Procedural rework to Story Locations for better replayability

[Wexton]

I love all the chapters we have seen so far, they look great and the story is awesome and I'm looking forward to all the future chapters.

However. While the story and the different puzzles may be immersive the first time, I find myself struggling to engage with them on future playthroughs. Since there's no variation at all, and the structures don't integrate well at all with the rest of the game (The exclusive rewards aren't very good, and any real loot aside from cosmetics is easier obtained on normal gameplay instead of traveling 2.5 hours on an elk. Not to mention you lose the game's core mechanics in these structures, no block interactions make them only have one specific solution, and there's no decorations or resources to harvest).

Seeing the mention of procedural dungeons on the last devlog. Made me think of how cool it would be if the current story locations would benefit from a little rework.

I imagine this request is difficult (Specially since we haven't seen the future chapters and they may be very incompatible with these ideas).

Essentially, these versions wouldn't feature the puzzles or block protection of the original, and would have a similar structure to the original locations, with some new, randomized sets of rooms/structures. They would also no longer be a singular location, and instead be new structure types spread around the world.

Here's some examples of how it could work with the main structures of the 2 current chapters:

(Contains spoilers for the different chapters)

Chapter 1:

Spoiler

Resonance Archives:

The middle entity is replaced with a block structure. The rooms connecting to the middle chamber are randomized (Offering different challenges on every playthrough).

The boss room and the library could be the only block-protected structures, still requiring you to encounter the different parts through the structure to open the entrance to the Eidolon. The block protection would be lifted after defeating the boss (So you can collect all of those pretty fancy banners!).

Instead of a singular structure in the entire world. The resonance archives are now spread around the world and each treasure trader simply points you to the closest one (Lorewise this would act as there being multiple servers sharing and spreading the recordings instead a singular one).
This would help keeping it fresh in servers. Instead of there being no point on bothering on the story if you joined the server late.

The resonator in the library would allow you to get directions to the Lazaret as usual.
 

Chapter 2:

Spoiler

The Lazaret:

This structure is already very simple, both lore-wise and plot wise. Simply add more of them around the world, since they are ancient medical locations. They still have a skeleton with a note that points you to the nearest Village.

Nadiya Village:
Villages themselves are a whole other topic. I like to imagine that in a future we'll have more villages apart from this one. With some systems allowing us to start our own villages, joining existing ones and helping them grow, or raiding them.

Nadiya has its own culture (Its special items and haircuts) and its ties to Tobias. So perhaps Nadiya could still be a unique village in the map and required for chapter 2, but it could get the mechanics of future villages.

The Devastation:
I like the idea of making this a more common location type the most, and it was the main inspiration to make this post.

The devastation could be a new super rare biome. Featuring old destroyed capitals and cities brought back through rifts. Perhaps the use of Rift wards within these biomes could help eventually clear the "bubble" formed around these biomes, clearing the mob spawns so you could eventually repair and inhabit them.

These would be high risk dungeons. With different types having higher tier monsters (Simpler industrial areas with the current tier 3 or big walled off capitals would feature tier 4 enemies with better loot.)
These structures could still have the mad crow show up. Having different high altitute spots serving as arenas.

I'm assuming the Lens are still unique, so perhaps our current devastation could still be a unique location. Having similar mechanics to the other devastation biomes (And being the only one to have the time travel mechanic).

Tobias's Cave:
Sadly I'm yet to experience this part (The rest of my friend group really hated story locations... I'll eventually have to reach this point on some solo playthrough...).
I know of the rickety translocator being used to return here. So I'm assuming he's an unique NPC that guides you to chapter 3 and we possibly return to him on future chapters. So probably should stay as-is.
 

I think such a system would be a lot more fun, offer a lot more replayability and integrate a lot better with the game's survival mechanics.
It could perhaps also be an option on the world settings, if such changes were to conflict too much with the lore.

And if there's any mod that does something similar to this. Let me know!

Edited November 4, 2025 by Wexton

[LadyWYT]

Welcome to the forums!

59 minutes ago, Wexton said:

I think such a system would be a lot more fun, offer a lot more replayability and integrate a lot better with the game's survival mechanics.
It could perhaps also be an option on the world settings, if such changes were to conflict too much with the lore.

The main problem with procedural implementation like this, aside from being a monumental amount of effort, is that it's going to destroy the detailed storytelling that locations presently offer. Currently, there are several easter eggs and other hidden goodies within several of the locations, that take quite a lot of searching to find. Likewise, a good chunk of the storytelling is done through the design of the locations themselves--those details scattered around aren't just there to look pretty! Exactly what happened is still left open to player interpretation in many cases, however, it's easy enough to piece the details together to form a coherent story. With randomly generated bits though, details like that become just set dressing most of the time, and don't really prompt any deeper thought since there's no intentional design behind them.

The other pitfall is, even if you could randomly generate all the details for one location and get something coherent...then you'd need to not only repeat the process for every location added after, but also ensure that each location is following the same script. The more locations you have, the harder it gets to keep everything coherent, especially with a highly detailed story.

1 hour ago, Wexton said:

While the story and the different puzzles may be immersive the first time, I find myself struggling to engage with them on future playthroughs.

What I recommend, is trying out different classes for future playthroughs. The overall story will be the same, yes, however, different classes have different interactions when it comes to NPCs. It's a system that's still being fleshed out, but I think this is the better way to keep the story interesting for multiple playthroughs: one main overarching plot, with several side plots and interactions that change depending on various choices that the player makes.

Also, some specific notes on story locations:

Chapter 1:

Spoiler

The giant device dominating the center of the Resonance Archive is essentially a giant version of the receptacles you see on resonators; while the location itself is the remains of a library, it stored information in more ways than just books and maps. Removing such an integral part of the structure changes the location dramatically.

The boss is located where it is due to certain events that happened in the past, which are referenced in a specific note or two within the location.

As for the location's importance as a whole...as mentioned on the library resonator, it's the last bastion of mankind's knowledge, at least in regards to what was going on in the Old World, so it's quite special and not something you're going to find scattered around everywhere.

Chapter 2:

Spoiler

Lazaret: Much like the Resonance Archive, the Lazaret was a specific place with a specific purpose--prolonging the lives of the rich, or of those who were otherwise deemed too important to die. The remaining medical professionals who weren't assisting Jonas or otherwise selfishly pursuing their own agendas would have been found here, desperately working to keep those interred alive, as well as searching for some way to cure the Rot.

Nadiya: I have no doubt that other settlements will be implemented, but I do expect future settlements to be specific places for the story and not randomly generated landmarks. Reason being is that this allows the locations to be fleshed out more carefully, while also preserving the atmosphere of "most of humanity was wiped out and only a scant few still remain". As for the player establishing their own settlements...the villagers themselves explain why expansion is so very difficult. Not really something I expect to see, outside of mods, since it conflicts with certain lore statements and the overall feel the game seems to be going for.

The Devastation: This is a unique location due to the events that happened there...and the player has Tobias to thank for it. Unless someone managed to repeat Tobias's experiments somehow(the only other character known to be capable of this is Jonas, and there's nothing to suggest he's continued his work after what happened in the Old World), there shouldn't be any other locations suffering the same fate. 

Tobias's Cave: I won't really say much here in order to avoid spoilers, but you are correct in that there's not really anything to change here, aside from potentially adding some extra details when the player inevitably returns for future story bits.

 

[Wexton]

Yeah I wasn't blunt enough about it on the original post. Lore-wise there being multiple structures wouldn't make sense. I specified at the end of the post that it could be a setting, changing the story location to fit the sandbox, survival gameplay a little more once you have already experienced the story properly on your first playthrough.

1 hour ago, LadyWYT said:

The main problem with procedural implementation like this, aside from being a monumental amount of effort

Procedural dungeons were mentioned as a possibility for next update however (which is why In probably better off hoping for a mod to add this kind of thing once we hopefully get some tools for making such structures). Not saying remaking the locations for such a system wouldn't mean a massive amount of work tho.

Hopefully those structures will fill in the survival dungeons I'm hoping for. Since while I really love the story... The gameplay tied to these locations currently leaves a bit to be desired.

Spoiler

(My group originally delayed exploring the devastation because we were hearing a lot of hate for it from a lot of people... Thankfully it ended up being a lot more fun than I expected).

 

1 hour ago, LadyWYT said:

What I recommend, is trying out different classes for future playthroughs. The overall story will be the same, yes, however, different classes have different interactions when it comes to NPCs. It's a system that's still being fleshed out, but I think this is the better way to keep the story interesting for multiple playthroughs: one main overarching plot, with several side plots and interactions that change depending on various choices that the player makes.

While dialogue change from NPCs for different classes sounds nice... That only affects the locations with NPCs (which right now are the shortest locations), so I can't imagine myself replaying the story more than once.

Spoiler

1 hour ago, LadyWYT said:

Lazaret: Much like the Resonance Archive, the Lazaret was a specific place with a specific purpose--prolonging the lives of the rich, or of those who were otherwise deemed too important to die. The remaining medical professionals who weren't assisting Jonas or otherwise selfishly pursuing their own agendas would have been found here, desperately working to keep those interred alive, as well as searching for some way to cure the Rot.

I'm assuming that information is in the secret room I heard is in there? I'm assuming its inside the 1 block pit that wasn't covered by an invisible block. But we originally thought it was an oversight and one would just get stuck if they jumped in it .

Another possible solution would be a simple toggle to allow building in these locations so at least being able to get the different blocks could be an incentive on future playthroughs. But I'm aware of how much that would currently break in the current implementation.

Spoiler

(Not just the point of the puzzles but things like NPCs pathfinding completly breaking if you change blocks in the path they follow in their routines, for example).

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Wexton said:

I'm assuming that information is in the secret room I heard is in there?

Spoiler

That's actually the burial pit. The secret room in question here, aside from the one you can see via a hole in the ceiling, isn't actually a room. There's an alcove you can climb to, that has a goody box shoved inside. Unless you're at just the right place and looking at just the right angle, you'd never see it though. There are spaces like this in the Resonance Archive and Devastation as well.

 

1 hour ago, Wexton said:

Another possible solution would be a simple toggle to allow building in these locations so at least being able to get the different blocks could be an incentive on future playthroughs. But I'm aware of how much that would currently break in the current implementation.

Yeah, though I will note that it's possible to build in those locations via creative mode, or otherwise remove protections manually to allow building as normal. But you are right, in that the locations are protected in order to prevent player tampering(like what happens in the other block game).

 

1 hour ago, Wexton said:

Yeah I wasn't blunt enough about it on the original post. Lore-wise there being multiple structures wouldn't make sense. I specified at the end of the post that it could be a setting, changing the story location to fit the sandbox, survival gameplay a little more once you have already experienced the story properly on your first playthrough.

Fair, but I think this is the strong point for adding procedural dungeons, and not changing the story locations. Procedural dungeons I expect to be similar to the ruins you already find scattered around the landscape, but bigger and fancier with better loot and challenges. They won't have the wow factor that the story locations do, but they should fill the niche of being a nice occasional challenge for the player to stumble across. 

[ifoz]

10 hours ago, Wexton said:

Hopefully those structures will fill in the survival dungeons I'm hoping for. Since while I really love the story... The gameplay tied to these locations currently leaves a bit to be desired.

While I can't manage to get a picture from the stream since it was a while ago, Elvas briefly showed off some dungeon stuff in a developer stream.
The stuff that was shown was mostly parts of a large underground shelter, that would then be procedurally pieced together. There was a large mess hall area shown in the stream, and it was separated into four quarters. I assume each quarter could be switched for another randomly, making it so even individual rooms have some element of randomness to them.

Story locations are tricky from a design standpoint, and while I personally am glad they're land claimed, I do often wish we could obtain some of their decor. This issue though to me at least boils down to the player not really having much decor at their disposal to begin with. Not being able to obtain a 2-wide table wouldn't sting nearly as much as it currently does if we could already craft a different-yet-similar 2-wide table.
It'd be "oh neat, the furniture here has a unique styling" rather than "I cannot ever obtain anything similar to this, it is physically impossible. Why must you taunt me, developers?!" 

Edited November 5, 2025 by ifoz