Anvilman6

Generators, potentially heightened difficulty, traps; goodness gracious TIS you've outdone yourselves with this update. Can't wait to inevitably screw up and blow up my safehouse experiment with the new explosive means of disposing of zombies. That might help me clear downtown West Point a touch faster. Great work devs as always.

Probably a good idea to try and avoid getting them, then. Though I'm always for more server options.

An excellent idea Pabs. I for one would love to have a SAFE fire inside the house. Something to help you not freeze in winter and actually light up the house once the power shuts down.

This is my first and only safehouse Ive ever made, just has a simple wall around it and a farm on the left hand side.  Im going on 6 months without an issue, no run in with a single zombie yet after the initial slaughtering.
 

 
http://pzmap.crash-override.net/#0.40012342628260406,0.23114792943316392,284.8515765597235
 
Pros:
- Middle of the neighborhood, stores to the north.
- Easily defendable
- Fence already on one side
 
Cons:
- None that Ive found.

Interesting idea overall. I'd be down for a little post apocalypse lawn care; preferably not on my hands and knees with scissors, I must say.

"Don't worry guys, I can outrun the horde. I'll lose them in the forest."

Interesting idea overall. I'd be down for a little post apocalypse lawn care; preferably not on my hands and knees with scissors, I must say.

"Don't worry guys, I can outrun the horde. I'll lose them in the forest."

It's forever a surprise to us all that people don't expect that...

I require these immediately for all future base building 

New construct-able furniture? Terminal Hype++. Maybe sometime later we'll also be able to do constructions involving electricity, but that is for the devs to know and us to guess about. Great stuff in this upcoming build, dev team!

This map is excellent! Keep up the good work!

Either
 
or

would be a fantastic improvement over having to run an Olympic marathon to get West Point and back, especially if the map is going to expand as much as the devs are letting on.

Lately I've taken up the habit of traveling with about 200 zombies in tow as I wonder around multiplayer servers, they're kinda my best pals and they are the perfect thing to bring to a gun fight, but they are a bit bitey. I feel kind of like the doctor from Day of the dead, or michone. I've never been bit, but I was thinking it would be cool to have mechanics to involve this strategy into the game proper, notably I would like
 
Sliding fence gates
It'd be nice if there was a way to open gates through corners so that you can open or close pens of zombies without them having a way to get to you, it would be good for any style castle defense though really. 
 
Ropes and tethers
I think this has been suggested for human players, but I haven't seen it suggested for zombies, it would be nice if you could tether them in soft soil and keep them in place as a defence against humans, or even to have a pair of zombie pets like Michone. it would be easier to move them around of course though with
 
Dog catchers poles
Those pole things with ropes that dog catchers use, they have been used in both Day of the dead and Walking dead, and I think it would be super cool to be able to actually be able to physically move zombies around, you could even use it as a weapon against people, and finally
 
Army issue Zombie chow
 made from tainted beef, and not safe for human consumption, it's not Bub's favorite but you can drop it or open it and every zombie in smelling distance will swarm to wherever the can is dropped as if it's a swarmed player.

These are perfect. Keep up the good work, I would love to see these officially in the forums. 

Agreed that there are tons of cars in the US, and fuel is common enough that I doubt you'd ever get into a situation where it'd be terribly scarce (i.e. you could always siphon from abandoned cars, siphon from gas stations - though they'd be the first to run out - or simply loot it, since I know quite a few people who keep a bit of spare gas at their house).
 
I think people worrying about balance with cars are being a bit silly.  I mean, think about it.  Has anyone in here ever BEEN in a situation where there was a mass evacuation and panic?  I lived in New Orleans during Katrina and got to evacuate with everyone else.  The interstate was essentially a giant parking lot and it took hours to get out.  Every street from the moment we left our house to when we arrived in Houston was intensely congested.
 
You would definitely have to deal with that in a zombie apocalypse, but with the addition that walking corpses would be coming up and turning the congested freeways into an all-you-can-eat buffet.  In other words, the idea that after a huge catastrophe with the accompanying evacuation ANYONE would be able to hop into a car and rampage about town GTA-style, running over zombies and enjoying the free, open road is just ludicrous.
 
A)  You wouldn't be able to go a block without having something in your way (crashed cars, abandoned cars, etc.).  That means no 100-mph-zombie-horde-ramming.  Just wouldn't happen.  You'd have to go through the entire town with a crew and push empty vehicles out of the way to clear the roads first.
 
And
 
B)  As has already been pointed out, cars aren't very tough.  They dent easily, they don't really fare well in collisions...  Hell, a buddy of mine TOTALED his car by hitting a deer late at night.  Now imagine a crowd of 20 zombies.
 
And if you're worried that you can simply swerve out of the way, cars don't handle very well off-road unless they're designed for it.  Moreover, once that zombie crowd gets AROUND your car, game over.  Seriously.  It doesn't take much to stop a car.  Don't believe me?
 
http://www.streetfire.net/video/top-gear-mercedes-cl65-amg-car-review_694484.htm
 
Skip to around the 7:00 minute mark to see 8 dudes win in tug of war against a Mercedes CL65.  Now imagine you're in something you might actually find on the street (like a Honda Civic).
 
The best part of having cars in the game would be a mobile container / secure bed.  Other than that, I'm not terribly worried that cars will turn the game into some free-for-all GTA rampage.
 
One final note, just because there are cars everywhere doesn't mean that you'll be able to hop in one and take off.
 
Again, just think:  You're on the interstate, during the evacuation.  You're in your car.  You hear screams up ahead.  You turn the car off, grab your keys, and hop out to see what's going on.  You see a horde coming to you, and take off running.
 
Some dude later finds your car.  Except... you ran off with the keys months ago, and are probably a zombie wandering into the next state by now.  Unless the dude is a professional car thief who can hotwire a car without ruining it (since modern cars have anti-theft systems SPECIFICALLY designed to make it difficult to hotwire a car - it's not like a movie where you just stick a screwdriver in the ignition, give it a turn, and go), then you'd better start checking corpses for car keys.
 
You don't need to have every car you encounter randomly have a bad spark plug.  That would be silly, unrealistic, and unnecessary.  All you need is a key item linked to the car.  Some cars will still have keys in the ignition (or maybe in a drawer in the house they're parked outside of), but most cars that you find randomly out and about will be locked up tight with the keys far away.
 
And I imagine that you'll spend enough time having to fix up your car (once you find the keys to it) that having every car by default have something wrong with it is unnecessarily annoying.  Trust me, they'll break down plenty after you drive them around a bit.  It's not like there'll be road crews filling in pot holes - get ready for broken tire rods galore.

There was a neat and simple suggestion earlier that'd make sense especially with wire fences, making them much more useful: the wire fence object having capacity, like liquids do now, and thus being able to deploy more than one adjacent tile of fence tile from one fence item. You don't really get that stuff in one meter pieces IRL.

We have a lot of the same thoughts as you We are actually in the midst of an inventory UI overhaul, which will make a lot of changes including having pockets, separating out weight vs. size, etc. No ETAs (as always) but it is in the works.

Hi guys,  so I wanted to get peoples feedback on the current inventory management system, what do you like about and what do you feel could be improved.  I searched the forums to find an existing thread or something from the developers about this but was unable to find anything but apologies if I am covering old ground.
 
So there are lots of parts of the current system I really like.  The way bags work now is great, a rucksack on your back and potentially two more in each hand at the expense of weapons.  It forces you into a choice which is always a good thing.  I also like the hand/secondary set up for weapons and items, use a two handed axe or a knife and a torch, or you can even use the axe as a 1 hand weapon(although I feel the penalty to combat should be a bit higher for certain weapons than it is at the minute).
 
Now the inventory container, I have a lot of trouble conceptualising exactly what that it.  The hands and the bags yes, but what about the rest, are they pockets, are they strapped onto me?  If I am carrying 1 bag, 1 backpack, 1 baseball bat, 200 nails in my pockets where exactly are the 4 cooking pots and the extra 3 baseball bats being stored?  oh and did I mention its unseasonably hot so my character is running around with no shirt or trousers on ?  While I understand its not exactly game breaking or important at the minute I feel in the long term it could be improved upon.  Perhaps with the same treatment that the bags got, tool belt, gun harness, strap for the shotgun etc (all found/crafted/upgraded so you don't get them at the start).
 
Crafting - I feel that is area is fine, I just wish that I would automatically use stuff in my bags without having to transfer them to my inventory first, it can be a bit tedious at times.  Also I think I should be able to saw logs on the floor without having to pick them up.  Maybe with the introduction of something like a shopping trolley/wheelie bin/wheelbarrow I could load up a number of planks and logs so I don't have to keep running back and forward to pick up X amount of logs/planks on mass construction projects, and if we want to get really convoluted we could construct some sort of crane/pulley system to construct upwards.
 
Finally inventory management in my safehouse can be a bit of a ball ache.  Maybe its my OCD of putting everything in its own place, but I can literally lose a day sorting my loot.  Its not a very fun part of the game but I am not sure exactly what can be done about it.  Maybe the ability to assign a container to a type and then have a button that auto unloads that type of item into said container?  Other than that all I can think of is to slow down time when you are in your safehouse ( no zombies inside obviously) so you don't lose so much time, but this obviously wouldn't work in MP.
 
Anyway this was just my thoughts on the current set up.  What are your thoughts?  And maybe when they are less busy the handsome dev's could blog about the direction of this, what they are happy with and what they feel could be improved upon.  
 
* Disclaimer - Its probably human nature but I feel I have concentrated on more what I feel could be improved upon as opposed to what is really good, and there is a lot that is really good.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mall Features

   Download v.1.2
Download contains install instructions, last stand and sandbox versions, a map and some notes, please give them a read. You are free to use this on MP and videos etc just note that this is merely a test build and doesn't look pretty enough yet, it needs a lot more detailing done.

Makes sense. I don't see why this couldn't be implemented some time in the future.

Either
 
or

would be a fantastic improvement over having to run an Olympic marathon to get West Point and back, especially if the map is going to expand as much as the devs are letting on.

This is the only zombie game in my opinion. Every other zombie game is too hollywood. I mean sprinting zombies, spitter zombies, tank zombies? I can't even play state of decay because of these gripes. This game is a true, hardcore survival RPG. Eschalon book II gets all of my love too. This is one of the finest, deepest and most immersive games you'll ever play and if you look at all the planned features it's only going to get more amazing. Favorite game of all time!
If I won the lotto max (50mil) I would literally give this dev team a million dollars and I wouldn't give a single shit if they didn't spend a penny of it on this game lol

IT ISN'T A GOODBYE