, boxes, walls, until there isn't anything left.
I think those two items, coupled with the escalation of the Zombie strength and difficulty settings would help instill the game with that 'fear' that made the game so freaking awesome at the early levels when you had to hide like hobos in Bob's Diner hoping nothing heard you.
Anyway. Our two cents. Have a great day you guys. I'll keep an ear to the ground for what's coming next. For now, we've moved on.
