Exploration is one of the core pillars of Wasteland punk. So we thought a lot about how to implement it in our game. When you think about exploration. The first idea that comes to your mind is “Big locations filled with mystery and something exciting for players to find”. So we started with locations and how players will interact with them. 

We followed several principles in our design:

1. Freedom. A player should be able to freely explore a location. The only reason to block part of it can be the plot. 

2. Uncertainty. A player should not have full information about what is waiting for him. 

3. Risk should be worth it. Deeper you explore locations - better reward you get. 

So, let's start with the first one. In Wasteland Punk location consist of hexes. Each of them may have something interesting in it. To move around you will use specialized 4-wheel drive. They only things you can not drive into are building walls, rocks, trees etc. Be free to fully explore locations to find it's secrets. 

Now let's speak about uncertainty. When you first time come to the new place, the only thing you can see is a blackness of uncharted territories. As you move you will find out what hides behind it. Sooner or later you will uncover the full map of the location. But, uncertainty will still be there. Because each time you visit the same place, it will have different encounter placements. Fog of war will hide it from you. The first-time exploration will give you an idea about landscape, and some major object placements. But it every time you come to a location, it will have something different and new in it. 

Risk is everywhere in Wasteland punk. As you drive deeper in the wasteland you will encounter more and more dangerous enemies. You can run our of fuel and have to push your car home. Your squadmates can take sever injures and become unable to fight. And that's not all. So you should prepare yourself before going deep. Your car should have a good engine and a big fuel tank. Your team should be able to fight and take care of itself. 

That's all for now. In the next diary, we will tell you about the combat system