"Check In" system is annoying (and suggestions)

[Vagrant]

Bit of a ranting thread here. Been playing Breakdown a lot ever since I finished SoD and Lifeline.

Long story short, my current character is tired/hurt and I want to swap to my 2nd badass character. But what's that? He's away from home... Then I use the "Check In" feature, I go get my guy... But what's that? He's inside some lonely house shed that I already explored and fully looted. Why in the ♥♥♥♥ is he out there, putting his life in danger and wasting ressources just to go there?

The next part was hilarious. I have +30 people at my base... Turns out, 3/4 of my people are "away from home". So, I decide to Check In on ALL of them once. Over 15 green dots appeared on my map. After "rescuing" 4 of them, the game crashed. -.-

So wassup with that? Why is my only medical expert in a middle of a crop field? Why is my only car engineer standing in the middle of a parking garage? And why is my 2nd badass character in a lonely house shed I already looted? These guys don't even bring anything back in the long run! For the time they take to be "away from home" and come back, I can find enough supplies to last months. And what do they bring back? oh, you know... stuff...

Suggestion: Why can't we choose who should stay at home and who should go? How about the ability to make some squads and make them raid a place of your choice? If the raid goes well, Leadership XP Bonus and your guys thrust you more. Raid fails, some of your guys can die or even perma-leave your group for your lack of insight and leadership. How about the being able to assign proper house role and permanent residence if needed? Try to add that to SoD2 if possible.

tl:dr: My survivors are dumb stragglers that are "away from home" or "on a mssion" when in fact they don't do anything relevant or bring anything back.

[chon]

As long as the mission that occupies them is available you cannot use them. Dont ignore those missions.

[I2epresent]

Tip: Instead of checking in with survivors, press Q to switch to them. They will be teleported back to your home base immediately, and you'll have control of their avatar. This works for anyone whose status is "Away From Home."

I'm not sure how far you are into Breakdown, but it's a good idea to have more than two fully leveled, go-to survivors.

Ideally, I like to have 2 or 3 fully leveled Reflex/Ninja survivors for fast scavenging and solo stuff, and 2-3 leveled Powerhouse for establishing early-level outposts, infestations and general mop-up work. And if you have people with valuable non-combat skills (Cooking, Fitness Instructor, Mechanic, whatever), it's a good idea to use them occasionally and complete a mission now and then. That keeps their individual attitudes positive, which keeps group morale up, which in turn avoids those annoying "Anger" and "Fear" missions.

[Vagrant]

Originally posted by Sapper:

As long as the mission that occupies them is available you cannot use them. Dont ignore those missions.

I did not have any missions left to do when I checked in on my 15 missing people. This makes no sense.

Originally posted by Atum Hadu:

Tip: Instead of checking in with survivors, press Q to switch to them. They will be teleported back to your home base immediately, and you'll have control of their avatar. This works for anyone whose status is "Away From Home."

No, because I wouldn't have made this thread if I hadn't needed to go searching for my 2nd badass character. I tried to switch to it but the current character says "Not right now" or "Can't do that".

Anyways, even after sleeping on it, I still think my survivors are dumb stragglers that are "away from home" or "on a mssion" when in fact they don't do anything relevant or bring anything back. This game needs squad management and role assignment.

[Les White]

Originally posted by Vagrant:

No, because I wouldn't have made this thread if I hadn't needed to go searching for my 2nd badass character. I tried to switch to it but the current character says "Not right now" or "Can't do that".

It only says that if they're "on a mission." if they are "away from home" they swap back immediately.

[Dr. Alan Statham]

There are mods out there that stop survivors with special skills ( cook, gardener, medic and the like ) from leaving your base

[I2epresent]

Originally posted by Vagrant:

No, because I wouldn't have made this thread if I hadn't needed to go searching for my 2nd badass character. I tried to switch to it but the current character says "Not right now" or "Can't do that".

Anyways, even after sleeping on it, I still think my survivors are dumb stragglers that are "away from home" or "on a mssion" when in fact they don't do anything relevant or bring anything back. This game needs squad management and role assignment.

Yes. You didn't actually read my post, because if you did you would have the solution to your answer.

At any given time, the people away from your base have 1 of 2 possible statuses:

1) Away From Home
2) On A Mission

The VAST MAJORITY of them are going to have "Away From Home." All you have to do is highlight their portrait in the tab window, and PRESS Q, which will teleport that survivor back to your home base immediately and give you control of that survivor. If the person is "On A Mission" then you have to complete the mission or let it expire before you can switch to that survivor again.

You don't have to make people check in, you don't have to go chasing after people. Seriously, read more carefully next time, two of us gave you the answer in this thread and you decided to argue with us instead of just following the simple instructions.

[kopiC]

"Away from home" message is deceptive. All the time those characters really are at home base (I am playing PC version). If they are out, it will be "On a mission" message.

I have yet find a use for "Check in" function. It triggers a random fetch mission where YOU have to travel to random silly spot to escort him home.

"Check in" should be changed to: cancel any mission you have now and return to base. To make it slightly realistic, some mission cannot be cancelled by check-in (trapped and need diversion or rescue, having emotion issues).

Little off topic...everyone knows computer system has processing limitation. You notice Joy-ride events are triggered when you parked too many vehicle in one spot.
I guess its similar for base. Too many characters in homebase causes AI and pathfinding to malfunction. So "Away from home" is a simple way to hide excess characters.

[Novalia]

<I have yet find a use for "Check in" function. It triggers a random fetch mission where YOU have to travel to random silly spot to escort him home.>

here is a use for the "check in" function.. if you want to load your rv with more than the standard number of survivors first tag your five survivors for the rv.. now pick your next favorite survivor and ask him to chek in... go to his location and initiate dialog.. now tell him to "get to the rv"..

[Vagrant]

I know about this glitch and I don't use it. When I check them in, I chose the 1st option in the dialog, then re-open the character select menu and RV them again.

I just need a Tool Expert, a Doc, a good Cook and a fitness guru.

[kopiC]

True, the only use for 'Check-in' is the RV exploit. Being an exploit, there is a high chance it gets patched later. Lolz, Vagrant is already prepared to live without this exploit.

[Vagrant]

Originally posted by jc:

True, the only use for 'Check-in' is the RV exploit. Being an exploit, there is a high chance it gets patched later. Lolz, Vagrant is already prepared to live without this exploit.

Dude, in my 1st Breakdown round, I crafted so many Stims, Painkillers, Silencers and Chem Molotovs I'm ready to survive anything. Only 90 Inf worth melee weapons in my locker. Plenty of guns and ammo. Funnily enough, I still haven't found a 5.56 caliber gun, with over 255 bullets stacked.

When I start a new round, I quickly raid warehouse for materials with Andy Pimms (insta-Ninja perk guy) and call people to join me. After quickly rounding up 10 people+50 materials, I just rush Snyder's and as soon as I build a full infirmary, I can stop worrying about my sick veterans.

Ray Santos is a savior for his Radio Perk, the ability to spawn a car near you. So very helpful. 400 car door kills to unlock him...

Also, I understand your point of view about wanting to "hide" idle NPCs at the home base. It would be kinda bad for FPS having +50 survivors just hanging out.

[kopiC]

Originally posted by Vagrant:

Also, I understand your point of view about wanting to "hide" idle NPCs at the home base. It would be kinda bad for FPS having +50 survivors just hanging out.

Hehehe, lots of optimization issues. Also during horde attacks, there is not enough zombies for everyone X-D.
Sadly its unlikely we get to see this happening. When the base have 5-6 NPCs, I often see 1 of the NPCs loses his/her AI. He will only stand there and stare blindly. Not even reacting to zombie attacks.

Thanks for the Breakdown tips! I feel so silly always rushing to Savini or Kirkman when starting a round.