It was originally made with NPCs in it, which made it play better as a single player game - but they took them out and focused on multiplayer (amongst other stuff) for… 10-15 years…
As in your case, I think 10-15 years ago, I probably had enough game-playing friends and enough “lack of responsibilities” to play multiplayer things (before it had any multiplayer) but not nowadays.
There have been a few reasonable NPC mods over the years (and probably there still is?) - but we’re still waiting for NPCs to be put back in “properly”.
In theory, version 43 is the NPC one, which I’m looking forward to.
TheMetaleek@jlai.lu 7 hours ago
I couldn’t disagree more, I love the game and think it’s first and foremost a solo experience. I have around 500 hours in, and about 400 are exclusively solo, in various games since build 38. It’s in single player where the truth of the apocalypse hits you, the dread of being alone against the world knowing you will fail but not knowing how and when… Even the sleep mechanic is exclusive to single player and drastically changes how you can approach the game, sticking closer to the gritty realism themes. Multiplayer, even in really harsh settings, often ends up with a somewhat trivialised survival, and sort of a devaluation of defeat. Unless you want to play it hardcore and reset if anyone dies (which can be understandably upsetting to some), you’ll just respawn a character, get your stuff back, and you’ll only have lost some xp and time which your mates can help you power through, instead of a entire “life” you really cared about.
Don’t get me wrong, multiplayer can be heaps of fun, but I truly don’t think it’s the core of the game, and I’d really encourage you to try your hand at some solo play if you can be convinced :)
EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 hours ago
I actually had never heard about it until someone on lemmy posted a screenshot. Probably op lol
Bought it on sale when build 42 was released, and I put about 50 hours in before I started modding the game. Then around 250-300 hours with various QOL mods and a couple that add different military vehicles.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great game! I love it. I just can’t really see myself playing another 300 hours without multi-player, or at least some kind of companion bot.
I’m sure there are tons of people who prefer solo experience, I just think that I would prefer a multi-player run with friends, or at least people who prefer being relatively close to other players for group defense while still doing their own thing…
It’s a solid 10/10 game for sure, whether you play solo or multiplayer
slimerancher@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
That’s a pretty interesting take.
Nelots@piefed.zip 5 hours ago
It’s actually not, it’s only disabled by default. The speed up will only take affect the moment every single player is sleeping, so it’s not something you’d want in a massive public server with 73 players online, but for a small group of friends it works fine. Highly recommended, unless you like sitting around for 30 IRL minutes reading in the dark every night. Speaking of, one thing that IS exclusive to singleplayer is unfortunately the fast forward button, so reading really sucks and I always turn up skill gain speeds in MP.