bobchaos

What about a steel barrel (maybe craftable) that you can use as a burn barrel? Put in unwanted items, light on fire, burn away items. It's not realistic with all items (like a crowbar) but suspend a little disbelief ...

[edit: woops posted prematurely, this is for 33.6 ]
Addition to last changelog:

RADIO:
FIXED Certain text colors that were not very clear. FIXED Issue with tv's powering off and/or not able to toggle when should be able to. FIXED issues in splitscreen where only player would get chat but with weird offsets. FIXED chat to stay in player frame in splitscreen. FIXED Radio items can now be dimantled for various materials. ADDED Option to craft makeshift radio devices. MOVABLES:
FIXED Lightsources moved via movables now work. ADDED Additional customization options for movables lightsources. FIXED Bug in movables that caused mousedrag rotation in carpentry menu to stop functioning. ADDED Stonehammer to movable tools. FIXED Moveables infopanel now displays list of valid tools correctly. FIXED Picking up stuff with movables now respects weightlimit. FIXED Movable items with water amounts will now empty uppon moving. FIXED Some multitile tables that werent recognized as valid surfaces to place stuff on. FIXED chairs that were passable before pickup are now passable after placement FIXED floor/wall/vegetation/tabletop objects no longer block square FIXED moving minifridge no longer requires tool/skill FIXED some spelling in item names OTHER:
ADDED some restrictions on building (carpentry) objects near or on stairs. ITEMS:
ADDED Lightbulbs, can be removed from lamps ingame, colored ones can also be found. ADDED Makeshift radio, walkie talkie and HAM. ADDED Guerilla Radio magazine volumes 1 to 3, needed to learn makeshift recipes. ADDED Radio scrap: Radio Receiver, Radio Transmitter, Electric Wire  
NOTE: moveable objects that have been changed may require a pick up and place for the changes to become effective.
NOTE2: to get the new radio data (including fixed colors and stuff), for now easiest way is to start a new world

I didn't mean that it couldn't hurt you I just meant if youre too heavy its more likely that it'll break faster. We could also make regular ropes work as a stronger sheet rope.

What about ladders?
They'd have durability based on the material and your carpentry skill, and would require constant maintenance if you walk up them with tons of weight 24/7, but would be much more balanced and realistic than a sheet rope.
Destroying stairs is a completely viable option in real life, it's the sheet ropes and floating fortresses that're the problem.

*WARNING* Wall of text coming!
 
Since I first joined the forum I've thrown about quite a few ideas randomly in other people's threads. I thought I'd collect them all in one place. Some of these I stole or were inspired by other people, and TBH I'm too lazy to look you all up for credits, sorry :/ Feel free to claim credit for the whole thing just keep the talks going
 
I'll be listing ideas in no particular order and with absolutely no respect to how hard/long it is to code o.O It's just brainstorming really.
 
I wanted to make 1 thread per idea and then 1 large thread linking to all the others but I figured this might be less of a forum highjack: If you really like an idea and think it deserves it's own discussion, just start a thread for it and link to it in this thread.
 
Anyhow, on with my crazy schemes!:
 
1) Zombies VS structure overhaul, part 1: Currently, if zombies come into contact with something they can break, they try to break it. I thought it would look and feel better if they only tried to break things down when they had reason to believe it would yield meat. This way, if you stay real quiet, curtains drawn, all windows and doors shut, they won't try to break in randomly. Instead they'd just bump against your walls, and go on about their shambling. This one was implemented in 33.8 as a sandbox option, hurray!
 
2) Zombies VS structure overhaul, part 2: Right now, A zombie can only hit something if he can touch it. What makes zombies real scary in large numbers is that all of them push like morons without caring about injuries to themselves or fellow zeds. That can bring down a house! To simulate that, I'd have it so zombies can "transmit" damage through other zeds in order to hit structures.
 
2.5) To balance out number 2, structures would have to share HP along given segments, meaning a group of 4-5 log walls would act as a single entity, having more HP but falling as one when the zeds break through. Perhaps having large wall segments could also grant them damage reduction, so that a single zombie can't tear down an entire fort. This should help with both the "look and feel" ("The whole fence is going to give in!") and with performance.
 
3) Zombies VS structure overhaul, part 3: Assuming part 1 and 2.5 are implemented, that would open a door to making every object breakable. I'm not sure how that would work in terms of performance but it would be really cool to watch a horde break down all of downtown WP because you started a geny in one of the shops
 
4) Hand pumps: Currently, if you want to fill up gas cans you get it while there's power or you just don't. It's commonly suggested to be able to hook up a geny to reactivate the pumps but I thought it would be better to have hand pumps. Use them for gas at the station, eventually gas from broken down cars, water from wells and pipes in houses (I always thought it was a bit weird that I could get it without pressure in the pipes :/ ), maybe even zombie blood from corpses so you can poison the neighbor's food supply >: D
 
5) Catastrophic failures: Allow all players to perform all actions for any skill, but if you fail at the requirements (skill level, recipe book), add a chance for failures ranging from "I couldn't do it" to "Did I not use to have 2 legs?". Minor failures could result in loss of tool durability or material waste, while major failures could set your house on fire or cause bodily harm. No insta-death tho (unless you were already in bad shape), that wouldn't be very fair.
 
6) More attributes: Hearing and sight come to mind. Have those be attributes like strength and fitness that you gain XP for when using (Hearing zombies creeping out of sight, looking at distant object) and lose some when you abuse (Firing guns/listening to loud radio, watching TV/living at night). Granted some like sight are less clear cut, but you get the idea.
 
7) Fire-building skill: Maybe it should be part of some other skill (perhaps merge it with foraging an call it wilderness?), but not everyone should be able to start a fire from random twigs and branches they found in the woods. Fire-building is a complicated skillset that requires a broad range of knowledge. An unskilled player might be able to make a smoky fire that calls zombies to it like a house alarm, while a high lvl one could make more specialized fires like amber fires, smokeless fires, maybe even smelting fires.
 
8) High lvl cooking allows for alcohol distillation: Booze is the life-blood of humanity. It's the reason we started settling land (according to my favorite theory anyhow ) and it's the first thing any self-respecting post-apocalyptic society would do. Not only does it keep the folks happy (if somewhat rowdy) but it has tons of practical uses, from cooking to medicine going trough cleaning and potentially power generation. Maybe you'd need mechanical skill too for more advanced setups?
 
9) More generator powered stuff: Right now, only real reason to run a geny is the fridge, and farms produce more food than you can eat anyhow. I'd like to see freezers for one thing. Someone once suggested CCTVs that allow you to lift the fog of war wherever you place them. String up a few genies to reactivate the logging company's saw and conveyor for some quick planks. Allow mechanics/electricians to craft generator powered traps like motion sensor activated rotary blades or electrified fences. Have powered tools like a drill, battery charger or video games.
 
10) Massive "wandering" hordes: Every now and then, have a massive horde spawn on one edge of the map and travel to another, where they'd despawn. Massive as in 500+ zombies >: D Perhaps they could be given a little nudge towards recently visited cells too
 
11) More keybindings: I want to be able to put an item of my choice in my primary hand with a single button. "1" should pull out my trusty hammer, not the the axe I'm not skilled to use. I'd also like to be able to bind such actions as "drop bags" or even "drop items until below weight limit"
 
12) Player camo: I know zombie camo is a big no-no, and I'm 100% behind that, but I thought it might be fun to allow you to wear ragged cloths and behave like a zombie in MP to fool other players. If they don't look closely enough they'll come at you ready to wack you with a crowbar like any other Z, but then you pull a shotty and tell them to get on the ground before you call the horde on his base by shooting him in the face >: D
 
13) Positive happiness moodle: If your character manages to stay real happy, you get a positive moodle that grants protection from panic. Any panic "damage" goes to the happy moodle until you lose it.
 
14) Sandbox option for indestructible walls: Sometimes, I want to make a huge base in the middle of town, but always decide against it because it would commit me to defending it every day. Having a sandbox option to make player made structures indestructible would satisfy my need to build improbable structures without removing all threats like creative mod likely would.
 
15) Computers: I miss my old MAC LC2 and it's fancy 56k modem I wish I could get them in PZ! Computers would provide news feed like the radio and TV do, and/or a boredom reduction. Any bonuses it gives would slowly degrade as the internet shuts down and you're eventually left with playing solitaire as the only entertainment option. Maybe you could even give it an inventory feature that can list everything in containers from your house.
 
If you stuck through the whole thing, thanks for reading! Thoughts anyone?

I remember something about adding gravity to structures >: D

First thing that came to my mind, i remember laughing out loud in the theater watching that.
 
Please no, don't let that scene happen in PZ, there are better ways to fix the flying fortress than doing this, make the zombies be able to grab the rope and break it by pulling it by mistake and leave the player without a base, but please don't bring WWZ tier action into the game..

Please, add more random sandbox settings:
 
- random zombie migration times (i.e. 8 hours - 1 week)
- random zombie respawn times (i.e. 12 hours - 1 week)
- random zombie respawn rate (i.e. 0 - 0.5)
- random zombies (some are weak some are normal some are tough, some have better hearing and sight, some are nearly blind and deaf, small part of them are sprinters etc.) slider option would be cool.
- random month/day start

The news feeds over the radio even a month in suggest chaos but not outright end of civilization outside the quarantine zone. I could see some TV stations far from infected areas still broadcasting like nothing ever happened. It's a very human thing to do to ignore all problems until they creep right up to your doorstep
 
As for the government using emergency broadcast systems, it was never meant to permanently take over the airwaves. Think about it, how much panic would it create in uninfected areas if TV stations suddenly stopped broadcasting anything but plague related stuff? Much easier to have people self-quarantine if they have TV too! At some point I agree that they should stop working altogether, but that should be when there's no one left to man the stations country wide. Even in the 90s they could automate broadcasting of prerecorded material for a long time.

As far as I remember, the number 1 first thing they say you should do in the zombie survival handbook is demolish the stairs of your home so you can be safe upstairs.
 
Speaking from experience smashing large chunks of granite with sledgehammers, wooden stairs would be a piece of cake. Metal stairs though... It wouldn't be added into the game but it would be hilarious for the player to suffer impact feedback and force them to drop the sledgehammer. XD

*WARNING* Wall of text coming!
 
Since I first joined the forum I've thrown about quite a few ideas randomly in other people's threads. I thought I'd collect them all in one place. Some of these I stole or were inspired by other people, and TBH I'm too lazy to look you all up for credits, sorry :/ Feel free to claim credit for the whole thing just keep the talks going
 
I'll be listing ideas in no particular order and with absolutely no respect to how hard/long it is to code o.O It's just brainstorming really.
 
I wanted to make 1 thread per idea and then 1 large thread linking to all the others but I figured this might be less of a forum highjack: If you really like an idea and think it deserves it's own discussion, just start a thread for it and link to it in this thread.
 
Anyhow, on with my crazy schemes!:
 
1) Zombies VS structure overhaul, part 1: Currently, if zombies come into contact with something they can break, they try to break it. I thought it would look and feel better if they only tried to break things down when they had reason to believe it would yield meat. This way, if you stay real quiet, curtains drawn, all windows and doors shut, they won't try to break in randomly. Instead they'd just bump against your walls, and go on about their shambling. This one was implemented in 33.8 as a sandbox option, hurray!
 
2) Zombies VS structure overhaul, part 2: Right now, A zombie can only hit something if he can touch it. What makes zombies real scary in large numbers is that all of them push like morons without caring about injuries to themselves or fellow zeds. That can bring down a house! To simulate that, I'd have it so zombies can "transmit" damage through other zeds in order to hit structures.
 
2.5) To balance out number 2, structures would have to share HP along given segments, meaning a group of 4-5 log walls would act as a single entity, having more HP but falling as one when the zeds break through. Perhaps having large wall segments could also grant them damage reduction, so that a single zombie can't tear down an entire fort. This should help with both the "look and feel" ("The whole fence is going to give in!") and with performance.
 
3) Zombies VS structure overhaul, part 3: Assuming part 1 and 2.5 are implemented, that would open a door to making every object breakable. I'm not sure how that would work in terms of performance but it would be really cool to watch a horde break down all of downtown WP because you started a geny in one of the shops
 
4) Hand pumps: Currently, if you want to fill up gas cans you get it while there's power or you just don't. It's commonly suggested to be able to hook up a geny to reactivate the pumps but I thought it would be better to have hand pumps. Use them for gas at the station, eventually gas from broken down cars, water from wells and pipes in houses (I always thought it was a bit weird that I could get it without pressure in the pipes :/ ), maybe even zombie blood from corpses so you can poison the neighbor's food supply >: D
 
5) Catastrophic failures: Allow all players to perform all actions for any skill, but if you fail at the requirements (skill level, recipe book), add a chance for failures ranging from "I couldn't do it" to "Did I not use to have 2 legs?". Minor failures could result in loss of tool durability or material waste, while major failures could set your house on fire or cause bodily harm. No insta-death tho (unless you were already in bad shape), that wouldn't be very fair.
 
6) More attributes: Hearing and sight come to mind. Have those be attributes like strength and fitness that you gain XP for when using (Hearing zombies creeping out of sight, looking at distant object) and lose some when you abuse (Firing guns/listening to loud radio, watching TV/living at night). Granted some like sight are less clear cut, but you get the idea.
 
7) Fire-building skill: Maybe it should be part of some other skill (perhaps merge it with foraging an call it wilderness?), but not everyone should be able to start a fire from random twigs and branches they found in the woods. Fire-building is a complicated skillset that requires a broad range of knowledge. An unskilled player might be able to make a smoky fire that calls zombies to it like a house alarm, while a high lvl one could make more specialized fires like amber fires, smokeless fires, maybe even smelting fires.
 
8) High lvl cooking allows for alcohol distillation: Booze is the life-blood of humanity. It's the reason we started settling land (according to my favorite theory anyhow ) and it's the first thing any self-respecting post-apocalyptic society would do. Not only does it keep the folks happy (if somewhat rowdy) but it has tons of practical uses, from cooking to medicine going trough cleaning and potentially power generation. Maybe you'd need mechanical skill too for more advanced setups?
 
9) More generator powered stuff: Right now, only real reason to run a geny is the fridge, and farms produce more food than you can eat anyhow. I'd like to see freezers for one thing. Someone once suggested CCTVs that allow you to lift the fog of war wherever you place them. String up a few genies to reactivate the logging company's saw and conveyor for some quick planks. Allow mechanics/electricians to craft generator powered traps like motion sensor activated rotary blades or electrified fences. Have powered tools like a drill, battery charger or video games.
 
10) Massive "wandering" hordes: Every now and then, have a massive horde spawn on one edge of the map and travel to another, where they'd despawn. Massive as in 500+ zombies >: D Perhaps they could be given a little nudge towards recently visited cells too
 
11) More keybindings: I want to be able to put an item of my choice in my primary hand with a single button. "1" should pull out my trusty hammer, not the the axe I'm not skilled to use. I'd also like to be able to bind such actions as "drop bags" or even "drop items until below weight limit"
 
12) Player camo: I know zombie camo is a big no-no, and I'm 100% behind that, but I thought it might be fun to allow you to wear ragged cloths and behave like a zombie in MP to fool other players. If they don't look closely enough they'll come at you ready to wack you with a crowbar like any other Z, but then you pull a shotty and tell them to get on the ground before you call the horde on his base by shooting him in the face >: D
 
13) Positive happiness moodle: If your character manages to stay real happy, you get a positive moodle that grants protection from panic. Any panic "damage" goes to the happy moodle until you lose it.
 
14) Sandbox option for indestructible walls: Sometimes, I want to make a huge base in the middle of town, but always decide against it because it would commit me to defending it every day. Having a sandbox option to make player made structures indestructible would satisfy my need to build improbable structures without removing all threats like creative mod likely would.
 
15) Computers: I miss my old MAC LC2 and it's fancy 56k modem I wish I could get them in PZ! Computers would provide news feed like the radio and TV do, and/or a boredom reduction. Any bonuses it gives would slowly degrade as the internet shuts down and you're eventually left with playing solitaire as the only entertainment option. Maybe you could even give it an inventory feature that can list everything in containers from your house.
 
If you stuck through the whole thing, thanks for reading! Thoughts anyone?

It would be really neat if the second player in coop could use the second monitor. I haven't seen any game do this yet, but it would be awesome to do couch coop with dual monitors.

Maybe it's a controlled experiment on herd mentality in savage societies! But then again, they could've just watched a video recording of Black Friday instead...

Same thoughts, though I suppose it's not unrealistic to be able to burn/bury trash directly.

@Googz Based on you latest replies, I can only assume that you want survival to be tweaked to suit your own play style only, but this is a large community and not all of us dream of farming in the middle of the city with hordes coming at us only when we please. I don't think there's any convincing you of any of that anyhow, so this will be my last post to this thread.
 
That said, here's something you should try that might make your games more entertaining for a while: adopt a nomad lifestyle. Sometimes I make a character and decide he's not allowed to sleep twice in the same location on any given week, for instance. Keeps things interesting.

Just a little checkbox to fade out the icon on the side of the inventory and prevent that container from being auto-selected would be enough.

So what you want is containers to be taggable as "searched" (Like maybe the icon turns red when it has been opened)
and/or to be able to remove containers from the drop-down list?
Sounds cool.

HI there!
 
The most annoing in the looting sistem, for me, is that when I loot corpses (about 5-10 in one place) I have to change betwen its inventories, but if I need to turn around, or move somewhere I have to check them again (to find unlooted one).  So my suggestion is to add "don't loot" button. Like in the "Pirates Odyssey: To Each His Own" game. The main point of this is: I looted the first courpse, clik the button, and the inventory of it is not exist (in the game workd), then I can loot, for example, 7 of 9. Then if I want to loot the others I dont need to look through all of inventories, only the last 2.

I really like this sort of a decay timetable (it should be a feature, not a mod!), but I don't think that's what the OP was looking for... That's a crazy amount of corpses in that pic! XD
 
Perhaps an easier mod to make would be something that scans the map file for zombie corpses and does a one time cleaning for such extreme situations?

@Googz Based on you latest replies, I can only assume that you want survival to be tweaked to suit your own play style only, but this is a large community and not all of us dream of farming in the middle of the city with hordes coming at us only when we please. I don't think there's any convincing you of any of that anyhow, so this will be my last post to this thread.
 
That said, here's something you should try that might make your games more entertaining for a while: adopt a nomad lifestyle. Sometimes I make a character and decide he's not allowed to sleep twice in the same location on any given week, for instance. Keeps things interesting.

A cast Iron woodstove that would effectively work as a safer camp fire (highly reduced chance of firespread) for indoor use would be fantastic. Espcially if you made the cold deadly (as it should be).

Hey,
 
It could make the game play more immersive if the screen/ground got shadowed by moving clouds during rainy days. I'm thinking sort of like how the fog-of-war looks, but of course not as dark and a lot softer.
 
Another thing: when the new animations set in, is it possible to have the character cast a somewhat realistic shadow? Probably not, but I was thinking a shadow that stretches out due to the sun's position on clear and sunny evenings. I now realize that it could be hard to get that right when the character is walking or standing next to, say, a wall (because the shadow should respond to and deform on surfaces).
 
By the way, I absolutely love this game, especially after the heightened difficulty on survival, and interesting story on the tv's and radio!
 
Thanks!
/ The shadow proclamation

it would be hard to ballance.
a 1 point in nimble is not same as 1 point in aiming or carpentry.
if you have 1 point left its not a big deal.
Perhapse more traits with odd cost would help better.
Or some system to spend those points on starting gear, so instead of getting some traits you can start with a gun, ammo and more food.

Could the lovely Indie stone, please add In an option to suicide with a pistol, shotgun, or rifle.
 
 
I understand there Is other ways to suicide but, I want and I'm sure some people do too, Is to not become a zombie everytime so blowing your character head clean off would be a good way to solve that. 
 
It would work like this.
 
Right click a gun with a loaded magazine/bullets and click commit suicide then an option saying do you really want to commit suicide with the yes or no button of course then a small animation (not needed c:) and then the sound of the gun and your character hits the deck as blood spurts from there head xD wow that's grim. 
 
 
Also, It'd be nice If once your character got depressed like a cold he would sometimes mumble about struggling with life to full on shouting or not being able to sleep. They might sometimes sob or something c: 

It's pretty crashy for me too :/ Tried only 64 bits but every 15 mins or so I get booted back to the main menu with a red rectangle displaying "1" in the bottom right corner of my screen. I'll try reinstalling too.
 
*Edit* after reinstalling, I noticed my save folder seems to have been moved. It used to be under C:/users/(me)/zomboid/saves and now is under C:/users/(me)/zomboid/survival/. I tried moving my saves there (the original and all the "_crash" versions of it) but all appear to be corrupt