I’m not really sure if Unturned really needs an explicit singleplayer story mode, in-game quests can easily fit that role like they already do in U3, so I would like to suggest a different approach.
Singleplayer scenarios
or something like that.
A scenario would give you a goal that you must accomplish in a confined space, after you finish it would tally up how quickly you finished it, how many zombies you killed, etc. and it would score you based on that. Speedrunning could become a thing in Unturned, I think that’s hella cool, right?
Now, let me give some examples to create a better idea of what I want.
Island Scenario
You must find a boat on an Island ridden with zombies, repair it and escape.
This isn’t something that I’d like to finish in 10-20 minutes, a scenario should take several in-game days for the player to complete. You would get a pretty big island to find the boat (around 2km²), you also have to find a way to repair the boat and get it into the water, only then you can escape. In the meantime, food and thirst are a concern, there’re going to be some cold-ass nights so you better find a place to stay, maybe an abandoned shopping mall or house? Maybe build your own shelter? Basically, the rest is up to the player.
Rescue Scenario
You find yourself in a small town with a 2 story hospital with a helipad surrounded by a dense forest filled with zombies. A radio tells you that there are rescue helicopters looking for flares in the sky for the next few days, and so you must find a flare gun and escape.
This would be a scenario where you have a hard time limit. You have to find supplies and prepare yourself to shoot the flare into the sky, which will attract a massive horde of zombies from the surrounding forest. You must push back the horde for some 10-20 minutes until the helicopter arrives. For the player to understand how much he will need to prepare, maybe allow the player to talk with the man on the radio, that will give him all the intel he needs.
For most of these, using areas from existing maps should work, but some are better of with custom maps that you could then give to modders and server owners to do whatever they want!
I can see modders trying to create all of those. Speedrunning may or may not be a big thing, people will always find the fastest way to get through something.
Refining something like that with maybe scripted spawns and greater inventory control could allow for some really complex maps. Maybe it’d be somewhat like Minecraft adventure maps, except command blocks, spawners, and dispensers are used to make the actual story part of it.
The island and rescue scenarios you mentioned are much closer to what can be fully done now though. May not have the time limits but quests can guide progress, or it can just be a regular map and a set of rules that players don’t necessarily have to follow.
I’m pretty sure I remember Nelson saying that you’ll be able to mod the game via Blueprints, the visual scripting thing that UE4 has. You could do so much with that!
Outbreak Mode: Prepare for the zombie plague to come to you over the course of 30 minutes to an hours, and survive.
Black Ops Mode: Get sent into a Scorpion-7 laboratory with a specific objective with a few side objectives. Friendly Black Ops will be available for support. Possibly obtain the cure while at it, and kill any scientist. (You’re pretty much the Black Ops guys from Half-Life)
Warlord Mode: Your goal is to make a faction and dominate the map by destroying all other bandit groups and or groups. Surround yourself with a group of NPCs to dominate the map. You’ll finally be able to create the Sneedclave.
Normal Survival: It’s just that, normal survival mode
Patient Zero: You’re Patient Zero, your goal is to infect the entire map and kill all humans you come across.
Hardcore Survival: TL;DR, hard mode but you have one life. You all know this mode.
Ultra Hardcore: Hardcore but it’s the fuck you mode. Literally take the most challenging zombie traits from Sandbox Mode and give them to ALL THE ZOMBIES THAT SPAWN! Why because fuck you, fuck your game. These zombies will absolutely destroy you.
Sandbox Mode: Custom tailored survival experience. This would be an additional game mode modifier with extra details. It’s a combination of the current Unturned advanced configuration along with Project Zomboid’s sandbox mode. What type of zombies do you want, how strong, how big the hordes, how fast, their abilities, etc.
Laboratory Mode: You either work as a Scorpion-7 scientist or are part of Scorpion-7’s SRST (Special Response Strike Team) and you can either experiment on subjects which will cause the infection to break out, and or enter the Scorpion-7 facility under lockdown and clear out the facility.
I think Unturned II should have the classic singleplayer and multiplayer modes, but also overtime have fun things like these to spice things up. With Unreal Engine 4 this is more than possible especially if modding in Unturned II is easier. Maybe Nelson can do something like Fortnite where each week a different mode is there and it switches back and forth between official modes and maybe highly ranked community modes.
While i aint sure about all, the outbreak mode is really interesting, I could see the player beginning in an area without zombies and as the game progress, he learns of the beginning of the infection and can prepare to what’s to come. (buying or stealing weapons from a gun-shop, pillaging general store and markets, and fending off players / NPCs trying to get food, etc… followed by the turned coming and the players & NPCs fighting back, with perhaps the ability to save the location from the turneds.
That’s a really cool concept, And i really like what WARCORPtm said too (the spec ops, patient zero and laboratory mode are my favorites)
but i like the quests as they are like now, maybe one think that i would change is when youre doing quests that the world will change according to what you do, something like in France when you must kill zombies on the mainland so the soldiers can reclaim it easier but when you complete the quest they really set an outpost or something where you will find new quest and shops or you can even help build the new outpost.
Or when there will be two factions that you can fight for strategic locations and in the end you can destroy the other one. And maybe if the enemy will capture a military base or gun shop that the prices of ammunition in the shops Will be higher, same with gas or food.
I personaly think that what you said could be some bonus maps or challenges or some story maps or completely different maps from the classic singlplayer maps with quests. But everybody likes something else🤷😁 we will only see what it will look like.