PC V2.0 Storms Brewing Dev Diary

[falloutcloud]

I have played the new update for awhile now and I do not like the badge system. There are a ton of gamey systems but this one is too extreme. It just doesn't feel right when playing. This is a crafting survival game. I would recommend that once you complete your tasks that you get a recipe for a mod that you have to craft that is placed on armor, taking up a slot. This mod can reduce the effects or eliminate the effects, depending how deep you want the system to go. We had cooling mesh and insulated liner before. There was even a hazmat suit and there's a whole book series on firefighting. It seems like there is some potential already to make these biomes more interesting.

 

[Syphon583]

I have played the new update for awhile now and I do not like the badge system. There are a ton of gamey systems but this one is too extreme. It just doesn't feel right when playing. This is a crafting survival game. I would recommend that once you complete your tasks that you get a recipe for a mod that you have to craft that is placed on armor, taking up a slot. This mod can reduce the effects or eliminate the effects, depending how deep you want the system to go. We had cooling mesh and insulated liner before. There was even a hazmat suit and there's a whole book series on firefighting. It seems like there is some potential already to make these biomes more interesting.

I do wish the badges were more creative. However, I do not think these proposed survival mods should take up a normal mod slot. These survival items are required to progress in the game, and having them take up spaces meant for optional mods feels wrong. They need dedicated spaces. I will say one reason I like the badge system is that they basically stack, meaning they only take up one dedicate slot and I don't have to switch badges every time I venture into a different biome. That would suck if I was forced to change mods.

One idea that I think I've seen and has rolled in my head is that instead of dedicated mod slots on the overall outfit, each piece (head, outfit, gloves, feet) had a dedicated slot for these survival mods and could even be specific to the biome. For the burnt forest a head mod that filters out the dirty air; for the desert a foot mod to stand up to the blistering heat radiating from the sand; for the snow, a glove mod to keep your hands from getting frost bitten; and for the wasteland an outfit mod to protect from radiation damage. Or just 4 dedicated slots on the overall outfit. It doesn't really matter.

 

[Mr. Perfect]

If biome protection was moved to a mod, players could just buy them from a trader or get one from someone else who had the schematic. Whether people find that appealing or not will be personal preference, but I like the idea of having to earn the protection as a skill.

 

[Syphon583]

If biome protection was moved to a mod, players could just buy them from a trader or get one from someone else who had the schematic. Whether people find that appealing or not will be personal preference, but I like the idea of having to earn the protection as a skill.

That's a good point. I didn't even think about the possibility of players sharing mods. I always play SP. So at the end of the day, even if the badges were represented as actual items, they would have to be treated the exact same way as the badges - given to the player, automatically installed, and cannot be removed. It's just a different UI representation. I'd be down with that.

 

[CyberHellKen]

So at the end of the day, even if the badges were represented as actual items, they would have to be treated the exact same way as the badges - given to the player, automatically installed, and cannot be removed. It's just a different UI representation. I'd be down with that.

There's a mod which sort of does this. It just changes the icon for "immersion". What it doesn't fix is the forced progression. I'm now in the camp of wanting to see how it feels when there's an actual storyline to follow where story + biome progression might make more sense to me. This won't stop me from wanting a "sandbox" mode where you can earn the biome immunity in any order. The Wasteland will be naturally much more difficult without needing to be gatekept by the other biomes due to the smoothie ingredients and radiated mushroom requirements. I may make my own mod to have that experience available to me.

 

[fish]

I have played the new update for awhile now and I do not like the badge system. There are a ton of gamey systems but this one is too extreme. It just doesn't feel right when playing.

I felt that at first, but I've grown to like it from the point of view that it is a quest-like mechanism by which you develop a resistance of or tolerance to the new biome. So when entering the burnt forrest initially the smoke is an affront to the system, but 'after a while' you get used to it.

I prefer it to a mod-slot or armour system (remember the days bad old days when you had to take your gear off standing near the campfire).

I do think it could be polished some more, and it can be cheesed a bit, but I think the 'badge' system has merit as a game mechanic. I think it would be reasonable that you always have to have atomic smoothies on hand in the rad zone for example, and the badge just makes their effect last longer.

My 2c

 

[meganoth]

There's a mod which sort of does this. It just changes the icon for "immersion". What it doesn't fix is the forced progression. I'm now in the camp of wanting to see how it feels when there's an actual storyline to follow where story + biome progression might make more sense to me. This won't stop me from wanting a "sandbox" mode where you can earn the biome immunity in any order. The Wasteland will be naturally much more difficult without needing to be gatekept by the other biomes due to the smoothie ingredients and radiated mushroom requirements. I may make my own mod to have that experience available to me.

To what does it change it?

Question to everyone else: Would you see it as an improvement if this were implemented, not just the icon but also the name of the badges? I.e. if TFP changed the name of the burned-badge to "fire blanket", the next to "heat-resistant fire blanket", the next to "isolating fire blanket" and the last to "shielding isolating fire blanket" or simply "shielding blanket"?

 

[iejen]

I do wish the badges were more creative. However, I do not think these proposed survival mods should take up a normal mod slot. These survival items are required to progress in the game, and having them take up spaces meant for optional mods feels wrong. They need dedicated spaces. I will say one reason I like the badge system is that they basically stack, meaning they only take up one dedicate slot and I don't have to switch badges every time I venture into a different biome. That would suck if I was forced to change mods.

One idea that I think I've seen and has rolled in my head is that instead of dedicated mod slots on the overall outfit, each piece (head, outfit, gloves, feet) had a dedicated slot for these survival mods and could even be specific to the biome. For the burnt forest a head mod that filters out the dirty air; for the desert a foot mod to stand up to the blistering heat radiating from the sand; for the snow, a glove mod to keep your hands from getting frost bitten; and for the wasteland an outfit mod to protect from radiation damage. Or just 4 dedicated slots on the overall outfit. It doesn't really matter.

I advised a Cloak like system here for this exact reason: https://community.thefunpimps.com/t...-player-that-has-been-around-since-a14.44034/

Post automatically merged: Tuesday at 6:36 AM

To what does it change it?

Question to everyone else: Would you see it as an improvement if this were implemented, not just the icon but also the name of the badges? I.e. if TFP changed the name of the burned-badge to "fire blanket", the next to "heat-resistant fire blanket", the next to "isolating fire blanket" and the last to "shielding isolating fire blanket" or simply "shielding blanket"?

Not blanket, but yes. A system like this would fit way better in the game. Make it a toggleable cosmetic for bonus points

 

[EvilPolygons]

To what does it change it?

Question to everyone else: Would you see it as an improvement if this were implemented, not just the icon but also the name of the badges? I.e. if TFP changed the name of the burned-badge to "fire blanket", the next to "heat-resistant fire blanket", the next to "isolating fire blanket" and the last to "shielding isolating fire blanket" or simply "shielding blanket"?

Depending on the mod (there are a few now), the badge icons are changed to gas masks, radiation suits, parkas, etc. Basically what you'd expect survival gear to look like.

 

[KirillWright]

Depending on the mod (there are a few now), the badge icons are changed to gas masks, radiation suits, parkas, etc. Basically what you'd expect survival gear to look like.

That's interesting. But I'd find a use for the badges and add gear to vanilla.

 

[Suxar]

Question to everyone else: Would you see it as an improvement if this were implemented, not just the icon but also the name of the badges? I.e. if TFP changed the name of the burned-badge to "fire blanket", the next to "heat-resistant fire blanket", the next to "isolating fire blanket" and the last to "shielding isolating fire blanket" or simply "shielding blanket"?

Does the icon have a name? Somehow I didn't pay attention.

I don't care what it looks like and/or is called. I only go to the tab with the icon to repair armor or insert modifications into it.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

@faatal

Have you thought to what extent the bandit ai will interact with the game?

Will they be able to drive vehicles, or just walk. It would be interesting if
they could steal them. Also stealing player backpacks.

Will they do group coordination of any sort, like heal comrades, spread out to
attack from multiple points?

Will they be able to use the same items that players do like explosives projectile
weapons, and firearms with mods, or will they be more melee? I ask this because
with all of the surplus firepower players have now, walking melee might get over
run easily. If you give them stealth, then the it would be kind of trippy to see them
phase like the Plague Spitter, while using a bow.

Will they be able to set simple traps like spikes, or block doorways? i ask because
i thought about, the player animations are rather refined compared to originally.
Can some of those animations be recorded and added to their state machine?

Will they have a dialog, possibly using he voices of the TFP staff, or will they be
more like The ID aka Rekt.

i was just wondering the depth that you take their interactivity if it was up to you.

 

[meganoth]

Does the icon have a name? Somehow I didn't pay attention.

I don't care what it looks like and/or is called. I only go to the tab with the icon to repair armor or insert modifications into it.

Don't know either whether the icon has a tooltip or anything. But the badge is surely mentioned in the respective challenges tab as reward, probably in help texts and when you get it as a reward by the trader. Those are places where your immersion sense would get tested.

 

[faatal]

@faatal

Have you thought to what extent the bandit ai will interact with the game?

Will they be able to drive vehicles, or just walk. It would be interesting if
they could steal them. Also stealing player backpacks.

Will they do group coordination of any sort, like heal comrades, spread out to
attack from multiple points?

Will they be able to use the same items that players do like explosives projectile
weapons, and firearms with mods, or will they be more melee? I ask this because
with all of the surplus firepower players have now, walking melee might get over
run easily. If you give them stealth, then the it would be kind of trippy to see them
phase like the Plague Spitter, while using a bow.

Will they be able to set simple traps like spikes, or block doorways? i ask because
i thought about, the player animations are rather refined compared to originally.
Can some of those animations be recorded and added to their state machine?

Will they have a dialog, possibly using he voices of the TFP staff, or will they be
more like The ID aka Rekt.

i was just wondering the depth that you take their interactivity if it was up to you.

Drive vehicles - Probably no.

Coordination - They will spread out but that will probably be more from randomness than anything. They will heal self, so maybe they could also heal nearby bandits too.

Items - Yes they will have one or more items. Would be a melee, a ranged and a thrown in different combinations with harder bandits having more and better items. The items could have mods if needed to be harder. Players would be able to loot these, but as they will be similar to yours it will not be some instant power up.

Placing blocks - I don't know. It could happen, but non required behavior like that would be a lower priority, so only added if time permits.

Dialog - They will talk and yell. Complexity would depend on time available to implement.

 

[KirillWright]

Drive vehicles - Probably no.

Coordination - They will spread out but that will probably be more from randomness than anything. They will heal self, so maybe they could also heal nearby bandits too.

Items - Yes they will have one or more items. Would be a melee, a ranged and a thrown in different combinations with harder bandits having more and better items. The items could have mods if needed to be harder. Players would be able to loot these, but as they will be similar to yours it will not be some instant power up.

Placing blocks - I don't know. It could happen, but non required behavior like that would be a lower priority, so only added if time permits.

Dialog - They will talk and yell. Complexity would depend on time available to implement.

I understand that it is probably difficult. I would like to see them at least occasionally on vehicles. May be more common at higher levels

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

I just had a let's call it controversial thought.
They emulate human players to an extent. They emulate intellignence, so conceivably they
could avoid and destroy traps.

If so do you think there would be a strong dis agreement across the web about them, being
structural engineers?

 

[Syphon583]

I understand that it is probably difficult. I would like to see them at least occasionally on vehicles. May be more common at higher levels

I suspect the complexity lies in navigating the environment. There are roads on the map, but for all intents and purposes, they're just decoration. The AI doesn't know there's a road there. That leaves navigating that way all entities do, but when a zombie runs into a tree, they just go around it. That would be considerably more difficult to do for a bandit in a vehicle, and honestly it would just look silly and make it super easy to exploit unless the AI was smart enough to get out of the car whenever they hit an obstacle.

 

[KirillWright]

I suspect the complexity lies in navigating the environment. There are roads on the map, but for all intents and purposes, they're just decoration. The AI doesn't know there's a road there. That leaves navigating that way all entities do, but when a zombie runs into a tree, they just go around it. That would be considerably more difficult to do for a bandit in a vehicle, and honestly it would just look silly and make it super easy to exploit unless the AI was smart enough to get out of the car whenever they hit an obstacle.

I understand that it is difficult. But I think something can be done about it.

 

[iejen]

I would not say driving vehicles is actually a priority. It would be fun seeing them drive around but with how bumpy the voxel terrain can be and how easily the terrain is adjustable by plopping random black everywhere I rather have them focus on stable Bandits with fun mechanics instead of investing a huge amount of hours in buggy driving. Player driving is already hard imagine coding ai driving.

 

[Riamus]

To what does it change it?

Question to everyone else: Would you see it as an improvement if this were implemented, not just the icon but also the name of the badges? I.e. if TFP changed the name of the burned-badge to "fire blanket", the next to "heat-resistant fire blanket", the next to "isolating fire blanket" and the last to "shielding isolating fire blanket" or simply "shielding blanket"?

I would choose better names and I've that fit better, but yes. Changing the burnt forest one to a dust mask or something like that or even a banana over the mouth, the desert to something that would cool you down (a hat with a fan just for jokes ), snow to a parka or warm gloves or snow pants, wasteland to a radiation suit.

Is this a priority? No. Is it really that important? No. Would it be an improvement? Absolutely, and at very little cost. As I said when they first started calling them badges, this game isn't Pokemon.

I understand that it is difficult. But I think something can be done about it.

It isn't really a question about whether or not it can be done. Yes, it can be done. The question is about whether or not it is worth the time required to do it. I would rather see this game completed than to spend a lot of time making bandits drive vehicles. They are only going to be in your active chunks anyhow, so it isn't like they are patrolling the map. I don't really think it is worth the effort for what in the end is mostly just a visual. I would be fine with them having vehicles at the POI they are at and using them for cover, or even for them to have a stationary jeep with a mounted machine gun that they use. But driving just seems like a waste of time this late in development.