ChatNoir

Are there any plans to revamp the hunger system? A system that is not too complex that you have to count calories (The Long Dark) but a system that is not as easy as just eating a 1/4 of whatever and having everything in order (Project Zomboid as now), and if you do, are there any plans to change it soon sometime after build 33? Or you see it as something that doesn't need priority right now? Can you guys give any details of how you imagine that system?

After one year of survival (8 months after apocalypse settings) I had looted the whole map and decided to settle down and to spend the rest of the apocalypse with fishing, trapping, foraging and farming. So I built this (3rd) safe house for my park ranger:
 

 
 

You have to put the trap far enough away from your daily activities. If you right click on a crop on your farm and then walk away the info screen disappears. This distance is far enough away from your safe house for traps. Use mouse traps in urban regions (grass next to street, between houses), the others work better in areas where you can forage.

I think it would be nice as well if we can get just fuel pumps working with generators maybe only as electrician (or with higher levels of electrical skill). Carrying a generator to a gas station and grap the fuel is a tough job and regarding the disadvantages of generators (noise) it would make them more valuable in the long run. I'm still not sure if its worth running a generator just to keep the fridge working for a week after the electricity shut down.
But overall I have a lots of fun with that Build

I really love the new zombie counts and spawn system. I have been playing PZ for 950 hours and it got a bit boring lately even on hardcore sandbox settings. When I first started a new game in Build 32 it feels really new and challenging. I couldn't play as usual and I have to think twice about what to do and where to build a safe house. I reduced my sandbox difficulty settings to normal ones and started in Muldraugh cause of the lower zombie density and after surviving 14 days in Build 32 I am not bored enough to even think about going to the mall
Great work!

After one year of survival (8 months after apocalypse settings) I had looted the whole map and decided to settle down and to spend the rest of the apocalypse with fishing, trapping, foraging and farming. So I built this (3rd) safe house for my park ranger:
 

 
 

Yes you are right, it is more boring. However, it is my 3rd safe house in this game. I startet in Muldraugh right in the middle of the town, looted every single place and then moved on to WP. The second safe house was above the post office/hard ware store. After I had looted all of the south of WP I built this safe house not far away from the mall. It took me 12 months to loot the mall and every single place on the map. I killed about 9.000 zombies. Unfortunately, there are not many hordes left. My goal was to figure out how far I can get in one year with the new trait system and the 8 months after apocalypse setting. So it's time to retire for me and I will most likely never find out "how I died" .

High Thirst & Hearty Appetite - free points, it's still not a big problem to survive with 8 months after apocalypse settings in Muldraugh. The need of more food gives you a slighty tougher start though. Thirst is never a problem, there is enough water in the pipes left to supply you for at least for a year.

Prone to Illness - free points, avoiding a cold is quite easy and it heals quite fast. You are able to do other stuff (carpentry, foraging) while having a cold and just have to stay away from the hordes.

Sleepy Head - free points, it's even a benefit, cause you are more often able to sleep for 1 hour instead of resting. A usefull thing for traveling far distances with a tent.

Hemophobic - free points, especially in late game (SP) panic is not a real problem and you usally are in a safe place if you need to bandage yourself.

Weak Stomach - free points, never had the need to eat rotten food (even not with extremly rare loot)

Fast Learner - very OP should be more expensive
 
In general, positive traits should require more points and negative traits should provide less to get to a better balancing.
 

How long do I need to boil the water in a pot to remove the tainted. I boiled my pot of water on a campfire for almost 4 hours now, but it is still tainted.
 
Edit: Found out what was wrong with the water. If you first place the pot of water on a campfire and light the fire afterwards it won't boil.
 
Does kettles work as well or just pots and bowls? boiling.

Ah that explains a lot. I thought the limit on the skills was only based on the slower learning speed. But it make totally sense that you have to plan carefully how your character should develope. The "fast learner" trait is less op, cause you might be a fast learner in all of the skills but still have to focus on some of them.
 
Unfortunately, it seems that I have made some bad decisions in character development. :/

Ah that explains a lot. I thought the limit on the skills was only based on the slower learning speed. But it make totally sense that you have to plan carefully how your character should develope. The "fast learner" trait is less op, cause you might be a fast learner in all of the skills but still have to focus on some of them.
 
Unfortunately, it seems that I have made some bad decisions in character development. :/

Never tested this myself. However, the PZWiki has some hints about the pros and cons:
 
 

Never tested this myself. However, the PZWiki has some hints about the pros and cons:
 
 

Never tested this myself. However, the PZWiki has some hints about the pros and cons:
 
 

I have a my base in the Motel, I have log walls around it, boring, standard stuff but my room looks pretty cool.

Never tested this myself. However, the PZWiki has some hints about the pros and cons:
 
 

My base in Muldraugh (insane zombie count, extremly rare loot, 2.5 months played):
 

My base in Muldraugh (insane zombie count, extremly rare loot, 2.5 months played):
 

Make tent to protect from the rain when equiped in both hands (slower movement) or nailed to the trees or something else to not getting wet in wilderness.

I like this idea only if the work is being done in a dangerous manner - in the rain, while exhausted, intoxicated, terrified, or feverish. Penalty shouldn't be any worse than a broken window cut.
This would be a great reason to add Safety Equipment to the game. Work gloves, eye protection, hard hat. Safety Equipment could also speed up your work time and let you build faster.

I see in some of the small cabins what looks like cast-iron wood burning stoves. I've not been able to get them to function as a wood burning stove however. Are they just cool looking normal stoves, or am I doing something wrong? ... and if they're just pretty normal stoves will they ever be altered to be actual wood burning stoves? That would make the cabins out in the woods much more awesome. Especially if they actually heated the cabin as well. A nice stove warmed winter cabin out in the woods amongst the trees and the snow.

I am adamantly against any sort of random injury when using tools! Injuries should be avoidable by being careful and calculated with one's actions, just like in RL.
 
I would, however, like to see injuries with tools based on reckless actions by the player. For instance: working while exhausted, drunk, or stressed, working in the rain, working at night without light, carrying heavy loads up and down stairs in the rain or at night without light, etc. Or if you ever try to climb a sheet rope overburdened. If you tried sprinting while over burdened you should have a chance for a broken ankle or injured back. While cooking if you take a burning item out of the oven, you should get burned unless you equip a dish towel (as an oven mitt). Injuries like these would be realistic and immersive.
 
Getting randomly injured for no reason would piss me off beyond believe and I would probably rage quit the game.
 
By being careful and only working when you are in safe conditions and in the right state of mind, you should be able to avoid injuries. Especially since we are only using hand tools.

Hi every body !
 
I've been trought a few games in Insane option, and when i get out to find supplies, i always see zombies waiting in streets, just waiting to move after the first sound...
 
I mean, zombies still are "living" ! So here is my little suggestion :
 
- Implement a few behavior for zombies, like eating a corpse, follow an other zombie, scratch walls, not intelligent or logical behavior, but something to make zombies more "alive", and by these occupations it could be easier to be invisible for them, they are concentrate and making some noises !
 
- The second behavior i'd like to see is just zombies to be able to hang around, independantly from any sound. Maybe just after a little time in a place, the zombie move around, a stop somewhere, with any logic ? And by moving, the zombie drags some other zombies who just have seen him move and so follow him by instinct ! I'd love to see some hordes, just one or two per city, "leading" by a small group of zombies always moving around, and draggind other zombies to create a big horde, also dropping little groups of zombies in it track. These hordes could follow sounds and survivors, but when there is any of them, they just follow their instinct, leading them to places all around the city.
 
(Max Brooks in his survivor guide said that zombies are attracted by the places which attracted humans before : church, schools, community centers, malls... Maybe these places are soak by human odors, and a horde can smell it ?)
 
Just an idea to make zombies more than waiting in the streets, and more terrible !
I hope this was clear, i really apologize for my english !
 
EDIT 24/02/2015 :
 
Here are some of the ideas you give me :
 
- When wildlife be there, zombies are of course attract by its move and smell. Especially in city, i'd really love to see dogs and rats. They are the only animals who will stay in town :
_ rats survive pretty easy to zombies and will have more food and space than ever.  And of course, those little mooving snacks will attract zombies in buildings, sometimes really deep in them.
_ dogs are the saddest remains of this world : their owners are dead, and dogs wasn't ready to deal with a life without man. But they still are very dangerous beasts, more when hunger come to them... That's why you'll find some dogs, looking together in town, on an opposite neighborhood of the great horde, spreading is rotten smell all around.
If this animals will left when a horde come around, they'll stay in town, and kind of accustom to this danger. So they won't be afraid by a few zombies hanging around, of course, until one of them see his meal and run after it. That could drag zombies on a long distance, or deep in a building, and zombies will keep looking for it until they forgot. And that could be a pretty long time, enough to get in higher buildings or in a weak point of your fortress...
 
- Of course zombies are aggressive because of the virus, trying to spreading as much as possible. But after the higher point of contamination, the possibilities to spread just go down, so this organism work on the "health" of his host. According to Max Brooks, zombies in temperate climate (as USA or EU) can live 3 years with a minimal eat. Zombies in cold climate will live longer, and tropical about one year less. But it is still an organism, ruled by a virus who naturally try to live as longer as possible.
So if zombies will always run after a human being, all the other time they will try to feed themselves, with small animals and rest bodies.

Level 0
 



 
Level 1
 



 
Level 2
 



 
Level 3
 



 
Level 4
 



 
Level 5
 



 
Level 6
 



 
Level 7
 



 
Level 8
 



 
Level 9
 



 
Level 10
 



 
Professions and Traits Related to Foraging
 



 
Crafted Items from Foraging
 



 
Winter Foraging
 



 
FAQ
 

What about worms in winter?
So far I know, the optimum temperature for most of earthworm species is 10 to 14 ° C. In addition, they need moist soil. Thereby, in summer and winter earthworms are less or not active. Earthworms spend the winter months (December to February) 40 to 80cm below ground level in a kind of hibernation. Entire colonies of bundled worms can be found frequently under ground heat storage structures such as tree stumps or stones. The ground under a tightly closed snow cover is usually protected against cold and not frozen. Thus, in some places you can find earthworms that are even in winter active in the area of the surface soil.
Therefore, you are able to find worms in winter! If you keep them in a little box with a bit of moist soil in it, they should be able to survive for months.
 
However, I support the idea given above, that mushrooms and berries should not be found in winter, and other stuff such as worms or crickets should be very rare during winter. An easier food perservation should also be implemented.