some little tweaks to make the game more enjoyable for new and old players

[Chilli Dog Dave]

loved the first game so figured i'd jump on this the moment i saw it existed!
though after 3 hours of play some little tweaks that would be most welcome are;

the fatigue gasping audio needs a toggle option, spending fights hearing "HA HU HA HU HA HU" is pretty painful with a headset and the option to be able to toggle it on, weaker or off would massively improve the games audio control, this THE most annoying thing that i disliked from the first game as well so just being able to toggle this would spike my enjoyment up greatly

the starting point can be insanely brutal, 3 times i started a game to have a small horde of strains at my spawn making surviving nigh impossible, there needs to be a small protection frame for spawning in so that you can actually start the game

an option to walk away from conversations demanding gold when you get to close to their camp would be nice, not a 100% walk away but a chance at being left alone, every camp that demanded gold that i didnt have was met with 100% lead, even small 3 man camps who are risking far to much for one guy

an explanation about how the strains impact the difficulty of each color would help the new player experience, coming from the first game i knew red and white were the most deadly (red is purple on the minimap for some reason?) but if i was new i would have assumed white was easier than red

being able to shrink the hud would be a great addition though not required, i like the cinematic camera but it does take up a large portion of the screen

[Fin]

Originally posted by Chilli Dog Dave:

the starting point can be insanely brutal, 3 times i started a game to have a small horde of strains at my spawn making surviving nigh impossible, there needs to be a small protection frame for spawning in so that you can actually start the game

I actually don't mind this. It's the luck of the draw and lends an aspect of authenticity to the experience (entering an unscouted area, you could very well land in a hot spot off the bat). If you immediately get jumped by a horde, or if raiders spawn in behind you after 2 minutes (as once happened to me) and you die, what have you lost? Maybe 5 minutes of gameplay. Just start a new game; no harm done. More often than not, you'll start away from a hostile mob.

I tend to look at development from a cost/benefit perspective. Every minute Bob spends tweaking the "nice to have" items is one minute less he can devote to improving NPC AI, adding buildings, expanding trade/diplomacy options, fleshing out the story, optimization, etc,...

[CellNav]

@ Chilli Dog Dave

The default difficulty settings can be brutal but you can ease the pain by setting them up before starting. It takes a few starts to find a sweet spot. When I first played the game (v81) a long time ago, even the easy setting was hard but we couldn't adjust anything, now we can.

The game is mod friendly. After a little over 600 hours, I finally sat down and created my own "My Story" to change the sandbox game. The Looter Communities asking for gold can even be changed if you want, but the common trick is to walk in with a little gold (2 gold) and "pay the toll", then chat every up and sell all your junk. If you have a radio then you can keep track of those you met, making looters less painful.

The only problem I have with the UI is the "Meanwhile" forced display. While that is active, it blocks conversation with people I want to talk with, and it can be the most annoying thing.