Recently I came across this "Hunting Survival Simulation" in the special area. It is free and has no in-app purchases. It seems to be a survival-oriented 3D action game. I tried playing a few games and found that it actually has a lot of potential elements of competitive competition - although the official did not explicitly say it is PVP, the current mainstream gameplay of players has spontaneously formed a "survival match" mode: randomly refreshed on the map at the beginning, with limited resources, zombie patrols, and players can attack each other. This semi-open confrontation environment makes me want to talk about its current balance 😅
Let's talk about the weapon system first. Melee weapons currently include baseball bats, machetes, and fire axes, while long-range weapons include pistols, shotguns, and a homemade crossbow. From the data point of view, the short-range burst of the shotgun is too high, and it can basically kill unarmored targets with one shot, while the ballistic trajectory of the crossbow has a serious drop, and the error tolerance rate is low. This results in high-end game players almost always having trolls at their disposal, and reacting when they meet, and the space for tactical positioning is compressed. In comparison, the attack speed and damage of baseball bats and machetes are acceptable in the early stage, but once the game enters the middle and late stages, when armored zombies compete with players, melee combat is almost useless - unless there is a chance for a sneak attack in the face. It is recommended that subsequent versions make the range attenuation of the shotgun more obvious, or add a scope accessory to the crossbow to increase the appearance rate of long-range weapons.
Let's talk about resource distribution. The current refresh logic is: the central hospital and police station are regularly refreshed with high-end supplies (weapons, armor, medical kits), while the outer residential areas only have food and wood. This "high enrichment in the center" setting turns the skydiving at the beginning (actually a random birth) into a gamble - whoever is closer to the center will have an equipment advantage. In actual combat, we often see more than a dozen people fighting in a group at the central hospital, while peripheral players can only pick up some branches 🍂, and then they are forced to go to the center to kill people when the poison is reduced. In fact, you can refer to the circle patterns of some mature battle royale games and disperse high resource points to multiple areas of the map, such as industrial areas, farms, and caves. At the same time, you can add a dynamic airdrop mechanism. This can reduce the luck component of "smashing your face" and truly test the players' route planning and resource management abilities.
In addition, the building system and survival mechanism also have a great impact on the rhythm of competition. In the game, you can cut down wood to build a house, and place traps and fires inside the house to restore blood. However, building a house takes too long (about 3 minutes), and once the location is discovered by other players, the opponent can directly tear down the wall and open the door. The defender becomes passive because it is fixed at one point. The current high-level play style is very monotonous: quickly pick up basic supplies in the early stage, then find a shady corner to shrink the field of view, wait for the circle to shrink to the end, and then come out to play in the finals. There is almost no solution to this "turtle shell flow", because players who take the initiative often expose their position and are persuaded by third parties. I think we could add a "camouflage" upgrade option to buildings, or allow players to place mines/sirens around the house, giving the defender more game options instead of just being a living target.
Finally, let's talk about the AI mechanism of zombies. The current hatred judgment of zombies is very confusing: when the player is quietly sneaking, the zombies will ignore the nearby explosions and attack the living people within the field of vision first, which makes it difficult to implement the strategy of relying on zombies to interfere with the opponent. If you want to make the game more competitive, it is recommended to design more intelligent zombie behaviors - such as "randomly walking when you smell the smell of blood" or "running collectively towards the source of the sound when you hear the sound of gunshots". In this way, you will have a "praying mantis stalking the cicada and the oriole behind" situation, and the viewing experience and tactical depth will be greatly improved.
Overall, "Hunting Survival Simulator" has a good foundation, and the conscientious charging of free and no in-app purchases is also a plus. However, the current competitive environment is still a bit "dog gambling", and the balance needs to be adjusted in a major version. It is hoped that the developers can optimize resource distribution, weapon values and zombie AI in the future, so that players who truly rely on operations and marksmanship can stand out. At present, its potential is unlimited, it depends on whether Taoteng Interactive Technology is willing to polish it in the competitive direction 😎