Seeing how people offered other implies in the topic of Winter, I thought for a while and decided to take a deep breath of every formal word I know and every proper management sentence allowed to form this topic.
It may repeat ideas of others, being mentioned to bring the aspects of several suggestions together, brought up before on the forums by razab, Maris, Nebula, orikamii, CaptKaspar, Strats, Ohbal, SomeRandomGuy and possibly other unmentioned authors.
Is it somewhat realistic?
- Yes, it is incredibly realistic.
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Does it fit with the spirit of PZ?
- In the survival compatibility, yes.
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Would it make the game too easy?
Rather chance-granting and gameplay changing.
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Would it require rewriting the entire game (like changing the camera view, for instance)
- It'll have you most likely overwriting an entire season, or at least how snow works. I cannot grant or elaborate much as I am no modder.
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Would it add enough to the gameplay that it would be worth taking the time to add?
- From the point of rationality, details, and survival - yes. From the point of gameplay, you'll get reasoned annoyance from players and happy chuckles here-and-there every now and then.
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Would it be found in Muldraugh, Kentucky common enough to be added?
- Commonly found in the entire world.
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For zombies: Does it fit at least somewhat into Romero/Brooks zombie lore (the basis for 'proper' zombies)?
- Somewhat somewhere does the trick.
Let's start off with little things.
The snow, the frost, and the painwalk.
Snow should be an evolving matter.
A: It can stack, creating physical difficulty in walking in high burdens of snow through which you'll need effort to get through for Survivors and Zombies alike, preventing you from Sprinting and slowing down Sprinters as if that wasn't enough. It can also make the visual ravine become a minefield full of pitfalls that would get your Survivor stumbling or possibly even falling on their knees because of the object that had gotten in their way under the burden of snow. It could be used during winter foraging in the future updates, indicating you just found an item under your feet that you were not able to detect fast enough and avoid tripping on.
B: It can freeze, become ice and make your surroundings slippery. Anyone stepping on the ice would trip or slip, but it also could prolong Zombies crawling on the ground for a short amount of time. Don’t forget the ice cubes!
C: It can be collected, allowing you to build snow barricades and light fortifications like an igloo, a snow wall height level of a sandbag wall then turned into an ice wall to increase sturdiness, making Survivors or Zombies vaulting it slip and give you short momentum of advantage. As an example, Survivors will fall on their back or may slightly injure themselves if they hit the hard surface, and Zombies will be frequently unable to do a lunge attack. It can also be used as an alternate source of water by melting snow to make your favorite herbal tea. And it can be non-collective wet snow, but rather sand-like snow that refuses to get into your hands or get glued unless it gets wet.
D: It can be season-dependent, so not every winter is about snow and good weather, but rather being an ice or cold rain at times with mud everywhere. Mud can and will freeze eventually just as well.
E: It can be dirty, depending on the area it is in, it can be black, gray, or white. The first two options are reminding you of the urban pollution and everyday use of cars. If you use the same road, the snow will slowly but surely turn gray, and then black. It’s easily seen in highly populated towns, whereas white snow is witnessed in the countryside. Snow can also melt from any(if not every) heat source, so some parts of the road could be seen if you put down a campfire or rode by on a car several times, also leading to footprints, bloodied snow and car tracks.
Hometown.
It is not just about snow, it’s also about the feeling.
F: You can be freezing, by a cold wind or because you’re wet yourself. Yes, that is already implemented, but what about the infamous frostbite? If you are too wet because you wear too many layers of clothing, not noticing that you are sweating profusely combined with being cold for a long period of time in the winter, your limb(s) can freeze and totally lock up the limb, becoming ice. It could be healed, but the curing period will surely be the new challenge point for Survivors as it may take up to 6 months.. Or, you can add a setting of permanent frostbite that leads to amputation if you're not planning to recover said limb ASAP. And look, in the sun you can get a sunstroke and pass out waking up with burns on the hot asphalt later on, if you think about overhauling not only Winter but other seasons too!
G: Exposal fridges, having an integrated fridge into a wall leading to exposure could give you a cooler-like technology of a fridge. Yes, it is used(can confirm as I live in an apartment with a fridge integrated under a window) and it will function by allowing the wind to come inside through the hole in the wall. I am sure it is used in many apartments of post-soviet era and villages. Or, you could also just put it in the snow crate or whatever gets on your mind.
H: Insulation schemetery, seeing how light was re-acted and re-played by another update, why not boot up insulation? If the heat sources are on in the building, they could potentially heat up a small room to make you feel warm, as an example being a gas stove in your kitchen. A window is open? It’ll be quite difficult to warm up the room, unless the heat source is greatly overcoming the source of the cold. Campfires indoors could be an interesting intervention, but rather a dangerous one - in a closed room with no doors or windows it’ll work like a generator - you’ll simply choke yourself with smoke coming from the fire that is feeding itself up with your logs.
[EDIT] I: Bomb with a delayed fuse, in the winter these many bodies you've left exposed to winter could be frozen. However, once Spring springs in, all of these bodies will cast a new season of truly horrifying experience. A powerful blow of death and decay could be SPREADING over local places, turning your character inside-out without any facial protection or sealed shelter. It could be, obviously, turned off.. But can you allow yourself such a seasonal overhaul to pass by on you, especially if you're so "immune" and wanted to be "non-immune" as it is?
But most importantly, it is about.. Coming home. From a hard day, as if you went through three cities within an hour, provoked by the snow making your walk heavy. Getting inside of your safehouse where it is warm and safe from the cold could boost your morale and make you recover from exhaustion by a warm cup of tea.
Also it would be nice to be capable of shoveling snow, getting your generator twice as much damaged due to the cold twice as much and seeing how snow spreads. Because if you’ve got snow burdens everywhere, you think a small roof would help you out from getting your door or window blocked by snow? That’s right, it won’t!
Cheers, Survivors.
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