lysergic

I think two things could help. First, and this is the big one: NPC's. Having to manage a group and keep it together and keep everyone alive, dealing with people dying in their sleep and turning, trying to go from a scrappy group of survivors trying to scavenge to a town (instead of just building a base for yourself and calling it a day). Especially if there are things like wildlife (hunting and hostile wildlife like packs of wolves) and raiders. Second, more infrastructure-style buildings. The power and water failure should be more than just an on/off switch for the whole world. There should be power plants and distribution stations near the towns, water pumping and purifying centers, etc. Stuff that would be too much for a single person to fix up by themselves, but for a big group of survivors (player + NPC's or MP groups) with fully leveled skills could be good endgame goals: fixing up, maintaining, and controlling things like power, water, rail systems, etc. If they go that route, they can also expand out the construction / metalworking skill with foundries and machine shops / fabrication shops that you can clear out and control (to make stuff like replacement parts when stuff breaks - either to use themselves or sell to groups that control the infrastructure).

Are there any plans for making power plants actual locations in the game? I see that there are two near Louisville - a hydroelectric station and natural gas station (that would have been coal at the time PZ is set). If these locations are planned, are there also plans to expand the power outage event to include gameplay around these locations (and presumably other substations / power lines throughout the map)? It would be cool for MP to have these two different locations you could secure to try to generate power, and having to repair substations in each town/neighborhood to be able to restore parts of the grid. And also for water; are there plans for pumping stations, water treatment plants, and those sorts of industrial locations?

Small QOL suggestion (I'm sure this is coming in a future patch, but worth pointing out just in case): It would be super nice if the presets for a Custom game matched the three new game modes (Surviver, Brawler, Builder). They still use the preset values for the old Survival difficulty levels. Wanted to start with Brawler but tweak a few things, and found I wasn't able to yet. Also seconding the suggestion to be able to save our starting clothing / character options as a preset so we can quickly remake our characters (now that we die so often! xP).

Wow; the moment when the player came around the corner of the warehouse, and all the zombies started standing up and turning to look at him and he noped out was great. Hadn't thought of how animations will improve even little things like that. Looks great - I can't wait to play it! Are there plans to add reload animations for guns? I didn't see any for the shotgun parts, but might have missed it. Though I guess maybe waiting until doing the full firearms rework makes sense too.

This is a neat idea, though I'm not sure about this bit: I love the idea of combat being a coordinated effort, but from a gameplay perspective, I can't see it being very fun to be in a windowless weapons room pressing a button whenever your teammate radios down to you. Wouldn't really be satisfying, imo. Having players be members of the bridge crew would be more fun, though I'm sure everyone would gravitate towards weapons officer or security or pilot as opposed to, say, communications officer or catering or whatnot. xD

@Connall: pz-server@frontier-entertainment:~$ ls -ltotal 20-rw-r--r-- 1 pz-server pz-server 1363 Apr 7 15:05 pz-server-part2.sh-rw-r--r-- 1 pz-server pz-server 905 Apr 7 15:05 pz-server-start.sh-rw-r--r-- 1 pz-server pz-server 1389 Apr 7 15:05 pz-server-update.shdrwxr-xr-x 7 pz-server pz-server 4096 Apr 22 05:47 Steamdrwxr-xr-x 6 pz-server pz-server 4096 Apr 22 05:14 steamcmdpz-server@frontier-entertainment:~$ cd /home/pz-server/Steam/steamapps/common/ProjectZomboidpz-server@frontier-entertainment:~/Steam/steamapps/common/ProjectZomboid$ ls -ltotal 12drwxr-xr-x 19 pz-server pz-server 4096 Apr 22 05:44 projectzomboid-rwxr-xr-x 1 pz-server pz-server 881 Apr 22 05:50 projectzomboid-dedi-server.sh-rwxr-xr-x 1 pz-server pz-server 864 Apr 22 05:14 projectzomboid.shpz-server@frontier-entertainment:~/Steam/steamapps/common/ProjectZomboid$@harakka: dos2unix seems to have worked; I can successfully start the server manually now. As far as screen goes, I've used it successfully in the past to run a Minecraft server. No clue why it isn't working now. o.0 EDIT: Huh; after having used dos2unix, the server start script seems to work properly, too, as does screen. Thanks for the help! xD

Can get through most of the install correctly, but I still seem to get hung up on the same part as when I manually installed. After successfully running the install script, I edit proper RAM values for the server and log in as pz-server. However, when I try to "bash pz-server-start.sh," I get: pz-server@frontier-entertainment:~$ bash pz-server-start.shRunning debian wheezy, continuing=====WELCOME TO PROJECT ZOMBOID SERVER START SCRIPT==========Script Created by: Connall Lindsay=====Killing all screens...Starting screen.../var/run/screen/S-pz-server/11992.pts-1.frontier-entertainment: No such file or directoryServer started.pz-server@frontier-entertainment:~$ When I try to "screen -dr" first, I get, "There is no screen to be detached." So I "screen," and I get: pz-server@frontier-entertainment:~$ screen/var/run/screen/S-pz-server/11992.pts-1.frontier-entertainment: No such file or directoryAnd if I simply don't use screen at all, I wind up with: pz-server@frontier-entertainment:~$ cd /home/pz-server/Steam/steamapps/common/ProjectZomboidpz-server@frontier-entertainment:~/Steam/steamapps/common/ProjectZomboid$ ./projectzomboid-dedi-server.shbash: ./projectzomboid-dedi-server.sh: /bin/bash^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directorypz-server@frontier-entertainment:~/Steam/steamapps/common/ProjectZomboid$Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

You don't need to use bash, but even if you're not using it. It is entirely possible the dedi-server file is not present. Navigate to the folder where the file should be and do ls -l and see if the file is actually in that folder. I just used my equivalent of FileZilla to check, and it is. Just to verify:

Okay, I've updated to Wheezy. I've gotten all the server files. I bashed the linked glibc dependency. I managed to start the server once, but accidentally ran it while I was logged in as root, resulting in an error where it did not find my Zomboid folder (which was, of course, in user steam's home folder). To avoid having to switch back to root, I did visudo and gave steam root access. I then su'd back to steam, navigated to the directory where all the files were (the exact same file architecture used by OP), and tried to run the server again. I get "bash: ./projectzomboid-dedi-server.sh: /bin/bash^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directory". No flipping clue why. I even used sudo bash on the glibc file again and then tried running the server again, and it just won't start - no such file every time. Any suggestions?

What is this dependency? I'm running Squeeze, not Wheezy, and I can't get that to bash. Pretty sure it's what is preventing me from getting my server started, since I can't run the dedi-server.sh either. Do you have a Squeeze version? Or would installing/updating glibc as a whole solve the issue? No, the server requires wheezy. Squeeze is EOLing soon. Urgh. Dx

Connell: What is this dependency? I'm running Squeeze, not Wheezy, and I can't get that to bash. Pretty sure it's what is preventing me from getting my server started, since I can't run the dedi-server.sh either. Do you have a Squeeze version? Or would installing/updating glibc as a whole solve the issue?

EDIT 3: Wow; I'm obviously way too tired to be doing this. Got the files. >.>

Why does it take so many damn tries to download those files? All I want to do is go to bed and finish setting up in the morning. Dx Judging from the larger file size this time around, I'm thinking this'll finally be it.

Just because I have to deal with rush hour traffic, paying for gas, and the potential for wrecks in REAL life doesn't mean that cars don't make my life easier.

We can look at cars in one of two ways 1. What's 'realistic' ? 2. What's good for the game? 1. In Mul I'd imagine there are almost as many cars as people. The great US of A is a big country and it's useful to have a car to get around much more so than say here in the UK although others would not attest to that. As (I'm pretty sure) I've already said, in the wake of a panic like this it'd simply be impossible to completely empty the fuel tank of every car. People would crash, people would panic and leave their car and so on. 2. I'm not sure having lots of cars to get around is good for game balancing when the game is already painfully easy as it is. There needs to be trade-off. If there is one thing Minecraft has taught us[1] is that we appreciate something a lot more if we have to earn it. PZ understands this so you love your axe when you finally have it. You love your safe-house when it's finally built. And so it should be with cars. They all should have something wrong with them. Maybe a faulty spark plug, maybe a flat tyre, by taking one off another and putting it on the soon-to-be working car you'd appreciate it a lot more. If you then make the cars easy to damage by Z's. If you make running over Z's a very bad idea for the car. You'll treat it with care. Last point. I think the cars could be useful. There may be mini stories or perhaps something that ties in with companions or family that you need to drive to another town. At the moment there is only Mul. and WP. However if there were other towns which were over 20-30 + miles away then finding a car would have greater significance. It'd also give the game a wonderful The Walking Dead feel. 'We need to go here to try and find Ben' etc [1] Except that the sound 'Hsssss' is to be feared above all others. Agreed that there are tons of cars in the US, and fuel is common enough that I doubt you'd ever get into a situation where it'd be terribly scarce (i.e. you could always siphon from abandoned cars, siphon from gas stations - though they'd be the first to run out - or simply loot it, since I know quite a few people who keep a bit of spare gas at their house). I think people worrying about balance with cars are being a bit silly. I mean, think about it. Has anyone in here ever BEEN in a situation where there was a mass evacuation and panic? I lived in New Orleans during Katrina and got to evacuate with everyone else. The interstate was essentially a giant parking lot and it took hours to get out. Every street from the moment we left our house to when we arrived in Houston was intensely congested. You would definitely have to deal with that in a zombie apocalypse, but with the addition that walking corpses would be coming up and turning the congested freeways into an all-you-can-eat buffet. In other words, the idea that after a huge catastrophe with the accompanying evacuation ANYONE would be able to hop into a car and rampage about town GTA-style, running over zombies and enjoying the free, open road is just ludicrous. A) You wouldn't be able to go a block without having something in your way (crashed cars, abandoned cars, etc.). That means no 100-mph-zombie-horde-ramming. Just wouldn't happen. You'd have to go through the entire town with a crew and push empty vehicles out of the way to clear the roads first. And B) As has already been pointed out, cars aren't very tough. They dent easily, they don't really fare well in collisions... Hell, a buddy of mine TOTALED his car by hitting a deer late at night. Now imagine a crowd of 20 zombies. And if you're worried that you can simply swerve out of the way, cars don't handle very well off-road unless they're designed for it. Moreover, once that zombie crowd gets AROUND your car, game over. Seriously. It doesn't take much to stop a car. Don't believe me? http://www.streetfire.net/video/top-gear-mercedes-cl65-amg-car-review_694484.htm Skip to around the 7:00 minute mark to see 8 dudes win in tug of war against a Mercedes CL65. Now imagine you're in something you might actually find on the street (like a Honda Civic). The best part of having cars in the game would be a mobile container / secure bed. Other than that, I'm not terribly worried that cars will turn the game into some free-for-all GTA rampage. One final note, just because there are cars everywhere doesn't mean that you'll be able to hop in one and take off. Again, just think: You're on the interstate, during the evacuation. You're in your car. You hear screams up ahead. You turn the car off, grab your keys, and hop out to see what's going on. You see a horde coming to you, and take off running. Some dude later finds your car. Except... you ran off with the keys months ago, and are probably a zombie wandering into the next state by now. Unless the dude is a professional car thief who can hotwire a car without ruining it (since modern cars have anti-theft systems SPECIFICALLY designed to make it difficult to hotwire a car - it's not like a movie where you just stick a screwdriver in the ignition, give it a turn, and go), then you'd better start checking corpses for car keys. You don't need to have every car you encounter randomly have a bad spark plug. That would be silly, unrealistic, and unnecessary. All you need is a key item linked to the car. Some cars will still have keys in the ignition (or maybe in a drawer in the house they're parked outside of), but most cars that you find randomly out and about will be locked up tight with the keys far away. And I imagine that you'll spend enough time having to fix up your car (once you find the keys to it) that having every car by default have something wrong with it is unnecessarily annoying. Trust me, they'll break down plenty after you drive them around a bit. It's not like there'll be road crews filling in pot holes - get ready for broken tire rods galore.