wombatvvv

In my opinion, the ability to pour dirt on a concrete floor and grow tomato plants is both ridiculously unrealistic and makes the game too easy. The player should have to build proper garden boxes using several planks, nails and and a hammer. In addition, the garden boxes should be limited to "small" (1x1 square) and "large" (1x2 square, representing similar to in the picture below). That means if you want really big gardens or farms, you're going to need to do it the old fashioned way - in the ground. Players shouldn't be able to have farms on concrete building rooves.

No way I do not agree at all. In fact I find the opposite annoying ... I go to a lot of effort to build a fort and it never gets tested! Ha! I just sit there and farm. One thing I have noticed though if that they will go for doors and barricaded windows before just plain walls. Makes sense I guess they are not totally brain dead.

Been experimenting a lot lately building different characters. Having a blast with gracious and inconspicuous combined on a burglar character. You just just sneak around knifing zeds. Sometimes they do not even seem to notice if you stab them and miss the "one hit kill" blow. lol.

I don't get how that would happen. Did you read my OP fully? I'm not suggesting what you think I'm suggesting. First, it would be really, really hard to set up base in the middle of an urban area to begin with. So you'd have to set one up in the wilderness and then ... when some random roaming hoard turns up at your fort, you pack up and head back to the city? Is that what you're saying? It wouldn't work and it just wouldn't be worth the effort or risk to avoid the odd random gang of wandering zeds. There would still be lots of zombies in the urban areas. I'm not saying it just empties out, What I'm saying is that some random groups start to break off and wander into the wilderness. Just as a test of your defenses. So you're not sitting out there all by yourself. And they do it more and in larger groups as time goes on, especially after power goes out. For the most part, they would still be centered in urban zones. If you got so late in the game that virtually all the zombies are "evenly spread" wandering randomly all over the map (and with what I'm suggesting, that would take many years of game time), then it would make zero difference if you were in the city or the wilderness. The problem is that your defenses once you're set up never really get "tested out". You go to a lot of effort for nothing really. It turns into a pretty monotonous, predictable (i.e. boring) farming simulation instead of a zombie simulation. I'm just saying the odd roaming hoard should provide a test of your defenses once in a while. Nothing really more than that.

These are awesome ideas. You should be able to smash up furniture to barricade things and put bookcases and stuff in front of doors and windows. Top idea.

I don't thinks so. I don't mean that all the zombies suddenly leave the urban areas. I just mean that groups start breaking off and wandering off. Possibly towards the nearest light source at night. Maybe just randomly, or a bit of a mix between both. And even if it was super, super late in the game and lots of groups had started wandering off and leaving the city, I mean they basically just start wandering around randomly. So there's pretty much the same chance that they'd wander back into the city instead of further out into the wild. But for the most part, I'm not suggesting the urban areas ever become completely deserted. Just that sometimes, some large groups break off and wander into the wilds.

Firstly, I realise there has been work done on zombies grouping together and moving about. It is really good, but there is still a problem, and this is it... The first part of the game is intense and challenging and fun. It is also great fun collecting supplies, hardware, etc. and building yourself an well defended base and trying to settle down into a livable, self sufficient lifestyle. That is fun for a while just surviving. But then what? Times goes by and the game becomes boring and monotonous. Plant crops, go fishing, set traps, eat, sleep, repeat. There really is no challenge anymore. You have built a carefully planned, well defended fort but for what? The defenses you spent all that time and energy planning and building are never actually tested. The odd zombie or three turns up once in a blue moon banging his head on the wall and that is easily taken care of. So, my suggestion is that later in the game, zombie hoardes start migrating out of the urban areas. Slowly in small groups at first, and as time goes on, more and more frequently and in larger groups. It can easily be explained. They have simply run out of food (as in people or rodents or whatever) in the urban areas. Everyone is dead. So they instinctively and mindlessly start migrating outwards looking for food. Especially once the power goes out. There are no lights or sounds left in the cities to keep them attracted to those places. But on a pitch black night, even a campfire casting a feint glow on the horizon a long way away may bring unwanted attention. So it works as far as the "story" goes, but I think it would also dramatically improve the gameplay and fun factor later in the game as the fort you built will actually get tested. I am not suggesting that you are under constant attack ever. The farming and trapping and surviving in the wild part of the game is great already and I am not saying turn it into a constant hack fest. I just mean that every once in a while a large hoard of zombies might stumble across your fort meaning you have to take time out a deal with the situation. For example, maybe they start migrating out in small groups once the power goes off. So maybe once a week you get a group of five to ten zombies stumbling across your camp. And as more and more time goes on, the groups get larger and more frequent. I am also not suggesting your fort gets over run (maybe really late in the game, as a year or more later, forcing you to flee and complete restart). I am just suggesting that it actually gets tested. You get to appreciate all the hard work you did when it successfully keeps out a large hoard of zombies.

P.S. on the same topic, players should get stronger from lifting heavy things a lot ... heavy carpentry work or getting around with heavy hiking bags and should get fitter from running around a lot. Just in exactly the same way they get more nimble and quiet from sneaking a lot.

I like that kind of fluff detail. It adds to the atmosphere of a game. I do not think it needs to be so detailed that the actual calorie expenditure and content of foods are all worked out behind the scenes. But some basic body composition changes would be good. Over eat and you get bigger ... like the overweight or obese traits ... under eat and you lose them. This could be very easily balanced. Overweight characters get stronger easier but also more conspicuous, less fit, clumsy, etc. and underweight characters get quieter and more nimble more easily but also weaker. Realistic and balanced and gives the player another option to "play the game in their own style". Like the difference between Glen and Abraham in the Walking Dead.

Regarding the dead zombies having better and more realistic items, yes, pretty much as soon as I made that post I started noticing occasionally some of them had some better things. However, its just not as frequent as it should be. It would be really cool if it was sort of figured out behind the scenes what the zombie "was" is real life. So a child zombie might be carrying a backpack with sandwiches and a doll. A construction worker could have tools and a hardhat. A police could have a pistol and batten, etc. Of course the vast majority would be office workers or whatever that just have a pen or wallet or whatever. But sometimes you could hit the jackpot. And then later in the game, there should be more obvious ex survivors. Carrying spiked bats and tinned food and stuff like that.

1. More crawlers. Crawlers are cool and very "zombie atmosphere". Most importantly, have more that you think you have killed (maybe with the brain splat effect) but are actually crawlers. Very zombie-movie suspense type stuff. Also have some that just look like dead bodies when they are first spawned (and some that actually are dead bodies). Maybe they are dead bodies. Maybe they're really crawlers. You don't know until you get close. This stuff is straight out of a zombie movie. This would make it harder. 2. Better items on dead zombies. Assuming some of these people are survivors that have been zombified. If they have a bag, maybe there's something realistic in there? Some canned food, a loaded pistol whatever, not just an empty bag. That will make it easier. Evens it up. Who walks around with just lipstick during the zombie apocalypse? This would make it easier. 3. Everyone should have a little bit of the "hypochondriac" trait. Encourage players to keep going instead of just starting over the instant the infected-symptoms show up. It's realistic too. You would be worried if you just got bitten or scratched. Just if you have the actual trait you're even more likely (or even 100% likely) every time you get scratched or bitten. This would make it harder. 4. If you disinfect a bite or scratch really quickly after it happens, there should be a less chance of zombification (not 100% less chance, but a chance). The virus (or whatever) is killed off before it enters the blood stream. This would make it easier. So, 2 things make it easier, 2 things make it harder. Should balance out.