Pick your own starting gear

I'd love to see an (optional) menu after having selected male/ female character and location to select your own starting gear. This could be done using the inventory menu where you'd access an virtual container containing everything you can chose from. Obviously there needs to be a limit to what you can take (weight, number of item?) and possibly some items should not be on the list, but I'd love to start a game with what I would have picked to bring instead of what the devs picked for me.

It should also be possible to just start with the default set like it works now. And I think games where you start with your own selection of gear should either not be on the leaderbord (may not really be a fair comparison) or should have their own separate leadbord.

well I don't dislike this idea, but I do not yet see the point? What would you bring with you then? I would go for bandages, some bandages, more bandages, even more bandages, then some bandages and antibiotics. So my character would start with that and a bedroll. What did you have on your mind for starting gear?

Well, for starters a coat... I find it rather strange to be in this frozen wilderness and to not have a coat on. Yes we crashed our plane, but unless Will has a plane with a very good heater he would have been wearing a coat. Ever watched shows like flying wild Alaska? Those pilots usually where their coats in the plane. But I digress.

I would probably go with a balance of clothes and medical supplies.

So why not simply suggest adding a simple basic coat to the starter gear?

Because I'd like to try out different sets of gear, because I'd like to try making my own "survival" kit and see how long I can last using only that (and not looting other houses) and because I think it could improve the replayability of the game.

Once again, I am reminded of d20 Modern/Apocalypse where every item as a TU (trade unit) value where 1 TU equals 1 day of survival (1 gallon of gas, 1 battery, 1 bullet, 1 lb of meat, 1 canned good, etc...). If you added occupational backgrounds that adjusted starting skill levels (if we ever get more skills) you could have the protagonist's starting equipment reflect their background or buy items with a pool of X many TUs.

Well I can see that, but there should be a limitation to which items you can take how many times. Because I would certainly go for those items that you cannot replace by other things, i.e bandages and antibiotics. Everything else I can replace or get enough of (meat, wood, water). But how many TU would a rifle have, and how many a bandage. Because the use you get out of 1 rifle is a lot lower than what you can do with 5 bandages. But a rifle should be more than 1 TU, and 5 bandages should not.

In the original TU system, which I am only suggesting here as a guide not as actual game mechanics, a firearm like the hunting rifle would have a value of 8 TUs while a "first-aid kit" that would probably contain 2 bandages, 1 antiseptic, 2 antibiotics, and 2 painkillers would have a value of 2 TUs.

Sounds reasonable. I would still opt for as many first-aid kits as possible, given the option. Stark naked, who cares? Gimme more bandages

Well, having the option to pick your own gear you could try and see if it is even possible to survive if you start out "naked and afraid"

Although this would raise some questions, if you were to encounter another human being out there in the wild.

A: "Why are you naked?"

Will: "Well, my plane crashed and I valued taking bandages over taking clothes."

A: "Uhm, okay?"

:lol:

A: "Why are you naked?"

Will: "Well, my plane crashed and I valued taking bandages over taking clothes."

A: "Uhm, okay?"

Well, you can always start wearing them mummy style 8-)

Hehe. I guess it would still seem a little out of place, mummies in the Canadian outback.

Let us just assume for the sake of decency that everyone begins with some clothing...

Maybe some starting gear should be fixed, like at least your basic clothing (shoes, socks, jeans, sweater).

It would certainly be a nice touch though, being able to adjust this. I still maintain though that there should be limitations on how many units you can take of a single item.

bringing too many bandages or rifle ammo would skew the balance somewhat, so I suppose they should be limited, The same applies for cloth and scrap metal.

Balance could be maintained by creating a number of "starting packages" to represent a predetermined logical collection of items that are roughly the same "value". In essence, you are taking the chance that come items will be harder to locate than others. Say you choose the "medical kit" starting package. You begin play with more bandages, antiseptic, painkillers, and antibiotics at the expense of no flares and lighter clothing. Alternatively, you could choose the "survival kit" and begin play with a hunting knife, a couple flares, and tinder plugs.

I think a fixed starting kit (clothes, what else?) coupled with limited numbers of items that you could pick and not being able to pick certain items at all (like cloth and scrap metal, who would be carrying that when they crash their plane?) would do the trick quite nicely.

And obviously there should be a maximum weight to the items you can pick. Say 20kg. If you chose to pick the heavy rifle, that''s 25% of your weight limit right there. That will also keep a little balance.

The problem I have with predetermined starting kits is that none of them will be exactly what I will want to take. But it still beats always having the same starting kit.

Neither way seems viable to me, if you simply limit by weight, I'll have my way and with 16kg to pack (20kg minus basic clothing), I'd get myself 100 Bandages, 20 Antiseptics and 120 Antibiotics and 120 Painkiller Pills.

If you limit the choices to a few basic items, that you then define as starter kit X or Y, you will not give players enough choice to pick as they please.

So it would be best, if you can choose what you like, but only up to a limited amount, say 10 Bandages, or 25 Ammo, or 3 Hunting knifes. Whatever. So you do give people the choice, but limit the amount they can get.

One might also consider not being able to choose certain items at all, let's say any materials. So you cannot start with wood, cloth, scrap metal or leather.

I didn't mean it as a choice between limited items or limited weight, but as a combination. Here's how I see it:

• You can take a max of say 20kg.
  
• You have to take basic clothing (that may or may not be subtracted from the max weight of 20kg).
  
• You can't pick certain items (cloth, spare metal, jerry can (but fuel bottle can be picked)).
  
• There is a limit to the items you can pick (max 10 bandages, 25 ammo etc).

There's already a weight limit before you get encumbered, so it makes sense the total starting gear you pick can never exceed that limit. A little lower might be needed for balancing reasons.

Basic clothing is a no-brainer, you wouldn't start naked in a RL survival situation (especially in such a cold region) now would you?

Some items just make no sense if you could pick them, other might be removed for balancing reasons.

And for most items there should be a limit to the number of that item you can pick.

This wouldnt work. What would work though is extremely random loot + indepth crafting and no saving on buildings and sleep. I dont really care about leaderboards but i would like to be in a real mess with bad loot luck and to feel like a king with good luck. And when i say bad loot i really mean bad loot, no rifle, no knife, no meds, maybe 1 hatchet and then go make a living.

you can do that already now Bole, after all, it's your choice to use the items you find.

and I expext there will be something like this in the main game, where you have to survive a map with the bare minimum.

I think the way to make this work is with it's own game mode. Leave Story mode and sandbox mode as is. Add a "Free play mode" with the option of some limitations and it's own leader board or no limitations and no leader board or even player created challenge and gear sets via steam workshop(what ever works best). Some people are going to want to just screw around with 500 bullets and jeans after failing at the normal modes of play a dozen times. Giving players the option to cheat as much as they choose seems reasonable. If your going all in on this why not include the option of a cargo cases so I can bring more bullets. I've played enough Oregon Trail to know people are going to want more bullets.

I'm cool with it being a new game mode, just thought it would be less work to add it to the sandbox as an option.