Sandbox elements - Build your own house, camp, town etc.

[Quanti]

Like:
Building your own house/cabin/Yurt, Jeremiah Johnson style
Expand on that to build/run your own farm/business/shop

You would have to have an entire subsystem of crafting/harvesting/finance frameworks to do this. I am thinking almost a miniature sim-city mind set here- not just "I went to the county clerk, bought this land, talked to this NPC to build the house, and viola"(Not that this isn't cool). More "I cut down all these trees, have the skill and/or hired a builder, and built it myself".

Maybe you could even incorporate your survivalist/outdoorsman skill to build temporary or semi-permanent shelters like tepees and A-Frames in the backcountry, providing a place to rest, etc.

I understand that this quickly goes far beyond the scope of an old school RPG. Maybe make the engine and game moddable to the degree that radical new systems like this could be easily implemented? I can see the Steam mod section now- with mods that let you be a shopkeeper, merchant, or settlement mayor/sheriff instead of following the main game storyline.

It would all be fun for me. What do you think?

[Postapo]

The amount of work required for what you want - chopping interactive trees, hauling them across uneven terrain and fitting them together into walls etc. - would be not only preposterous, but also ill invested. You don't need anything more, than a sleeping bag or a blanket (not even a tent) in the desert and beyond it there's a crapload of unoccupied houses you could use.

And do you have any idea how many years it takes to transform a patch of land into normal farmland? Anything up to 6 years if it's normal soil. Just how many in-game years do you intend to play? What was the most time you played with one npc in any game? 60 days? Do you want an aging mechanism with that, so you can die on your farm as a grandpa, in your own bed, surrounded by your own npc family? Or crops forthat matter - do you expect to see any crops? You're going to work a year so you can sell it off for something that'd take you a couple days to scavenge?

Go search for F3 realistic building and farming mods, tell me what you found.

[brishingr01]

This is not skyrim, now let me point out this...wastlenad feel was 1980's cold war, end of the war world coming.

You wouldnt be worried about building a town up, a shelter im all for, but yeah a twon...its way over the top.

[Dionysus]

I pretty much proposed the same idea today, and everyone was like "Nnnehh it's an interesting idea but outside the scope of the game".
And your version is even more in-depth as mine. You're talking about cutting down trees to build your house. I was taking about passive growth of your village depending on choices and gameplay progression.

But it's definitively a mod or dlc I would like to see.

[GhastlyDemise]

And do you have any idea how many years it takes to transform a patch of land into normal farmland? Anything up to 6 years if it's normal soil. Just how many in-game years do you intend to play? What was the most time you played with one npc in any game? 60 days? Do you want an aging mechanism with that, so you can die on your farm as a grandpa, in your own bed, surrounded by your own npc family? Or crops forthat matter - do you expect to see any crops? You're going to work a year so you can sell it off for something that'd take you a couple days to scavenge?

Go search for F3 realistic building and farming mods, tell me what you found.

I can see where you would consider it an ill investment but I'm curious, where are you getting six years from? Helped put together a homestead with my family and the land needs nothing more than breaking up the grass to expose the earth underneath and adding composted materials to make potent soil for the plants to get nutrients from. Dead plants, animals, bits of wood, leaves, etc. They all go into making a better plant food. Add in-game radiation, only good things can happen right? Afterall, most tobacco is now grown with radioactive fertilizers, fact.

It's definitely not what I'd want to spend my time doing if I'm playing a game. If I wanted to maintain land I could go play one of those mediocre Facebook games or go outside and do the real thing ha.

[Gaelen]

LOL, I proposed something along these lines as well. Imagine starting your own town. You could recruit NPC's from all over the map to move into your town to populate it. When they move there they can give you quests that relate to the expansion and improvement of the town. You can get a quest, for example, to find someone skilled in agriculture to start growing crops. The town will need a doctor, so you'll need to find one. Once they are in the town they can have requests of their own for you to complete. These improvements to the town can perhaps improve some of your skills. For example, because your town has a good doctor you are more resistant to disease, because your crops are good you have more health and because the town has a blacksmith your weapons and armour is a bit more effective.

I also think doing something like this fits with the theme of the game. If you were stuck in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, wouldn't you want to build someplace safe to return to?

[Jasede]

I wouldn't have to because I'd go to my... ranger base.

[Postapo]

I can see where you would consider it an ill investment but I'm curious, where are you getting six years from?

For starters: rocky soil. Without the good ol' gas guzzling combustion engine-powered tracktor many seasons will pass untill you can plow without stopping on a rock every minute or so, meaning you'll waste a lot more effort on it than on a regular field.There are areas in Africa, where the soil is so damn rocky the farmers build massive English-type walls around their fields, their homes and pretty much everything else almost exclusively out of the rocks they pulled from the soil. Not so different with previously forested areas: huge stumps, even bigger root systems etc. You won't just slice through that with a man pulled ard, hardly with a horse. You'd need an ox or two.

[Gaelen]

I wouldn't have to because I'd go to my... ranger base.

Well, imagine recruiting your own squad of rangers that you can send on quests to level them up so they can help you later on with other quests. Kind of like the Assassins Guild in Assassins Creed Brotherhood. That could be fun. You could improve your ranger base and defend it against attacks from brigands and other enemies. Could be fun.

[GhastlyDemise]

I can see where you would consider it an ill investment but I'm curious, where are you getting six years from?

For starters: rocky soil. Without the good ol' gas guzzling combustion engine-powered tracktor many seasons will pass untill you can plow without stopping on a rock every minute or so, meaning you'll waste a lot more effort on it than on a regular field.There are areas in Africa, where the soil is so damn rocky the farmers build massive English-type walls around their fields, their homes and pretty much everything else almost exclusively out of the rocks they pulled from the soil. Not so different with previously forested areas: huge stumps, even bigger root systems etc. You won't just slice through that with a man pulled ard, hardly with a horse. You'd need an ox or two.

Funny thing is we just bought a tractor, but that's not what we used to clear the land. A hoe, and a shovel, and if the soil is really rocky you can use a two handed scoop to pull them out. Is it a pain in the ass? Yep. But it certainly wouldn't take six years. You wouldn't want to get rid of stumps or existing trees, that's part of what created the dust bowl in the 1930's. Not trying to argue, and I apologize if it comes off that way.

[Postapo]

Nothing to be offended about. It depends on the terrain (try dry clay with clusters of fist-sized rocks, had to dig a ditch through that once) and available workforce. Maybe 6 years is a bit out there, but that's the range I've heard been thrown around in the context of medieval farming, soI just ran with it.

[MisterStone]

I don't really like the idea of having a town sim built on top of this game. The original RPG was not a 'sand box' game, and I don't see how this would really cater to the people who are interested in this game. In every RPG that has had this kind of feature, I feel that it's been nothing more than a bit of window dressing, and quite frankly I rather see the effort go into making the adventure and RPG gaming elements even better.

Setting-wise, a homestead does not really make sense either. In Wasteland the countryside is too dangerous for people to live scattered about in small rural settlements, they're all generally behind walls in towns, large installations, etc., for a good reason. I suppose there is the hobo camp, but even there it's dozens of people grouped together for safety.

[Postapo]

I don't really like the idea of having a town sim built on top of this game. The original RPG was not a 'sand box' game, and I don't see how this would really cater to the people who are interested in this game.

Funny. Just today I saw an interview with Brian Fargo, who himself described Wasteland as (one of) the very first sandbox games ever made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp2FsFgd9Uo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apg08u6n2YM

PS None the less, generic community or homestead building doesn't fit the time speed of an rpg. There might be specific opportunities to help an organised group of people settle some areas and establish a home there for yourself, but that's that.

[Tel Prydain]

Passive expansion of your home/town/base/village/whatever is okay – but this is a classic cRPG where the focus needs to be on combat, exploration and skill use. Anything taking development resources from those goals is superfluous.

[Tycho]

It would be cool if you could set up a base of operations for your party. It doesn't even need to be anything fancy.

[Layle Baker]

It would be cool if you could set up a base of operations for your party. It doesn't even need to be anything fancy.

That is called RANGER CENTER

[Gabriel77Dan]

*sigh*

Why does so many want RPG's to be merged with anything?
Why can't we just have a nice tactical combat-based RPG with branching dialogue and multiple quest solutions?
Why do we need to be able to build houses and towns?

Just... No.
It will take time, money and resources away from far more important aspects of the game, and I'd rather have a moderately sized RPG with quality content than have a huuuuuuge "RPG" with a bunch of halfassed mechanics and features.

[Pachterballs]

eewwwww

[jurbanek]

I agree, this would be a great feature!

[Inca]

There could be a more X-COM approach to this sandbox idea. For example:
Rangers expand into a new territory and take over a structure to create an outpost, a Forward Base of Operations.
First they may set up a bunker and a perimeter
Later they could add a gun range, an infirmary, a garage, armory, machine shop, a generator, barracks, holding cell.

Each of those base improvements could bring benefits-improve battle skills, speed up wound recovery etc.