Keshash

Hello all, welcome to this week’s Thursdoid. A slightly short one, as usual Thursdoider Batsphinx is currently waving the Zomboid flag high at the GDC in that there America, for the betterment of all Zomboids – devs and players alike. Normal Thursdoid blogging will resume next week!
A few things to cover non-the-less.
VEHICLE BUILD 41
We were about to release the build today, as a potential IWBUMs version, and in testing last minute have noticed a serious crash issue in MP that needs resolving first, so we’ll look to fix that then release — if not tomorrow, then early next week. A few highlights for what will be coming:
Since we had a few complaints about the slower UI update speed, we’ve added a menu option to allow people to choose their own level of sacrifice of game FPS for UI framerate, and in addition have raised the default UI framerate a bit. (We’ll see what option most people like to try and determine a good default value in the future. Of course ultimately we’d like to get the UI further optimized, but sadly since it’s written in lua for modding purposes its inherently a bit slower to process than most game uis so we’ll do what we can.) Zombie horde optimizations – there is still more to do, but in particular we’ve made significant optimizations to zombies responding to sound, and the way sounds are transmitted across the map, to make handling huge hordes better. Additionally there has been done work on the pathfinding that should make things run better when you’re amongst hordes of the dead. You’ll likely still see FPS drops until we manage to further optimize but you should notice a noticeable improvement, especially when you’re in a vehicle. There are numerous other fixes and additions, the full changelist of which will be posted when we go live, we just want to get the build fixed up as we’re at the point now where every build should be moving us closer to a polished vehicle build so we can move on to other features we have in the pipe.
WEATHER UPDATE
Since this has been a rather teeny Thursdoid, we thought we’d share a few nice videos showing some of the new weather systems Turbo has been working on, with new shader effects (along with legacy versions for those without shader support)
Hope you enjoy!
Stormy car ride

New shader driven fog:

Super rare night vision goggle prototype:

New shader ambiences

THE LOOT DETECTIVES
Erstwhile investigators ShylokVakarian and his proclaimed ‘Queen of Loot’ ChatNoir have been running a rather impressive study on loot that appears in player’s starting houses, with some interesting revelations on which spawning towns have the best loot, down to the likelihood of running into good bag or a fabled Spiffo doll in your spawn house. It’s very interesting and useful statistics you should totally check out to help you plan your survival.
Thanks to ShylokVakarian for his study, it’s really great that people are willing to dig this deep into the game we’ve created, and we massively look forward to his other studies in future!
That’s all for this week, apologies its a bit short and version-less, we’ll look to get something out to you ASAP.
This week’s image is from BecquerL. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kept here – so you don’t have to plough through endless dev blogs for info. The Centralized Block of Italicised Text would like to direct your attention to the PZ Wiki should you feel like editing or amending something, and the PZ Mailing List that can send blogs like this and patch notes direct to your mailbox. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too. Oh, and check out the findings of the latest great loot survey from ShylokVakarian. Fanks!

I just wrote a suggestion where intelligence skill could be good.
With actuals bugs, can't enjoy play, so waiting release, i come back play to fallout 2. that's remind me :
For old players who now fallout series and is S.P.E.C.I.A.L, I find this character adjustement very fine and powerfull , and in a certain way, PZ is not as far.
For others in fallout player have skill who form "special" they are  :
Strengh
Perception
Endurance
Charisma
Intelligence
Agility
Luck
This affect game stats and the base of many subskills, who can be separatly upped.
In a 3rd time you can have some capacities.

When I create my charcter in PZ, I realize that all of this is here, but with less incidence between skills/capacities.
 
What about a S.P.I.F.F.O ? this could give more fines parameters and impact.
I try to find some word who are not to close to fallout. I'm not very at ease in english to know all goods adjective...
I put in first line incidence on in game stats, on the second on skills themsleves (xp gain, or starting XP).
Strengh : carry capacity, knockback, run speed, blunt attacks damages affecting : run , carpentry, metalworking, mechanic, both accuracy Perfection : buildings quality , transfer speed, container capacity could affect : sneaking, all accuracy/aiming, cooking Intelligence : sight range, reading time, container capacity, engineer speed,  could affect : electricity, first aid, all maintenance, forage Fitness : endurance, running time, sneaking speed, transfert speed, blunt attack speed, thirst affecting : nimble, mechanics, reloading time, Faith : panic, boredom, luck in general, moods, repair and loots. critical hits could affect : all guards, fishing, trapping.  Outdoursy : building time, foraging speed, run speed overloaded, hunger, could affect : farming, lightfooted, forage, fishing , trapping  
All of word and impacts are ideas to show a principe. don't say that are at the right place.
 

Ah, that's interesting! I was never aware that the "game slowing down" was a bug. I gotten so used to it that playing the game without it feels scary. I'll explain.
 
Playing the newer vehicle build has had my game freeze to 0 frames (Stuttering) for a chunk of time, after which my character would end up in a different part of the map (that is, if I held down run button/etc). Because of this I imagine I would haveten find myself running head first into a horde during stuttering, and having to maneuver my way out of being grabbed after stuttering is gone.

Worse for vehicles, I might miss a turn and crash into a tree while the stuttering wouldn't even let me react to it. 

With the "slowdown" bug, I could at least feel safe that the FPS lag won't cause my character's death. Now I am not so certain.

Если память мне не изменяет, то этот навык давал бонус к скорости перемещения по лесу, что и называлось "ориентированием"? Не могу сказать точно, но что-то такое я помню.

Also,
 
6. It'd be nice to have some loot drop from destroyed walls, similar to doors.

Also,
 
6. It'd be nice to have some loot drop from destroyed walls, similar to doors.

180. If it's possible, could you add an ability to change haircut and beards with something like scissors or knives?
181. While you're at models, could you please-please-please add long hair and long(-er) beard for men? Like this guy's. For the Robinson-like appearance.

150. Add an ability to glue posters to the windows, as a poor curtain replacement.
151. Make "Outdoorsman" trait more expensive (Currently it's 2 points) or nerf it's effects. 
152. Add suture needle to tailoring recipes as an option. © Cromulent Archer
153. Maybe, speed up foraging a little bit? It's too boring to stand in the forest, doing nothing. And the outcome is not guaranteed.

Hello, zomboiders!
So, while this animation work is going on I suggest to add ability to train yourself in the game. For example, push-ups and catch-ups on the bar.
 
As I've heard, Strength and Fitness degrades over time, but what if you are stuck on the rooftop with horde of zeds waiting outside? Right, you do push-ups. Even if you own katana and have cool dreadlocks, you still need to do push-ups (we can clearly see that in the end of 3rd season).
 
I offer to add something like this:
 
1 Push-up gives you 3 point in strength and 1.5 in fitness.
 
1 catch up on the bar gives you 6 points in strength and 3 in fitness, 
but requires horizontal bar and it's alot more exerting.
 
And, if average Joe does <insert here the number of push-ups that average Joe can do>, he receives moderate exertion moodle. If he does 1.5x push-ups, he receives high exertion moodle. And if he does 2x push-ups,he recieves highest exertion moodle. Same goes for catch-ups. 
 
It can be an another option to do something for long winter nights, when you don't want to sleep.  I understand that it looks kinda grindy, but if someone wants to grind, he will grind anyway. It just adds more freedom for player.
 
Sorry, if I said something wrong. We, khajiits don't learn English in the Elsweyr.

Also,
 
6. It'd be nice to have some loot drop from destroyed walls, similar to doors.

This thread might be falling out of "small suggestions", but I'll add one more.
 
273. Add a simplier indicator of current time/weather to the watch's place. Like: "Evening, rainy" or a picture of the sky.

not sure if it was mentioned before but it really annoys me...
 
460:  add a possibility (like a check box to select etc) that if you are dismanteling an electronic item, the items you get from it don't spam in your inventory but drop on the floor (like when you are destroying a door) 
 
It's really annoying to remove all the stuff from INV when you are only doing this to get the EXP - if you want to get the items you could select an option to get the items back in your inventory for example or something like this
 
461: cross-using of skills - like metall 3 AND carpentry 4 are needed to build XY etc...
        also for later:   metall + electric could be used for repairing of cars, so no need of mechanic skill
 
462: better use of the crafting menue UI:  "Wash clothing" is great in theorie but you can't select the item you want to clean, so it would be great to make the item you want to clean selectable at the UI in the crafting menue ame as it is for cooking f.ex. -
 
this would also make it possible to
 
463:  clean-up the crafting menue: "Open Packet of XY seeds" could be only 1 entry instead for every seed 1 entry - the same with "Put XY Seeds in Packet"  - also lots of cooking recepts could be cleaned up that way, the 100 "dismanteling entrys..." could be deald with etc... would greatly improve the usability of the crafting UI
 

*Insert positive feedback and mandatory upvote here*

I think there is already biting animation. And I saw it in the animation update video. It's like zombie putting their hands slightly up and then down, while the head is biting. And the scratching... It's kinda in the biting animation, but only scratching animation would be good if zombie can't reach you (i.e. fences, opened windows). Otherwise, AFAIK zombies' #1 priority is biting, so the wouldn't scratch expressly, just as result of grabbing you.

Driving skills!
 
I'm sure this is already being considered, but driving should definitely be worked into character creation when vehicle development stabilizes.
 
High drive skill could increase (and low would decrease):
- Turning responsiveness or likelihood of rollover (safe and effective control of momentum)
- Likelihood of car starting on first turn of the key (knowing how/when to turn the key for a rough starter)
- Control when running over obstacles (default erratic response when driving over something/zeds)
- Others?

This video shows off the idea of making the environment more lively.  (I've sped up some of the effects in this video to give a clearer demonstration)
 
 
 

This is something people have been suggesting for a while, so I figured I'd make some special magic happen.
 
 

cheeki breeki!!!!

This mod adds the possibility to obtain a blessing or curse when "Look at Spiffo eyes" on the Spiffo item. (Item consumed after using it)

Blessings: Level up one random skill. (In case of receiving the blessing in a skill that is already at the maximum level, you will receive a global xp point to spend on the skill you want)
Curse: Receives random scratches anywhere on the body. (Do not contain Z infection)

Chances will depend on certain traits you have.
It works in Singleplayer and MP.
Language support at the moment: ES_es, ES_ar, IT_it, FR_fr, EN_en.
If you want to add a another language support contact me!!!

Video Example:


Download
V1.5
 
WorkShop: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=953218312

External Downloading: http://www.mediafire.com/file/2718p8bja2a0fpa/SpiffoSkills1.5.rar

(Sorry about my language, i speak spanish)
 
 
 

180. If it's possible, could you add an ability to change haircut and beards with something like scissors or knives?
181. While you're at models, could you please-please-please add long hair and long(-er) beard for men? Like this guy's. For the Robinson-like appearance.

Also featuring phrases like "Do not fear, Boris is here", "Babushka, guide me!" and opening mayonez jars without tools. I think it's pretty balanced.
 
Where could I stick a link to Life of Boris in this post?

Game runs a lot better now. Still tiny bits of stuttering here and there (apparently whenever a lot has to load), other than that a huge improvement to how it was before.
 
Also seems grass isn't overlapping the cars anymore. At least in places I've been able to test it.
 
PS: Would be fancy if car lights would change their texture when light is active. Either texture flip or some glow layer that gets activated when light is on. Right now it looks awful flat.
/Edit: Something like this...

Only if I can put my sunglasses as I turn away from it.

My one regret in life is starting this thread, i wish i could erase it from my mind permanently.

This is definitely something that needs to be dialed down by quite a lot, a significant change. Not in small increments, for the sake of both gameplay and realism.
 
Zed come out of the woodwork from blocks away to chase your car down, when in reality the sound leaving your average supermarket parking lot while you are parking is a stretch enough enough as is.
 
Sure, you can use them as a more effective distraction tool because of the unrealistic sound dome they create, but that shouldn't be intended. Usually this would require the use of a horn.
 
State of Decay is a good example of vehicle noise, the faster you are going (RPM noise) the "circle of sound" created around the vehicle increases as well, and if you intend on using them as a distraction, that is what the horn is used for. 
 
Zed on the roadside see/hear you and follow, if you want to generate a horde, purposely use your vehicle to create noise (the horn) and form a train.
 
If you are cruising down a residential road, decaying zeds (and people in general) would realistically not be able to hear you from beyond the closest houses. Couple this with the mixture of surrounding buildings/trees, natural ambiance, horde noises and occasional sound events. The pinpoint hearing for where cars are will ultimately be the most common complaint about vehicles if they are released and the current level of sound is intended.
 
You can barely hear other vehicles from inside your own vehicle (and this is exactly why drivers shoulder check everytime they signal because sometimes a car sneaks into your blind spot and you have no idea that they are there).
 
Thankfully, ironing stuff like this out is what test builds are for, and I have full confidence that the developers will do the right thing based on feedback. I'm sure the current levels of sound are placeholder until proper balancing is complete.