Alright so Reloaded has many NPC's/Critters that range from easy difficulty to somewhat challenging, ultimately ending up with fighting the latter in turn based and for no other reasons besides farming for gear. What I would like to propose is the idea of such enemies to drop an item that can lead the player, or a group of players, to a unique dungeon/location in response, and in the theme, of the enemy NPC/Critter they received the drop from. The location will of course require a harsh difficulty level, but the purpose of said location is to provide the player(s) with very interesting and definitely useful loot, maybe stretching into the bounds of unique gear unobtainable anywhere else. The chance to do all of this, however, is to be severely stunted to the extent where getting the chance to obtain a location is to be very rare, maybe 1-2% chance in any of the enemy encounters to receive the drop.
The drop itself can be in the form of any object specific to the enemy, though for easier method of transferring this idea across, I will limit this to perhaps a unique radio that has a specific radio frequency tuned in. For this example I will discuss this idea with the Desert Hunters enemy NPC in mind, and I have also created a custom Desert Hunter Outpost map for visual aid and eye candy.
So, as the example goes, a player, or a group of players, are out in the wasteland, challenging themselves with the task of killing Desert Hunters. Their aim may be to collect the Desert Combat Armor that they drop, the super stims they can collect, or maybe purely for the challenge that they present. After a good amount of time "farming" Desert Hunters, they happen to find a sand coloured radio tuned in to a frequency not found on a normal radio. The player that picked up this radio, once exiting to the world map, finds that a new orange circle has appeared on the world map and the group decides to go and investigate.
Desert Hunters Outpost
The location itself, despite meaning to be very harsh in difficulty, is geographically sound and equal; there are no differences in location because entering either through north or south will present the same amount of challenge. The place of value is the room in the top right corner of the map with lockers and crates.
[Disclaimer] - I apologise for not using NPC with Desert Armor but I had no luck finding them at all in the mapper.
My ideas for the loot to be held in the lockers are to be of worthy value. This can range from, and not limited to, a whole load of statted combat gear with unique prefixes, a high sum of medical aid (we are talking about a lot of super stimpacks and other combat drugs), either a higher chance of obtaining t4 or a solid chance of obtaining a piece of t4. There could also be the possibility of finding either an Adv/Uni prefix on items you certainly could not get it on besides through special encounters, for example Bridgekeeper robes, alien blaster, solar scorchers, even g11's. As for implants, well if the drop rate of the item that gives the location is rare in comparison to the hidden bunker special encounter, then a decision for that can be made.
My current list so far of enemies that have the chance to drop the special item, be it a radio or some other device, currently are:
- Desert Hunters
- Enclave Patrols
- Bounty Hunters
- Renegades?
Since this entire proposal is of relatively destructive difficulty, both in terms of combat and chance of receiving, the ability to somehow "bot" or "abuse" will be very hard to do: You can not spam multiple accounts and wander world map to receive a special encounter like this; you actually have to fight NPC's.
Post thoughts and suggestions below, anything will be taken into account and I will discuss it with the lads over at WIPE HQ
Topic: Hardened Difficulty Critter Special Loot Drop Proposal (Read 7227 times)