In the last months, I have gotten the impression that the discussions here on the forum are becoming more and more technical. It seems to be all focused around bug reports, and how game mechanics work or don’t work. A quick scroll through the “Latest” section confirms this. 6 months ago, the popular topics on the forum looked very different. Forgive me if I’m coming through as negative, but this is probably the reason why my regular status is now gone. I simply can’t engage in all these bug related topics. I just want to discuss more interesting things. Don’t you? Can we just take a breath and forget bug reports and feature requests for a moment?
For me, Generation Zero is and has always been about the atmosphere. The 80’s, the cold war, the beauty of Scandinavian nature, using your wits to survive against an overwhelming enemy… All these things have been reflected brilliantly in GZ. The story gives you just enough to think about what has happened, and I look forward to more of the mystery being revealed. The amazing “Alpine Unrest”, along with the implementation of experimental weapons, has shifted the game’s weight more towards a science fiction setting. The frightened teenager that once crawled ashore in Yttervik, 9 months ago, is no more than a faded memory of the supersoldier now running around on Himfjäll, exterminating the greatest war machines left and right. It’s great fun, but the game’s initial atmosphere is also fading.
When GZ’s world and story expands again, as I’m sure it will do onto the currently empty islands, I personally hope that it steers a bit back from the sci-fi path it’s currently heading down. I want to see more of a cold war setting again, something more down to earth and realistic. I would love to see more backstory on what the army was doing when the catastrophe hit, maybe more about the evacuations of civilians, and more about if the Soviet’s were involved or not. There are tons of unanswered questions to work on here, and it would be interesting to have them answered before raising even more questions. I kinda’ miss that 80’s teenager with a rusty weapon, torn jeans and a leather jacket, running from farm to farm scraping up supplies, terrified of the machines lurking all around, all whilst looking for answers to what happened.
I would love to read your opinions on this.
Where would you like GZ to go from here? Further into sci-fi, or back to it’s roots?
I am all for your “back to the roots” direction hope.
I think we have started to discuss so many technical aspects of potential bugs as the devs are awfully quiet about many of them, which is not really confidence inspiring. I think we get the impression that our help is needed to nail down root causes of weird quirks that actually can be quite annoying, particularly as it is not only very few of them, but actually quite a lot. I think that some have gotten the impression that if we won’t figure those out (see these in-depth bug analysis threads by @Voodoo like this on here: Duplicate attachment and Unable to reload (attach ammo to) Automatgevär (AG4, AG5, Experimental AG4)), no one will.
The devs have always been quiet about issues, if anything now a days we get more of a heads up as to whats being worked on by being actively told when something has obtained a ticket, or when the devs request save files, or that something is being looked into. That wasn’t much of a thing earlier last year and it’s welcomed.
@NJR87;
To give you the discussion you’re looking for;
I disagree, for me it’s always been the sci-fi that drew me into GZ, the machines and the Swedish setting; sold. The initial atmosphere fades with all games. It’s rare to find a game where you start the game in a position of unease against your enemies and end with a feeling of the exact same unease, as you level up a character, get more accustomed to game loops and generally improve in a game all initial atmosphere is changed into a new atmosphere, either of power play or optimization. And it’s up to the player to embrace it, or start fresh continually to maintain that initial atmosphere.
I think the EXP weapons are great, same with apoco machines, as they raise the ceiling of the game and allow for it to further expand upwards instead of outwards. Which is where gz’s potential lies, in a flushed out open world game with many in game mechanics to keep the players engaged in its world.
Narrative wise it’s still the same beast it was to begin with, one shrouded in mystery. And i’m all for it, expand the narrative with the air of delving deeper to understand it, so that way when the story is concluded the feeling of satisfaction in having those answers will be all the greater.
You can still have your 80’s teen with a rusty weapon running from machines, just delete your saves and start anew my dude.
For me personally, upwards and onwards we go either into sci-fi or military or wherever we head next!
That’s cool. Wouldn’t be much of a discussion if we all agreed, would it? It’s not like I want them to take back anything they’ve already added or something, I just want more bits of the story filled in. It can’t all be about the mysterious FNIX and beyond. There are a lot of human stories to be told, judging from the early missions and signs left behind. I think you said something along those lines in your 2020 expectations video as well, right? I want to know what happened to the civilians and to the military, like findig personal accounts of what went down. Like puzzling together the pieces of the past to get the whole picture. Yes, they could expand the story infinitely, and they could also answer so many unanswered questions.
Yes exactly, i think that’s also how a middle ground is found!
And the request for the story to be flushed out is one i can totally agree on, i mean we do need answers to some of the many burning questions this game brings up, but i do think also that will come to us eventually! Exactly, like i feel that Fredrik needs to be a key thing explained to us, it’s very hard to tell whether or not he is the conspirator behind it all, and to “de-blur” the lines on von ulmer, some think he’s a good guy and some think he’s the main villain of this game.
As i said though, it will be so satisfying when it does all get unveiled to us, and the bits and bops along the way to pass the time in my humble opinion, only serve to keep us playing and enjoying the game till we do get more massive expansions.
I do feel though, it would be hard to fill the story out in regular content drops of story missions, just in terms of how this game is developed, and that could potentially lead to more confusion than clarity… But what do you think of regular content drops containing missions?
I think more of the story/mystery could be unraveled through releases like Alpine Unrest, or even smaller ones with just new missions and not necessarily new land.
AU delved a bit deeper into the Fredrik Holberg thing, if you paid close attention (like I didn’t), but it also introduced “The Resistance” to the game, who could also use a bit more backstory.
Veronika has been in the story almost from the beginning, so she could be a key character to solving the puzzle. She tried to warn about what was happening, and probably knows more about the conspiracy than she’s telling. In AU, her main concern is the survivors at the hotel.
Anyway, I’d say AU moves the finish line of the story forward. No harm in that as long as the questions are answered in the end.
There are numerous ways they could go forward from here. The expansions don’t all have to be linear, but a more linear approach may eventually be required if/when they finally intend to reveal a clear answer. Interpreting vague messages won’t suffice to wrap up the story, IMO.
My personal suggestion, if or when a new expansion the size of AU is released, lets say for example onto the island west of Klinte, it could be with missions mainly focused on the backstory of the invasion. The pilot Elsa could point you back along the footsteps of the military, or Veronika to people in charge who knew something beforehand. Then we could fill in some blanks, that also tie into the final answer. I personally would prefer clarifying the past before moving further on.
@NJR87 I believe you’re talking about Anita actually for AU! But man does Veronika need to be explained, she’s labeled as KIA, but i believe she survived and is heading her own resistance somewhere in the isles. She was the closest to Von before everything whent to hell, so maybe she could be part of the whole explanation on where Vons motives lie! And man does it, the stuff you learn about good ol’ Fred in the various audio tapes is some crazy shit
Yeah i low key feel that island west of Klinte will be the next up for massive dlc, or at least i hope it is, it has some wicked terrain on it But can def agree it would be nice to examine the things already in the game before more is added, but in the end wherevet the devs decide to unravel this story, be it adding more mystery or revealing the mysteries that currently exist, I’m on-friggin-board for it!! Personally I think this games story is one of the most interesting ones i’ve had the pleasure of playing in years
If someone’s post ticks you off, flag them. As tempting as it may be; responding with hostility won’t improve anything and it won’t add to the discussion.
@tene Right, that was Anita! I had them confused for the same person. Thanks for clarifying. I think I have to sit down and read through my finished missions log…
I think we both agree it will be exciting to see where the story goes from here, whatever path the devs choose. What new weapons do you hope to see in the future? More experimentals or something new?
Haha all good dude! There is actually a surprisingly large cast for a game that only just got NPCs added a month or so ago
And actually i have my eyes on a bullpup from the early 80’s that Sweden invented, because i have a large affinity for bulpups in general (i find them to be more ergonomic) here’s a link so you can have a read through if you’d like https://modernfirearms.net/en/assault-rifles/sweden-assault-rifles/interdynamics-mkr-eng/
Outside of that, to lean in on my nerdy sci-fi love, it would be really sick to take the hunters vibrasword and use it as our own melee weapon someday, both are things i would love to see come to the game, but in general dual wielding as well would be really cool, made a vid on it because i think it would be a “unique” new way to approach certain fire arms that exist already.
You have a point there and normally i do try to avoid hostility, so duly noted man i’ll flag things in the future and hopefully we’ll see a change brought around that way instead of me putting my foot in my mouth, so to speak.
I realise it’s a bit of a tall order; but I for one would love to take the fight to the Swedish mainland.
Spoiler alert.
Summary
During the Wrench in the Works mission you learn that those red shipping containers have indeed been shipped to places like Boden, which is an actual swedish town known for it’s military presence. Could be cool to make something out of that.
Ah man, mainland expansion someday devs plsss, imagine fighting machines in a super urban environment like Stockholm? The ability to snipe out of tall buildings and use alleyways in combat would prove such unique experiences.
Very ironic there’s a Boden here in Canada too But That would take us really far up north, that would be cool, they could double down on snowy environments and maybe work on some ice assets to bring a feeling of life to an environment like that Having a railway junction to explore would be a cool location too!
Could we please not do this under this topic? Could you PM them instead?
I can understand you’re frustrated, but I’m trying to have a positive talk about what’s NOT wrong with Generation Zero here.
@tene That sounds cool, and that rifle looks cool too. Really small caliber though, rimfire even! Maybe good for swarms of ticks?
I think a lever-action rifle in .45-70 would be cool, maybe with a 6-7 round magazine, with a slightly lower fire rate than the PVG90, and a damage output somewhere between that and the .44 Magnus. Should be able to take down a Hunter with a full mag if you aim well.
Or maybe an infantry level gauss rifle or railgun would be cool? It would actually make a bit sense with all that robot tech available, that they would develop something for personnel use as well, is my thought.
@Zesiir It will be exciting to see where they expand in the future. If they plan on working with GZ for as long as they did with The Hunter: Classic, they’ll eventually run out of fresh islands on Östertörn, and a mainland expansion could well be possible.
I think it would be really cool if they upped the game a bit, and made a more war-torn landscape to play in, for example on the mainland. A place where the military had really fought back. Imagine a real battlefield with bombed out towns, wrecked vehicles, fields full of craters and burnt forests. That would be awesome!
For the people that don’t seem to get it; in this thread we discuss how Generation Zero will evolve in 2020. Not past moderator actions, not what to do instead of flagging inappropriate posts and not arguing against other users over subjects that have nothing to do with the discussion.
Warnings have been given to the offending participants. Off-topic posts removed, again. Further ignoring of the CoC will result in suspension.
It’s not like I want them to take back anything they’ve already added or something, I just want more bits of the story filled in. It can’t all be about the mysterious FNIX and beyond. There are a lot of human stories to be told, judging from the early missions and signs left behind. I think you said something along those lines in your 2020 expectations video as well, right? I want to know what happened to the civilians and to the military, like findig personal accounts of what went down. Like puzzling together the pieces of the past to get the whole picture. Yes, they could expand the story infinitely, and they could also answer so many unanswered questions. 
And man does it, the stuff you learn about good ol’ Fred in the various audio tapes is some crazy shit
what a twist , and why not eh