Ewok

I think the fact that humans are more observant to their other senses at night is more to do with consciously concentrating on them. Zombies on the other-hand would use 100% of their sense capacity at all times, regardless of day or night. Also worth noting is that humans are very sight orientated - which is unusual in nature. Our sense of smell and hearing is stronger than most people probably realise, but we 'override' the sensory input with sight input and don't concentrate on it as much. This is probably why you hear of blind people's other sense getting stronger to compensate - obviously it's physically impossible for your sense to 'improve', they were always there you just weren't 'using' them. Perhaps zombies lack this limitation and concentrate on all sense equally - which would mean that effectively they are better at using sound and smell to hunt than a human would be? If they are operating on pure animal instinct instead of puny human logic then that's perfectly reasonable to think. So yeah. Got distracted. Zombie hearing and smell shouldn't 'get better' at night, IMHO - but it should be 'better than human' and they should be better at hunting at night than you are, since they are less sight-reliant.

It's not just you mate, it's human nature. Sometimes the only way to make people do something the 'right' way is to give them no other option! The previous posts about fast travelling in TES games and reloading in Kerbal Space Program made the point very well.

It doesn't quite work like that, as the whole game was built around the core concept of difficulty and consequence, so you can't just take that away. Giving an easy option breeds temptation to that that option and, as frustrating as they can be, the Souls games are made unique by that difficulty. Remove the challenge and you are left with a pretty dull ARPG.I don't agree with your comment about (the mythical) 'business world'. Most of us here are working adults, so we exist in the business world in one way or other. The key to success is not necessarily appealing to as many people as possible - some of the most successful products and services are designed to cater to a niche or a specific audience. If everyone tries to appeal to the mainstream you have a lot of people fighting for a small slice of a big pie. It's often more profitable to cut yourself a bigger slice of a smaller pie. There are a lot of very, very samey Zombie games out there trying to appeal to a mass audience, Zomboid's core message (this is how you died) is one of several things that makes it different, and therefore make it stand out.

I disagree with that statement, and I think it's fine for a game creator to stay true to a vision, even if it means disappointing or excluding certain customers. I loved Demon's Souls and Dark Souls I and II for the hardcore nature of them and the fact there was no was around dying and losing everything. Sure, they could have seperated out an 'easy' and 'hard' mode and appealed to different audiences, but that would have cheapened the experience for me and many others. If every creator sacrificed their artistic vision based soley on making the popular choices then we'd be missing out on loads of unique, experimental and different games.

If we have fat American zombies could we have the occasional British zombie, identifiable by its bad teeth and a cockney twinge to its moan? On a serious note, anything to add a bit of visual variety to the zeds would be welcomed by me, although I wouldn't say it's a neccesity.

Whether you lose 99% health due to bites or 1% you are still pretty much dead - although I agree, getting mauled to death should happen a little quicker than it does now. I also agree with the knockback and the hordes too, although I have no doubt horde AI will be getting looked at as part of 'Operation Fix Late Game By Killing You Before You Get There'.

I don't think the driving force being Trading Cards is advertising. They appeal to collectors and allow people to craft badges and gain levels for their Steam profile. It's a bit of fun and, more importantly, Valve gets some cash from the marketplace (the real reason they exist!). Sure, there may be a couple of people that look at a game after seeing a card, but I think that's very small minority. I've traded cards a bit, probably more than most, but never have collected for a game I don't own.

Skills are leveled by using them - sort of - but traits are fixed and unchangable, I believe.

I'm OK with the idea of player actions leading to reduced penalties or even the loss of a negative trait. It has to be balanced though, so you would also be able to lose positive ones as well, and gain additional traits (both positive and negative) based on actions. Never drink alcohol - you'll get drunk easierRegularly carrying a large inventory - eventually become strongRegularly carrying a very light inventory - eventually become weakHave a near death experience in a small house - become claustrophobicSearch many houses without incident - lose claustrophobic traitetc. Admittedly, it sounds like a lot of work, but it would be cool.

I'm in medical right now and just discovered that you can still be spotted while hiding under a table... Just need to pop my pants in the washing machine then off to bed for a few hours of nightmares and terror.

It was a bit of a culture shock when the regular updates dried up and it led to me putting the game down (temporarily) but I still hope that a good product will come out of it at the end and look forward to that. I think the culture of Early Access is changing a bit. At the start, every dev seemed to be pushing to do updates as quick as possible to keep people happy. Now different studios are finding their own way of working, which will hopefully be better in the long run. If Chucklefish want to slow down and focus on taking a big leap forward after a lot of work rather than lots of little steps quickly I'll reserve judgement until the end, for good or ill.

I went back to it recently but got bored after a few hours when I found little had changed from my last venture. The opt-in updates seem to be very minor things, so I think I'll hold off and wait for the next big patch.

But having your avatar AI-controlled gives the possibility that someone will just plain kill you when you are offline. Surely that's worse than burning down your safehouse or destroying your crops?

Personally I'd go | No - Maybe - No - No. I'd say no to starting with a group as that would take too much challenge away from the early game, and it's supposed to be hard. Maybe to the idea of giving out orders or requests for group members to do things, but they shouldn't be totally subservient to your demands. No to switching to control another group member (is that what you meant?). This is the story of your character (and his death) so no switcheroonies. Big no to your character going AI when you log out. I'm against anything that takes control away from the player.

I am not impressed by your signature Gonzo...

I don't see this as adding anything substantial to the game. The idea of specialist shops is fine, but there are far more common shops that would be more likely to be encountered.

If it were as simple as saying "I want this, if and when the devs would have the time to implement it" then I would say exactly that. You are 100% right - I am really not capable of estimating how much time it would take to implement a feature like this. I still have to figure that it would take some time though. Time is finite and spending any of it down one avenue (however long that takes) will inevitably mean that time can't be spent persuing others, and I have to consider not only whether I would like this feature, but whether I would like it enough to justify that when compared to other worthy suggestions or confirmed future features. That might not be a totally informed position, but I'm afraid that's just the inevitable user thought process. For the record I do like this suggestion in principle, particularly the idea of I Am Legend style zombies. I just don't like it enough. However, as people often say:

Just a quick post to say I like this idea

I have to agree with Realmkeeper that things like nocturnal zombies etc, whilst being cool in principle, would require too much work on them to justify a single option in sandbox. Whilst the game is still in development, the developers have been very vocal about the kinds of zombies they want to represent and 'I am Legend' style vampire-zombies don't fit the picture. Spending this time on a sandbox option would likely be detrimental to the development of the 'core-game' experience. As also said, it would be very hard to describe what conditions you are emulating without naming the title of the game/show/movie/book that you are basing the zombies on, which we all agree is a no-no. So, as much as I think it's a great idea, unfortunately I don't see it as a practical one.

I have to vote no, because being taken hostage it takes contol of my the character out of my hands. The game would not be any fun if my experience is being locked in a room or tied to a chair. As for movie-style knock outs, I'm afraid these are not realistic. If you are injured to the point of being knocked unconcious for more than a few minutes then you are probably in serious trouble without immediate professional medical attention. For example: - If you've lost enough blood to make you pass out, what makes you think you'll wake up without getting more blood? If you've been hit over the head hard enough to knock you out for an extended period, have you fractured your skull? Has your brain been damaged by the blow? Are you bleeding internally?

This is true from a realism point of view, but I believe there has to be balance between realism and gameplay. I wouldn't want to sit there doing nothing while my character takes 6 in-game hours to read a book. The gameplay element trumps realism in this particular case for me. I'm not sure this is universal. I think I'd find it rather depressing...

I like it. Makes sense, although there will always be a limit where the number of zeds in sight is going to make you freak out, even if you are strapped. Also, the number of 'friendlies' (NPCs and players) and their weapons loadouts could also have an effect. Sure I'll feel safer with a shotgun, but I'd feel even better with an axe and 5 similarly-armed friends.

With some ramen noodles in your inventory

You could also use some water from a carried container to cool off? You'd have to be pretty secure in your water supply to do this, but it adds a risk/reward equation into the mix.

Can someone make a mod to replace the text and sprite of an axe with a sword. That'll keep everyone happy. Better yet, do it to the pencil.