GG Cannon

When it comes to how realist Project Zomboid is, there are a few elements that are so overly simplified that it leaves something to desire. While it is understandable to a degree, Project Zomboid is the kind of game where when things are complex it is better than when they are overly simple, since reality is complex and the game tries to translate the feeling of difficulty you'd face in that kind of situation were it in reality. The elements I'm mentioning in this case are "wiring" and "piping". Both the act of plumbing a sink to a water barrel or connecting a generator to an area are interesting and needed that they are present, but they are so simplified currently that they also severely limit what we can do when it comes to base building, while it doesn't translate to how challenging it would be in a more realistic scenario. As such, I've thought up a few suggestions which I believe would add some balanced complexity to it but also have several added benefits to it. This is very slightly connected to a few things I suggested in a previous post of mine, but those things in specific will be re-mentioned here since this is an entirely different topic. Wiring It is very weird to me how, despite how realistic it is, in Project Zomboid, I can just connect and turn on a generator anywhere and power a huge radius around it, no questions asked. No need for wires or anything, even a fridge in the middle of the grass that is within range will power up. A true Nikola Tesla wonder with wireless electricity! Jokes aside, I'd like to suggest a mechanic very slightly inspired to how wires work in Terraria. Start with the generator or source of power. Energy needs to be delivered to the distribution point of the electrical grid and not just anywhere, namely a "fuse box" or any "power pole" that delivers energy to that fuse box. You'd need to have wires with you in your inventory in order to connect the generator and disconnecting the generator would have a chance to return those wires based on your electrical skill level. Just place the generator near the fuse box and right click it, then in the menu window, instead of simply "Connect Generator" it should say "Connect Generator To" and provide you the option to choose to what you wish to connect the generator to. [Connect Generator To] > [Fuse Box/TV/Car Battery Charger/etc] For gas stations, for example, you'd either need to connect the generator to a single specific gas pump or find the gas station's fuse box in order to connect the generator to it and power the whole gas station. This would create a whole new level of realistic decision making a threat that is much more aligned to the spirit of PZ. This would also add the possibility of other generators and power poles to connect those new generators to the house. Things like Solar Panels, that already existed basically the same as today in 1993, or eolic generators, or even steam generators, that could burn logs or coal and need water to produce energy. Wires: Wires should need to be present inside the walls and power outlets need to be present on the wall. 2.1 Wires inside walls: When building walls, after building the frame and before plastering, it should be possible to place wires inside the wall. I won't mention much about the tools needed, but it should also be possible to break down the plaster of house walls in the world and remove the wires. For that, you would need to turn off the power to the house in its "fuse box" or disconnect the electrical wires outside from the power pole that connect to the house. Wires inside the wall are always connected to wires on any wall in a 3x3 square from the floors above and below. While building the roof/floor, it should also be possible to place wires under the floor boards connected to the wires on the walls of the same floor and the floor below. While holding a proper tool in hand, like "Pliers" or a similar new tool for Vanilla, it should be possible to see ceiling lights in order to remove them. New item [Foldable Step Ladder] Weight: 10 [Placeable] Needed to remove or place ceiling lights. Ceiling lights would require wires inside that ceiling/that floor tile of the next floor above. 2.2 Outlets: You can then place "Power Outlets" [A new item] on a wall that has wires in it. Each power outlet would provide power to all electrical appliances in a 3x2 rectangle in front of it. So all you'd need is for wires connected to a fuse box inside the wall to be connected to the power outlet near any appliance for it to work and not depend on the distance from the generator to the appliance. 2.3 Wires Outside Differently, external wires are usually longer and higher up, for example, building power poles as I mentioned several times. You'd also need a foldable step ladder to build a power pole, but to connect a power pole to another power pole, you'd need a considerable amount of wire and it would be similar to connecting a generator to a fuse box but more like cutting trees. You'd simply right-click the power pole without wires and select "Connect Power Pole To" and then be given a square tile selector similar to when you are cutting trees and choose where you want to connect that power pole to. The wires can even be invisible and don't even need to be drawn, but it is possible to program a simple line tracer to make visible black curved lines to represent the wires. This would allow to connect generators to power poles, power pole to another power pole and power pole to external fuse box. (Connecting to the external fuse box should not produce visible wires, ideally) Pipage Pipes would work exactly the same as wires. Build the pipes inside the walls add a "Valve" as the same as the "Power Outlets" providing water in a 2x3 in front of it to any sink or "Steam Generator" or any other appliance that uses water in front of it. Build invisible pipes inside the floor inside or outside and connect the pipes to "pumps"(new item, same as generator but for pumping water into the pipes) or to the external water supply, if the water hasn't been turned off yet (for games where water is never shut down). Conclusion This would require some small degree of rewriting in the game when it comes to the generator and plumbing sinks, but the added benefit of this degree of complexity not only would make base building more interesting and provide more freedom when it comes to where you will place your generators, it would allow a base to have multiple generators, maybe batteries and who knows, maybe even the possibility of making logic nodes, who knows what modders would add with wiring added in the mix of the game or what you as developers would even consider adding in the future with such a system in place. Thing is, this would also bring a level of realism that is currently lacking since the threat of needing to search for the external fuse box of a gas station in order to power it would already make things a lot more challenging without this system being overly complex. Wires as an item already exist in the game, but they don't have too much uses, yet a system like this would make the electrical skill and electrician profession a lot more valuable and needed.

The most balanced setting I found, which also proved to be the most fun to me, was this: To explain a bit why each value: Population starts at the standard and in the course of 3 lunar months (28 days each) it raises to 4 times its initial value. So every 28 days it raises 1 integer (start at 1.0, 28th day is 2.0, 56th day is 3.0 and 84th day is 4.0) For the respawn, 168 hours is exactly 7 days, for both respawn and respawn unseen so both cell and chunk respawn 25% of their population every week (100% every 28 days). 24 hours (1 day) for migration. And finally, with the group sizes set to 5 with a radius of the group to 10, the concentration of zombies in a very compact manner is reduced, but since the group separation (distance between groups) is only 5, multiple groups may be in range of each other, forming "mega-groups". This creates a situation that, in low population early on (1.0) you can find small groups of zombies spread apart easy enough that you can take care of them even alone, but as the population raises over the months up to the max (4.0) you will start to find mega-groups of dozens of zombies covering very wide areas. They are spread enough that you can trim a bit, but can be close enough that you will call a massive horde in your direction, and alarms and shooting will call unthinkable hordes your way. This gives the zombies a very organic distribution with not so hive-mind behavior yet still very prone to creating really massive hordes. At 4.0 population, just being around a single street may already get you a pretty sizeable horde.

A setting in both Sandbox and MP Server settings which has proven a serious issue to me are the "Rally Group" settings. For a better start on the first few days of the game, with friends that started playing for the first time, the standard Survivor Rally Group of 20 zombies is too absurd a number for people not used to the game starting in Urban areas considering it is still the start of the zombie apocalypse. For that reason, I've been setting the Rally group sizes small between 3 and 9, but closer together, for a more organic zombie behavior. Yet this brings another problem that is that later in the game, those groups are too small and the game becomes somewhat easy after we are properly equipped, with a base and vehicles and after killing most of the zombies around the map (since I set spawn rates for 25% every in-game week). Growing Issue I'd like to suggest and request, as a balancing feature, for the Rally groups to also grow with the zombie population or even for the possibility of rally groups to continue growing after zombie population has already reached its peak at the "Population Peak day". This would require: Change the "Rally Group Size" into "Starting Rally Group Size" Defines the size of groups at Day 1 Creation of "Final Rally Group Size" Defines the size of Rally groups at Day X set below Creation of "Final Rally Group Size Day" Defines which day is Day X where rally groups will reach their final density. Creation of "Rally Group Size Starting Variability" A variable that slightly randomizes the size of the Rally groups. Example: With a Rally Group Size of 10 and Rally Group Variability of 3, the actual Rally Group Sizes would vary randomly between 7 to 13. Creation of "Rally Group Size Final Variability" The variability it is gonna have when it reaches the "Final Rally Group Size Day", so that you can also make this variability grow or shrink over time. Another thing to consider would be the same treatment for Rally Group Separation: Change the "Rally Group Separation" into "Starting Rally Group Separation" Defines the separation of different zombie groups on Day 1. Creation of "Final Rally Group Separation" These would allow for the space between the groups to be regulated over time, so that either different groups would get closer together or farther apart over time. Creation of "Final Rally Group Separation Day" Defines which day is Day X where the Group Separation takes its final value. Creation of "Starting Rally Group Separation Variability" This would allow for the space between different zombie groups to have some variation where some groups stay closer together while other groups are farther apart, making it a more organic behavior. Creation of "Final Rally Group Separation Variability" This would allow for the the variation of space between zombie groups to either increase, adding more randomness or decrease making them more standardized. Maybe even the same for Rally Group Radius: Change the "Rally Group Radius" into "Starting Rally Group Radius" Defines the spread of different zombie members of the same groups to each other on Day 1. Creation of "Final Rally Group Radius" This would allow for the members of zombie groups to either stick closer together or drift farther apart from other members of the same group as time passes. Creation of "Final Rally Group Radius Day" or using the same days as the "Final Rally Group Separation Day", so that Separation and Radius change at the same time naming it as a single "Final Rally Group Separation and Radius Day". Having this day be separate from the "Max Rally Group Size Day" is useful since it allows you to set so that the spacing between the groups and between members of the same group either continues to change long after the groups have reached their maximum density or that it reaches its final state long before the groups finish growing up. Creation of "Starting Rally Group Radius Variability" This would allow for the space between zombie members of the same groups to have some variation where some groups have members stay closer together with each other while other groups members are farther apart from each other, making it a even more organic behavior. Creation of "Final Rally Group Radius Variability" This would allow for the the variation of space between zombies members of the same group to either increase, adding more randomness or decrease making them more standardized. With these new variables, the zombie population could start more spread apart in smaller groups and with time they would form bigger groups and those groups would grow closer and closer together, becoming even bigger hordes. This means that on day 1, you could have groups as small as only 3 to 9 zombies somewhat close together but far apart enough from the members of their own groups that you can bait a few and trim them down with a good spacing between them, making fighting those groups absolutely possible if you are careful, but a few days later, they could be groups as big as 20 zombies, close to one another enough that they always move like a horde and, depending on your settings, 1 year in-game later and the groups could be as big as 1000 zombies moving as a mass of bodies with little space between those huge hordes, making any city area that you haven't been clearing constantly be a real hell. Suggested Balancing For survivor difficulty, I would suggest that the rally groups settings start at size 7 with a variability of 2 (between 5 to 9) zombies on day 1 and grows to 30 with a variability of 10 (from 20 to 40) zombies by peak day 28, this would allow for the standard survivor difficulty to have a true feeling that population of zombies is getting worse and worse, up until it becomes worse than it currently is, but the starting of a game will be much more manageable in the first few days as if a quiet before the storm. While in apocalipse it could start in the current 20 with a variability of 5 (from 15 to 25) on day 1 and grow to 75 with a variability of 25 (from 50 to 100) after 4 months in, so every month the groups would be around 15 zombies bigger, but every 2 to 3 days, give or take, the groups would grow an average of 1 zombie, making it a real apocalipse scenario. The Important Questions Is it somewhat realistic? Yes, it makes sense that in the beginning of the zombie apocalipse at day 1, population would be thinner than 1 month in or 1 year in, and those groups of zombies should grow with time, not just the total amount of zombies around the map. It also makes sense for there to be some variability between the groups, since not all groups of zombies would be the same size nor behave exactly alike with perfect spacing between them. Does it fit with the spirit of PZ? Yes, this is but an effective balancing method but perfectly aligned with the spirit of PZ in the sense that the situation with the zombies grows worse and worse with time. Would it make the game too easy? No. It wouldn't make it neither too easy nor too hard, but more balanced, starting easier (in standard survivor difficulty) and becoming harder and harder with time. For MP servers and Sandbox difficulty it would also give some control for the game's difficulty to grow as the ability and equipment of the survivors also grow. Would it require rewriting the entire game (like changing the camera view, for instance) No. Not rewriting, but just adding new variables and renaming a few existing variables regarding the zombies AI and adapting functions. I would believe that the amount of coding needed to add this to the game is so minimal that it could possibly be possible to fully code and add it in the very next unstable patch, since it only involves very few variables and adding those variables to sandbox and server settings. Would it add enough to the gameplay that it would be worth taking the time to add? Yes, not only would it make the standard Survivor difficulty more balanced, it would add the sense of growing problem as the time passes and give the world a sense of organic growth in the zombie behavior besides more variation to the groups behavior, making every group of zombies seem more unique from one another, with them organizing in bigger groups as their numbers also grow. For zombies: Does it fit at least somewhat into Romero/Brooks zombie lore (the basis for 'proper' zombies)? Yes, it is actually more aligned with the Romero Zombies, since "Although initially devoid of both thought and memory, later works of Romero have shown zombies capable of learning through a process of trial and error." [Romero Zombies - Zombiefandom] In this case, the concept of sticking together and forming groups would be a learned behavior over time and copying other zombies around, while those that stick together from the beginning are from faded memories from their previous life, sticking to the zombies of friends or family, since "There have been instances of the zombies seemingly recalling memories of their past lives and performing familiar tasks" [Also found in Romero Zombies - Zombiefandom].

Not just in 1993, even today in some rural areas you have a chance of finding lanterns like this. I know for a fact because my uncle used to have several in one of his farms and many neighbors also have or had one of those. It would be interesting if it was one of the items you could only find in rural homes, even if with some degree of rarity. But candles, I agree. Those should be very common, with almost assured to find 1 in every 2 houses you visit, since a LOT of people have the habit of having candles around in case of a power outage.

I personally LOVE the idea of crowd-sourcing for stuff like this, but I also know for a fact that it is too big a gamble and a risk for a company to fully rely on the community for things like that. To script reactions like this is something too core of the game to rely solely at the community, but to be inspired by the community is a different story. What I would think is more interesting is to create a "Role Play challenge" where players show their character's traits and have to role-play in an official open server hosted by the company themselves where each player can only create a SINGLE CHARACTER per "cycle". So death is permanent and there is serious meaning to staying alive and dying. They would also "hire" a few professional gamers to role play the specific characters they want as NPCs to the story following a specific script in the beginning and "winging it" in some situations. They would then record and spectate the actions of all players and the hired professionals and write it down. After a few specific objectives and events have been completed, the server would be reset and start a new cycle. This means that some NPCs would be specific meaningful players during some cycles and these players could even be "temporarily recruited" to play the exact same character each cycle to record their decisions and actions under different conditions and "paths" the story could take depending on other events (like the death of another character earlier on). Then, take all the data of actions, reactions and decisions and use those to write down the NPCs decision making process and dynamic AI for situations outside of the scripted scope. This would still keep all the power and decision making in the hands of the company BUT it would involve the community in the creation of the NPCs AND it would be a much more organic way to take data and program the NPCs since they would be based on the decisions of living humans taking the players desperation and sometimes even real sadness from events and not just scripted as characters from a story. Also, it would be awesome to have the chance to play on an official open server with a single life with "real death" and have a possibility of my character becoming an NPC in the game.

One detail I forgot to mention about defending that I think is important is that, if you are unarmed, you should always take a percentage of the damage even in a successful block where your strength is far higher than the attacker, while with an equipped weapon even if you are just slightly weaker, you should be able to properly block it most of the time, and that is just for blunt weapons with the damage being concentrated on your arms. Even if you are the strongest human alive, trying to block someone hitting you with a baseball bat or metal pipe with just your arms will still hurt. If they are bladed weapons, you will receive 100% of the cutting damage on your arms, so blocking a bladed attack while unarmed is the same as sacrificing your arms for that attack. This means that in a fist fight, you blocking your enemy's attacks will still hurt your arms a little due to their punches (unless there is something like a "Martial Artist" trait that makes it possible to fully block punch attacks while unarmed), while if someone strikes you with a bat and you block it with your arms, there is still a pretty good chance of it breaking your arm. There should never be a perfect 100% blocked damage unless you have a weapon (or shield, maybe) equipped in your hands.

I can see why you'd think 99% at Nimble 10 would be a bit much, but still I feel like 33% is too little, even if some items would increase it. Maybe 5% per level? So it would be like: Nimble 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Dodge 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50% 55% I still feel like this is too little though... I understand your comment about a "farmer from last house street" not being able to dodge like that, but the 99% would only be at Nimble 10, and if I understood things correctly, any skill at level 10 is the apex of human potential for that skill, so Nimble 10 would be the absolute most Nimble a human can be. By the way, this dodge would be exclusively to Melee strikes, not to ranged weapons. I've practiced Martial Arts in the past and I know that some well trained professional can dodge almost 100% of the attacks of any untrained person. Having said that, how about this new calculation instead: Dodge% = [ 9 * ( Self.Nimble + 1 ) ] - [ 5 * ( Attacker.Nimble) ] This means that the higher your Nimble, the more chance you have to dodge, but the higher your attacker's nimble, the more chance they have to still hit you. Both attacker and defender values would be being taken into consideration. If the person trying to hit you has Nimble 0, it would keep the table I sent before: Nimble 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Dodge 9% 18% 27% 36% 45% 54% 63% 72% 81% 90% 99% BUT the Nimble value of the person attacking you would reduce that chance to dodge by: Nimble 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Anti-Dodge 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50% Examples: You = Nimble 10 || Attacker = Nimble 0 Result = 99% chance to dodge You = Nimble 5 || Attacker = Nimble 1 Result = 49% chance to dodge You = Nimble 5 || Attacker = Nimble 5 Result = 29% Full list of results for all values: Nimble Self 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Attacker 0 9% 18% 27% 36% 45% 54% 63% 72% 81% 90% 99% 1 4% 13% 22% 31% 40% 49% 58% 67% 76% 85% 94% 2 0% 8% 17% 26% 35% 44% 53% 62% 71% 80% 89% 3 0% 3% 12% 21% 30% 39% 48% 57% 66% 75% 84% 4 0% 0% 7% 16% 25% 34% 43% 52% 61% 70% 79% 5 0% 0% 2% 11% 20% 29% 38% 47% 56% 65% 74% 6 0% 0% 0% 6% 15% 24% 33% 42% 51% 60% 69% 7 0% 0% 0% 1% 10% 19% 28% 37% 46% 55% 64% 8 0% 0% 0% 0% 5% 14% 23% 32% 41% 50% 59% 9 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 9% 18% 27% 36% 45% 54% 10 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 4% 13% 22% 31% 40% 49% If any items or moodles would increase the value above 100%, it stays at 100% If any items or moodles would reduce the value below 0%, it stays at 0%. It's more balanced like this, right? If both people are absolutely untrained (Nimble 0), there is still a tiny chance to dodge (9%) If one person is a professional and the other is untrained (attacker Nimble 0), the chance of dodging is high. If the attacker is trained and the one trying to dodge isn't (defender Nimble 0) the chance of dodging is 0%. If both are trained (both have nimble higher than 0) then the chance of dodging is based on their nimble values. Another possible formula for dodge %chance and the full result table to consider that I think might be interesting is: (Self.Nimble * 10) - (Attack.Nimble * 5) Nimble Self 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Attacker 0 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1 0% 5% 15% 25% 35% 45% 55% 65% 75% 85% 95% 2 0% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 3 0% 0% 5% 15% 25% 35% 45% 55% 65% 75% 85% 4 0% 0% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 5 0% 0% 0% 5% 15% 25% 35% 45% 55% 65% 75% 6 0% 0% 0% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 7 0% 0% 0% 0% 5% 15% 25% 35% 45% 55% 65% 8 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 9 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 5% 15% 25% 35% 45% 55% 10 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Same as the previous one, it is fair to both sides, it favors the party trying to dodge a little (it is easier to dodge than to hit someone trying to dodge who knows how to dodge) but unlike the previous one, the untrained (nimble 0) person has 0% chance to dodge from the beginning while the fully trained person has 100% chance to dodge.

I agree and add to it that not only motorcycles, but also bicycles, which are slower but produce a lot less noise and allowing you to use Shift in order to run faster in exchange for tiring you.

Re-reading my post, when I mention the "dash dodge", some might think I'm mentioning something like an arcade-ish dash, so I wanted to remove any ambiguity or misunderstanding from what I mentioned. I meant "short dash dodge" as in the real life martial arts quick step dodging, it can be a side step, back-step or front step, but it consists of a very short and quick "jump" where you don't really get off the ground and just slide in a direction while keeping your stance. Here is a video of Taekwon-Do talking exactly about this sort of technique and a visual reference in case the devs actually feel interested in how it actually looks and works in real life. In 0:31 and 0:40 you can see 2 examples of a back step dodge and the whole video is about the side step dodge. The front step is the exact same as the back-step, just forward, where you do a tiny jump forward without getting out of the ground. This technique is instinctive even in street fighting and every martial arts has at least one version of these in their footwork. Since I made a follow up post recently where I mentioned punching & kicking with simple realistic combos that you find in almost any martial arts and in untrained street fighting, I wanted to clarify this as with both this post and those simple punching and kicking, the combat potential in the game would increase by a lot and a step dash-dodge like this is a very real and common fighting technique that would be needed for fighting with players and NPCs to have proper freedom and realism. In PVP and in fights against the future NPCs, if there are enemy NPCs as planned, it would be possible to develop your own strategy of when to defend, when to dodge, when to attack and when to side step or back step, becoming not only more fluid, but realistic. Also, with all of these combined, the extended unarmed combat and all the defense and dodging mentioned in this post, one HUGE thing becomes possible, which is why I mentioned street fighting so much in this comment... THE FIGHTING PITS This is related to the NPCs update and something I mentioned in one of my first posts here on the forum talking about NPCs where there should be a possibility, even if small and taking some luck, that you might join a evil NPCs group or that your group becomes evil later down the line due to events and interactions. The possibility of fighting barehanded and having defense and dodge, but with the possibility of failing those depending on your skill levels brings the possibility of fighting being one of the stress relievers on a base of a post-apocalyptic zombie world. This would not only serve to relieve boredom of those that watch, but also serve as Nimble, Fitness and Strength training as a game mechanic. It is realistic, it fits in the scenario but it requires proper unarmed fighting mechanics, besides the already present shoving mechanic which also is one of the prerequisites as it is a proper, useful and valid fighting technique. As a leader of your own group, it could even be one of the possible moral decisions to come in the game or even be related to establishing a training policy on your base. And remember...

A few things I forgot, both for DDD and this post: Extended Unarmed Combat If your hands are empty, attacking while holding "aim/battle stance (RMB) shouldn't do a push, but a "punch" as long as there is a distance between you and the closest target or no target at all. TAPPING an attack with LMB should punch with the SECONDARY hand. HOLDING the LMB should give a strong and slower punch with your PRIMARY hand. DOUBLE TAPPING within a time window should give a one-two combo, first secondary, then primary. First TAP and then HOLDING within a time window should give a jab-hook combo, with first the secondary and then primary hand. Using middle mouse button (MMB) while aiming/battle stance (RMB), would use a kick instead with your "primary leg" (same leg as your primary hand). The kick would have sightly higher damage as the punch, cause damage towards the legs and have a slightly higher chance to knock down, but kicking while tired would also have a chance to trip you. Using Middle mouse button (MMB) with a weapon equipped in your primary hand but no weapon on your secondary hand should also do the kick. Punching and kicking should also have a small chance to cause damage to your hands and feet depending on your strength and if you are wearing protection based on your scratch protection, with the kicking having only 25% of the base chance to hurt yourself that the punch does, but if you are already hurt on your legs, an added chance to trip as well due to losing balance by the pain. Punching wouldn't use any weapon skills and be solely based on your strength stat for its flat damage with the secondary hand giving 80% damage while the kick would be 120% since the legs are stronger than the arms. Damage for the primary hand would be: (3 * Strength) / 40 At strength 1, your punch with a primary hand 0.075 damage (lower than the minimum of a butter knife) At the average strength 5, your punch cause 0.375 damage (lower than the minimum of a common hammer, close to the maximum of a butter knife) At max strength 10, your punch would cause 0.75 damage (Average damage of a hammer exactly between min and max, close to the minimum of a baseball bat) Damage Values Strength 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Primary 0,075 0,15 0,225 0,3 0,375 0,45 0,525 0,6 0,675 0,75 Secondary 0,06 0,12 0,18 0,24 0,3 0,36 0,42 0,48 0,54 0,6 Kick 0,09 0,18 0,27 0,36 0,45 0,54 0,63 0,72 0,81 0,9 As it doesn't use weapon skill, though, the punches and kicks should provide slightly more strength XP than using weapons for combat. This wouldn't be adviseable against zombies, since there is a possibility of you punching their mouth and getting bitten by accident by your own punch, but it could be useful against NPCs, but even against zombies, the kick could be useful in some situations. It could also be useful in multiplayer, either for non-lethal combat or for training, where two players could fight with only unarmed combat to train their strength even if they belong to the same base. Punching Bag 20 Leather Strips + 2 Sand Bag + Rope + Thread + Needle Skills: Tailor 2 Counts as a valid target to attacks but only gives 80% of the normal XP per attack back. Has a durability of its own and will break into leather strips after it reaches 0. Weak to slashing and ranged damage. Will break extremely fast if attacked with weapons that cut or ranged weapons. Resistant to blunt damage. Will last a lot longer if only attacked with blunt weapons. Extra resistant against unarmed damage. Will last extremely longer if only attacked with unarmed attacks. Armor Some hand protections could provide some increase to punching power. For example, a future blacksmithing upgrade could introduce "Gauntlets" that provide 100% biting and scratch resistance to your hands, similar to what the helmets are to your head. Obviously, punching with metal gauntlets on your hands would cause a lot more damage than punching with bare hands. With some of these, you could even punch a zombie straight in the mouth without a risk of being "bitten by your own punch" at all. On the "other hand", pun intended, some hand protections wouldn't increase your damage, but would reduce the chance of you hurting your own hands by punching, for example hand wrappings, boxing gloves or leather gloves. Lastly, there is also the possibility of "weapons" that increase your punching damage and reduce your chance of taking damage from your own punches without giving any protection at all, for example the Brass Knuckles. Similarly, there are also some possible new leg protection that could increase your kicking damage and serve as great protection. Most specifically, the metal Greaves and the more modern version that you could find in the world with smaller protection and damage increase, the soccer Shin Guard. All of these mechanics and items still perfectly fit within the description of both DDD and this original post and fit within the same answers to the important questions, which would make them incredible additions to the game that perfectly fit the spirit of project zomboid.

This is a complementary post to my previous DDD post, but its content are absolutely stand alone and could be implemented a lot more easily, with very little to no coding needed. Suggested recipe magazine: "Martial Training: DIY practice tools to train at home" Targets Dummy 2 Logs + 4 Nails + 2 Pillows + Scissors + Saw + Hammer 2 Logs + 4 Nails + 1 Sheet + 10 Ripped Sheets + Scissors + Saw + Hammer 2 Logs + 4 Nails + 15 Ripped Sheets + Thread + Needle + Scissors + Saw + Hammer Skill: Carpentry 1, Tailor 1 Counts as a valid target to attacks but only gives 80% of the normal XP per attack back. Causes 70% less condition damage to weapons when being struck. Has a durability of its own and will break into scrap wood and ripped sheets after it reaches 0. Weak to slashing damage. Will break faster if attacked with weapons that cut. Resistant to blunt damage. Will last a lot longer if only attacked with blunt weapons. Hitting it should also give a small strength XP. Shooting Target 2 Logs + 4 Nails + 20 Ripped Sheets + 2 Thread + Needle + Saw + Hammer Skill: Carpentry 1, Tailor 3 Counts as a valid target to ranged attacks but only gives 80% of the normal XP per attack back. Has a durability of its own and will break into scrap wood and ripped sheets after it reaches 0. Resistant to all ranged damage. Will last a lot longer if only attacked with ranged weapons. Practice Weapons These would be fake wooden weapons in order to practice against dummies. All of them would have low durability, but can be crafted out of wood and would have blunt damage even though they'd give XP to their respective weapon type. Wooden Axe (2 Planks or 1 Log) + 4 Nails + Saw + Hammer + Sandpaper (new item) Wooden Pole (2 Versions: Short and Long) Short: 1 Plank + Saw + Sandpaper Long: 1 Log + Saw + Sandpaper Wooden Sword 1 Log + Saw or Knife + Sandpaper Wooden Dagger 1 Plank + Saw or Knife + Sandpaper Wooden Spear 1 Log + 1 Plank + 4 Nails + Saw or Knife + Sandpaper + Hammer Sandpaper [Crafting] - Item needed to craft and shape wooden objects with rounded edges. Weight- 0.1 - Common 20 Sheet of Paper + Sand Bag + 5 Glue = 20 Sandpaper Is it somewhat realistic? Yes, practice weapons and targets have been used across history to develop one's fighting skills. Does it fit with the spirit of PZ? Yes. Training your skills for survival using every means possible is perfectly aligned with the spirit of PZ Would it make the game too easy? No. It would provide one extra reasonable safe source of weapons XP and a little strength XP but it would require dedication and grinding which could all still be lost in case of character death. Would it require rewriting the entire game (like changing the camera view, for instance) No. Not at all. The weapons can be added in the next patch and the dummy and target could possibly be programmed in seconds by making them register in the game as a zombie that can't move or attack with a different model and giving it a few parameters to for the weaknesses, resistances and reduced condition damage. Would it add enough to the gameplay that it would be worth taking the time to add? Yes. Being able to train your character at the safety of your base to increase weapon skills, specially with "long blade" weapons, which only 2 exist and both are rare, would be invaluable. It is realistic, historically accurate, advised for survival in such an extreme scenario and reasonable. Would it be found in Muldraugh, Kentucky common enough to be added? Since everything is craftable with common tools already present in the game, yes.

Dual Wielding This one is short, simple, easy to implement and to understand. Press Middle Mouse Button (MMB) while holding Aim/Battle Stance (L. Ctrl/RMB) to attack with your secondary weapon. This would allow you to equip one gun in each hand or one melee weapon in each hand and strike with each individually. It would also allow you have one gun in your primary and a melee weapon in your secondary and use both as needed. Or even hold a gun in your primary and throw a pipe bomb or a molotov with your secondary. The gun on your secondary hand should have lower accuracy and melee weapons on secondary should have a slower swing speed and damage. Also, two new traits. Lefty - You are left handed (Cost 0 , just changes which hand your character equips items as primary and secondary and mirror attack animations horizontally) Ambidextrous - You are able to use both hands equally (Cost 4 , removes the penalty for attacking with a secondary weapon) Defending Pressing Z while holding a melee weapon as primary or secondary and holding Aim/Battle Stance (L. Ctrl/RMB) should defend against a melee strike. The chance to defend against a melee attack should be equal to: 50% + ( [Nimble+1] * 9% ) / 2 So at Nimble 0 you have 54.5% chance to block an attack and at nimble 10 you have 99.5% chance to block an attack. -Successfully blocking an attack should tire you based on the difference of strength between you and the attacker and with a chance to cause "minor damage" if the difference in strength is too big with you being the weaker party. -Failing to block should have a small chance of dropping your equipped weapons to the ground depending on the difference of strength between you and the attacker and how tired you are. Trying to defend a melee attack should give you some nimble XP and succeeding to defend should give a small extra nimble XP. It should also give some Strength XP when succeeding to block. This would be very useful in Multiplayer PVP combat, against NPCs and against possible zombies wielding melee weapons. Dodging Pressing C while holding Aim/Battle Stance (L. Ctrl/RMB) should do a standing dodge against incoming melee attacks. The chance to dodge a melee attack should be equal to: ( Nimble + 1 ) * 9% So at Nimble 0 you have 9% chance to dodge and at Nimble 10 you have 99% chance to dodge a melee attack. Trying to dodge a melee attack should give you some Nimble XP and succeeding to dodge should give a small extra nimble XP. It should also give some Fitness XP just by trying to dodge. If you are holding any WASD key and Shift while dodging, that dodge should be converted to a short dash dodge. If you have small fit skill values or are exhausted, that short dash dodge should have a chance to trip you to the ground. Dash dodging backwards should have a higher chance to trip than dash dodging sideways or forward. Higher "Nimble" skill values should reduce the chance to trip when doing the dash dodge while tired and increase the distance covered by and the speed of the dash dodge action. Dash dodging should tire you a bit and give you some Nimble XP and Fitness XP. It would extremely useful for keeping your distance from a group of zombies, against NPC enemies, in PVP and even other possible future zombie variants added. Conclusion Percentage Chance Values Nimble 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Defend 54,5% 59% 63,5% 68% 72,5% 77% 81,5% 86% 90,5% 95% 99,5% Dodge 9% 18% 27% 36% 45% 54% 63% 72% 81% 90% 99% Is it somewhat realistic? Yes. These are basic fighting techniques and even extremely needed for PVP and NPC combat. Does it fit with the spirit of PZ? Yes, both the actions and commands suggested are within the style of combat of the game and already considering the current game key mapping, what keys are not being used or what keys are being used but don't have a function while in combat stance and what they do out of combat stance. Would it make the game too easy? No. It would provide an option of actions during combat, but on the other hand, it also creates new possibilities to trip and fall to the ground or to get tired, so it doesn't make it easy nor hard, but just creates new possibilities. Would it require rewriting the entire game (like changing the camera view, for instance) Not really. It would require writing and adding in the new actions, traits and creating the new animation, but not really fully rewriting anything. Would it add enough to the gameplay that it would be worth taking the time to add? Definitely. Not only is it needed for fighting melee with enemy NPCs and in current multiplayer PVP, it would create new possibilities on how to deal with the already existing zombies and the threat of tripping at the wrong moment. It would also severely raise the value of the Nimble skill and increase the number of sources of Nimble XP and "training methods" for it.

I really, really, REALLY like this idea... But instead of just over walls and just bags, it could be more useful to have the ability to throw any object in a certain tile distance in a cylindrical pyramid pattern, allowing you to also throw it up to 1 or 2 floors above and infinite floors below, with a bigger range away from you when aiming low within a limit, and a shorter range when aiming high. It could be a new "throw item" option under "place item" when you right click it, where you don't choose the position of the object, it is randomized, just the tile you wish to to throw it and with a chance to fall 1 tile forward, left or right as well. Pressing the "R" key would change the floor you are aiming at. It should not allow you to throw objects through a wall, but to throw it over a wall, you'd aim it at an empty tile on the floor above the wall. Your strength value and item's weight should influence how far you can throw and add the possibility of a third floor up in height or reduce to a single floor in height if it is below 3 strength. The chance to damage would be based on the object type and distance thrown. Clothes wouldn't be damage, food would have a chance to lose up to 75% of its content (as if you ate it. Like, "eat 1/2" and "eat 1/4") depending on the food, furniture should always break, unless they are assembled by planks (throwing a TV, a radio or a microwave, even a small distance, is a BAD idea... saying it by personal experience) while objects made out of glass should have crazy high break percentage, and all items inside a bag would have a smaller damage chance, with the exception of those with 100% break chance. This would allow you to throw a car wheel to the other side of a garage instead of carrying it there with little to no damage, but throwing other car parts would have a high chance of damaging them. This could allow you to throw an object through a window up to the second floor of a house in order to break that window. It would allow you to throw objects to your friends in MP, throw bags over wall or throw and towards your car from the window of a building. It would also allow you to THROW DEAD BODIES FROM A WINDOW or over a small fence or even into the water. Maybe even have the option to throw it AT someone, which if someone in multiplayer is near the tile the object falls in or on the way it is gonna fly through with no items equipped in any hand and looking in your direction, they catch it in hand and reduce the break chance to 0, (except for 100% break chance furniture which should even hurt them and have a possibility to kill them). If they are looking away, it should hit them and have a chance to hurt them. On zombies, it wouldn't matter if they are looking towards you or not. Which also means you could throw heavy objects in order to hurt and kill zombies (or evil NPCs) or at least lure them towards you.

I don't believe for sure I'm the first to suggest this, but since I search for quite a bit and didn't really find any post on this exact topic, I'm making this. Sheath A simple technology existing since medieval times and that should exist and be needed in the game is the "Sheath". It would be exactly the same as the "Holster" for guns, creating a new item slot for bladed weapon, however: There should be 4 versions of the Sheath -Long Sheath > Only Katana, Machete and future long blades should be possible to be slotted. Short blades would be too loose on it and not stick. -Short Sheath > Only Knifes, Daggers and future short blades should be slotted. Long blades wouldn't fit at all. -Open Sheath > Fits any bladed weapon, can be adjusted in size and allows for blades of any size since the tip of the blade can come from the other side. It should also be possible to slot a few non-blade weapons on this sheath, like a crowbar, sledgehammer, axe and other one and two-handed weapons reasonable enough to fit it. -Katana Sheath > Most Katanas would be found together with their sheaths, since even display blades come with a sheath, so whenever you find a Katana, there should be a 75% chance that a long Sheath would spawn together. Exclusive for Katanas since it is thinner than an average long blade sheath. The sheath should be possible to equip either left, right or back of the hip. And so should the "single holster". Equipping it on your back would equip it horizontally on the back of the hip. The Sheath and the holster should take the same item slot, same with the Sheath and the Fanny Pack and Satchel on the back hip slot. This means that you can have the sheath on one side and a holster on the other, but can't equip the double holster with a left or right sheath, needing to place it on your back, but then you can't have a satchel nor a fanny pack on your back. The Open Sheath should only be equippable on right or left, and not be equippable on the back of the hip, since the weapon is kept diagonally and it would trip you when trying to walk.. The "Belt" should have a durability and slotting and using a bladed weapon from your belt should reduce it. As we see it, the blades don't have sheaths on them, so when you place them or pick them from your belt, you are making small cuts on the belt and sooner or later it should snap, dropping all items on the belt on the ground and becoming a single leather strip. This would also make it more meaningful to loot and carry more than one belt. It should be possible to craft sheaths out of leather with the "tailor" skill. It should require reading a recipe magazine about "Medieval Tools still used today" The open sheath would be more rare than the other two to find and need a higher tailor level to craft. The long sheath should also be very rare and require a tailor level slightly smaller than the open sheath, but a lot more leather strips. Shoulders Another possibility not currently being explored are "shoulder" slots for bags. Be it equipping a "Satchel" on your left or right or by having common handbags and purses, that also exist in the game, be equippable on your shoulder since they have shoulder straps. I know by personal experience that I can carry two of these, one in each shoulder, plus a backpack and definitely still could wear two fanny packs, one in the front and one on my back, all at the same time, and still have my arms free to do anything. With all these considered, the belt would become more meaningful, we would be able to equip a machete or a sword on our hip but need to consider well what we are gonna be equipping since we may be taking the same item slot than another item we may need as well. Conclusion Is it somewhat realistic? Yes, perfectly. Sheaths are a tool still used and very present today and exists exactly so that we can equip blades on belts without the risk of cutting the belt, which is also realistic to be present in the game. Though rare, you can still find really long sheaths today since long machetes can be found pretty reasonably, and I myself have a machete in my father's farm which the sheath is more than long enough to roughly fit a Katana or other long blades. Same with the shoulder bags and purses. It is perfectly reasonable. Does it fit with the spirit of PZ? This fits perfectly with the current style and even placing the long sheath on your back is perfectly reasonable and not only would it be useful, but also visually pleasing. Same with having bags on your shoulders. Would it make the game too easy? It would not make the game any easier, just provide utility that grants some QoL, while it would also create a possibility of your belt snapping at a bad moment when you draw your blade from your hip without a sheath in the middle of a zombie fight. Would it require rewriting the entire game (like changing the camera view, for instance) Not really. The code for the sheath would be the same as the one for the holster, but limiting it to it blade type only, instead of small guns. The only rewriting would be for the belt, in order to add the durability and damage when slotting and equipping a blade and that is relatively a minor amount of code, and for the bags, in order to make the equippable on "shoulder slots" for left and right. Would it add enough to the gameplay that it would be worth taking the time to add? Definitely. It would make the belt more meaningful and the possibility of equipping a machete on your hip, sacrificing either 1 holster slot or one satchel/fanny pack slot for it and having your back slot empty for a crowbar or an axe. The possibility of carrying tools on the open sheath would also be interesting and extremely useful, opening more choices on what tools you wish to carry with you in your quickslots. Both are a great QoL improvement. Would it be found in Muldraugh, Kentucky common enough to be added? Yes, definitely. They have machetes for the long sheath, Katanas would have their exclusive sheath, the open sheath might just be a belt tool sheath and knifes also have sheaths. Also, since you can craft them, you would "find" them anywhere in the world. And the shoulder bags are already present in the game, they just need to have the option to equip on left/right shoulder.

There are 2 items in the game with a lot of potential but currently, no usage. The first would be solely to reduce boredom and stress while the second can have a LOT more uses. 1- Video Game There already is a "Video Game" item in the game that currently has no use besides being disassembled for Electrical XP, yet, I can't help but think that since boredom is a moodle, that playing in a video game should be possible. Due to its appearance, I believe the Video Game object was somewhat inspired in the Sega's Game Gear console that was launched in 1991 in the US: The game gear was a cartridge console and it perfectly fits with the style for "devices" that PZ is currently going for and fits perfectly within the estimate timeline of the game. It would be easy to re-use the same system used for the "ValuTech PortaDisc" to make a "ValuTech GamePlayer" > Instead of a CD, it would receive game cartridges in the CD slot. Also, it should be possible to play without a headphone nor earbuds, but then it would produce a noise radius that attracts zombies depending on the volume. The control window would be effectively the same. You'd need game cartridges you'd find around in the world in order to play, receiving a bigger boredom reductions the first time you play a cartridge and a small boredom reduction when you replay a game you already played. Also the cartridges should be similar to the book, in which you have % completed, meaning you can stop midway and continue later for the same bigger boredom reduction until you reach 100%. The main item already exists, the UI needed already exists and just needs to be adapted and all the code needed also already exists. All it needs is for for the UI and usability to be added and for the cartridges to be added to the world. 2- Computer (Image extracted from Konijima's computer mod) The computer, for me, seems like the most interesting item that is currently not being used, but its potential is absurd. Not only could it receive a treatment similar to the cars, where you could open it and change its pieces, with each computer part having individual conditions, being possible to repair or break, the computer itself could have many uses, from controlling cameras, listening to CDs, playing games and watching videos found on Floppy Disks, maybe even a lot more, like controlling mechanical gates, checking base statistics from crates with sensors and much more. The computer model itself looks like many old horizontal computer cases which would usually have a floppy disk factory installed by default and the possibility of installing a CD reader if around the end of the 90s, but since every single computer is like that, I'd say it to be really rare to have a CD reader and 90% of the time only the floppy disk reader. All VHS tapes and CDs could have a floppy disk copy, but also games in floppy disks and maybe you could even have files saved in the computer, so you could find a computer in the world with several VHS tapes worth in files inside that you could watch, meaning finding something like this would be like striking gold and bringing that back to your base would mean a lot. Maybe even NPCs could have a use for computers, not only to learn skills or reducing boredom with the files, but you could also assign an NPC to log events that happen in the base and register goods recovered by runners, harvested in the farm and such, so that when you return from venturing out of your base, you can check on the computer to see what your NPCs did and what happened while you were out, or if you return and find your base destroyed, checking on the PC could give you some idea of when it happened and what happened. You could even have a DOS-like UI for using the computer with rare cases where it has an OS, with a computer with an operational system and floppy disks or CDs for installing an OS being a somewhat rare find. It could even be that the DOS-like UI could really be text based, with you as a player needing to know the words you need to type and how to interact with it for extra immersion, or even something similar to how it worked in Vampire the Masquerade bloodlines, where only installed functions would appear as options: 3- New Traits Since these would add a lot more ways to have fun and reduce your character's boredom, it would also need to make the boredom moodle mechanic a bit more needed, and one way to do so is to add a few more traits that make it more meaningful. Cheerful- "Doesn't get bored easily" - 50% boredom (Takes longer to get bored) Easily Entertained- "Has more fun" - double all received boredom reduction values (Reduces boredom easily) Apathetic- "Gets bored easily" - 200% boredom (Gets bored all the time) Disinterested- "Needs extra stimulus to have fun" - receives half boredom reduction values (takes a lot more in order to stop being bored) 4- Motivated I'd also like to suggest that the "Boredom" moodle, similar to the "Hunger" moodle to have a positive spectrum as well. Just like you can eat until you are well fed, feel stuffed or close to bursting, you should also be able to read magazines or play games until you are "motivated" or "feeling happy" or even "exhilarated". These should provide some benefits to you and if you manage to get NPCs in a positive mood, it should also have its benefits for the base as a whole. For example, being in a good mood should make it harder to get panicked and stressed while being bored or in a bad mood you should get more panicked and stressed. Also, you should transfer objects faster when motivated, while bored you transfer objects slower, meaning that with a good mood you are more productive and in a bad mood you procrastinate or get distracted taking longer to do the same actions. Lastly, I'd like to suggest that reading any skill books should give boredom values, since your character is studying and it is normal to feel bored while studying. It should also be possible to re-watch VHS tapes and get a smaller effect of the boredom reduction values, since you can still have fun while re-watching a movie though not as much fun as you had the first time. Final remarks These would make the boredom mechanic have more meaning while providing more items to interact with the world and a meaningful and immersive interaction with two items already present in the game, while at the same time making keeping the mood on the NPCs and players of your base high important and providing more tools to do so at the same time. Important Questions Is it somewhat realistic? Yes. Not only the technology is perfectly in tune to how it worked at the time frame that the game happens in, the changes to the boredom moodle are more realistic in which just as you can be bored, you can feel the opposite and be in a good mood as well. Does it fit with the spirit of PZ? Perfectly so. The mechanics suggested are in tune with the current style of the game, the main items mentioned already exist in the game and the effects of your mood on your characters actions also fit well with how the game currently works regarding the moodles, while making that important for the future NPCs update is also extremely meaningful and one would believe realistic that keeping your survivor's in a good mood to be important. Would it make the game too easy? Definitely not. It would provide new meaningful interactions with the world but in no way does it make the game too easy. With the exception of the slight bonus to item transfer and the resistance to panic suggested for when your character is in a good mood, nothing provides anything that would make it easier to survive nor deal with the zombies. Would it require rewriting the entire game (like changing the camera view, for instance) No. While it would require adding the positive spectrum to the Boredom moodle, the amount of rewriting is minimal with most of it being purely new content which some even re-uses mechanics and UI already present in the game, which means the amount of entirely new code is actually minimal. Would it add enough to the gameplay that it would be worth taking the time to add? Yes. Definitely. A lot. Not only is it fun to think that a survival game is adding the possibility and importance of your survivors playing games, it is interesting to think of how important mood is in a survival situation, how it would affect your base. Also, the usefulness of the computer suggested not only would create a great use and need for it in your base, it could also have uses and interactions with the world, for example needing to power the computer of place with a generator in order to unlock a metal gate when you don't have a propane torch or similar situations.