Devs: Would you consider adding Scuba Diving Gear to the game in A18?

[BodyBagger]

[Please read entire post before prematurely rejecting the idea; there's a lot here to digest]

Since I used to scuba dive in real life, I may be a bit biased when I say adding scuba gear to the game would be a fun addition, if done properly. It would add an entirely new dimension to exploration for mid to late game (late game being a time when new experiences are needed to keep the game going). Exploration would no longer be limited to the land. There's plenty of water (lakes) on most maps (once A17 catches up to A16 maps), so why not use lakes as something to explore & loot from instead of just a barrier or mere decoration?

In this post I cover the following: 1) looting possibilities, 2) special underwater gear, 3) mods & recipes, and 4) medical emergencies you may experience while at depth. I'll try to keep this brief, but here are a few quick ideas:

1) Looting Possibilities

A) Small towns—or even large cities—are completely submerged underwater in a large lake, and only accessible with scuba gear. The scenario: A large dam broke upriver since there were no humans to maintain it, and the city was built in a small valley below sea level downstream. This underwater city may have special loot not found anywhere else in the game. The city could be completely hidden underwater, or have the top of a skyscraper just breaking the surface of the water to indicate its location. Careful, because zeds still walk the streets.

B) Sunken military ships and submarines also litter the lake's bottom with large caches of ammo, weapons, food, etc. But, you'll need special gear to get inside in order to loot (see below). And remember, the dead crew is still inside the vessel.

C) Complex underwater cave systems: Rare treasure chests filled with gold and silver is hidden or buried inside these cave systems. Find it and you may be rich enough to buy anything you want at Trader Joels. But, venture too deep into a cave and you could get lost in it's many meandering passageways, then run out of air and die. Small air pockets may exist, but only offer a temporary reprieve--limited air. Cave walls would be indestructible, like the Trader blocks (no easy way out if you get into trouble). Special gear is (again) necessary for exploration!

NOTE: Zeds would, of course, be protecting loot in all of these scenarios. A special "bloated" zombie could be added to the current gang.

2) Specialized Gear (made w/mods & special recipes, or found in POI's)

A) Underwater metal detectors: Used to find gold & silver or even ammunition buried in the silt at the bottom of the lake near shipwrecks or in and around buildings that are submerged (or in caves).

B) Underwater Cutting Torches: Used to cut through the hulls of ships, or cut into safes more quickly than a pickax can... Use it wisely because you only have a limited amount of fuel you can carry with you. Mods are available to make it more effective (cut faster).

C) Dive wheels: These devices resemble a fishing rod and reel; however, instead of transparent fishing line the dive wheel consist of a highly visible, but thin twine (rope). Before entering a cave, the diver ties off one end of the twine outside of the cave and unwinds the twine as he/she travels through the cave system—providing a clear and visible path out of the cave so the diver doesn't get lost--a must-have item. If you're a risk taker, you may enter a cave without one of these devices... but you may never come out alive since underwater passages do not show up on your map & you cannot mark your map while inside. Only the cave entrance shows up on Sonar (see below), and is also visible to the naked eye.

D) Lift Bags: Divers can't lift lots of heavy metals and gear out of the water on their own, so they use lift bags. Basically, anything found on the bottom will be put inside of a bag that has what looks like a parachute or balloon attached to it. The diver uses his/her regulator to release air into the attached "parachute" to fill it with air from the scuba/air tanks. Once filled with enough air, the lift bag floats to the surface with the loot in the bag. But be careful! If you don't have much air left in your tanks at the end of a dive, you could drown before you make it to the surface. So... plan your dive, and dive your plan!

E) Dive Lights: These lights attach to face masks to allow hands free operations; lights have two settings: broad beam to illuminate a large area (used with good visibility conditions), and a narrow beam (used when visibility is poor, such as when silt particles are kicked up from the bottom creating a large cloud of underwater dust). These lights get very hot and are cooled by the surrounding water; they cannot be used on land, otherwise they will burst from the heat. Note, the batteries only last for a short period of time before they have to be recharched by a generator/solar panel/battery bank. You don't want to get caught deep inside a cave when your batteries go dead and you're surrounded by nothing but darkness (not even adjusting your Gamma settings can save you). Always bring a backup light in case your primary light goes dead.

F) Dive Boat: A small boat with an engine so you don't have to swim long distances on the surface... Additional storage for loot is available (50 slots). Can carry up to 4 people (with mods). The dive boat could double as a fishing vessel if fishing was added to the game, as well (just another thought since in A17 we now have recipes that require fish--fish tacos). A sonar mod is available to help find underwater cities, sunken ships, cave entrances, etc. and to provide depth information. An anchor mod is used to keep the boat from drifting (or keep someone onboard during the dive). The boat would also need a trailer so it could be towed to the water by the 4x4 or motorcycle.

G) Dive Shop: A new POI where most of the above items could be looted, along with the standard dive gear: air tanks, mask, fins, snorkel, etc. The pawn shop would be another location where dive gear could be found, along w/random containers. An air compressor would need to be added to the game (like the tablesaw was, recently) so you could refill your air tanks. Possible POI names: Sharky's or Sharky's Diving Den, The Aquatic Emporium, Water Gear Inc., The Shoreline's Edge, Wet & Wild (place this POI next to the strip club, and have the naked strippers work there as employees), Depth Dunkers, Water Explorations, Hydro Sports, or simply The Dive Shop. Ok, one more: Joel's Wet Wonders. :)

I have more ideas here, but this is enough to get started... and, I hope code can be written to perform the above mentioned tasks. Can you pull this one off TFP?

3) Mods & Recipes

A) Re-breather: This equipment would scrub CO2 when the diver exhales and recycle the expelled air, allowing the diver to stay underwater for longer periods of time. Attaches to scuba tanks, but adds to encumbrance. Better use this mod if you plan to enter a cave system.

B) Advanced Fins: Larger fins with special grooves that allow divers to propel themselves faster through the water (2 additional levels of speed).

C) Additional Gear/Thicker Wet Suit: Transform cloth clothing (shirts, pants, hood, gloves, and boots) into neoprene diving gear with a "special recipe" using oil, glue, and acid which will provide greater warmth underwater. Also, upgrade a finished 1/8 inch thick neoprene wetsuit (shirt & pants combine into one piece during the recipe process) into a 1/4 inch wetsuit with a mod, keeping the diver warmer for longer periods of time underwater.

D) Larger Air Tanks & Special Gases: Makes a longer dive profile possible, like the re-breather... but, causes a greater degree of encumbrance.

E) Spare Air: A mod that changes an ordinary, empty food can into an emergency air source. When finished, the spare air cylinder contains approximately 1 to 2 minutes of extra air for use in emergency situations—such as when your main air tanks run out of air in a cave system. Carried in your backpack or toolbelt. Can be refilled for repeated use like the primary air tanks.

Many more mods are possible, but I don't want to make this post too long... and I'd like to hear ideas from you as well.

4) Physical/Medical Effects You May Suffer From

A) Nitrogen Narcosis: If you dive too deep for too long, you may suffer from this malady. Basically, you will become disoriented and feel like you're drunk causing you to make poor decisions at depth that could cost you your life. A special drug could be developed in the game that may prevent this from happening, or at least lessen the possibility (an "N2" injector).

B) The Bends: Shoot to the surface too quickly and nitrogen bubbles could form in your bloodstream. You're better off to do a safety stop at 15 to 20 feet to off gas the nitrogen for a short period of time before surfacing. Otherwise, you may not be able to move. A "nitrogen dissipator" drug could be used to speed the process.

C) Panic Attacks: You may feel claustraphobic in tight areas (or in total darkness) while underwater. This will cause you to hyperventilate and use up your air much more quickly than normal. Depending on how much air you have in your tanks, you could drown. Take a small dose of a "relaxant" to calm down; but don't take too much, otherwise you could lose your decision-making ability and drown anyway.

D) Hypothermia: You lose body heat much more quickly underwater. Make sure you have the right equipment to stay warm, and don't do extremely long dives. Get too cold and your body might just shut down in the middle of a zed attack.


Do you have any ideas to make the dive gear or underwater exploration more interesting? This concept could still use some Exotic Weapons. :) Help bring this game to the next
level...

Thanks for your input!

[vgifford]

Someone had modded a "re-breather" for either Alpha 15 or 16. Maybe it could be translated?

[DominantEye]

This is a well thought out suggestion. I think it'd be a good addition to the game.

Have you posted on the official forums? There's a much better chance the devs will see it there.

[Highlander]

Or just play subnautica and all you scuba dreams will be fulfillled minus the zombies but seriously this is a great idea only thing we wont see it in our lifetime

[FreedomTrucker]

This sounds awesome. It's like a whole new game in itself. I can imagine it might be pretty cool to build bases underwater as well. It would be interesting to also have a few indigenous creatures that could be a source of food and danger. I wonder if this could be modded without too much trouble.

[liquidsarcasm]

If hostiles would be added to such an underwater poi, you might as well add a harpoon gun to the list of possible equipment.

Also, explosions would benefit from the surrounding water pressure. This would probably reduce their blast radius but drastically increase their entity and block damage. Perhaps we could waterproof some explosives or pipe bombs with scrap plastic and fit them with mechanical/electrical parts to act as a detonator, resulting in something that could be used to blast down underwater vault doors.

[iblis.drax]

A nice post, well done. I personally would just be happy with a simple boat first, which won't happen till they rework the water physics. So we wait.

[Highlander]

Publicado originalmente por iblis.drax:

A nice post, well done. I personally would just be happy with a simple boat first, which won't happen till they rework the water physics. So we wait.

And with that boat add fishing

[DR.Pepper]

would be cool looking for sunk military ships or subs and fighting zombies in them for rare loot that cant be obtained elsewhere

[BodyBagger]

Publicado originalmente por vgifford:

Someone had modded a "re-breather" for either Alpha 15 or 16. Maybe it could be translated?

Looks like someone already got the jump on some of this. Do you have any idea who has the re-breather mod.

[BodyBagger]

Publicado originalmente por DominantEye:

This is a well thought out suggestion. I think it'd be a good addition to the game.

Have you posted on the official forums? There's a much better chance the devs will see it there.

Dominant,

Yes, I posted it both in the Steam forum and on the official forum. The one person from The Fun Pimps (TFP) who responded didn't show a lot of enthusiasm; however, based on his response I don't think he read the entire post. Moreover, I think TFP are probably burned out right now and not open to new ideas: They just spent the last year or two diligently working on Alpha 17, which was not welcomed with open arms from the community. They're probably feeling a bit under attack right now.

However, I do have to say they do their best in trying to make the community happy: Even after hundreds of people left negative reviews on Steam once Alpha 17 released, they immediately started working with the community to change the game into what people were requesting—which does show character. Many developers would simply ignore the community and move on.

If you like the idea of scuba diving and underwater looting, the best thing to do is leave a response here in the Steam forum—but also leave the same response on the official forum at 7daystodie.com. I know it will take a few more minutes of your time, but the devs are more likely to see the positive responses for this idea on their website. It's a simple matter of copy and paste. The post you see here is exactly the same on the official web site, including the title. So all you have to do is search for the title and leave your response.

So far everyone seems to like the idea. With enough time and more positive responses, perhaps The Fun Pimps would be willing to implement it into the game. Also, ask the people you play with to respond as well. The more people we have who support this idea, the more likely we are to see it in the game.

Thanks for your help! Hope to see you in the game sometime.

[BodyBagger]

Publicado originalmente por liquidsarcasm:

If hostiles would be added to such an underwater poi, you might as well add a harpoon gun to the list of possible equipment.

Also, explosions would benefit from the surrounding water pressure. This would probably reduce their blast radius but drastically increase their entity and block damage. Perhaps we could waterproof some explosives or pipe bombs with scrap plastic and fit them with mechanical/electrical parts to act as a detonator, resulting in something that could be used to blast down underwater vault doors.

Yes, underwater depth charges would be awesome to blow out the hulls of ships to get inside to scoop the loot (or vault doors like you mentioned). Could be used on safes too! This would be the "loud" method, which would surely wake all of the sleeping Z's inside. The cutting torch (mentioned in the original post) could be the "quiet" method. I really like this idea!

And a harpoon gun with an optional attached rope (say 10 feet) so you could yank it out of the Zed you just shot so you could quickly reload it would be a nice addition as well...

Thanks for your ideas! Keep em coming...

[BodyBagger]

Publicado originalmente por AbleCableAl:

This sounds awesome. It's like a whole new game in itself. I can imagine it might be pretty cool to build bases underwater as well. It would be interesting to also have a few indigenous creatures that could be a source of food and danger. I wonder if this could be modded without too much trouble.

Your post just gave me another idea: If a pump was added to the game, we could patch the holes in the sunken submarines, clear them of zeds, then pump all of the water out and pressurize it to use as an underwater base.

And yes, it would add an entirely new dimension to the game, and character specialization (which is what TFP are striving for in A17).

What kind of creatures were you thinking of when you used the word "danger?" They would have to be freshwater creatures since the diving would take place in lakes. Can you get back to me on this?

[Wizard Jim]

While cool it sounds like the pimps have their hands more than full already...and this would take some work.

[Highlander]

This is all great but they still need to add the bandits to the game lets not overwhelm TFP brain to much

[D[n]A]

Publicado originalmente por DominantEye:

This is a well thought out suggestion. I think it'd be a good addition to the game.

Yeah indeed i couldn't say it better my self - Nice too see well thought out suggestions. GG