PC Game level based spawns make the game predictable and removes a sense of discovery

I strongly agree with the O.P.

I started playing in A12/13, and when I heard they were introducing level scaling, I thought it was a great idea. On paper at least, but when I got to actually experience it, I realised some magic had been lost. Before, the game was difficult from the start. My friends and I died repeatedly early game and cowered in fear during the night, but later when we got more powerful, we had a sense of achievement, and proud that we could go out at night and, for the most part, survive.

With level based difficulty scaling it made early game easier, which initially seemed nice, but we quickly realised that our sense of achievement was gone as we leveled up. It also felt less immersive. I think in a real zombie apocalypse, we'd expect to get better and the zombies to stay the same.

I would love it if they did away with the difficulty tied to level and rather tied it to biomes and specific POIs. Most great games in this type of genre do that (Terraria, Conan Exiles, Ark, Subnautica, Dying Light), and it is successful.

 
I strongly agree with the O.P.
I started playing in A12/13, and when I heard they were introducing level scaling, I thought it was a great idea. On paper at least, but when I got to actually experience it, I realised some magic had been lost. Before, the game was difficult from the start. My friends and I died repeatedly early game and cowered in fear during the night, but later when we got more powerful, we had a sense of achievement, and proud that we could go out at night and, for the most part, survive.

With level based difficulty scaling it made early game easier, which initially seemed nice, but we quickly realised that our sense of achievement was gone as we leveled up. It also felt less immersive. I think in a real zombie apocalypse, we'd expect to get better and the zombies to stay the same.

I would love it if they did away with the difficulty tied to level and rather tied it to biomes and specific POIs. Most great games in this type of genre do that (Terraria, Conan Exiles, Ark, Subnautica, Dying Light), and it is successful.
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Another thing that might work is some sort of temporary rubberbanding in the beginning of the game to make it easier to set yourself up, and then gradually remove it. This is how Rimworld does it, with the colonists "expectation" mood bonus. Don't Starve does this too in a way through starting the player off in the Summer season, which is by far the easiest one. Another thing it does is having carrots generate in the world which don't regrow, so that they give the player a temporary food source in the beginning of the game. The player has to become self sufficient though, as the carrot supply will quickly be exhausted within a few days.

After the rubberbanding phase you're just out there in the world and have to survive, so you better make good use of it. It's the survival genre, after all.

Biome-specific difficulty sounds pretty neat too. I like the idea of some places being high-risk and high-reward, and others safe but tame.

 
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I was recently playing Dying Light and it shows nicely how progression should look like. Sure there are things to improve, but i feel it goes the right way.

The gist is that you can find basic "garbage" weapons from the beginning like pipes and boards and you can enhance them with materials. Later as you progress you find more powerful weapons like knives, baseball bats, batons and even swords, but the higher your level, the better items you find in various chests and off enemies. Additionally you get skills that enhance your fighting, parkour and making other aspects of the game, allowing you to hit hard even with basic "garbage" weapons.

This would be good on itself if you encountered always the same difficulty Zs, but apart from regulars (which i think do not get higher HP or damage), you start encountering various special zombies which pose a greater threat (a spitter, a hulk with a giant club weapon, fresh which are faster and stronger, etc.). The pinnacle is the night hunter, which you encounter almost at the beginning in the story (enabling the cycle of day and night to start), but poses a big threat even late game because of his strength, pouncing and agility (they parkour almost as fast as you). Not to mention when you get ganked by a group, it's easier to get overwhelmed even by the weakest Zombies.

On the other hand, i'ts pretty satisfying when you make a really overpowered machete or something with high damage and run into a crowd lobbing heads off left and right. Still, this doesn't work on the stronger variants of enemies so easily, which leaves that little sense of danger.

 
I was recently playing Dying Light and it shows nicely how progression should look like. Sure there are things to improve, but i feel it goes the right way.
The gist is that you can find basic "garbage" weapons from the beginning like pipes and boards and you can enhance them with materials. Later as you progress you find more powerful weapons like knives, baseball bats, batons and even swords, but the higher your level, the better items you find in various chests and off enemies. Additionally you get skills that enhance your fighting, parkour and making other aspects of the game, allowing you to hit hard even with basic "garbage" weapons.

This would be good on itself if you encountered always the same difficulty Zs, but apart from regulars (which i think do not get higher HP or damage), you start encountering various special zombies which pose a greater threat (a spitter, a hulk with a giant club weapon, fresh which are faster and stronger, etc.). The pinnacle is the night hunter, which you encounter almost at the beginning in the story (enabling the cycle of day and night to start), but poses a big threat even late game because of his strength, pouncing and agility (they parkour almost as fast as you). Not to mention when you get ganked by a group, it's easier to get overwhelmed even by the weakest Zombies.

On the other hand, i'ts pretty satisfying when you make a really overpowered machete or something with high damage and run into a crowd lobbing heads off left and right. Still, this doesn't work on the stronger variants of enemies so easily, which leaves that little sense of danger.
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Right, with Dying Light the difficulty is is mainly tied to POI type and quests (and of course night). So no matter what your level, you can go around during the day to normal buildings and feel somewhere between secure and O.P., but if you want challenge, you can just go to certain town squares filled with spitters and ogres, or you can go into volatile nests, quarantine zones, do the challenges, or even just follow the storyline.

 
The OP is absolutely correct. From level 1 to 200 plus it should always be a mystery what you’re going to find and shouldn’t be dictated by player progress. I can see some dungeons like through quests, maybe, but it would be far more challenging not knowing if there’s a single zombie or a horde waiting from lvl 1 up.

 
If I had one complaint this would be it. Randomize the amounts of zombies inside a building.

Wastes so much daylight just to loot a vacation rental and a log cabin.

 
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