Millitron

Being infected by the zombie virus is not the same thing as having an infected wound.  Infected wounds are just normal, boring infections like the kind you can get in real life.  You cannot get infected by the zombie virus from being cut by broken glass.

Being infected by the zombie virus is not the same thing as having an infected wound.  Infected wounds are just normal, boring infections like the kind you can get in real life.  You cannot get infected by the zombie virus from being cut by broken glass.

Being infected by the zombie virus is not the same thing as having an infected wound.  Infected wounds are just normal, boring infections like the kind you can get in real life.  You cannot get infected by the zombie virus from being cut by broken glass.

The cabin in the woods, by the lake near West Point is the best base.  Far enough out that there's never any zombies yet close enough that running to town isn't difficult, tons of trees around for wood, area counts as forest for foraging, and it has a lake, meaning you can fish and never need to worry about water access.

Smelting != metalworking.  I totally think it should be possible to forge things; reshaping and/or forge-welding things are both totally possible for someone to do by themselves, especially if they have access to salvaged equipment from modern society.  There's really not that much to it; heat up metal, hit with hammer.  Sure, there's quite a bit of subtlety when it comes to heat treating and tempering, but that's actually a good thing.  You could have the quality of the heat treatment scale based on your skill level.

I would even say smelting should be possible, though I'm not sure it's that useful.  We already have a huge amount of metal we can recycle, we don't need to smelt ores.
 
For reference, check out these links:
 
 

For metalworking and forging, check out Forged in Flames.  It's a reality TV show in which blacksmiths make swords.  Sometimes they even recycle modern items to make them; in one episode they used chain, in another they used a big ball-bearing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forged_in_Fire_(TV_series)
 
For smelting, check out the show Living in the Past.  It was a BBC show in which 12 people were dropped in an Iron Age era village and had to live as they would've back then.  They even did their own blacksmithing using ye olde methods.  This kinda disproves the whole argument that a modern person would be unable to do it because they wouldn't have the traditional knowledge.  These people only had a couple months of training in iron age life. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_in_the_Past_(TV_series)
 
For more smelting, check out Primitive Technology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVV4xeWBIxE
 

You could run a gas-fired plant on biodiesel.  Biodiesel would be plentiful in a survivor community, basically any food scraps can be turned to biodiesel.

10rd mags are actually aftermarket products.  Ruger's only ever sold them with 5, 20, and 30rd magazines.

If you don't see the splash, i.e. the dirt and dust kicked up by the impact, you basically can't tell how you missed, whether you were too high or too low, or to the left or right.  If you're familiar with the gun you're using, you might have a good idea; with practice you can notice when you have poor form.  For instance, anticipating the recoil and tensing up tends to make you shoot too low, while not having the proper stance (especially the "chick lean") will tend to make you shoot too high.  And that's just long guns; hand guns have those problems and more.

In your example I would say you should err on the side of aiming too low, so if you miss you can hopefully see the shot hit the ground.  If you're too low, you can see how much you were off by the splash of dirt, but as you said if you're too high the shot will just fly off into the distance and you'll have no way to correct.

You can't see vapor trails on normal bullets generally; at least I can't.  Maybe it's a training issue, maybe it's an eyesight issue, or maybe it's an equipment issue.  I know sniper spotters have special scopes for following the vapor trail, but I don't know if they're strictly necessary.

You need to consider the size of the towns.  Muldraugh is ~3k people, Westpoint is ~4k if I remember correctly.  I live in a town of ~2000 people.  We have a grand total of 3 miles of roads.  If anything, I'd think either you're too slow in-game, or the map is too small; at least if we're judging by how much map you cover.

Wow that's amazing.  I had no idea that the game was this closely modeled on the real Kentucky.  I love how they have the bend in the highway, the general positions of the towns (Muldraugh is all on one side of the highway for instace) and some of the bodies of water.  Even the little lake with the cabin by West Point is in-game.

But according to google, Muldraugh is 5.7 miles from West Point.  If you're pretty fit, not full-on athelete fit mind you, you can do a mile in 6 minutes.  Now that's only one mile, so to account for getting tired or pacing yourself to avoid getting tired, I'll say 8 minutes per mile.  That's 45.6 minutes.  And this depends on where google measures from.  I think they measure from city hall-to-city hall or something, not border-to-border.

You know, I think there's actually no good way to balance this.  If it's balanced for 15 minute days, the world will feel too big on 10 minute days, and too small on 30 minute days.

 

You need to consider the size of the towns.  Muldraugh is ~3k people, Westpoint is ~4k if I remember correctly.  I live in a town of ~2000 people.  We have a grand total of 3 miles of roads.  If anything, I'd think either you're too slow in-game, or the map is too small; at least if we're judging by how much map you cover.

There are very few full-auto guns in the US.  No FA guns newer than 1986 are legal for civilians to own, all pre-86 MG's are registered, and no new ones can be added to the registry.  This means that the ones that ARE legal to own are very expensive.  To the point that an FA-version of a gun can cost tens of thousands of dollars more than the semi-auto version, despite being almost identical.

There are ~300,000,000 guns in the US.  There are only 500,000 registered fully-automatic weapons; most of which are owned by police, not civilians.

There really are a huge number of guns in the US, but unlike what Hollywood would have you believe, the vast majority of which are not fully automatic.

Why would they need nerfed?  They're kinda poor now not because guns or ammo are uncommon, they're poor because every zombie within a mile comes running as soon as you shoot.

They could easily be more common, and could include semi-automatic rifles (which are quite common), and still not be overpowered.  I mean if we're aiming for a realistic depiction of rural Kentucky, you should be practically tripping over guns.

Side note: How come you often find a gun but no ammo, or ammo but no gun?  I could see it happening sometimes, but it should be rare.  Like, you'll find a pistol in a dresser in some house, but no ammo for it anywhere in the building.  Or visa versa, you find ammo, but no corresponding gun in the building.

There are very few full-auto guns in the US.  No FA guns newer than 1986 are legal for civilians to own, all pre-86 MG's are registered, and no new ones can be added to the registry.  This means that the ones that ARE legal to own are very expensive.  To the point that an FA-version of a gun can cost tens of thousands of dollars more than the semi-auto version, despite being almost identical.

There are ~300,000,000 guns in the US.  There are only 500,000 registered fully-automatic weapons; most of which are owned by police, not civilians.

There really are a huge number of guns in the US, but unlike what Hollywood would have you believe, the vast majority of which are not fully automatic.

Suppressors won't totally fix the whole "gunshots lure every zombie in town" thing.  Guns are still pretty loud even with a suppressor.  You don't get total silence unless you have a really nice suppressor and use subsonic ammunition.
 
Here's a nice chart for a comparison:
http://crimefictionbook.com/2015/04/28/how-loud-is-a-silencer/

So as you can see, a silenced 9mm pistol is louder than things like thunder or police sirens.  A silenced rifle is louder than a jackhammer.

They clearly do care about realism though.  That's why we're getting a nutrition system.  It's why fire spreads and is dangerous both to you and zombies.  It's why you can get cut by broken glass then die a week later from infection.

He's not saying they're anti-gun.  He's saying that because they didn't grow up in a gun-friendly country, they don't get how jarring it is to have so few guns in rural Kentucky.

We've been over this.  The game would not be any more about killing everything, or any less about day-to-day survival if it had a more realistic variety of guns.  They'd still be very loud, and so would draw in zombies from all around.  They wouldn't make you any less likely to starve to death, or get unlucky and get scratched and infected.  Have you ever been able to just take a shotgun and all the ammo you can carry to the mall and kill all the zombies there?  No?  Then why would that be any more likely if they added a few kinds of guns?

I'm not saying we need something like Jagged Alliance, with hundreds of kinds of guns.  I'm saying we are missing major archetypes of guns.  No semi-auto long guns.  No revolvers.  No full-autos.  You know, we even have all the ingredients in-game already to make slamfire shotguns.  All they are is two pieces of pipe and a nail.  They're totally something survivors would make, and they'd fit right in with the crafting of the game.
 

We've been over this.  The game would not be any more about killing everything, or any less about day-to-day survival if it had a more realistic variety of guns.  They'd still be very loud, and so would draw in zombies from all around.  They wouldn't make you any less likely to starve to death, or get unlucky and get scratched and infected.  Have you ever been able to just take a shotgun and all the ammo you can carry to the mall and kill all the zombies there?  No?  Then why would that be any more likely if they added a few kinds of guns?

I'm not saying we need something like Jagged Alliance, with hundreds of kinds of guns.  I'm saying we are missing major archetypes of guns.  No semi-auto long guns.  No revolvers.  No full-autos.  You know, we even have all the ingredients in-game already to make slamfire shotguns.  All they are is two pieces of pipe and a nail.  They're totally something survivors would make, and they'd fit right in with the crafting of the game.
 

We've been over this.  The game would not be any more about killing everything, or any less about day-to-day survival if it had a more realistic variety of guns.  They'd still be very loud, and so would draw in zombies from all around.  They wouldn't make you any less likely to starve to death, or get unlucky and get scratched and infected.  Have you ever been able to just take a shotgun and all the ammo you can carry to the mall and kill all the zombies there?  No?  Then why would that be any more likely if they added a few kinds of guns?

I'm not saying we need something like Jagged Alliance, with hundreds of kinds of guns.  I'm saying we are missing major archetypes of guns.  No semi-auto long guns.  No revolvers.  No full-autos.  You know, we even have all the ingredients in-game already to make slamfire shotguns.  All they are is two pieces of pipe and a nail.  They're totally something survivors would make, and they'd fit right in with the crafting of the game.
 

If you're against needless variety, why are the Valutech and the Premium AM/FM radio different items?  They aren't just basically the same, they are IDENTICAL.

If you're against needless variety, why are there so many "nick-nack" items that do absolutely nothing?  Black AND white chess pieces, dolls, stuffed animals, CD's, multiple kinds of jewelry, wallets, credit cards and a lot more.  According to the wiki, there's 70 of these items.  Even more if you count each sprite separately; there's 4 kinds of wallets  I know I'd definitely rather the game had a semi-automatic rifle instead of Rubik's Cubes.  I know I'd rather the game had revolvers instead of knitting needles.

The obvious answer is "These items add to the credibility of the world."  Well so do multiple kinds of guns.  A lack of semi-automatic rifles is way more jarring and immersion-breaking for a zombie survival game set in Kentucky than a lack of Rubik's Cubes would be.

If you're against needless variety, why are the Valutech and the Premium AM/FM radio different items?  They aren't just basically the same, they are IDENTICAL.

If you're against needless variety, why are there so many "nick-nack" items that do absolutely nothing?  Black AND white chess pieces, dolls, stuffed animals, CD's, multiple kinds of jewelry, wallets, credit cards and a lot more.  According to the wiki, there's 70 of these items.  Even more if you count each sprite separately; there's 4 kinds of wallets  I know I'd definitely rather the game had a semi-automatic rifle instead of Rubik's Cubes.  I know I'd rather the game had revolvers instead of knitting needles.

The obvious answer is "These items add to the credibility of the world."  Well so do multiple kinds of guns.  A lack of semi-automatic rifles is way more jarring and immersion-breaking for a zombie survival game set in Kentucky than a lack of Rubik's Cubes would be.

No really.  Why do we have SIX IDENTICAL walkie talkies, 3 AM/FM radios, and 3 HAM radios that don't really get used AT ALL in singleplayer, when we only have 4 guns?

Guns are much more meaningful in a survival situation than radios.  I can't think of a single time in-game when I thought "boy if only I had a HAM radio".  But there've been plenty of occasions where I needed a gun.

You already have the problem of mismatched calibers.  Why is there rifle ammo in the police stations, when they don't have any rifles?  Why do you sometimes find bodies with ammo but no gun, or the wrong gun?

Semi-automatic weapons are not military.  Civilians own millions of semi-automatic rifles in the US.

Semi-automatic weapons are not military.  Civilians own millions of semi-automatic rifles in the US.