Feedback for current State of the Game.

[Deathwhisper]

I have once again prescribed a lot of time and "idle time" to write a current feeling about SCUM, its innovations and how it can be played for me in general.

Giving feedback is never easy for me, so I try to keep it neutral. For this I leave my favorite game for a certain time before I look at the whole thing again. That helps me immensely and I would like to share the impressions I have gathered so far. Some points are left out on purpose because they are still under development or not yet implemented, which is why I don't want to make any judgments here.

But I'll start with the overall impression:

General impression:

The spawn in the game world is still something beautiful for me. The huge map and the knowledge that you can reach all these places is always a new invitation to examine everything and every corner again. I like to take my time and just enjoy looking at the world for myself and seeing what small or big details catch the eye everywhere. Freedom is still the be-all and end-all, you can do whatever you want as long as you enjoy it or you can try new things. I have gained many impressions in SCUM and have already taken a lot of experience with me.

For example, I used SCUM for an "indifference" lesson by dramatically increasing the loot amounts. This made it possible for me to sort out more and more unimportant and trivial things from the "Keep" list and thus achieve a significant improvement in everyday burdens. 60% performance rating even with 2 rifles carried is a lot for a girl with strength 1. But also many other lessons I took to heart and wanted to try went along with it.

One of the most pleasant effects was seeing that my RL diet works absolutely perfectly in SCUM! It was an unexpected experience but a very welcome one. My character lacks nothing and the nutritional values are balanced and optimally supplied. So it works really well and apart from a couple of rough edges, which are unimportant, I didn't see any problems here. It's a good lesson to take with you as you engage with it and get more information about what's going on around it.

There is also a deficit that has been bothering me for a long time, and that is the weather. (I'm sorry). Unfortunately, the weather is rather less credible. What I mean here are primarily weather-specific effects such as rain. The drops are too "big" and therefore too clearly visible, they are too bright and do not reflect the strength of the weather event very well. I recently had many moments where the sky kind of reset and then spontaneously changed from nice weather to overcast in one jump. (So it doesn't change naturally, but the sky resets within a second. Here I'm still trying to capture the whole thing with a video in order to fill out a corresponding report. Snow doesn't wet the clothes when it falls from the sky, but it should definitely do it, although not so quickly like rain.

New mechanics

The new cooking turned out very well! It's fun to set up camp both stationary and in the middle of the wilderness or to wait for dinner at the self-built wooden hut. Thanks to the modular design, both can be implemented very nicely and also fairly quickly. A deficit here is, for example, the tent because it requires a flag, which limits or undermines the purpose of the construction. Being able to place the tent freely and without restrictions would be a great help, especially if you are staying in an area for a certain period of time. The materials for a tent are already quite inventory-heavy, but having additional material for a flag is very cumbersome, especially since you cannot get the resources back. If you are then in a remote area without many chances of being able to collect the materials again, you have to visit a town or a country house next to stay there, but you also risk a lot with it.

Modular vehicles are an asset in many respects. I like the models very much and a lot of love went into the vehicles here. They represent luxury in any case and also an expensive one. I often see myself having the vehicles parked instead of actually using them unless it is absolutely necessary. Nevertheless, in my opinion, there is also a problem with consumption here.
While cars still manage to cover a few kilometers with large reserve tanks in the storage space, it is a gas station jump for motorcycles, even with a heavy 10kg spare canister on their backs. The range for motorcycles that don't even have luggage compartments is far too short.

An increase for both vehicle types would make me really happy. I'm not talking about a lot though, especially when it comes to cars. Cars could get around 15-20% (maximum) more fuel space. With that you would be able to cover a good distance in most cases without having already lost half the tank in a sector, especially when it goes uphill. In many moments it was exactly these 15-20% that could have made it possible to reach the next stop. Even if it were only 10% a little more tank really can't hurt either of them. Differences in tank size would also be very welcome for WW and Laika.

Unfortunately, motorcycles are far too weak. You can't push them like a car and the "nudge" unfortunately only works to a limited extent, especially on winding roads or on mountain slopes. The vehicle itself has hardly any range and only very poorly manages to ensure an exploration or a fast sprint because you have to constantly refuel. You can't take an additional inventory if you have to carry 2 additional canisters (or one large one) in a hiking backpack. They are very awkward for long stretches and don't feel right. I don't imagine a tank enlargement with these, but a reduction in consumption would be a significant help and improvement for the vehicle.

Boats perform very well in my opinion. They are good and balanced in terms of performance and consumption. You can achieve something with them even with only half a tank left. Since you can also row with them, they are emergency secured.

In combination with the successful cooking comes the additional new hunting mechanics. Getting used to this new activity revealed many beautiful things in a new way. Not only can you now pursue an active occupation and have something to do, the reward is a full stomach or a joy for the outpost if you make money out of what you find there. Personally, I think it's less of a problem here that you don't encounter wild animals as often (except of course the cheeky wolves or mountain grumpy bear.) I still don't miss the herbivores outdoors. Because sometimes more I hunt just to watch the animal for a while and then move on with unfinished business. It is a nice activity and has also brought a lot when playing with friends because not everyone likes hunting, but was all the more happy about freshly killed game and a sociable round around a campfire. So it is not only an active action but also a good invitation to interact with others, which the participants liked very much. A successful conclusion were the evening rounds around the campfire and a lively exchange about all sorts of things.

In the field of cooking specifically, I'm only now getting to the details. I think the system for cooking is very good. This is due to the creation of the meal as I am very much in favor of adding the individual ingredients and also having optional ways to improve the quality. Cooking takes time, which is more than okay, because during the breaks to prepare the meal, you can not only rest well, but also take care of the equipment or plan routes, etc. That's why tents are also used, because sometimes there's a bigger plan without that you want to establish a direct base, but would like to have a more secure place than a Buried Chest and a Bedroll outdoors.
The inventory also comes to mind here. That's actually something I don't like to talk about, but here I wish that the crafting and the production are similar to cooking. Books with blueprints, especially for very specific objects that are much more tricky, for example. But these are just thoughts about this, I really love to be surprised here! :)

All in all, the game is intense without being intense. There are so many different ways to play and engage in SCUM and it's already a joy. If I then look at the things that are ahead of us, I am all the more happy to throw myself back into the fray to take a close look at new and old things and to pursue my everyday life in SCUM.

[Andi]

Thank you for your feedback and telling us about YOUR pros and cons alike. :)

I agree on the thirst of dirt bikes.
As I rode those things in compatitions irl, I can tell the fuel drain is quite as it is irl.
Those things have tiny tanks, and are thirsty as a sailor after a 9 months treasure hunt for rum! BUT here I'd like to see the modular system being used better.

As you can add bigger fuel tanks irl, it would be great if we also could do this ingame.

It could be the same for boats, as there's also different sized fuel tanks irl as well.

I'd also desperately miss an optional storage for the dirt bikes. Like a handle bar bag the size of a waist bag for instance.
Doesn't need to be huge, just enough space for some food, drink and other necessities like a bedroll on our journeys. ;)

As for the diet I have a question.
How do you keep your carbs up???

I set my char on a strict carbs diet, only add so much proteins to keep it at 50% (to avoid overeating) yet my char is always out of carbs... This can't be quite right imo.

[Luna]

[All I'm discussing here is based on vanilla settings, 'the way the game was designed to be played' sort of deal]

I agree with the cars needing slight more range/fuel ratio, either lower fuel consumption or increase fuel capacity. Higher capacity will increase gas demand while lower consumption decreases it. It'd be a matter of figuring out what's best. I'm split on car modularity and the chosen models of the cars we currently have because they remind me too much of DayZ's cars. I preferred the more unique cars we had before. That said, I will be blunt. I think the cars handle horribly. They are either floaty like driving a stick of butter or just incredibly heavy and stiff. They under-steer or over-steer a lot, you cannot counter steer properly above 60km/h and it makes any small over-steering or under-steering even more difficult to correct. I'm constantly having to stop because the car just won't stop sliding on one direction because of the absurdly limited counter steering since the amount you're allowed to turn the steering wheel is limited based on your speed. It just doesn't feel right.

I disagree on the boats, they are pretty buggy still and they consume FAR too much fuel for their max speed and with no alternative they feel useless for anything other than short range exploration and some RP survival elements like fishing.

I also disagree on cooking. It takes too long and the timers should be in real time not in-game time, let's make things simpler. I don't want to have to constantly calculate how much time I need irl to cook something that takes 200 mins in-game. Which I find FAR too long. If the system could be more active but way shorter in time to cook it would be better imo.

For basic camp and survival gameplay I think we need a few options to set up temp or small scale field camps without needing a flag. Furthermore, things that can be made outside of flag areas should not be included on the flag element cost. Currently all items that can be crafted outside of a flag area will count toward the element capacity.

I would like to see small and medium tents included in the list of non required flag items and also be able to be assembled and disassembled into kits you can fit in your car or an assault/hiking backpack. These should probably be craftables instead of BB elements along with chests.

Additionally in the Base Building category, we need more consistency on pieces. If you mix triangles with square pieces you'll get a LOT Of gaps on the flooring and the roofs don't align properly or phase through. In terms of building cost, since building is based on Engineering, it should be lowered a bit. The upgrading is FAR too costly for the repair upkeep and past Metal you can only get by having Adv Engineering which is already quiet a point investment from a character creation standpoint. The costs are just ridiculously absurd.

On puppets, puppet spawns are really bad. Clearing a town to have them respawn between you and the car out of nowhere is really frustrating. I don't have a solution for this one but I hope there's an alternative. I would love to see a sort of pack mentality horde migration too. Something more challenging to do in single and pve playstyles. Horde style spawns could also help with the way puppets respawn around towns that have been recently cleared. They could spawn outside and wander back in.

On character creation, I don't know if this is a thing that we'll have but slight height adjustment for the characters would be nice. This would probably absolutely break animation mapping though and I know the art team is cold sweating right now on the prospect of morphing a character's height.

Minor gripes I have that I hope are addressed one day soon:

- Two step animation for exiting cars on hitting F. It should be a fluid one motion exit, close door on F and if you hit Shift+F to leave the engine running, then you can leave the door open since obviously the reason to leave the engine running is to be able to enter and go quickly.
- Snapping to ladders bothers me. We have detailed smoking animations but we still snap on to and off ladders, why?
- Hand abrasion rates were lowered but gloves still deteriorate INSANELY fast to the point where it is better to not wear gloves while doing work with your hands.
- I don't like the hairstyle DLC. It should've been divided within the 2 supporter packs or added directly into the vanilla game. Unique character DLCs are fine. But I hate having to pay for the ability to have long hair as a woman in a video game.
- Hats making you bald instead of culling or slightly morphing your hair to fit, some hairstyles obviously would need to be adjusted, another reason why selling DLC hairstyles is just a horrible idea.
- Would be nice to have more scarf options and overbust and underbust corsets that can have shirts under them. Wool vests to go over shirts and long sleeve shirts would be nice. Just more hoodie/sweater slot options in general. Currently the best looking one is the Danny Trejo's top and that's a DLC.
- Temperature variation is too abrupt, there is an area in D0-Keypad 3 on the east shore of the river across the road from the radar array where the temperature drops 5 degrees while going from the road to the shore, it is so abrupt that you get snow and rain simultaneously in a snow capped area. You won't have snow caps on your base near the shore but if you move 10 feet east toward the road you get snow caps and keeping warm/cool there is insanely inconsistent.
- Male character's look horrifying but I saw they're working on it.
- Editing to add this one. Soap from fat. We need Soap from fat and Soap usage for washing clothing is absurd. Are we grinding the soap on clothing or something? That's not how soaps work. You should easily be able to wash all pieces of clothing to clean with one bar of soap.

[Deathwhisper]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Andi:

Thank you for your feedback and telling us about YOUR pros and cons alike. :)

I agree on the thirst of dirt bikes.
As I rode those things in compatitions irl, I can tell the fuel drain is quite as it is irl.
Those things have tiny tanks, and are thirsty as a sailor after a 9 months treasure hunt for rum! BUT here I'd like to see the modular system being used better.

As you can add bigger fuel tanks irl, it would be great if we also could do this ingame.

It could be the same for boats, as there's also different sized fuel tanks irl as well.

I'd also desperately miss an optional storage for the dirt bikes. Like a handle bar bag the size of a waist bag for instance.
Doesn't need to be huge, just enough space for some food, drink and other necessities like a bedroll on our journeys. ;)

As for the diet I have a question.
How do you keep your carbs up???

I set my char on a strict carbs diet, only add so much proteins to keep it at 50% (to avoid overeating) yet my char is always out of carbs... This can't be quite right imo.

Carbohydrates are burned quickly in the body, especially during a lot of activity. However, it is not absolutely necessary to uphold this value. While the micronutrients are always at 50% +-10% (rarely they go down when there has been a prolonged food shortage or great exertion) but mostly I was able to balance them out after a meal or two.

In inventory I usually have 1 can of sardines, 1 can of tuna, 1 meat snack and a can of sweets along with a 0.5l water bottle and a packet of almonds as a supply for the difficult days. They fill up the most important without any problems. I find fruits relatively often in the game world, which then mainly give water reserves and many smaller amounts of nutrients. And basically, that's my diet. Fish-heavy, little meat, lots of fruit, lots of vegetables, no fat-heavy products.

In Regards to the bike: Yes, they burn a lot, but ingame it was mostly only a fuelstation hopper. I mean , its optional sure, but it was just to weak gamewis and made no fun nor did it helped me in any good way. It felt like a Fire and Forget vehicle.

[Mind of A Madman]

They need to do some tweaking with the nutrients. I'm dumping Vitamin D faster than I can take it in.

Hunting is broken to me in my honest opinion. To me this was to mask optimization issues by reducing server lag by removing majority of the active spawning animals on the server unless the player goes through a rigorous/tedious, and currently broken method of hunting and tracking an animal until it spawn. Most of the time the sound is coming from a completely different direction than the tracks is leading you and apparently you only have "x" amount of time to find all the required tracks to get the animal to spawn or it'll "disappear". I have resorted to fishing, taking periodic trips to the fish factory, and just simply buying the meat I need for the dishes I plan to make rather than waste anymore time on "hunting", ak "run around in a circle like an idiot til you dont hear the animal anymore, get pissed and just say screw it and eat an M.R.E."

I feel the cooking rework was necessary but certain things were left/taken out and don't make sense.(ie. removing the goose meat from the Samobar Tavern; removing the ability to make popcorn). What's worse is it's riddled with bugs, from causing the game to force close and get a fatal error as soon as you click to either cook or stop cooking numerous recipes, so to avoid that, I just don't even cook those dishes anyways. Vegetable oil adds WAY too much fat to the recipes making it pointless to even add it unless your goal is to have an overweight slow and soon to be dead prisoner.

The above mentioned bugs with the new rework and the fact they haven't been fixed yet after "x" amount of hotfixes and patches since 0.85 update, echo a lot of similar bugs and issues within this game that have been long present as well as new ones that cause a negative sentiment from many in the player base. It gives off the impression that things are being "half-assed" or the attitude towards these issues are to just brush them under a rug. I've seen the whole "It's going to be corrected with the "_____ Rework" argument on a lot of various issues but it doesn't make sense when the bugs are present in the reworks as well. A bug here and there is expected but when you take all the past and current bugs still present snowballing on top of each other, I feel this is where a lot of the frustration and negative opinions come from the player base.

As much as I love to see new content and things added to the game, I'm a little tired myself of cringing every time a new hotfix or patch comes out. It feels that they create more long standing issues than the things the notes claim to correct. Personally, if they did one solid bug patch update fixing a lot of the little irritating bugs, without creating a bunch of new ones, it would probably generate some solid feedback from players. You know, fix the disappearing clips/mags when you reload, the ammo glitch, the boat sound glitch, the new cooking rework glitches, etc. THAT is what we need right now more than anything. Oh and the planes.



and rafts.

[Siamese]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Mind of A Madman:

They need to do some tweaking with the nutrients. I'm dumping Vitamin D faster than I can take it in.

Hunting is broken to me in my honest opinion. To me this was to mask optimization issues by reducing server lag by removing majority of the active spawning animals on the server unless the player goes through a rigorous/tedious, and currently broken method of hunting and tracking an animal until it spawn. Most of the time the sound is coming from a completely different direction than the tracks is leading you and apparently you only have "x" amount of time to find all the required tracks to get the animal to spawn or it'll "disappear". I have resorted to fishing, taking periodic trips to the fish factory, and just simply buying the meat I need for the dishes I plan to make rather than waste anymore time on "hunting", ak "run around in a circle like an idiot til you dont hear the animal anymore, get pissed and just say screw it and eat an M.R.E."

I feel the cooking rework was necessary but certain things were left/taken out and don't make sense.(ie. removing the goose meat from the Samobar Tavern; removing the ability to make popcorn). What's worse is it's riddled with bugs, from causing the game to force close and get a fatal error as soon as you click to either cook or stop cooking numerous recipes, so to avoid that, I just don't even cook those dishes anyways. Vegetable oil adds WAY too much fat to the recipes making it pointless to even add it unless your goal is to have an overweight slow and soon to be dead prisoner.

The above mentioned bugs with the new rework and the fact they haven't been fixed yet after "x" amount of hotfixes and patches since 0.85 update, echo a lot of similar bugs and issues within this game that have been long present as well as new ones that cause a negative sentiment from many in the player base. It gives off the impression that things are being "half-assed" or the attitude towards these issues are to just brush them under a rug. I've seen the whole "It's going to be corrected with the "_____ Rework" argument on a lot of various issues but it doesn't make sense when the bugs are present in the reworks as well. A bug here and there is expected but when you take all the past and current bugs still present snowballing on top of each other, I feel this is where a lot of the frustration and negative opinions come from the player base.

As much as I love to see new content and things added to the game, I'm a little tired myself of cringing every time a new hotfix or patch comes out. It feels that they create more long standing issues than the things the notes claim to correct. Personally, if they did one solid bug patch update fixing a lot of the little irritating bugs, without creating a bunch of new ones, it would probably generate some solid feedback from players. You know, fix the disappearing clips/mags when you reload, the ammo glitch, the boat sound glitch, the new cooking rework glitches, etc. THAT is what we need right now more than anything. Oh and the planes.



and rafts.

HI there, Just your friendly "welcome to EA" troll passing through the thread....yeah, feels good.

[johnthepatriot]

Good feedback :) Can't say I disagree on any single point. My 0.02$...

I miss hair growing over time. It was always a badge of honor to have long hair... it meant you hadn't been mercked in a long time. Instead of needing a few tens of thousands of $ to get a ponytail, I'd love to see some cosmetic stuff like scrunchies so that pony and pigtails are possible without surgery. Hats with hair also need some love, but that's pretty common among simulation games... it ain't easy to code that kind of thing and make it look decent.

The debate over construction cost versus raiding cost notwithstanding, I really like the modular base building. It offers a dimension of creativity to SCUM. Good for solo play, small personal server, or large and active squad play.

I have not had much trouble with fuel, but I tend to carry at least 2 large cans in a backpack in the trunk. I haven't bothered with motorcycles or bicycles. I miss the older vehicles like the pickup and police car, but I TOTALLY dig the new vehicle functionality.

@Luna is on to something with the soap. I'd like to also add that personal grooming should be a thing. Running around for weeks without bathing should complement the new infection rules. Toss in some minor (and major) illnesses like cold/pneumonia and scurvy and you have a *more* accurate simulation. I'd love to see some dirt overlays for player textures as well, so if I merc a dozen puppets or spend a week in the forest I'm not still pristine clean.

[Deathwhisper]

Now comes part 2

Medical:

Something in the medical field often occupied and even bothered me while playing. C1 wound and the Emergency Bandage. Currently EB and Homemade Disinfected Rags are tied, but they shouldn't be. With Lvl 1 in medicine you can take care of a C1 wound in the same way. An EB (emergency bandage) should be able to completely cover a C1 even as a beginner. These are not common drops and act more like a T1 item while the self-made ones act like a T0. This was often annoying because it made the EB rather unnecessary because it was much easier and cheaper to create bandages yourself.
Here I would wish (also from many field experiences out with the simple first aid kit bandages) that they can easily secure and cover a minor wound.

Personally, I would be happy about a few field healing methods. Chamomile/rosehip tea as a stomach calmer if you have eaten something bad. Chamomile as a calming and helpful medium in general. So homeopathy in general. With the many dangers on the island and the various problems with which one has to struggle to survive, it would be a great enrichment here with the appropriate survival skill in combination with medicinal products to produce something useful from plants.

base building:

I had and still have a lot of fun tinkering with all sorts of elements and components, constructions from small field huts to massive fortifications and captive cities.
It's a complex job if this is done without "godmode", especially if you then need heavy ingredients for upgrades, however, the more players you have, the more impressive you can build here.
You can take a lot into account when building, which I personally think is very good and I'm looking forward to further components and things in this area that we might not even be able to guess at. :)

Weapons:

Can not complain. I like the variations and availability and look forward to more items in this area, but tend to give this area less importance and more nostalgic.

an exception, however, is the medieval sword in the melee area. In terms of weight, this is far too heavy. Two-handed swords of the Middle Ages were already handled as such from 1.6KG, while the in-game sword with over 2kg is even heavier than some axes. They are war-made weapons with a lot of field experience in their creation and the sword should be significantly stronger and more resilient in its classification and yet lighter than it is now. Unfortunately, it doesn't represent its class very well, which I personally don't think is good and I would be very happy at least about a 1.5kg weight change, because 2.3 is just way too much.
Overall, in a week-long test of the sword in various situations, it proved to be a real burden and obstacle to being a truly reliable choice for close-quarters combat, especially given the weapon's weight which is also not reflected in the damage.
In summary, the sword is too heavy, not strong enough, not durable enough to really be a long-term sidearm and I very often had the need to quickly switch to another weapon.

Overall, though, the game is in a well-balanced state. The beginnings are bumpy for new players as is to be expected in a survival game, but there is a lot to learn and experience which continues to be the most enjoyable. So I often see and experience how veterans learn something new every now and then, even after many hundreds of hours of play, and the exchange around campfires is always pleasant.

I played it in a pve with consequences. That basically means PvP XD. Only with a better name. Actions have consequences, but we don't shoot everything that moves and prefer interaction. We also had "bullys" on the server, knew the person RL very well and it was always just amusing what all that came about as a result. So the said lout stole all the tires from the 2 cars one ominous night, disguised himself later as a traveling dealer after a facial operation (yes, he sold the tires) and offered us to "get" new tires for a certain sum. No sooner said than done, since the others had other things to do, we left this task to the traveling dealer and he of course got the tires for three times the purchase price. We knew it was him, but just had too much fun to continue. There were also fights and so much more.

So even after thousands of hours of playing in SCUM, thanks to the developers and their great work! :)

[shadeslay]

I too was a little disappointed when I found out you couldn't pitch a tent anywhere without a flag.. I don't really disagree with much else said either.

My current issue is the late stage single player game there is no reason to go to a bunker or take any real risks, because you can find an abundance of what you need from easy to raid surface poi's endlessly. We could really use something to encourage us players to explore more, instead of looting the same poi's. I think a lot of us envision a world of diminishing resources when we think of survival. Because as people begin looting, resources would become harder to come by.

A loot only option might be best for single player but that might be a little difficult to implement and with no real benefit to servers. But a script or something to diminish loot overtime could accomplish nearly the same thing and would be far easier.

example; after 3-7 game days loot is reduced by 25%, 3-7 days later another 25% reduction, etc. Emulating a real life scenario where people are looting and resources are becoming harder and harder to come by. It could even be a fun pvp setting as it would force players towards those locations that still have loot and possibly giving more strategy to the game.

If you were to add in an option to sleep or suffer sleep deprivation with a sprinkle of content and I think you have a solid long term single player game experience for 200+ hours and beyond. That encourages you to explore all the poi's and to learn skills to try and compensate for the lack of supplies in later game.