Valley 1:Why Being A "Completionist" Is Both Futile And Boring Here

Destroyed rooms, which some players refer to as "bombed out" rooms (because of the little bomb icon on their door), are something that exist -- thematically speaking -- because of the cataclysm that shook up the world prior to the start of the game. There are destroyed rooms for the same reason there are chunks out of the moon.

From a gameplay standpoint, what purpose do they serve? Three things:

1. They make the buildings smaller. Having to always explore enormous buildings is annoying. Most players also hate locked doors that you can't go into for mysterious reasons. So we let you go into any room, although the ones that are destroyed have nothing of interest at all. Repeat: there is never anything of interest to find in destroyed rooms, which means you can safely ignore them as you explore around.

2. Destroyed rooms also make buildings non-linear. In real life, buildings are constructed to make it as EASY as possible for people to get around in. There are often big loops, multiple ways to get to any spot in a building, and so on. The only barriers we really put up in most buildings are locked doors, but it's expected that anyone with a key will have quick access to any part of the building. For a game, of course, this is terrible: there's no sense of progression, there's no secret passages, etc. Having destroyed rooms in AVWW means that sometimes you find a room that is only accessible through, say, the vent ducts. Or sometimes part of the building is only accessible through the back door of the building, while the front door just leads to a few rooms that are collapsed-in. Etc.

3. Destroyed rooms also do provide a little hidey-hole for your character to step into and safely cast some healing spells or wait out enemies or whatever. Mostly this is a happy byproduct, not the core intent of the design of the destroyed rooms, but given the narrow, claustrophobic nature of building interiors (compared to surface exteriors, or underground caverns), sometimes having a spot like this is really helpful in buildings.

A Valley Without Wind