thecexpanther

Hey pz crew, just your friendly real-world sous chef here, Today at work I was sharpening my knives and it got me to thinking about how pz handles the knife/ cooking system. Basically I think the following changes could be made to add a little more interesting detail to a fairly mundane and oft-utilized skill set: 1) you don't need a knife or sharp object to "prep" your food, even though there's a definite 'chopping' noise when you add things to recipes. So with that, I think they should not be mandatory, but having a knife (specifically a sharp, kitchen one) should add bonuses to your meal. The sharper your knife, the more yield you should get (less waste from clumsy/ poor knife work) the faster it should be to prep/cook (smaller, evenly cut things cook better) and should provide more happiness (well prepared meals are nicer). 2) the above bonuses should be tied to how sharp your knife is. To this end, whet/oil stones (for long term maintenance) and honing steels (for a temporary bonus that doesn't increase the overall edge quality) as well as cutting boards( to reduce wear) should be added. You should need at least one or 2 points in blade maintenance to be able to check the condition of a knife's edge also. 3) dull knives are dangerous! One of the most common ways people injure themselves in the kitchen is because their knife is dull and the have to push harder on it to cut, couple that with most lay people not knowing how to properly hold food they are cutting and you can have serious injuries on your hands (pun not intended lol). So a character with low cooking skill and a dull knife should run the risk of cutting themselves, and also burning themselves while cooking. Higher cooking skill and sharper knives should lower this risk. This shouldn't be a priority project, but I feel it would add a lot of depth and realism to the game

I was wondering what the devs thought of adding wildlife to the game, perhaps as a way to test new AI behaviors as well as add depth to the 'living off the land' aspect of the game. I think it would be really cool to add in wild deer/rabbit/pigs/quails as well as pets (imagine a home still being guarded in the early days by dogs). The ability to skin and prepare the meat would add some interesting options, allowing people to make cured meats/ sausage would also be a nice touch. Basic animal butchery and such is not outside the grasp of your average person, either.

I love this map, except for all the Staircases of Doom. I now make my co-op friends go upstairs first, I've learned my lesson. Also, the area round the firing range/ helipad in the army base has a lot of glitches. the tower is in accessable, and has a SoD in the north west corner. The hangars nearby also have a deathrap in the office area upstairs. The barricades on the army base are also cosmetic only, you can climb right through, as can the undead. The building near the helipad have no doors, and the north most one has no floor. The 'elevator' in the hostpital was also a big surprise. In the south-west most brick building near the park, there is a 3 story doom staircase as well. the spiffos in the indoor mall near the police staion and army base has a door that opens into a wall. Overall, very well put together map though. Lots of little details that make it feel much more alive (or formally at least) than the vanilla maps. Can't wait for v3.

Last night my girlfriend and I played together, and we decided to raid the military hospital in Bedford. We got to the top floor, walked though a door that I guess was an elevator and fell down a story, each of us breaking a shin. I went outside an cut down trees to make a slpint while she explored the helipad. After I made her a splint and she applied it, she promptly fell off the roof and broke her other leg, an died in minutes.

I agree that crop growth time should be both seasonal and a little longer, with some staple crops growing year round( carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, greens, herbs etc) that would be balanced a little by the staggered harvesting. It would force players to think more when planting, perhaps perhaps even adding the ability to tell the best season for each plant at high farming skills. I think that farming should be a component of survival, not a ticket to self sufficient living. Players should have to trap, fish, pickle and loot for cans to survive. No more cruise control after you build some rain barrels and get a trowel.

I'm just saying from my time growing tomatoes, picked ones mold in about a week, but they will stay on the vine for a least a couple after turning red before falling on their own and starting the decomposition porsosses in the dirt.

I was thinking that players should be able to take as much or as little of a farm crop as wanted. I have a small backyard farm IRL and when my tomatoes come in I don't go "well I better grab ALL of them" I take what I need and leave the rest on the vine because they keep longer and taste better. And if greens are introduced you should be able to do the same and let the rest of the plant grow. I have a kale plant that's almost a year old and nearly 6 feet tall because taking the outter leaves stimulates the plant to grow more and get taller. This would be realistic and help when the power goes out and preservation of fresh food is difficult.

I had a quick little idea, to add environmental hazards and mix things up in the world, and possibly add some minor meta-game mechanics: basically with the lack of human supervision, most industrial equipment would eventually malfunction, in many cases catastrophicly. This is somewhat simulated through the power/ water shutoff system, but what if the player could play a role in it? Maybe adding a power plant that overheats and explodes, that the player could add coolant or fuel to to keep the lights on and avoid loot being destroyed in the ensuing fire. A similar idea could be applied to water pump stations. Players could be alerted to the situation with emergency sirens, and that would also add challenge by drawing in undead. Could also add urgency to the situation by making some accidents contaminate areas with chemicals or radiation, forcing players to try and stop it or relocate before the a meltdown. Just thought it would be a somewhat realistic scenario that would break up the base building-scavenging-sleeping routine.

I had a similar idea, here's a copy/paste from my steam forum post: I was wondering if there was any plan to add the option to have multiple types of zombies in a single world, ie shamblers and sprinters, either randomly or by setting up types in sandbox options and their distribution. Also i wanted to know if there would be an option to make context changes to zombie, like shambler by day, superhuman sprinter by night, or zombies that move away from flashlight beams ect and maybe the option to have them change over time in way besides just decomposition, like vision dropping but hearing and smell sharpening anything that added more variety to combat would be great, and more zombie options allow for people to create whatever scenario they want