Replace Traders with Settlements

[AaronG85]

I truly believe that Traders, as they are currently implemented, are very OP and can cause you to level super fast, which kind of ruins the early game. What I was talking about with the wife would be replacing the existing traders with settlements. The way we see the system working would be instead of a trader compound; you would have a very basic settlement with one Trader Boss like Joel, who will give you a set of jobs to reduce settlers. This can be the same system as our quests now, but you have to rescue certain settlers to unlock goods sold.

Rescue Trader Jen from a Hospital Infestation to unlock the Medical Room.

Rescue Rekt from an Infested Farm to unlock the Farm
Rescue Bob from an Infested Tools Workshop to unlock the Mechanics
Rescue Hugh from Red Messa to unlock the Weapons Range

As each trader is rescued, the settlement grows. This can use the existing system that resets POIs as quests are accepted, as the settlement grows, you can physically see the changes. You could extend to rescuing NPCs that act like security in the settlement to stop Zombies and rescue others like Builders that slowly upgrade the defence system of the Settlement.

This would combat how easy traders make early game by making you work your way up to complete each rescue but to make things more challenging, the first Trader you decide to save could be a Tier 1, and after each rescue, the next trader Becomes Tier 2 and so on, this way you have to decide on which order you want to save and which you can do without.

With the different factions coming, I think this would fit in perfectly, as even in multiplayer, you could spawn a few settlements, and if you want to join an existing settlement, the original player who started the settlement has to invite you into their team.

EDIT 1: Another thought would be that settlers and traders require certain materials and consumables to continue their work. This would make late-game scavaging still required and give the game an RPG feel.

This is a spitball idea, but I think it would work better than random traders that you can seek out and buy everything you need.
 

 

[InfiniteWarrior]

This is somewhat like every other survival game does things now except the so-called "companions", craftsmen, traders, etc. are sent to your player base or settlement or C.A.M.P. from what I've seen as opposed to a hub, so it should probably be something unique to the Navezgane setting/vibe to set it apart from the crowd.

As long as we're spiffballing, hubs would be nice, but aside from Noah's and the Duke's compounds, it doesn't appear any are on the roadmap and they probably wouldn't play all that nice with RWG if they were randomized. Someone more knowledgeable about RWG might chime in on that. At the same time, there's something to be said for traders setting themselves up in slightly more isolated, less zombie trafficked areas whether relatively close to a town/city or in the wilderness to appeal to/serve the weary traveller as it is now despite that "there's strength in numbers." So I can easily envision a 50/50 community split over the idea. Also, side note: Players choose to level up quickly via the traders. Streamers and YouTubers I've seen actually "advise" people to blitz through those intitial trader odd jobs just to get their hands on the bicycle when it's so much more rewarding to earn it simply by investing a little in Grease Monkey. They're certainly not being forced to do so, so the "traders are OP" argument seems to me to be coming from one specific playstyle -- the uber-"efficient," min-max playstyle -- as though everyone playing it are min-maxers and/or speed runners trying to get through the tiers as quickly as possible and -- I don't quite know how to put this, but -- I tire of players arguing for the removal of player agency in any game myself. Players should be allowed to set their own pace through the game, whether that be super fast or as slow as watching grass grow.

Unless I miss my guess, TFP pretty much consider the game and forthcoming elements of it locked in so discussions about it may be moot before they begin. I can't imagine they'd make such a drastic change, but we could be surprised.

 

[warmer]

. The way we see the system working would be instead of a trader compound; you would have a very basic settlement with one Trader Boss like Joel, who will give you a set of jobs to reduce settlers. This can be the same system as our quests now, but you have to rescue certain settlers to unlock goods sold.

Rescue Trader Jen from a Hospital Infestation to unlock the Medical Room.

Rescue Rekt from an Infested Farm to unlock the Farm
Rescue Bob from an Infested Tools Workshop to unlock the Mechanics
Rescue Hugh from Red Messa to unlock the Weapons Range

As each trader is rescued, the settlement grows. This can use the existing system that resets POIs as quests are accepted, as the settlement grows, you can physically see the changes. You could extend to rescuing NPCs that act like security in the settlement to stop Zombies and rescue others like Builders that slowly upgrade the defence system of the Settlement.

I think this is a very cool idea and you've outlined a lot of good reasons why. Reminds me a bit of how it works in Enshrounded, with the addition of defense of the settlement. This would be a great MOD for Roleplaying purposes. It is definitely more "story" than Sandbox.

I think once Bandits are fully in, we will have the resources for proper NPC implementation and this could be modded in if they don't want to move in a similar direction for vanilla.