Just curious how many of you often explore POIs just because you're curious or think it looks cool. Not for quests, to find a certain weapon or kill zeds.
For me, this is one of the main draws of the game. To be able to look off in the distance and see a building and think, wow I need to check that out. This aspect of the game is one of the things that keep me coming back.
I always play deathless, so i never wander into poi's because they look interesting. Its too risky early and by the time i'm ready to do so, anything that isn't an infested poi doesn't interest me. The biggest thrill in this game to me is the triggering of multiple rooms in a t6 infested quest. Minotaur, Ostrich and Grover High you can wake up 60-80% of the zombies all at once its amazing.
That said there have been plenty of times i have seen a POI and thought it would be cool to explore, hoping for an infested quest at it.
Just curious how many of you often explore POIs just because you're curious or think it looks cool. Not for quests, to find a certain weapon or kill zeds.
For me, this is one of the main draws of the game. To be able to look off in the distance and see a building and think, wow I need to check that out. This aspect of the game is one of the things that keep me coming back.
I used to, but as POIs became more dungeon-like it became more time consuming to just wonder and try and find my way in so I eventually just gave up doing that and now focus primarily on questing.
I will venture into specialty POIs mid-game for tools, weapons, etc if I need them sometimes. Not much of a point to do and of that early though with how loot quality works.
This is really interesting looking at the different playstyles people enjoy. I'm wondering if people find the POI designs fascinating, intriguing or is it more like, meh, been there done that.
This is really interesting looking at the different playstyles people enjoy. I'm wondering if people find the POI designs fascinating, intriguing or is it more like, meh, been there done that.
They are amazing in that, especially with the new ones, they can lead you on a fun path of death and destruction. I enjoy going into the Drive-In as an example because of how open it feels even though it's linear and some POIs like Higashi's Residence tell a story that if you pay attention you can piece things together in the world. The designs, by in large, are amazing and function as intended for their purposes. I enjoy some of the surprise moments and feel panic with some of the scripted spawns.
That, however, is also the downside as because many POIs are so linear with no real room for exploration each run is the same and with everything locked behind 10,000 HP steel doors and barriers it takes away some of the exploration part of the game. With questing being so amazing and POIs being designed to go through with a quest it's hard to justify visiting many POIs just for fun. Furthermore, the surprise value of zombies also can get annoying if I am trying to sneak my way through only to awaken a zombie that simply triggered because I opened a door or was hiding behind a desk that I couldn't sneak around and take out.
Exploring the POIs feels so "forced" like the developers "really" want you to go "this" way, you know, in the direction that flashlight is pointing to. It would be wonderful if you had a new, random experience, different Zed behavior each time you visited a POI.
Questing allows for some pretty awesome system interactions:
You get to select from several POI options allowing you to pick which POI to raid as some are better than others which is important because it still gives you an abbreviated version of freedom of choice which is similar to what you would be doing just running around.
POIs are linear meaning you would typically have to go through the POI in the same way you would for a quest anyway.
Double dipping a POI. So if you know the loot room is on the roof you can run up and loot it quickly then start the quest and get double the loot. You could also just loot some mailboxes, cars, bookshelves, gas pumps before you start as well.
Once you turn in the quest you get bonus loot you wouldn't have received otherwise and some of it can be very good. Day one jar of honey versus hitting a few tree stumps. It's a time saver. Plus rewards scale with tiers and difficulty.
You get free Dukes for completing missions which can be used in the trader shop to buy even more items.
You get things like a motorcycle bundles or 4x4 bundles and a free bicycle as an example of rewards.
When I say questing is amazing I am referring to the rewards. As a mechanic it's fine, but with no other supporting mechanics for exploration then it becomes actively detrimental to the flow of the game IMO. Quest spam is what the game promotes and heavily at that, while also being the most boring way to play a game like this. Again IMO. It's part of the reason why people fawn over A16 so much. The game played more like other sandbox survival games where you just ran around and found things rather than being laser targeted towards them.
I will do that with POIs I've never seen before, if I feel I'm prepared for poop to hit the fan. I've played so much that that doesn't happen all that much anymore though. There are still quite a few new POIs released with 2.0 that I've yet to see though.
Yea, what's being called "quests" in the game seems more like jobs or errands rather than what I tend to think of when I think of RPG quests or quests in general.
Yea, what's being called "quests" in the game seems more like jobs or errands rather than what I tend to think of when I think of RPG quests or quests in general.
to be fair...people wanted these trader missions when they were introduced.
The problem is how long it has been since they were introduced. If you were to ask: After Publication, How long is the average game's life? there are several factors...of course, but, most games maintain relevance for 1-2 years. Some rare games have high replayability, so 5-10 years.
live action service games fall in the same range 5-10 years.
These guys are up against themselves...they have taken soo long to get some parts of this game done that the older parts have hit...or are very near their "expiry date".
Normally, I do the quest progression and I try to pick POIs I have never played before (new experience). However, recently with the the latest changes to biome progression, I have been enjoying doing a nomad playthrough with minimal questing.
Here is a short clip of me braving the wasteland early game trying to hunt direwolves. Saw an interesting overpass bridge POI and used it as shelter from the biome effect. Was a ton of fun.
The new POIs are just spectacular. Don't get me wrong.. I am totally NOT a fan of the triggered waves of idiots. It's just annoying and lazy. But, the POI creators... the ones who build those wonderful places with, I can only say, a mixture of love and sadism, are amazing. You can feel the stories behind them in your teeth, almost. Maybe it's my age, but so much of it resonates with me and the things I've seen in the world. I'm retired, so I have the time to wander and explore and I love doing that. These latest version entries have little strange places all out in the wilderness, tucked away in small towns, nestled in unexpected places in the cities, and I'm all about it. They may just be remnants (zero skulls) or even some of the new tier 5s (I hate you, mostly) but they're all incredible and fun to explore.
Oh almost forgot, apart from questing. Depending on what my short term goal I may go free form explore. A good example is when you need a magazine of a certain type in order to craft something you want. Apart from the traders, many houses have workbenches in their garages and cement mixers in construction sites.
sad, very sad that the game has to force quests upon players to give them "direction to doing something"
if thats the reason behind all the linear progression towards quest than my belief they did it "to show off all the new prefabs and art from the grapic designers" is just an after thought.
most people didn't buy the game to look at a cool dungeon style prefab..
the game used to be open world where players made a choice how they wanted to play, build and progress.
but yeah we do not need a quest for every new prefab that is made it just compounds the issue.
Just curious how many of you often explore POIs just because you're curious or think it looks cool. Not for quests, to find a certain weapon or kill zeds.
For me, this is one of the main draws of the game. To be able to look off in the distance and see a building and think, wow I need to check that out. This aspect of the game is one of the things that keep me coming back.
As far as exploring POI that I haven't seen before, I always do that. Quests aren't needed. But it doesn't take long to know every POI. At that point, there isn't any reason to "explore" them. But even without quests, I'll still go through to scavenge or just because I want to kill zombies.
But as far as exploring the game itself, there just isn't any reason to do so. There isn't anything unique about the map. No hidden things to find by exploring. It is one thing I wish would change... perhaps the main thing I would like to see improved.
Yeh; can't how much of it is "I've just seen it all already", but the old RWG feels in hindsight to have had more character with the randomness. The random nonsense was fun to find, now you basically know what you'll run into. Biomes will be in their respective corners, and the even cities in each will be mostly predictable as well.
As far as exploring POI that I haven't seen before, I always do that. Quests aren't needed. But it doesn't take long to know every POI. At that point, there isn't any reason to "explore" them. But even without quests, I'll still go through to scavenge or just because I want to kill zombies.
But as far as exploring the game itself, there just isn't any reason to do so. There isn't anything unique about the map. No hidden things to find by exploring. It is one thing I wish would change... perhaps the main thing I would like to see improved.
Couldn't have said it better myself. The POIs are all there is to "explore" and chances are better than good you're not going to find anything but junk in them. The entire design of the"open world" has been hung on the town and city POIs as...well...the only "points" of interest. The wilderness POIs are mainly little cabins and such.
They've done an exceptional job on them, imo, but there's simply nothing else to explore in all that vastness.
I wouldn't advocate for the kind of exploration we see in a game like Elden Ring wherein you go to one corner of the overworld map only to find...a mushroom or a Trina's Lily. (Please.) You might occasionally have run across a military compound or something in the past, but unless I'm imagining things those have been moved closer to the towns and cities so they have a better chance of being found. In short, as is, the wilderness is just useless, empty space whereas -- bad as I hate to say it -- they were no doubt just as much of interest as the towns and cities when LBD and organic water collection were things. I doubt TFP thought about that when changing those systems, but it would be nice if the wilderness held some interest.
Games like Skyrim obviously have tons of Nordic and Dwemer ruins and whatnot to draw the eye off in the wilderness, but I can't think of any points of interest that might fit the wilderness of 7DTD with the exception of those military compounds and, perhaps, selected super secret pre-event labs and bunkers.
Think, maybe, those should be set up only to be rendered in the wilderness? That might alleviate some of the emptiness, at least.
What's sad is that so many players today have so little imagination they actually need endless, meaningless jobs and errands to direct them and just can't seem to find anything to do on their own.
