Intro
This post aims to make the player’s gameplay enjoyable for the long term, while discussing about key points as much as i can. To make this post more enjoyable for the reader, i decided it would be a good idea to add little symbols that will make it easier to go through this post. (Check Guide)
Issues & Goals
1 - The game gets boring too quickly.
- After a while playing the game, it will eventually get repetitive, and less interesting.
- The game is too easy for some people, and most of the community are interested in pvp, rather than pve.
2 - Many aspects of the game remains undiscovered due to the player not finding them interesting enough.
- Survival is a great example. Most people don’t even bother playing survival because it isn’t appealing enough. Again, it gets boring too quickly.
- People usually don’t bother with quests since it’s easy to lose reputation and hard to gain back. When all the quests are done, there’s usually nothing left to do with NPCs.
3 - Singleplayer world is not lively
- The player usually goes for multiplayer first because they can get bored in singleplayer easily. This could be fixed by still somehow making the player not feel alone in a singleplayer world.
Summary
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Let the world constantly change
Add more aspects that occur around the world in time, rather than making everything what it always is in every map -
Make the player not feel alone, even in singleplayer
This could be achieved by adding more ambience sounds in game, and let random events happen so the player won’t get bored too quickly. -
Better and more ambience sounds
We don’t have enough variants of ambience sounds right now; They can be out of place, they might not catch the player’s mood, or they can be just too bad to even interest the player.
This thread plans to keep the player interested in the game and let them enjoy for far longer.
Guide
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Text between red pointing arrows > like this < are important to read, and better if you don’t miss these.
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Text between green pointing arrows > like this < are easily skippable, and won’t affect your experience with reading this post.
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Titles with green background like this are easily skippable, and won’t affect your experience while reading this post.
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Titles with blue background like this are connected with another item of this list.
Gameplay
Let’s get this fact straight: Unturned can get boring very easily, and become repetitive after a while. The idea here is to keep the player interested in the game, without having to switch maps for different experiences.
Day & Night time
There has not been many differences between day and night, other than, obviously, light. Night time makes things harder to see, which in a pvp situation, it makes more sense to go out at night. This part aims to keep daytime and night time advantages in a balance.
Temperature
Temperature has always been weird, and been restricted to snowy maps, like yukon. It has never been visible with other bars like hunger, or thirst. In my opinion, temperature of the player should become a visible sidebar.
Although, this sidebar will only be visible when the temperature level drops below a specific percentage, or if there’s a drastic change on it (like 5% or more every second)
My concept art:
Left – The current one
Right – My idea
So what?
The idea here is to make going out at night more dangerous, with temperature itself. Temperature will go down slowly when out at night, until it gets to the freezing point. The player can still have the “sheltered” status by staying under a solid tile, preventing freezing. When player’s temperature bar goes down, the player will slow down, and the player will shake, making it harder to aim with a gun. The freezing damage should not be significant (something like 0,2 hp/s damage) however it can be changed by the map maker, or maybe can be turned off.
Turned AI
Note: I will not go in depth of the turned ai. This is just to show how day & night time can affect the turned’s ai.
As we know, the only timed event that affects turned is full moon. It’s rare enough that it doesn’t have much impact on the gameplay. My idea is, turned’s range will increase depending on the moon phase (closer to the full moon, longer the range is) Here’s an example how it could work:
> Note: Percentages show the turned’s detection range, going from 100% to 200%. 100% is the range turned has when it’s day time. <
In order to keep the full moon event still unique, the turned will not get strength or xp buffs in other moon phases, except when it’s full moon.
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Unforeseen events
To keep the player interested in playing the game in a long term, the game constantly needs to offer new things to explore. When a player exactly knows what to expect when doing something, it takes away the fun. This part aims to explain how the game world could constantly change, so the player would not have to expect the same thing every time, leading to a more enjoyable gameplay.
Weather
> This part of the thread is connected to Ambience sounds -> Weather-specific ambience and Graphical options -> Weather view obstruction <
We currently have only two types of weather events; Rainy, and blizzard (exclusive to snow biomes). I’m not gonna talk about a whole new weather events (they deserve their own thread) but instead, i’m gonna talk about something simple; Weather strength.
Idea here is that changes on the weather don’t happen immediately, or don’t always happen the same way.
What does that even mean?
Imagine a line from 0% to 100%. (100% here is max strength, and 0% is nothing at all)
When the game decides for a change on weather, it will randomly pick a number between 0 and 100, and that’ll be the max strength the weather event will reach. The weather will first start from 0% and slowly build its way up to whatever number is picked (1% every second?) And the weather effects will change depending on the strength. For example, a blizzard at 100% strength will freeze the player twice as fast as a blizzard at 50% strength.
Sound effects and the view obstruction will change depending on the strength, but they are mentioned at a different part of this thread.
Herds
Million dollar suggestion. I’m aware it’s been suggested a million times.
To keep the world more lively, and keep the player’s fear from turned going, the world can have packs of turneds randomly roaming around the world, where they spawn at a place player can’t see, and they go in a straight line drawn over where the player was when the turned spawns. So, the player can still avoid turneds by keeping going, like a nomadic playstyle. If the turned sees the player, they will actually chase the player around the map until the player gets out of their detection range, or get distracted by something else like flares.
These turneds will not usually try to destroy placeables placed by the player, and they can have random loot tables and different categories, like military herds, or civilian herds.
The categories, spawn frequency, and anything related to these herds can be modified by the map maker, and can be spawned by the player using a command like /herd.
NPCs
NPCs at the time was a big addition to the game. Right now, it’s not worth messing with them because it’s simply not fun, and the reputation can be easily lost in pvp multiplayer. This part explains how it could be improved, and how we could encourage the player to have a better reputation.
Gaining & Losing Reputation
The idea here is simple; The player mostly loses the opportunity to max-out their reputation once they kill a player and gain the negative points, unless the player very frequently heals other players, or kills another player with very low reputation.
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Trades
The player can gain a small bit of reputation by trading with NPCs when you give a certain amount of experiencewith the idea of the NPC telling other NPCs about how generous of a trader you are.This ratio can be something like 1 reputation for every 500 experience traded. -
Simply chatting with them
The player usually doesn’t even bother to read what the npc says and get straight to the quest. Idea here is, the NPC will first have two options, a quest, and a random thing the npc has to say. The first time player decides to hear them, they will gain a small bit of reputation with the idea of getting to know each other
Quests
Quests are usually not worth for their prize, and they are usually boring and just too easy to be done with it. Assuming the loot system will be different than how it is right now, and it will be harder to fully gear up, these quests could be a good way for the player to get geared up.
When the player completes all the quests on a map, there’s usually nothing left afterwards except trades. The NPCs could have daily quests they give each in-game day with different prizes and different objectives. Map maker can create two different groups named “prizes” and “objectives” and whatever is put in these groups will be randomly picked for a quest to appear. If the quest is not picked up, it will be reset in the next in-game day.
Example
Let’s say, “prizes” group includes +100 experience, a machete, a schofield, and +50 experience. The game will pick one or two different prizes from this list, and that will be what’s given for the quest. The game will make sure, if two of them are chosen, they are different types of prizes, so the player can’t get both +100 experience and +50 experience from the same quest.
Let’s say, “objectives” group includes killing 30 turneds, baking a cake, fishing a raw squid, or bringing a peacemaker. The game will pick only one objective from this list, and that’ll be the trigger for the quest.
Looting
Looting in 3.0, in my opinion, has always been boring and weird, because the player always expects the same thing everytime they load up a map, and they usually have the same plan for looting a place. (Also, isn’t it weird how you can find a nailgun or literally a colt in a library of a city?)
Random events (gameplay)
> This part of the thread is connected to Ambience sounds -> Random Events (ambience) <
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Dead bodies
Sometimes, the world will randomly spawn already dead corpses with severe loot on it, or a random animal corpse, representing that person/animal just died on there. -
Abandoned vehicles/crashes
Sometimes, the player can encounter random abandoned vehicles (cars, helis, planes) anywhere around the map with severe loot in/around it, and can be found badly damaged or exploded. -
Random cut down trees
Sometimes, the player can encounter cut down trees in singleplayer, with nothing else left behind. They can be in groups, or just single tree cut down.
Randomized buildings and loot tables
Player always expects the same map design everytime they load up a map. There’s a way to work this out in my head. Right tools given to the map maker, the player can still explore the world and see different things.
What this means, is that specific buildings in a group can be randomized every time the map is loaded up for the first time on a save file. Let’s imagine a folder, with three different groups in it. One is “civilian”, one is “cop” and the last one is “military”. The map maker will design a place three times with each being different. When a new save is generated and the map is loaded for the first time, the game will randomly choose one of these groups and that one will be the loot zone that appears on the map.
This could help a lot to make the game less repetitive, since the player will expect different things and they will have to play in different ways everytime they load a fresh save, thus making a single map more enjoyable in the long term.
Ambience Sounds
There has been only a few types on ambience sounds on the game, and they sometimes play where they are not supposed to play. I would talk about soundtracks here, but there isn’t much to talk about except they should be calming and should play at specific times etc.
Biome-specific ambience
Biomes here mean radioactive zones, seas, deserts and snows maps etc.
I always found it weird how there’s still classic ambience sounds playing in the background even though you are in a radioactive zones, and not this: Example.
My idea is to have much more variant sounds depending on where you are on the map. There shouldn’t be birds singing when you’re in a desert, or in a radioactive zone, and you should get the vibe that you’re in one of these biomes with sounds too. In fact, I’ve seen new players enter a deadzone without paying attention to the ui and die there. This small addition would be cool and make the world more lively.
Weather-specific ambience
> This part of the thread is connected to Gameplay -> Weather and Graphical options -> Weather view obstruction <
This part is a continuation of “Gameplay > Weather”
As mentioned there, it doesn’t make sense that the strength of weather will always be the same. Same goes here, it doesn’t make sense that a weak blizzard and a strong blizzard will have the same sound effect.
(I personally don’t like the blizzard sound in 3.0, so i shared a link from the long dark sound instead)
This sound will occur in between 0% and 50% strength of a blizzard: Example for light snowy weather sounds
And this will occur between 50% and 100% strength: Example for blizzard sounds
Same goes for rainy weather, i provided a link for a simple heavy rainy weather: Example
I believe you get the point.
Cave ambience
I am personally not a fan of cave sounds we have in unturned 3.0 right now. They are unneccessarily spooky, and i don’t think it’s realistic at all. While i still agree that the spookiness in the ambience should stay, i don’t think it should be too bad. Water dripping sounds, and echoes could be a good way for improving it. That’s how i imagine it: Example
Random events
> This part of the thread is connected to Ambience sounds -> Random Events (gameplay) <
These corpses and vehicle crashes randomly appearing around the world should attract the player in some way, while making them not feel alone even in a singleplayer world.
This part is related to random gen
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Dead corpses
Wherever the dead corpse spawns, if the player is close, the player will hear a gunshot from that direction. This gunshot sound can be changed by the map maker, and random sounds from a group can be played each time. -
Vehicle crashes
Wherever a vehicle crash spawns, if the player is close, the player will hear an explosion sound. This sound will be heard from much longer distances than a gunshot sound. Again, this can be modified by the map maker and multiple sounds from a group can be played for each time. -
Dead animals
Same way as how dead corpses appear, this time, after a while the event happens, crow sounds will come from that direction.
This part is not related to random gen
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Crows flying off
The game will pick a location that isn’t in the player’s sight, and it will create this sound. This sound can be created by crows in groups, or just a single crow. > I tried to find a sound file explaining what i mean, but i think i’ll just explain it from here and leave the rest for your imagination, oh well. It’ll be a mixture of both crow flying sound and crows screaming to make sounds. < -
Random gun shots and explosions (again)
Mentioned in “dead corpses” and “vehicle crashes” the player can hear random gunshots and explosions, but these might not mean anything at all. These sounds will be even more distant than sounds in ‘random events’ mentioned before. -
Stuff… colliding?
These sounds can be heard randomly in cities, like door noises, or glass breaking etc. this will give the impression that you’re not alone in a city.
This will not be very frequent, and it will be created from a direction player can’t see, or not looking at right now.
Custom sounds
At the moment, you have to dig through in-game files in order to have custom sounds for your map, and it’s pretty complicated. I will try to explain how the map maker can easily import custom sounds and can easily use it for map making.
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Sounds directory
It’s very simple. A “sounds” folder directly in the map folder. You can drag in custom sounds you want to have in game, without having to replace other sounds. -
Mapmaker tools
You will get to select where you want the sound to play. It’s similar to the system we have right now; You’ll have a 3d cube and when the player enters in, the sound will constantly play in loops. You can choose the sound you want it to be played; it can be a vanilla sound, or it can be sound files from the “sounds” folder.
This also means, the sounds of random events previously mentioned can be changed by the map maker, and these sounds can be played once instead of constantly in loops.
Graphical options
Graphics could be easily improved with simple touches. In 3.0, there has been some updates on it, however i don’t think it’s enough.
Fog
This is extremely simple; There’ll be natural fog randomly created around the player. This can vary into very different types.
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Morning fog: When the sun rises up, there’ll be some natural fog lasting for 2-3 in-game hours.
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Distance fog: There’ll be very little fog, only noticeable when looking at long distances, and this fog will always be around. This can be turned off through graphic nnnoptions, though.
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Weather fog: Like other weather events, heavy fog can settle down randomly without rain or blizzard. This will be only for visuals.
Weather view obstruction
> This part of the thread is connected to Gameplay -> Weather and Ambience sounds -> Weather-specific ambience <
Mentioned before, it doesn’t make sense that two different strength levels of weather conditions can have the same features; effects, sounds, and looks. This is very simple: When the strength is low, the view obstruction will be less noticeable. When the strength is high, you’ll barely be able to see what’s in front of you.
Examples from unturned 3.0, on how it could look:
The Sky and Clouds
At the moment, we have blocky clouds and nothing special about it. The sky has so much potential.
Relation between clouds and weather events
Right now in 3.0, there isn’t much ways to tell if a weather event is gonna begin soon. (iirc clouds get darker when rain is about to begin) A sky wouldn’t be realistic if they didn’t tell anything about the incoming weather conditions.
Before a weather event kicks in, the sky will tell that it’s coming. For example, before rain begins, the sky will first get darker (for probably a minute) and the clouds will dominate the sky. Then the rain will begin.
Cloud behaviour
Ah, blocky clouds we have in 3.0. They aren’t that good.
Seeing a couple videos from unturned II, we will have better looking skies. If it’s possible to do so, these clouds should be randomly generated.
The ideas here are very simple; when a cloud gets in front of the sun, it’ll block the lighting, and make the ground darker.
The weather events should kick-in when there’s an actual cloud above the player, not randomly. The frequency of these clouds can be tweaked which can help making changes on rarities of certain weather events. I have a stupid idea on how it could work, but i decided to add it in anyways.
Example
> Assuming clouds will be randomly generated, there will be three stages; The first one will be “less frequent”, the second will be “medium frequent” and the third one will be “very frequent”
The game will pick randomly between these for each in-game day. For example;
When “less frequent” is picked, there will be little to no clouds on the sky.
When “medium frequent” is picked, there’ll be, obviously, not many clouds but also not very rare. Say it’s partly cloudy.
When “very frequent” is picked, there’ll be a lot of clouds that it’ll cover the sky.
This method can be used to tweak the rarity of weather events such as rain, or blizzard. <
End of the thread!
I did my best to not mess up any of this. I have rushed some bits of this, since i had this idea for well over 3 months now, although i begin working on the actual thread 15 days ago.
I hope i did not repeat any of the ideas suggested before, and i hope this actually didn’t suck. Please give me some feedback and share your opinions below. Thanks for reading 
