BoogieMan

I like the idea. but while it would no doubt be more quiet on dirt and grass, depending on how heavily loaded it would also probably be a lot harder to push. Even if just something for logs. Getting lots of wood for construction is really tedious right now, especially by yourself.

It happens in reality so it sounds good to me. If it's dark outside and lightning flashes nearby, for a brief moment it can be almost like daylight. Would be a nice atmospheric touch. Also sounds need to be harder to localize and not carry as far during a storm. As far as I can tell other sounds have no impact on zombie awareness, they seem to notice you sneaking by even if there other sounds that would overpower light footsteps, like storms and helicopters and so forth.

*Holds fire axe, can beat you to death at any time with it, but really isn't threatening because of stance.* :/ No, I think I'd prefer you put the axe down. It's also because it's awkward looking, moving in such as stance all the time even if you know there is nothing immediately nearby to prepare to attack, yet you still want to move quietly. Preparing to imminently attack and sneaking should not really be the same thing. Also, walking towards someone simply holding it at your side is NOT the same thing as walking someone with it held up, back and ready to swing. You can go to a hardware store, and carry an axe to the register to buy it just fine. But trying walking around like you're sneaking in PZ and the police will be coming. It's simply not the same, at all.

Very informative, thank you.

It should be more about what makes the game fun, rather than being "realistic." Sure, hitting a deer can mess up your car and that's often because they are relatively high speed impacts. A car being "totaled" is more often about if it's cost effective to repair it than it actually being made inoperable due to damage. A lower speed rolling over zombies would produce far less damage to your car. Certain vehicles, like trucks with heavy duty bumpers and police cars with pit bars on the front would fair much better than some regular family sedan. Also vehicles with high ground clearance(trucks, jeeps, large SUVs) would be more likely to roll over zombies than bump them over the hood and cause windshield damage. Sure, you want to have a semblance of reality but it has to be about what better adds to the game as a whole. Too much or too little and it's bad. You'd think that they would more likely get crippled and knocked down than outright killed due the lack of head focused damage. If you hit a crowd, perhaps the few at the front of the pack would likely be killed on impact while the ones behind just get maimed or knocked over.

Very much this.

Good idea.

Some suppressors can make a huge difference, but they are typically very expensive ones and depends a lot on the caliber. Some .22 weapons with suppressors are surprisingly quiet. You could even use a pillow for a few shots. Wouldn't be great but it would make a difference. Not in the immediate area so much, but in how far it carries, sure. Shame it's a no though.. Well, there are always mods if you're missing them.

Three suggestions relating to carried bags: Please add an option to right click a container and have an option to dump all contents into the currently opened container. Otherwise, it just dumps the contents onto the ground.This can reduce the tedium of constantly moving everything one at a time, and just add some more depth and choice of action. Have it generate a little noise in the area, maybe similar to the amount generated clearing broken glass - to account for you just opening the bag and shaking it empty. Where as when you drag items one at a time it's simulating you're removing things one by one and as a result it doesn't make appreciable noise. A hotkey to drop any bag that isn't equipped on your back, since it would only take a second to do so in reality anyway.Would be good for those Oh **** moments... High panic, exhaustion, and bad enough injury to an arm holding a heavy bag has a chance to make you drop it.Would have to make it obvious to the player that it's happened, though.

Seems like both sides could be satisfied with the option to restrict a map to just one of the towns, and encircle the town with a wall or water so it seems like an island. Shouldn't this be possible with the existing map editors? Someone just needs to take the time to do it and see how successful such servers are.

The maps are too big for single player, but they also need to be big for multiplayer. Once transportation methods are implemented it should get a little better. I think a lot of the issues I read people complaining about now are due to the migration system defaulting at too aggressive a level, and the zombies forming large hordes even with no stimulus from the player. It strikes people as unexpected and unnatural. It gives an impression that the zombies are all telepathically linked and try to spread out and blanket an area with a general population average, so when you create a gap by killing a bunch, more flood in to seal it back up. EDIT: A less uniform and more random-ish distribution with varying density would probably make the "reinforcements" look and feel a little less mathematical and deliberate.

Since they seem to try to maintain a population average of an area of space there seems to always be zombies nearby regardless of how many you kill, thanks to both respawning and the migration, and them liking to hang out in 20 zombie thick hordes as they do so. I've killed down right ludicrous numbers of zombies in a small area and it seems like nearly every day there are new hordes. In my experience, even with reducing starting zombie population to .25 (peak day 20) guns are now way more of a death trap than ever before. Just the other day I fired a pistol on day 4 or 5, and within a minute or so I saw more zombies on screen that I EVER had before. I died. So just for giggles I loaded up another world with the same settings and cheated in a sawed off shotgun and a bunch of boxes of ammo, ate till I was well fed, and put reloading on easy and fired off a round. Sure enough another massive horde shows up I literally ran around the same building gunning down scores of zombies until my character was beginning to starve. The horde size even after so many losses was probably down to only about about 70% of it's peak due to constant reinforcements. I am NOT kidding. I always thought they had really limited use before, but now you're just ringing the dinner bell. If this works the same, when NPCs are added, I imagine every NPC that uses a gun is DEAD in very short order, as is everyone within a block of them. You can't fix it with zombie hearing settings either. This is on the average hearing level. If you change it to low then you can practically run right by them and they won't hear you, and can make the game too easy. I think PZ is now the hardest it's ever been. I couldn't imagine being a new player right now, it's probably downright brutal for all but those who crave hard challenges. Seems more like the Dark Souls of sandbox games now. I hope it that doesn't hurt the flow of new players. I'll add a disclaimer that this is just my opinion, but I think the standard settings are a bit heavy handed towards new players. Yes the game is supposed to be hard, but it can be off putting to repeat days 1-4 over and over as you acclimate to controls and zombie behavior. The game has always fizzled out in mid to late game due to a lack of things to strive for. The new difficulty these new mobile hordes add would be a welcome sight late game, but having it so early in the game doesn't have the same effect and just makes the early game too difficult. I'll also add I have no multiplayer experience yet, so maybe the difficulty is more on target for multiple people. You just have to slog through it, tweaking sandbox settings as you go and die until you find the elusive balance that gives you the proper challenge for you. The amount of control you have over the game is pretty impressive, it's one of the things I like most about the game. So be thankful that you do. If you find the game too hard, or you want it even harder there are simple changes (more, less) that have a profound effect on the difficulty: Population Options -> Advanced -> Rally Group Size and Population Start Multiplier. Zombie Hearing - Low has a huge impact on their awareness. I would advise not to change it unless you're REALLY struggling. Zombie Memory Endurance Recovery

they don't explode when shot.... its just a movie thing Unless you had an active flame nearby, that would probably trigger a quick blast but it would be very short lived. I wonder if it would last long enough to catch something like even clothing on fire..

Yeah those are good ideas. More stragglers is good since they more often add an unexpected element. I almost never die to hordes, but rather get an infected scratch or bite from an unexpected lone zombie or small group in a weird place.

Yes, Leolvanov is exactly right. What I said is not about making the game easier, but adding more variety to the existing difficulty instead of every horde being identical. The settings I am talking about adding don't exist.. It's too neat and mathematical at the moment. Zombies shouldn't be so organized, and it's never surprising since you always know what to expect since it's always the same. This is specifically about suggesting the Rally Group Size having a range of sizes, or at least a random size between two amounts so it isn't always the same size of group. To illustrate what I mean, the picture on the left is basically how zombies hordes look and distribute right now. The right picture is how it could look utilizing what I am suggesting.

Like I said though, you shouldn't have to remove your weapons. Simply holding them is different than going around pointing your gun everywhere.

That would be nice, right now that water looks kinda like painted ground. Maybe even just a simple animated texture.

To make it so not every horde you encounter after a few in-game days looks just about identical in number and distribution, maybe add three fields that govern rally group size and a percentage modifier that governs the likelyhood of that number being selected. Right now it's set at 20. Instead, for example you could have something like 4-8, 12-18, and 20-28 with 40%, 30%, 30% utilization respectively. Perhaps even spice it up even more by weighting the percentage rolls based on what size the "neighboring" hordes have selected to reduce the chance of one area getting too high a population. It would probably be beneficial to make a random-ish appearing adjustment for how the groups distribute themselves on the map as well, so you don't encounter those areas with neatly spaced zombie hordes dotting the landscape.

I think it would benefit the game to have a new sneak mode/button implemented instead of just tying it to aiming an attack or being forced to unequip all weapons. It will probably feel more intuitive to new players, but more to show intent in multiplayer games as well as when NPCs are implemented. By that I mean right now when you sneak - you look aggressive. Either pointing a gun or readying a melee swing. What if you just want to be sneaking around, and appear to be doing just that? Even were I playing a typically non-aggressive person in multiplayer, seeing someone moving towards you or popping into the room you're in looking like that might make you want to just shoot them on the spot or assume they have aggressive intent. One of the main problems that similar games (loosely in concept) like Day Z is that MP often degenerates into free for all death match where the zombies are just background noise and a nuisance, while players do nothing but kill each other on sight. I'm not saying a change like this would prevent that, but it couldn't hurt. If I'm trying to just stay safe from zombies I'd rather not look like to other people that I'm plotting to murder them.

It's really not quite that simple, actually. It may not seem like it but enough exposure to these kinds of things will make you realize the intricacy in tying knots. It doesn't take long to learn once you've seen it demonstrated, but I wouldn't say you can just start tying and expect results. If you have that much confidence why don't you go try rock climbing with just some rope and a harness? I do like that grapple hook idea though, could make raiding NPC forts fun and make a knotsmith a valued member of society, but it doesn't really sound that safe either lol Big difference between rock climbing and climbing up to a 2nd story window.

I wasn't in the scouts very long, and most what little I learned I've forgotten. However I'm sure I could tie a knot that could hold my weight just with common sense. I do agree on the hoes/trowels though, especially since you could get the same thing done with your bare hands or some rocks. It would just take a lot longer. Maybe really low crafting like, 0 or 1 would make there be a chance it would come apart and you'd fall. But with high skill you could craft a rope/sheet ladder that requires less strength to scale and can be climbed faster. Maybe even a makeshift grappling hook with very high skill.. That could be interesting.

Honestly I'm not sure what I would do were it up to me. If it wasn't hard to fix it would have been done already.. I don't think any one fix would do a good job alone, but rather a number of smaller fixes that work together. A few ideas: -Addition of longer lasting psychological effects. There would need to be some kind of hidden mental fortitude stat. Perhaps something like health, that steady degrades as you take damage, prolonged/frequent periods of panic, time without food at higher hunger levels, fatigue, being outside in the dark, hearing zombies nearby. Essentially a stress level, I suppose. Certain professions and skills would be more resistant or more susceptible to the effects of stress than others as well as how many zombies you've killed, how long you've survived, how long since you've had human contact. -Small chance for prolonged/severe panic to cause you to drop your weapon when you use it. -Stress from panic and injuries interfering with sleep quality. -More sandbox options that can have profound effects on your character and play style Addition of a NPC(s) that you can customize who are largely reliant upon the player. Someone you have to care for and protect. Could be a loved one, or even a family. Military eradication squads that sweep through from time to time, under orders to exterminate the dead and the "infected" - or just the still alive "infected" people to prevent them from "spreading" the illness. More severe weather and the effect it has upon the player. Things like that. At the very least they would add some much needed variety.

It's not "safe" but once you're used to the game it's not exactly hard either. You can also only take out so many before you get exertion effects. As for luring them one at a time? I don't think that is feasible to utilize routinely. Usually they are in fairly tight little mobs and odds are you'll get several at a time at best. Regardless, I think having to do that routinely would quickly become tedious. Replacing one undesirable style with another. You shouldn't be Mr Badass just as much as you shouldn't be Mr pansy. I agree it should be a bit harder, but I don't think that's the way to do it. Another thing to consider is I imagine most people always build an ideal character for their play style and are also probably pretty aggressive towards the zombies. That's not exactly seeking a challenge in itself. I've been enjoying a game recently where I created a character that isn't good at combat, and I also role play them as a very cautious person who won't engage zombies unless he feels very safe to do so. He also is very attached to his house (house he was in when the game started, won't move base unless it's absolutely mandatory.) Being a sandbox game, it's just as much our job as the player to create a challenging environment. Be that with character design, sandbox settings, or other self imposed restrictions.

I don't know if it's really so much you pushing back something like 5 zombies as much as you pushing back a zombie or two and they then slam in to zombies behind them, pushing them with their own momentum. Realistic, IMO. Staggering from melee hits is also realistic, as is cautiously taking on large groups so long as you don't get worn out and tired. Zombies have no self preservation. They don't guard against attacks or try to dodge. They don't care if they get hit. If you wailed someone in the head with an object and even if they felt no pain,they'd be staggered because of the force throwing the head back and interrupting balance. If melee weapons hit and cause the same damage as to their initial target, yeah I agree maybe that should be tweaked. Maybe 2 or 3 hit with the arc of the swing with damage dropping sharply with each subsequent hit to account for lost momentum. However I don't really remember any time in the recent builds where I have killed more than one zombie with a swing, even with a highly skilled and strong axeman. Knocked several back, sure.. But I don't ever remember more than one being outright killed with one blow, but then again maybe I just am not paying close enough attention. To be honest, if they went super realistic with the combat mechanics I think it would favor the humans more and more. The only things the Zombies really have over us is numbers, lack of fatigue, and that attacks that don't either cripple or outright kill being wholly ineffective due their lack of pain or suffering from blood loss. They aren't good fighters and they are totally unintelligent. If you went more even realistic, once you killed a big group they would likely be tripping and stumbling over the corpses of the others. Making them even slower and easier to kite. The same could happen to a person of course, but as long as you watched where you go it would be easy to use it as yet another tool to make hordes even easier. If the player's ability to deal with the smallish hordes (sub 20s?) is further nerfed then you start forcing retreat as the only option and that's not fun. Not an easy thing to balance especially given the wide range of player skills out there. In my opinion putting a lot of effort towards changing how zombies work seems like a bad idea before NPCs make an arrival. Other Humans (especially aggressive ones) will add not only their own challenge to the game, but zombie movement and behavior will be more erratic as they are dragged all over by the sounds and sights of all the extra fleshy meatbags scurrying about.