glenmack

When NPC's make their return, I'm imagining there would need to be quite a few in the early days of the game so that a few months in there are at least a few left given the high expected mortality rate.

Personally I found the game much more enjoyable when they were taken out and while I am awed at what I've read about the meta game and potential for interactions, I hope I'm not overwhelmed with NPC's because the lonely atmosphere of the game as it stands is one of its best features IMO.

My question, how many survivors do you think should be in the beginning of an unmodified Survival game?
 
Edit: If you want an idea on how NPC's are planned to be implemented, and you do, because it's cool as hell, you need to read Tales from the Metaverse, I have and I keep re-reading it because I'm sure I've read it wrong, but every time I come to the conclusion that it will be insane.

Hello everyone,

No Dragons this time... Damn, they'll never let me dev the Dragons....
 

Please note there's a bug with the Mac version where some people's game world may appear as a big jumbled mess. This should be fixed within the next 24 hours.
 
[PERFORMANCE]
Big improvements to multithreaded rendering performance. [bUGFIX]
Fixed a bug in the thunder : The system roll a dice each day, and you have 1/20 chance of having a "thunder day", though a bug made every day is a thunder day ! So yeah, I know some of you loves thunder, but you'll have much less of them now.. Fixed some farming bugs (mainly plant disapear though you could still water them etc. Thanks Twiggy for the saved game ! ). If you have an item equipped in both hands (e.g. baseball bat) and unequip it, the BOTH hands will now be unequipped. Light switches and lamps should Just Work ™ now. Whether a light switch is on or off is now saved (which required the world version to be bumped). Plus, turning a lamp on or off in a room will no longer turn all the room's lights on/off. Light switches have a higher priority than other objects so they're easier to click on (I figure that's ok since they're so tiny, they won't block you clicking on important stuff usually). Also street lights don't mysteriously shut off after you leave an area or reload your game. And Mash has been busy adding missing switches and lamps to the map. Fixed not being able to click the scrollbar in the options screen when scrolled down. Fixed the Reload difficulty combobox getting repositioned after clicking (it's position was getting restricted to the screen size even though it is in a scrolling parent widget). Made a few attempts to fix weapon-related bugs. The timed action queue would sometimes get broken when firing/reloading while other actions were in progress. Fixed hovering the mouse over the moodles at non-100% zoom. Fixed multiple attacks per attack animation while holding down the left mouse button. This doesn't fix the pistol shooting too quickly, it has a very short attack animation. Fixed the shotgun sprite not rendering while aiming it. Fixed the mousewheel not working in the character-creation screens. The main options screen was getting the mousewheel events even though it was hidden. Fixed the traits list in character creation not scrolling properly after removing traits from it. Fixed dragging tabs out of the character info window. Now when you drag a tab out to a separate window, that window will be toggled by the hotkey. So if you drag the health tab out, 'h' will hide/show just that window. Ditto for the skills and traits tabs. Squares along chunk boundaries were all marked as blocked in the NE or SW directions. Tracked this down after I saw some weird lighting on the ground near a streetlight. Probably affected pathfinding too. Light switches were using 30 days as the electricity cuttoff date when they should have been using the sandbox option (14 days in survival). Ambient light from outside buildings shines through windows and doors so rooms aren't quite as dark at night. The code for this was already in there but got broken at some point. UIElement no longer creates a double-click if the mouse moved more than 5 pixels in any direction from the initial click. Fire fixes:MIssing sprites. Still some missing smoke sprites due to a naming issue in the pack file. The same fire added twice to the global list of fires. Fire objects not getting removed from the square they were on after they burned out. NullPointerException due to fires getting added where they weren't allowed. Characters that were burning when saving the game weren't given fire sprites or light after loading. When a real zombie was turned into a virtual one the fire sprites and light were not removed from it, so when it got turned into a real zombie later it looked like it was burning. Got the molotov weapon working pretty well. No idea if they can be crafted or not. You can see the molotov flying through the air when thrown (It was using a sprite that didn't exist). After throwing, another molotov will be chosen as the current weapon if the player has one rather than switching to some other weapon. The throw physics needs work. Currently, the closer the target, the lower the throw velocity. Crafting stairs bugs fixed. There was a field not being saved that caused crafted stairs to become blocked when trying to use them. There was also a bigger issue that put new grid squares into the wrong location, so when you went up the stairs there was no floor tile at the top and you ended up floating on z=1. The fix for that might break other stuff though. This : http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/4571-possible-to-refill-a-bowl-of-water-infinitely/ fixed Fixed crafted items in a bag not being transferred to the main inventory before crafting begins. This is the reason your clothes get ripped when you click on an item in one of your bags to make bandages for example. Fixed farming actions causing the player to walk right onto the plant's square instead of stopping next to the square. Fixed the inventory tooltip being invisible after unpausing the game if the mouse was hovering over the inventory window. Also, hide the inventory tooltip when mousing over the Category column, otherwise it obscures the grab/drop buttons and stays stuck on the last item it was over. Fixed right-clicking on windows with containers behind them. Items in equpped bags show 'unpack' instead of 'grab' buttons. There was a save/load bug that broke this. Fixed glitches with clicking/dragging tabs in the character info window. Fixed the inventory/loot windows sometimes getting "stuck" following the mouse. Fixed the -Game Paused- text being off-center. Fixed the player sometimes getting drawn overtop of objects after coming down a staircase. Fixed skill-book reading times. If you increased the game speed while reading, the book would get read much more quickly. Now every page takes 2 game-world minutes to read no matter the game speed. The player now remembers how many pages of each type of book have been read. In the old system, each book recorded the number of pages read in itself only. That was a problem if you started a new character from an old savefile, the new character couldn't read already-read books. Fixed DrainableComboItem rate of depletion. Candles would not be drained at 60 fps. Unequip items (such as candles) when depleted. The item selection is cleared when switching containers in the inventory/loot windows. Fixed inventory item text being drawn more than once when dragging. Fixed not being able to unequip clothes from the primary/secondary slots. Damage from fire to the player wasn't affected by the speed setting. Fixed mysterious burnt wall tiles sometimes appearing where fires had been after sleeping. FIxed mod resources and savegame thumbnails not loading on MacOSX. Food starts cooking when its internal temperature reaches a certain point, not just when the stove it is in is at a certain temperature. A side effect of this is that food will continue to cook for a short time when removed from a stove. The 'Skill points available' display was changed to handle double-digit skill points better. Fixed an exception when placing a farming plot while it was raining. Also fixed sprites from previously-built items showing up when rotating a farming plot with the 'R' key. Fixed Lua timed action update() method not seeing the 100% job delta. Fixed Lua debugger not centering the source window on a breakpoint. Screen resolutions are now sorted by increasing width and height in the options. Fixed o/p keys in Last Stand challenge 2 working in challenge 1. Fixed the on/off state of building alarms not being restored properly.  The game would correctly save whether an alarm was on/off, but would only set it to 'on' when reloading a game.  Because of this and because the on/off state is initially randomized every time a game starts, over time more and more buildings would get alarmed.  When loading an old savefile, the status of alarms will be reset to a reasonable amount.  This should only affect buildings that haven't been explored yet.  You'll see the total number of alarmed buildings printed to the console. Clicking the 'inventory' button will toggle the loot window in sync with the inventory window, in case one was visible and the other was not. Fixed multiple raindrops and rain splashes on single tiles. Fixed randomly seeing through walls.  If you ran right along a wall, you could sometimes see inside the building.  This also seemed to happen when climbing through a window. Fixed animation issue with zombies climbing through windows, they would appear to teleport forward for 1 frame. Fixed the text-entry box drawing text when it's parent was collapsed.  If you use the NecroForge mod you'll know what I mean. [NEW STUFF]
Added mouse-over highlighting to combobox choices. Added 'walk to' timed actions before using a water source, using a stove, or grabbing items off the ground. No more refilling your bottles from across the room. When clicking on a container in the world, that container will be highlighted in the loot window, but only if the container is in the loot window. Previously, some other container (or none) would be highlighted even though the clicked container's contents were in the list. Added a 'layout manager' to remember the size/position/visibility/pinned state of the various game windows. It remembers this at each different resolution. All the info is saved to layout.ini in the user's Zomboid folder whenever the game exits during the new OnPostSave event. Added mouse-over highlighting to combobox choices. Restored the old pulsing read damage indicators in the health panel. Made the character-trait tooltips easier to read in the tabbed character window. You can now build light sources, for now only one : some planks, some nails + a torchlight and here you go, a 4 directions torchlight on a wooden pillar, don't forget to turn it off when you leave your base as it drain energy ! Also don't forget to change the battery some times.. Note : This is fully moddable, you can do light source with everything you want, including fuel you want (or no fuel but just a life, like for candle, but those are planned already ), don't hesitate if you have some question on it ! Campfire context menu now has submenus for "Add Fuel" and "Light" so you can choose exactly which inventory item to use. You already could choose the item for "Add Fuel". When pausing the game, all the in-game windows are hidden so you can't click on them while using the option screen. Less clutter too. A progress bar shows how long until food is cooked, and how long before it is burned after cooking. You need to expand the food item in the inventory window to see the progress bar. When filling dirt/gravel/sand bags from the ground, only 1/4 of the bag is filled each time. Submenus let you choose exactly which bag to use. Also, the player must walk next to the spot when filling a bag. Campfires are a bit nicer. They have an actual animated fire sprite and will set the player/zombies on fire if stepped on. Light cast by the fire goes on/off as it should.  Adding fuel to a campfire increases the amount of time it will burn as well as the light radius.  A new file camping_fuel.lua lists the different fuel types and how much burn-time each is worth. For modder's, nested Lua tables in mod data are now supported:Keys may be either number or string.  Only string was allowed before. Values may be boolean, number, string or table.  Only number and string were allowed before. The game will write all of its console output to a text file ~/Zomboid/pzlog.txt in addition to the console. A new OnResolutionChange event fires when the screen size changes.  This is used to update the layout of the various option screens gracefully.  The option screens are not so small on 1024-pixels-wide or smaller screens. Zombies will (usually) wander away from a window they just climbed through.  This was done to fix the jumping in/out of a window repeatedly, although that still happens sometimes. Any item that can store water will now show a 'Pour on ground' context menu option.  This means that bottles of Mayonnaise, bowls of soup, etc, can be emptied out. Custom maps now supported.  You can create a mod, put one or more custom world maps into the media/maps directory, and they will show up in the map selector screen when creating a new character.  They will only show up for enabled mods.  Savefiles remember which map directory the world came from, so if the mod gets uninstalled or disabled, you won't be able to play that savefile. [bALANCE]
Changed things in the torch lighting, first all light source are a bit stronger (candles, lighter and torch light), plus the torch flicker is now much more realistic. [EASTER EGGS]
Only a real Sir know how to moonwalk... [TRANSLATIONS]
Fixed Turkish translation. [OS X Changes]
OS X now uses Java 7, meaning you'll need OS X 10.7 or later to play. Sorry for the inconvenience, but we needed the OS X package updated to work with recent Java and OS X 10.6 and below uses Java 6. Contact Rathlord if you're using an older OS, he may be able to show you a workaround. Java is now packaged with the game for OS X. Java version on computer is no longer relevant. OS X can now use the Launcher Mod posters now function on OS X Mod sprites now function on OS X

Sandbox will presumably allow you to change the amount of NPC's but this poll is about a survival game, Survival is the basic game, the "quickplay" if you will and is the measurement by which we would all compare our games.

When NPC's make their return, I'm imagining there would need to be quite a few in the early days of the game so that a few months in there are at least a few left given the high expected mortality rate.

Personally I found the game much more enjoyable when they were taken out and while I am awed at what I've read about the meta game and potential for interactions, I hope I'm not overwhelmed with NPC's because the lonely atmosphere of the game as it stands is one of its best features IMO.

My question, how many survivors do you think should be in the beginning of an unmodified Survival game?
 
Edit: If you want an idea on how NPC's are planned to be implemented, and you do, because it's cool as hell, you need to read Tales from the Metaverse, I have and I keep re-reading it because I'm sure I've read it wrong, but every time I come to the conclusion that it will be insane.

I'm calling it the White Office
 
 
Im going to need a ZWAT team ready to mobilize, street-level maps covering all of Kentucky, a pot of coffee, twelve Spiffo cookies and a fez.
 
But seriously... I want a fez.
 
I've been reading what I can about the game development but I've not seen hats? Are they coming? Can someone please mod me a fez for my character if they aren't!

Well, they are cool!

When NPC's make their return, I'm imagining there would need to be quite a few in the early days of the game so that a few months in there are at least a few left given the high expected mortality rate.

Personally I found the game much more enjoyable when they were taken out and while I am awed at what I've read about the meta game and potential for interactions, I hope I'm not overwhelmed with NPC's because the lonely atmosphere of the game as it stands is one of its best features IMO.

My question, how many survivors do you think should be in the beginning of an unmodified Survival game?
 
Edit: If you want an idea on how NPC's are planned to be implemented, and you do, because it's cool as hell, you need to read Tales from the Metaverse, I have and I keep re-reading it because I'm sure I've read it wrong, but every time I come to the conclusion that it will be insane.

So I ran around a bit and died, but I got some good screenies, looks like a really interesting place, will be a hassle to clear of zeds, there were probably about 80-100 in there, well spaced, but if you had a horde or they increase zombie numbers around POI, it could become quite difficult to secure, anyway, the highlights!
 
Main office
 
Rail Bunker
 
There are a few trailers and the odd shed but nothing of specific interest, plus lots of flat clear land for farming, or building, or making a football pitch once the fence is complete! Like Fj45 said, it would take some work to patch up, my only concern would be acquiring wood.

I finally started a game where I made a bee-line straight for the Rail Yard, The first building I went into -
 
 
Do I need to report it or is the area still a WIP?
 
Not just a texture bug as I first thought either, zombie ran straight at me and nearly took me out while I smiled at it from the "safety" of inside the shed.
 
On a happier note, the Rail Yard looks awesome and the 2 story office building with a pre-built roof terrace ready for gardening, has become my 2nd choice go to area for when 2nd floor building bugs are fixed!

I liked this idea and didn't feel the need to comment until "cleaning" the bags came up. A trash bag is only "dirty" if you throw something organic (for lack of a better word; I'm sure you understand what I mean) into it, like old food, a carcass, vomit, etc. that would get some undesirable "goop" all over it. Boxes, papers, and other "unmessy" garbage do little to nothing to soil a trash bag.

I feel the added need to apply bleach to a trash bag is just another arbitrary resource sink and is pretty pointless in the scheme of things. Trashbags should be more commonly found in trash cans; plain and simple.

My forum avatar has a fez now! And a bow tie! And a mop... I kind of want a mop as a weapon in the game now, no damage, just knocks zombies down.

Well, they are cool!

I need one as well.  Then once multi-player is in we can meet fez to fez.
 
Yes... I know.
 
I'll be going now.

I'm calling it the White Office
 
 
Im going to need a ZWAT team ready to mobilize, street-level maps covering all of Kentucky, a pot of coffee, twelve Spiffo cookies and a fez.
 
But seriously... I want a fez.
 
I've been reading what I can about the game development but I've not seen hats? Are they coming? Can someone please mod me a fez for my character if they aren't!

and a bowtie

I would love the ability to take one of the existing barrels in the game and turn them into burn barrels.  We could then start a camp fire with "no chance" of the fire migrating.  We could also burn trash or whatever.
 
Would make an excellent "fire wall" for zed too   I mass of them would get through, but you might be able to catch a few of them on fire.
 
Edit - This means if you left unattended food it would just burn.  No chance for the fire to jump out of the barrel and migrate.  This would ALSO give us the option of cooking food indoors after the power fails.  Might want to open a window or only do this in building with tall ceilings, but it would be possible.

I would like to be able to push a button in the game, which sets the wheels in motion for a true zombie horde.  I usually don't last more than a few weeks because I am not in this for farming.  I want to get get a really good set up and come what may.  An Easy Button in reverse, if you will.  This would allow players who believe they got place just right, the ability to test it.
 
How it Works
The players hits the button and the game asks them "Are you sure?"  You click yes and game would set out a horde of 100 to 200 zed somewhere in the distance.  The wheels have been set in motion and they are now walking toward the players location.  They could get there in a day or a week.  As they move along, the pick up any Zed along the way.  You could be out foraging or just checking on the turnips.  You look up and see the horde.  Maybe you make it home.  Maybe not.  Once home, you then have to set up defending the place.  Maybe you get a zombie engagement ring and they hang outside you place, till death do you part.  Maybe you kill them all.  You could then repair and get you house in order... only to press the button again (this time it could be 1 or 2 hordes).  Rinse, later, and repeat.
 
I have seen some pretty sweet looking fortifications out there.  BUT, do you think they would hold up to a 100+ Zed assault.  200+.  500+!!  Would be something fantastic to see see succeed or fail.

Drawing looks good... forget the fencing for bottlenecks.  Use crates or rain barrels.  The zombies cant jump over them or destroy them, you can shoot over them.  Keep the doors.
 
Here is something else you can do... have a sheet rope opposite, some you can climb up and out.  Put crates to your left and right.  Put a strand of wire after that,  then put a series of windows leading into the area.  Zed loves him some windows   They hop in, get slowed by the wire and move toward the crates that they cannot destroy.  Mr shotgun says "Bang!"  You win.
 
I call this a shooting gallery and I construct one near my fort, between two houses.  I board up the houses and construct what I just described.  Every few days I go inside the galley and fire off a dozen round from my shotgun.  I then read a book and drink my morning coffee.  Zed runs in.  If there are a lot of them, I shoot them.  If there are only a few, I go out using the rope and then out another side with another rope.  I swing around the end of my gallery, let zed know I am patiently waiting, and stove their heads in as they jump through the windows.
 
This method will have to change when the devs make it so barrels and crates can be destroyed.  As it stand now, they are better than fences.

So I took a little time out from my safehouse construction to read the Mondoid and I'm super happy to see the guys are working on fixing the 2nd floor building and stairs bugs, good luck to Chris on dealing with that "really big mess" direct quote from RJ!
 
In the meantime, i'm working on ideas, interiors and getting my carpentry up to lvl4 for those all important rain barrels.
 
This all in aid of my plan for a new fort nicknamed "Skybridge"!
 
 
The plan is to have the warehouses linked by a bridge, with 2 entrances to each building and effectively making each one an independant safe house with it's own garden/water/food. The emergency exit at the back of the south (left) building has been converted into a staircase, and the shack on the roof will eventually become my main residence, provided I can get up the stairs once the bugs are fixed!
 
What plans do you guys have for forts, engineering works and crazy builds when we can once again reach for the skies?