¿Thoughs about Gunloper?

[Glacia]

Im recently switching a bit from standard Interloper to a more expanded custom settings, exactly interloper with guns enabled (Gunloper) but also the BRA in medium, so all items are avaliable and tools spawn as usual.

I have a mixed feelings about this settings, mostly because i think it's not bad at all but certain things are just dissapointing.

First of all, the avaliability of tools feels unrealistic, with a very little exploration you can get all tools without effort, and there are a lot of them scattered around the world map. I remember playing stalker two years ago and seriously getting tools was much harder than now!  Im pretty sure the loot update have changed this.

The second curious point lies about 'Early game power spikes':

In fact, you are still playing on interloper settings with cold and bad weather/massive animal damage, this is not a walk in the park. But if you manage to loot core locations, likely PV plane, AC and TWM summit, you end with 95% of the best clothing pieces and almost all resources needed!

This is exactly what im experiencing right now, more than 10 days without losing a sole point of condition for freezing, because my clothing have more than 32*C. At day 50 this power spike ends and you actually face 'Interloper' again, no matter what clothing you manage to loot. You can experience a very easy early game until the days 40-50 temp limit, where things becomes harder again.

¿Overall?  Complete and diverse settings, fun to play but largely ruined by massive loot/resources locations and easy locations for core tools.

 

[ManicManiac]

@Glacia

If I could offer an idea, I have a possible solution to the dilemma:

If interested, you could exercise some player choice to help remedy what you find disappointing about the scenario.
For the tools, top tier clothing, and other resources you find too abundant; we can either scrap/harvest them or even just discard them (leaving them where they were found).

I've had runs where part of the personal challenge I set for myself was to shred anything providing more than 2*C warmth value... or choose to ignore all "found food" forcing myself to only rely on what could be hunted or harvested.  Most tools and weapons can be either scrapped or discarded.  If food feels too abundant... we can just leave it in a container inside and let it despawn once the condition reaches zero.

I think one of my favorite runs was an Interloper where I forbid myself from using a forge, just to see how long I could last without any tools or weapons... turns out, I could survive and thrive just fine without ever visiting a forge.  I just had to change the way I played a bit. 🤭

If find that TLD gives the player far more agency (than most survival games) in terms of how we choose to live on Great Bear Island, and for how long.

I find that a few additional personal rules, provisos, and goals/personal challenges work well at drastically altering the game experience without having to change the game or modify settings.  When mixed with custom settings, we can really craft whatever experience that feels best to each of us.

I very much appreciate the idea of GunLoper, but I think a few additional "rules"/personal challenges might go along way to making it into something perhaps more to your liking.   

Edited April 13, 2023 by ManicManiac

[UpUpAway95]

Always start with the Interlper template.  Ideally, don't change the BRA from low to medium and only activate the rifle or the pistol.  Do a forge run as you would in Loper.  If you do change the BRA, then make sure that the loose item availability, empty container chance modifier, and reduce item container density are set to their harshest settings and that the item decay rate is set to its fastest setting.

Ideally, they will fix the BRA such that it only affects the type of loot available, not the amounts of loot available and provide a separate toggle to enable just a hatchet and just a knife if desired.  This would really enhance the gunloper experience.

In the meantime, @ManicManiacsuggested, another way to deal with "too much loot" is to not pick it up or immediately harvest it or put back into containers out of sight where they can simply decay.

Your abundance in tools is likely RNG since I've done several starts with various settings where tools have been in relatively short supply.  All in all, the randomness has created an imbalance in what can be found in most runs (e.g. my pilgrim run in Mystery Lake that yielded 8 can openers, but only 1 knife and no gun of any kind.  My more recent quick start in Milton (to check for moose rubbings in Milton Basin) yielded 3 can openers in Gray Mother's house alone, but no other tools.  I don't think I ever did find a hatchet on that run (although I did not search all of Milton... just enough to give me enough clothing to stay warm going into the Basin.

Edited April 13, 2023 by UpUpAway95

[Glacia]

I use loper template, just changing BRA and guns. BRA actually changes a lot of things, loot avaliability included.

Even if you let the container and other settings loper default, the BRA still makes loot very abundant.

Playing gunloper makes me think how interloper could have been if everything was avaliable since the introduction of the game mode. Like firearms avaliable but incredible rare, tools but one or two in the entire world, and so on for all the other excluded features.

I think it could have worked as expected if not better.

[UpUpAway95]

13 minutes ago, Glacia said:

I use loper template, just changing BRA and guns. BRA actually changes a lot of things, loot avaliability included.

Even if you let the container and other settings loper default, the BRA still makes loot very abundant.

Playing gunloper makes me think how interloper could have been if everything was avaliable since the introduction of the game mode. Like firearms avaliable but incredible rare, tools but one or two in the entire world, and so on for all the other excluded features.

I think it could have worked as expected if not better.

Still, technically, "gunloper" leaves the BRA at low and just changes the gun availability setting.  BRA really does need to be fixed such that it defines the quality of loot available (i.e. disabiling high-end clothing).  The three other settings I mentioned need to be expanded such that the loot amount can be effectively reduced even if the BRA setting is to allow knives, hatchets, and other high-quality loot.  Ideally, BRA would also have sub-sliders allowing to turn individual important items on (if BRA = low) or off (if BRA is set to medium or high).  Things like pre-made hatchets, knives, and even lanterns and distress pistols should be able to to toggled individually by the player.  This sort of change would give much wider flexibility for a variety of imaginative runs.  

Call me crazy, but I'd even like to be able to turn of matches and separately increase the likelihood of mag lenses spawning to compensate... or if they add, say, bow drills as a means to start fires someday.  The possibilities are endless.