Joris

Hi, My conclusion: be careful not to overwhelm the (new) player with entire lists of items, skill levels and crafting recipies. In fact I think it already is too much! Instead, change the inferface to hide skills, items, recipies and other mechanics until later in the game or if the player asks for it. I think this is crucial for your game to be a growing succes. And I feel I have to tell you, because your current audience (loyal game testers who embrace every addition to the game) might not see the danger. I started playing PZ in 2014. Back then the game was full of bugs and technical limitations but it was more intuitive than it is now. Recently I got back to this great game (so after 4 years) and these are some of my impressions: - The character screen shows so many (ex-) jobs, perks and tweaks all with corresponding statistics but I mostly don't know what they mean so I skip the min-max-ing stage in fear of unpurposely making a permanent mistake. Let's just start a standard game. - Opening the skills tab, it shows more than just a crafting skill. In fact crafting is seperated into electricity, metal working, and carpentry. Realistic perhaps, but worrying... and after 2-3 hours of play I'm still at 0xp. - Browsing through the skills catalogue: 'create smoke bomb'; 'create smoke bomb with timer'; create smoke with proximity'; create bomb#2 with combination #4; etc. etc. while I don't even have the skill level for it. Where do I even start? Do I need this? - I notice that I can use the sink to fill a pan, but not use the pan to fill in the sink. That means that apparently I've come along many electrical and craftable objects but simply didn't notice how to use them. We're >8 hours later and I haven't seen a single bush to forage. And no, I'm not going to read a wiki or other manual to play a game. - Wait, did I say foraging? Trapping and fishing? Am I supposed to grind through all these skills in order to survive? Is this Runescape? XD Enough complains: please change the interface and hide some mechanics for new players! I just want to invite friends to this game, but with the current first impression they won't be convinced. Thanks! Joris

As far as I can tell this is still impossible, even though they programmed seeing or hiding zombies on different levels. A level 3 crafter (building stairs) does deserve a little reward on this IMO.

I suspect the same, because I can still use the bathroom in all other buildings than my own hideout. But it doesn't make sense because it automatically applies to every sink in town, and (therefore) there's no animation of a filled bath tub.

Support! Makes sense for at least some of the abilities that can be improved with all the spare time when unempl.

I agree!

I'd prefer to see the option for sawing logs lying on the ground as well as those carried around. Sawing wood is a rather boring and uneventful skill in my opinion (like runescape...), so adding any actions or furniture needed for it would make it worse, in my opinion. I agree that it doesn't make sense to saw a log that you're carrying in your hands, but think of it this way: a player carrying a log doesnt want to 'drop' then 'saw' and then 'pick up planks' again. Just leave it as a single 'saw' action.

Raincoats slow down the process of getting wet, though you eventually get there. I really miss them in my game as I often have to wait inside a building until the rain cloud passes. Catching a cold and hardly being able to run when soaking wet are awesome effects, but I don't take those risks anymore with my mid or late game character and just have to fast forward the game until the sun breaks through the sky again.

I greatly support the church bells and static tv's for an awesome atmosphere! Church bells usually ring automaticcaly (on sundays etc.) as long as there is power, and are hardly ever operated manually. So it makes sence that the ring even though there are no people arround.

Now it's like I'm systematically clearing house by house guaranteed to find some chips or beef jerky without any (indications for) good or bad luck in finding food supplies. It's strange to see literally every single fridge in Muldraugh stocked with (rotten) supplies. As if all citizens became zombies at the very same moment. I think it would be much more fun to see certain houses or streets completely looted (or completely stocked up by a raider!) and then having to turn in a different direction for getting any loot. Now that I think of it, the actual residential areas are rather boring in the mid and late game! I much rather go for the shops and warehouses and skip most of the houses.

Agreed, coffee has rather weak side-effects. I have friends who drink a couple a day though, and when they don't get their coffee, they most certainly become non-appreciated company. But yeah thats drinking a lot of espresso's a day, which is not going to happen in the game probably. @chaotix14: although regular 5% beers are not enough to provide an adult with alcohol poisoning, they most certainly are addictive!

It's simple: Whenever I enter the gory street which I cleansed from a zombie horde months ago, my framerate drops to a minimum. There has to be some sort of decomposition process for the bodies I'm leaving behind, and I think that starts with fading the blood stains.

Just because it looks odd to me to see sigarettes and coffee only have positive effects. Alcohol is also significantly addictive, but in-game it has negative side effects already. So when you consume nicotine, caffeine (coffee, tea, energy drinks) or alcohol for say 7 days in a row you start a little craving on day 8 that disturbs your mood - or is satisfied by more consumption and then strengthens the addiction. Ending your caffeine addiction cold turkey makes for some tiresome days! Then there's sugar and fat but I don't think we need such a system in our game.

This is a strategy the military aplies when preparing for long urban combat. They fill the bath tubs with water so they have enough for weeks even after the water goes 'down'. It would be an easy, short action that adds a little 'smart survivor trick' to the gameplay. Wouldn't be too much work to add to the game.