Balanced sheet rope nerf?

[Asrayl]

 

It's a bit off topic, but it warrants a response- you don't need specialized rope for climbing. If you want a thicker rope, just braid a few narrow ropes together. If you want to add climbing knots, I'd recommend spacing them about 18 inches apart. If you want to make a rope ladder, a wagonload of crutches would work in a pinch without needing any specialized tools. 

 

... All of these things are easy to do. But do they add value and direction to the game? 

 

On topic, does anyone think it's fair that a person could carry their max walking load, and climb up a free hanging rope? Is it balanced that with a few sweaters you could rappel down from the fifth floor balcony, and get back up that way, endlessly, without it being a risk?

 

These are the things that matter. Whether the rope is 1" diameter or 3" diameter is window dressing, by relative importance.

As a game mechanic, it is not important. There is going to be some way to egress from higher levels in a building. For realism it would be important. The way it stands is very unrealistic, and I understand that. I would be fine with it left the way it is (or completely removed).

But to say building a rope ladder out of crutches using sheets and sweaters is easy? I don't see how you could think that. It is an easy game mechanic the same way cutting down a tree with a fork is. You can do it in game because it's there, but to attempt that IRL would be insane.

 

... I should have specified rope and crutches. As rope exists in game, I didn't think about it.

 

And if you're climbing sheets, distributing the load at more than one anchor point is less insane than just tying it off to the bed frame and scrambling out the window. 

[J0hnm13]

The biggest key point I'd like to stress here is to keep things simple. By simple, I mean "How well would this fit into the game already?" Sheet ropes are easy to make for quick escape but suggest maybe you can't even climb them back up. Knotted rope can be climbed up or down if you're not over encumbered and no limbs are broken. Rope ladder will forgive broken limbs. Secured solid ladder would allow 1 arm to be full and forgive broken limbs. Something to that effect. Durability would only add unnecessary complication and be a bad idea in my opinion.

 

I should mention, I'm one of those people who do the flying fortress strategy, if you count barricading the 2nd story and sledging the stairs away as a flying fortress. There's no reason it shouldn't be viable, especially since the Zombie Survival Guide the game is based off of recommends it. The problem is that there needs to be incentive to do things in different ways. That incentive could be that while your fortress is impregnable from the infected, if things go unexpectedly bad you can't get back up either, at least with your arms full.

 

Progressive tiers of climbing tools would add more scaling to the base building too. Sheet ropes are basic. Industrial ropes are next. Rope ladders 3rd. Solid stairs (Crafted or found) are top tier, but with risks.

 

The risk being with the addition of NPCs, since a rope based entry you can pull up and hide when not in use, but a permanent solid ladder built into a wall _{which would last indefinitely and be convenient to the player} would also leave you vulnerable to human invaders.