Slippy8
Well-known member
Brief Summary: There are a lot of players who are spending hundreds of hours scouring the map to find these things, with hardly any logic or clues to go off of. Make finding these things easier by leaving clues, and using logic. For example with a hypothetical hidden item - parachutes. Instead of just placing parts for it in a random warehouse on the map, make it logical to find. What is a parachute made of fabric maybe cotton. Let the player use their knowledge of the map to see if there are any cotton factories on the map - there is Lester had one from single player, you can then go there and find a hidden location to start making cotton. But to make that you need to find cotton plants. Where might they be? Possibly in a plantation somewhere, search and you'll find there are a few locations where there are fields of plants maybe on Braddock farm. You find that and go back to the factory to make cotton for the parachute. You think you are about to make one, and it will say something like, nylon missing, or backpack needed. For these items you can search every clothing store to see if there is a backpack in one of them available which makes it a targetted endeavour instead of a brute force one with possibly no result. For Nylon this is plastic based, so there could be a hidden location at the plastic factory to make this.
Overall my point is, if you leave breadcrumbs or logical clues as to how to find items it will make searching a lot more rewarding whilst still maintaining difficulty. For example, if there were such a thing as gun ammo clips, there might be a secret room inside or around the back of the PaperClips store in Pillbox Hill. Pay-Per-Clip when you think about it. These kind of clever clues will turn it into more of a treasure hunt than a brute force search.
The Pros:
+ Players don't have to spend hundreds of hours searching random locations
+ Rewarded for using your brain and actually thinking about where an item might be
+ Still fairly difficult enough so that the average new player would have no idea how to do it and would have to RP to find out how things like that work or that these things exist.
+ Lets developers be very creative into how clues are formed. Gun ammo clips found inside or behind the PaperClips store (pay - per - clip) for example.
The Cons:
+ It may become too easy to find places if not executed with enough thought put in.
+ It may be difficult to move locations of places if they are too closely tied to their location, its easy to move a drug field, but not easy to move something associated with a shop name.
Does this suggestion change balance on the server ?
It won't change the balance much from how it is now - a handful of people knowing certain things. But for them instead of it being brute force searching and extremely time consuming spending hundreds of hours searching instead of RPing, things can be found quicker using your brain, knowledge of the city, and following clues or logic as to where things might be.
Overall my point is, if you leave breadcrumbs or logical clues as to how to find items it will make searching a lot more rewarding whilst still maintaining difficulty. For example, if there were such a thing as gun ammo clips, there might be a secret room inside or around the back of the PaperClips store in Pillbox Hill. Pay-Per-Clip when you think about it. These kind of clever clues will turn it into more of a treasure hunt than a brute force search.
The Pros:
+ Players don't have to spend hundreds of hours searching random locations
+ Rewarded for using your brain and actually thinking about where an item might be
+ Still fairly difficult enough so that the average new player would have no idea how to do it and would have to RP to find out how things like that work or that these things exist.
+ Lets developers be very creative into how clues are formed. Gun ammo clips found inside or behind the PaperClips store (pay - per - clip) for example.
The Cons:
+ It may become too easy to find places if not executed with enough thought put in.
+ It may be difficult to move locations of places if they are too closely tied to their location, its easy to move a drug field, but not easy to move something associated with a shop name.
Does this suggestion change balance on the server ?
It won't change the balance much from how it is now - a handful of people knowing certain things. But for them instead of it being brute force searching and extremely time consuming spending hundreds of hours searching instead of RPing, things can be found quicker using your brain, knowledge of the city, and following clues or logic as to where things might be.
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