Why does biome progression involve an irremovable loot cap?

[pookandpie]

My buddies and I have been playing 2.0 and its updates, and we finished all of the badges a little while ago. I was told the loot caps raise once you get the wasteland badge, but I didn't pay much attention to it for another 10-15 hours of play until I remembered I could open the stats screen and see my loot stage. We always build our forever home in the snow biome, that's specifically where we set up camp every single new game we create because it's the biome that we think looks the nicest.

But, even with the wasteland badge, my loot stage is capped to 180 in the snow biome? Why? What is the actual purpose for this?

Why would getting the last badge not remove *all* of the loot caps? Why does this system indirectly punish you if you have a biome you'd prefer to stay in that isn't the wasteland? Toggling this feature off changed our loot stage from 180 in the snow to 340+, which is a huge leap. I understand that biome progression wants to push you through the biomes one at a time. I understand that completely, because up until this point I haven't so much as touched the burnt forest biome since it was re-added to random world generation. So that I get, sure, but why leave the punishment in place (the loot cap) after I've completely engaged with the system? It seems nonsensical.

 

[LittleNightma]

The main purpose of Biome Progression is to force you out of the safe zone (Pine Forest) and into the harder biomes. You are not meant to stay in one biome forever until you reach the Wasteland.

 

[Kyoji]

The main purpose of Biome Progression is to force you out of the safe zone (Pine Forest) and into the harder biomes. You are not meant to stay in one biome forever until you reach the Wasteland.

He is asking after you progress. So you followed the progression and beat the game as it is currently but now can't return to the forest unless you put up with inhibited loot tables.

 

[LittleNightma]

He is asking after you progress. So you followed the progression and beat the game as it is currently but now can't return to the forest unless you put up with inhibited loot tables.

The insanely high cap in the Wasteland is meant to pursuade people to stay, or at least do missions there for the better loot.

 

[pookandpie]

The main purpose of Biome Progression is to force you out of the safe zone (Pine Forest) and into the harder biomes.

I fully realize this, that's why I stated that my group and I usually move into the snow biome at the first available opportunity. Which, we now have to put off due to the new biome progression system, but even after completing every single one of the badges, staying in our favorite biome is just worse, now, than it was in 1.0.

I'm asking for why that is, because it seems completely arbitrary. From my perspective, this system appears to be all stick, no carrot. As stated in the OP, we have always built our bases in the snow biome since it was introduced. For many years, now.

Snow just looks way nicer than the wasteland biome, I'd rather not be randomly forced into a biome by the devs punishing where I've built horde bases for years, versus an incentive to venture into the wasteland more often (which I do constantly because that's where all the skyscraper_02s, minotaur theaters, and army base #7s are, and those are the best t6 quest locations full stop).

 

[Riamus]

I think this is one of those situations where they are adding some things to the game before all pieces are added. The plan is for now things to do in the wasteland (I assume) and they added stuff to work towards that so they didn't have to change it later. But that leads to things feeling bad in the meantime. It is similar to making vehicles take a ton of damage easily because the next version would have armor to prevent that. It felt bad until the next version.

Still, they may adjust it so there isn't a cap after completing the wasteland badge if people comment enough about it.

 

[theFlu]

What happens if you turn the progression off now? Since you (and your group I assume) already have immunity to the biomes, there's no challenge left from it; I think it should turn off the limits, no?

It's not a fix, but a workaround

 

[LittleNightma]

I fully realize this, that's why I stated that my group and I usually move into the snow biome at the first available opportunity. Which, we now have to put off due to the new biome progression system, but even after completing every single one of the badges, staying in our favorite biome is just worse, now, than it was in 1.0.

I'm asking for why that is, because it seems completely arbitrary. From my perspective, this system appears to be all stick, no carrot. As stated in the OP, we have always built our bases in the snow biome since it was introduced. For many years, now.

Snow just looks way nicer than the wasteland biome, I'd rather not be randomly forced into a biome by the devs punishing where I've built horde bases for years, versus an incentive to venture into the wasteland more often (which I do constantly because that's where all the skyscraper_02s, minotaur theaters, and army base #7s are, and those are the best t6 quest locations full stop).

I assume it's to push people towards the Wasteland and to stay there, but at the same time it limits the freedom of Open World. The idea of BP is interesting but I think most of us agree that it could use some more tweaking.

I love the Snow biome as well. It's very pretty. If anything I think I might build my base there and go to the Wasteland for missions.

 

[Caelynd Maclyrr]

The main purpose of Biome Progression is to force you out of the safe zone (Pine Forest) and into the harder biomes. You are not meant to stay in one biome forever until you reach the Wasteland.

The problem is, loot levels only affect found things. Once you have the magazines and skill levels and can make all the legendary pistols you want, the loot cap has little meaning there and you can just live comfortably in the pine forest.

It almost demands a hybrid approach reaching back to the old weapon parts system; the loot cap affects the quality of part you can find, but your magazine skills detail the tier of item you can produce (at least for weapons).

 

[Kyoji]

The problem is, loot levels only affect found things. Once you have the magazines and skill levels and can make all the legendary pistols you want, the loot cap has little meaning there and you can just live comfortably in the pine forest.

It almost demands a hybrid approach reaching back to the old weapon parts system; the loot cap affects the quality of part you can find, but your magazine skills detail the tier of item you can produce (at least for weapons).

Not entirely. Ammo, legendary parts, etc all do better on a higher cap. So it's still better to be on the Wasteland.

I think this is one of those situations where they are adding some things to the game before all pieces are added. The plan is for now things to do in the wasteland (I assume) and they added stuff to work towards that so they didn't have to change it later. But that leads to things feeling bad in the meantime. It is similar to making vehicles take a ton of damage easily because the next version would have armor to prevent that. It felt bad until the next version.

Still, they may adjust it so there isn't a cap after completing the wasteland badge if people comment enough about it.

That would make the most sense since we still have the storyline to complete presumably in the Wasteland.