I think that it’s easy to go into dead zones as they provide not that much of a challenge for a geared up player to just run in and grab everything so I propose the following idea:
Add a layer where every time they need to decode something or do some puzzle to open up the doors to the juicy loot.
Ex.
Add a keycard requirer that requires you to find a keycard lying around the area or randomly dropped from a killed zombie but could be used to open the area to good loot
Add Security that can be disabled by finding the generator and shutting it off or just straight-up destroying the turrets but with this, you would need to keep the Zombies inside where they cant be target by the turrets. (Access could have the implementation of the keycard or can just be that they left the door open while fighting you)
-Same suggestion as above but instead of zombie they’re NPC’s that don’t want contact with the outside world so they’ll shoot at you with the turrets or inside, this would make sense if the turrets were to be fixed up every time but with this, there should be an inaccessible room that has many more new people that are considered survivors so that if the people raiding that area come in and kill all, it would still make sense that they were able to repair their sentries and get back their men. (Access could have the implementation of the keycard or can just be that they left the door open while fighting you)
Ultimately I think that these areas with good loot should be harder to get into and reward more for that amount of work that it puts into breaking in, even if this was to make it where many would skip on looting this because it would be harder, those that do want to be power or have a group would be able to risk it all for that.
I am on board with dead zones having more enemies and loot rooms for more variety.
I like the idea of extra rooms to explore with keys and cards, something extra to do when your there.
This reminds me of the new excursions discussed. Going up against endless hordes of zombies to find high end loot. The deeper you go and the longer you stay presents a larger risk and larger reward. The addition of excursions being an option to loot on a survival map is my favorite topic discussed for U2
While a lot of these don’t make sense thematically, these aren’t half bad ideas.
I’ve always wanted for locations to have more depth to them, more than just the “run into a building and check loot spawns”, or if we’re feeling adventurous today, “run through the easy to find bunker and check loot spawns”. I tried to remedy this problem a bit with Easter Island, one of the locations requires a Keycard or vent exploration to reach, or another that requires keys to access certain loot spawns (though this can be circumvented by just going into nearby items in the inventory, due to a how animated objects have to be set up to avoid problems with servers) and I wish I did something like that in other parts of the map, though I feel like I didn’t due to trying to keep things thematically appropriate.
UII needs to have reasons to explore locations again besides “Oh, I need more Military Ammo” or “Oh, I died, better get basic loot again”. Just having something, anything, to make these locations worth while to come back to is something we desperately need to see.
As for deadzones themselves, turrets/automated security systems are interesting, though I don’t like the idea of having NPCs in a deadzone, since they’d be, ya know, dead. Keycards shouldn’t drop from Zombies, progression like this shouldn’t be left up to RNG. Keycards could also be found at other locations, with clues at the deadzone giving hints to where said keycards could be, encouraging players to revisit locations that they’d otherwise stop visiting.
I mean although yea it might be in the deadzone, it could also be considered as a deadzone as they just kill on sight so no one is allowed nearby. I mean there has to be some faction that has a hideout somewhere whether that is the bandits who loot your things, there has to be a base for the bad npc.
But i still understand where you come from in the part where they dont fit thematically. But maybe there is a way to make them. As for the keycards, maybe drop from the NPC if the original idea is considered but i like you idea about having clues scattered and then also keycards found outside the location.
I really like rust’s system of events and places to loot. They have airdrops, scientist loot locations (AI bandits essentially) , a cargo ship with scientist, an additional loot option to the boat with a card to signal the military for more loot, a tank to battle for end tier loot, and attack helicopters that roam the map (they don’t bother you unless you attack or shot around it). I am too bad at the game for these lol but see them in videos and love the variation to end game looting. Hope U2 adopts something similar with AI bandits, like forts and convoys.
I think deadzones should have tiers of radiation, like around the edges there’s a bit of radiation which gradually gets bigger as you get to the center (or to the spot the radiation is coming from)
So maybe there could be a few hostile NPCs around the deadzone, to make it a little harder. Like, walking in and out of the deadzone or patrolling outside it.
The DZs should have filters Required for the level, as in there are 4 levels, each level needs a certain level of the filter
Ex. Floor 7 needs a Filter Lvl7 to go down,unless you wanna die.
Add an extra Mega to make the game a lot harder to do, some are experts, but as the game grows, it’ll be harsh