Mapdesign/Itemization: cruel "False Hope" items

[Amurayi]

A few items or locations which give players the false hope that the game could be won by any other means than death (which could generate urban legends that it might actually be possible to "win" PZ:

 

* a broken radio station with "just one electric part missing" (which cannot be found)

 

* a military emergency device: "Just press this button to call for help" (broken)

 

* an empty message doves shack: pour food to attract them (they never come back though)

 

* a train; but parts of the tracks have gone missing

 

* a sign which reads "Wait here - an evacuation convoy will be here shortly"

 

* a helipad - whenever you get close you can hear a heli fly away ("you missed it merely by seconds")

 

* NPC which offers a "ride out of here" if you can bring him a special toy he lost (which is not in the game)

 

* Signalbonfire which is always too wet to set on fire

 

* a safe marked with "cure inside" graffiti locked with a broken numbers and letters pad 

 

* dead doctor NPC who has created a cure, body points at forest (nothing there though)

 

* a soldier NPC who will evacuate the player if he has the right papers and filled out health form A, B and C (only A and C in the game)

 

* lower part of a radio device (upper part not in the game)

[syfy]

these are great, though it could lead to some interesting threads in here.

[blindcoder]

I would love to see these being in the game as mods

[Amurayi]

I think these can't be mods. If you actively activate a mod where you know it has items will be will unusuable then what's the point?

Unless someone hides these in other mods.

[Amurayi]

<snip>

 

This has been done in other games before already.

 

In "Maniac Mansion" you could see a motor chain-saw at a wall. Trying to pick it up gave you a "lacks chain-saw gas" message. The LucasArts devs implemented the chain-saw gas later - in ANOTHER game ("Zak McKraken"). On Mars.

 

Remember PZ is "the story how you died" and not "how you were saved".

Edited March 27, 2015 by kirrus
Removing unlovely quote.

[deprav]

I very much like it !

I had something similar in mind, but it involved a NPC quest line. Like, depending on their luck and their route, the players could find clues and meet NPC mentionning a place in such a way that players would come to think it could be "it", the end game solution, like a military base with scientists.

The base should be a pain in the ass to find with very little indication and no map. The idea was to have a few surviving NPC in that base, until a certain point on the game-timeline where a given event would get them all killed no matter what, like a massive explosion or raiders, and a massive horde.
The players could find it before the event happens and, in that case, witness the end of all hopes, or they could get there too late and just find ruins and zombies.

I'd love something to induce players into thinking they can "win".

 

<snip>

edit : typos

Edited March 27, 2015 by deprav
Removing unlovely quote

[Kirrus]

Remember to report things that aren't nice or constructive, don't engage please.

[Amurayi]

deprav, yeah. 

 

May not require a full quest. Just a flyer you can find saying: "Evacuation truck pick up at the crossing of (distant destination)" And when you head there you'll only find a burned out truck, dead soldiers and lots of zombies.