Houski

So, I would like to see Shutters implemented as a Carpentry craft. You apply them to a window or a window frame. Resources would be higher than barricades to keep them somewhat balanced: 6 Planks, 6 nails, 4 hinges. Strength equivelent of a level 2 barricade. Maybe level 2 or 3 skill restriction? They act like barricades you can open and shut (right click interface like windows themselves), but are generally weaker.
 
This would allow more complex fortification schemes - essentially the ability to use guns/ranged weapons through them and then to shut them if the horde attracted became overwhelming, or to reload.

So, I would like to see Shutters implemented as a Carpentry craft. You apply them to a window or a window frame. Resources would be higher than barricades to keep them somewhat balanced: 6 Planks, 6 nails, 4 hinges. Strength equivelent of a level 2 barricade. Maybe level 2 or 3 skill restriction? They act like barricades you can open and shut (right click interface like windows themselves), but are generally weaker.
 
This would allow more complex fortification schemes - essentially the ability to use guns/ranged weapons through them and then to shut them if the horde attracted became overwhelming, or to reload.

Since edged weapons require specific kinds of repair - sharpening - it would be cool to use some already existing objects to allow blade repairs (sharpening).
Because mugs are ceramic, you can sharpen a knife with the bottom (unglazed) part. So if you have a bladed weapon AND a mug, you can sharpen a blade.
Also, since you can forage for rocks, you can also use rocks for the same purpose (a makeshift whetstone).

Yeah, I don't know why foraging got no books. There are plenty of them in the realworld (see Freegans)
Also, the exhaustion you suffer for foraging seems a tad high and with the limited sight-lines of the areas you have to forage in, it makes the risk v. reward really bad for the skill.

It might be beneficial to expand the areas you can forage in based upon level. I know a bit about doing it in real life, and you can forage weird stuff in weird places. Purslane grows in the cracks in car lots, for instance. Not that I'd want to eat that, but it is a proof of concept.

Maybe:
level 1 restricts to forests
level 2 prairie or clearings
level 3 grassy areas and lawns
level 4 along dirt roads
level 5 urban environments (anywhere).

Yeah, I use that same technique, mostly because it is one of the few viable options. But having multiple options to do things "more than one way" and maintain a level of security is what increases the replayability of the game. I like having a perimeter fence around my fort, so if I could create a bottle-neck near the main entrance and use shuttered windows facing that entry line, I could create a kill-box fairly simply.
 
Not that there aren't ways of manipulating building to create "un-enterable" windows. I discovered today putting a rain barrel in front of a window makes it unpassable. I was hoping it would mean I could "dip" a vessel through the window without going outside to get water, but unintentionally it created a firing position that zombies can't get past on my first level.

So, I would like to see Shutters implemented as a Carpentry craft. You apply them to a window or a window frame. Resources would be higher than barricades to keep them somewhat balanced: 6 Planks, 6 nails, 4 hinges. Strength equivelent of a level 2 barricade. Maybe level 2 or 3 skill restriction? They act like barricades you can open and shut (right click interface like windows themselves), but are generally weaker.
 
This would allow more complex fortification schemes - essentially the ability to use guns/ranged weapons through them and then to shut them if the horde attracted became overwhelming, or to reload.

While I agree that the likelihood may be small that disinfecting agents would do much good, especially in the case of a bite where infection could pass directly into the circulatory system, what we're talking about is the potential of a systemic infection. How does a normal infection become life-threatening? It's about duration of exposure. 
 
If you get bit, the infection is localized at the point of contact up until the first pulse of heart-beat. For the sake of illustrative math, lets say that you get 100 germs (is it a virus, is it a bacteria, a parasite?), each heartbeat allows one (1) germ to move deeper into the circulatory system. Until the infection colonizes, the entire bacteriological/viral load is that 100 germs. So each heart-beat subtracts 1 from the load and moves it into the body. After fifty heart beats, you have 50 germs at the contact sight and 50 circulating. Obviously once it colonizes, it begins to breed and multiply, but that doesn't happen immediately. This is why time is important.
 
Now, if I could immediately apply a sterilizing agent - say alcohol - to the bite or scratch and reduce the load at the contact point from 100 down to 0, I would have no chance of circulating the virus/bacteria and thus no chance to contract the infection.
 
Since immediate application of disinfectant is functionally impossible, we give a game-based estimate of what it might look like if I applied some disinfecting agent at the wound site some amount of time after being bitten or scratched. If it reduces the overall viral/bacteriological load in my body by even some fraction, it is still a net positive. Even if 50 germs have entered my circulatory system, topical disinfection of the wound site removes the other 50 from potentially entering and colonizing; that gives my immune system a 50% greater chance of resisting infection.
 
Because what I'm suggesting is that any time you are bitten and resist, it isn't because there wasn't a virus/bacterium introduced into your system, but that your immune system fought it off. That fits with what the Resiliency trait implies: that one can be more resistant to the virus internally. 

Tiger Trap/Pit: Use spade to dig a hole, put some pikes on the bottom, cover with leaves and make a much of noise to cause zombies to fall in.
 
Human Bomb: When one of your NPCs gets bitten, knock him out, tie him up with a bomb and leave him someplace. When he wakes up he'll scream in confusion alerting zombies. When they start chewing on him you detonate the bomb.

I know the developers have said a resounding "NO" to a zombie cure, but I want to know what the stance on using Cauterization, Bleach, and Alcohol as a disinfectant immediately upon a scratch or bite condition.
 
Here is how I would think this could be used:
 
Bite/Scratch Condition.  This imparts a 96% & 25% chance of contracting zombification, respectively. You can presently do nothing to impede or manage this. Apply Alcohol/Bleach. Before applying a bandage, which is a precondition to preventing Bleeding damage, you apply Alcohol or Bleach. This imparts a 25% chance per application* of eliminating a hidden infection condition. The downside is that this imparts a severe pain condition - immediately to agony. It could also impart a panic condition. You still have no idea if your treatment has been effective. You have 30 seconds to apply the alcohol to a wound before the "disinfectant window" closes. Cuterize Wound. This idea is a bit more complicated and requires item coding, but is like a localized amuptation in terms of infections. You would take a special object like a Heated Knife (or maybe just use a lighter?) You could put a knife in the oven, turn the oven on, heat it up until it is a "heated knife" and then you have the option of "cauterizing wounds". Again, pain level is moved immediately to agony and a panic condition is imparted for a long period but there is a 25% chance of eliminating a hidden infection. You would have 2 minutes to apply the cauterization just because of the prep-time. Apply Bandage. Bandages still work as normal. *This means you could use multiple doses, pouring more than one application of alcohol/bleach onto a wound for a 25% chance each time.
 
 

I know the developers have said a resounding "NO" to a zombie cure, but I want to know what the stance on using Cauterization, Bleach, and Alcohol as a disinfectant immediately upon a scratch or bite condition.
 
Here is how I would think this could be used:
 
Bite/Scratch Condition.  This imparts a 96% & 25% chance of contracting zombification, respectively. You can presently do nothing to impede or manage this. Apply Alcohol/Bleach. Before applying a bandage, which is a precondition to preventing Bleeding damage, you apply Alcohol or Bleach. This imparts a 25% chance per application* of eliminating a hidden infection condition. The downside is that this imparts a severe pain condition - immediately to agony. It could also impart a panic condition. You still have no idea if your treatment has been effective. You have 30 seconds to apply the alcohol to a wound before the "disinfectant window" closes. Cuterize Wound. This idea is a bit more complicated and requires item coding, but is like a localized amuptation in terms of infections. You would take a special object like a Heated Knife (or maybe just use a lighter?) You could put a knife in the oven, turn the oven on, heat it up until it is a "heated knife" and then you have the option of "cauterizing wounds". Again, pain level is moved immediately to agony and a panic condition is imparted for a long period but there is a 25% chance of eliminating a hidden infection. You would have 2 minutes to apply the cauterization just because of the prep-time. Apply Bandage. Bandages still work as normal. *This means you could use multiple doses, pouring more than one application of alcohol/bleach onto a wound for a 25% chance each time.