What should be part of the future "Sandbox Mode"?

[Double G]

In the Town Hall, Rick said that the game will have a story mode and a sandbox mode.
Rick also mentioned how aspects of the traders will be adjustable.

I think, for this future sandbox mode, there should be an option to completely remove traders.

What other adjustable options, that aren't available in the game currently, should be added?

 

[RipClaw]

The spawn rates for zombies. To make it more straightforward, they could implement a global spawn rate multiplier. Alternatively, they could implement separate settings for each biome.

 

[Corwyhn]

Should be able to exclude traders from random gen though when I want to do a playthrough without them I just dont use them.

I mean I single play mostly and I never nerd pole because it seems silly. I dont care if everyone else there uses them though. Likewise I have occasionally played just not using the traders. I dont even need a mod for that I just dont use them if I dont want to use them.

Storm settngs should cover damage, debuffs and duration plus how it effects zombies. (ie gets them excited or quiets them down) more loot off them (not sure on that one but they said they might do it to give a reason to be in the storms)

Food/water scarcity/abundance (although I have played where I only let myself use water from lakes etc)

Zombie spawn amounts for biomes, cities.

Add fire as an option. Nothing so exciting as trying to finish a mission in a highrise that is burning down.

A popular one might be learn by doing versus the magazine system but not sure you could make that an option easily. There are mods for it so I assume you could. and then just activate or deactivate them from the settings menu.

 

[Riamus]

Should be able to exclude traders from random gen though when I want to do a playthrough without them I just dont use them.

I mean I single play mostly and I never nerd pole because it seems silly. I dont care if everyone else there uses them though. Likewise I have occasionally played just not using the traders. I dont even need a mod for that I just dont use them if I dont want to use them.

Storm settngs should cover damage, debuffs and duration plus how it effects zombies. (ie gets them excited or quiets them down) more loot off them (not sure on that one but they said they might do it to give a reason to be in the storms)

Food/water scarcity/abundance (although I have played where I only let myself use water from lakes etc)

Zombie spawn amounts for biomes, cities.

Add fire as an option. Nothing so exciting as trying to finish a mission in a highrise that is burning down.

A popular one might be learn by doing versus the magazine system but not sure you could make that an option easily. There are mods for it so I assume you could. and then just activate or deactivate them from the settings menu.

Mostly I agree with these. But any large amount of fire in one location will probably kill the Xbox Series S, so isn't likely. And I don't they would try to run both magazines and LBD as separate options. Options will mostly be related to what you could change in XML and not what requires an entire code change.

 

[zztong]

I think, for this future sandbox mode, there should be an option to completely remove traders.

I have played this way (replaced traders with destroyed trader POIs) and it is cool. I do that by generating a world and then editing the world's prefabs.xml file to change "trader_jen" to "trader_jenx" which matches with the "jenx" trader POI in my modlet. Sometime similar would be possible for TFP. If you picked a "traderless" option they could alter the resulting POI name.

Some care needs to be taken so that there are recipes for everything important. Doing it manually, I can always cover by making a quick recipe modlet or using the creative menu.

What other adjustable options, that aren't available in the game currently, should be added?

Fataal once talked about alternative map dimensions. A long and thin map caters to one of my favorite weekend games, being where I try to cross a lot of territory to get to civilization.

I'd appreciate an option where the horde night comes with no warning at all. Right now you can turn off a bunch of that, but a storm still rolls in around 1800 and the sky changes color. My goal here is to get caught unprepared.

I would be okay with horde "nights" being able to happen at any time, not just the night. My goal here is to get caught unprepared. Maybe an eclipse happens, or maybe really, really dark clouds block out the sun making it like night time?

One thing I'm seeing now, playing with some friends, is some of the friends can't play as regularly as the others. This is a bummer when one of those friends is the one learning "workstations", or "vehicles", or "cooking", or "farming", or etc. I was thinking about this and it might be handy if when a member of a group reads a magazine, everyone else in the group gets 0.5 points towards that technology. Then when a critical person is not able to play, the group suddenly isn't back to square one making Red Tea. Maybe those points only go up like that to some basic level, like "bacon and eggs", "bicycle", "iron tools quality 1", "specialized armors quality 1", etc.

 

[pApA^LeGBa]

The spawn rates for zombies. To make it more straightforward, they could implement a global spawn rate multiplier. Alternatively, they could implement separate settings for each biome.

Xbox Series S says no. Eff crossplay. We already had a slider for the spawn rate, was removed for "balance purposes". Meh.

 

[RyanX]

In the Town Hall, Rick said that the game will have a story mode and a sandbox mode.
Rick also mentioned how aspects of the traders will be adjustable.

I think, for this future sandbox mode, there should be an option to completely remove traders.

What other adjustable options, that aren't available in the game currently, should be added?

All of the following is IMHO. You can say things like "just don't use the trader" but I always play on multiplayer (up to 20ish players) and really everyone on the server needs to be on a level playing field for immersion. Most if not all of these changes are immersion related and intended to take away the "gamey arcade rpg" feel back out of the game. The spirit of A16.4 was correct. The organic nature of play has been "removed by addition".

Forget the bandits for now. The devs are using it as a crutch to try and explain why things aren't getting done.

Remove questing. I'm ok if either traders are removed, or at least remove the quests from traders. The skill tree would need some rebalancing for the trader perks, or just remove those.

Absolutely remove biome progression. Put clothing mods back in. It was a much more immersive system.

I like the POIs generally, but dislike the linear nature. Not sure what can be done about that.

Get rid of magazines. Revert to the better LBD/point buy skill system.

Building weapons from parts was way more fun and immersive.

Remove the gating system where zombies only spawn if you cross a certain line. Sleepers were more immersive.

Remove digging zombies, ruins the zombie theme.

Farm plots are weird and don't make sense. Just put the hoe back in and turds back in toilets.

Remove the ability for dew collectors to create their own glass jars out of thin air.

Take a step back and don't start throwing a bunch of new content like crafting stations at the problem to try and solve it.

 

[Riamus]

All of the following is IMHO. You can say things like "just don't use the trader" but I always play on multiplayer (up to 20ish players) and really everyone on the server needs to be on a level playing field for immersion. Most if not all of these changes are immersion related and intended to take away the "gamey arcade rpg" feel back out of the game. The spirit of A16.4 was correct. The organic nature of play has been "removed by addition".

Forget the bandits for now. The devs are using it as a crutch to try and explain why things aren't getting done.

Remove questing. I'm ok if either traders are removed, or at least remove the quests from traders. The skill tree would need some rebalancing for the trader perks, or just remove those.

Absolutely remove biome progression. Put clothing mods back in. It was a much more immersive system.

I like the POIs generally, but dislike the linear nature. Not sure what can be done about that.

Get rid of magazines. Revert to the better LBD/point buy skill system.

Building weapons from parts was way more fun and immersive.

Remove the gating system where zombies only spawn if you cross a certain line. Sleepers were more immersive.

Remove digging zombies, ruins the zombie theme.

Farm plots are weird and don't make sense. Just put the hoe back in and turds back in toilets.

Remove the ability for dew collectors to create their own glass jars out of thin air.

Take a step back and don't start throwing a bunch of new content like crafting stations at the problem to try and solve it.

Well, it sounds like some of that will become options.

Quests on/off were mentioned.

Biome progression can already be disabled. Though with the planned changes, you may decide it isn't so bad.

Clothing may return, but only as what is essentially a non-visible mod to help with temperature protection.

POI paths won't change, though future POI might get different setups. Your best option is to use custom POI that are designed the way you want.

LBD won't return, for which I am grateful.

Parts for weapons could be nice to see return, but it probably won't. They haven't commented on that one way or another from what I've seen.

Sleeper volumes aren't likely to go away. Triggers are entirely based on the POI designer. Some will use them. Some will not.

Digging won't go away. You should never be safe.

Nothing wrong with farm plots. People use them all the time. Planting in any biome other than the forest without them is not at all immersive. Maybe the burnt forest.

Nothing wrong with abstraction of things in games. And you focus on sew collectors, which suggests you just care about empty jars, considering many things "magically" get containers. Just get gas from a gas pump if you didn't think so. And that is only one example. No need to bring back empty containers.

A lot of people want those new workstations. There isn't anything wrong with adding them.

 

[RyanX]

Well, it sounds like a lot of that will become options.

Quests on/off were mentioned.

Biome progression can already be disabled. Though with the planned changes, you may decide it isn't so bad.

Clothing may return, but only as what is essentially a non-visible mod to help with temperature protection.

POI paths won't change, though future POI might get different setups. Your best option is to use custom POI that are designed the way you want.

LBD won't return, for which I am grateful.

Parts for weapons could be nice to see return, but it probably won't. They haven't commented on that one way or another from what I've seen.

Sleeper volumes aren't likely to go away. Triggers are entirely based on the POI designer. Some will use them. Some will not.

Digging won't go away. You should never be safe.

Nothing wrong with farm plots. People use them all the time. Planting in any biome other than the forest without them is not at all immersive. Maybe the burnt forest.

Nothing wrong with abstraction of things in games. And you focus on sew collectors, which suggests you just care about empty jars, considering many things "magically" get containers. Just get gas from a gas pump if you didn't think so. And that is only one example. No need to bring back empty containers.

A lot of people want those new workstations. There isn't anything wrong with adding them.

Remember this is for "sandbox mode" and not for the general game. It doesn't sound like you would play sandbox mode anyway so I'm not sure why you want to even comment on it.

I certainly respect your opinions and how you like to play, but it's not relevant to this thread.

I would be ok with having to make/use gas cans to fill fuel. It would be a good addition.

The digging is just weird for zombies. Do you remember when it was only the dogs that could dig? That made sense at least.

 

[Riamus]

Remember this is for "sandbox mode" and not for the general game. It doesn't sound like you would play sandbox mode anyway so I'm not sure why you want to even comment on it.

I certainly respect your opinions and how you like to play, but it's not relevant to this thread.

I would be ok with having to make/use gas cans to fill fuel. It would be a good addition.

Sandbox mode is the current game without a story or gating. There won't be one switch from story to sandbox from how they described it. You will have a lot of options that you can use to control how the game runs. Some of those would make the game more or less a sandbox experience.

And too be clear, I will play the story once and then probably never again. And I'm not a fan of gating. So you are wrong about what I will play. It isn't good to make assumptions.

In any case, the things they talked about aren't an entirely new mode for sandbox. They are options for the game, which in most cases will be limited to what would be simple XML changes or simple on/off options that don't require significant code changes.

 

[RyanX]

Sandbox mode is the current game without a story or gating. There won't be one switch from story to sandbox from how they described it. You will have a lot of options that you can use to control how the game runs. Some of those would make the game more or less a sandbox experience.

And too be clear, I will play the story once and then probably never again. And I'm not a fan of gating. So you are wrong about what I will play. It isn't good to make assumptions.

In any case, the things they talked about aren't an entirely new mode for sandbox. They are options for the game, which in most cases will be limited to what would be simple XML changes or simple on/off options that don't require significant code changes.

The title of this thread is asking what we would like to see in sandbox mode. All you do is try to rain on everyone else's parade. I'm realistic also, but there's nothing wrong with hoping for the bast.

 

[Riamus]

Yet most of the things you suggested aren't related to sandbox. How weapons are made isn't a sandbox suggestion. LBD isn't a sandbox suggestion. Etc. Those suggestions would work the same in a sandbox game and a non-sandbox game.

In any case, knowing what is already going to be possible (disabling quests and hazards) and knowing what they have said will not happen is a benefit to people. Maybe you don't care, but others can find the information useful.

Btw, I did comment on things I would like as well.

I will add that there is at least a very tiny chance of a hybrid LBD system at some point, though even if they do it, it isn't likely until after 4.0. And devs would like it, which gives it a chance. But fill LBD won't be back, and even hybrid is only a very small chance.