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Legacy/bonuses for starting in same world after character death?


Madigari

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I was reading through a topic in General Discussion and it got me thinking about how some players seem to dislike the pure rogue-like nature of the game, and how they want to have something to work towards. Is there the possibility for some sort of bonuses within the same world if you start a new character there after you die to give progression-minded players something to strive for?

 

As it goes currently, if you die in the world and start a new character in the same world, that character is a blank slate as though they've been completely unaffected by the world. It's like every new character is "28 Days Later"-ed into existence; no skills for survival, even higher handicaps if the world's food has decayed and power and water has stopped, and higher zombie count due to the time elasped in game world.

 

What I'm suggesting is an option to either start in the same world with that clean slate, or offer a sort of Legacy bonus to the new character, at the player's choice. If you choose a clean slate, you get the above-mentioned situation as currently implemented. If you choose a Legacy bonus, perhaps you can start with a negative amount of points for traits so you can take more positive ones with less negative ones. Or perhaps you get 50% of your skill point XP and 50% of your skill levels XP, except the skill level experience is randomized across the skills (e.g., level 5 cooking becomes level 2.5 blade maintenance).

 

I haven't quite figured out what the system could be, or how to balance it so that it's not overpowered. But this could help in giving the people who are complaining about a lack of feeling progression something to get that feeling. Other rogue-likes have implemented similar such systems; Wayward Souls, for example, lets you buy upgrades for the characters that persist across all future playthroughs. I'm not sure if that would necessarily work for PZ, but I think keeping it within the same world/save might.

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I've thought about the same thing, to a certain extent, myself.

 

Continuing in the same world does come with a few perks - you already have a vague idea where you've scavenged in the past, and you'll quite likely know the location of stores of supplies or a previously made safehouse.

In saying that, the disadvantages of continuing an existing world far outweigh the perks, in my opinion, and something to balance it out would be quite nice.

 

Perhaps an initial boost to one or more random skills to represent whatever this 'new' character might have been up to while your last one was busy scavenging and building (or merely surviving, whatever your play style). A dwindling supply of barely any food/drink already on the player at creation might represent the last of their supplies as they set out towards this safehouse they've heard about (that you already know about - because you built it, with a dead man).

I don't know, because really the challenge is about balancing your meta-knowledge with the unknown - you are beginning play (as another character) in a world where you already know key points of interest, you know where resources may be scarce, and you probably have a fair idea of where the zombies will be least dense.

You already know things about the world you are going to play in, before you even take your first step - to some people, that in itself is enough to ruin the rogue-like gameplay, and to others it is just enough information to set themselves up for long-term survival.

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