particlezero

Most cans can be opened by rubbing the top of the can on concrete for a few seconds. After you get through the rolled rim you just slide something underneath to prevent the top from popping off when you flip it over. I have opened cans with a knife before but this method is faster and much safer.

A wood gasifier could be a very interesting mechanic. There certainly is enough wood to be found. It would also add yet another way to abruptly end your habit of breathing by way of exploding your own face off.

The whole argument about the type of container is irrelevant anyway. During any major disaster the gas stations are emptied within a few hours. You could try to find gas trucks or siphon from abandoned vehicles but you wouldn't be the only one with that idea. Even if you did happen to find proper containers and fill them before the gas was salvaged by others or expired, how long do you think it would last? Most generators are designed to run machines that use a lot of power, so they would be terribly inefficient. In a situation like this you would want to power a refridgerator and a few lights around your base. To accomplish that in the long term you would need to use renewable sources of power. The devs are also planning on adding vehicles to the game. How many generators/cars do you think you can operate in this situation? How many jerry cans do you think you'll have? Gasoline is simply not a viable option after civilization falls.

When power is up in first 2-3 months why go to library when you can just google everything and be omniscient LOL. I love that but that's something you would have to do either before the apocalypse happens or very shortly after. The internet requires a massive amount of manpower around the clock and around the globe to actually function. I imagine once people started turning into zombies the internet would go down rather quickly. I think the new generation of youngsters would be in big trouble though because I doubt if they know how to use the dewey decimal system. Perhaps they could google it before the net went down.

I agree that just providing solar panels in the loot table would not be a solution. I'm not sure about where all of you live but I live near Toronto, Canada and there are plenty of solar panels around and I am assuming they are connected to inverters. Besides, I think the easier and most practical source of power would be the windmill anyway. Hopefully, however, if they do decide to add solar power to the game I hope they make it interesting. As you say it is complicated and can be inefficient. On the show I mentioned, "The Colony", they used light sensors and servos to make the solar panels track the sun on swivels.

I really love the idea of manuals. I watched a documentary once about survival where a guy went into an apocalyptic looking section of a city and salvaged supplies and such and showed the viewer some tips on urban survival and he said that most likely his first target would be a library. Apparently during most disasters in heavily populated areas the libraries are almost always completely untouched. Knowledge is power and in case of the apocalypse of any flavour, knowledge is life. I understand the issues with the forge that a lot of, or most, people may not be able to figure out how to make a forge. I guess I take my knowledge in such things for granted sometimes. Everybody should learn at least one skilled trade, it will save your life when the zombies come .

I agree about the axe sharpening, though that can be accomplished pretty easily with a whetstone, which can be used repeatedly. This only applies to bladed weapons though. Blunt weapons may require a new handle periodically if they have wooden handles. I know there is probably no solar panels in the cities in the game at the moment but in real life they are pretty common. Farming underground is absolutely possible. I should have specified when I mentioned hydroponics that UV lights would be included. The furnace/stove idea is basically what I was going for with the fire. Even a simple, short stone wall around the fire and having the surrounding floor covered in non-flammable material would make it practically impossible for the fire to spread anywhere. Forges are not really too complicated. I would suggest that anybody reading this topic check out the television show "The Colony". A lot of the ideas I put into this are utilized across both seasons of that show.

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.

Amazing game already and constantly improving. IMO it should actually cost more. Thank you devs!

Shopping cart jerry rigged to a bycicle.

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 think the real problem with using the fuel from the gas station is that gasoline has a shelf life of about 30 days. After that it would be completely useless anyway so why bother pumping it? I realize it is a game but I like realism and using gasoline would just break immersion. Although, if you are in The Walking Dead gasoline lasts forever and bullets grow on trees.