I don’t think this being mentioned previously is anything bad. It just reinforces that there are people that seriously think the game’s improvement lies within a feature that actually restricts a player. I think us all having the thought ‘Fast travel and respawns are too easy’ just says more about ‘People can agree on an issue with the game’ and less ‘oh it’s been said before’. For me this is only positive and if more people agreed more with this sort of change, so the devs actually take action in that aspect.
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Well, sir, I think many would point a finger at me, and rightfully so, if one thinks of an ‘extremist’, I think…
Most of the heavy penalty ideas/suggestions come from me, I was against many a thing (though now it being there I accept it), all to get more challenge, less ‘exploiting’ (due to the simplicity of the mechanics/results).
So, from that view onwards, yes, take blame. XD
Fully agreed, sir!
But unlike the April’s patch, have it optional.
I would hate it, if my ideas would wreck the game for those that love the game as is.
That is the single reason, I always opted for optionality.
One idea was to have “EVERYTHING” as a slider:
Machine reaction speed
Machine Accuracy
Machine Tactical AI (dodging. cover, …)
Machine Damage
…
In this way, literally everyone could have THEIR game, as THEY saw fit.
Want Uber machines?
Slide the sliders all the way to the right, and die as you please.
Want to feel like God?
Set sliders to left, and machines will virtually kill themselves.
Someone brought up (well a few hopped in), that this would be “impossible” for the multi player part.
I disagreed, since, it can still be adjusted, ingame.
It’s just a setting.
But this is not the point.
Point is, I never would ask anything that would affect EVERYONE.
That would be just totally wrong, and it would tear the community apart.
And just that… is what I do not want.
On the contrary.
I even think, that if would could actually do this, with the sliders, that it might attract even more players.
But that’s mere speculation, naturally, sir… 
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I haven’t tried the new update yet, and I can’t wait to see the further revamp of the Farmlands.
I have requested a war torn area in GZ before, and darn it I’m happy to finally get it. The june update established that large battles had taken place in the Farmlands, so expanding upon this makes sense to me. The central Farmlands surrounding the airfield could very well be where the main battle between the military and the machines have taken place. Parts of the Farmlands like north of Boo and east of the river could perhaps remain untouched. However, I do hope that the entire GZ map gets revamped eventually. Not to dramatically change big parts of it, but to add interesting visual stories in form of battle scenes involving the military or the resistance. I suggest tearing the Farmlands a new one, maybe a few other large battles here and there, and then doing something more like the Archipelago revamp to the rest of the map.
I hope the devs keep doing what they’re doing. The players can only suggest, but GZ is their game, their vision and their story to tell. I love the revamps they’ve done so far, and I can’t wait to see the rest. The only objection I could potentially have (in the future) is if the FNIX structures turn out to serve no purpose. I hope we one day get a revelation as to what FNIX is using them to accomplish. 
The rest of this thread has turned off topic…
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True, sir.
Full agreement here.
I do hope that the story, as mentioned here above, does get adapted to suit the new environment…
You should do a little exploring, the Farmlands are exactly what you “requested… a war torn area”.
Most farms are completely destroyed.
Boo escaped I think… or they have still not “Upgraded” that part yet .
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Altorp -576, 326 (destroyed)
Arneröd -798, 1945 (destroyed)
Åsö -885, 1983 (destroyed)
Lilla Dyrbo -1054, -414 (destroyed)
Lilla Svanhult -953, 1300 (destroyed)
Myrbacka -1791, 977 (destroyed)
Skinnarbol -512, -136 (destroyed)
Stora Dyrbo -1118, 1 (destroyed)
Stralsund 1, -256 (destroyed)
Svalby -385, -687 (destroyed)
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@Mr_A1992
As i said, sir, I really like it.
When I entered (FR was just released) back from my hiatus, and i walked around… I was astonished…
I REALLY appreciated what I saw.
The alien architecture (not literally alien, obviously lol) gave it a twist that I did not at all expect.
Now more change came though, and I just cannot dislike it.
Now… IF they rolled back to the old, original map, I would not care either.
Both do their thing, however, for the new map with the alien structures and new devastation, the story should be tweaked to match up…
But… that is me.
I’m not really sure if the devs add everything the community demands.
For example, people have been talking about cars since the beginning, and got a clear “No, this does not fit our vision.” last stream.
It’s of course tempting to assume that the devs are doing everything the loud people demand, and we have a Fortnite situation at hand where the devs pretty much make a different game then the one people paid for, but for the moment I’m not convinced.
For example things like crafting and storage were not shoehorned into the game in order to please the crowd, they were likely planned from the start, since shortly after release tutorial messages appeared which mentioned crafting and resource stations.
Similar thing with the “Bounties” tab on warboards, which I think is what became the rivals.
So while it might appear like the devs are adding in whatever the community demands, potentially compromising their original vision in the process, I’m not convinced that this is the case.
What I’m actually starting to suspect is going on:
The game we got in March 2019 was never actually the game the team wanted to make.
Instead, I think that at some point in development, they reached a deadline and had to stop developing unfinished and planed features like crafting, a more chaotic and detailed world, etc. and instead had to focus on making the game shipable and appear complete on release day.
And now they are mostly completing, piece by piece, their original plans.
This is of course all speculation on my part, and I don’t have much evidence to back this, but that’s what I’m suspecting.
Things like the machines becoming too weaker/dumber are of course a different issue, but I believe the new features and drastic map changes are mostly part of their vision, for better or worse.
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There is some truth in it, since at the early days (early dev streams), people were asking why the assets in the game world are looking like copy/paste of each other. Devs response to that was that they didn’t had time to go over the map and hand place each and every asset.
However, as seen from the region revamps so far, all new assets are hand made and carefully placed into the world, giving every asset the uniqueness they now have; compared to the copy/paste assets we currently have in the regions that haven’t been revamped.
Oh, and to add to that. In early days, PvP was the #1 most asked feature until devs finally gave us a hard No for it.
There have been quite a few hard No’s that devs have given us in regards of different features, like: 3rd person view, swimming, pet machine, flying vehicles, better matchmaking system and some others.
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Thank god for that!
(20 chars…)
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And because of this I still have some hope the devs will stop screwing with concepts that are incredibly short-term or giving in to the vocal majority.
I agree with the contents of the post to a certain limit until the point where it would completely justify them. They did add melee and I’m not sure if that was ever their vision. NPCs were a popular request and even I saw the potential in that - IF done right! Crafting doesn’t feel out of place in this game, but feels redundant currently. The way gathering and discovery works is incredibly simple and doesn’t make sense, because our only source of raw material, component, clothing item or utility comes from a machine or container.
I remember the time when someone noted that crafting was mentioned without ever existing and that was a clear sign that it’s gonna happen eventually. It didn’t end up feeling out of place, but just like many other things - placing the Reaper outside through a level cap, hiding experimentals or really just handing over a perfectly functional experimental through lvl 25 or with rivals, giving melee weapons to frail teenagers, placing a crafting station and plundras in every single safehouse… big or small (even when that wasn’t a thing in the beginning, but some still complained that they wanted all the crafting station items in their small tent safehouse)
There are many things that were implemented for the sake of implementation, so that the vocal majority can have their fun. It turned arcade shooter and from the very first time playing the game, it felt completely like it was meant to be something else. The world was out to get me and hiding it’s secrets as we HAD to play smart or pay the price, but I actually think that in this state… There’s nowhere else to go, but up.
They shoehorned many things, even if seemingly some were planned by them, it all was implemented in a way that works, not in a way that makes sense, but now they have multiple foundations to tie together and make sense of… Crafting can be expanded upon to make sense of the completely fresh new stylish clothing that FNIX just gives us for being a good little rebel or those new toys. Story has potential to explaining why FNIX never seemingly kills us, but downs us. There’s still a chance to implement restrictions for fast travel. Story or NPCs can be expanded upon to make sense of the challenges tab that has all those silly challenges.
The devs I had the impression of in the beginning was that they’re talented and that they had a clear vision for their game, I still think the same developers are behind the game, but I don’t think that what we saw in the beginning and what we see now is that same vision.
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Agree with not liking the NPCs and fetch quests but I do kinda like the crafting system. Wish it had more of a homemade feel though. Being able to make pipe bombs would easily fit in with the guerilla-style first impression I got when I bought the game, but now it’s just running and gunning without a care in the world.
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I quite agree.
It’s great that they added a whole bunch of environmental storytelling, but to me a big part of the beauty and intrigue of the game is the pristene Swedish surroundings. A big part of the mystery when booting the game up was sort of seeing the ever increasing severity of what’s happened.
I’d say that the team should think about how the world should tell the story as well as keeping some of those jaw-droppingly gorgeous environments. Have heavy devastation in some places, while others are eerie, peaceful and gorgeous. And of course, the game does need safe areas for the sake of pacing.
I think in a few places you can find things like thread just naturally laying around after this update
Yeah, there containers themselves are a bit more organized with having textiles be found in backpacks or cases or now having car engines to search through. It’s why I say there’s nowhere else to go, but up.
What I still see wrong with loot in general is that things like experminetal weapons or clothing items, a bycicle… They’re seemingly these gifts that FNIX drops. It isn’t us scavenging a component and making an EXP weapon or armor piece, it just drops as this entire thing. IF that’s completely intended (FNIX gifting us things for killing it’s machines), then at least make sense of it story-wise. Still, it’s a lazy way out.
You can look at it from different point of view. To me they are not gifts that FNIX gives, because it’s not given to you. You have to kill them and pry it from their cold dead bodies. Effectively you steal back weapons and other resources that the machines have taken away from the humans.
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But how do we explain the origin for these weapons? Did FOA build these? Why would FNIX just carry those around… a bycicle even. Harvesters maybe, but tanks and hunters? They have their own weapon components that are manufactured, so what’s the objective? Do they loot specific military compounds for these weapons to try and take away all the powerful weapons that are left behind? If so, then why haven’t we found those weapons or bunkers that hold these human weapons.
See what I mean - It just needs a good explanation. I wouldn’t mind your, mine or anyone else’s approach in explaining it.
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You could imagine that they just gathered them and were carrying them to a FNIX base to be destroyed, just before you stole them back. That could also explain the randomness of what we find on machines.
I understand you like to make sense of it all, but maybe we can get to far in trying to explain every little detail of it. Try to explain why people can’t die in games. Or why when we’re shot down by a rain of 20mm fire, we can just put a bandage on and we’re good to go. We know it is a necessary game mechanic otherwise almost nobody would like playing such a game. Finding loot is also a necessary game mechanic, and will always seem illogical that the enemy would let those sources untouched.
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Yes, but making more sense of it is better than none. It’s a game and eventually the theory is going to go down to ‘Sp00ky simulation!’, because it’s the cheapest and best way to tie all ends. I do like it when things make sense and I’d like for things to make more sense at least to the extent that the player doesn’t notice.
When the player doesn’t notice the subtle features and flows in a state where things that COULD raise concern (in a dark game) is where a lot of that magic came from when the game came out. It was magical, because it was mysterious. It wasn’t intentionally mysterious as you weren’t egged on to find out every secret, but rather IF you took your own time to dig in to things and observe your surroundings, you’d get a sense of reward for knowing/finding out more.
I really hope you aren’t suggesting that this should be ignored or that this aspect isn’t worth expanding upon, because everything’s worth expanding upon. There are so many loose elements currently in the game that there’s just plenty of room to solidate each mechanic and create a game with gameplay features that last more than looter-shooter. I would just assume you’re worried I may be egging on too harsly on some of these aspects, which I understand. I don’t mean to come off as angry, but I am fed up, so I’m just exposing every doubt in my mind, so that at least something gets picked up on. To my surprise a certain chunk of people would agree that they want something gritty and tactical, rather than lootey-shootey. But I wouldn’t know how many are in the same boat if me or others didn’t raise concern.
Every little detail doesn’t need explanation, but the details mentioned so far aren’t so little. They may not be a glaring issue like a crash, but alongside with other small problems, it piles up to a big one.
No no, I’m saying that with imagination, everyone can find a explanation that they find acceptable to keep enjoying the game. I was hoping that I could make you see it that way. It’s sad you are fed up, and loosing interest in the game, knowing how much you liked it. Although I am concerned that the game goes in a direction that is totally different than the game I chose, I still have interest in it because I am curious what the future will bring. Although I would have rather liked the game to not have periodically updates and DLCs, but a Generation Zero 1, Generation Zero 2, etc.
The loosing of interest has imho also a lot to do with getting bored while waiting on a new expansion. Normally when I play a game, I finish it and start a new one. This never ending is a new experience for me. I don’t like looter-shooter type of games, I too like to experience the story.
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