Ladders, step ladders, and stools!

[haven923 65]

Yeah, sounds bizarre right?  Bear with me for a moment, please!

 

The stage the game is in right now, adding such an item would probably do more harm than good.  Accessing untextured/unmodeled areas, clipping through walls and objects, etc.  This would be more of a Beta version item if ever.  That being said, it could add some new mechanics that could be pretty valuable!  

The basic concept is being able to find ladders (like the ones on the small red houses/rural firestation) and being able to carry and/or manipulate them in specific ways.  Possible ladder ideas include stagnant ladders (like the simple wooden one mentioned above), folding ladders, extending ladders, and step ladders.  

 

Stagnant ladders would require an action to lean them against a wall or tree or other such object.  They (and the other variants) could even be lain down to serve as a bridge across small streams and possibly roof-to-roof traversion.  From a development standpoint, narrowing down the deployable locations would be the biggest trick.  Making it so a wall or object has to be so tall and have so much free room and/or binding the action to specific walls and objects (like trees) would probably be the safest approaches.  Perhaps having the ability to sit down at the top of a ladder, or at least regain use of your hands, could be implemented so that you could use a single ladder effectively as a tree stand.  Of course, zombies could knock down your ladder, causing your to fall and potentially fall prone or break an ankle.  Very similarly, extendable ladders would work in much the same way, but would be able to be extended and shortened as the player sees fit.  Badly damaged or ruined ladders could slip and potentially cause injury.  Players could repair the ladder using duct tape or other materials.

 

Folding ladders would not require an object to lean against, but would require flat, stable ground.  Zombies could also knock down these ladders and moving too quickly could cause them to rock.  Having an option to "stabilize" a ladder would work on all ladder variants and would promote player cooperation.  These ladders could be used to gather apples from the higher areas of apple trees (with much higher success rates), get a higher perspective of an area, and more.  Step stools would be in this category and would be a smaller, more portable version that lacks the height.

 

Stools could come in a couple variants.  I've seen the two following variants a lot within the military due to their compact nature and portability.  You could have a simple tripod stool or a more modern one that fold into a tubular shape and could be thrown in a bag or attached to the outside using rope or fasteners on the bag itself.  The other variant is far more simple.  A simple folding stool (storage compartments not necessary, but cool for persistent items in a camp setting) would be a valuable addition that I have seen even more so than the prior mentioned variant.  Mostly, that's because there are versions of these that the military supplied to soldiers at one time or another in the past.  Many hold onto these stools and bring them with them on deployments and field problems (or even keep them in their lockers to avoid sitting directly on the floor in those long days field with hurry up and wait...)  These are cool because they could be carried on/around a backpack in a couple different ways (The latter being the more common way that I have seen).  Maybe if you want to carry a stool outside of your bag, you have to sacrifice your melee weapon or firearm slot?  These won't really help you out in a combat situation (except maybe being an obstacle that a pursuer could trip over?) and don't really add anything to the game mechanics-wise.  What use would they be?  What use are the books in the game?  What about entire orchards of apple trees that will likely never get utilized?  Immersion.  Variability.

 Freedom.  It is, after all, a sandbox game...

 

As a rule, all ladders would be cumbersome.  Your character will have to carry them either to their side or over their head and would move slowly and be unable to turn in some locations (like woods and alleys) and wouldn't even be able to enter most locations with them (perhaps on the development side a barrier could be put in buildings or some kind of repelling magnet to doorways of some sort?).  Step stools would be the alibi to this and would be useful for checking the tops of shelves and dressers.  Maybe step stools could double as a normal stool?  That would make them incredibly valuable... but they would likely be harder or even impossible to fix to a backpack like depicted below.  Ladders could spawn in rural farms, factories, trucks (maybe add in a utility truck model that also spawns in tools like pliers and screwdrivers?), and sheds to name a few.

Ultimately, the community would be the driving force in figuring out what to do with such an implement.  Will you simply use a ladder to prop up against a tree high in the hills above Electro with your rifle, preying on whoever decides to risk the streets?  Will you use ladders after construction mechanics are added to the game to fabricate guard towers, elevated safe houses, or maybe to jump the wall of a target outpost to kill those inside and steal their valuable loot?  It's only limited by your imagination.  Maybe if objects like guitars or other campfire appropriate recreational objects are implemented, some would be restricted to having to be performed while on a stool?  Maybe your animations change while you are on a stool so that the clap gesture is a slower, rhythmic clap (synced with performable music tempos?) that includes foot tapping?  Or perhaps there are just some idle animations while seated on a stool...

Anything you would like to see ladders capable of or interesting scenarios where you could foresee them being used?  What about any additional issues that they may cause?  Brainstorm and discuss!

[11tw 106]

We would have to be able to pull them up after us as an escape method. How cool would that be?

Also, traversing roofs sounds awesome, like The Last of Us!

[haven923 65]

We would have to be able to pull them up after us as an escape method. How cool would that be?

Also, traversing roofs sounds awesome, like The Last of Us!

Haven't played that game, haha.  But yeah, I kinda imagined something like that when I mentioned elevated safe houses and guard towers.  For balancing reasons, though, idk if such a feature would be appropriate.  Only one way to tell... ;)