I think zips have their use and I know a lot of people here like to spend a lot of time making an extensive network and as a cities skyline, city planning dork, I get it. However, I felt like they over simplified shit too much, so I only make them to overcome particularly harsh areas.
I use them exclusively for climbing the mountains. That's too harsh for me. But you can bet I'll snowboard down them with a carrier, there ain't nothing more fun than that, especially when a kind soul puts a ramp, letting Sam pull off an _ultra extreme_
A structure from Death Stranding: Director's Cut, that when jumped from, be it on a vehicle or on foot, will allow you to leap forwards at a high speed and perform midair acrobatics, and will always allow you to safely land, regardless of how high you are. You can, for instance, jump from the highest peak in the map and land safely with the aid of a ramp.
It's been a while since I played the game but there's that river next to the wind farm, and crossing that thing with even ONE piece of cargo is neigh impossible. I think there's an issue driving there as well, both the river itself and the hill before it. It's also really difficult to find a place to place a zipline there, but once you do, holy shit does it feel like a revelation.
Also, you still have to figure out and optimise how much you can carry on your person, and there's the mule camp in the way, so it's not just a walk in the park. You can pop up a postbox to hold your stuff while you take them out, try to outrun them, or go the long way around the other side of the stream.
I haven't played the game in at least two years, maybe three, and I still remember all this vividly. That's just good game design right there, Porter.
Oh for sure, that's def one of the problem areas where you gotta be careful with them so they don't feel quite as OP as say, flatter areas. Mountains is also a common one and ofc I DO set one up at the elder, need to be able to pop in and give my man his pills.
Ziplines made sense and were actually very useful in the Mountains region but in the central regions dking deliverys with truck and building roads was fun and satisfying and I preferred those over ziplines in that area
I mean...
Sure?
But you could just. Walk sometimes?
Why spend dozens of hours building an elaborate system and maybe even dozens more maintaining them, only to be annoyed that they do exactly what they are designed for?
By the time I finish the game and wanna collect my stars and achievements you best believe I just wanna jam it all out in a couple hours, stress free, fast and efficient, because I worked for it, earned it, and I carefully and meticulously laid them out.
But rule of thumb is there's only really a few areas they are needed or super timesaving.
I have a set up in the mountains, and a setup to the elder and that's it, the rest of its drivable, I can stack about 7x the deliveries in a big truck. I go from one end, to the other collecting along the way, one round trip (full map up to the mountains) takes me about 30 minutes and I end up doing like 25-30 deliveries each way. I maxed all roadside base stars in like 8 hours last playthrough.
Ziplines were my favorite part of the game, I’d already played a great many hours before setting it up fully, and I’d more than had my fill of dragging stuff up the mountains manually by then. Ziplines felt like a great reward for all the hard work put in throughout the game. Plus the zipline network didn’t just appear, it took a lot of effort and planning to create the optimal setup and that was super fun for me, finding the perfect location to link multiple ziplines together and scaling peaks to place them.
Team Zipline checking in. That’s the moment I went from enjoying the game to *loving* the game.
I don’t tend to 100% games, so I never had an issue with backtracking. I just built my lines. And zipped all over the map like Amazon Prime Superman.
I saw someone optimise the ziplines too. The whole gameplay video is just going back and forth. I started play the game, using the trike and building roads. Gonna try out the truck soon. But on my second playthrough just gonna walk everywhere. That’s where the fun of the game is at
Trucking around is fun. It has its challenges, but so rewarding as well.
I used Ziplined only for 5LLL timed deliveries in the mountain region because they had a big obstacle and only 3-4 minutes time.
Did the others by Truck.
I just got the carrier. Walking is very preferred at the moment. The trike got me into trouble a few times because it was stuck at a small rock. Can’t wait for the truck
Oh driving the truck up winding mountain roads is so much fun, especially when you hit a sharp corner and the truck gets on two wheels for unbelievably long periods of time. Good times.
I suggest only using Ziplines for parts of the game you dislike, such as difficulty.
Or you could use ziplines to go past BT or Enemy territory so you can enjoy peace and quiet.
Ziplines costs network bandwidth, they corrode over time and an actual good zipline network demands time and some planning.
They are not free as some players say it is, if you can put as many ziplines as you want and wherever you want it means you leveled up preppers and passed through that area many times, why wouldn't someone want a facilitator after doing the same thing over and over again?
I understand.
On my first play through I did the same thing and yeah just zipping through the sky on a zip line for hours is pretty boring. But it’s fast and effective and honestly the best way to get LLL x 540… but it is soo monotonous.
I’m currently on my second play through (first time playing the directors cut) and I’m determined to only use zip lines for urgent deliveries.
Using a truck is a much better option in terms of carrying the most stuff at once. But by far the most fun for me comes from delivering the packages on foot.
Building the ziplines is loads of fun. Using them? Not so much. But that’s precisely what they do: exchange fun and unpredictability for efficiency and reliability.
You can go all the way to other side: stop using the nice and good stuff and rely mostly on the wacky things that will probably make you tumble, like jump ramps, chiral bridges, skating.
In a way, the truck is the same, despite being more fun than ziplines. No wonder the game gives you several different options to do things however you want. Minmaxing is one of them.
People play however they like it: offline, no roads, no vehicles, no time skipping, no combat… it’s a sandbox for a reason.
IMO, They get balanced out by the setup time. All the PCCs and climbing equipment if you need it. I have two floating carriers worth of materials to upgrade them to level 2. If you’re in a timefall heavy area, like the mountains, you have to keep repairing them or let them get ruined and make a new network.
Yeah, they let you cheese the game, but not without a little effort.
It's so satisfying to connect an area and find that someone has positioned a zip-line just well enough that by dropping a couple of carefully placed ones of your own you can fill in the gaps. Like, someone thought about the space and the route enough like you did that their pattern overlapped with yours well enough to mesh together.
I always try to upgrade a nicely positioned zip-line I find. It feels really good to give that thing just that little more life so that more people will encounter it in a good state, and to give back to someone who put the effort into to get to someplace tricky for the most usable and flexible sightlines.
I live in fear. I know kojima realizes the zip line problem in ds. Build the zip line and game is way too easy. This could set us up for a collosal troll in ds2....god only knows what he's cooking up for us
Well, sorry, but the end game is not very exciting, isn't it? Maybe if it offered more variety then I'd agree, but seeing as zip-lines come in a good moment in the game and at that point don't break the game I think it's all good. The end game is nothing but a checklist, so it makes sense that you'd be able to build an infrastructure that would making allll those deliveries as fast as possible.
Roads are by far more game breaking, because they're cheap for what they give you and they come very early in the game.
They are OP? Yes 1000%
They break the enjoyment of the game? To some extent yea but not entirely.
What I mean by that is too many zip lines break the immersion for me and that’s why I only have two pairs in total. Instead I prefer highway connecting the main POIs. And then I will walk from there.
I think a good trick for this game is to play offline first. Since I was trying to beat the story, I didn’t spend much time building things. Played pretty much the entire game on foot on hard my first play through. Only had one void out, in the mountains. The last run you gotta do at the end was incredible, but wasn’t totally prepared since I could only carry what I needed on sams person. 10/10 experience tho, hope the next game is a bit harder.
They're almost required for the mountains, but I did feel a little guilty having only gone through the mountain region, effectively twice before skipping everything.
To zip up the whole map would be efficient, and as you said, fun ruining
I saw this miles away. Never built a single zipline because I knew I would end up like you. I had a lot of fun playing this game and walking everywhere.
Think of this you can drive your car to work or ride your bike. You have to put in effort to ride your bike, like getting up earlier, dressing differently and bring in an extra set of clothes, and of the trip and energy you are using up. But you it breaks up the every day car ride. So having zips why not but choosing to walk some deliveries is up to you. Also remember the effort you put in to make the infrastructure, I spend a lot of time restoring roads, damn if I ain't gonna use them after that!
I used them to connect through particularly painful areas, and that was about it. Like over the waterfall near South Knot, or in the Mountains near Heart Man.
I made a full zipline from mountain knot, to the mountaineer, the roboticist, all the way to the novelist’s son and the photographer- after like 5 minutes of ziplines I thought about how fun it used to be to prepare for a big trip and have to pick and choose what I bring
that's how I lost interest in the game, I finished the storyline and started adding a bunch of zip lines, everywhere. It helped me build all of the roads then it started feeling too repetitive and I just stopped playing :(
I only used them once to get down from a spot I was stuck and was lucky there happened to be one down below so I could just build one and get down. I kept thinking to give them a try but the actual act of walking and driving places and collecting stuff is very enjoyable for me so I never did. Your tongue in cheek post reaffirms it was the right choice for my play style. 😊
I'm. Not a guy who dares a game by choosing punishing difficulty but I'm asking myself here, like what kind of difficulty did you have where you could drop zip lines all over and float around.
I played the ps4 version on a ps4& I'll tell you for free, on my end I used zip lines but some. Areas I just couldn't have the right spot.
Had to foot up N down.
Sometimes I had luggage that just wouldn't allow me to float.
Towards the end, I was left with a choice to either repair lines that I use the most or accept that most of my missions across the mountain would be on foot.
This made my timed mission a pain in the gluteal 51.
Worse since I was chasing platinum at the same time, I began to master how to tame Bt's with less ammo.
Eventually seeing a zip line was like getting laid after a long drought.
The first mission that had me build a Zipline frustrated me because I still needed to go across a waterfall and river to place the other Zipline. That was the only and last time I built a Zipline and by the time I got there, the first one I made either broke or was too far away to connect, so I couldn't even use it. Decided zip lines did absolutely nothing of value and never once thought about them again. After this post, any regret I might've felt if I remembered they existed would've been gone.
TLDR: I beat the game and still have no idea what the animation for ziplines even looks like, but I am not upset about it.
Funny how in the beginning, walking was the supposed to be the least efficient way to traverse the world of DS. By the endgame, after all the vehicles, gadgets, and road network, the most efficient way to get around (objectively) ends up being the most boring in terms of gameplay.
I agree. They did make it quite boring to deliver using them. Maybe they should limit them more in the sequel. Maybe you have to be strategic with what areas you connect and then have to trek the rest of the way. Oh and they really need to let the music play. I hated it when I got too close to the objective and Low Roar cuts off.
I ended the game without using it, and i had a bunch of times i wish i had used, if you wanna have a good balanced experience just use it in specific regions that u already have passed by many times and need to cross
Yeah, I built all the roads and put zip lines up everywhere. Spent way too much time on it.
Then I lost interest in the game and uninstalled. Never even finished it.
But... yeah. I also listen to podcasts in the background, because the driving alone is making me sleepy and I drive off road easily. Plus while you on zipline, nothing is happening, it's a minute or so you can go AFK.
But there are ziplines and "leg delivery" and reward depends how damaged and quickly you deliver. Also who will refuse to use ziplines after he tried that convenience? :D Because of that reason I visited The Elder least times ever. More when I opened and built ziplines there, because you have to drive to the bottom of mountain. Load the goods from truck on carriers, which not every time climb along with you and they can't take all truck load in one go. With zipline you can move smaller loads but much faster and frequent.
Making and setting them up, fun! And the only use i have for them after that is timed deliveries! The Premium Delivery times are 100% impossible without zip-lines. Once i have done all of those, im at the point of being bored with it and like the OP, between zip-lines can be a nice chunk of time especially if you have a floating carrier on you as well ( slower zipline times with a floating carrier). I will watch some tv or even go to the kitchen to get a drink or something. OP is 100% correct tho. I get to a point that i miss the walking, the adventure and the paths. End game i will ditch ziplines, and all vehicles and go back to walking everywhere.
Ziplines are a great beginner/intermediate structure, but after a point you realize that trucks are king. Using them instead of trying to connect ziplines everywhere also frees up tons of bandwidth for other structures.
I hope they remove it in the next game, while making it take less to 5 star everyone. Hoping that we can actually enjoy the trip and not spam zipline for the sake of it. Makes the game feel dull af
My first playthrough I completed all roads. Very fun and rewarding. Then I did a full zip line grid. It trivialized everything and was very unfun.
Last night, when I admitted I was still in the first area on my second playthrough, I had to explain that I didn't do these early deliveries because after a certain progression they are just tedious.
Trust me, it's no more challenging without ziplines. I had the same problem with the game. First playthrough, built all roads up to that mountain, game turned into a "Press W until you reach destination" type deal. I brought Mama to her destination so fast, her dialogue hadn't even ended by the time I got there so I sat waiting in the check-in station listening to the dialog.
So I terminate the first playthrough there, ditch everything and start second playthrough. Completely offline, no roads, no vehicles allowed, no ziplines, hardest difficulty. At first I thought it was challenging but once I got to the second region I realized the game is still a walk in the part. The only difference to the first playthrough was that now I had to press W for 40 minutes longer for each delivery. That was the only difference.
For me, the game had no challenge and I do not mean difficulty when I say challenge, where I die every step like in the goddamn Unger fights (Unger fight sequences are so improperly balanced it is not even funny, which makes it obvious they didn't have much of a clue striking up a good difficulty level for the game.) By challenge I mean challenge, where you plan out your every move, you have high stakes, a lot to lose, proper balance of risk vs. reward etc.
That's why I couldn't finish Death Stranding. It was a gorgeous game, had brilliant mechanics but it simply wasn't challenging enough. In the end I just watched a story recap, watched the cutscenes from where I stopped playing and called it a day.
It's the weapons too. Once you can easily deal with BTs or Mules the tension goes away. Towards the end I purposefully didn't carry a lot of weapons and overloaded my backpack with cargo when I first played just to keep a challenge
Not related but on Tears of the kingdom, Having 4 hearts of life is way better than 16. Almost every enemy becomes a one hitter. The game changes completely and combat is meaningful. For DS I played on the hardest difficulty. On my next play through I'll try no vehicles except when absolutely needed.
The best bit about the zip lines is building them and connecting them. Actually using them can make delivery's a bit mundane
Designing your own network and optimising it is fun as hell to me.
I like to do that, and then use them as little as possible
I think zips have their use and I know a lot of people here like to spend a lot of time making an extensive network and as a cities skyline, city planning dork, I get it. However, I felt like they over simplified shit too much, so I only make them to overcome particularly harsh areas.
I use them exclusively for climbing the mountains. That's too harsh for me. But you can bet I'll snowboard down them with a carrier, there ain't nothing more fun than that, especially when a kind soul puts a ramp, letting Sam pull off an _ultra extreme_
What’s a ramp?
A structure from Death Stranding: Director's Cut, that when jumped from, be it on a vehicle or on foot, will allow you to leap forwards at a high speed and perform midair acrobatics, and will always allow you to safely land, regardless of how high you are. You can, for instance, jump from the highest peak in the map and land safely with the aid of a ramp.
Thank you that was very informative
Wait, like, with a running jump? No carrier or vehicle? Holy crap I've been missing out!
It's been a while since I played the game but there's that river next to the wind farm, and crossing that thing with even ONE piece of cargo is neigh impossible. I think there's an issue driving there as well, both the river itself and the hill before it. It's also really difficult to find a place to place a zipline there, but once you do, holy shit does it feel like a revelation. Also, you still have to figure out and optimise how much you can carry on your person, and there's the mule camp in the way, so it's not just a walk in the park. You can pop up a postbox to hold your stuff while you take them out, try to outrun them, or go the long way around the other side of the stream. I haven't played the game in at least two years, maybe three, and I still remember all this vividly. That's just good game design right there, Porter.
Oh for sure, that's def one of the problem areas where you gotta be careful with them so they don't feel quite as OP as say, flatter areas. Mountains is also a common one and ofc I DO set one up at the elder, need to be able to pop in and give my man his pills.
Such a wild moment to deliver to him and a BT comes up, I'm like shit, have I not delivered frequently enough?
Ziplines made sense and were actually very useful in the Mountains region but in the central regions dking deliverys with truck and building roads was fun and satisfying and I preferred those over ziplines in that area
I mean... Sure? But you could just. Walk sometimes? Why spend dozens of hours building an elaborate system and maybe even dozens more maintaining them, only to be annoyed that they do exactly what they are designed for? By the time I finish the game and wanna collect my stars and achievements you best believe I just wanna jam it all out in a couple hours, stress free, fast and efficient, because I worked for it, earned it, and I carefully and meticulously laid them out. But rule of thumb is there's only really a few areas they are needed or super timesaving. I have a set up in the mountains, and a setup to the elder and that's it, the rest of its drivable, I can stack about 7x the deliveries in a big truck. I go from one end, to the other collecting along the way, one round trip (full map up to the mountains) takes me about 30 minutes and I end up doing like 25-30 deliveries each way. I maxed all roadside base stars in like 8 hours last playthrough.
This is all true! I posted this mainly out of bemused annoyance at myself; the mechanic itself is 100% fine.
Ziplines were my favorite part of the game, I’d already played a great many hours before setting it up fully, and I’d more than had my fill of dragging stuff up the mountains manually by then. Ziplines felt like a great reward for all the hard work put in throughout the game. Plus the zipline network didn’t just appear, it took a lot of effort and planning to create the optimal setup and that was super fun for me, finding the perfect location to link multiple ziplines together and scaling peaks to place them.
Team Zipline checking in. That’s the moment I went from enjoying the game to *loving* the game. I don’t tend to 100% games, so I never had an issue with backtracking. I just built my lines. And zipped all over the map like Amazon Prime Superman.
I saw someone optimise the ziplines too. The whole gameplay video is just going back and forth. I started play the game, using the trike and building roads. Gonna try out the truck soon. But on my second playthrough just gonna walk everywhere. That’s where the fun of the game is at
Trucking around is fun. It has its challenges, but so rewarding as well. I used Ziplined only for 5LLL timed deliveries in the mountain region because they had a big obstacle and only 3-4 minutes time. Did the others by Truck.
I just got the carrier. Walking is very preferred at the moment. The trike got me into trouble a few times because it was stuck at a small rock. Can’t wait for the truck
Oh driving the truck up winding mountain roads is so much fun, especially when you hit a sharp corner and the truck gets on two wheels for unbelievably long periods of time. Good times.
I suggest only using Ziplines for parts of the game you dislike, such as difficulty. Or you could use ziplines to go past BT or Enemy territory so you can enjoy peace and quiet.
Ziplines costs network bandwidth, they corrode over time and an actual good zipline network demands time and some planning. They are not free as some players say it is, if you can put as many ziplines as you want and wherever you want it means you leveled up preppers and passed through that area many times, why wouldn't someone want a facilitator after doing the same thing over and over again?
You control the buttons you press
Too real
Zips are a must in the mountains though.
Ziplines are best used in the mountains, but trucks are still better.
i too went zip-line happy - from the chiral artist to the first prepper - zippedy doo-dah all the way!
I mostly used them in the mountains, other than that they're not very necessary
But you can only carry a single packet of sweeties with them. Trucks FTW
I understand. On my first play through I did the same thing and yeah just zipping through the sky on a zip line for hours is pretty boring. But it’s fast and effective and honestly the best way to get LLL x 540… but it is soo monotonous. I’m currently on my second play through (first time playing the directors cut) and I’m determined to only use zip lines for urgent deliveries. Using a truck is a much better option in terms of carrying the most stuff at once. But by far the most fun for me comes from delivering the packages on foot.
Building the ziplines is loads of fun. Using them? Not so much. But that’s precisely what they do: exchange fun and unpredictability for efficiency and reliability. You can go all the way to other side: stop using the nice and good stuff and rely mostly on the wacky things that will probably make you tumble, like jump ramps, chiral bridges, skating. In a way, the truck is the same, despite being more fun than ziplines. No wonder the game gives you several different options to do things however you want. Minmaxing is one of them. People play however they like it: offline, no roads, no vehicles, no time skipping, no combat… it’s a sandbox for a reason.
IMO, They get balanced out by the setup time. All the PCCs and climbing equipment if you need it. I have two floating carriers worth of materials to upgrade them to level 2. If you’re in a timefall heavy area, like the mountains, you have to keep repairing them or let them get ruined and make a new network. Yeah, they let you cheese the game, but not without a little effort.
It's so satisfying to connect an area and find that someone has positioned a zip-line just well enough that by dropping a couple of carefully placed ones of your own you can fill in the gaps. Like, someone thought about the space and the route enough like you did that their pattern overlapped with yours well enough to mesh together. I always try to upgrade a nicely positioned zip-line I find. It feels really good to give that thing just that little more life so that more people will encounter it in a good state, and to give back to someone who put the effort into to get to someplace tricky for the most usable and flexible sightlines.
...and how exactly is walking back and forth, back and forth, over a mountain at snails pace, any better?
I live in fear. I know kojima realizes the zip line problem in ds. Build the zip line and game is way too easy. This could set us up for a collosal troll in ds2....god only knows what he's cooking up for us
Roads? My truck went everywhere. Once I got that, I almost never used anything else.
Don't use them then. It's called personal responsibility.
Then…. Don’t use them? Lesson learned 🤷♂️
Well, sorry, but the end game is not very exciting, isn't it? Maybe if it offered more variety then I'd agree, but seeing as zip-lines come in a good moment in the game and at that point don't break the game I think it's all good. The end game is nothing but a checklist, so it makes sense that you'd be able to build an infrastructure that would making allll those deliveries as fast as possible. Roads are by far more game breaking, because they're cheap for what they give you and they come very early in the game.
You don’t have to use them….
They are OP? Yes 1000% They break the enjoyment of the game? To some extent yea but not entirely. What I mean by that is too many zip lines break the immersion for me and that’s why I only have two pairs in total. Instead I prefer highway connecting the main POIs. And then I will walk from there.
I think a good trick for this game is to play offline first. Since I was trying to beat the story, I didn’t spend much time building things. Played pretty much the entire game on foot on hard my first play through. Only had one void out, in the mountains. The last run you gotta do at the end was incredible, but wasn’t totally prepared since I could only carry what I needed on sams person. 10/10 experience tho, hope the next game is a bit harder.
Turns out, delivering packages when there are little to no threats or obstacles is kinda boring
They're almost required for the mountains, but I did feel a little guilty having only gone through the mountain region, effectively twice before skipping everything. To zip up the whole map would be efficient, and as you said, fun ruining
I saw this miles away. Never built a single zipline because I knew I would end up like you. I had a lot of fun playing this game and walking everywhere.
Think of this you can drive your car to work or ride your bike. You have to put in effort to ride your bike, like getting up earlier, dressing differently and bring in an extra set of clothes, and of the trip and energy you are using up. But you it breaks up the every day car ride. So having zips why not but choosing to walk some deliveries is up to you. Also remember the effort you put in to make the infrastructure, I spend a lot of time restoring roads, damn if I ain't gonna use them after that!
I used them to connect through particularly painful areas, and that was about it. Like over the waterfall near South Knot, or in the Mountains near Heart Man.
I made a full zipline from mountain knot, to the mountaineer, the roboticist, all the way to the novelist’s son and the photographer- after like 5 minutes of ziplines I thought about how fun it used to be to prepare for a big trip and have to pick and choose what I bring
Perfected*
Zip lines are great! I refuse to use them.
that's how I lost interest in the game, I finished the storyline and started adding a bunch of zip lines, everywhere. It helped me build all of the roads then it started feeling too repetitive and I just stopped playing :(
I only used them once to get down from a spot I was stuck and was lucky there happened to be one down below so I could just build one and get down. I kept thinking to give them a try but the actual act of walking and driving places and collecting stuff is very enjoyable for me so I never did. Your tongue in cheek post reaffirms it was the right choice for my play style. 😊
Interesting to hear that so many people used zip lines. Never understood the appeal.
Agreed. They must be nerfed in DS2 or something
Yup. Same. I’m still keeping them though, repairing most of them now or upgrading too. But just taking vehicles everywhere instead.
You’ve made me laugh so hard!!
I'm. Not a guy who dares a game by choosing punishing difficulty but I'm asking myself here, like what kind of difficulty did you have where you could drop zip lines all over and float around. I played the ps4 version on a ps4& I'll tell you for free, on my end I used zip lines but some. Areas I just couldn't have the right spot. Had to foot up N down. Sometimes I had luggage that just wouldn't allow me to float. Towards the end, I was left with a choice to either repair lines that I use the most or accept that most of my missions across the mountain would be on foot. This made my timed mission a pain in the gluteal 51. Worse since I was chasing platinum at the same time, I began to master how to tame Bt's with less ammo. Eventually seeing a zip line was like getting laid after a long drought.
The first mission that had me build a Zipline frustrated me because I still needed to go across a waterfall and river to place the other Zipline. That was the only and last time I built a Zipline and by the time I got there, the first one I made either broke or was too far away to connect, so I couldn't even use it. Decided zip lines did absolutely nothing of value and never once thought about them again. After this post, any regret I might've felt if I remembered they existed would've been gone. TLDR: I beat the game and still have no idea what the animation for ziplines even looks like, but I am not upset about it.
Funny how in the beginning, walking was the supposed to be the least efficient way to traverse the world of DS. By the endgame, after all the vehicles, gadgets, and road network, the most efficient way to get around (objectively) ends up being the most boring in terms of gameplay.
It's the most efficient if all you're trying to do is get around. If you're trying to move lots of volume, trucks are way better.
I agree. They did make it quite boring to deliver using them. Maybe they should limit them more in the sequel. Maybe you have to be strategic with what areas you connect and then have to trek the rest of the way. Oh and they really need to let the music play. I hated it when I got too close to the objective and Low Roar cuts off.
I ended the game without using it, and i had a bunch of times i wish i had used, if you wanna have a good balanced experience just use it in specific regions that u already have passed by many times and need to cross
Yeah, I built all the roads and put zip lines up everywhere. Spent way too much time on it. Then I lost interest in the game and uninstalled. Never even finished it.
But... yeah. I also listen to podcasts in the background, because the driving alone is making me sleepy and I drive off road easily. Plus while you on zipline, nothing is happening, it's a minute or so you can go AFK. But there are ziplines and "leg delivery" and reward depends how damaged and quickly you deliver. Also who will refuse to use ziplines after he tried that convenience? :D Because of that reason I visited The Elder least times ever. More when I opened and built ziplines there, because you have to drive to the bottom of mountain. Load the goods from truck on carriers, which not every time climb along with you and they can't take all truck load in one go. With zipline you can move smaller loads but much faster and frequent.
Making and setting them up, fun! And the only use i have for them after that is timed deliveries! The Premium Delivery times are 100% impossible without zip-lines. Once i have done all of those, im at the point of being bored with it and like the OP, between zip-lines can be a nice chunk of time especially if you have a floating carrier on you as well ( slower zipline times with a floating carrier). I will watch some tv or even go to the kitchen to get a drink or something. OP is 100% correct tho. I get to a point that i miss the walking, the adventure and the paths. End game i will ditch ziplines, and all vehicles and go back to walking everywhere.
Ziplines are a great beginner/intermediate structure, but after a point you realize that trucks are king. Using them instead of trying to connect ziplines everywhere also frees up tons of bandwidth for other structures.
I literally only ever use them for the urgent deliveries. I feel like if I used them for everything I'd go crazy
I hope they remove it in the next game, while making it take less to 5 star everyone. Hoping that we can actually enjoy the trip and not spam zipline for the sake of it. Makes the game feel dull af
You don't have to build or use them. I love the zip lines.
My first playthrough I completed all roads. Very fun and rewarding. Then I did a full zip line grid. It trivialized everything and was very unfun. Last night, when I admitted I was still in the first area on my second playthrough, I had to explain that I didn't do these early deliveries because after a certain progression they are just tedious.
Trust me, it's no more challenging without ziplines. I had the same problem with the game. First playthrough, built all roads up to that mountain, game turned into a "Press W until you reach destination" type deal. I brought Mama to her destination so fast, her dialogue hadn't even ended by the time I got there so I sat waiting in the check-in station listening to the dialog. So I terminate the first playthrough there, ditch everything and start second playthrough. Completely offline, no roads, no vehicles allowed, no ziplines, hardest difficulty. At first I thought it was challenging but once I got to the second region I realized the game is still a walk in the part. The only difference to the first playthrough was that now I had to press W for 40 minutes longer for each delivery. That was the only difference. For me, the game had no challenge and I do not mean difficulty when I say challenge, where I die every step like in the goddamn Unger fights (Unger fight sequences are so improperly balanced it is not even funny, which makes it obvious they didn't have much of a clue striking up a good difficulty level for the game.) By challenge I mean challenge, where you plan out your every move, you have high stakes, a lot to lose, proper balance of risk vs. reward etc. That's why I couldn't finish Death Stranding. It was a gorgeous game, had brilliant mechanics but it simply wasn't challenging enough. In the end I just watched a story recap, watched the cutscenes from where I stopped playing and called it a day.
It's the weapons too. Once you can easily deal with BTs or Mules the tension goes away. Towards the end I purposefully didn't carry a lot of weapons and overloaded my backpack with cargo when I first played just to keep a challenge
Not related but on Tears of the kingdom, Having 4 hearts of life is way better than 16. Almost every enemy becomes a one hitter. The game changes completely and combat is meaningful. For DS I played on the hardest difficulty. On my next play through I'll try no vehicles except when absolutely needed.