Feature request - New difficulty: survival

I posted this in another topic, but got the idea to make an own topic out of it.

It don’t think, that playing GZ is too easy in general. I always play on skirmish and that’s ok. It’s challenging but not too hard. But it can be silent and stealthy, too.

But something is missing:
It’s the feeling of the first hours of play. The fear not to be strong enough to survive.

I’m not a bullet sponge. I’m not a super soldier, hero or what else. I’m a teenager and I can die within 1 or 2 shots if I got hit, depending on the weapon that hit me.

What makes the game so easy are some things I would like to have changed in some way. As these changes could probably be not liked by everyone, maybe another difficulty-mode could change some rules.

1. Carry capacity:
It’s actually very high, especially if upgraded twice. With less capacity I would be forced to choose my gear more wise.
Remember: I’m no super soldier.

2. Weights of weapons/items:
This needs a complete overhaul in my eyes.
It’s just curious how the actual weights have been choosen. I’m not really sure, but it doesn’t make sense that a pistol has the same weight as a granatgevär, LMG or PVG.
We should discuss how the weights could be balanced better.

Suggested weights V1
Melee old weight (kg) new weight (kg)
Bat 2 2
Sledgehammer 2 5
exp Sledgehammer 2 7
Handguns
Möller 2 0,5
Klauke 2 1
.44 2 1
N9 2 1
exp Klauke 2 1,5
SMG
Kpist 2 3
HP5 2 3
COM-10 2 3
exp Kpist 2 4
Assault Rifle
AG4 2 5
AG5 2 5
AT-WAD 2 4,5
N16 2 5
AI-76 2 5
exp AG4 2 6
LMG
KVM59 2 10
KVM89 2 9
N60 2 10
exp KVM59 2 12
Shotgun
12G 2 3
Sjöqvist 2 4
exp 12G 2 5
Hunting Rifle
Meusser 2 3
Älgstudsare 2 3
Sniper
Kotenok 2 4
S21 2 4
PVG 2 8
exp PVG 2 10
Grenadelauncher
Granatgevär 2 10
RLG-7 2 10
G79 2 5
exp Granatgevär 2 12

3. No limits in amount:
If I wish, I can carry thousands of bullets for each weapon I carry with me. Additionally I can have hundreds of grenades, healthkits and adrenalines with me. With limits for these items the game would get much harder. Combined with a reduced carry capacity… If I would just be able to have ~10 healthkits and 1-2 adrenaline in total (no matter which class) in my backpack, I would be more cautious.

4. No penalty for "dying"
To be exact: We can’t die. We get shot down and can use adrenaline or respawn where we want to.
Sometimes it’s even part of a tactic to just respawn instead of using adrenaline + healthkits

  • if the next safehouse is very close or
  • if you’re overloaded and want to get to a plundra as fast as possible or
  • if you just want to leave combat to travel somewhere else fast or
  • if you just don’t want to spent your adrenaline and healthkits.

Remember: with respawn you can get where you want without loosing anything and no need of healing!

If there would be some kind of penalty, we would think twice:

  • Maybe there could be a reduction of carried/stored adrenalines when choosing to respawn.

  • Or we could loose 10% (at least one thing) of everything in our backpack (ammo and consumeables).

  • What about loosing XP / skillspoints?

  • What about dying when shot down after using your last adrenaline? So your current character dies. End. Game over. Gear in the backpack gets lost, XP and skills get lost. You may start a new character after that…

We are just as strong because of these missing limits and penalties. That’s the only thing which let us feel that this game could be too easy.
That’s why we loose the feeling of the first hours.

More possible changes

  • Limits for fast travel
    What if we would just be able to use fast travel a few times per day? We would have to walk/cycle more distances. We would think twice, if we use fast travel or take the risk to walk.

  • no fast travel after being shot down
    We should not be able to descide where to respawn after shot down.
    There should just be the options to

  1. use an adrenaline and to stand up or
  2. to respawn at the next discovered safehouse.

The last one should reduce the stored adrenalines by one and you should start with the same low health as when just using an adrenaline.

  • Addition to the limit for adrenalines and the idea of dying characters:
    Instead of taking adrenalines with you or storing them in the plundra there could be a overall adrenaline counter, like the number of lives left in older games. It would get reduced automatically when being shot down and rises if you find new ones. If the last adrenaline has been used and you get shot again… Game over for this character, as described above.

If you have some more ideas to complete this survival-mode-difficulty, feel free to write them down.
Please don’t try to turn this topic in a totally other direction, the core idea should be kept.
Especially regarding the weights, carry limits and total capacity I would really appreciate some constructive ideas.

Thx

6 Likes

If we’re going full-blown survival mode, then the devs could add a hunger/thirst bar. That way we could make use of the food in various places. They could also add a sleep meter. You don’t nessisarily lose health if it runs out, but the further down it goes, the more you lose coordination and mobility. For instance if you haven’t slepped in 3 days, your maximum running speed is slower, and your reload speed is less as well.

1 Like

for a survival mode bullet wounds should also not heal like wolverine after eating green square. get shot, put green square on bullet would, maybe 1 hp per 10 seconds. a main reason of no fear in a fight is that i know i can just eat a green square i dont need to hide or avoid getting shot

i play on guerilla and i can get shot 100 times in a fight and be completely fine

Thank you for your reply.
That would change the focus of the game in a wrong direction, I guess.

It would be like:

Story teller:
“Our world is at war. Swedish and soviet machines are fighting each other… And against us humen. We are few, but we can fight back!”
Player:
“Oh shut up. Is that your only problem? I’m hungry!”

One rule for fluid gameplay in this hostile world of GZ must be: Not too much micromanagement.

@Moldyaco: in my eyes it’s the same with bandages. :wink:

Player:
“Wait! I’m bleeding.”… 5 seconds later… “Oh, wait, I’m bleeding again.”…

1 Like

you wouldnt really be healing while the fight is happening but we can agree to disagree on this

Dont forget the huntable animals…

the machines probably cant tell a deer from a person or any other animals

Well, they don’t mind about birds, why should they mind about deer?
But that’s not the topic.
It’s not about making the world or the game more realistic, but about making it more challenging.

Btw. The title of the suggested new difficulty don’t has to be “survival”. If you have better ideas how a mode as suggested could be titled, feel free to write them down.

birds are incredibly small fast and silent and in the sky the robots probably never even seen one

I edited the starting post with a suggestion for new weapon weights:

click to expand table
Melee old weight (kg) new weight (kg)
Bat 2 2
Sledgehammer 2 5
exp Sledgehammer 2 7
Handguns
Möller 2 0,5
Klauke 2 1
.44 2 1
N9 2 1
exp Klauke 2 1,5
SMG
Kpist 2 3
HP5 2 3
COM-10 2 3
exp Kpist 2 4
Assault Rifle
AG4 2 5
AG5 2 5
AT-WAD 2 4,5
N16 2 5
AI-76 2 5
exp AG4 2 6
LMG
KVM59 2 10
KVM89 2 9
N60 2 10
exp KVM59 2 12
Shotgun
12G 2 3
Sjöqvist 2 4
exp 12G 2 5
Hunting Rifle
Meusser 2 3
Älgstudsare 2 3
Sniper
Kotenok 2 4
S21 2 4
PVG 2 8
exp PVG 2 10
Grenadelauncher
Granatgevär 2 10
RLG-7 2 10
G79 2 5
exp Granatgevär 2 12

Btw. I’ve choosen them “by random” and by what might fit for their size, usability and strenght, not by reallife comparison.

1 Like

The AG4 and the AG5s weight are about 4kg empty.

The PVG or Barett M82 is about 15kg in real life.

I’m all for a more realistic weight system and a smaller carry capacity.

1 Like

I would like to try out some sort of “harcore” mode. More difficulty/realism. I think it would be interesting.

As for a full survival mode (hunger, thirst, sleep) I do not see that being a good idea personally. I would just see it as a waste of time. It would require a lot of work to make it seem like it was built with the game in mind, and not just shoved in with everything elese. The latter would cause it to be annoying and frustrating.

Same with hunting. Not sure why the same people keep asking for it when they could just play Hunter: COTW. Which is literally GZ but a hunting sim. I do not see how we could gain a lot by combining them.

2 Likes

April Difficulty mode please.

2 Likes

I have one character I play hardcore with. No plundra. No upgrade of carry capacity. No fast travel. Only two weapons in the wheel. And I never ever use exp weapons.

And it is by far the most fun character to play with. I play with different friends so I use different characters depending of who I play with since different people have different play styles.

Sleep is a big no. If it takes a few seconds to Sleep then there is no point. If it takes longer then it’s annoying because if you are sleeping 10min and the friends play on and you miss stuff. That would make me pissed.

2 Likes

sleep would be the most pointless thing for gz the best time is night makes the robots creepier. wish I could disable day and have It go from early morning it evening to night

That’s another thing they should add. We should be able to tweak the controls and things of that nature so the level if difficulty is what we want, so if you want realism but no hunger and thirst you can set it for that. If you want that much more of a challenge, then go for it.

Interesting idea…

Additionally to this suggested difficulty mode there code be an option to customize some values.

A difficulty-generator with switches and bars to set maximum amounts or the carry capacity.

1 Like

I’ve taken up the idea before about being able to set parameters for your game. I truly hate exp weapons and I would like the option not too allow them in my game. They make killing bots way to easy and I think they dont fit the setting.
And you could have the same switches for hunger, thirst, carry capacity, no fast travel and so on.
But then again you have a problem what happens if someone join your game and has max carry and weighs the max allowed and has full plundra. Does he lose stuff? Or as in my game no exp weapons and his plundra is full Does he lose the weapon?

There are tons of survival games out there. When GZ was released it was completely unique. I want that to be brought back. So instead of survival elements, how about they do the machines some well-deserved justice instead?

The #1 thing GZ needs is a revamp of enemy AI, and especially for Hunters and Tanks.
I’ll repeat myself to the point of boredom with this, but back in GZ’s early months it was a death sentence to run into 3 FNIX Hunters out in the open… The way the AI is now, you can easily take down hordes of them without even getting hit, and Tanks are just big, slow turkeys.

Machines should be GZ’s #1 threat that you need to overcome and survive. Please bring back some feeling of early days GZ!
A somewhat refined version of the infamous april ‘20 difficulty could be just what this game needs.

5 Likes

I agree. The game was better back then and more difficult than now.

1 Like