WIP: Base Progression, Raiding, & Trader Leveling Details
[h2]Hello Deadsiders![/h2]
Today we are able to give you all the juicy details on some major upcoming features, some of which you may have seen in our last post. Many old systems like Building and Raiding have been completely overhauled, with a focus on more player progression, and freedom during gameplay. We also have cars, trader leveling, decorations, and a whole lot more to talk about as well! The team has been working hard to make these ideas a reality, and we are very excited to be able to present our progress to you today. So, lets not delay anymore and get right into these new features;
Progression 2.0
One of the most exciting aspects of this update is Progression 2.0, a complete overhaul to gameplay progression within Deadside. We want to provide clear long term objectives that our players will want to work towards, while still giving them the freedom to play however they like. All of the features we are going to talk about today were designed with this goal in mind, but please remember that everything is still subject to change.
[h2]Scrap Metal[/h2]
When it comes to progression, the most valuable resource will be the new Scrap Metal item. It can either be used to level the safe zone traders, or used to upgrade base structures to metal tier. Meaning that even in the late endgame of Deadside, Scrap will always be a valuable resource.
Collecting Scrap Metal is simple, it can be found nearly anywhere around the map, sometimes even in large heaps laying on the ground. This means that roaming around the map and looting like normal now directly contributes towards your overall progression. Plus, the safezone trader doesn’t care where the scrap comes from, giving our players the freedom to play however they like in order to progress.
As players start to fill up their free safezone storage, eventually they will want to construct a base to store additional items. Bringing us to one of our largest features in development; Base Building 2.0!
Base Building 2.0
The first thing you may notice with this new building system, is that the structure support logic is completely different. Foundations are no longer huge wooden cubes, now they are a square block that acts as the bottom floor for your base. The new foundation will provide the support needed to build, but if that foundation is destroyed, any base objects left without support will come crumbling down with it!
Designed to work well with our new model of progression, base building will follow a three tier system, starting with stick structures, then planks, and finally metal. To start building, all you will need is a knife to collect sticks, and a hammer to access the build menu. Stick structures are very simple and easy to create, but don’t provide very good protection . Axes and firearms will break through them reliably, leaving you pretty vulnerable to raids at this early tier.
Another interesting aspect of this new base building system, is that base structures placed on their own will now start to automatically decay. In order to prevent this, players will need to construct the new Resource Vault object. Players will need to place the required items inside of this new vault to prevent their base from slowly decaying over time. The amount of required items depends on the size and tier of your base, with larger upgraded bases requiring more expensive upkeep. The vault essentially replaces the old base claim object, but with a few pretty cool differences that allows for much more player freedom.
For example, unlike the old base claims, players can place as many Vaults as they like. The limiting factor now is upkeep, meaning that players will be able to have multiple bases! Most importantly though, Resource Vaults can be destroyed and replaced by raiders, meaning it will now be possible to completely take over someone else’s base! This opens up a totally new dimension of base raiding, with players possibly fighting over high tier base locations, or hunting down decaying bases for a quick snowball.
[h2]Base Upgrades[/h2]
In order to progress to the next tier, we have taken the opportunity to implement a highly requested and anticipated feature, electricity! Players will now be able to construct and place a base generator that can be fueled using fuel cans. Electricity is spread throughout the base automatically, and requires no manual wiring to function. Once the player has access to electricity, they can use it to power a woodworking machine, which consumes logs in order to progress into the plank tier. An important detail here is that Axes now have durability, so trees will no longer essentially provide infinite logs.
Electricity can also be used to power base lighting, which you will need at night in order to see all of the fancy new base decoration items included in this update! Players will be able to customize their home with these items, making each base look more visually distinct and personalized. This is our first iteration of these decorative items, with future iterations providing passive buffs for nearby players.
Along with multiple tiers of structures, we have also added a new explosive, Dynamite! This new item will be more common than your standard plastic explosive, at the drawback of dealing less damage. Additionally, the fuze on Dynamite can be unreliable, potentially not even detonating at all. Dynamite is better suited for early to mid tier raiding, with Explosive Charges becoming the rarer high tier raiding tool.
The last tier of base structure is sheet metal, which has the highest stats, and price tag. You will need to feed the already valuable Scrap Metal into a Metalworking Machine, in order to create Sheet Metal. Sheet Metal is needed for the initial upgrade of structures, and for future upkeep. Being the max level upgrade, metal structures provide the best protection from raiders, requiring multiple explosive charges to take down a single wall in its current state.
While building with metal is expensive, it will be worth it to protect your base and all of the utility that it will provide. Especially considering that resource vaults will now prevent vehicles from despawning! You will be able to store and protect your own personal vehicles for use later, which we are really excited about. The added utility provides a really useful endgame objective to work towards, while making raids potentially much more exciting and profitable. That brings us to another major change with this update, Raiding 2.0!
Raiding 2.0
In this new system, players will be able to raid any base at any time, provided that they have farmed up enough explosives. While we liked our previous raiding system, a raid would only start depending on your PvP activity, and random chance. This enables players to construct huge bases, without much fear of their base being fully looted, or even seriously damaged due to its sheer size. The result heavily impacts server performance over time, caused by the abundance of base objects, and items stored within them.
With Raiding 2.0, we are able to give our players a lot more freedom with their own gameplay, while they naturally self regulate the buildup of items and structures across the map. Plus, allowing players to raid much more frequently will make the endgame of Deadside more exciting and engaging overall.
Respawns
Keeping with the theme of better balance and progression, this update also sees some major changes to our respawn system. We will be removing the ability for players to select towns on the map to respawn at, as it causes various balance issues, and makes stream sniping way too easy. So, unless you prepared a sleeping bag, your only option will be to randomly spawn on a beach,
Beach respawns are very important for the balance of early game progression, where players will be constantly fighting over Scrap Metal. If we allowed players to still respawn at towns, the early game could be dominated unfairly by squads, using their town respawns to farm scrap from new solo players. Plus, this respawn system will help evenly spread players across the map, leading to more unique player interactions across many different locations.
If you would like even more details on what you can expect from these features, we have created a video for you demonstrating them in action!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more info![/h3]
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Importantly though, we plan to keep the experimental servers open and running until the end of July. So, don’t be hesitant to jump in and do some PvP while you can!
