[Automation: Basic ability to connect buildings for added functionality]

Yeah-- though I think the "in-world sound" system needs an overhaul. It's often not clear how "loud" something is in-world, as the volume for different sounds can be different coming out of the speakers-- cars used to sound ridiculously loud, but didn't seem quite so loud in-game.

 

Likewise, speech doesn't make any sound to the player, but creates some kind of in-world sound. I'm not quite sure how to convey all of that stuff effectively to the player and keep the in-world stuff sensible.

 

Ahh, perhaps the characters could audibly speak "Zimlish"-- y'know, the jibberish the Sims speak, but a new version-- and then have text over their heads.

 

Anyway, yeah, garage doors are super-noisy and, especially at the time, were really slow.

[Pouring gasoline into non GAS CAN things!]

7 hours ago, Papa Juliet Whiskey said:

What's wrong with a little napalm?

 

Nothing wrong with a little napalm, per se-- but don't expect to carry your gasoline very far in a styrofoam container.

[Close-quarters engagement with zombies + pistols: broken?]

Exactly this. It's especially odd because if I start the character with the Hunter trait and/or as a cop, they get 5 or 6 Aiming to start-- and that feels like "normal", but they're still vulnerable at close range with the pistol.

[Up-Armored/Armed vehicles]

While it would likely be game-breaking to have an invulnerable vehicle you could rampage with, there is absolutely a sensible path to up-armoring a car.

 

I used to play the tabletop game Car Wars which dealt, in less detail actually, with vehicular combat, but a significant portion of that is adding armor (and weapons) to a vehicle. Given how the current vehicle UI is so detailed, with all of its parts-- except it appears that quarter-panels don't exist, nor do bumpers or a front grill-- it would be logical to add new vehicle slots for welded attachments. The slots could be used for armor of various types (even cloth would prevent your being seen inside a car, while limiting your view, of course).

 

The trade-off (just as it is in Car Wars) would be weight-- good armor is quite heavy and would affect every aspect of vehicle handling.

 

As for weapons, it's also not that out of the question to either mount certain kinds of weapons (e.g., a flamethrower) to a vehicle, or to provide for the ability of the character to fire their handheld weapons both from stationary and moving vehicles in any direction, if the vehicle configuration allows (e.g., I remove all the glass and replace it with metal that has firing slots in it).

 

I'm not so hot on the mounted weapons thing, but it seems logical that someone would/could do that in the "real-world" situation. The armoring is much more sensible, particularly on the front of the vehicle.

 

You all have done such a great job with the vehicles-- I'd love to see that extended further.

[Automation: Basic ability to connect buildings for added functionality]

I'm absolutely not proposing an automation system anything like Minecraft's redstone or Factorio's circuitry stuff, but it would make sense to be able to do some basic things-- for example, to make doors (garage, etc.) and gates able to be connected to a remote, or to arm/disarm particular traps and defenses.

 

I've found that using garage doors becomes busy work if you're going in and out frequently. It's absolutely plausible that someone would have remote-operated garage doors or gates, especially in neighborhoods where people are fancy enough to have gates in the first place.

[More Long Blade weapons (lawnmower blade and paper cutter)]

The paper-cutter blade is ready-made for this.

 

My only thought about the lawnmower blade is that, typically, it's a blade at both ends, so it might be dicey to handle, even if wrapped. Perhaps add some metal-working to it, but yeah, I like the idea.

[Close-quarters engagement with zombies + pistols: broken?]

I couldn't find a prior thread on this, but this is something that feels supes broken.

 

In short, your character is super-useless at very-close range when holding a pistol-- they both miss shots impossibly (point-blank), and can't shove worth a damn.

 

Currently, the shove animation is a wide-armed sweep holding the pistol , but it takes so long that by the time you're reset, you're having to shove them again. It really is basically a frustrating stunlock. Sure, that would happen in real life-- but nobody would try to do a slow, sweeping pistol whip either.

 

What makes more sense would be that the shove animation be akin to the animation when you are empty-handed, and/or you can perform pistol executions at close range, regardless of skill.

 

Characters without Aiming skill seem to be very underpowered with just the basics of using a firearm-- I can understand accuracy fall-off, but there are shots that should be easy to make by anyone and-- maybe you don't know this-- but every American, particularly in Kentucky, and particularly in the 90's, is born with an innate ability to handle a gun somewhat.

 

A quicker shove makes pistols much more viable as survival instruments for non-combat characters. Right now, they can't hit anything at range with a pistol (makes sense), but they also can't do anything at super-close range.

[Pouring gasoline into non GAS CAN things!]

Pro tip: never put gasoline into styrofoam.

[Another suggestion for the Steam Store page..]

I had suggested previously that the state of the Steam Store page would leave the casual visitor with the idea that PZ was a VERY long-dead game, and I'm glad to see someone there realized it, too, and it's been freshened up (I was glad to read it in an update)!

 

My added suggestion is this: when you release any update (including the most-recent), put the DATE (Month/Year) on the main graphic that people will definitely see (like the banner to the right). My thought is that people might land on the page, see that "the game was released in 2013!" and "nope-thank-you" their way out of there, even though the page store is up-to-date. As it is now, it might require the visitor to do a bit more sleuthing than they're going to bother with to scroll down and see that, indeed, they would be buying a 2021 game, not a 2013 game. If you visit the store in Incognito mode or just not logged in, you'll see what the n00b sees. The trailer begins playing (no sound, obviously), and the only date on that is in 1993. NOTHING above the fold for the n00b reflects the state of development. The trailer is super-cool, but it could just as easily be a (really good) trailer from 2013.

 

I do like the trailer, and the old copywriter in me had a thought: add another "This is how I died" verse, and then the tag at the end.... "THIS HOW YOU'LL DIE" or "FIND OUT HOW YOU['LL] DIE[D]".

It looks like I can't attach a screenshot of the Store page for easy reference, or I would. Essentially, you need to scroll down to Recent Events and Announcements before you see a date that's not 2013 or earlier.

[Progressively stronger characters spawned into the same Sandbox...]

As it is now, if you start a new world, you've got a fresh new character, starting from scratch. You work real hard and spend many days building up that character's skills (and gear), building a base, leveling carpentry. You're at Level 7 carpentry now, and you're 45 days in.

 

Annnn' ya bit.

 

So, this character dies, and we spawn a new character into the same Sandbox.  They start, timeline wise, after the first character died-- makes sense-- but their skills are default. That is, they only get the same chance for character points that the first character got, but, lore-wise, it is implied that this character has survived the apocalypse so far-- technically, outlived the first character (and, well, all the other characters). So, why don't they have any skills?

 

My thought is that when you spawn a new character, depending upon how far into the timeline you are, you're given extra character points. In addition, you're given a bunch of skill levels that make sense for your character type, how long it's been in the sandbox, and some of the difficulty settings (if it's a easy setup, you don't want an OP character).

 

I think it would make death less-frustrating, give more reason for people to persist a single game/sandbox and continue building plans, but still allow pretty dangerous minute-to-minute gameplay without having death cost the most time-consuming, grindiest part of the game.

[Visibly broken doors]

On 2/11/2021 at 10:47 AM, Athens222 said:

It would be cool if you could visually tell when a door is being broken,

 

I think I get what you're saying beyond this, but they did add the doors noticeably shaking when someone's banging on it.

 

On 2/11/2021 at 11:58 AM, Masmassu said:

Then we shud be able to repare is to. 

 

You can re-make a door, but yeah, you can't do anything about a door that's been damaged except destroy and replace.

[Moodles Recalibration / Re-Draw]

I've noticed in my playing that as soon as a moodle appears, I want to "relieve it". I was trying to figure out why having them there bothered me so much, and I realized: it's the color!

 

Currently, the moodles are using shades of red, which are largely indistinguishable, especially at the periphery of my vision. I wind up feeling like I have to take care of the moodle.

 

Proposal:

 

Just recalibrating the color. So, instead of starting with any shade of red, start with a pale yellow-green, then yellow, the the deepening reds as it becomes important to pay attention to.

 

This way, the first appearance of, say, the "thirst" moodle is really just saying that you actually can drink if you want too-- your thirst is no longer slaked-- but it's not a big deal.

 

The other half of this proposal is that for the moodles that have a face on them, draw a different face for each state, reflective of its severity/intensity. Right now, the moodle with both color and face for pain is nearly indistinguishable for me between minor pain and agony. (At least if I'm not seeing another moodle to color colors to).

 

I imagine this is something you're aware of already, but I kind of hope it isn't, so my suggestion is useful.

[DEVS: Please push update notes to Steam! As it is now, on Steam, it looks like the "devs abandoned the game in June of 2019"!]

1 hour ago, nasKo said:

We used to, and the feedback we received from doing so led to us not doing so anymore.  

 

We will keep it limited to maybe monthly reports like last time, along with patchnotes pushed.

I don't remember when that would've been-- but this game has been in the works for a long time, so it could be that things have changed a bit (both with Steam, and with player culture). After all, I don't feel like any dev "can" spam me, unless I'm actually looking at their game's page in my Library.

[DEVS: Please push update notes to Steam! As it is now, on Steam, it looks like the "devs abandoned the game in June of 2019"!]

I noticed that last update shown on Steam is from June of 2019-- that is, update notes. If I were a prospective buyer, and I saw that the devs were doing regular updates, but then stopped a year-and-a-half ago, I think I'd conclude that the game was dead/abandoned as opposed to freaking awesome and alive!

[In-Game Unique Item to Help with Dev Debugging]

I see a lot of posts in this forum that are referencing specific places on the map, which is obviously enormous. Finding it by searching for "House in Muldraugh" or "Fire Station" is probably pretty tough. I can't imagine how much time would be spent (if it's bothered with at all), to track all these things down.

 

Here's what I propose. Create a mod-- an official mod-- that adds a device to the player's inventory (0 weight). When the player encounters an issue like this, they can right click the item, which will pause the game, take a screenshot, give them a text box to fill in any details, and then it will drop a player-visible marker on the floor (so the player doesn't report it again in the future). Then, it sends the player's note, along with the exact coordinates, directly to the devs.

 

Possible expansions:

1) When a player makes a report, it is broadcast to everyone else with the mod, so the other players see that something has already been reported, along with what was in the note. This will cut down on duplicate reports, but not prevent subsequent players from doing another report if they want to add more information.

 

2) Bind it to a key, and actually capture the local gamestate, if the report isn't simply a map/tile issue, but might actually be an unexpected behavior. Heck, bind it to a key, anyway.

 

3) Bounties or something.

 

Why I suggest this is that I've seen a few games implement a similar tool (Subnautica comes to mind)-- you can just hit a key and report a big, in situ (with a screenshot). I also used to run the tech side of a bio-medical device startup, and our user feedback was filtered through 9 layers of people who were bad at communicating, and rarely made it back to me (acting product manager). I added a "Feedback" link, tiny, in the top right corner, of every single page of our product's internal website-- anyone clicking that link could write whatever they wanted, and it was emailed directly to me. They didn't have to remember it for later or worry about whether it would get to the right person.

 

I think something like this would help you immmmmmmensely.

[Recent store counters bug]

On 1/21/2021 at 10:30 PM, KouhaiSan said:

Store counters in some shops, in both official and custom maps stopped working. You can walk to them, open the inventory, but they dont appear to be usable, you cant click on them either.

 

https://map.projectzomboid.com/#0.5452936920217037,0.2943764042593244,411.36488720959557  this is the example of a shop with broken counters

Yeah, this is expected behavior. They're just counters with no storage space. The empty inventory there is the floor.

[Wrong item in police station (Riverside)]

20 hours ago, STAHP said:

Why are broccoli seeds at the police station?

Are you sure it's really broccoli, man? Or does it just say broccoli, if you know what I mean?

 

I also like that the Russian word for broccoli is just broccoli.

[Tabletop Soda Machine in odd position]

On 1/19/2021 at 8:52 AM, Sedgwick said:

The Tabletop Soda Machine in the diner at around map coordinates 5422x5922 (West of the Riverside factory) is doing one of those neat gravity balancing tricks on the counter instead of being aligned.

I think it was just placed facing the wrong way.  Those counters are about 1/2 width, and the soda fountain is also about 1/2 width. So, you get that magic!

[Raven Creek]

On 1/25/2021 at 5:14 AM, Samuraii said:

How do I download a map so that I can know what is where?

Look in the workshop description-- there is a HUGE bitmap image of the entire city (similar to what is on the online map)-- except nothing is marked, so if you can't figure out what it is by zooming, go check it out.

[Raven Creek]

On 1/24/2021 at 6:20 AM, DavidBlane said:

Thanks for your feedback. It is very pleasant to read that people like the map, especially when they write such a detailed review. This map uses the work of many people from the forum who wanted to bring something of their own to the PZ, I tried to combine it all in one city, perhaps that's why it seems that the original map (which was created by only a few, if not even one person) looks more simple. As for hard spawning, it was initially safer, but I was asked to add more spawn, and make it more appropriate according to the chosen profession. It seems to me that it has become more difficult, but also more interesting.

I think it works out pretty well. There is one spawn that is basically pointless, though-- that's for a cop, and spawning near the downtown police station. It's not the station in the NE of the city, and not the one with the huge parking lot, near The Drake. Because the character may spawn with equipment for the profession (per a mod), or even just the baseball bat in a backpack, they are going to be dead in seconds, because they are unarmed and surrounded.

 

The other thing I discovered is that there's really no way in or out of the town with a vehicle (vehicle wrecks have gummed up the gate), unless you spawn in the truck stop. I've turned it into a mission to get a trailer from the outside of the gate to my safehouse.. tremendous fun!

 

Editing to add: the police station I mentioned is kind of in the center of town, East of the river. The spawn is between two black wrought iron fences-- you're pretty much instantly doomed there. I didn't realize it, but there is an additional "doomed" spawn for a cop. I'm not sure where it is, but you begin on a corner-- I assume outside a police station that I can't identify-- there's like a small plaza area with a planter in the middle. If you start there, you'll be dead pretty quickly.

[VCR's and Tapes]

On 1/24/2021 at 12:57 AM, Masmassu said:

And maybe we can link it to oure MP3 list or spotifire to to play good music in game?

There are mods that do this-- I'm not even sure which is which.

The one I'm enjoying currently is a mod for the CD player, where if you insert a battery, and have earbuds equipped, and have found lootable CDs throughout the world, you can listen to music on-the-go. The music is real music appropriate for the time period (shhhh). It's given me a new, serious objective when I go looting-- find good CDs. I think they intentionally put in some crap ones.

 

Also, the music helps with boredom and unhappiness.

 

I know one of the other mods allows you to put your own music in for radios (maybe TVs?), but I'm not sure which one it is (I have like 70 going), or where to put the music.

 

It adds a huuuuuge dimension to the immersion.

[Crowbar / Forcing windows and doors open]

This is what is in that mod. They could incorporate it-- the one difference from what you describe is that there is only one kind of lockpick, which you can make from paperclips. For me, this is sufficient.

 

I TAKE THAT BACK!

Check out "Better Lockpicking" in the Workshop. It appears to be waaaaay more deep in lockpicking and hotwiring.

 

I've now used it for a few days, and it's pretty great. There's a Lockpicking skill, and picking locks uses the familiar Skyrim/Fallout(?) minigame to pick a lock. I'm not sure if it works 100%, though.

 

Crowbarring something open has a timing mini-game. It livens things up a bit, and will definitely keep you distracted while a zombie comes up behind you and bites your neck.

[Move cars by hand]

On 1/24/2021 at 3:31 AM, Fuzzy Wolfy said:

Honestly, I'm unsure what method would be best to implement the function, since Player and Vehicle movements function very differently.

 

That said, I think this is an excellent idea and I'd love to see an attempt made for it. Whether pushing cars by hand or, as @Masmassusuggested, towing them with other vehicles, it'd make for a really neat extra bit of depth in the world where you can clear roads to create shortcuts or to make high-traffic areas safer.

 

Even in the early game, I can't tell you how many times I stumble upon a vehicle that I really like or that looks mostly functional, but I have to leave it behind or out in the open... It's a real shame, and I always wish in those times that I could just haul it back to my safehouse or into a nearby garage to work on it rather than out in the middle of an open street.

 

If it wasn't clear, this is already in the Autotsar towing mod. You can tow with a rope, or a towing bar, attach a wide variety of trailers, and push a vehicle by hand-- and I've since tried the vehicle pushing, and it is definitely not OP-- in fact, it is as frustrating as in real life-- and I just now realized that may be because I didn't turn off the parking brake.

 

I have a situation now where I have a trailer that is completely full of stuff that I've wanted to keep, but I reached the entry gate at Raven Creek (mod map), which is basically impassible, so I've now churned several characters attempting to get that trailer back to my safehouse, inside the town.

[VCR's and Tapes]

On 11/18/2020 at 4:17 PM, TrailerParkThor said:

This would make for a pretty perfect feature however, my one complaint is it makes TV channels obsolete

 

Not entirely, as early game, when those shows might actually run, you possibly haven't found that many of the tapes. I think it's only slightly overpowered.. my VHS collection is huuuge.

[Wrong water units in bottles.]

I think this is because objects only have weight in the game-- there's nothing about bulk or size.

 

The difference in weight may be intended to convey that the bourbon bottle, being smaller and rounder, is easier to store than a wine bottle. Yeah.. it doesn't make a ton of sense, but use it to your advantage.