MylieDaniels
commented
2 years ago Big hopes for this project! Here are my thoughts:
EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF RESOURCES A vast portion of the current "Normal Mode" assets, content, and mechanics could be used in even a fully revamped Defense Mode. This would save an immense amount of time and effort, allowing a great product to come together sooner. In addition, I very much believe that some mechanics/content created for or enhanced for Defense Mode could serve to improve Normal Mode, especially improvements in NPC and monster behavior, resource management in faction camps, and perhaps improvements to construction and bosses. I don't think that everything should be ported over, of course, and think there are different priorities for how in-depth some systems should be in each of the two modes.
DISPARITIES IN MECHANICAL DEPTH If every mechanic was the same between the two modes, there would be no point in having two modes. If every mechanic was unique between the two modes, there would be little point in packaging them as one game aside from setting. I believe the optimal way to differentiate the two modes is to have one or two unique mechanics/progression loops per mode, along with disparities in the depth of specific mechanics in each mode. Mechanics should remain functionally similar, to prevent confusion, but distinct in how prioritized and in-focus they are.
| Mechanic | Normal Mode Significance | Defense Mode Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Allies (Generic) | Low | High |
| Allies (Unique) | High | Moderate |
| Construction | Moderate | Very High |
| Crafting | Very High | High |
| Enemies (Generic) | Very High | Moderate |
| Enemies (Unique) | Low | High |
| Exploration | Very High | Low |
| Factions | Moderate | Very High |
| Monster Loot | Moderate | Very High |
| Supplies (Generic) | Low | Very High |
| Supplies (Unique) | Very High | Moderate |
| Trading | Moderate | High |
| Vehicles | High | Moderate |
NORMAL MODE PROGRESSION LOOPS The progression methods of Normal Mode are diverse and varied, but can be boiled down to four entangled cycles in my eyes, sorted from most to least pertinent to the player:
- Avatar Progression, the process in which the avatar character gains or loses equipment, skills, mutations, bionics, and more.
- Knowledge Progression, the process in which the player and their avatar learn more about the game, the setting, and the specific contents of a generated world.
- World Progression, the process in which the world itself grows, develops, and becomes more interesting, dangerous, and personally.
- Faction Progression, the process in which the relationship between the avatar and their allies and enemies develops and becomes more important.
DEFENSE MODE PROGRESSION LOOPS As Defense Mode lacks a distinct identity at the moment, I'll be basing this on my ideals for it, once more sorted from most to least pertinent to the player:
- Faction Progression, focused on how the player's faction advances and grows their numbers, resources, and base, along with how unique enemy and ally factions "progress" off-screen and outside of the playable region.
- Boss Progression, a new progression cycle in which the particularly nasty parts of enemy or unorganized factions have an effect on the world and other factions as they grow in power, before eventually coming to take you down.
- Knowledge Progression, focused on how the player and their faction learn what threats are facing them and how to best deal with those threats and their needs.
- World Progression, focused on how the world develops and becomes more dangerous, difficult, and interesting at a macro-level. Portal storms, purposeless zombie hordes, depleting resources, all that falls into this category.
ONE WAY CROSS-COMPATIBILITY Copying and porting a Normal Mode world to Defense Mode should hopefully be a possibility. This could be done by selecting a faction camp, then doing a one-time scan for how far away specific threats, resources, and allies are. A warning could be given that the ported world will not be perfectly accurate, and the boundaries of the newly created Defense Mode world would be only around the faction camp, but the initial state of resources, allies, enemy forces, and similar concepts would be based as closely as possible on the broader world.
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Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Defense mode has been sub-par for a long time. I have had some thoughts about what defense mode can look like in the future!
Solution you would like.
THE GAME LOOP: RESOURCE MANAGEMENT MODE You start out in "resource management mode." This mode allows you to assign tasks to each of the characters in your base. you can adjust their loadout and their position when an attack starts as well, and you can assign characters to missions if applicable. There is a button to pass the time, with several options to trigger interrupts, such as finishing an activity. A zombie attack always interrupts the passage of time!
Notes: Characters can craft items. they'll pick the best crafting spot in the place, and have to put down their craft and walk to their defensive position during an attack. Same for other actions such as building a wall. They will then return to the activity they were doing before the attack.
There should be the ability to generate your own resources on the base, such as farming for food or chopping wood (perhaps also done as missions). This is perhaps even the reason the location of the base was chosen? Traders will need to come pretty often as you will likely be living hand to mouth early on with just whatever the zombies drop. Perhaps have the option of scavenging missions into nearby town(s)?
Characters need sleep too! Night attacks are dangerous ;)
Inventory physically exists in the base - the player should make sure there is plenty of storage, and there will be notifications if there is stuff on the ground that can't fit in storage. A zone on the ground works just fine for storage.
The base is a rectangle - no infinite world in defense mode!
DEFENSE! When a wave attacks, you switch to free-roam mode on your primary character in order to defend your camp from the zombies (or monsters, or raiders) During this mode, you play the game as in the normal mode, moving around and hitting things and having full control of your character. The npcs will have standing orders based on what you entered in during resource management mode. When all hostiles are no longer on the map, switch back to resource management mode.
Notes: npcs should definitely be able to be assigned static locations like a guard tower. perhaps this is a good opportunity to make them smart enough to retreat to another location if they get overrun, but this will likely be covered over partially by the ability to swap the active character.
Most zombies would just be fine acting like regular zombies, but there is an opportunity in here to build ai that give some specific goals like tearing down a wall in an area with fewer defenders or focusing on one side. Anything that has to do with npcs doing raiding needs special attention to make sense that a human group of raiders would actually do such a thing, like overwhelming odds or a particularly well-timed assault.
this is a good chance to implement boss mobs in a controlled environment, and they'll spawn in fairly regular intervals depending on how far into defense mode you are.
Whatever is dropped from the wave is added to the inventory. corpses that aren't edible are destroyed.
TRADER and other random events Traders arrive periodically (they won't arrive during an attack). They don't appear on the map as such, but they immediately open up a dialogue - this will generally interrupt any long-form activities (they're still going on in the background, but the dialogue is a popup) and when the trade is done the trader leaves. (Make sure to add additional warnings for players that this is the only chance they get to buy/sell from this trader until they visit again!) Then the resource management screen pops up again. This is a similar dialogue for when a wandering npc wants to join the base. Possibility for adding additional random events as well?
Notes: we need to examine how the player and the player's base get income. If it's just zombie drops, it might be pretty slim pickings or way overboard. This should be an easy json change, and can be fine tuned from that end.
Group morale (more or less an average of everyone's morale) affects how often npcs try to join, and/or how likely they are to join, in addition to assets which will be shown in the resource management screen. Traders never join.
See also: #51784