Exploration system and scout parties

96 votes

(Partly carried over from discord)

Purpose: add variety mechanic to distract player from city building for a moment, add some mystery element to game, making player feel adventure of exploring post-apocalyptic world and more interest for playing again.

Add new building - scouts lodge. Beavers prepare gear, water and food there and get ready to dispatch.
Scouts reveal fog of war if it's added (like in The Settlers)
Scouts can be send to points of interest anywhere on the map to carry out exploration mission directly (they don't operate automatically in a range) or on a long expedition outside the map.

Point of interest may be predefined and randomly generating during the game.

Exploring may yield a variety of outcomes: finding resources, gaining bonus research points, unlocking production chains (explore ruins to unlock scavenging, dried out maples to get maple seeds for planting), artifacts to be studied by scientists, etc.

https://timberborn.featureupvote.com/suggestions/216292/

Under consideration Gameplay Suggestion Suggested by: Gin Fuyou (07 Sep, '21) • Upvoted: 23 Nov, '23 • Comments: 12

Comments: 12

08 Sep, '21
SirMichael
if there is a fog of war, it would not impact the flow of water, meaning water could change direction due to player actions, enter fog at one point and exit at another. potnetially causing unexpected impacts to player. (It could be interesting building maps to highlight this feature). The area no longer under fog would revert to fog if not viewed in set period of time by scouts or beavers on forestry tower
22 Sep, '21
rosedragon
I like the idea of exploration, even if it is just a rabbit hole or a map. Artifacts can be used to build awe wonders instead it gated by boring millions of science
24 Sep, '21
Vicky Langstrumpf
One could also discover legendary monuments within the range of which, for example, the harvest yield is increased or the efficiency of work.
24 Sep, '21
JD Merged
While exploring the map there are changes to find unique artifacts left behind from the human race which can be put to use or made into blueprints to create new building and increase the tech of the beavers. For example a drill to mine downwards to create new pathways , An tractor to havest crops fasters, An book to learn new blueprints for things. Tools and stuff to incease productivity and gathering amount
25 Sep, '21
Gin Fuyou Admin
"Unique Discoverys" (suggested by JD on 2021-09-24), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
26 Sep, '21
TM
Could also trigger droughts out of missions, or have unending droughts that are only ended by completing a mission.

I do like gating some science behind mission outcomes, as well.

Mix up the goals you need to stretch for, other than just surviving another drought.
12 Oct, '21
GOLDEN_PUG Merged
I like the idea, if the world gets bigger and such, of having a squad of beavers go out "exploring" to find more beavers or resources or something like that, something similar to the exploration system in Frostpunk which is a similar colony sim game. It would be interesting to see new mechanics for the beavers just to be able to have more income on resources and such.
12 Oct, '21
SirMichael Admin
"New Ideas: Beaver Adventurers!" (suggested by GOLDEN_PUG on 2021-10-12), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
21 Oct, '21
AllexyGalaxy
I like the idea of the beavers finding artefacts while exploring. They'll be counted like any other resource and once you have a certain number collected you can build a museum that satisfies fun or knowledge for example.
It could even be used with some sort of collectible system for some of the other suggestions here; like let's say once a cart is found it can be examined and unlocks new technology to build and use carts.
06 Dec, '21
Anton
I liked the feature in Frostpunk. I think it's an absolute #musthave thing.
06 Jan, '22
Gwido
It's currently too easy to un lock new techs. I've unlock everything in 25 cycles. :(

After that, the only thing to do is trying to extend the districts to cover the whole map.

It would be more interesting if some of these techs were locked until we could study some ancient artifacts dispatched in the map. :)
18 Oct, '22
PouffyPlacebo
this would stack well with a campaign option mentioned in other posts. Explore to find new locations (new map) to start second colony. You'll need to fulfill a series of prerequisites to unlock the new map. Suggestions are: scout location, establish route, send supplies, and finally start new colony. Unlocking new maps progressively would increase the interest in playing all maps imo.