Don't reveal the local map when starting a game in Static Spawn mode.

[yobbobanana]

I think this change would feel a lot better when starting a Static Spawn game. There's no in-game reason given for the player knowing what surrounds them at the start, and it dulls the feeling of suspense the player should have at the start of the game. Exploring hostile surroundings is fun.

Dyamic Spawn was left as-is because the player only has so much time to run into town and grab stuff, helps to know where to go.

[KA101]

Uh, is it possible that the person used to live in the region?

[yobbobanana]

It is possible, but I've never had a character find their old house.

The main reason for this was gameplay. It doesn't take long at all to explore the starting region (maybe one hour of in-game time, if you dawdle), and it makes finding things exciting.

Otherwise the start of the game is always "loot basement, go to town". No suspense, no spur-of-the-moment decisions, no interesting discoveries.

[Izicata]

Living in the region isn't consistent with the previous mapping behaviour anyway. You'd expect someone who had lived in the region to at least know the layout of the city and possibly the layout of the surrounding roads, not a perfect square around the evacuation shelter that maybe catches a few houses inside the far edge.

[KA101]

OK, I'll revise: the character also has absolutely no idea how they got to that shelter? Hauled there with their head in a bag, in a sealed truck, and abandoned without anyone having left & came back?

At least some idea of which way the nearest town might be would be kinda nice.

[Nickboom1]

I dislike this only because there is no way currently to tell which way a town is so you could be wondering for a long time and may even starve, or just kill your character out of boredom. (If there was a way to tell which way a town was i would be fine with this)

[Izicata]

AFAIK the Evac Shelters are always connected to a nearby town by a road. Just follow the road, and if you go too far without finding a town turn back and take the other exit.

[KA101]

Just realized that this might work well with Mate's proposed starting trait to start with frequently-visited (pre-Cata) structures visible. Cross-linking: http://smf.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?topic=1650.0

[atomicdryad]

This is based on a completely subjective opinion of 'better' and would be better as an option.

[Stevensonz]

Agreed that it should be an option as well going to the evac shelter you would have at least remembered the way to it if passing any nearby towns or landmarks. (Unless you were an air dropped para trooper or something)

[Justice-]

This would be better as an option, or possibly a new trait named 'Unaware of Surroundings'.

@Izicata, @yobbobanana: Seems reasonable to believe that the character was not necessarily evacuated to the shelter closest to their hometown.

[Stevensonz]

could work as a bad trait as well be in a new profession like Paratrooper which landed in unknown area with military gear/survival gear and a basic gun+limited ammo. (Slow transition to make military professions viable?)

[yobbobanana]

@atomicdryad: you could say the same about literally any gameplay change.

Feel free to provide some objective standards for gameplay improvement. Something like increasing player immersion, suspense, anticipation and excitement perhaps?

[i2amroy]

I'd put this as an option rather then a forced thing personally, and then have it effect both static and dynamic spawns. That way if a player wanted an extra challenge they could turn it on, or if they don't want it they could turn it off.

[atomicdryad]

@yobbobanana My (subjective) notion of objective standards for gameplay improvement entails a metric ton of options, versatility, customizability, etc, for application of subjective tastes.Time permitting, I've been working on an oodles-o-options(tm) system that will allow templates, for specific scenarios. (and will hopefully tie in with stuff like the addon mods described elsewhere, and pre-generated world maps)

In the meantime I'll speak up if I think something -needs- to be optional :p

[Nickboom1]

Yes but which road. they fork or go on for a fair bit before hiting a town and you could also stop short of the town by a few tiles and go the wrong way, I really dont want to do guess work every single time i start the game.

[Justice-]

@yobbobanana On occasion, my character has started with only a road or a swamp in view. If you want this style of play in every game, then don't be afraid to compile and play your fork, and simply fetch and merge the latest commits from this repo into your game.

[ethankaminski]

I think I agree that this would be good as an option. It seems like it could be a fun way to play for those who like it, but I don't think it's something I'd want to apply to every character.

In particular, my understanding is that characters are supposed to start with knowledge of the surrounding area, since the obvious allocation of evac shelters involves putting people in the nearest one. The implementation is a little lacking, of course - "surrounding area" should be the area around the nearby city, as opposed to the area around the evac shelter.

Also, it's worth pointing out that this is something that shouldn't significantly hinder game balancing attempts if it's turned into an option, because it doesn't change any of the fundamental rules of the game, it just changes whether or not the player has a specific bundle of information at game start.

[yobbobanana]

Thanks everyone for your feedback :).

I don't think this is worth its own option so I'll close the request for now. If I decide to resurrect this it will probably be part of a general "make everything harder" option.