Lothar

Stonemason skill? I am a stonemason IRL, so I support this in the game .

Really nice idea imo

Three and a half months in .15.   Havent died yet,  just lost interest.    Ill try 16 this weekend.
 
I basically loot hard for two weeks,  establish a base on the edge of town and then travel to farm, dixie,  the eastern plain,  the sw, etc.     Hit all the distant spots then leave when they get hot (usually pretty fast).  They are starting to get closer to the bar where my main base is located.  Probably it will hit the fan by month four.
 
In .15 town is extremely dangerous after a few weeks.   Ive made several runs through to transport supplies from N to S an can manage it but it's tense.
 
 
 
TIPS: 
My first focus is bags.  I need a good hiking bag.   I want three (in .15) asap.    In .16 I suspect Ill just need two.  (hand/back)
Next up is water cans, buckets and food.
Then fill up all the cans in one spot as my water cache.  Though I keep grabbing more cans and buckets whenever I find them.
Then go back for more food.
Then start getting the tools together
By week two or three I usually start building something somewhere or I'm long range travelling.
 
When you pick up a spare gun,  make sure it goes into a bag.   If you hot button for the gun,  it can pull up the looted empty gun otherwise.    Not fun to click, click, click when you expected a loaded gun.

This is my current effort.   I'll do the staircase better next time.
 
Fort Zed

I have survived for over a month now, not sure how long exactly.
 
I usually try to do the hardest / riskiest things early on, in case a zombie gets me. Then I get more cautious as I progress.
 
I stuff my face with fresh food as long as it's available (they rot soon and I need the energy in the beginning). I stockpile the long lasting food and some water at my base / in stashes. When fresh food is gone / rotten, I eat much more sparingly to make the rest last longer. (The hungry state is not so bad.)
 
When I have the essentials to build / farm, I establish a base outside of town, far enough to be peaceful for a while. When I go into town to loot, I carry a tent kit in case I can't find a safe bed to sleep in.
 
In my current game I've set up camp at the logging company at first, but a massive horde appeared one morning. I blasted them with the shotgun but they didn't die (bug), so I had to abandon the place. I went back a few times to get all my stuff (which was risky business, but necessary). Now I'm camped out at the farm in the east. I've built up the house a bit (screenshot here - date is incorrect), but most of my crops had vanished one day :/ Waiting for the new release to fix some of the issues.
 
My goals are usually like this:
- Get a good weapon
- Find 2 or more duffel / hiking bags to carry stuff
- Break into the nearest warehouse, get some axes, hammers, saws and screwdrivers (at least 1 of each)
- Loot the pharmacy for beta blockers and maybe some painkillers
- Gather supplies to make a tent kit (for loot runs and exploration)
- Gather non-perishable food and skill books from houses and stores, stockpile them at the base. Upgrade the cooking skill as much as possible while fresh food is available
- Loot the warehouses and the logging company (guns and ammo are not very useful at the moment, so mostly for food, nails and axes)
- When zombie levels in towns go insane and/or food runs out, retire to base and start building, farming (although it's best to get a head start on farming, while there is still other food available)
 
I follow these rules to avoid scratches and bites:
- Always have an escape route when entering a building. If you break in through a window, open a door to be able to run out. Don't go into a building with only 1 way out when followed
- Don't open the doors of tiny storage rooms and bathrooms. It's just not worth it
- Never eat rotten, raw or burnt food. Don't even put them in your inventory
- Don't turn corners next to the wall. Keep a wide birth to be able to see and react to zombies
- Peek into buildings before entering, whenever possible
- Don't charge headlong into rooms and buildings. Open the door and stand still while the inside is revealed
- Constantly look around as you move, especially during combat. The zombie you don't see in time is the one that will get you
- Don't keep bashing a downed zombie if others are near. Landing the final blow then and there is not worth getting scratched
- Deal with the fastest zombies first (not necessarily the closest ones)
- Keep an eye on your surroundings as you loot, especially in corners. Zombies can sneak up on you when you back is turned
- Try not to carry a heavy load through heavily infested areas. Don't overburden your character, make 2 trips instead
- Only approach a body if you are sure it is one you had killed properly. Don't fight crawlers unless absolutely necessary
- Never go through trees / bushes where zombies could be. Being slowed down can be a death sentence
- Don't fight a horde with a melee weapon. More often than not killing one will attract several more. Practice melee on lone zombies
- Run instead of fighting unless you have a good reason to fight
- Take beta blockers when using a gun so that panic doesn't overwhelm you. Lead the zombies away from places of interest (base, looting point) as you are shooting. Reload the shotgun constantly, when your panic is reduced by the pills
 
That's about it, good luck!
 
Once farming works properly, we'll be able to survive quite long (barring accidents and ambushes)

Waaayyyy to the North East.  Very north of the easterly big clearing with the large buildings.  If you follow the tracks northwise, and then hit a train crossing, you can head north from there.  Lots of trailer homes and a couple of big buildings - but no serious materials that I could find (like hammers, etc) or water source, but seemed like only a few zoms here and there on .15.   

I beat my personal record on my last .15 play-through so was really happy with myself especially with the new challenges. My record stood at 22 days but now it's at a more healthy;

 
I would have made it much longer if I hadn't gone on a run to the medical place but I got bored and had to wander lol. My next target is to double this time and then from there try to get 6 months if I can

I was hoping to build something like this.

Mine was just over a month, basically skirted around the center of town to the NW warehouse.  Raided the nearby farmhouse to the north.  Tried to raid the houses / stores to the south but was quickly getting overrun by two hordes which looked to be combining.  Fled to the western most farmhouse, and eventually succumbed to the horde that had set up camp in the houses to the north of there.
 
Tried farming, but with little luck ... finally got some carpentry started, but mostly boarding up windows and doors (which eventually did nothing, died alone in the house.
 
Next run I'll probably stay on the east side, which seems to be less horde-friendly, stock up until I have enough I have for a few rain barrels and then hoof it over to Dixie.

Water bottle + rain barrels.
 
The end of all "drinking" problems.

I don't like the idea of a skateboard, I'd rather ride a bicycle since it's faster, and probably a whole lot more common too, not to mention how much less often you'll fall over and off-roading somewhat...
 
But then again i'm DUTCH

Oooh come on!
 
In the .15 verison you can easly survive over the month.. THEN the game begin to be a LOT, and I mean A LOT, more harder.

I just had probably one of the most epic moments playing Project Zomboid... and now I'm sharing it with you guys .
 
So my most recent game I said "I'm gonna live in the heart of the city, where all the zombies are". Most people live on the outskirts of the city, or on the farms away from heavy zombie populations I wanted to see if it was possible to not only survive but even thrive.
 
Everything is going great, I fortified the Sunstar Hotel to be my castle and I had an abundance of food, weapons, water (electricity and water has stopped in my game) & building tools. I experience from time to time minor zombie invasions but nothing I couldn't handle. But just now I experienced my first full all out zombie invasion; Hundreds of zombies.
 
And I survived...
 
I could have fled, but after I had spent so mush time and effort into building my fort I wasn't about to let zombies get the better of me and force me out of my home just like they had so many times before. I stood my ground. In total I expended just over 200 shotgun shells and think killed just under 1000 zombies (not sure how many zombies I had killed before this happened). Naturally using the shotgun draw more zombies from around the area thus increasing the number of zombies attacking.
 
This was one of those moments, Instead of fleeing I fought and I prevailed. It's moments like this that make project zomboid a rewarding game. Unfortunately I was bitten in the process. So now I'm hoping that I become the lucky 0.1% chance of No infection. So far 1 night has passed with no sickness moodle.
 
So I ask, has anyone here had a moment where they feel proud they were able to overcome an extreme challenge in PZ?

If it need realism, well the number of zombies is just fine the way it is. (It's a damn zombie apocalypse, you know?)

I kinda like preparing my safehouse and having to defend it as hordes of zombies attack it. Seemed like all i did was eat, drink, build some stuff and read books in previous builds. To be honest i have a feeling that the ramped up difficulty could only mean that soon we will have NPCs. 

A map you say?! I need a map, where can I find it?
I always seems to spawn in some kind of trailerpark trash place with a few small houses and endless roads and lots of woods, once I found some logging place but I died there..

here http://pzmap.crash-override.net

Dont worry, within a week they should have moved on. If they haven't just grab a pistol and lead them away.
 
lol I am expecting it to happen in my game soon. However I've been stock piling an armoury and I plan to fight when the horde arrives. hopefully without fatal consequence.

The walled house is fine if you build a 2cd floor deck along the wall.    Then you can run along it and decide where to jump off if you need to leave.    Jumping will hurt you but not kill you.     I considered doing that as a spare safe house but I live in the far south.     It will also allow you to scout in all directions to see when zombies are getting close.      You'll need level 3 carpentry to build stairs.
 
TIPS:
 
1)  Live upstairs.   Wall up the stairway on the 2cd floor and use sheet ropes to get in and out.   Then kick out all the windows and doors on the first floor.    If zombies come, they'll just migrate right through without turning the house into a drum.    Make sure you sneak around upstairs if zeds are near.
 
2)  Make a safehouse on the edge of town.   You've got empty cells bordering you so the zombies will tend to only migrate from one direction.  And that might be away from you.  
 
3)  If you are strong carry a bucket of water to drink from.   It lasts longer, is less hassle,  and you can refill it more easily than a bunch of little bottles.    Put it in your backpack once you start to load up.   
 
4)  You can live on berries for a damn long time.

Not on those walls (the type that surrounds that small house), you can make walls with windows in them but pre-existing walls and such you have to get a sledge hammer I think to break them down.

I'm in 9.15. And I have played only the Desura realease before that.
 
There are some areas that are impossible, it's fair enough.
But, at least that's what I do, if you attracts them and then try to lose them. You get a chance to pass around.
Maybe. Also sleeping near to where you want to go it's good. It seems to me that in the morning, maybe for the sound of the NPC (that are not there but these bastard have elicopters, rifles and machineguns!), they move.
 
Is not easy and is not smooth.
 
Let's say that you have 2 chance to make it against 10(15)? 

Nice guide but I wouldn't recommend that house with the walls around it for 1 main reason, it's got only 1 exit. If in the unlikely scenario zombies do hunt you down and attack your house you would have absolutely no escape and no room to dodge/move.
 
I would actually recommend the logging company itself. Minimal zombie presence, multiple independent buildings, plenty of space and all the facilities you need to be self sufficient. Farms are a good location too, and closer to water sources and cut off from pretty much all zombie activity. If you choose a location that has only 1 exit or a bottleneck point you open yourself up to being boxed in and trapped. Fortresses are great and all but without exits their traps.
 
I learned this the hard way.

i was hoping they would make a craftable or buildable or collectible map or mapping system.
 
i dont think its OP or unrealistic, since nowadays we can just look at the google map and voila! insta-Map! though you just need some things, like pc, tablet, smartphone and also the internet.
 
edit:
forgot, the power source
 
but for such zombie apocalypse, a hardware, meaning a map made from pieces of paper is conceivable

Be cautious when some when weird music plays while doing carpentry and crafting jobs. From my observation, this usually means zeds are nearby and they are sensing what you are doing. So always keep your eyes peeled.
As possible choose a 2 story safehouse, barricade all doors and windows in the first floor and make use of the sheetrope for the second floor.
When defending your fort, use melee weapons for taking out few zeds. Use a gun for luring away larger number of zeds. Be careful when doing so.

I think the number of zombies is fine just the way it's. Don't make the game too easy..
 
Ok, is not easy at all and that's the good thing about it!