Footmuffin

You only just proved yourselves to be spoiled brats (which isn't an insult if it's true) AND hypocrites. I tried to be nice by implementing what I think to be positives WITH the negatives along with suggestions of what I at least think are good ideas to improve the single-player experince. Notice that I said EXPERINCE rather the game.
 
Of course, the children only decide to focus on one thing and ignore/deliberatly misunderstand all statements in order to make themselves look like a victim who is under attack.
 
Should I even bother to defend my words? It's really not worth it. I wasn't "making demands" and the only one who is being abusive is you. Again, who needs who here? When a majority of people talk about being mistreated by the PZ team, then you have a problem on your hands. The problem isn't with us - it's with you. I was making an inquiry about what you are doing to improve the single-player expiernce, while giving up my complaints about the game to you. That doesn't give you a free pass to whine about what I said. Clearly whoever is behind that account (Is that you,TurboTuTone?) is not a mature individual.
 
You get what you serve and if you didn't abuse, mistreat and generally whine about what people have to say about your game - then just maybe you wouldn't get so many people complaining. Keep in mind, the most negatives I had to say were about how you people treat the players.
 
You are a leading example of what's ruining early access games for everybody. Are you so secure about your "livelihood" that you would havefer refunds for anyone unsatisfied with the game? (If possible.) How many people I wonder would go for it.
 
What dramatic upheaval to you think I expect? Do you think I want you to put goomba's with power-ups? Get real. Your game is boring - that is the problem! What are doing exactly that will improve the singleplayer experince? I don't actually expect an answer at this point. You've managed to ignore everything I put down. Also, you are flat-out lying and misrepresenting about your own statements. In the past, you have given specific years and times as to when we should expect NPCs - and every time the date is pushed forward.
 
What do you mean "reflect on my post?" Are you trying be clever? You just come off as pathetic. Are you threatening me? Do you honestly think I care about getting banned from your little forum for speaking my opinion? I bought the facking game - so that gives me a right to speak what I think about it. If you don't like that - then you are going to have a problem with every critic.... ever. (See: Everybody.) If that's the case, then prepare for hell.
 
Nothing I can do or say can damage this game and your livelihood more than what you are already doing yourself; by your behavior and general attitude. I don't get it. You ignored/misunderstood everything I said, insulted me and threatened. Are you mad because I critizied the game? Are you mad because I used a few naughty words? Or are you just mad because I called you out on your behavior? Are you going to get uppity and personality offended everytime someone complains about the game? That's not a good buisness strategy.
 
Here's the thing: In all these years of development - there has been little to no visible improvement to the game. (Beyond aesthetic appearences and the horde mechanic.) Multiplayer people may be happy; but the game is still very flawed for people who prefer single player. There is no end content or motivation to explore beyond the basics of survival. (Food and fortification.) Houses are often repeated and zombies have no visble improvement. There is a total lack of incentive to progress as a character. Is there any forseeable future to this game? You ignored all of my inquiries - all. So maybe that speaks for itself more than anything - and your attitude is a prime example of why not to invest in early access games. I feel sorry that you have to be that sort of example. The thing it - every player counts. I could have reccomended this game to many people and raved about how great it is ten years down the line - and talk about how supportive the devs are about their players and their project. That could have gone a long way to support your livelihood. (One person tells two people, etc.)
 
Instead, I have nothing to reccomend. The game is a novelty right now because there is so little variation of what you can experince. Instead of commenting of possible future plans - you instead resulted in a personal attack. Think about that.
 
Here's how you should have handled it. (While still deliberatly ignoring all of my inquires.)
 
"Thanks for the input! We have a few tricks up our sleeve for the game but we can't spoil much - hopefully our future plans will improve your experince!"
 
Simple, nice and it at least awknowledges what I put down if even only a minimal ammount. Maybe you should hire me. (Please don't.) Your really an embarassment and you're only hurting yourself in the end - especially when you have countless people saying how callous your people are. What else can be said? A lot, really. But why bother? You are going to ignore everything I said (again) and most likely ban me because I had the gall to speak my mind. Who would be the man then? And don't tell me to "man up." You should "woman up."
 
 
Oh. My. God. Please do not even start with that pretentious crap. We get it. Humans are the real monsters. It's not like every other zombie fiction has done this to death before. Here's a hint: The zombies are always the main character in zombie fiction. When the zombie becomes a background object - then the zombies stop being scary. What "eerier" work are you talking about? Dawn of the Dead? You would have a point there - but there's only so many times a topic can be covered before people want to shoot the writers. DotD was great because it was innovative with it's message. The rest are just copy-cats. This is the reason why The Walking Dead has become widely hated. If you must know.
 
There's a lot that I could probably say that should rather be left unsaid - because would you actually listen? The answer is no. If Steam offered refunds - i would gladly take it because my experince with this whole thing has been sour. I am not so petty as to completely give up on a game or dis it, but I simply cannot recconmend this game to others anymore. I wish your project the best, though. Good luck with your livelihoods and I hope you wish the same to me. Who knows - you may actually improve the single-player experince and I may have a reason to keep playing.
 
P.S. Your commnuity truly is horrid - YOU HAVE A SERIOUS CYBERBULLYING ISSUE. You are certainly not helping the matter. I am not the only one who notices this - or PZ's team's bad behavior. That should tell you that you have a problem. Think about it.

You seem quite upset about a game and developers you dislike. If they bother you, why not just leave ? Speak your piece about the game mechanisms you would like to see changes on (but there's a suggestions subforum), game developers usually love constructive feedback to improve their product.
Also you say you despise passive-aggressiveness. That makes the almost-totality of your message quite ironic IMO.

Hey Folks,
just like the title says...

Playable Piano v1.0

This mod allows to play the pianos that sometimes can be found in houses. It's pretty much my first try at a PZ mod and serves more as a test than anything real serious. Therefore it's quite simple but works (as far as I've tested, hurr durr).
Using the piano plays one of a few looping audio tracks + reduces stress and boredom... but only if you got the necessary skills. Some traits prevent the use, which then results in a different looped track being played- and no stress / mood boost.
Oh... also to keep in mind, using the piano makes some obvious noise, which might attract zombies...
The mod can be downloaded over at the Steam workshop.
That's it pretty much- here another screenshot of how the classy visual presentation is done ingame:

Then it's not an anagram.

Here's an acceptable rhinoceros that I spent a while drawdling out of an ecologically-minded art education book from and then spent two hours trying to scan! I pretty much just copied what was in the book but it's a nice picture and it didn't take me a luxuriatingly long amount of time to do.

Spoiler From Christophe Drochon and Francoise Coffrant's Painting Animals
awwww look at the cute litle rhinoceros that im suddenly seeing issues with
also lookie i frotted the paper hkuhnhhkuhnhhkuhnhhkuhnhhkuhnhhkuhnhhkuhnhhkuhnh

So I decided to give this challenge a shot, and proceeded to make a hard-hitting carpenter with the hopes of holing up somewhere remote. Suffice it to say, plans go out the window pretty quickly when you're desperate for a place to sleep safely.
The first four days were harrowing, but overall felt like forward progress. After a few close calls looting houses on the northwest outskirts of West Point, I had a respectable bag full of nonperishables and a dufflebag loaded with nails, a saw, a few hammers, rope, disinfectant...all the essentials to set up camp outside of town and settle in t eying to keep the hordes at bay.
All I was missing, as has a way of happening, was an axe.
I woke early on the fifth morning, and set out through the woods and logging trails south of WP, headed to the warehouse on the far south side of town. It was a pretty desperate journey, repeating the pattern of gathering a group of smelly followers and losing them by ducking into the woods. By repeating this pattern, I finally emerged from the woods at the tracks and followed them north.
The warehouse looked like a complete bust. The parking lot was swarming with the dead, and the streets around weren't much better. Determined and foolish, I brought out my pistol and loaded in the single clip I had. Distraction time.
Doubling back through the woods and firing off a few shots did a decent job drawing the crowds away, and I was able to slip in th back door without being seen. A few stragglers remained outside, stopping now and then the half-heartedly bang on a window or door. To the sounds of their half efforts, I searched the crates in the storage room.
To no avail, of course, and my luck wasn't getting any better. As I searched through the containers, the dead I had lured away returned in force, and for whatever reason decided it was time to join me inside the warehouse. I fought my way through the hallway to the offices at the front of the building, and narrowly escaped getting munched on by smashing a window and fleeing. In my haste, I didn't have time to clear the glass from the frame, and a few sizable shards lodged themselves in my right forearm.
Naturally, it was about that time a storm decided to roll in. Drenched, wounded, trapped in a storm, I did the least logical thing I could think of: I headed into town. Pursued by the hordes, I watched the sun set on day five while running for my life, coughing and sneezing, all the while wincing from the glass in my arm.
Miraculously, I managed to lose the hordes smack dab in the middle of downtown, and took shelter for the night in the apartments above the hardware store.
The next morning my cold had cleared up, but I still had glass wedged in my arm, and without tweezers to pull it out I couldn't get to work stitching the wound. After choking down a can of beans, I set out searching for a first aid kit in the housing development just north of downtown. Twice I almost got bit, and one of the dead did manage to sink a nail and leave a gnarly little scratch. In the end, though, I got my paws on a First Aid Kit, complete with tweezers, needle, and thread. Before I was able to fix myself up, the Windows gave way and I was forced to make a hasty exit.
Feeling much less hurried, I took my time clearing the yard of a house not far from where I found the kit. One last check around the perimeter, gave my self the all clear, and got to work popping open a window.
I don't know where she came from, or how I missed her clearing the lawn. Didn't matter, though, because the second she chomped down on my hand, I knew it was over. After smashing her skull in, I dragged myself inside and upstairs. Maybe....just MAYBE...I didn't get it.
A few hours later, I start to sweat. My fever spikes, and I shiver and vomit what little I had left in my stomach. I'm a goner. Well, might as well go out eith a bang. One last bullet chambered, let's see how well they hear...

...guess their hearings' pretty good.

Anybody interested in a survival challenge? No set time limits or starting point. You can die and re-try as much as you can. Just meet the basic requirements of the challenge when playing, and post now and then with updates on how things are coming along. 
 
CHALLENGE REQUIREMENTS
 
1. 8 Months Later pre-settings. 
 
2. Only eating scavenged food. I.E. normal food found in houses etc.
(That means: No farming. No fishing. No trapping. No foraging. No worm eating etc.)
 
 
That's it. How long can you survive?
 
 
========SURVIVAL SCORE BOARD=======
 
 
 
Yolan - 8 days, 3 hours
Evilwuun - 6 days, 22 hours
Fire on Asphalt - 6 days, 15 hours
Vichiox - 3 hours
bobchaos - 2 days, 15 hours
Rass, 1 day, 5 hours

Just realesed an EP on bandcamp; you can stream it for free or buy it for $6.
https://kaebl.bandcamp.com/releases

Rawr.

So, this topic has inspired me about some game idea that might radically change the game difficulty for people who are craving for more challenge, as well as finally giving some incentive for people to pick doctors. 
 
So, the idea is to add all sorts of sicknesses that all have different symptoms. Some sicknesses will make you anxious, depressed, some will make you cough and sneeze and lose health randomly without any visible wounds on your body, some will make you feel weak, some will just hurt you and, if left untreated, will start killing you off.
 
The health panel, in this suggestion, gets a new column for every "Sickness" that your character gets. Depending on how severe it is, it gets it's own color. (Ideally, the "Sickness" tab will be green when your character feels alright)
 
Doctors and people who have leveled up their doctor skill will be able to distinguish the types of sicknesses (and even the correct items to treat them!). Inexperienced people will just get an "unknown sickness" and will have to either look for a doctor, or try and fight it on their own to continue going.
 
The list of sicknesses may range from Common, Safe, uncommon, to unsafe, hazardous and lethal. Each range may have up to 4-5 sicknesses with different symptoms, including the ability to make other people sick by being near them, or spreading it through various other ways like eating the same food (Remember the times when you make something and share it with your friends in Zomboid?)
 
You could catch sickness from variety of different factors, including but not limited to: Being out in the rain, walking around in a room full of blood, failing to clean and/or burn zombies, drinking contaminated water, eating raw food, eating sick animals (birds/rabbits/fish).
 
Traits like Prone to Illness and Outdoorsman determine the severity of possible sicknesses you may catch, as well as their variety. Doctors are capable of determining the sickness and possible ways of treating it (The bigger the level, the more "easier" solutions, like herbalist stuff), Hikers and Foragers will be able to find the medical plants to treat these.
 
I believe that introducing this to the game will add a new potential way to kill your character that everyone will have to be afraid of. No longer will you be able to live safely behind huge walls on the corner of the map, fishing from the same pond and sleeping in a room full of corpses. You'll have to stay careful about your surroundings and actively make sure that you don't catch a nasty virus that will end your life. Suddenly, trips to the town and into pharmacies become useful. Easier gamemodes and sandbox can include or fully remove the range of these sicknesses (meaning characters never get lethal sicknesses, or never get that particular annoying one), in case people find them way too hard.
 
Then, the modders could gather together and come up with their own sicknesses. Expand it, make it beyond realistic. (Looking at you, Hydrocraft <3)
 
I wish I was good at photoshop and image editing to draw something good for a GUI presentation... Hopefully I explained it well enough for people to understand my thoughts.

Drew my friends D&D character who gets drunk all the time and wears a box on his head. Naturally his name is boxy
 

I debated on where to put this topic but I remember reading somewhere that the developer's ultimate goal with PZ was to have emergent storytelling be at the game's design core. If so, the purpose of this topic is simply to discuss and possibly (and humbly) suggest what I think this would look like in PZ. If this is no longer a goal, I'd like to see it manifest as a Mod.
 
What is emergent storytelling? This article provides a fantastic overview and argument for what defines emergent storytelling in video games: Popmatters
 
The author argues that emergent storytelling in videogames has one or both of two key components:
Characters that change during play in meaningful ways that represent a true character arc, Gameplay forces players to give context and meaning to a scenario that results in a dramatic arc. Without these components, the narrative is not emergent. For example, a pre-defined series of events within a game may include story and character arcs, but they are not emergent. They are narratives designed by the game maker. Emergent storytelling happens through the interaction between the player and the system.
 
I think PZ has the opportunity to push the envelope with emergent storytelling and I suspect that is the intent with NPCs. But I think more can be done with player characters. What would extreme isolation and constant war-like trauma do to a character? For characters that are put together in multiplayer, what would be the effects over time on characters having two conflicting personality types being forced together?
 
I could see a new navigation pane, similar to the one that shows the health of the body, except one for the mind. While moodles might be outward expressions of character behaviors, the character's mind would be internal. Let's say two players are playing survivors, one plays Joe and one Sara. Shortly after meeting for the first time, Joe registers annoyance towards Sara within his mind. Sara may be able to see that Joe is mildly annoyed, but she would not know from what. After a certain threshold, highly annoyed characters might suffer skill penalties.
 
If the two players are both friends in real life and plan to play together, Joe's player might chose to spend points (e.g. resources) on reducing Joe's internal annoyance towards Sara. Joe gets over his issues. Alternatively, Joe's player may need to spend mental points on fighting off his growing addiction to smoking cigarettes. He allows Joe's annoyance towards Sara to grow to the point that he now suffers a skill penalty fighting zombies. What happens next? Perhaps Joe accepts the penalty and risks his life and stays with Sara. Or maybe he finally snaps. During the next harrowing zombie encounter, Joe's player withholds critical assistance from Sara and allows her to be torn apart by a horde. "It was either her or me".
 
To me, this is emergent storytelling. Letting Sara die isn't a meaningless event. Joe had a reason for doing what he did. He needed to rid himself of his concentration breaking annoyance or he risked himself dying to the horde.
 
On the flipside, players could assign mental points to make their characters like each other more. Let's say Amy and Josh receive a skill bonus when they are together. They make a great team. But one day, Josh drops his guard and gets bit. The infection manifests quickly and Josh dies. Amy now suffers a deep depression which tank her skills. Does she persevere and eventually recover? Does her sorrow prevent her from successfully fighting off the next zombie? Does she drink the bleach?
 
These are stories. They are more than just a series of events with importance only to the player. The narrative isn't dictated by the game maker. Instead, the narrative emerges from the interaction between the player and the system. What does it say about the human condition that Joe, when faced with risking his survival, let Sara die?
 
To me, this is why PZ has permadeath and no final winning state. This is how you died. The game is about the journey, not the destination.

Wouldn't it be cool if we could hide behind counters, under beds, in wardrobes, ect?
Like full blown stealth where the other person can't see you without checking?
Maybe equalize searching by making zombies also sometimes hide in those places.

Weird, I had a very similar idea pop into my head yesterday before going to sleep, but I thought of something a lot less complicated : Have boundaries outside the map that you can't access due to black borders, assigned to random cells (obviously within 1 empty cell distance away from actual map). Those cells spawn players in the "challenge 1" map (the tutorial/last stand house) and allows you to battle through zombie armies with an infinite shotgun/pistol ammo. Dreams wouldn't really level up any of your skills or stuff, but will be a fun way to blast quicker through boring "black screen" of sleeping. Once the player "wakes up" the random cell "kicks" the player back into the actual position and deletes every tile associated with that "dream" to free some space.
 
Actually, dream cells don't even have to use server CPU to render everything in that cell, as it could all be client sided. 
 
Obviously, the system would require one person to stay asleep while the other player is awake, since otherwise the time could just be skipped like in singleplayer until one of the players wakes up. Also, talented modders could even add more "dream" sequences to blast through, if just "challenge" mode gets tiring to play through each day.

Since I raised the spectre of this in the Human meat topic -(http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/16803-human-meat/ apologies but this was done on a mobile)
I realised that this could be quite a useful moodle in that it would make for a more evil survival experience. For those that don't know scurvy is a horrific affliction when you don't have any vitamin C and your body basically rots because you arent producing any natural collagen which is basically the glue that Keeps your body together. Vitamin C is found in fresh produce and most meat which means that a zombie outbreak would most likely see outbreaks of this as supply chains would break down and fresh food rot quite quickly.
The idea would be for a moodle representing scurvy (maybe a sort of shrivelled yellowish looking face) with some gradually increasing health problems. Since scurvy causes depression, insanity, jaundice, neuropathy and then death I think it would be wise to make stages of it so slight scurvy, scurvy and finally severe scurvy followed by death, all with increasing health problems.
Some fun effects could be to make loud noises (such as gun shots) cause pain and even unconsciousness as this is a common problem with scurvy.
To mitigate this I think some added items could be useful such as vitamin tablets although they should have diminishing effectiveness somehow.
To implement this as a mod you would need to add an element to every food item in the game adding a vitamin C meter and its effects on your player character.
In short I think this would make for a more hardcore survival experience and make it more worrying when your hideout is completely surrounded by zombies as it would give you a time limit to figure something out, the catch being that if you don't you die an extremely painful agonizing drawn out death by inches which could not be saved by poor stockpiling of food (ie no surviving on a huge supply of pot noodles).
Ideas for a mod name could be the "Eat your vegetables" mod.

Maybe you should add Braille books along with the mod.

Hi all ! I am here to show you my second mod for Zomboid, this time, it's a trait mod that will allow you to play a blind character ! 
 
Soon, the game will feature 5.1 sound and much more ambiant sounds like zombies footsteps, etc... So I decided to give you the ability to play a blind character, to focus more on sounds. I think this mod will be way more interesting when the new update will hit 
 
 
Mod First Release 1.0
 

 
 
Features :
 
- You can pick a new trait that allows you to play a blind character
- The blind player has a really tiny "seeing" sight where you can see zombies even behind you
- You can't de-zoom + everytime you look away the screen gets darker (keep your cursor close to your player while sneaking !)
- You have excellent hearing
 
 
Troubleshooting and planed features :
 
- Doesn't work in local co-op (sorry... It's planned)
- Black and White vision with shaders is also planned
 
 
Changelog :

Version 1.0 (release)
- New Trait to play a blind character
 
 
Workshop Link :
 
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=546189296
 
Pz-Mods Link :
 
http://pz-mods.net/gameplay/blindtraitmod/
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Feedback is appreciated, Blind trait is currently a +15 Trait, but I think it's a bit tiny, I may increase it to 18, what do you think ?

Yes! They're terrible and it doesn't get any better without treatment and support.
 
When you can, (if you can,) see about getting a supportive therapist, counselor, or psych to help. They can help you get treatment, and you don't have to feel weak or guilty about it; it is exactly like getting a cast for a broken bone or antibiotics for an infection, only it's an interaction of your brain's biology that's doing things a little off.
 
But yes, I do have mood swings, and I do have depression and they totally suck. I don't handle it very well yet, but I also haven't sought treatment, so I'm kind of telling you my own goals. I might actually have bipolar II and a few personality disorders rather than run-of-the-mill depression/anxiety, but again something for me to get help from a doctor with.

Hey there mappers and builders!
 
Since we've gotten a lot of new maps and mappers during the holidays I decided to go poking into the system behind the blends and rules of the mapping tools. After half a day of trying and failing I've gotten a decent system working where I can create diagonal roads for the mapping tools.
 
Basically this:

 
It works with a bitmap too!
 
The colors are as follows:
Light Asphalt: 170 170 150
Medium Asphalt: 130 130 130
Dark Asphalt: 110 110 110
(Just add ten (10) to every vanilla road value.)
 
 
There are a few things that aren't a 100%. . . For example you'll have to hand place some of the diagonal tiles in crossroads that have different road types, if you want them to look correct. The blend system is somewhat limited in this way, but it's a very minute problem considering the benefits!
 
Here's the download link and instructions on how to get it working with the tools:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7fw5m2x8n8rttwe/Diagonal64bit.rar?dl=0 - 64bit version
https://www.dropbox.com/s/aj2305jisa06bv8/Diagonal32bit.rar?dl=0 - 32 bit version
(the only difference is where the files are placed, nothing fancy)
 
How to install:
 
How to draw diagonal roads in TileZed:
 
NOTE that this works only for the mapping tools! You have to create the custom packs and tile definitions to get it working in game as with any custom tilesets!!
 
Let me know if you can't get it working or run into problems!! Happy mapping and a happy Mondoid!!! (clyde)
 

Another one since I had nothing else to do today:

I'm no regular sketcher, but I sometimes have outbursts of creativity and try to put them on (virtual) paper.
 
The first one's probably the idea I'm the proudest of. I even made a t-shirt out of the last panel (without the text) for my bro's birthday a few years ago.
 
Then the rest... a few ideas here and there. I may try to apply for a teefury design, one day. Overall, I've never really tried to create my own things but I feel quite comfortable modifying what already exists, in a more or less humorous way.
 
My outdated DeviantArt for those who wouldn't mind a glance.
 
 
 

Copious amounts of Vanilla Coke were sacrificed in the process

There is an option to make reloading guns more difficult. I would like an opinion to make melee combat harder.
It will be interesting to see what comes with the combat update that has been mentioned by devs.
Possible changes could be-
Higher exertion from fighting.
Fighting is hard work. Even professional fighters can gas out after 2-3 minutes of fighting.
Less knockback on all weapons.
Would need to do more tactical pushing to keep zombies at range.
1 hit per swing.
Can't hit multiple zombies with 1 swing.
Slower swing speed when using two-handed weapons in 1 hand.
Using an axe in one hand isn't easy.
Fumbles.
Chance to drop weapon (possibly linked to the new grabbing that is hopefully planned?)
I think that some small changes could make melee more risky and exciting
But this might not be for everyone? So the choice would be nice

Hey guys, so here it is, Bedford Falls Version 3! (Workshop V1)

Visit the Steam Workshop page to subscribe: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=522891356 - don't forget to favorite and rate up!
 
Decided to start a new thread to seperate the old from the new.
Bedford Falls now has proper zombie respawn mechanics, foraging, and a lot more zombies.
Subscribing to the mod on steam should make things a lot easier, just subscribe, load PZ, go to the mods screen and double click on Bedford Falls. All new games you start will now have Bedford Falls in the game world and available as a starting spawn point.
 
Report any/all bugs in this thread. Use Blincoder's awesome map ( http://pzmap.crash-override.net/ ) to get the coordinates of any bugs (click overlay Bedford on the left and then Map Coordinates further down) and then leave a post here with the coordinates and a brief description .
 
Original Contributors:
 
Current Contributors:
 
Hope you guys enjoy!