So, Nelson said he wants II to be more survival based, and these suggestions are more small details than major game features, so here I go.
1 - Alarms
A random amount of buildings (Maybe about 2/10?) should have alarms that you can visibly spot.
These, similar to real life, should have a blue blinking lights that’s not really bright, but can be reliably spotted at night. Whenever you break a window or break down a door, these should play the average siren noise.
Cars should have this too, with a greater chance (Maybe around 4/10?)
These should ring only when you either break a window while the car is not started, or when it’s left unlocked for a period of time. Alarms should be something similar to IRL one, with modern cars having a higher chance and having better alarms, while older cars have a smaller chance to have an armed alarm and should use the old horn-like alarms. To prevent an alarm going off in a car, you can just unlock the car with it’s key (Nelson did say he wants a key per car, and I support that) Both should make a noise that alerts nearby zombies and players.
2 - Infastructure
We know that Unturned is set in the first few days of the apocalypse, so why is there both no electricity and no working sinks? You’d expect that since it’s the first few days of the World’s end.
My suggestion is that things like electricity and water should be available during about the first 20-40 days of the apocalypse. With electricity, street lights should turn on, big skyscrapers should have their aircraft warning lights strobes active, and houses should have a random chance per room to have lights already turned on, completely random. Also, things like metal detectors and automatic doors on places like shopping malls should be working. You’ll be able to hear things like AC units giving out a low humming sound and see aircraft warning lights flashing and stuff like that. This way, the place won’t feel dead.
As day go on and the stored electricity slowly runs out, street lights would randomly blink for a second before continuing normal activity, automatic doors would start to fail, requiring opening it manually (With the normal interact key), ATM screens would die (Quick note, I’m not asking for functional ATMs, I’m just saying they should very slightly glow like a real screen, and then die out as days go on.) and eventually electricity would run out and everything suddenly die (Imagine the Blackout form Watch_Dogs) and stuff like fridges and freezers on shops would start to fail, meaing things that can go bad and rot will. (This means you should eat perishable foodstuffs like meat and dairy products BEFORE eating non-perishable things like dried noodles and things like beef jerky and other dried meats.)
This way, the map would feel way more realistic and you’d get a feel of what’s left of Earth collapsing on itself, as the Zombie virus take over what remains. Also it would look really cool as everything slowly shuts down.
3 - Random events
First of all, most random events should be small things, like a random house/vehicle alarm going off in the distance that you can hear, of course, this won’t be in the immediate area, but somewhere far enough that won’t effect you, but close enough that you can just barely hear it. You know, things like hearing gunshots in the distance or a random house having stuff like some of the windows barricaded and a loot stash, possibly with a chance of a maintained vehice in decent condition, this would possibly be from a survivor who didn’t make it, maybe you could find his corpse next to an empty box of anti-depressants or next to a gun with a single bullet missing, or maybe even his front door broken down with several zombies enjoying his brains. Well yes, this should be pretty rare and should spawn the second the map is generated, this way everything is consistent (And you won’t randomly find a survivor’s house that used to be a regular house if it’s consistent, sorta like something in Project Zomboid)
4 - Some functionality in electronics
Some houses should spawn with stuff like AC units that can make that house hot or cold depending on how you set it (More modern cars should have a more basic version of this), microwaves should be able to heat food, ovens beings able to efficiently cook food, heaters being able to heat up a room more efficiently than a AC, but can’t cool it down, and fridges being able to stop perishables from rotting. These should both spawn in houses with things like fridges and microwaves being commond and air conditioning units and heaters being more rare.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, ‘‘But isn’t this extremely unbalanced?’’ and I say no, it isn’t.
Remember, none of these will give you a major advantage, merely help you on your way to survival.
It’s a way to help new players as electricity and basic infastructure will be available in the first month or so, however, as time moves and things start to collapse on themselves, you’ll have to improvise. Things like generators and solar panels (Possibly extremely rare find from an electronics shop.) that doesn’t produce electric at night but can be used at daytime. Or maybe having several wind turbines scattered around the map, near places where you can settle. It’ll produce less power, but is more or less silent and requires minimal effort. However, as a negative, maybe this place could be a out-of-nowhere place, requiring you to make a choice between easy loot or working electronics.
There should also be an electronics store where most of these things should be able to found.
However, electronics should NOT be necessary for One’s survival, but should help enough for it to be considered as a valid option.
5 - Minor details that I want to mention
Here’s a list of small things that I feel should add but don’t have exactly enough material to write on them.
- Interior lights you can turn on in cars.
- Ability to sleep in cars. (If being tired is planned for II)
- Ability to cook. (I’m not expecting anything complex, even the most simple cooking system works for me.)
- Ability to make tea. (This is the most important suggestions and should be added.)
- If a place is dark (After the electricity dies in a city or just in a middle of nowhere forest) and there’s a light source, it should reflect off of things like glass windows.
Welp, this was something, feel free to criticize these ideas on the comments below.