[2023] I'll be the one to say it. I'm not excited for bandits.

Given that they are going to be a critical point of the story, I really don't see there being an option to turn them off. Certainly, there will be mods for it though.

Personally, I agree with the OP in that I hope there's an option to disable them. Some people are going to prefer the "last person alive" narrative. I wish I could turn Traders off as well.

Originally posted by Lesh-9:

Originally posted by OzHawkeye: Personally, I agree with the OP in that I hope there's an option to disable them. Some people are going to prefer the "last person alive" narrative. I wish I could turn Traders off as well.

Out of curiosity, does the ranged damage Bandits could provide not interest you at all?
And if not, in your personal opinion, do you think development would be better spent on providing a more robust melee zombie system? (More of them, varying types, Better pathing etc..)

We both know Bandits are coming, this is just a healthy discussion question.
EDIT: I should have directed this question to the thread in general instead of the quoted user.

I prefer the "last man standing" feel to the game (I exclusively play a version of Alpha 11 I have extensively modified).

The ranged damage that Bandits would do is - to me anyway - similar to the Cops vomit, so it's not entirely new, though I'm sure it'll be harder than simple Cops.

Traders I object to on two fronts: i) they go against the "last man standing" narrative I personally prefer and ii) they short-circuit the loot hunt. In my Alpha 11 game, for all things guns related for example, if I have it, I found it, I didn't buy it.

To me, the loot hunt is the central loop of the game (though in my game is also spend a lot of time on exploration, crafting, base building etc). Anything that detracts from the loot hunt - and Traders do - is not a good game play option I reckon.

Originally posted by william_es: I'm hoping that if they add bandits, they will take away to current all knowing x-ray vision AI that the zombies have, and make it so the bandits are the only ones capable of instantly analyzing your base and exploiting mistakes in it's construction. Since, well, they're humans with brains.

And the zombies can go back to being dumb mindless creatures that overwhelm you by sheer relentlessness and numbers, like "propa" zombies should. The current zombie ai is why I call this game a tower defense, and not a sandbox survival.

I would expect TFP would do something very much like this.

Originally posted by TheOutwardRug44:

Originally posted by OzHawkeye: I wish I could turn Traders off as well.

While I agree with you there should be an option to turn it off, I wouldn't do it myself. I have nothing against friendly npc's. I have a problem with enemy npc's with guns. We all know there is going to exist one of two difficulties. Either you get one shotted out of nowhere and you die unfairly, or you are a walking bullet sponge and you wonder who loaded all the bandit guns with rubber shells.

Well, it's a moot point for me I guess, in that Alpha 11 doesn't have them, and while I'll download A21, the previous few Alpha's have managed to hold my attention for only an hour or so before I go back to my Alpha 11 game.

I do agree though, it'll be hard to balance bandits between "oh look, I'm dead for some reason" and "hey, some bandit just took 5 health off me". It'll be getting that balance right that'll be the tough bit I reckon.