raymond

4. the moodle pops up after a while but see how long it takes for it to go away hint tons of time.

I used to Play a ton of Fallout Tactics, if I can say anything, that game had a great aiming system that PZ should copy. You could go and fire blind, maybe hitting something, to me shooting in PZ feels like shooting blind in FT in real time mode. Cursor could change into crossahir when we go over a zombie\player, regardless of whether we use melee or ranged weapon so we know we are targeting a certain thing. With a system for targeting certain parts of the body. Either like Fallout or Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader, if anyone played the second one, you can make your character aim for a certain body part. Big chance for Torso, smaller for specific body parts. It would help PvP too, small chance for insta-kill with headshot or aim for torso\limbs with bigger chance to incapacitate.
Devs, play Fallout: Tactics, see how combat looks, it could work really well in PZ in my opinion.
A combat overhaul is what we need. Not more crafting, anims and NPCs, we need a proper combat overhaul to make the game harder, Imagine killing two NPCs with an Axe. Silly eh?

I completely agree. If anyone has played C:DDA, you would remember that depending on the profession that you choose, you can only craft certain items. Now I know we have the whole leveling thing, but if a chef finds some wood, a hammer, and some nails, he would most likely not be able to make ANY type of wall. Maybe with the skill books you could make them unlock recipes as well? So this way my chef could read a book and follow the insrtuctions to make his crappy wall. Maybe you could even limit what level of skills certain professions can reach, making people's choice really hard with proffesions. Say I want to make rain barrels, but if I choose carpenter I will never be able to learn how to properly farm. This way, people will literally not be able to live as long as they do now, no matter how good they are.
Another thing: "Proper" zombies will only die by the demolishing of their heads. Maybe make at least an option for head damage only? When 3D models come in, it would be cool to be able to cut off arms and legs with bladed weapons too...
Anyways, just food for thought

So it's been suggested a million times for us to be able to salt/smoke/dry meat to make it last much longer. While salting is a great way to preserve food in general, it takes a LOT of salt. More than a single salt shaker. So I thought maybe a salt mine could be added, if that's not too out there for Kentucky's farmland. Nothing like a Minecraft mine where you go in, get ore, then smelt it into iron tools, just a pre dug mine with salt deposits that you need a spade and an empty sand bag to collect from. And I don't think it should be an unlimited amount of salt. Just a ridiculous amount that would take dozens of trips to collect it all and a warehouse on its own to store it all. That way we can have enough salt for seasoning and preserving food for years without scouring hundreds of houses just to preserve a single leg of venison for a year (realistically with the current spawn rate of salt shakers).

The more I think about it, the more I like this idea (as long as it's optional in sandbox).
The main reason I endorse this is for game-length comparison. Sure, you post your death screen, proudly showing off your 4 month, 17 day survival streak, but other players have no way of knowing if, prior to that play through, you had a "throwaway" character purely for the purpose of setting up an outpost loaded with supplies.
Survival should either be iroman, where the world itself is deleted upon character death, or the death screen should list all characters that had a go in that specific world, as well as their respective play times.

I just got done reading that horrible post about how this game has been in alpha for so long. H o r r i b l e. This guy didn't even BUY the game and he was complaining. He also had no idea how long it takes to make a quality game. E.g. Warcraft 1 to 2 to 3 all had many years between them and over a decade between Starcraft and SCII. (This is not to mention all the other quality games that are not produced by Blizzard Entertainment)
 
I bought this game for $4.60 (I think)and it's kept me entertained through 4 years. I don't even play some games for 4 weeks. (I didn't even know I was playing it that long)
 
I paid about five bucks and got the first alpha release that I played for a long long time. It was worth it. Now I have a superawesomeneatamazing game that I can play for hours everyday.
 
All for $5. I'd pay $20-$30+ for it now.
 
Thank you developers. Thank you for helping my dreams of barracading a Wa*-M*rt (can I say that here?) and surviving for 3 months come true.

I would like to suggest changes for the sake of realism, or perhaps options in the menu when starting a new game to bring more realism to the game. I love the game and one of the things I like most about it is that it has a feeling of realism to it that other games always lack. It is brutal and unforgiving just like a situation like this in real life would be. To that end, there are a few things already in the game, or expected to be added to the game in the future, that I think would break immersion.
 
  1 - Tool/Weapon durability.
 
  I understand that this was implemented to add difficulty to the game but it is completely unrealistic and just seems a bit silly to me at times. I am a contractor and I have been building houses from the ground up for about 10 years now. I still own the first hammer I ever purchased 10 years ago. While I did eventually upgrade to a titanium hammer, the steel hammer I used previously saw about 40 - 60 hours per week of smashing steel and wood repeatedly. After all of that punishment I can still pick it up now and use it. I never had to repair it either. The axe is another tool I use frequently. Admittedly an axe does require occasional repair but that involves popping in a new handle, which is just a milled plank of hardwood. Using these tools as they are intended would not damage them in any significant way and using them to chop or bash what is essentially human bodies would actually be less likely to damage them. Guns do require maintenance but that involves breaking them down and cleaning them and applying oil where necessary.
 
 2 - Power Generation -
 
  I know that generators are a planned feature but unless animal fat rendering is added to the game it wouldn't make any sense. Gasoline has a shelf life of about 30 days, so using that beyond a month or two is just out of the question. Same thing goes for vehicles. The only engines that would be viable after an event like this would be of the diesel variety, as they can run on biofuel. I would suggest that solar panels and windmills be added to the game as solar panels are fairly common and windmills are ridiculously easy to build.
 
  3 - Farming -
 
  I think the farming in the game is excellent and I'd love to see how the devs expand on it further. I just have one simple suggestion here and that is hydroponics. I usually play with the grow times cranked to max for more realism. It is harder and requires a much large farm. I think that growing indoors/underground would be the way to go in a situation like the zombie apocalypse. It would also be interesting to see the mechanics involved as growing with hydroponics is more complex than one might believe.
 
  4 - Fire -
 
  For the love of all that is zomboid, please fix the fire. I have the worst luck with campfires and watching fire spread across dirt, gravel and concrete just completely breaks immersion.
 
  5 - Forge -
 
  We need forges badly. Forges are relatively straight forward to build and simple tools, weapons and armour can be crafted with most metal lying around absolutely everywhere in modern civilization. While blacksmithing can take an entire lifetime to master, rudimentary gear could be crafted even by an amateur that would serve the desired function well enough.
 
  Perhaps some or all of things are planned for the future and, if so, I can't wait to see it. If anybody has any additional ideas to add realism I would love to hear them as well. This game is the closest I have seen to a true survival simulator and I believe it has the potential to take that realism even further. I believe it is the greatest strength of the game and the game should be pushed even further in that direction. Make it hard, make it impossible even, but do it in a realistic way, so that it's that much more horrifying when our face gets chewed off by a zombie.
 
 

The problem with windmills/watermills is they produce only a trickle of power at a time, so you'd need many of them or large ones that have the torque to spin a gearbox fast enough to generate decent power. Gasoline has a lot of potential energy in relation to its mass and can be kept nearly indefinitely if in a airtight container, and can be aided by fuel stabilizer. Otherwise, you're correct in that gas usually has a shelf life of only 30 days, which would render at least 90% of all gas in-game unusable after that time.

Why would you use a generator at all. As a contractor I use them all the time and they are extremely loud and use a fair amount of fuel. Seeing as the gas will all be expired after 30 to 60 days and rendering animal fat is disgusting and time consuming, I really don't see the point. Rip an alternator out of a car and the gear and chain off of a bycicle and after a little so-easy-a-child-could-do-it construction you have yourself a windmill. No fuel consumption, almost silent and an almost constant supply of power. Am I the only one that watched "The Colony"?

I read in the mondoid, that generators would be indoors.
It's deadly to operate a generator indoors.
If you want to simulate carbon monoxide poisoning, though, that would be cool. otherwise, put it outside away from open/broken windows. connect the generator with an extension cord of some sort, or just for simplicity, select the generator outside, select an option to plug it into a house...
If you did add carbon monoxide, it would be cool to have to open garage doors when cars are running or else have to install an air exhaust system in the room... I bet a fire station might already have something like that installed... add sliding fire station poles too I guess...
 
PLEASE don't run generators in doors.
PLEASE don't run cars in doors.
 
The bonuses of the generator being outside include:
You won't die in your sleep!
You won't fall asleep and die!
 
-carbon monoxide, the silent killer
 

While I generally like realism, let's not forget that we can build a flying fortress in PZ, i'd say until that particular possibility is removed, log walls not being affected by gravity are not an issue at all.

If we are burying them how come I can place them on sidewalk and roads?

What do you think about letting "rot" clothes ?
 
We have to wash them soon or later ?
 
And reparing clothes that have be reduce to rugs day by day
 
To washup 
[ water bottles [2] keep empty bottle [2] or the same quantity form other recipient ]
[ soap [1/4] use ]
[ bleach [1/4] use]
on [ any cloth ]
 
or
[ elettricity on ]
[ click on washing machine ]
[ soap [1/4] use ]
[ bleach [1/4 use ]
wash a [ not using ] cloth
 
To repair (like repairing weapon)
[ scissor [1] Keep ]
[ needle [1] Keep ]
[ twine [1/4] use ]
[ rip sheets [1] use ]
on [ any cloth ]
 
To modify (like to modity any weapon)
[ scissor [1] keep ]
[ needle [1] keep ]
[ twine [1/2] use ]
[ rip sheets [2] keep ]
 
convert
Blouse to Shirt to Vest to rip sheets 
Pants to Skirt to rip sheets
 
I woud like dev set Tayloring Skill  to make some new clothes like
Business Clothes ( same temperture protection as regular clothes +25% )
Summer Clothes ( same temperture protection as regular clothes -50% )
Winter Clothes ( same temperture protection as regular clothes +50% )
 
Boots ( same temperture protection as regular shoes +25% )
Sandals ( same temperture protection as regular shoes -50% )
 
Raining Vest ( protect from raining day and from cold like Shirt +33% )
Raining Boot ( protect from raining day and from cold like Shoes +33% )
 
I thinik alot at confort wearing clothes ... and get unhappy for not wearing clothes or wearing dirty clothes ( negative moodlet )
 
 
  
 
 

Jatta Pake's idea is a solid solution (better than just stating a problem, without a possible alternative), a collaboration of cross-server whitelist(s).
 
The solidity of this concept comes from the central consortium itself - if there's a forum, or place to dispute/discuss bans and/or players, then the issue of server admins blocking players that aren't really bad apples becomes a less likely obstacle.
Players may have made mistakes, and got themselves banned, but if the ban needs an associated reason or description attached, which can be viewed/disputed publicly on the consortium forum, then the player themselves have an opportunity to present their case.
If this cross-server whitelist can be run alongside individual server whitelists (say, through a mod), then the player could still be restricted from the server of their shenanigans, without being blocked consortium-wide.

So. Basically a giant white-list?

Public Server v. Private Server
 
It seems like both models, public server and private server, have some drawbacks. Public servers get ruined by the actions of a few bad apples, and private servers don't really facilitate the interaction between lovely strangers. Private servers also require a lot of player management, ie vetting good and bad players.
 
Consortium Server Idea
 
What if a consortium of server admins could collectively vet players so lovely strangers could play together? Here is how it could work:
 
Players could apply for a certificate at a third party created, operated, and managed consortium of private servers. Once approved, the player would receive an electronic certificate that would automatically grant access to all private servers who opted in to be part of that particular consortium. When a bad apple appears, any of the server admins could revoke that player's certificate from the consortium. Thus the bad apple would be prevented from hoping over to another server within the consortium after getting banned at one of the other servers.
 
The only thing TIS may need to add to PZ is some function for a certificate checker in multiplayer log in (or maybe not?). Beyond that, it's up to the players to operate. You could have multiple consortiums. The consortiums would define their own rules and operating procedures. And private servers could belong to multiple consortiums, accepting certificates from several different ones.
 
Philosophy: Underpinning this idea is the assumption that the majority of server admins don't want cheaters and griefers ruining the game for everyone else. Additionally, server admins want to spend more time playing the game and less time chasing down douche bags.  Alternatively, most players will want to play on a well administered server free of cheaters and griefers. A sort of natural selection then takes place as good consortiums grow and bad consortiums wither.
 
This structure also streamlines server admin efforts. Currently, Server A Admin uncovers a bad apple and bans an individual. Server B Admin has to repeat all of the same steps to ban the same individual on his server. This duplication of efforts can be eliminated.
 
Everyone Wins: TIS focuses on the game while remaining walled off from all player management headaches. TIS only provides a mechanism for checking "certificates" by player run servers. Nothing more.
 
Enterprising consortium start ups would compete for popularity and page views. Consortiums would police themselves, as they would have a collective interest in only including other good servers. One bad server could ruin the reputation for the entire consortium.
 
As the landscape of consortiums matures, the consortiums could collectively propose improvements to TIS for the certificate checking system. Maybe some sort of encryption needs to be added.
 
Yes, it would be messy at first. And yes, douche bags would invariably find ways to exploit consortiums. But I think this would go a long way in reducing the Wild West environment for server admins. It also provides a middle option between a full public or full private server.
 
Thoughts?

The multiplayer is severely broken. Like, really, really broken. With that being said, I understand that I purchased this game with Early Access via Steam and willingly took on the responsibility. However, I don't think the focus should be on adding cars and the such when the MP side of things are so broken that it might ruin the potential of it ever being what it could be down the road. I might have to stop playing  all together because it's that bad. With that being said - it has a lot of potential, but some things I thought of, in my opinion, my plant some seeds - who knows. If you are already working on some of these things, great! If not, then I worry a bit. 
 
I understand that this was a SP game first and foremost, therefore if the focus isn't going to be on multiplayer in fixing these huge problems within the next few months, then I'd say remove the MP until it can be better focused on altogether because the single player is great!
 
This is from two weeks and almost 100 hours of playing Project Zomboid Multiplayer. (I played the single player like it was going out of style from 2013 and up and love the idea of the multiplayer)
 
 
1. Server Side Saving
 
This would fix so many problems it's not even funny. People can easily manipulate the saves therefore, everyday on the server I'm on we're hit by more hackers than actually DDOSing now because people just load their save right back in once they die, or they edit the save file since it's saved on the computer in an easy-to-find location. It doesn't quite make much sense. This would prevent the easy editing and at least make it much, much harder to change things in-game. The server I'm on even checks files for its size to see if its been modified and still to no anvil.
 
2. Server optimization
 
The netcode could be optimized a lot better than it is, but I'm sure this is already being worked on. 
 
3. Zombie spawn behavior
 
The spawn system for the zombies are a little weird, I think from experience the game checks to see if there isn't anyone in the area and if it isn't then it'll spawn zombies, so the end result is that you have zombies in places nobody will ever visit/or visit often and most of the zombies in the city killed off. Shouldn't it be something along the lines of % based + the activity in the area? I.E. if there's more activity in the city than the highway, then focus on spawning zombies around that area instead of the house by the lake which no one goes to and it ends up lagging the server because of all these zombies. (One time it was so many zombies, they all would lag off my screen when shot, then reappear out of no where and some wouldn't die, but they couldn't do damage to you when I had 67-92 ping) 
 
4. Balance the weapons
 
The weapons are extremely unbalanced in the multiplayer side of things. I'm not exactly sure how the weapons act besides from experience, reading the wiki, and hearing from others but it seems its just single player weapons for multiplayer. 
 
5. Respawn times
 
I had food from the night before, I logged back on the server and one second later it's rotten.. What? I just made it. It shouldn't go by the timer of the server if it's in your bag, each item should just have it's own timer, global protocols don't work for everything.
 
6. Multiplayer should only allow one file save.
 
I've noticed that people are modifying saves so they can get resources way faster by just making multiple accounts all hacked to max level in different areas gathering different things. Not sure if that's an issue, but - it's happening. I think one save is good enough since it's a hardcore game first off and secondly, it'll probably be a lot more manageable for the server, the dev and the end user.
 
 
7. Fires can start but can't be put out without an admin? 
 
Fires should be able to be put out with dropping water on the ground at least. Or a fire extinguisher that's located in most stores. What happens is if an admin isn't on, people start fires online and it lags the entire server badly. It's like if one person is lagging, everyone is gonna lag - regardless if they aren't even by the fire itself, they will feel the lag as if they were nearby it for whatever reason.
 
Misc. things
 
Logged in but I'm not logged in.. How does that happen? It should be a checker to see if they haven't moved/said anything/no interaction with anything then they should be kicked after a certain time for inactivity instead of being denied service. Even after kicking the "ghost" of my friend dark nano, he was still unable to come on because it said he was still on the server.
 
I think if you have a backpack on you, you shouldn't need to drag items to your main inventory, the game should just know what items you have and either just do it automatically or just treat it like an extension of the player, which it is, and cut out the dragging of items so much.
 
 
 
These are a few of my ideas, regardless of them all I hope that Project Zomboid thrives to become something amazing as it's one of the best Early Access games I've gotten to read about, see videos of, and play myself for me to see that this is a game with a great community and even amazing devs with passion. I just really want the multiplayer to thrive because I believe people come for the single player, and stay for the multiplayer. 
 
I'll make another one of these if more ideas come into my head.

Just had an idea to bring the nutrition/hunger system one step closer from realism, as it would make it a "long-term" thing instead of the actual instant bonus/penalty.

Right now it's like an invisible bar running down as time passes, and you fill it by eating stuff ; your "hungry" moodlet depends on your position on that bar, means if you're close to death and eat a huge meal you'll suddenly be all pumped up and fresh again.

What about making it an average of the last X days (lets say 7 for the exemple) ? Lets say you have to eat 60 hunger points (arbitrary value, should probably be a bit less) each day, it's like the basis on which all the bonuses and penalties will be calculated.
Then maths :

If you eat 60 points each day for 7 days, you're at "100%", no penalty, no bonus, you're healthy.
the day after, you have a food shortage, you only eat for 5 points.
So that's 60*6+5= 365     ;          365/7 = 52.14       ;   52*(100/60) = 86.6
>You're at 86% of the ideal average nutrition level.

You only find a bag of chips to eat for the whole next day, that's 15 points.
60*5+5+15=320               ;          320/7 = 45.7         ;   45*(100/60) = 75
>You're at 75% of the ideal average nutrition level.
etc...

Every time you pass under a 10% stage (90%, 80%, 70% etc...) your penalty gets worst.
exemples :
under 90%, exerted faster
under 80%, exerted faster, strenght penalty
under 70%, exerted faster+, strenght penalty 
under 60%, exerted faster+, strenght penalty+
under 50%, exerted faster++, strenght penalty++
under 40%, exerted faster+++, strenght penalty++
under 30% exerted faster +++, strenght penalty+++
under 20% exerted faster ++++, strenght penalty ++++
under 10% exerted faster +++++, strenght penalty+++++
0% ...... dead (which means you'd have to eat nothing at all for 7 straight days to die of starvation, in that exemple)

Maybe even a health penalty, since we're weaker to face injuries & sickness when we're starving. It could be actually cool if your health % was the same as your nutrition/hunger average %.


On the other hand, if you're lucky enough to eat at your fill or even more :

You get "mood" and health bonuses when you go above 110%, 120%, 130% etc... in that case, even a slight strenght bonus might actually make sense compared to the actual insta strenght boost you have for a few hours just after you ate. But very subtle, not above +2 "carry unit" & slight damage boost at the maximum bonus. But I think I'd still personally prefer no strenght bonus at all, I don't know... because that would be an actually well deserved bonus.


Also, the lower your nutrition average is, the more depressed you are, also gets some moar sadness penalty if you eat under 50% of the daily amount of food you need (60 in the exemple)

After a quick google search, I've noticed that it's legal to buy and sell some fireworks in Kentucky. Thinking back on some zombie movies, like Land of the Dead, where survivors will strategically use fireworks to distract/lure zombies away.

If you included a fireworks store, you'd open up some possibilities for items that generate noise. You could go all the way from low-scale firecrackers, which would be useful for pulling zombies out of a building or distracting a nearby horde. You could maybe have roman candles, which would be very ineffective against zombies, but the projectiles could be something the zombies follow. The largest scale firework could be a legitimate firework, which operates in a similar fashion to the helicopters, only it's stationary, but still have a pretty large radius.

In order to use Fireworks, you'd need a lighter or some matches.
 
 

But you can already take more sleeping pills than necessary. And you can drink bleach.

Also, I think there should be a possibility of tripping just to be devoured by a horde. Together with the muscle pulling and tearing slowdown, that'd add up much to the 'kill you early' thing.

Hi community of Pz! I have a suggestion about three food's recipes.
First, i know that the staff and all developers of Pz are busy with many great and important game features, so my suggestion is secondary.
You know that I am italian (eheh) and in the game i have noticed that there isn't a super delicious (very italian) food,"PASTA"!!!
My idea is this:
 
1) New food: Raw Pasta   (the problem is that there isn't a texture for the "Pasta")
    - Two kind of recipes with pasta (famous in all world, not only in Italy)
2) New Recipe with the classic Milk and cereals
 
Two important notes:
- Pasta is highly energetic and calorie food!!!! (extremely)
- Milk and cereals is really good, but not as pasta.
 
Here the example:
 

 
I hope that my idea is to your liking thank you for your attention and patience
 
Stephen

I think the developers have done a grand job of balancing moods and exertion.

Honey Badger would, 'cause Honey Badger don't care.
 

(  )

On the exertion topic:
 
I consider myself an active person. I practice sport 4-5 days a week, and while I cannot run a marathon, I am in a relative good shape. 
 
Have a look at what your character is doing and the time spent doing so, and then tell us again why its not realistic. As its right now, even at level zero, our characters are way above the human average. 
 
At the moment you can run for 4-5 hours a day (obviously not straight, with breaks in between). You can kill 30-50 zeds easily. This implies launching around 50-100 axe blows (with intention, aka applying a considerable strenght), and you do this while moving, running, dodging... That's a hell of a workout!
 
Your example of marathon is also a bit unrealistic, since most of the runners who participate in these races need months to recover. The medical consensous about this is that is not healthy to run in more than two marathons every year. The fact that some people run a marathon every week means nothing else that those guys are crazy
 
The game is not by far realistic at the moment. Its being quite nice on the fitness department. I wouldn't want it to be realistic either, as this would indeed tune down the gameplay and make it less fun. However, the previous system just made us brutal killing machines, and that's something that doesn't fit the scenario. 
 
I think we are somewhere in between realism and gamey that works quite well.