Jabberi

Just giving my thoughs on this subject, naming and organizing gamemodes and difficulties. I think the most obvious organization is such that there are ( will be ) basically 3 game modes: SANDBOX, STORY MODE and LAST STAND Choosing Sandbox ( And maybe story mode too? I can't tell what your are planning for it ) will then prompt the player to choose difficulty, which could be one of these: BEGINNER - "For those that are new to Project Zomboid" EXPERIENCED - "For those that are seeking more challenge" CUSTOM - "Fully customized playing experience" Didn't really think about those difficulty descriptions, but I think that above organization is very clear and easy to understand. Imo, putting CUSTOM ( or SANDBOX ) as the "normal" difficulty doesn't make sense, because almost no game does that and many players will choose the middle difficulty by default when they play the game first time and will get confused by all the parameters that they don't yet know the meaning of. I think you'll figure out some good way to do this, like with every other thing

What are those dangerous cooking based activities? Can someone bad at cooking burn him/herself seriously when attempting to make some ramen soup?

I know this isn't a suggestion topic and you probably have tons of ideas regarding difficulty, but maybe you could look into this style of fighting where you bash zombies with a melee weapon, instantly turn 180 degrees, run/walk away for a couple of meters, repeat. It doesn't feel very zombiemovie-like that every overweight average joe can do it, but is effectice tactic for every kind of character. If that could be nerfed somehow, it would make combat feel more threatening. I'm not saying it's not a fun way to fight and must be changed, it just feels bit gamey and nerfing it might be one way to make the game harder. Slowing the turning rate might make exploring houses fustrating, though, since it is fast and convenient to just turn your head to check both sides of a door after entering a room in real life and dying because you slowly turn into a wrong direction doesn't feel fair. On the other hand, having some kind of exhaustion penalties for accelerating or sharp turns might feel unintuitive for new players. Slowing accelaration could also do the trick, but overdoing it might make controls seem unresponsive and isn't realistic anymore.

I feel like Minecraft was also going to be a survival horror game at one point in it's development and also had this problem of lategame becoming boring. Instead of making the game harder, Mojang solved it by adding more stuff to build and explore ( with the help of numerous modders ). I like the fact that TiS is taking a different approach and putting more emphasis on the survival gameplay. Not that I want it, but PZ could also turn into a peacefull building game. Just add some kind of redstone system to automate farming and maybe even grinding of zombies, then there could be new decorations, because every survivor needs some nice curtains and a hottub. Maybe some zombies could also drop rare seeds that can be farmed for making fancy paint, rare cool looking clothes, etc.. You got the point.

I predict that there will be no more of those moments when you remember to check your health screen after running for hours straight without stopping and then notice you are about to die of blood loss in minutes, but you didn't think it was serious because there were no effects on gameplay. Maybe there will even be some kind of limping animation? Also NPC HYPE

I wonder if the dog barking can simulate YOU having a dog while there are no living animals in the game. I.e with bad luck the barking might come from your safehouse and will lure all the nearby zombies there..

Don't take this as a fact, but I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that there will be new animations. With luck zombies will get some new mechanics too. Small things on that department would have great effect on gameplay, since fighting zombies is kinda big part of the game. Crawlers are a good example. Some people might disagree, but I think they made encounters with zombies a lot more fun and interesting.

As someone interested in AI I find it exciting that they are aiming high with the NPCs and am also gratefull for every insight into the process of creating them. Btw, here is an idea for mondoid, if TiS ever needs one: It would be interesting to hear about some weird bugs that have caused the NPCs to behave strangely before they were fixed. I'm bet there have been some along the way and those kind of updates are fun and interesting to read, for me atleast.

yes, here in middle europe it takes decades for buildings. Only grass and small plants are growing fast. I meant how fast it will happen in PZ with default settings.

Nice to see the devs cooperating with modmakers and the changing seasons are a welcome addition. Some nice eye candy for surviving until winter makes you appreciate more how far you have come. I wonder at what speed the erosion happens. Any info on that ? I hope there won't be trees everywhere after a month, but it could be a nice visual reward for playing on one save for years.

I would also like that, atleast as a sandbox option. Would be cool to set initial zombie numbers to normal, but make zombie migration escalate over time. So that if you survive for a year, your farm or fortress will be totally surrounded by zeds and you are making a hopeless last stand when they eventually break trough. And there would be nowhere to run, when the whole gameworld would be dense with zombies.

If the mall will have a bookstore it will be a must visit in most cases.

1. Several UI issues: I like the idea behind the inventory system - it is fast once you get used to it. But sometimes it's hard to select multiple items, because you accidentally open the menu with "drop", "drop all", etc. choices by hovering cursor in a wrong spot. Also, some houses have sinks that are kinda hard to use. The "drink" - option sometimes just doesn't appear and you have to go fill your gardening spray cans from neighbour's toilet. Speaking of the gardening spray cans, it seemed almost impossible to empty all of them in a row and then go fill them all together. When I had emptied one or two the game stopped recognizing I still have water in others. 2. Horde migrations: I know this is going to be added sooner or later, but I hope it happens sooner rather than later. In the current version single player games get easy after you get your farming going and the area near your safehouse cleared. I miss those moments when you wake up in the morning and find out your house is totally surrounded by zeds.. This would make zeds a constant threat like they should be imo. and give those players who have reached the safety and relative stability of lategame something to worry about before NPC:s are in. 3. Effects from moodles: This would also add more difficulty to the game and make some of the features already implemented worth using. -Depression: My suggestion for semi-realism: Make actions take much longer when you have depression and random change of not being able to sleep ( some use for sleeping tablets ) or sleeping for too long. -More levels of exhaustion : Makes it harder to just run everywhere without care. If you run for a whole day, maybe you shouldn't be able to escape a horde of zeds anymore ? Am I the only one who thinks it would be a good move to make zombie encounters more dangerous before NPCs get implemented ? --- OFFTOPIC: Because this is my first post I feel like I have to say that I like the direction where this game is going and all the ambitious plans the development team has for it. And it is already pretty interesting game with an unique creepy atmosphere in it, so good job, Indie Stone!