However, quitting too soon risks upsetting existing customers. So there's a delicate balance to maintain. Overall, I'm aiming to do what I can until summer 2014, and hopefully have enough done for the game to seem "worth it" to customers. I'll continue to support it with bug fixes where I can, but I've been working on NEO Scavenger since early 2011, so I'd like to be starting on a new game this year!
There are actually quite a few of those random events in the game, but the way they trigger is complicated (and a bit limited), and might be contributing to the way you're seeing them.
In total, there are about 90 of them. However, this list is roughly split three ways into groups that you'll only see based on the way you've handle previous encounters. So one group will appear if you've mostly had neutral responses, one for selfish, and one for altruistic. When you start the game, you're considered neutral, so you're usually seeing that same neutral group at the beginning of each game.
Furthermore, each of these major groups are split into 10 minor groups of 3. A minor group tends to follow a certain theme (e.g. childbirth, crazies, a certain gang), and they'll appear in a certain order. (E.g. you have to find the woman giving birth before you find her again later with the baby already born). At any time, 10 minor groups can be seen, provided you qualify for the major group (selfish, etc.).
Finally, these random encounters almost always appear in urban or suburban hexes. I.e. they involve people and settlements, so no woodland encounters. There are more hexes than encounters, though, and they are randomly distributed across the map. So you'd have to visit most of the map to see all of them in the same game.
These random encounters are separate from the "canned" encounters, of course. Things like Hatter, Zom Zom's, and the Strange Forest are all landmarks on the map, and usually stay put. They are also much more involved, often including multiple choices, backstory, and more detailed rewards and consequences.
My future plans include adding at least a few more of those "canned" encounters: major locations and people to interact with, discover clues about your identity and history, and maybe figure out how to protect yourself against the wraith.
Time permitting, I'd also like to review the random encounters, to fix up some inconsistencies and flesh out some choices.
However, I'd also like to move on to NEO Scavenger 2 at some point (and other games), particularly so I can move into the more powerful Haxe-based engines. Flash has served me pretty well, but is becoming a limiting factor (notably, making Linux, modding, and save games tricky). The sooner I finish NEO Scavenger 1, the sooner I can make a new and improved game engine.
However, quitting too soon risks upsetting existing customers. So there's a delicate balance to maintain. Overall, I'm aiming to do what I can until summer 2014, and hopefully have enough done for the game to seem "worth it" to customers. I'll continue to support it with bug fixes where I can, but I've been working on NEO Scavenger since early 2011, so I'd like to be starting on a new game this year!
I'd love to see you start a NEO:S 2 that wasn't flash. This is a great proof of concept though, and I'll get quite a bit of enjoyment from it.
I'd love if it was more roguelike-lite though, and some chances to save.. I know it feels like cheating.. but I'd like to explore a little more in-depth.. there's some good systems in place.
Some things are kinda wonky, double clicking to move things in can be frustrating, as you have to click twice the right way.. hard to explain but it's weird. Some way to have vehicle and pack/avatar gear on same screen would be nice... it's annoying going through multiple tabs to get things right...
Is there a button to avoid double clicking.. that moves things by holding it down and clicking? It seems there is but I couldn't get it to work.. either for use,move, or destroy.
Is there a button to avoid double clicking.. that moves things by holding it down and clicking? It seems there is but I couldn't get it to work.. either for use,move, or destroy.
Broke my previous record by being very cautious and sticking to one general area. It was working pretty well until I had two strangers approaching from different places and nowhere to really avoid them. Ended up in combat and unable to perform any actions, can't remember what happened but it was turn after turn of me getting battered to death somehow.
what do you need to open locked shacks?
i had the ability lockpicking bu still wouldn't let me scavenge them.
You need both the skill and lockpicks to open a lock. The game is pretty rigorous when it comes to small details like that (E.g. attaching a rifle scope requires not only the scope and rifle, but a tool and small parts, too)
i feel really stupid asking for this..but how do i use things like sleds,cardboard boxes or box cart?
Put em in the vehicle slot. Boxes cannot be used on their own in the slot though, I'm pretty sure. Also make sure to upgrade sled to sled with strap (sled plus 2 medium thread in crafting menu)
I think I finally got a good, lasting survivor going. Lasted almost a week so far with no major incident except a scrap with two blind scavengers.
First off, thanks to Toma for letting me check out Neo Scavenger. If I had missed out on playing this game I'd be kicking my future self
i feel really stupid asking for this..but how do i use things like sleds,cardboard boxes or box cart?
There is, actually. Normally, you'd press the 1 key to switch between "drag" and "take" modes. You shouldn't need to hold the 1 key, just press to toggle. If that isn't working, though, it could be a bug.
2 and 3 are meant to "use" and "destroy" an item, respectively, and since they can really cause problems if mis-clicked, I made them hold instead of toggle.
Re: saving the game in a non-permadeath way, it's something I've considered. One reason I'm reluctant to add it is because it fragments the userbase. Having two "modes" means that there are two games to balance (or one that just isn't balanced). And non-permadeath players will have a tendency to burn through more of the game's content faster than permadeath players. E.g. Trying every conversation option for the "best" outcome, or taking risks without any consequences.
On the other hand, if there are ways for me to make permadeath feel more "fair" and more in the player's control, then we get the benefit of permadeath's tension but also fairness. E.g. better tools for survival, or limited-use, "get out of jail free" abilities (ideally with high costs or consequences)
Re: fitting the vehicle and avatar stuff on the same screen, me too! I wish everyone had 2560x1600 monitors to fit it all
but i was wondering..is the game programmed so that you hurt yourself if you have a blade (in my case a meat cleaver) and you roll after you fall?because i did that and my character started bleeding,but i didn't see if before the wolf attacked me.
there's no way to avoid a werewolf once it spots you?i was like 40 "movement units" away from him,tried to retreat at least 10 times and everytime it was useless
I have to say, just a few days in, that sometimes death just doesn't seem "fair". Some things just seem off, speaking of realism. One drop of water fills a bottle, yet it takes quite a few bottles to top off your thirst. Then your thirst goes down pretty quick, so you're drinking an incredible amount it seems. Which as you progress matters less, but just becomes an annoyance as you're filling up all these bottles which take up space.
Certain elements like the forced intro, car, glow, etc don't scream as much rogue-like but RPG/Adventure.. so you might scare off some gamer's when they die so easy until they find the easy-mode
Sent you a key as well.
There isn't any code to injure you if you roll with a blade, so my guess is that you were cut by an attack from the dogman in an earlier turn. You can also get cut by scavenge results, which some people miss. (It'll say you injured yourself somehow in the building, and some folks just ignore it.)
As for avoiding a dogman, it can be hard, but it also depends on several factors. 40 spaces is more than enough to escape under normal circumstances. However, if you're dragging a sled or cart, you cannot run, so your chances are lower.
I actually just made a change to water in my local dev build which should help with this. Many others pointed out some similar concerns about water, and I did some calculations which revealed that the bottle only holds about half as much as it should. I.e. it's a 500mL bottle, and each drop of water counts for 250mL of hydration.
So I've increased water stack sizes to 2, which means bottles can now carry 2x as much water. I'm going to see if this helps with the feeling of constantly finding and processing water, since it should theoretically be less frequent now.
As for the RPG/Adventure cues, the "car" is actually a good example of a safety net I added to help with this. If you suffer from hypothermia within the first 24 hours of the game, you find "the car," and are guaranteed a sleeping bag. Sleeping bags are pretty much 100% effective at restoring warmth, so players shouldn't have to die of hypothermia once they find one.
However, I think it might not be clear how to use them in some cases. It's tedious, and some folks might forget to use them or don't know how.
When it comes to "unfair" deaths, the "car" is an example of a solution I'd like to try before more drastic measures like non-permadeath or "easy mode."
As always, thanks for all the feedback, guys! The game has players like you to thank for being what it is. I don't always notice flaws or edge-cases in the game design, so it's handy to hear what other people experience when playing!
When I select the "stretch" option on the graphics it just defaults back to the original resolution in the window when I play. I'm even choosing "save settings". Does this happen to anyone else?
Water thing seems like it should help, basically dropping in half what you'd need space wise in bottles. Though doesn't solve how much a of a pain it is to sterilize all that water since you still need so much to stay quenched.
BTW, I was one of the guys who didn't understand how to use the sleeping bag. I thought you auto used it when camping.. but you need to take it out, put it on the ground then put it in the camp to use. It makes sense, but it really is a pain. Also, I can't tell you how many times I forgot the sleeping bag.. which doesn't make sense as you'd never leave it in real life.. but its kinda out-of-site-out-of-mind.
Looks incredible, like a better version of Don't starve where you're not racing against time.
Have the devs considered porting this to tablets?
finally
I got inside detroit.
I was expecting much more inside..the dining room seems good but i was already well fed,i coldn't use the bank because i didn't have an account there,and at the medic center everything is incredibly expensive
so,the question is..where do i go from here?back to the cryo lab?
also..isn't there any way to know how much money do you have?I sold something at the shop but i have no idea how much i have ATM
yesterday i saved the file and today is not there anymore and i have to begin all over again..damn i was packed in that run
Started up a game this morning and got even further than before, 3 days 18 hours.
However, once again, I was attacked during my sleep, and I tried to Roll Dodge about 8-10 times with no success of moving further away from my attacker. He was just constantly hitting me and the couple of occasions I attempted to Get Up, it was to no avail, and I just bled out. Still really enjoying the game, but I don't know whether I'm just picking bad places to sleep, or whether I'm doing something else wrong.
Also, are values for clothing items just random? Because I found some blue jeans that were a much worse % in terms of their condition, but were valued at almost 3x the price of the ones I was wearing.
Abandoned houses and shacks mostly. They had high levels of Shelter and whatever the second attribute is (I forgot!), but it had poor Healing.
Also tried to Hide Tracks and Hide before sleeping.
Started up a game this morning and got even further than before, 3 days 18 hours.
However, once again, I was attacked during my sleep, and I tried to Roll Dodge about 8-10 times with no success of moving further away from my attacker. He was just constantly hitting me and the couple of occasions I attempted to Get Up, it was to no avail, and I just bled out. Still really enjoying the game, but I don't know whether I'm just picking bad places to sleep, or whether I'm doing something else wrong.
Also, are values for clothing items just random? Because I found some blue jeans that were a much worse % in terms of their condition, but were valued at almost 3x the price of the ones I was wearing.