Buildings to Rubble

[ShawnB]

I love this game and it has so much more potential! There is lots of talk out there on how the mid-late game it too easy and boring. There are also lots of great ideas out there to improve this. While I will advocate that sandbox events and similar event mechanics mentioned by others, is probably the best way to increase late game difficulty and unpredictability, I have one more idea to put out there.

ALL man-made and "in-door" structures should be randomly selected to be absent/present each game. Probability of absence/presence could vary depending on difficulty level or selected by the player. Absent structures would be replaced by a rubble piles or rubble blockage (for transitional caves and the dam). Rubble piles could be search within a few hours to yield loot. Rubble blockages could be cleared given a few hours to access new regions. The starting region would have a +% bonus to shelters present to balance early game difficulty.

What does this do? Well, early game stays relatively the same but mobility to new regions is reduced. The time required to search rubble would be too demanding to complete early-mid game when you are gearing up. Mid-game you access new regions and get the easy loot, while your improved gear is off-set by fewer shelters. Late game you have all these untouched rubble piles to search giving you a late game objective, motive to re-visit regions and a good time-sink. Replay-ability would also be improved because shelters, the most important features in the environment, would be different every time.

I usually test my wish-list items in a player challenge before I post them. I've started a game now where I am trying to keep my in-door hours to 0 (on voyager). It is totally feasible and lots of fun, currently 30 days in. I hope to reach 100 or 200 days. When I start running out of matches, bullets, arrows or cloth I will probably start a "rubble search" activity and pass 6 or so hours of time beside a structure before I can loot it.