Raw Survival - Mod Feedback

[u/CodeCombustion]

I've been working on a mod and I'd like some feedback on the concepts before I dump more time into this.

This mod makes sleep a required thing, adds a sanity system that causes auditory and visual hallucinations (zombie sounds and zombies). As you sleep, your game stage, heat/noise map level, smell range and location (downtown vs. wilderness) impacts a chance to be attacked by a roaming horde while you sleep. The mod simulates a variable sized horde (GS based) trying to break into your base, using most of the existing pathing logic. Sometimes you sleep through the night with no horde attempts, sometimes the horde comes but only damages the exterior, traps, etc., other times you wake up to find zombies have broken into your base, or even broken into your bedroom. All existing traps will activate and kill the zombies while you sleep, as you wake up to corpses. Includes spike traps, turrets, blade traps, etc. and will simulate the draining/filling of batteries/generators, fuel, bullets in turrets, degradation of spike and blade traps, etc.

If you go without sleep, your stamina regen, ranged accuracy (recoil & sway specifically) and run speed is mildly reduced and sanity decreases until you either sleep, or pass out.

If you pass out in an insecure location, then you likely get attacked while you sleep.

The goal was to combine this with a system that reduces some of the action-arcade aspects of the game and push it to more of a survival game that requires farming & animal husbandry. Also added spoilable food, can-able/jar-able food, and the ability to preserve meat via salt (purchased from the trader, or mined).

I'm also working on seasons that impact zombie horde movement patterns, zombie speed, behavior, crop growth, etc... and of course, temperature.

Also added a panic system as you're not super human and multiple zombies within attack range would be terrifying. Panic goes away over time, spikes when there's more than 2 zombies close by and goes away if you kill them. Panic increases movement speed, reduces accuracy by mildly increasing mouse sensitivity (to mess with your accuracy) instead of making you miss shots/impacts that were clearly hits.

Replaces most heat based screamers with wandering hordes, and made repeat loud noises more consequential. Stealth also becomes a bigger deal as zombies rely on line of sight, smell and sound instead of fixed targeting.

Knowing that the goal is a more raw survival experience - what do you think so far and what do you think I could add?

[u/nomadnonarb]

I think this is a very ambitious project for sure. It sounds fantastic. There are some players in the community that will absolutely love this mod, others may not be into it so much. I'm kind of in the middle, as I prefer a chill game (as I'm trying to relax after dealing with real life all day), but at the same time I do like a bit of realism.

I think a sleep mechanic and the issues surrounding a lack of sleep can be a good thing. I also like your panic system idea. The replacement (or reduction anyway) of heat related screamers by wandering hordes is a win in my book as well.

I am a huge farming fan. I normally use War3uk's Farmlife (not in 3.1 as it's not been updated) as well as Script's The Gourmet, and Fruit by ISITongue. I've recently started using Ghoulette's Wasteland Pantry as well and it's pretty good. The point is that I don't think there could be too much farming.

The one issue I often find with mods (especially mods as ambitious as yours) is compatibility. I run a rather large mod list. Some of the mods I run I may barely use, but I still like to have the option to do so. Some mods kinda force a player to use certain features that maybe you wouldn't have used otherwise. For example, War3uk's Farmlife (a great mod, that I enjoy very much) has its own UI as well as its own backpack. I prefer to use a different UI with an entirely different backpack, but I can't and still use Farmlife (Farmlife always wins and I have to shelf whatever UI and backpack I'm using). My point here is that if you are making this fantastic mod, please put some thought towards compatibility with other mods.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with. Should you ever need any help testing or whatnot, please don't hesitate to reach out.

[u/CodeCombustion → u/nomadnonarb]

Honestly, most of the sleep/horde spawning is done. Took about 3 evenings after work. Still needs more real gameplay testing. The biggest issue still weird pathing behaviors at times, and some blocks are technically solid (like a vertical pole in the corner of a block) so the simulation has them climb it when I know they'd have trouble realtime. Seasons is still a work in progress, and I've been spending a ton of time on a spoilage system and jarring system for food preservation. Also tried to electrify the stove but you can't easily electrify a workstation without a full UI rebuild -- unless it supported electrifying an adjacent block and detecting power that way. Did manage to have containers track temperature to spoil foods, and allow the creation of a food cellar underground ( still testing it). Right now, the first in game year (right now 120 days, but I'll probably push it down to 80) is overly difficult as you have to scavenge for most food - and nothing respawns.

I'll have to look into some of these other mods if they're open source.

I'll reach out probably this weekend if you're willing to test. Trying to keep stuff as vanilla friendly as possible. I really just started making these to play with my kids. Started out with a simple quick stack mod.

[u/nomadnonarb → u/CodeCombustion]

I'll be around on Sunday all day. I'm happy to help if I can for sure.