TrailerParkThor

refer to this video with the timestamp
 

 
yep, you're seeing that right. that's a bunny suit.
but what's a bunny suit without pantyhose? please devs, the lack of pantyhose to go along with the bunny suit is clearly what's holding the development of this game back. surely we would have reached 1 million active players by now if we had the combo.

It has certainly been discussed in the past here on the forums. 
 
There's a few realistic challenges with solar in 1993:
Availability of solar panels: Back in 1993 solar was not common for residential, industrial, or commercial use. Solar was simply too expensive to be cost effective. Back in the early 90's you would expect the cost per watt was about $8.00 USD. Nowadays its around $3.00 USD. The one place that it was utilized frequently was with public works. Think of all those road signs alerting you to construction etc. So panels would need to be extremely rare and likely only available at a few locations on the map. They were also vastly less efficient than they are today, so don't expect to get much power from them. Appliances were also more power hungry back then than they are today. You would need a sizeable array just to run your fridge. Even iridescent lightbulbs were magnitudes more power hungry than modern LEDs lights. Finding a panel or two would not solve many problems for you. Maybe charging batteries over time would be a practical application?  Setting up a solar system sounds simple, but it requires a number of components. Solar panels create DC which would need to be converted to AC to be used by household appliances etc. So you would need inverters. You would also need a voltage regulator to ensure that you do not fry the electronics you intend to use. This isn't to say these couldn't be added to the game, but again they would be very rare in 1993. We have electrical professions, skill books, etc so its not unreasonable that a player character could learn to use them or even make them at a very high electrical skill.  Just like current times, solar only works during the day. It works on cloudy days, but at a significantly reduced rate. To be utilized around the clock a storage system would be needed. Even today in 2021 home storage systems are very expensive and rare. In 1993? They were non-existent. A bunch of car batteries could maybe be utilized to store power, but its unlikely you would be able to keep them charged without a significant array. A common 100ah 12v car battery could run a 100w light bulb continuously for about 6 hours if its discharged to about 50% (lead acid deep cycle batteries should never be discharged more than that to maintain the life of the battery). So you would need a huge array of solar panels to keep your huge array of batteries charged. This is a game and some liberties can be taken in place of realism, but honestly, its a bit of a stretch to expect to get much practical use out of them based on their efficiency in 1993 and the lack of efficiency in appliances/devices.
 
However, I think finding a panel or two to charge DC batteries (car and flashlights) overtime would be a reasonable application in this game. Powering your home with a few panels just isn't going to work. But with limited fuel supplies at gas stations now, maybe they could be added as a late-game thing to work towards. 

I swear, I was just trying to kill the fly on the wall.

Restoring Power Plants and Water Treatment Stations would definitely be worthy end-game goals. Can't get rid of the zombies, but at least you can enjoy your last few years in luxury! I definitely think the planned Factions will be locked behind establishing some kind of radio tower. I can't imagine you will just be able to start building a faction up the second the game begins, since I think that will be when you are still operating under the 'Group' mechanics at that point. Would definitely be nice to build up a bunch of different skills or rally different specialist PCs or NPCs and have to commit to a long-term goal of either Electricity, Running Water, or Rebuilding Civilization once you reach a certain point of survivability.
 
I have said on other threads that the game needs some more Late-Game Machines that make getting to high levels on MP (and SP when NPCs are added one day) actually rewarding and fun. Things like getting a Sawmill that turns logs into planks automatically at McCoy, a Sewing Machine that can be used to make homemade clothes with enough tailoring at the Mall, a big Combine for harvesting crops (or corpses) en masse at the Pony Roam-O; Moonshine Distill, Personal Computer, Coal Generator, Metal Press, etc. These would first need to be located, then moved, then repaired, before finally needing steady supplies of resources (and power) to continue running. So there would be whole months of the game dedicated to making one fully operational. IMO these would function as the End-Game goals for most SP worlds (at least until NPCs are added), but in MP these would be more like important resources to compete and war over. Things that your average big dog faction can maintain and use to their advantage. So here, your ideas about restoring water and power could fill that need for a real END-GAME goal nicely.
 
So I imagine each of the 4 starting zones will have their own Power Plant and Water Treatment Station that could be restored, but you could only fix one of each. This way, you can never restore full electricity and running water to the world, but you could have plumbing for your farm settlement outside of Rosewood and appliances/lights at your HQ in Riverside, or both in Muldraugh. Radio Towers would probably be constructed at the site of your base, but maybe they could follow the same logic of having one in each spawn area. Knowing that PZ has a super hardcore and dedicated community, though, I wouldn't be surprised if these quickly become late-game rather than end-game goals for most players
 
With that in mind, here's a few other ideas for End-Game Projects the devs could add:
- Setting up a Telegraph/Telephone network
- Repairing a Forklift that can move thousands of kilos at once
- Repairing a Military APC vehicle
- Renovating a Woodwork Factory for use in mass producing some basic furniture
- Renovating a Silverware Factory for use in mass producing kitchen cutlery
- Renovating the Louisville Slugger factory (when Louisville is added)
- Renovating the Dog Food Factory
- Reestablishing a Quarry for automated stone collection
- Arming a Missile to destroy any one of the 4 starting zones
- Repopulating a Nature Reserve for hunting exotic game
- Clearing out a caved-in Mineshaft for a renewable supply of (char)Coal
- I'm sure there's plenty more too! Those were just off the top of my head.

Bump because this is a great idea, especially with the new 3D items!

It seems to me that it would be unrealistic if people could destroy a reinforced concrete or brick wall of a building without tools.
Similarly, zombies will not be able to destroy such walls with their bare hands.

So... what's the difference? Can the Zombies smell you on the walls?

Yes, I'm actually advocating the potential option of letting zombies hit preset walls between them and a noise or smell like they'll do with player made constructions. Oddly enough what bothers me about the way zombies will attack player defenses is that they won't attack any other obstacles the same way.

Perhaps it feels a bit better because of how zombies look for windows, doors and barricades in preset buildings. But then there's a disparity with how Zombies won't hesitate to just attack a player made wall as soon as they touch it.

Maybe a nice option would be some sort of delay between when a zombie finds a player wall and how long it'll take them to get frustrated and just start smashing whatever is in front of them?

Thanks, I appreciate it! This game is definitely a huge passion of mine and I love sharing it with the rest of our community here

Yeah, he's good for that, as I've come to learn. You'd swear the guy was a moderator.
 
But a good game brings out the passionate players. And even in it's current state, I kinda view zomboid as one of better games available out there.
 
 

Wow! That was the most comprehensive reply to a forum post I have read in any forums ever. Thank you!

It should be the other way, glutton reduces both positive and negative effects on mood from food (dopamine release slowly tapering as your brain wants more food), picky eater would be happier with foods they like but naturally be much pickier about what they're willing to eat at all.

Now that VHS tapes and CDs have been confirmed for Build 41, I had a few ideas that could further the depth of the new system. First things first, it's safe to assume that VCRs will be functional, since it was said in one of the blog posts that there is a high chance of blank VHS tapes spawning in residential homes. This will hopefully allow us to record TV shows for ourselves instead of finding them. We also know that after this system is added, watching TV and listening to music will award buffs/debuffs to the PC. Since this is the case, I think it would be a good idea to add 1 or 2 more TV stations to help fill out this mechanic. An HBO parody for taping the new movies, and an MTV parody for taping music videos of the new and old songs. Both were huge TV channels in 1993, so they would be prime candidates for PZ.
 
Another idea I had was to simply add a Walkman and Cassette Tapes. The Walkman would basically just be a reskinned CD player that only works with Cassette Tapes. It would be more common than the CD player, but with the tradeoff of needing to rewind the cassettes and potentially even having a limited amount of uses on each tape. Essentially simulating them wearing down over time. Side note, I think it would be awesome if there was a similar functionality added to VHS tapes, making them a limited commodity and adding more use to the blank tapes themselves. There will be 53 CDs, so maybe we could limit the cassettes to only half of those, 13 audiobooks and 13 music CDs. Perhaps the Valutech Radio could have a built in cassette player, so we could even tape over radio stations and songs we hear on the radio. This way there are different reasons to use either a Walkman or a CD player.
 
Now one thing we don't know yet is how this system will work in terms of acquiring the actual VCR. There is already a CD Player in the game, which will almost definitely have new functionality after this update. However, in the blog video, we see that the Premium Technologies Radio has a CD Player function as well. Since this is supposed to be the high end radio, I would guess that this is built into it and so this radio will act as a 2-in-1. This makes sense for the CD player, since there is already a portable CD player in the game. What about the VCR, though. The same is probably true for the Premium Technologies TV, since we see the VCR specifically in that one as well. However, I think the VCR should also be an external device you can find too. Using a similar system to the interchangeable car parts, but with Electrical instead of Mechanics skill, you should be able to hook up a VCR to any TV.
 
To expand further on all of these concepts, I think there should also be cassette players/CD players for vehicles. Some vehicles could come with them built in, but they would have full functionality for installation and removal just like car radios. This way, you could use your CDs and cassettes on the go, which could be a great time to manage your mood or even gain some skills (assuming some of the audiobooks will be skill books) while you are traveling from one location to another. In real life, we all decompress by listening to the radio while commuting home from work. In PZ, now you'll be able to do the same while coming home from looting runs. This is probably the biggest idea I have, since it's the most likely to come to pass as it takes the least amount of coding and new systems to implement successfully.
 
These are just a few ideas I'm spitballing here, but overall I am super excited just to finally have functional VHS tapes and CDs. This will finally change the unrealistic meta of bingewatching Life & Living in the first few weeks of a playthrough, allowing more opportunities for early-game ops as well as more in-depth RP. Plus, having more ways to pass the idle time and manage your moodles will create more engaging gameplay, and more varied and dynamic stories.

I'm guessing most of the mods/devs don't have time to respond to most of these so I'll help you out with the answers I know bro:
 
1.
- Will be coming eventually, maybe before B41 stable drops.
- Was stated in most recent devblog that sheet and pillow loot from beds could be coming at some point in the future.
- Probably won't ever come in vanilla but there are plenty of mods for pillow/sheet crafting
- Great idea, I'd love to see it with Tailoring. Maybe with rope or wheat/hay when we get the Farming Overhaul.
- The mechanic is already in the game, just not the animations.
- Seems like it would make chairs/beds pointless so I doubt it will ever come.
- You already have to be on a chair/bed to rest or while sitting on the floor.
- Would be a nice feature for realism. Maybe it could slowly lower the weight capacity until it's finally destroyed
- No word on that yet. As of now, there's no gameplay reason to even clean yourself unless you have the Hemophobic trait. Ideally, hygiene needs to be an actual mechanic first.
- Doesn't really make sense based on the lore.
- 3D item models is coming soon. Before B41 stable drops. After that, they will work on containers showing the actual contents as the 3D models themselves. Exciting!
- I've seen it in mods, it might come one day. I've never seen any devs talk about it, but an inventory rework probably is on the table as of right now.
- Could possibly come after Yuri's Fire Overhaul finally drops. Definitely not before. Flame and Pipe bombs are already in the game for this reason.
- Like I said above, Rockstar Mike has been working on 3D item models and they look amazing so far.
- Could be a very fun feature. I like it, and it makes a lot of sense, however it might be annoying if zeds can see you through them as well.
- Would be hard to make it work without changing trees into 3D sprites, which would be a little uncanny. Maybe it could work by changing into tiles. I like the idea otherwise.
- Great idea if the above is added, would make a lot of sense and could create dynamic problems with paths and roads.
- Fun and unique trap idea! Tripping/Falling is already in the game, so it should be very easy.
- Might come, might not. I would lean more towards a yes than no, however.
 
2.
- Would be a good mechanic, but could be difficult to pull off in the engine.
- Another good idea that would make a lot of sense, as throwing mechanics are already in the game. Could use Empty Bottles, Stones, or even Alarm Clocks.
- Throwable bombs already exist, but again things like Bottles could be a good weapon in a desperate moment.
- There are a good amount of traps already in game, both for food and combat. More would always be nice. I would expect this along with B44 or B45 as a Base Defense Overhaul would be important with those updates.
- I've never seen devs talk about this, might just not be useful enough to add.
- Would be nice, but would need a complete control overhaul so unlikely. We aren't supposed to be action hero badasses anyways!
- You can make fires out of Planks or Logs. Would be nice to use leaves as kindling, but I think a trash/leaf fire would burn too quick to make sense at the game's timescale
- Really great concept, I think it's been confirmed before to be coming at some point.
 
3.
- You can already do this with the Pick Up/Place mechanic. Just gotta get quick at it.
- Confirmed coming some point after Rockstar Mike's 3D Items. At least for tables.
- Not sure what this means... Plastic windows or something?
- Would be a really great addition. Most likely coming one day.
- Basements/Cellars are coming someday, as soon as they figure out how to implement it correctly. Hopefully we will get sewers and subways along with it! Would be the best update ever!!
- Will most likely come with Farming Overhaul. Right now, greenhouses are finnicky and strange. Would help a lot
- Could be a good mechanic, but since you need electricity to recharge car batteries, it wouldn't be renewable or sustainable. I would probably guess this isn't coming.
- Yes, this would be an awesome mechanic. Maybe we could even add an extra mattress, pillows, and sheets to a Good Quality Bed to make it Great Quality.
- Will come one day, but a long time from now. Close to 1.0 if not a 1.0+ feature. Plumbing needs to be it's own skill, and Electrical needs more uses at High Levels.
- Probably wouldn't work with the 2D sprites they currently use. I think it would be annoying also.

The issue currently, is that probably only 20% of the playerbase is surviving until the "late game." The other 80% are dying in the "early game" or winter at latest. It is more important to fill the early and mid game with content atm, since that is most people's experience with the game. Early game and Day 1 are also player's first impression so that is a huge priority. The devs are caught in a place where they have to make the late game more full by creating systems that carry from the early game onward, and can be expanded infinitely  with a branching progression tree. This way, they can create a lot of content for the casual majority, but also create fulfilling systems and mechanics for hardcore fans. They've laid the groundwork for a lot of these, but haven't made a lot of them as complex as they could be. This is currently the PZ meta as of current IWBUMS:
 
Day One) Trying to find weapons and food, looking for a bag. Clearing out campsites. Moving furniture. Watching lots of TV.
Early Game) Decent loadout and good gear. Semi-permanent base with relatively good security. Scouting out buildings for better base. One vehicle, probably crap. Reading Beginner Skill Books. Disassembling things. Crafting basic items. Scaving food from urban areas. Preparing for winter.
Mid Game) Most likely decked out survivor survived through the winter with relative ease. Permanent base with good defenses. One good vehicle, and a few part/fixer-upper cars. Might have a generator. Working on chosen skills. Basic farming, foraging, and fishing. Rarely needs to go on food runs. Securing huge area for future base expansion.
Late Game) Best gear in the game. High level combat/agility/fitness/strength skills. Building your own base either completely from the ground up, or walling off cleared out prefab areas. High level security and almost no chance for hordes to get you. Multiple good vehicles, generators, and lots of fuel. Maxed out in chosen skills. Self-sufficient/surplus farm with a few traps and no need to scav food. No real incentive to leave your safe haven or do anything further other than watch the days rack up.
End Game) ???
 
Imo, the game is really fun, but there is no real purpose to your playthrough other than RP. There isn't a goal other than indefinite security. The interesting thing about this game, and the pull for me, is that the actual goal is death. It's the only game in the world where you are meant to DIE. That's the only way to end the game. The fun for the player comes from trying to die in the most prolonged, epic, badass, awesome way they can. Will you die on Day 2, cowering in your shack with a spoon in your hand as one zombie takes you out? Or will you die in the mall, blasting hundreds of undead with a shotgun knowing you've done everything else you can. That's the appeal to most of us, I think. This doesn't, however, exclude the game from having an end-game. We just need to get creative. The end-game of Project Zomboid should be to essentially confirm the extinction of humanity. To ensure that, no matter what you do in this game, everyone and everything will die. The goal of the game should be to fight against death for just long enough to strengthen the last bastion of humanity, and watch it get wiped out. Maybe you can survive from there, but you would be alone. The last human hoping for just a few more days or years. The current update schedule seems to aim at furthering the game in this direction. Build 42 will bring in animals. Hopefully this means companion dogs, livestock farming, hunting game, and even feral animal enemies. This update alone would add so much variety to the game that it would extend playthrough lifespans by a lot. These features will definitely fill in more of the tailoring, farming, combat, base building, and survivalist aspects too. Mostly, this will just be adding more fun content and laying the groundwork for more advanced AI, without really addressing the late game problem. B43-45 will supposedly bring NPC survivors back with quests, stories, events, groups, and factions. This is the real meat and potatos of this topic. Suddenly, you have stories and events to diversify gameplay. You have your group to help you survive and develop relationships with. You have raiders and feral animals to attack your base. They could have different strategies than zeds so you would need to prepare for all different kinds of defensive situations. Ally and enemy factions could even give you a reason to build different bases. To secure certain resources or buildings, or to have a more strategic position against an enemy or trade partner. If quests are done right, they would be the perfect middle ground between the bigbrain goals you set, and the micromanagement survival stuff you do on a regular basis. Quests could be little things like making 10 spiked bats or collecting 50 logs or finding a 6 pack of root beer for someone. Small things like this would give players a break from the day to day monotony and the intimidating lofty goals they set for each playthrough. This would essentially pose the game as so:
 
Day One) Trying to find weapons and food, looking for a bag. Clearing out campsites. Moving furniture. Watching lots of TV. Maybe finding an animal or human friend if they're around.
Early Game) Decent loadout and good gear. Semi-permanent base with relatively good security. Scouting out buildings for other survivors. Building up a small, tight-knit group. A decent mount or one crap vehicle. Scaving food from urban areas or hunting and foraging from rural areas. Maybe working on some skills and crafting. Preparing for winter.
Mid Game) Good survivor loadout and gear, decent group loadout and gear. Difficulty finding enough for for everyone through winter. Permanent base with good defenses. One good vehicle and/or mount. Maybe a few part/fixer-upper cars or some pack animals. Might have a generator. Reading beginner books, disassembling things, and basic crafting. Basic farming, foraging, and fishing. Regular food and supply runs to keep up with higher demand from bigger group. Securing huge area for future base expansion. Might have a specialist in group. Defending from zombies and raiders as more people means more noise.
Late Game) Decked out PC. Probably a few decked out NPCs and some lame redshirts too. Several specialists in group (doctor, mechanic, soldier). High level combat/agility/fitness/strength skills. Building your own base either completely from the ground up, or walling off cleared out prefab areas. High level security and almost no chance for hordes to get you. However, strong raiders and enemy factions provide a way larger threat. Multiple good vehicles, generators, and lots of fuel. Multiple good mounts and pack animals. Working on chosen skills. Good food industry from farming/fishing/trapping/hunting, but still need occasional supply runs. NPCs automate a lot of monotonous work. PCs can focus on bigger picture goals and special ops. Bitten NPCs can turn and kill everyone in group if not careful, so no one is ever safe.
End Game) PC has best items in game. Lots of high level, decked out NPCs in group. Network of outposts and bases all under one faction. Multiple vehicles, mounts, and pack animals all supporting trade and travel between settlements. Massive walls and traps and defenses protecting humans from zombies and animals. Opposing factions diminished in strength as to no longer pose a threat. Maxed out in all chosen skills. Massive network of industry and agriculture completely handsoff for players. Self-sufficient society means no need for scavenging. Only threat is a group member getting infected and spreading the disease, but this will not be a restart if there are multiple base locations. No real point to continue on other than to push civilization to its absolute limits.
 
At this point, we have extended and expanded the game a lot. Although, we still have the issue of no real conclusion point. No moment you can say, "I WON!" My dream "win condition" that fits the lore and themes of Zomboid is this: The Megahorde. The Megahorde will be the ace up the sleeve of the Sadistic AI Director. If you managed to survive all the hordes, surprise bathroom zombies, feral animals, raiders, faction wars, internal infections, the winter, and all the other survival threats; you would be granted one final challenge. This event could not occur until some threshold like population, faction dominance, time limit, or some combination of the 3. Essentially, once you hit that point it would just be up to RNGesus. It might be the next day, it might be a whole year, but it will come. The Megahorde would be a wave spawning horde of zombies that would keep coming until you were dead. Think Last Stand Mode built into Survival. You could probably get yourself to total safety with some cheeky ingenuity, but there's just no way to save everyone. You would have to watch as everything you've built and everyone you know would be destroyed. No point in adding special infected when you can literally have zombies decked out in the awesome gear you gave them. At this point, you would essentially have a New Game+ where veteran players would see how long they can survive in the Megahorde. It might even develop a cool meta of building up your settlements strategically so you can survive longer after the Megahorde. Eventually, the waves will become super intense meaning there would be a hard cap on how long you could push it. This would essentially be the Ender Dragon of Project Zomboid. The place everyone wants to get to, and then start a new game after.

I reckon a really good "endgame" would be like the final mission in Halo Reach. An unbeatable ending, spawning waves of Zombies that are stronger than the last.
 
It would be like CoD Zombies. The zombies always know where you are and eventually you die because the enemies keep getting stronger with each wave.
 
But in the style of Project Zomboid and Tower Defence.

Perhaps a little out of the vein of this post in particular, and what I have to say may have been brought up, but I give myself certain tasks to try to set some goals. Like, collect all the mankins in the map, then dressing them up like the village people. Oh, and one as Spiffo, too. Seems the mascot outfit's spawn rate has been nerfed, and trying to find a full intact outfit can be a challenge in it's own right. 
 
Collect all arcade machines. Build a gameroom with a bar and pool table. Silly, inane things like that. Might not be your vibe, but I find it can extend the playtime on an older character.
 
Given time, I have full confidence the dev's will add more spice to the end game stew. Hell, the animal build will add plenty, I'm sure. Not to mention when NPCs finally get pushed.

For me, and I would assume for many people, the fun of the game comes from the risk and terror of the fight and flight to survive. That's why late game, if you survive that far, starts to become a bit stale. It all becomes a little too safe and you have the option to just play it as a base building/farming game. No real challenge.
 
So my solution is to make the game much harder so that surviving to late game is quite unlikely, and while you are alive, there's more challenge, more fear, and more problems. Putting zombie type onto random so you never know if the zombie near you is shambler, fast shambler, or sprinter is one way to keep things exciting. And then play with house alarms and car alarms on thus making even zombies not attracted to you sources of second degree danger. If you're especially masochistic, play with the helicopter event as Sometimes. Since there isn't really a robust event system (like in Rimworld), this will absolutely remove any complacency which increases fun and interest.

Imo, the game is really fun, but there isn't a goal other than indefinite security. The interesting thing about this game, and the pull for me, is that the actual goal is death. It's the only game in the world where you are meant to DIE. That's the only way to end the game. The fun for the player comes from trying to die in the most prolonged, epic, badass, awesome way they can. 
Its a pity that we have to be under employee monitoring software so I cant play so often now
 
 

I liked the idea of wandering traders a lot. Late game should not only be about zombie populations but also about survivors forming bigger and better groups. Dynamic content in the form of quests you give to or receive from survivors. Maybe even a community establishing itself and dealing with hordes, the breaking down of technology and the scarcity of certain items such as ammo and medicine.
 
Having options to improve player structures, player vehicles, clothes, better food storage etc. would also provide a lot of late game fun for me.

For me, one of the biggest issues with the endgame is how predictable the zombie population is. I know that the game starts with few zombies, then it increases every day until time x and then they will respawn every y hours if you clear them out. There is never a moment where you are surprised, because you know for a fact that every town area will be sprawling with zombies. Have to go back to town? You know what's going to wait for you.
 
IMO we need a better mechanic to move the population around. Let town areas be empty for a while, or have them be completely flooded with bodies. Shake up the endgame with things that aren't super predictable.
 
Another thing - Take a look at "Save Our Station", which is currently the jazz on the workshop. It's giving the player something to do at random. It's a fantastic example for simple late-game content which doesn't require the whole game to be changed. The game needs more things like this which don't revolve around me grinding skills or items.
 
tl;r - what this game needs isn't necessarily NPCs and stuff like that, but more emergent gameplay without adding to the tediousness.

Guess the virus produse alot off glycol and/or somthing simular and thats whay they dont frees and not rott or get eaten by insects.

Some kind of chemical "antifreeze" does make the most sense. They must be immune to insects or they would be skeletonized in no time.
 

The freezing issue interests me too. In the TWD zombies have been shown mobile in cold weather, in the Romero movies the subject is never addressed. IRL if zombies are immobilized by freezing it would be a Godsend, they could be exterminated safely once winter sets in. Maybe they should freeze, or maybe their tissues are protected, at least to a certain point.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Putting myself in the place of the cast of the Dawn of the Dead remake, I would have not destroyed the zombie baby, or the badly maimed zombie in the fountain when they first entered the mall. I would have thrown blankets over it, restrained it in some way as a test subject. I would then have placed it in a freezer, to see what the cold did. The same applies to any zombie movie or show, whenever there is access to a freezer and there is a zombie damaged enough to be "Captured"  Another issue, does the head have to be completely severed, or is it enough to just sever the spine? I suspect the latter, and it would make things MUCH simpler. Severing a spine is much easier than complete decapitation. Another reason to capture a damaged zombie.

To me, it seems the PZ zombies, which are modeled off romero/twd canon, essentially do not decompose/break down via biological means. Being truly undead, whatever it is that allows this to happen makes them more or less impervious to other living organisms including bacteria, mold, insects, etc until the brain is destroyed and the body returns to a state of being dead. This allows biological processes to take over again and decomposition. This distance from biological mechanisms also explains why they don't necessarily need to feed to create energy to do things like move, make sounds, etc. 
 
Which means the only thing that should affect zombies are mechanical/chemical in nature. They can be physically damaged and destroyed. They can catch on fire and burn. They can be dissolved by acid, etc. This line of reasoning has always made me wonder about freezing temperatures. Given that zombies don't feel pain, the cold wouldn't affect them like a normal human, however since their bodies are also not producing any heat (again they don't need to eat for energy) then exposure to freezing temperatures should slow them down to the point they freeze, given enough time. If the temperatures are below freezing for several days, zombies should freeze and be unable to move, at least following this line of reasoning consistently.
 
The question is how long does this take? and does freezing destroy the brain? and should this be implemented in PZ, perhaps as a sandbox setting?

I have some idea's about the Zombie condition. For one thing I don't think that they ARE decomposing. If we look at the passage of years in TWD, they would have lost the ability to move and fallen apart years ago if they were decomposing anything like a normal human body. I think that the zombification makes their tissues so toxic that even bacteria cannot live in them, preventing normal decay. They degrade in capabilities because they desiccate, and they accumulate mechanical damage, but they are not rotting. Unlike in the World War Z book, I speculate that they DO have some limited healing and tissue repair occurring, or else they would have been rendered immobile long ago. Perhaps being able to actually feed increases this.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          I speculate that animals, including insects, can sense how incredibly toxic their tissues are, and will not touch them. Remember, any animal attack involves taking their flesh into the mouth by biting. How do you think THAT will end? I back this up by the fact that there are no swarms of flies and other bugs around "Living" zombies. If flies could lay eggs on a zombie, and the maggots feed on it, the zombie would be skeletonized in a matter of days. After they are destroyed, sure, but not when they are functional. That tells me that when their brain is destroyed, and zombification ended, their tissues lose the toxicity and normal decay can begin. Even in the game, "Dead" zombies attract flies, "Living" ones do not. There is no hint of bugs in TWD universe, and the characters NEVER complain about smell, or are alerted to the presence of zombies by smell, which would be overwhelming, and give their location away long before they are visible.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   A zombie that was swarming with insects and smelled like a rotting corpse could not possibly take a human by surprise or get anywhere near them without giving itself away LONG before getting close. A rotting zombie couldn't be in the same building as a human without it being painfully obvious. Yet in TWD there is no sign that they have any odor at all. I know when the humans cut one open for guts they have a dramatic reaction to the smell. But that is a different matter. The inside of a living human smells intensely if opened. All the more proof that "living" zombies have no smell.