Sleds, Spears, and Shotties: Some Suggestions

[grey1600]

So, I'm a tad new to the game, but I've been playing the shit out of it these last few days. Figured I'd offer a few silly ideas I had, things that could add a bit of excitement to gameplay, or at least switch things up a little. Might add more later.

 

Spear: Come on. It's not that hard to make a spear, although how good the spear would be is another question entirely. They even have one in Story Mode (as painful as that one is to use). There could be maybe two or three of them, one being more 'professional' made akin to the bear spear already in the game, and then an improvised spear, which would either be an improvised knife firmly secured to the end of a long wooden pole, or even said long wooden pole with the tip whittled down to a sharp point and fire-treated.

My general idea as to how it'd work in gameplay being you equip the spear when about to engage with a wolf or see one coming, right click to brace the spear (akin to aiming), and when it charges, the enemy creature is likely to end up wounded or impaled upon it, without a struggle, maybe depending on where it lands (where your cursor is pointed on the enemy's body? not sure). Wolves could most likely sidestep it if you aren't careful, and it might just be outright useless against a moose. If it fails to work, engage in a struggle as per usual, spear unable to be used in close quarters just like the rifle.

Other balancing features could be that while they're easy enough to make, they're an unfortunate combination of extremely easy to break, as well as heavy and cumbersome, or perhaps they're slow to get set up, meaning you need to be quick thinking and get it out a bit early if you want it to be useful.

 

Shotgun: Not much to say on this one, just that a third gun could be neat, maybe it's easier to land hits due to the pellet spread but is less effective due to the small amount of damage per pellet. I dunno, others have probably come up with better ideas for implementing a shotgun than I have, just figured I'd throw it in regardless.

 

Sled: I'm actually a bit proud of this idea. Basically, a mobile storage container you can drag around outdoors. Has some huge carry capacity, allowing you to put excess supplies in there, and you drag it around by a rope. The biggest caveats to balance this mighty buff would be the fact you can't bring it indoors, it has a higher caloric drain than just walking, you can't sprint while dragging it around, and it's extremely limited in where you can bring it, being unable to follow you up into the mountains without some sort of pulley system being set up, or over rough and jagged terrain since it would just get caught on assorted rocks and the like.

Getting caught in an ambush with the sled means you have to either stand your ground, or flee and leave your precious cargo behind, having to go back and get it later. It might be an item you can't craft, having to find it manually, although I imagine it wouldn't be the most difficult thing to find, since sleds are a fairly popular thing in reality. It'd be an interesting way to shift up your playstyle, I feel, allowing for a massive carry capacity with heavy limitations on how it can be used, and depending on how you play, it could either be an incredibly worthwhile investment that covers up it's own troubles, or a burden that brings more agony than it's worth.

 

All in all, these are just ideas, some of, if not all of which have absolutely been said by others before, but hey, why not toss my two cents in?

 

Update: I'm an absolute idiot. A buffoon, if one will. Browsed around the forums some more, all of these have in fact been suggested on multiple occasions and shot down for plenty of reasons, I'll probably delete this post later, sorry to have wasted space.

Edited January 7, 2021 by grey1600
Update on topic

[Derek0311]

LOL.  Make suggestions at will.  There is usually something new in a suggestion even if it’s just one thing.  I had not considered leaving the sled.  If it contained food I think the wildlife should destroy it (either because you watch them do it or because you walk away and the condition drops over time to account for scavengers).  Anyway, my two cents.  See it cost us nothing.

Edited January 7, 2021 by Derek0311
Edit

[grey1600]

1 hour ago, Derek0311 said:

LOL.  Make suggestions at will.  There is usually something new in a suggestion even if it’s just one thing.  I had not considered leaving the sled.  If it contained food I think the wildlife should destroy it (either because you watch them do it or because you walk away and the condition drops over time to account for scavengers).  Anyway, my two cents.  See it cost us nothing.

Huh, interesting. Admittedly, I was thinking the condition problem for sleds would be less an issue, as it'd be a bit silly if suddenly your sled just broke and was rendered useless by dragging it across the map enough times. Just a tad unnecessarily dumb there, although I can certainly see it taking damage from scavengers for leaving food in there. Maybe it scatters the contents of the sled when they go rooting around for fresh meat, or something.

Watch, people start speedrunning wolfhide coats by leaving out sleds full of venison and hiding in a nearby cave, taking out every wolf that approached with a bow or rifle, pffft. Super big brain strategy there.

[Lexilogo]

Re. Spears, I am personally against the Bear Spear specifically getting added to Survival. I know Hinterland have been considering it, I just frankly consider making defense against Bears (and potentially, dealing damage to them and hunting them!) so trivially easy a great disservice to the mechanical purpose Bears currently serve.

Regular Spears... Meeeh? One would have to question precisely what materials would be needed to craft it. Bow in particular is bottlenecked by requiring a hatchet (a big problem on Interloper), cutting both kinds of Sapling and letting them dry, hunting an animal by other means and letting their guts dry out, and getting an Arrowhead via either forging or looting. Spear would most likely be Bow's direct competition, so one would need to think of good mechanical distinctions for it.

I've brought up a thing about the shotgun on a different thread so I won't repeat myself here.

Loads of people have brought up a sled. It fits well conceptually into the game but balance wise is an extremely high concern as carry weight is a really, really big limiting factor in this game for how much players can get done at once. There MIGHT be a way to make sleds work out. However, my main concerns are:

1. Currently, the outdoors isn't really hazardous enough for "you can't defend yourself at a moment's notice" to really be that much of a downside
2. Cooking Level 5 combined with Sleds would allow players to quickly produce their absurd stockpiles of Bear Meat, and do it with gross efficiency