Liesel Weppen said:
And here it goes again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.
*sigh*
I vote for permaban users on the forums that bring up the same discussion years after again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.
It just becomes so @%$*#!ing anoying.
The more this gets brought to the forefront of conversation the better as it would be a welcome return by many.
Let's clear something up as well that the OP touched on.
Learn by doing does not mean spam crafting. Spam crafting bad is the most common response to learn by doing and it does not need to make a come back. (Even though it was a far better mechanic than the current system)
Learn by doing can be implemented in a few fairly straight forward and easy to understand ways that would feel far more naturally and rewarding compared to the current system and there is no need for it to include spam crafting:
Physical skills
Stamina, weapon handling (recoil, accuracy, reload speed etc), digestion etc can all be improved by performing those actions in the world.
Why? Not only do you feel the impact of your efforts to improve but you aren't locked in to using a specific type of weapon or play style. It amplifies the survival sandbox experience, immersing the player in their character more. You can play with more freedom which offers more replay value than the current system. Want to be good with a sniper rifle? Use a sniper rifle more.
Intellect Skills and Crafting
The book system already tackles this fairly well and could be part of the bigger picture. If you want to learn how to craft a gun then you have to find a schematic. Alternatively you could break down guns at the work bench to learn how to craft them. The more related books you learn or guns you break down, the better you become at crafting them (level 1 to 5). The same could be applied to tools, blocks, turrets... anything that you can craft.
If you combine these two you wouldn't even need a perk system. They both make more sense in this type of game and the LBD progression part of the game worked so well with night time. In A19 I am finding night time incredibly boring, especially during during the first 2 weeks where I have little resources to build a base. I literally go AFK for most nights waiting for day light to arrive as there is nothing to do. I have too little resources to craft anything and its too dangerous to go out at night.
The game worked well when it was balanced so that the first few weeks of the game you could live in a fairly small, low tier base and focus on character progression. Once you've learnt the bulk of what you need you and your gear was a bit better then move on to night time building your dream base and crafting high tier weapons, tools and armour for the later hordes. It kept players engaged way beyond the first in game weeks.
Loot Economy
To make this work well the loot economy needs improving. RNG works well in this type of game but with the current system there is too much RNG in terms of where loot is found and too much level gating in terms of when you can find loot.
It just needs to be as simple as if you want to learn how to get military loot then loot military sites. Regardless of level there should always be amilitary grade loot at a military installation. The only gating involved needs to be around the quality and that could be tied to your level or looting experience (which can be improved the more you loot). Gating what gear players find early game can be done in a more organic way by making those POIs very difficult to penetrate. Maybe you need C4 to blow a door down that low / mid tier tools would take days and / or the zombies there are going to make life hell. It doesn't need to be impossible but mili sites should be high risk, incredibly difficult for a low level player.
Military grade weapons or schematics should not appear in a house or a gun shop.
A fairly simplified looting system that would work well with 7 days to die and a LBD system:
- Type: Small POI Residential / Civilian
threat: Low and can be tackled easily during week 1
Quality: low with very small chance to get mid tier
Tier: low with a small chance to get mid
items: food, drink, tools, weapons, meds, raw materials from breaking stuff down)
- Small and medium POI Shops (shotgun messiahs, working stiffs, pop pills)
Threat level: Medium (will be hard during the first week but not impossible)
Quality: low with fairly good chance to get mid quality and very low chance to get high quality
tier: low with fairly good chance to get mid quality and very low chance to get high quality
Items: Corresponds with the type of shop
- Large civilian buildings and stores
Threat level: High (Would be very hard to do during week 1 and still hard during week 2)
Quality: Mostly mid quality with a low chance of getting high quality
Tier: Mostly mid with a chance of getting high
Items: Corresponds with the type of shop
- Military
Threat level: Very high (Almost impossible during week 1 and week 2)
Quality: All quality levels with a small chance of getting medium and very small chance of high
Tier: almost all high tier
Items: Military grade stuff
There needs to be some sort of resource loop for every type of area to loot so that it's always useful for players to loot the above areas. The toughness of the POI should determine the difficulty and loot.. not perks. This would make for a far more organic looting experience and encourage exploration more. There's too many generic crates that you can find in a small POI or a large military POI that contain the same loot so what's the point in risking the latter?
It's not that outlandish and this type of system has been implemented in plenty of other open world survival games. It makes sense to the player and it feels natural. There's something incredibly off putting about starting a new character and knowing that good loot doesn't exist in the world because you haven't grinded out enough levels or perk points.
It's such a shame that they didn't build on what they had in A15/A16. The game was in a very balanced state in a way that kept the players engaged in a way that felt rewarding. I imagine it would have also been a lot less time consuming to expand on what they had rather than implement multiple iterations of the current perk system over 3 alphas which nobody asked for and has received a lot of backlash.
Some great strides have been made in A19. Combat in particular is feeling fantastic and the zombie ragdoll just makes combat so much more immersive.
It's just such a shame that the perk system and the way loot is handled has become so artificial and gamey.
