ApolloDiaspora

Possibly... But not the way you'd think. LOTS of egg cartoons, some wool, blankets, etc. could go a long way to soundproofing a room. Could be an interesting gameplay mechanic; Do you use your generator to make electricity now, or do you soundproof the hell out of a shed first, then set it up in there?

Here's an idea: Your chance of tripping/stumbling only really increases on crappy terrain, such as swampy/muddy areas near the river, or when attempting to sprint through/over the rubble of destroyed buildings. Areas where it would be logical for a person to trip/stumble/fall down if they weren't being slow and methodical with the way they placed their feet. Throw in a bit of the player character mumbling about how the ground is loose (perhaps even a 'loose ground' moodle), and you could have something. Could lead to interesting gameplay if you think about it. A person could carefully clamber up a mound of loose gravel onto some industrial equipment, but the zombies chasing them just keep stumbling and falling over each other. Do you take the short sprint across the destroyed building/contents-of-a-spilled-truck to get away from the horde quickly, or do you take the long way around and risk being grabbed by an unseen zed lurking in the trees? Give the player options, control and consequences for their actions in other words.

Random sinkholes could be an interesting game mechanic after the put in basements/sewers and the like. Start with a very low chance of happening, but the chance goes up as time goes on (talking months here). Net result being the nice, wide open parking lots we take for granted when managing/fighting hordes are now covered in holes, limiting the player's options to manoeuvre, or serving as pitfalls to injure them. Or as seething, zombie filled pits that result in munching. As far as indicators for disaster events go, the only one I can see being useful is the plane-going-down marker. It's natural to assume any aircraft crashing in PZ is going to be coming down hard and fast, so you'd have very little time to watch the shadow on the ground before impact (especially given the size of the screen). Really ramping up the doppler shift of the plane's engine noise as it's coming in, along with the player character muttering/thinking to themselves (floating text above the head) i,e: "It's coming right at me!", "Oh god, I'm too close", "Shit there it goes..." to give an indicator that the player is in or has left the impact zone could work well. I dunno. I'd love to have aircraft going down and ploughing up parts of the map in PZ as a meta event, but it'd probably be best handled off screen for gameplay and programming reasons. Hell, it gives the player a reason to investigate parts of the map that would now be covered in zombies. Bushfires and localised flooding (i.e: The river swells up by a few metres) would also be good disaster events to put in, if the devs are so inclined.

Egg cartons are VERY useful for a lot of things. Could be a good addition all round.

I quoted Star Trek at one point EDIT: I can't embed videos for shit! EDIT 2: Except when I give up and put the URL in. Oh well.

Feral animals? Oh yus. Getting chased into a house by a barking mass of starved canines is bad enough, but when the noise they're putting off calls in some extra company... It might sound stupid(ish), but insect life could be interesting to add in. Cockroaches and weevils getting into your food supply, bugs eating your crops, and clouds of mosquitoes keeping you away from the marshy bits of the river in summer. At the end of the day, you can see a bear and run away from it, but the small invaders munching their way through your food stockpile could be even more lethal in the long run.

Regardless of the source of water, remember: A solar still covereth most sins. Filter and UV the hell out of the water, put in an open topped container inside a solar still, collect condensed moisture, filter/UV again for good measure, and you're good to go. Works with muddy water, urine, etc. Lots of good survival tips out there about purifying water. Also, if heavy fog ever ends up being a thing (likely on a map situated outside Kentucky would be my guess), you can collect a surprsiing amount of moisture out of a fog bank using rough fabric with a high surface area. It just collects and dribbles down, albeit slowly. Now you've got me thinking. Seeing as UV emitting LEDs do exist (i.e: Some antibacterial toothbrush holders), with a small amount of battery, a small solar panel, and a few UV LEDs, you'd have a pretty good method for sterilising your water. Of course, I'd still boil and filter it first, but it could be a useful little extra.

My personal favourite: http://pzmap.crash-override.net/#0.6341125784089521,0.08941769873068321,113.32177360774637 Build walls between the houses (and the shed), barricade all the ground floor windows, then hang sheet ropes out the second story windows. Bam. Fortress. Located near a bunch of spots to loot, and trees to boot. Best thing, however, is the parking lot/boat house to the north. It's a perfect landmark when walking up and down the river; You can get to Gigamart, etc and back in less than a day without getting lost.

I've wanted the handcart idea for a while now. Brilliant long range transport, until you come across a derailed train. But with enough time and effort, you could drag it around and back onto the tracks (probably a four person job), then keep going. Besides, there's not much else we can use the railway for at this point, besides as a landmark.

It depends on the type of mine, but from what I understand military grade mines are meant more to maim than kill. Probably blow off your leg, but it's a survivable injury so long as you get prompt medical attention. I imagine the only purpose they'd serve against zeds would be turning a walker into a dragger. Then again I can't remember where I got that information so I could be wrong for all I know. Got it in one. That's why landmines are pretty useless against zombies. they're designed to main, not kill. Think about it. Guy steps on a mine and dies. That's it. You can leave the corpse there if you're so inclined. However, if that same guy steps on a mine and has his leg blown off, you've got a lot more going on. People have to get to him and stabilise him. He needs medical treatment. It's pretty cold logic, but a corpse is a corpse. A wounded person requires dozens of people to save and care for them after the mine going up. It's all about tying up the resources of the enemy so they can't use them against you. That's also why the number of crawlers would go through the roof in areas with mines. *shudder*

Military-style caps, hunting/fishing vests with lots of pockets (some small buff to accessing your inventory? Purely cosmetic is fine though), and messenger bags/satchels would be nice things to see. Especially if you can swing a satchel as a melee weapon Hell, thing I want to see the most at the moment is the ability to strap bedrolls and tents to the outside of a hiking backpack. Nothing screams survivor like a person with camping equipment strapped to their bag and a weapon slung over a shoulder. Oh, and don't forget the boonie hat. Wilderness classic right there.

That's why I was suggesting artillery or air-dropped mine bomblets, rather than the buried-in-the-ground kind. You'd be able to see them as a player without any form of special equipment, and could avoid them. But they would HAVE to be a rare thing to avoid a creeper-enema type situation. You'd probably only find unmarked mine-bomblet fields like this near a large-scale battleground. Think the battle of Yonkers from the World War Z novel. The army digs in, and starts throwing everything they have at the oncoming megahorde. Artillery. Bombs. Even tanks firing pointblank into the undead tide. Lobbing a minefield (or several) in the path of the horde would make sense from a military standpoint (after all, mine-bomblets serve as a quick and nasty way to deny the use of territory to an enemy), but wouldn't be too effective against the undead. After all, mines are designed to horribly wound, disfigure and maim. Not kill. Net result? If there's ever a large-scale abandoned battlefield in Zomboid, you'd likely come across a few scattered mine bomblets here and there, in addition to all the other forms of unexploded ordnance that litter a modern battlefield. Not to mention a bunch of mangled crawlers. The zombies mostly cleared the mines out after all. HOWEVER. It also seems reasonable to assume the military would start laying proper minefields at some point too. Either to slow the zombies down, or make sure civilians would only take certain paths out of the area (nasty thought right there...). Whatever the reason, those types of mines would be buried in the ground and the field would be MARKED. You'd see a fence around the field, or at least signs saying 'DANGER: MINES'. Those kinds of fields would be easy to avoid (assuming the zombies haven't destroyed the fences/signs that mark them), but the player could always lure a horde into one, or gingerly inch their way across it in a pinch. Does anyone remember watching MASH? When the ground gets cold enough, it starts to contract a bit, and that pressure can set off a mine. Having landmines popping off in the distance due to the cold, zombies/survivors stumbling into them, or wildlife having a bad day, could work well as a metagame event for moving zombies around. In closing, land mines would add a nice bit of spice to Zomboid's gameplay, but they would have to be very rare, and only used only in certain parts of the map, under certain conditions, to avoid from being frustrating gameplay element. Plus, having a character attempting to dig/pick one up without the appropriate training would be a pretty amusing anti-suggestion EDIT: Oh, and don't forget that properly laid and marked minefields are also marked on military maps. This would be another nifty thing to add to the 'finding-tourist-maps' mechanic that's been talked about. Finding the map to a minefield could become a quest in and of itself, never mind what's on the opposite side.

I DO like the lamp on pillar, as it gives larger survivor settlements a nice atmosphere. But, last time I checked, the cone of illumination wasn't shown for all players in multiplayer, which undermined it's purpose a bit, especially given the battery life. Perhaps a solar-garden-light-on-a-stick would be an idea? Battery life would still be a bit on the 'eh' side (certainly not enough to stay turned on all night long), but every day would mean a recharged battery.

So, the BBQs that look like charcol burners can be used as campfires? You just need the knotted boards and fuel like a campfire? If so, sweet. That would solve the whole buddy-just-walked-through-the-campfire-and-torched-the-safehouse issue I had last time I played in multiplayer

That could be your problem right there. People using the Internet in your area heavily at different times of the day. When i used to play World of Tanks heavily, I found my ping/connection to the SouthEastAsia server would be really crap around 5pm during the week. The reason is obvious. All the people coming home from work/school and jumping on-line at the same time. As for downloading games and getting good speeds... Kinda the same thing. Different speeds at different times of the day. But there's a extra factor (I'm assuming you're using steam) - Where you're downloading the games FROM. In my case, I download games on Steam using the Australia - WA (WAIX) option. Seeing as WAIX is the supercomputing institute at my former university, it stands to reason they'd have the good hardware and internet connection to enable highspeed downloads. Worst case, your ISP might be routing traffic in a stupid fashion. Again, back when I was playing on the SEA server in World of Tanks, for a few months most ISPs in Australia routed their traffic in a stupid fashion: Sending packets across Australia, out under the ocean, over to America, back under the ocean, then over to the server's location somewhere in South East Asia, resulting in ~500ms of ping. After a while, and probably some customer complaints, they just routed the traffic up and into SEA directly, avoiding the bounce off America. That caused the ping to drop back under 100ms. Long story short, yell at your ISP. If your connection's being crappy, you deserve an explanation, seeing as you're paying them after all. Just don't forget to be polite.

Personally, I'd love to see a modified truck/armoured car/camper van serving as a mobile base. Park the vehicle, set up a bit of temporary fencing, stretch out the awning... Bam. You carry your safehouse with you. Just be careful you don't pull hordes while moving... I know the devs don't want tanks or other powerful vehicles in the game, but I, personally, would LOVE to find an abandoned APC, tank, or overturned semitrailer. They'd be immobile due to mechanical/battle damage reasons, but they'd all be great to establish a base from, or with. A large overturned truck would do wonders as a fortress wall. Hell, having small bulldozers/tow trucks would also be great, as you could drag/push destroyed cars together to make fortress walls. Of course, that'd be more than offset by the sheer amount of noise you'd be making during construction. Oh the possibilities...

Art is what you make it out to be. The rest is dick-measuring and convincing others that what you consider to be Art is what they should consider to be Art. Just like anything in life if you think about it To quote Discordians, Reality is the original Rorschach.

I'd like to see the option to attack spiffo plushies to the outside of one's backpack, or on a stick sticking up out of the backpack, samari-flag style, Why? Just like standard bearers in the chaotic melees of past wars, having a person clearly marked (i.e: Bright orange adorableness lashed to their backpack) would be invaluable when the shit hits the fan in multiplayer. "To me! To me! For the glory of Spiffo!" Plus, you know. It's the apocalypse. If I want to wear a stuffed animal on the outside of my shirt, I'm damned well going to do it

Having the ability to break down weaker doors, like those you'd find inside a house, or on a garden shed, without a melee weapon would be nice. Just make the shoulder-shoving slower, louder, and more exhausting than using a melee weapon, and you'd be good to go. Kinda like unarmed combat against a zombie. Sure, you can do it, but it's a lot more efficient/safer to use a bat or axe.

Depending on how-hard the renewable energy craze has thwacked into Kentucky, finding a wind turbine or bank of solar cells wouldn't be too hard. The latter would probably last for a while, but the former would crap out after a long period of time without maintenance. In both cases, isolating the generator from the grid would have to be a thing. After all, a single turbine can't power squat. You'd have to gain access to the power distribution and reroute the power. Or simply find the nearest electrical substation near the generator and, well, dick with it. Smash some things, splice in your own stuff. That's about the only way I can see you ever getting the power back on in Zomboid, and even then, you're taking huge risks, and require trained people to actually DO something with the infrastructure that's left behind. Not to mention the time and resources that would be required to get the crap working again. A better thing to do would be scavenging the water treatment plant/electrical substation/power plant for supplies. Chemicals, high quality wiring, tools, that sort of thing. If there's a coal fired power plant in the area, it'd be like winning the lottery. Thousands, if not millions of tonnes of black gold just laying around and waiting to be used in a survivors campfire. Oh, and, yes. I'm pretty sure portable generators will be a thing in the future. Running one of them on moonshine would be pretty sweet. Just getting a still going, let a lone the generator, would be an achievement in and of itself.

Having the player-character persist in game, in a bed, after log out...? No. Just no. Rust has this kind of mechanic (last time I checked), and all it leads to is insta-rage when you log back in.

Waist high vegetation. That may or may not contain rocks, potholes, crawlers, poison ivy or land mines... Fuck it.. I'm getting my long stick and poking my way through slowly. Or burning everything. Or both. Seriously though, depending on how desperate the military got, air/artillery delivered mine bomblets would be fucking terrifying. You'd be able to see them in game, and know not to go near them (unless you wanted to get zombies to set them off and call MORE friends to play). But at night, or in long grass...? Some form of minefield has to be a thing in the future. But not much of a thing. I like my waist area intact

I agree kitchen knives are a bit on the fragile side, but that's the point. A butter knife can kill maybe a zombie or two if you get the under-the-jawline strike, kitchen knives can kill I think 20 at the most (haven't played for a while). Consider the tradeoff: Instead of carrying a heavy, bulky bat, you've got a light, quick knife. Just don't expect to go hoard cleaning with it. Something similar to a trench knife/spike being available in game, as a drop, or craftable from scrap metal (i.e: Cutting a crowbar in half and sharpening the point, NOT smelting) would be nice though. Instead of coming up and under the jawline to get to a zombie's gooey centre, you could slam it down hard into their forehead. Hell, just being able to cram the pointy end of a crowbar into a zombie's skull would be nice. But remember what Rathlord said, and use a little common sense. The brain is the most valuable organ in the human body, so it's the only one wrapped almost entirely in the toughest material in the body. Taking out the brain requires you to get through the skull. Under the jaw, in through the temple, or smashing down hard with great force onto the top are really the only ways to go. Unless you can somehow charge a zombie with a bandsaw of course

I'd love to see manual bolting for the rifle, just like you can get in Red Orchestra 2. Click to fire the gun. Click again to cycle the bolt. Click to fire again. Repeat until you need to press R to reload. In Red Orchestra, the manual bolting serves as a way to avoid the time delay of cycling the bolt in close combat - The second you take to chamber a new round is a second you can't use a melee attack when in close. Could be a thing in PZ if we ever get the ability to use guns as melee weapons (butt or bayonet). Failing that, manual bolting is just coooool. Makes the gunplay more visceral too.

I like the idea of fat zombies. America isn't known for being particularly slim on average... *COUGH* Anyway. A fat zombie would probably be a little slower than the average zombie, due to the mass they're toting around. Be harder to squeeze past a clump of zombies when they're all wide as houses too... Could work. Not a 'special' zombie, they go down with a bat to the head like everything else, but it might be a bit harder to shove them back or push pass them due to their body weight. I like the idea of fat zombies. America isn't known for being particularly slim on average... *COUGH* Anyway. A fat zombie would probably be a little slower than the average zombie, due to the mass they're toting around. Be harder to squeeze past a clump of zombies when they're all wide as houses too... Could work. Not a 'special' zombie, they go down with a bat to the head like everything else, but it might be a bit harder to shove them back or push pass them due to their body weight. EDIT: Dragons?