So, I've had the game for a long time now, and since Mathas started his playthrough again, after the latest patch, I found my love for the game again. So I've played for an in-game month or so on my main, and a week on every one of my alt characters. During this time I've been messing with the settings and seasons, to try and gauge the new content. First off, it's majestic. 10/10, I actually get riled up when zombies notice me. Instead of just mowing them down, I usually find it preferable to run. Thanks to all the great people working on this game, thank you. Your new content is appreciated. I can conserve my own food, get injured in the most macabre and weird ways, and I can stitch together a long-term survival camp in the weirdest places. But even as zombies have become an actual menace, I still feel like I miss something... a reason to leave my little fort, when it's finally semi-self-sustainable, when I have a garden, water and enough medicine and non-perishable food for a winter or two. I need a reason to go out and look for resources, and firewood just doesn't cut it for me any more. Thus comes my suggestions to improve life for us boring players who turtle down in our fortresses of solitude. 1. Clothing durability I start my games in early spring, a time I prefer to prepare myself for winter and the menacing months ahead. I started out with no clothing on my torso, but soon came upon a sweater, which I've kept until shortly, where I was perpetually "unpleasantly hot", now after wearing the same sweater for a couple of months, it's resting in my storage, until I'll be needing it again. It bugs me, it bugs me that my clothes do not tear, or damage over time. As I scavenge and fight zombies, it seems my clothes have become indestructible, and although the new thread and needle gives me hope for a brighter future, I still feel like reminding you of it. Of the seemingly pristine clothes worn by zombies and the uselessness of socks, shoes, pants, skirts and torso clothing, when it can't be torn or destroyed, the game world is littered with useless items that people would never need picking up, unless they want to make a big deal out of fueling their campfires exclusively with clothing they've spent important weight capacity to carry back to their camps and bases. Having to scavenge for new clothes would be a welcome change of pace, for when I just look for more non-perishable food. 2. Clothing and the weather I know, I know. It's erratic and unnecessary, it's been mentioned before. But I feel like the addition of a "jacket" type item, which protects moderately against the weather and water, would greatly improve on the OP "catch-all" sweater, with it's 15 degrees buff. Either that, or simply debuff the overpowered sweater, so making a campfire actually becomes important when the cold of winter rolls into town. Or buff winter, whatever is the easier way out, I just feel like the winter months don't pose any actual thread unless you're completely dumbfounded by the temperature stats on your clothing. 3. Cloth repurposing Ever tried looking for a sweater to protect you from the cold, and finding only blouses and vests? Ever considered the useless nature of scissors, needles and thread? Why wouldn't repurposing items be possibly, so we can craft matresses using the stuffed Spiffos, as a supplement to pillows? And using the many different clothing articles to create sheets, when you ultimately can't find any 8 months after the apocalypse? 4. Sadness and boredom - underpowered as **** Being a gamey ****stain, I always take brooding, hot tempered and light drinker when I pick character traits. It's cheap points for something that only ever becomes relevant if you get bit and become ill. Only in the most horrible of moments have I had to start popping pills in order to keep my mood in check, and I feel that it's a real damn shame, because experiencing the apocalypse first hand should ultimately be far more stressing and depressing than what it's being made out to be. The system of regaining happiness by indulging yourself in the pre-apocalyptic joys of hot meals, candy and alcohol are totally fine with me, although food needs a debuff and we need an addiction system for the medication and alcohol we ingest. Losing boredom by just moving should be removed and replaced with a system of actions that you can remove boredom with, books and games being the easiest, if you can't do some crafting. Fighting zombies since it's a quick and easy way of removing boredom seems a little cheaty, even if your character is Irish. I'd like to see sadness and depression becoming harder to fight, with the over-time reduction initially being a slight -0.1 penalty, as you experience the first days of the apocalypse, and then flatten out into 0 as you survive the first month, and only after that, there should be a small 0.1 bonus to the over-time reduction, as you learn to cope with the new world order. Being a broody character would have course make the over-time reduction nill, and you'd have to rely on cheering yourself up and medicating yourself, instead of just not giving a rats ***. The severity of boredom and depression should also be ramped up, with a bump in your percieved needs. Depressed characters would be less inclined to eat and would not even show signs of being peckish, their moodle should be slightly skewered, as the depression becomes more severe, so the chance of slipping into starvation becomes bigger and bigger, as the moodle gives imprecise information. Likewise, boredom should make you more inclined to eat, smoke and drink, boosting your depression and making your moodle skewer slightly in the other direction. A bored person would seem hungry even when there is no need to stuff one self with precious food supplies. A character afflicted with both would at first not notice the skewered eatin habits, but would instead become stressed, as inactivity and depression chip away at their health, making them far more susceptible to disease. I've so far only encountered stress and unease when I was infected and combating the infection with food, medicine and as many cigarettes as I could find. Having to combat boredom and depression in the winter months would be awesome, since I'm usually confined to my base, unless I play as a freshly spawned survivor '8 months after' or just fancy freezing my *** off at the beginning of the game. 5. Personal fertilizer production I know what you think, but it's not just a modified toilet. I remember back when I first started playing and someone mentioned the idea. And it stuck. I'd like to see a pit for all of my rotting produce, since jar lids and jars are so rare for me, I'd really appreciate it if I could at least dump the rotting piles of cabbages into a pit or a barrel in which it could mold and rot before I collect it and use it to support my garden. Please, please, please put this in soon, because the area outside my base where I dump items that have lost all value to me (IE it's rotten) is growing out of control, and it makes no sense that it just stays there on the ground for months on end. 6. Adding glass The addition of a mirror item, along with erosion gave me an idea, as a horde forced me to relocate my base of operations early. Why not add glass? It would be rare, yes. But the addition might make it possible to construct 2x2 grid greenhouses, terrariums for our cricket companions and most importantly, fix the damn windows, so I won't be forced to accidentally jump out of them and cut my fingers in the process. I could just fix the damn thing, without having to get into carpenting early. It could be hardware, and found on construction sites, in warehouses and the hardware store, with the same dropchance as sandbags and barbed wire, an uncommon necessity for those of us who like have spotlights and protected inner yards around the gate to our forts. Also helps if you build a house from scratch... 7. An apple tree? I know it's a long shot, but I once survived 4-5 months on a character before a zombie in the grass got me, and by the time, I had started considering what my long-long-term project should be. How about being able to extract apple seeds from the apples we see at the start of the game? You'd have to use a knife, and the tree would need a 2x2 grid to grow in, and it'd take 8 months to 1 year before it's fully matured, a time-frame few survivors would see anyways(So to hell the the realism for the apple trees!), and it'd bloom in spring and bear fruit in summer, with a harvest between 10 - 20 apples. It'd make sense for us to have some sort of cool, late game gimmick that we can proudly look at when we finally manage to break the 1 year barrier. I might end up making several more lists when I get deeper into the new food preparation system, fishing and scavenging, but as of now, these were my 14 cents worth of thoughts.
