Why were dead ends even created in the first place? Game Design question.

[Takalol]

So... I was really close to 20 hours, but still a bit confused about how routing works since it's not that clear how anything works and stuff is not really explained. I prefer staying far from guides and other peoples gameplays for games like this one and I could figure pretty much most of the most imprtant stuff, or so I thought.

I got the level 2 antenna and went for a 2 spots route, but I didn't even know that a thing like "no gates spawn in this place" existed, I spent a good portion of 19 hours always doing the same stuff and ending the same way, teleporting back, I didn't even think about why you can't drive back, but I didn't care, I could always teleport back anyway.

Now I went for a run into later areas, got basically all energy orbs and a lot of useful stuff all the way.

Only to end on a map that was "Dead end", I needed to die? Why did I need to die and lose my stuff?
I lost 2 all-terrain wheels, that I could've used to just drive back lmao, why was this even implemented in the first place? Who even thought this was close to being a good idea?
After this fail I went to the map to see where I missed, and it was a "No stable exits" text. I didn't even know what that meant, and I'm am baffled at why would the game let me spend 50 minutes to die for free, lose my ♥♥♥♥ and say "well, too bad you lost your stuff"

If that happened in any other roguelite, I wouldn't enjoy that roguelite, I don't like losing all my stuff + extra stuff you take for granted that you don't lose easily, just because of a unexplained bit of text, 3 words. "No stable exits", this should be a warning message at least.

These dead ends may make some sense in the game lore and narrative, but game design wise, this is ♥♥♥♥, I just died after a 1 hour run and it wasn't even because of anomalies and stuff, it was because I clicked on the menu to die. And I lost a whole lot of ♥♥♥♥ because of it.

[Aesyle]

You do realize that from Settings menu, you can define if you: loose all collected stuff, loose some collected stuff or keep all collected stuff in an event run happens to fail (either you abandon it or you die), right?

[lucyrocketdog]

I was confused by the dead ends as well. I have it set so I don't lose all my stuff when I die, so I thought I'd "test" the dead end location to see what it was all about. Yep...it's a dead end alright... like the OP, I'm not sure why it's in the game though.

[LightManMage]

Basically the OP is wondering like the rest of us is, why are we even allowed to choose a Dead End as a travel option?

Right now it looks like it's only for people who want to go to a dead end location to loot it and use the 'keep stuff on death' option I guess if Dead Ends are maybe easy places to farm certain things? Assuming that's even reasonable at all, feels like weird thing to do though.

[Kritz]

It's only a dead end if it's not your planned destination. Based on the first missions of the game I just assumed you're supposed to plan your destination, and then take any route to that destination (no going back allowed).
I actually like the game for making you experiment and learn some things the hard way.

[Aesyle]

Most anomalies either hurt or outright kill you. You could look the Dead End as junction wide anomaly, where it is very bad idea to drive into that junction. Same can be said about those junctions that have active storm in them (unstable junctions). You still can drive into the junction, but it being unstable will rip your car apart before you can make it far.
Might as well ask why player can drive into unstable junction, since it will be death sentence.

[Takalol]

ohh I kinda like driving through the unstable junctions tho, seeing the chaos ensue and my car flying around, getting to the end with most stuff on the red.
Now I really don't see why the dead end exists, and since it exists, why there's no tutorial or warnings about it

[Takalol]

Even the sentencing "No stable exits" would kinda mean that there would be "Unstable exits" since it's kinda the way the game phrases the stable/unstable energy

[Kritz]

+1 on unstable junctions lol. last one left me almost all red with maybe 15% fuel. 10/10 would ride again
i'm confused by the dead end issue tho ngl. i'm 16 hours in, maybe something i did hit yet? i'm gonna dip out before i hit a spoiler

[Aesyle]

Main point of Dead End is that when planning your route, you avoid that junction and are forced to pick another route. Else-ways it would be way too easy if every junction you visit has an exit, either by teleporting out or driving into next gate (or both).

As of tutorial, not everything must be spoon feed to the player. Same is with anomalies, game will not tell you what the anomaly does before you scan it. And even when you've scanned it, you still may not understand what that anomaly exactly does, other than finding out the hard way. Same goes to the junction conditions (e.g deep fog, battery drain etc).

[Stel346]

Dead ends are zones you have stabilised, but haven't connected up to other zones yet. They connect to zones you haven't yet visited. The warning is intended to make sure you know not to plan a route to that location, because there is no way out. Once you've connected them up though, they are no longer dead ends. sometimes it's not obvious how to connect them up, but if you keep visiting and stabilising zones with a "?" near them, it will happen.

[ShockedHearts]

im 20 hours in and have yet to find a dead end.

[Illusia]

The game doesn't explain the route planner at all very well. It all makes sense though. Once you figure out that you can't exit on every node, suddenly, it all clicks into place.

However, some 'dead end' nodes might have those stabilization towers you complete in one of the missions semi early on in game. You can ALWAYS use those to go back to the garage. I don't think the game includes them in its analysis on if you can exit a zone.
Although, I'm not sure if those are random or not, I don't think so. Frankly the entire structure of the game's randomization confuses me as some regions are definitely random and scrambled, and other are predictable... which is never elaborated on really, I know the perpetually stable modifier but far as I can tell it comes and goes unless its the current story mission.

[Stel346]

Originally posted by ShockedHearts:

im 20 hours in and have yet to find a dead end.

It sort of depends on how you play. If you head out in a specific direction and head north, and just keep pushing north then it's likely this will happen. Think of it like a real map - not all zones are going to keep heading north to south in a straight line. If you haven't stabilised the zones to the left or right of that zone and there's no way forward then boom: dead end. The trick is to also work from west to east as well, stabilise zones around the other zones leading further in. That way, you have multiple routes deeper into the zone. You can also find highways that act as shortcuts easier that way. It mentions them in the loading screens.

The only way to prevent this would be if they just made the map a simple straight line, and that would be a pretty boring change imo.

[Takalol]

I don't even know what to say about the guy defending dead ends.
I got out of the dead end worse than when I got in, I lost gear and car parts + loot
why would anyone do this? who thought this is a good idea? I spent 50 minutes to not only lose my loot, but lose the crafted stuff too, and what made me lose the loot was the text:
"No Stable exits"

They explained a lot of ♥♥♥♥, usually the most important, and I like figuring out stuff by myself, it's neat to know how close you can get to tourists, how you can throw flares at some anomalies, what's dangerous or not, by rewarding or damaging me as needed.
Now making me lose all my ♥♥♥♥ in a 50 minute run because of 3 words is not on the "NoT EvErYtHinG NeEdS tO bE SpOoNfEd ToOh ThE PlayEr" usual thing. If it's THAT important, then it needs to be spoonfed.

[ShockedHearts]

Originally posted by Stel346:

Originally posted by ShockedHearts:

im 20 hours in and have yet to find a dead end.

It sort of depends on how you play. If you head out in a specific direction and head north, and just keep pushing north then it's likely this will happen. Think of it like a real map - not all zones are going to keep heading north to south in a straight line. If you haven't stabilised the zones to the left or right of that zone and there's no way forward then boom: dead end. The trick is to also work from west to east as well, stabilise zones around the other zones leading further in. That way, you have multiple routes deeper into the zone. You can also find highways that act as shortcuts easier that way. It mentions them in the loading screens.

The only way to prevent this would be if they just made the map a simple straight line, and that would be a pretty boring change imo.

yeah my map is a sprawling web of a ton of junctions that all connect to one another.