Darkwind: Scavenger is now live and available to all subscribers!

In case you have been living in Vault 101 and don’t know what Scavenger is all about, here’s a quick run-down:

1. Subscribers can create a Scavenger gang in addition to their regular gang. You switch between the two from your ‘My Gang’ page. You only control one at a time. You should exit and re-log into the lobby if you are there when you do a switch.
2. Scavenger gangs and regular gangs cannot scout together.
3. Scavenger gangs have a separate marketplace, so they can only trade with other Scavenger gangs.
4. Scavenger gangs have no access to money, and therefore cannot buy or sell with NPCs.
5. Town $ prizes and $ mission fees are replaced, for Scavenger gangs, with ammunition/bulk goods prizes.
6. Perma-damage is much more severe, and NPCs will tend to field damaged equipment
7. You need decent mechanics to fix equipment or armour. For anyone with less than a 50 skill mechanic, you’re basically limited to C armour. But the NPCs are too…
8. Scavengers get a ‘starter pack’ of ammo and bulk goods. They also get free loan cars in place of the normal rental cars.
9. Food/water must be present in your lockups if you want your characters to stay healthy every Friday at the update. This is calculated at 0.7 units (rounded to the nearest whole number) of food and water per character.

DW: Scavenger is essentially ‘DW: Hardcore’ and it will be used as a test-bed for new features which are too controversial for immediate launch into the ‘regular’ game. Features tested here may, of course, be added to the regular game if they are fit for use there.

The majority of feedback about this idea is very positive so I’m hoping to entice back some old players with it, and I believe the overall impact will be to increase the active player-base as well as providing a safe testbed for new features for the main game.

Darkwind: Scavenger will be a new (optional) way of playing Darkwind. This will operate as a ‘hardcore’ mode as well as operating as a kind of ‘test server’ for new ideas.

THE BASICS

Players can run both a normal gang and scavenger gang. There will be an option on the website to switch from controlling one to controlling the other. The scavenger gang will belong to a new Scavengers faction (and cannot leave it).

Scavenger gangs are given a quantity of food, ammunition, water, fuel, car parts and scrap metal in place of the normal starting cash. (I would suggest that the ammo corresponds to one or more of the rental chassis). Scavenger gangs have no access to cash – this is the most fundamental aspect of the idea.

The player must loot food, fuel, car parts, water, medicines and ammunition to keep their gang operating. In Scavenger these items would be substituted for cash prizes in town events so that a gang always has an option to continue playing.

SCOUTING & LOOTING

Scavenger gangs may scout only with other Scavengers
Loot will include additional items:
– Medicine: having medicine in your lock up would work the same way as hospital does now.
– Food and water: gangs would have to keep a stock of food and water to prevent gang members from starving
– Additional Ammo: ammunition ‘destroyed’ in game (other than by fire) would be available in the loot box
– looting of hand weapons and sometimes handweapon ammo is required (and would be useful in the ‘normal’ game too)

DAMAGE + REPAIRS

Faster perma damage – sometimes even when the item wasn’t even hurt in the event (i.e., natural wear and tear). Damaged weapons will jam sometimes, even at better states of repair.
NPCs will typically use damaged stuff
The ‘cost’ of car repairs is calculated in car parts and scrap metal rather than cash.
For engine and weapon repairs a certain number of car parts must be expended
For chassis repairs scrap must be used
For armour repairs each unit of scrap will repair 15-ish points of armour (depends on rarity of chassis). It takes a good mechanic to fix armour grade A, and a reasonable one to fix armour grade B. Any fool can do C repairs.

TRADING

A cashless marketplace will be open only to scavenger gangs, with passwords and with the ability for players to attach notes to each item in the market: these notes would allow the item’s owner to state their requirements for a trade, and for interested parties to negotiate. This system would be open to abuse (ie. player one might list his item and have it taken whilst player 2 never lists theirs) – that said it might make it realistic to be done over every once in a while. If someone defaults on an agreement, they will be shut out of trading pretty quick by everyone else..

TOWN EVENTS

Scavengers are exempt from entry fees. Their prizes are paid in food, water, ammo.
A new category of stock town event will be created: ‘scavenger’ events – where every car starts with randomised initial damage

MISSIONS

Missions would still be available with the mission reward being paid in food, fuel, ammo, medicines or weapons.

MISCELLANY

No access to camps (for the moment)
Full pvp
No access to lasers or RGMs
The return of the jamming of electronic weapons due to certain aurora conditions

OTHER IDEAS I’M UNSURE OF AND/OR WHICH REQUIRE SIGNIFICANT DEV. WORK

‘Amateur Night’ idea. It would be an arena combat maybe run a few times a week at scheduled times, and the winner gets to keep their vehicle.
‘Scavenger’ missions: you use peds to search piles of junk for random useful items. NPC pirate cars and/or creatures spawn over time.. eventually your peds need to get back into their cars and escape

An impressively in-depth review of Darkwind was just written up by one of the admins at Video Game Geek:

http://videogamegeek.com/article/7010722