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Better Late Game Respawn.


BentNose

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This might be an involved Mod rather than a game suggestion considering the fiddling around involved. Pillow's mods do help to mitigate the problem, but there's another aspect that's taking the fun out of things. Still, even having mentioned Pillow's, I'm going to go through the whole thing here.

So one of the aspects of late game death is the loss of all progress on that character.

I'm fine with that honestly, it's what comes after that is the problem. I'm more peeved about the idea of starting a new character after this point because of the state of the new character. By all appearances, that character has apparently woken up from stasis a moment ago to discover a zombie apocalypse in full swing. It's this incongruity that bothers me, not having to start over or potentially find and recover the progress of the previous character.

There have been some conversation in other respawning related threads, but TrailerParkThor asked me to expand on the idea of time advanced spawns. Character creation options and bonuses that open up when in game time has passed.

On the topic of where and how the respawning happens, once enough time has passed the game should probably be very particular about where it puts people. Characters should spawn as a person who is already going through the motions of survival. And they should really not be placed into a home recently looted by a previous character if possible.

Spawn a new survivor with a broken down or crashed car near a city. The survivor should have the key to this car.
Spawn them at the edge of the map as if they are on foot and on the move.
Spawn the player in a house that hasn't been visited in quite some time and if possible convert the house into a safehouse. Alternately, pick an unvisited safehouse to put them in.
Spawn the player in the middle of the woods with a tent and campfire.
An exciting Spawn that has a player in a home with some minor tools and a flowering garden but is being invaded by zombies.
Spawn them in a well-stocked middle of the woods house, but you can hear the helicopter and see the first zombies coming in.

What they shouldn't be is spawned into an unsecured, unvisited or looted home. This is immersion breaking. It's been months, there needs to be a good reason for that survivor to still be around.

As for the character itself. Simply having been around for awhile suggests that they've learned to survive. They need something to signify they've had at least a little experience ensuring that they're still alive. I think it should be a matter of course that the character has gained skill points in the movement skills, Sprint, Nimble, Stealth and Lightfooted. How that is distributed can be semi-random, it would depend on what the character has gone through after all. To accompany this, the character should potentially get one or two weapons skills leveled based on time passed, with one corresponding weapon in their inventory. As for Crafting skills, well, for all we know the character could have survived on an excellent shopping trip, I don't think we need randomly assigned crafting skills.

Instead, why not add points granted by hobbies and occupations based on how much time has passed? They've had to practice what they know. Every single occupation could just have a boost in skill points granted based on the advancement of game time.

And then there is the idea of Late Game occupations. These don't have to be terribly complicated really. These would be things that appear a few months in, a natural evolution of having to figure out how to stay alive and well after society shuts down. At this point, these people probably have something that sets them apart from all those who have succumbed to the horde.

"Carjacker"
Has survived by hopping from one vehicle to another, learning some tricks as they go.
Can hotwire vehicles, less chance of breaking window locks.
Better chance for the car to start up, reduced fuel usage.
Has skills in electrical, mechanics and metalworking.
Spawns next to a broken car with the key in hand.

"Scavenger"
Survived by knowing where to look for what they need, then making the best use of those things.
Comes with Lucky trait (may be nullified by unlucky).
Uses less materials when repairing tools and weapons.
Has skills in maintenance, metalworking and carpentry.
Possibly spawns in a store or storage area, probably with a crowbar.

"Wild Man"
Went to the woods and only now has to come back.
Has the Axe Man trait and Herbalist.
Is able to forage more from a location before the area is depleted.
Skills in foraging, carpentry and Axe.
Spawns on a road at the edge of civilization.

"Z Hunter"
Does one thing and does it well, but until now they had companions. He can take care of the Zombies, but now he has to fend for himself without help.
Has Hunter and desensitized.
Has an easier time activating critical hits (knife stab, spear skewer, etc.)
Improved fitness and movement skills.

"Marathon Runner"
If they aren't walking, they're running.
Can still run at high exertion. Can still jog even when exhausted.
Improved fitness, sprinting

I'm sure there are other late game classes to come up with, but I think I've laid it out well. Whether or how much this applies to multiplayer is another question, but I'm sure having an enhanced character based on how much time has passed in game would help the longevity of PZ.

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Glad to see the expanded idea, I love it!:D

 

I think this could be implemented as easily as adding a Sandbox setting called something like 'Survivor Classes'. If you check the box, it would allow for more customization of this system (similar to Proper Zombies settings). You could select which classes would be available and when. Survivor and Apocalypse modes would probably default to 3 months later, but this could be changed to be any amount of time. This way servers could opt into or out of whichever professions they want to allow players to use. Alternatively, anyone could just set the time limit to -1 days and access all the Respawn Professions from Day 1 character creation.

 

I like the idea of progressing stats as well, but the RNG makes me a little put off and adding new professions on top of changing existing ones seems too complicated. I think the simplest way to go about marrying your ideas would be to simply replace each existing profession with a survivor class once the threshold of time has passed. Carjacker for Mechanic, Z Hunter for Veteran, Marathon Runner for Fitness Instructor, etc. Using this method, each occupation will get it's own advanced version with pros and cons. This way, starting over months later isn't just starting over. It would almost be like a new game mode! Maybe the sandbox settings would even allow us to set unique thresholds for each occupation. Farmers might take a year to become Foragers, but I'm sure most Lumberjacks would become a Wild Man in the first few weeks of the apocalypse.

 

A step further, and we can bring spawn points into this system. I think a good way to go about this would be to similarly replace each existing spawn category with a later game version. Pillow's Spawns could really give the devs some inspiration here, like you said. Muldraugh should be replaced with Farmville, Riverside with the Country Club, etc. These could all come with their own list of random spawns so it isn't too repetitive. Under this system, it should be easy to add the special story spawns you came up with. A Carjacker spawning in Farmville might be in a broken down car outside the Pony Roam-O, a Wild Man in Dixie (a good Rosewood replacement) might spawn in one of the isolated cabins nearby there.

 

All in all, I think something along these lines NEEDS to come to PZ. Currently, it's pretty fun to restart from a completely new save. If the devs were to add a version of the systems we've discussed here, no matter how simplified, it would definitely incentivize players to take on the challenge of a later start and reclaiming their past character's things.

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