Pamplemousse

To further elaborate on this point, because I think this is central to my suggestion, I basically want to be able to say - start out as a cop for example and they make a group at the Police station and as time passes they become almost militaristic and become a conquering force, with a name, some basic ideology or set of principles, and those continue to guide them on after I die. Next I play as a cook and make a pacifist refuge where we try to help the needy. Then that character dies and I make a military veteran who joins up with a pastor to make a quasi-religious militaristic faction. I'd like the factions that come of all this to interact with each other, wage war on each other, form alliances, conquer, merge etc. While I lead them I'd like the ability to add details to them, maybe some dialogue to give the characters some personality, raise flags, create literature, erect statues if that's what tickles their fancy. The Kentucky map is the canvas and I think it would be nice to have the player paint their world into it.

To put it shortly I'd really like the ability to add some degree of character and personality to the groups you establish, and for those to live on in that faction's mode of operating (or be challenged and alter by the shifting of circumstances) such that when left behind, it doesn't feel like this husk of a group where the NPCs just stake the place out and continue to get by, but will actually feel like a faction from something like Fallout New Vegas depending on the degree to which you provide them with a framework for some sort of method of governance. Maybe your slaver gang continues to capture survivors from outside to put to forced labour, maybe your trading company resumes commerce and tries to make contact with more groups, maybe your militaristic faction continues to conquest and appoint its members to rule over weaker groups. Where an in-built faction generation system may reap something bland and repetitive at best (as far as I can imagine, but I'm no game developer), I think enabling the player to configure such things by establishing said factions (and also maybe being able to import them through mods) will bring about a great deal of richness and liveliness to the world.

I don't know very much at all about the NPC system, but this is something I would like to see possible. From what I understand the greatest extent of NPC factions will be generic dozen-man survivor groups, be it raiders, or people just trying to get by. While this is all well and good, I don't think I'm the only one who would like to see large, detailed factions. A part of the allure of the zombie apocalypse settings, and many apocalyptic settings on a broader scale (like Fallout) are these big factions you get, The Walking Dead's Saviors or Woodbury for example. While an attempt to make such a thing be generated in the game would probably be hard, and end up rather generic, this is where I think a mechanic that is already present in the game could come in handy. As it stands, when you die your world is not yet lost, and the things you have done remain. I can load up that old save file with the skull next to it, and go into the same world where my deceased character's base will be. So I figure this is a good framework to allow the player to inject their own lore into the world essentially. You want the cool NPC groups with their unique approaches to situations, uniforms etc? You make them. Play out the story of the leader, and leave behind that faction after you die (or add a system where you abandon that character to NPC control. Make your own Saviours and Woodburys. I think this would be very cool, but it would require certain additions to really get it to where it would be fun. Maybe the ability to add custom banners, the ability to select a form of governance and attitudes to other groups before your death (so that they may carry on your desired faction's 'ideology,' for a lack of better term, rather than just becoming another dormant generic NPC group, only made larger due to the player's previous intervention prior to their death). Being able to inject a sort of culture and morality to your the group that they can act out, and do so even after your death when you encounter them on a new survivor with no affiliation, would really bring life into the world, I imagine more so than any pre-generated group could. This is just an idea, and its quite blatantly not a high priority thing. Let me know what you think.

Would it not be possible to use whatever code is being used to show people in seats in the car to put people in different positions in an RV? Like one "seat," is standing next to the sink, one can be sitting on the RV couch etc.

I personally think one of the fun aspects of the suggestion comes from the 'holographic,' building outline as I think it provides a good way of having the construction oriented NPCs still be useful as they will follow your vision of what the building should be, rather then you having to put each piece together yourself each time. I think it would be much better to just have your blueprint for an outpost for example then order your builders to build them in different sites rather than doing it by hand each time.

I agree, this should be in place. Just to go a little further, and maybe this is worth a separate suggestion, but I think it would be best to dedicate certain animations to carrying generators, furniture parts, and corpses. Maybe for corpses you visually see yourself carrying some makeshift bodybag (or just the corpse as it is), when you carry furniture parts you carry some sort of cardboard box filled with pieces that look like bed frame parts or chair legs and such, and the generator would be self explanatory. Maybe for moving a barrel you roll it on its side. Once NPCs come, seeing them carrying things around like this would probably liven things up, kind of like in the Stronghold games if you've played them, where everyone's going about carrying supplies to different areas looking very busy.

Preface: This idea is for beyond 1.0 when the current roadmap is complete. I was looking at this old video displaying an early concept of what Project Zomboid creative mode would look like, and I saw something of a resemblance to the Sims 4's excellent construction system. However I thought it would be great to take the same mechanics one step further and instead expand upon this system in the normal mode of the game. As of now you place every little wall segment one at a time, meanwhile in what I'm suggesting, you plan/plot out what your desired construction site will look like (imagine what's shown in the creative video except its like 50% opacity) and then to pull it off you can either incrementally work on it yourself, set your construction oriented NPCs to do the job, or work on it with your buddies in multiplayer. I think it would add a much more collaborative aspect to it (as you and your friends can act as the architects) and also make the construction feel more realistic. There's definitely room for additions and there will need to be parts of it that might require regulation (Setting a cap for the amount of these ghost objects of your blueprint you can have at a time, or whether to keep them client or server-side) but I think it would be an amazing addition to the game. Thanks! -Pamplemousse Side-note: Maybe build templates could be saved too so you could use your usual setup, or download one from the workshop? Could expand into an even bigger community building aspect.

Civil War Reenactments are a big thing in the South as well as other places. It would be nice to see some Union and Confederate uniforms from reenactors. An open field with some old style tents and some fake cannon installments would be a reenacting ground to find these items. Some Shakespearean stage play costumes would be a cool find. Some sort of fancy curtained stage theater in Louisville may be a good place to find these, or maybe a makeshift highschool gymnasium stage. Sorry for the locations going along when this is an outfit thread, but I do think they are essential to the ones I've made in particular. These are by no means essential, but things I think would be cool to have.