bobchaos

While I don't particularly think they need "bars" perse, I think it'd be nice for a medium to high level carpenter to know when walls, barricades, and other constructs have been damaged and in need of replacement/repair.
 
A right click on the construct and "check status" option would be nice.
 
Realistically, a person of moderate (maybe even little or no) skill would be able to see that a board is loose and falling off of a barricade or wall.

too late :/

I'm fairly sure the reason we don't have books for electrical and first aid and such is simply because it's a low priority for the devs. I refuse to believe it never occurred to them o.O When we get closer to feature completion I assume all these "obvious" missing items will come out in one go. In the meantime I bet they wouldn't be hard to mod in if someone hasn't already.
 
As for using reference material, I like to think they already exist in the form of recipe books. You don't have to keep them on you after you read them, but it's the same basic principle: having reference material allows you to do stuff you couldn't otherwise. Perhaps we could add recipe books for items you would learn anyhow through leveling. For example, maybe you could find a "Wood stairs" recipe book that allows you to build stairs before reaching lvl6 carpentry. Conversely, maybe those things that can currently only be done via recipe books or professions (bread, pipebombs, etc...) could be learned naturally through leveling.

If you want to break through a skull (or spine for that matter), you need force, and it's very difficult to channel force appropriately without being firmly planted on the ground. In most martial arts, and pretty much all those that focus on using weapons, when you're attempting to deliver a powerful blow you do so by pushing hard against the ground with your legs or by getting a hand from gravity (striking from above), in which case you still need to be on solid footing so you can control your weapon and not hack your own damn leg/break the weapon on the ground if you miss.
 
Can you move while swinging a weapon? With training, probably. Can you deliver a killing blow while doing so? Probably not. And these guys are zombies, anything short of a killing blow won't do you much good. Before you go naming some obscure martial art that relies on movement like capoeira or whatnot keep in mind the character is not a world renowned black belt, he's an average joe.

Soooo... What you're saying is that my skull is NOT a vital ingridient in the crafting recipe for the stone axe?
 
I... I think I need to sit down and rethink my plans.

Running in a Zombocalypse seems a bad idea.
Walking backwards while fighting off a Zombie seems a bad idea (though i do that ingame, I would never do that if shit got real).
Always turning and running infight in this game seems an odd behaviour.
I like the increased risks by dealing with more than one zombie at once and how much the mechanics force you to retreat in time or die.
Zombies are slow. There is absolutely no need to run, except you made a bad decision beforehand.
You fought against 7 zombies and died? Well, you shouldn't have done that.
As a sidenote: I didn't know that "hold down the attack button" works efficiently in this game.

Third choice: back up and don't put yourself in such awkward situations in the future.

"Zomboid Survival Guide #2 - Don't run
 
Survivors who run rapidly become survivors who are dead."
 
 
Let that running stuff be and simply hold down Ctrl while moving backwards. No need to turn around all the time...
 
Anyway thats how I'm doing it.
Step back, slash, repeat...

Are berry bushes still in game? We used to have them, but I haven't seen one in awhile (not that I've really been looking for them since you can forage for berries anywhere).
They were /are along the same idea that you are talking about.
I personally would love fruit trees. Apples, cherries, pears are all common enough in KY I am guessing. Sure fruit trees take a long time to produce a ROI but since trees grow so fast in this game it wouldn't be too bad.
I like the overall idea. I am not a huge fan of the current foraging mechanic anyways. I would rather visually see something and pick it up. Your foraging skill could effect how likely you are to see items. Or at the very least have items show up on the ground 'container' and allow us to manually pick up the items. If I'm out looking for some chipped stones to make an axe, I wouldn't fill my pockets with twigs and tree branches. In this regard I really don't like how foraging is done. Better than nothing though

This is the Ohio River, which I believe is what the river in-game is meant to be based on?
 
Maybe it should have more vegetation to begin with. But, in short, unless you're in a major flood plain, things can and do grow on the side of rivers. And it is mostly mankind that keeps it from being that way in other areas

Coop is never more fun than when you're in punching distance of the other players

Heh... I was referring to using something akin to a fire axe. Give me a few days, I actually want to give this a try IRL. XD

You know, it's not like we're all going to die if we're not going to get the next build ASAP, I'm sure nobody would mind if you guys slept every once in a while. No need to work until you pass out.

Well multiplayer games suffer from this generally. You need people on the servers to attract people to the servers, which is a chicken and egg problem
This happens with every multiplayer game which doesn't have the userbase of big games like DayZ, H1Z1, Terraria, Minecraft, etc. If Zomboid sells 3 times what it has so far, then maybe we'd have a shot at super-active servers.
Perhaps it being an Early Access game partly puts people off, partly it being a 2D isometric game, partly it being a hardcore survival game, partly being a long time in development, etc etc etc. There's no simple answer. I hope that once we hit 1.0 we'll see an influx of activity from a lot of our players who've perhaps not played for a while, waiting for it to come out of Early Access.

Actually felling a tree is better done with a 45 degree cut in the face of the tree about 1/2 of the way through. Then you saw into the back side about 1/4 of the way, then drive a wedge in with a maul or the back of your axe.
As far as felling axes, provided you are using the axe properly you could cut all day and simply touch it up at the end. That's a actually what double bitted axes were for. One side would have a more robust blade geometry to cut up roots and such due to rocks. The other side was kept razor sharp for the actual felling.

I think my fridge is defective, it's making an awful lot of noise o.O Any engineer out there who wants to visit my apartment in downtown WP to have a look at it? XD
 
Think I'ma start keeping all my windows closed, the wind howls pretty loudly too :/
 
*edit* worth noting I'm complaining about the volume but if those sounds existed previously they were so discreet I'd never really heard them. It's a nice touch and it's great for immersion!

On the on hand, I'd really like to see various quality of craftables be introduced, probably by adjusting starting durability/damage according to the quality of the parts and the skill of the user. Most of the stuff required is already in game, would just need to add the durability property to things like stone to represent their "quality" and adjust the crafting mechanics to calculate an average of the parts' durability, adjusted by your skill level, to generate the final stats of your crafted tool.
 
On the other, I don't think a crafted axe should ever compare to a proper tool, manufactured by a machine and designed by an engineer with access to all the tools of his trade. Don't matter how perfect a rock or how sturdy a stick, you'd never be able to make something comparable to a fire axe with random stuff you found in nature and hand tools only. Maybe if your character had access to a machine shop (that would actually be pretty cool: high lvl skill + geny powered machine shop = craft regular items like a fire axe ).
 
*edit* Hell even the fire axe is a bit OP. You ever felled a tree? It's a good thing they can't move (much) cuz they are insanely hard to kill o.O I'm not sure what a fire axe is made with these days (well, in the 90s I should say) but i'm fair sure you still need to put it to a whetstone pretty much after every tree.

Im more that sure that this will be a part of animation update around build 34.

I'd love to be able to set EVERYTHING to completely random (Except for loot distribution, that goes to minimum). As much as I love sandbox at this point I'm incapable of setting up a preset where I cannot predict everything. I've played PZ so much that unless I get everything randomized and don't know wtf to do I will always survive long enough to be bored.

Sandbox is really missing a "Random" setting that can be anything between Min/Max value of any given option, be it starting date or infection spread.

Just an idea I'd like to throw out for Sandbox mode, I'm not sure about how resource intensive it would be but AFAIK zombie age and such is stored without any hassle so I hope this would be possible.
 
The core idea of the idea is take each zombie and randomize the zombie specifications for it leading to a bit more of a diverse playthrough. Say you break into a building and find it full of zombies, you're about to panic when... Oh, they're a bunch of weak slow shamblers. Thinking you're safe you dispatch them and carry on when a strong sprinter darts out from around the corner and bites you while you struggle against it. Not knowing what to expect from each zombie, at least at first. Maybe have them all degrade to fast shamblers over time?
 
Also, maybe have a few more options for the zombie decay, such as sight, hearing and smell degrading over time as well as speed and strength?
 
What y'all think?

Sry, just updated the steam decidaced server
 
For the fridge/window winds/wood crackles sounds too high we're aware of it, we'll (Tim or I, idk if he'll fix it his day or nope) fix it, will be fixed in next version, hopefully wiht the new musics again

Did you know that blade maintenance affects on the durability of the stone axe? Have you tried it maxed out or at least on a good level? That does represent how well you know your weapons, impacting on how you swing them in order to not bend or twist them etc.
 
I do agree that carpentry could/should (if not already the case, dunno...) affect the outcome of the blade. Otherwise, I think it might be too micromanagey to try and find better stones or wood just to build that crappy axe. Although I do think it'd serve for a challenge for those who are doing well in the game and have the time for that, it shouldn't be that significant of a difference though. Also 2 large trees with a makeshift axe you built for the first time in your life is quite good imo...

I'm not sure about you, but I would rather spend days looking through stinking zombie carcasses for a fire axe than bother to craft a stone axe. IMO they are absolutly useless, breaking after hardly anything. Now, I agree that they shouldn't compare to the fire axe, but breaking after around two or three trees or one zombie kill just makes them a waste of time and materials.
 
My idea to fix this is the addition of varied durability to chipped stones, stones and branches. Not all chipped stones should be the same effectiveness, and neither should branches. The end result should be based on the combined durability of the materials plus a boost based on your carpentry level. Add to that finding materials with higher durability based on your foraging level, it partners the carpentry and foraging together and gives you a reason to build the levels up and maybe spend a bit of extra time foraging to find the chipped stone that's JUST right.

What y'all think?

33.6!
 
What Turbo added (see his post) Got the helicopter working in multiplayer. Removed the helicopter starting from day 2 Removed FMOD profiling (should help with some lags) Fixed flickering when exiting a game. Fixed sounds in mods not being loaded. Fixed sound-related client crash when accessing bags. Fixed invisible-tent bug. Fixed IsoFire sound playing on the server. Fixed crash in itempicker (randomizing building) Lowered zombies footstep Fixed crack at beginning of playing sound Now FMOD use 1024 voices (should avoid some sounds non playing) Fixed thump sounds not played sometimes Fixed the -nosound option. Updated 32-bit FMOD DLLs. Fixed burglar alarm not playing inside house
Fixed "crack/pop" in sounds Fixed randomized building sometimes throwing alarm

I would love it if we could remove the water bottles on top of the coolers and use those! Otherwise, what's the point of moving a water cooler if you just dump all the water out of it first? 
 
EDIT: Holy crap you guys. If you can move a water cooler, gather bottles, move a comfy chair and move a minifridge all without carpentry or electrical skills... You can now live ANYWHERE without being a carpenter or an electrician! You can setup on the top floor of the office building! You don't need a bed!
 
The possibilities are endless...