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I bought this game seeing the metabolism system and seeing how it works.
I was interested in the system of skills that are missing in most of the so-called survival games.
With such a metabolic system - I thought - it would be something more than just a pointless shooting game like many others.
Unfortunately. It seems that the only thing left is the old "player kills player because there is nothing else to do".
A inflexible cooking system, a pot that cannot be used on a campfire, unless you have a grill in spare backpack in your hand. No diseases. Rain or snowstorm don't matter, and so on.
A system of skills that only allow you to do a few extra things, but have no real meaning on anything.
I seen players on YT who are jumping, running and opening locks in the cold, in the dark, hungry and thirsty... Really?
Where is this game going?
And why... rly why... every update ending in disaster?
Honestly it just sounds like burnout to me you are experiencing and survival games are well known for this. Try a break and see how you feel when you return
My other ID (which I cannot use to post on forums due to a ban) started playing this game in its launch year, about three years ago. I began renting a server and offered free services to my friends and TikTok followers. Despite having three characters with full skills (8-5-5-5), I'm still passionately engaged with this game. However, since its early version, possibly 0.5, I've treated it as the ultimate survival game: facing hunger, thirst, zombies, and other threats. With the game's evolution, including vehicles, an expanded weapons system, and more convenience items, things became easier. The joy of fishing and anticipation for the planting system faded as firepower increased and resources became easily accessible. The game gradually lost the urgency of survival, leaving players directionless after logging in. Initially, I thought it was just me, but after losing touch with many in my server and group, I realized most lose interest once they have enough resources. With no bosses or survival challenges left, what remains? The game becomes monotonous when everything can be found anywhere, not just in specific areas, leading to a sense of boredom.
I've raised numerous bugs, but many remain unaddressed. My concern is the loss of core survival elements: "food," "water," "shelter." The struggle for resources, fuel, and transitioning from mere survival to living is vital. We build, fish, farm, hunt, explore, but with ample food and easy access to resources, these activities lost purpose. I thought it was just me, but realized most players lose interest once equipped with abundant supplies. There's no boss to challenge, no survival to test. Even cooking becomes pointless when raw food and instant meals suffice. On my server, I made fast food "extremely rare," yet players still rely on raw fish, potatoes, and corn – easy and natural. I made hunting and farming server events, but it's laughable as survival isn't tied to wealth. Everything in the game is too easily accessible. I yearn for the game to return to its survival roots, as additional features without core essence become meaningless.
And of course I’m talking about the official settings, for some reason they are considered hardcore compared to most servers. On other servers it’s often a pony world...
Only the difficulty of the game will make people play more...
p.s. The revival in the sector must be cancelled.
The data disagree. Refrain from pulling statements out of thin air.
- "In the later stages of version 0.9, I almost shut down all food drops but kept the outdoor traders. Ridiculously, apart from buying MREs in trading areas, players chose "infinite fishing" to satisfy their hunger."
You wonder why this is? Why players chose the easy way to satisfy their hunger? Perhaps, players do not share the same vision as you?
This is a game. People have lives outside of the game. People do not enjoy spending hours of grinding for the sake of 'in reality' as you state; we already have many such grindy games out there.. On top of that, you do not acknowledge the PvP side of SCUM at all. SCUM is a not a PvE game, it's a PvPvE game.
- "abundant supplies"
What abundant supplies? Have you tried fixing up a car? Have you tried building a nice base? They already take more than enough time.
- "With no bosses or survival challenges left, what remains?"
Go raid bases. Defend your base. Go PvP. Participate in server events. Go make friends and interact w/ people. Go create creative, cool bases. Decorate them (though we need more items for that which are upcoming I suppose). Do abandoned bunkers and killboxes. Go level up your skills. Do whatever. These already take more than enough time to do for someone with a life who isn't playing a game 12 hours a day.
What you want is a pure survival, singleplayer, PvE only, grindfest game. This is not what SCUM is.
However, in normal times, a high metabolism isn't enjoyable, not because there's no food, but because we need to eat constantly. In extreme survival environments, constant eating and the desire for food due to lack are two different concepts.
Let's hypothesize: stranded on an unknown island or in a forest, could you really survive? What's the source of the crisis? Is it because of constant hunger needing continuous eating, or because there's "nothing to eat at all"? After getting prey, especially large ones like bears, skinning, dividing, and cooking could take a whole day! Even a skilled worker needs several hours to half a day to butcher a cow by hand, even with professional tools.
Then, consider poisonous insects, snakes, unclean water sources, and keeping warm at night, which is why I say survival elements have been diluted in this game. There are no diseases, keeping warm at night is easy, any water source can be drunk from, and there are no threats from nature. Regardless of how excellent the systems are made later – hunting, farming, fishing, cooking, firearms, ammunition, and scenes – they can't make up for the basic issue of survival. All resources and systems should revolve around survival, not combat, or looting. If the meaning changes, then what about combat, looting, or even war games? Whether it's fast-paced gun battles or slow-paced Tarkov, confrontational CSGO, and so on, many games will have their focuses, maybe it's gunfights, maybe it's war, maybe it's FPS confrontation, but they are not SCUM, right? The original intention of SCUM is survival, if you've played versions 0.5---0.7.
If you started playing the game from 2018-2019, you'll understand what I mean. From 2018 to now, there have been numerous updates to the vehicle system, weapon system, new fishing system, planting system, hunting system, including the new cooking system, and the prototype of the electrical system, all moving towards perfection and excellence. But the crux of the problem is, years ago, our desire for SCUM was a "realistic, diverse, most detailed metabolism mechanism wilderness survival game." However, now the game's development, most systems are deviating. Metabolism becomes meaningless, vitamins become meaningless, heart rate and blood pressure become meaningless, and all the metabolic details down to the number of teeth seem superfluous, even removing this system feels unproblematic!
Who really worries about vitamin deficiency? Who has encountered shock or disease due to a high heart rate? Excessive fat intake causing high blood pressure? None. When we run out of stamina, the heart rate gets very fast, but so what? Just need to recover. The key factors of eating and drinking have become a drag, and even removing the eating and drinking system wouldn't have much impact, right? After all, who has ever starved or died of thirst? Or died of disease? At most, it's infection in the early stages, but a torn cloth or a bottle of vodka can solve the problem.
That's why I emphasize. A game that deviates from the core elements of survival, even if other systems are comprehensive, won't be taken seriously. Please tell me, there are "hunting simulators," "fishing simulators," "farming simulators," etc., why do we need to add these systems to SCUM and make them run? Isn't it for survival itself? Even including resource occupation, looting and theft, shouldn't it revolve around survival itself? If the core is missing, then whether it's combat, looting, theft, resource hoarding, exploration, scavenging, farming, fishing, hunting, cooking, and medical treatment, what are they all for? Isn't it for survival? If "you can live quite well doing almost nothing," then why bother applying these systems?
I don't deny its PvP mechanics, but I emphasize the core issue of the game, not just PvP venting. I personally dislike war and wouldn't have been excited if the game was initially defined as a PvP looting game. The game's basis is "extreme survival," evident in its early versions, with realistic metabolism, heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, etc., unrelated to PvP. As development progressed, the game shifted towards pure PvP or PvE, not survival. "Survival" itself isn't contradictory to PvP/PvE. However, survival is the purpose, and resources for it can be obtained through PvP or PvE means. Aimless attacks or looting just for violence aren't the game's intent. Survival systems shouldn't consume too much game time. You might eat or drink infrequently, but obtaining purifiers and raw materials requires looting or scavenging, giving more purpose to the game. Survival has deviated from other systems like PvP, zombies, farming, fishing, hunting, cooking, etc. For example, despite the excellent cooking system, most on our server stick to roasting meat and looting. Many excellent systems become irrelevant.
- Normal Official PVP. Current official is pretty darn tough on the new player (to the point of not being fun for a new player to experience many tens of hours of continual failures), so I'll suggest 1.2x modifier to loot compared to current official, 0.8x puppet damage, 1.2x player damage to NPC's, 1.2x recovery from wounds, 0.8x germ growth, 1.2x immune system, 1.2x immune boost from antibiotics ( and possibly additional modifiers).
- Hardcore Official PVP. 0.8x positives / 1.2x negatives modifiers.
- Ultimate Hardcore Official PVP. 0.4x positives / 1.6x negatives modifiers.
Additionally I suggest separate servers for Dark Nights versions of each of the above, for those that like realistic dark nights. So for example with no moon or fully cloudy night landscapes 90-100% darkness and for interiors of houses or forests there should be complete darkness except for surfaces directly lit by moonshine.
For official servers I dont see any other alternatives than something like above to satisfy both veterans, mega elite veteran players and newer players or players with only moderate amount of hours (pre-60 hours).
I think you're overthinking it. Take the night mode, for example. Do you know about filters? They're not considered cheating, but they can make it as bright as day at night. That's an exaggeration. And I believe PvP should be about plundering important resources, those that are difficult or impossible to obtain in PvE. If I can find enough supplies at night, mostly weapons, and then use these weapons to blow up someone else's base without any other purpose, then PvP would degenerate into pure violence: that's sad! The purpose of waging war should be "important strategic resources", but SCUM lacks these "important strategic resources". For instance, the materials needed to make ammunition, like "copper" or "gunpowder" – it's lead plates and gunpowder now, right? These are extremely easy to find and loot. Even essential survival items like canned food or MREs are very easy to obtain. This makes PvP lose its true purpose, turning it purely into hatred, revenge, and violence. I reiterate, this is sad and just a personal suggestion.
Yes I know about filters and I can tell you that it is absolutely possible to make realistic full darkness that cannot be changed by filters, because there'd be full darkness. So to reveal anything there would require using a light source or night vision goggles. Reshade can't increase the light level of 0%, 0 x Reshade Light Boost = still 0% light level. This would would work really well in deep forests, and in interiors where you could put full darkness.
Also remember night vision goggles in a game do NOT need to have even a tiny light illumination to amplify like it does in real life. When you put on the night vision goggles the game simply removes the fully darkness in the night vision view and provides some light for you. It's all about thinking out of the box and finding solutions. What often prevents of from achieving that is when we confine ourselves to what we already know or think we know. A lot more is possible if you want it, but if you already dismiss something beforehand then that is why you won't get there. Of course maybe the devs or many players do not WANT to have realistic nights and that's completely ok to not want that of course (and why I suggested separate servers for it). But it is certainly possible to a great extent, much more than you may think.
And in fact I would argue that the CURRENT level of dimmed night lighting is actually what is vulnerable to reshade filters. Because this dimmed lighting certainly does make it harder to see and spot stuff, but there is a light level everywhere.... so you must understand that this actually means that someone who wants to use Reshade to cheat right now can completely compromise that to enhance the dimmed lighting provided.
Exactly and that also a part of my suggestion for less loot on some more hardcore servers: Less loot. Some loot could be made even more scarce of course and not necessarily a flat out global 0.4x loot modifier for everything; but that's just my initial suggestion. Lets give room to think a little out of the box here, your suggestions for loot makes sense in my opinion.
SCUM has a mix of players with over 1,000 hours of play and newcomers, making it difficult to balance the game.
The same goes for PC specs.
I don't have the data, but most players tend to hate difficulty.
Capcom has a system in Re:4 where if a player dies a few times, the difficulty level goes down; SIE is working on a system where the difficulty level changes automatically based on the player's actions without the player having to choose the difficulty level.
If you read the SCUM reviews, most of the bad reviews are about the high difficulty.
It is just like people would rather live in a pleasant environment than a rugged one to live in.
From a business perspective, for SCUM to be successful, especially in the consumer market, it is better to keep the difficulty level focused on newcomers.
Having said that, I honestly don't find it fun when survival games are easy.
My idea for the single-player mode is to make the normal mode difficult enough for newcomers to struggle a bit, and then make the hard and nightmare modes difficult enough to please veterans.
In Normal mode, for example, the vehicle has an engine and just needs one tire to be installed, Loot✕5-10.
In the single player mode, I would suggest a gentler difficulty level that focuses on newcomers, even at this point in time.
Newcomers don't know the setting, so they have to do a lot of research, and they get tired of it before gameplay.
Veterans, on the other hand, know SCUM well, including past history, so they have no trouble increasing the difficulty themselves.
Newcomers, once they click, just need to play the game.
I think SCUM reviews will explode with high ratings.
I understand loot like this: it can be high-rate, but it's better not to be a global setting. Why? Because "too scarce loot", like 0.4 times or less, lacks the feeling of "immediate feedback", causing players to lose patience. For example, in WoW, every spell gives numerical feedback, and the death of a monster means loot drop. This is "immediate feedback", so such feedback is very necessary. I set my server so that all "zombie remains" can be searched and may yield many items, including screwdrivers and katanas! And Phoenix Tears. This kind of immediate feedback prevents players from losing patience easily. However, at the same time, diversified drop rate limits make the game more fun. For example, I can loot many parts and firearms but can't get bullets and gunpowder. Or, I can have a lot of food, but they can't be processed or eaten without a "necessary item", just like gasoline for cars. If there are no gas stations on the map, or only 1-2, more gasoline needs to be scavenged, making it a "hard currency". If food is hard to obtain and preserve, easily spoiling, then canned food becomes hard currency. Hard currency is something "you can't do without", like water and food. The harder the currency, the more its drop rate should be controlled (although now it can also be achieved by modifying server files, but it's very, very complicated!). Then the server's resource competition will focus on "food", "gasoline", "gunpowder". Whether it's PvP or PvE. Because they are the resources "you can't survive without".
I agree with your view and have published some similar opinions, but they don't seem to care.
My personal understanding of difficulty is this: a detailed and complex system, not complex operations.
Let me give an example. Complex operations mean: I need to make arrows one by one. A complex system means: I must have a knife, make small sticks to create arrows. Of course, maybe it's what most people think. In the 0.95 update, many crafting processes became easier, especially the continuous crafting mechanism.
For instance, wounds need bandaging, diseases need curing, and you need to find the right materials to do the right things. The complexity of these systems enhances the fun of the game. However, complex operations, like: I click on a bottle of alcohol, then on a piece of cloth, then right-click on one of them to choose disinfection to make a "disinfected bandage". Then I need to find the wound, find the corresponding bandage position, click enough bandages, then click on the wound, then click to bandage, to complete the process for one wound. These cumbersome steps, if optimized to a single button click to make a bandage (like the current crafting), clicking on a wound would automatically select the appropriate item. If you're in a hurry, double-clicking would use the available items in order for bandaging. If there are no suitable items, it would prompt: "Oh, I don't have the items needed for treatment, I need..." and so on. Thus, bandaging becomes a simple one-button or two-action process of crafting + bandaging, and these actions could even be assigned to hotkeys.
I also wrote a post about creating a "Near-Death State", similar to being incapacitated in death but still able to use items. This leaves a chance for single-player mode and deaths due to operational errors, avoiding situations like "holding Phoenix Tears in hand" and then being killed by a group of zombies.
In summary, my point is about how to optimize simple operations in a complex system. Developers should focus on this to enhance the "experience" of the game, rather than on massive system upgrades.