Hey guys,
I started working on this mod again in the last 2 months and though I've added some new stuff, I'm stuck and I could use some more suggestions on what to add next!
Here's what's in r14 test11:
Update: I've uploaded r14 test 11 to the server. Give it a shot and let me know how things are playing for you!
104.236.221.85:10667
Survivalism (DoomZ) r14 Test 11 - August 3rd
View the 3 screenshots on Imgur!
- Procedural vegetation system - I wrote this crazy procedural vegetation system that creates a frustum of foliage around the player. It automatically populates any dirt surfaces with plants, but it's all done on the clientside and is fairly well optimized for speed. If anyone notices slowdown, please let me know! I think we can push it to be quite a bit more dense....
- Water bucket! At level 13 or 14, you unlock bucket crafting. If you water your plants, they'll grow quite a bit faster. (Did I mention enemies will attack your growing plants? Protect them!)
- Revamped monster spawner again. Zombies spawn in clusters now sometimes, which makes the combat a lot more fun. In general, there's more bad guys now. Also torches work better at preventing monsters from spawning, with even less server CPU usage now.
- A few cosmetic tweaks - water sounds, splashes (thanks Enjay!), waterfall spawner.
- Some DoomZ2 improvements - The canyon near the spawn isn't a wasteland anymore. I added an
extra mine below the huge waterfall chasm too.
What's Next?
I need your help! There's two main problems I'm struggling to solve right now:
1) The game only gets easier as you go on, since you're accumulating weapons, ammo, building your base, and so forth. RPGs balance this out by throwing harder badguys at you. DayZ somewhat balances this out by making you a bigger target for other players if you have better gear. What should we do? Should I make it so that as you build up your base, it attracts stronger badguys? Should I also throw tougher badguys at you as you gain XP? (This would be done on a per-player and per-base basis, so that new players joining a game in progress wouldn't be overwhelmed.)
Any other ways to solve this?
2) There are no health sources at the start of the game. This gives you a strong incentive to farm, but makes the start of the game feel unfair. Ænima suggested that wild plants could spawn just often enough so that if the player spends all their time looking for them, they can stay alive. (His idea was in reference to a hunger system but it could apply to health.) In that case, the player trades time for health. What are some other ways to solve this?
Also re: hunger system - I keep thinking about this and I'm not sure. (I'm biased and don't like hunger systems because they feel like a chore, but I'm still open to the idea if it's actually fun.) I was thinking that you could axe zombie corpses a few times to get a tiny bit of meat to quench your hunger. It'd be time consuming, so you'd still have an incentive to farm.
Maybe a system that's hunger-like but only temporary could be fun, like a plague hitting all the players and requiring medicine.
Anyways, thanks again for all your feedback and please keep it coming! Looking back at the start of this thread, you guys have really driven the way this mod has development. Tons of stuff I've implemented came directly from your ideas here. :)