Arguments for and against items respawning

[Edy]

1: Introduction:

So, update 2 is out and here we are, divided between 2 communities - those who are for items respawning, and those who are against it. As of making this post, all boxes and crates will not respawn their loot neither in single player, nor in multiplayer, which includes ammo for guns, ropes, tapes, batteries, medicine, food and drinks and more. The objects lying around the island should still respawn.

2: Arguments for items respawning:

a) Being able to play the game longer

- with the items no longer respawning in the crates, it’ll be complicated if next to impossible to play the game longer as we will eventually run out of resources

b) Being able to build

- it’s going to become a big inconvenience to run half across the map only to get some ropes for a rope bridge for example. This game is a building game and it should be respected

c) Casual playing

- not everyone who buys the game wants to experience “diehard” survival - some people just want to enjoy the game and build stuff / explore without having to constantly keep in mind that they’ll run out of resources or will struggle to find them

d) Replaying the game and/or keep playing

- currently the game can be finished in one sitting, what’s keeping us, the players, to continue playing after all the caves are explored and the whole story finished? For many it’s the building, role playing, stacking resources, “surviving” winter, etc. - remove that and there’s no reason.

e) no other way

- as of writing this, there’s no other way of getting resources in the game apart from food and the items lying around the island respawn some of which might get removed as well

f) nobody’s forcing you
- people can re-open the boxes if they wish to, and ignore them if they don’t. Players shouldn’t be forced to play the game other players want them to.

3: Arguments against items respawning:

a) git gud

- no comment

b) the game is too easy

- if the items respawn it makes the game easily exploitable and removes the challenge from it

c) it’s unrealistic

- this is a survival game and the items shouldn’t respawn indefinitely as it breaks immersion

d) it was an unintended bug

- and was fixed

e) it’s a survival game

- and therefore it should be challenging and the resources should be scarce. Players should also be encouraged to be able to manage their resources

4: My arguments:

- replayability should be the strive for any developer, and it definitely needs to be part of the game, with the latest update, I can replay the game, but I feel less encouraged to play the game longer
- I don’t like to be forced to play my single player game in a way some other players want me to. Also, items respawning weren’t a game breaking issue like some other bugs are/were that are yet to be addressed
- Sons of the forest isn’t a hardcore survival game like Project Zomboid or Green Hell. Currently there are next to none survival elements in the game.
- guns aren’t the only reason why players liked the items respawning, part of it, but not the only one.
- items respawning may indeed break immersion, but I personally don’t find it that much of an issue
- I agree that it is unrealistic but so are many other things in the game (nobody minds transporting logs over a zip line)

5: Suggestions:

- give us a way of obtaining those items without them respawning in the crates or keep the respawning until you do
- let us craft all those resources from other items in the forest (dead cannibals, wines, etc) and keep them respawning until you do
- make drop-pods or some other lore-friendly feature where respawning isn’t necessary
- give us an option to have not only items but also trees and vegetation respawn

6: Conclusion

In my opinion, removing the items respawning in the current game state was a bad move, especially considering there is no alternative.

[AlphaWolf_AZ]

As I said in previous posts about re-spawning: Have a slider in settings! Give players the option to re-spawn or not! Easy as that! It's not rocket science.
Different player, different style! We bought the game from our money, we deserve to play as we like.

[Red]

well thought out post mate, survival games work when if you run out of resources there is a way to craft or scavenge more.

walking 30 minutes across the map to find some rope/cloth/etc you havent picked up before isnt engaging, difficult, or fun

[Lance]

Originally posted by Edy:

3: Arguments against items respawning:

a) git gud

- no comment

b) the game is too easy

- if the items respawn it makes the game easily exploitable and removes the challenge from it

c) it’s unrealistic

- this is a survival game and the items shouldn’t respawn indefinitely as it breaks immersion

d) it was an unintended bug

- and was fixed

e) it’s a survival game

- and therefore it should be challenging and the resources should be scarce. Players should also be encouraged to be able to manage their resources

a) same

b) go play a different game then

c) let's talk about enemy respawn...

d) wrong. see "The Forest"

e) Indeed it is a survival game... and now what?!

[Zero]

We're not really divided on it. You have like five people who support the change and like a thousand who are against it.

[Noetic]

I'm all for hacking clothes off of dead cannibals for cloth, along with taking their armor after i headshot them, and crafting said cloth into rope, and using their bones for better arrows, and fences and whatever.

That being said, until we can do those things this is a game breaking bug and not a fix for anything. The only thing this fixes is the complaints of people who i'm guessing didn't like The Forest gameplay either. For those of us that have played the forest for the last 10 years, we had no problem with this feature.

I want arrows that can kill the mutant in less than 27 hits when they quantum phase through my base wall, after 126 days of crafting stone arrows i should be able to make something better I would think. I want rope to build and for big builds the only way to do so now is to save spam at caves that are so far away from my current base. So this "fix" to stop save spamming from kids who just can't help themselves is forcing those of us who don't use those exploits even if they're available to have to use them if we want to play how we wanted to play. I'll just go back to The Forest until this gets sorted out.

And most of all I want the shift key to turn off auto snapping to things when I build.

[Red]

Originally posted by Lance:

Originally posted by Edy:

3: Arguments against items respawning:

a) git gud

- no comment

b) the game is too easy

- if the items respawn it makes the game easily exploitable and removes the challenge from it

c) it’s unrealistic

- this is a survival game and the items shouldn’t respawn indefinitely as it breaks immersion

d) it was an unintended bug

- and was fixed

e) it’s a survival game

- and therefore it should be challenging and the resources should be scarce. Players should also be encouraged to be able to manage their resources

a) same

b) go play a different game then

c) let's talk about enemy respawn...

d) wrong. see "The Forest"

e) Indeed it is a survival game... and now what?!

D) ever played the forest in multiplayer? everything respawned and it was fine.

The percentage of the player base actually save scumming items would be as minor as the people asking for the change

[SunriseWalker]

Originally posted by Edy:

1: Introduction:

So, update 2 is out and here we are, divided between 2 communities - those who are for items respawning, and those who are against it. As of making this post, all boxes and crates will not respawn their loot neither in single player, nor in multiplayer, which includes ammo for guns, ropes, tapes, batteries, medicine, food and drinks and more. The objects lying around the island should still respawn.

2: Arguments for items respawning:

a) Being able to play the game longer

- with the items no longer respawning in the crates, it’ll be complicated if next to impossible to play the game longer as we will eventually run out of resources

b) Being able to build

- it’s going to become a big inconvenience to run half across the map only to get some ropes for a rope bridge for example. This game is a building game and it should be respected

c) Casual playing

- not everyone who buys the game wants to experience “diehard” survival - some people just want to enjoy the game and build stuff / explore without having to constantly keep in mind that they’ll run out of resources or will struggle to find them

d) Replaying the game and/or keep playing

- currently the game can be finished in one sitting, what’s keeping us, the players, to continue playing after all the caves are explored and the whole story finished? For many it’s the building, role playing, stacking resources, “surviving” winter, etc. - remove that and there’s no reason.

e) no other way

- as of writing this, there’s no other way of getting resources in the game apart from food and the items lying around the island respawn some of which might get removed as well

f) nobody’s forcing you
- people can re-open the boxes if they wish to, and ignore them if they don’t. Players shouldn’t be forced to play the game other players want them to.

3: Arguments against items respawning:

a) git gud

- no comment

b) the game is too easy

- if the items respawn it makes the game easily exploitable and removes the challenge from it

c) it’s unrealistic

- this is a survival game and the items shouldn’t respawn indefinitely as it breaks immersion

d) it was an unintended bug

- and was fixed

e) it’s a survival game

- and therefore it should be challenging and the resources should be scarce. Players should also be encouraged to be able to manage their resources

4: My arguments:

- replayability should be the strive for any developer, and it definitely needs to be part of the game, with the latest update, I can replay the game, but I feel less encouraged to play the game longer
- I don’t like to be forced to play my single player game in a way some other players want me to. Also, items respawning weren’t a game breaking issue like some other bugs are/were that are yet to be addressed
- Sons of the forest isn’t a hardcore survival game like Project Zomboid or Green Hell. Currently there are next to none survival elements in the game.
- guns aren’t the only reason why players liked the items respawning, part of it, but not the only one.
- items respawning may indeed break immersion, but I personally don’t find it that much of an issue
- I agree that it is unrealistic but so are many other things in the game (nobody minds transporting logs over a zip line)

5: Suggestions:

- give us a way of obtaining those items without them respawning in the crates or keep the respawning until you do
- let us craft all those resources from other items in the forest (dead cannibals, wines, etc) and keep them respawning until you do
- make drop-pods or some other lore-friendly feature where respawning isn’t necessary
- give us an option to have not only items but also trees and vegetation respawn

6: Conclusion

In my opinion, removing the items respawning in the current game state was a bad move, especially considering there is no alternative.

I couldn't have said it better!

[BarnacleFilms]

It should be set on a timer automatically, like for instance resources in crates will respawn upon reload only 24 real life hours (or maybe something less like 12) after they were last opened, so if you got on the game the following day you could go around the island again and restock on everything, but it isn't so cheesy that you can just reload in one spot.

They should keep item respawning on every reload as a thing on easy mode, and a custom setting aswell, where you could also set for items to never respawn at all if you were going for a real challenging game.

[Edy]

Originally posted by BarnacleFilms:

It should be set on a timer automatically, like for instance resources in crates will respawn upon reload only 24 real life hours (or maybe something less like 12) after they were last opened, so if you got on the game the following day you could go around the island again and restock on everything, but it isn't so cheesy that you can just reload in one spot.

They should keep item respawning on every reload as a thing on easy mode, and a custom setting aswell, where you could also set for items to never respawn at all if you were going for a real challenging game.

The respawn time depending on the difficulty is a good idea in my opinion. Topped with the option to turn it on/off entirely

[Bashrobe]

Most items like duct tape etc should be obtainable in infinite quantities, but definitely not the old way, by having them respawn in crates when reloading the game, so this is a good change. Gives them more freedom to add one time high loot areas around the map and actually reward exploration rather than mindless save-reload grinding.

And most stuff respawning in crates can still be found in skin pouches, so they can just further tweak those. Opening pouches after winning fights is both more fun and realistic than looting the same box upon reloading.

[the struggler]

Items also respawn indefinitely in TF and everything was fine. The people whining about items respawning probably started with SOTF. I'm ok with catering to them because there are more of them but at least make this an option. Sure they're the type to clear the games asap so resources isn't a problem but a bunch of us also plan to only play on 1 save for hundreds of days. The amount of enemies increase each day, and they want us to have limited resources? LMAO

[TonyPony]

They could tie it to difficulty. On Normal, item containers respawn. On Hard, they don't. Add a slider to Custom.

[Edy]

Originally posted by TonyPony:

They could tie it to difficulty. On Normal, item containers respawn. On Hard, they don't. Add a slider to Custom.

This is what I’d love to see as well, at least for now until they come up with something better.

[Edy]

Originally posted by Bashrobe:

Most items like duct tape etc should be obtainable in infinite quantities, but definitely not the old way, by having them respawn in crates when reloading the game, so this is a good change. Gives them more freedom to add one time high loot areas around the map and actually reward exploration rather than mindless save-reload grinding.

I’d agree that it’s a good idea if we had any alternative at the moment, but we don’t. I honestly wonder how long before someone makes a mod to make them respawn again.

Originally posted by Bashrobe:

And most stuff respawning in crates can still be found in skin pouches, so they can just further tweak those. Opening pouches after winning fights is both more fun and realistic than looting the same box upon reloading.

I agree. Or something even better than that. I’m sure the community could come up with tons of ideas if asked.

[nilfiry]

Confirm for me if it is just crates and cases that don't respawn because as long as items laying around still respawn, then I don't see a problem with the changes.