Fortport

Get me out of here, already.

These would be marvelous things for setting the mood, and also giving the zombies something to do; eat corpses! It would make you feel like you jump into an apocalypse, not a world that suddenly had all human life stripped away, and zombies thrown in. I want to walk outside, take a deep breath in.. smell the ashes, see some zombies munching on corpses, distracted.. sneak past 'em while stepping over bodies to check crashed cars for loot.

Some windows could already be smashed, just a few, besides the ones NPCs break. More garbage could be littering the floors of buildings and stores, to give that looted/run down/closed look. Everything looks like it's still open and ready to go, even with erosion.

Maybe over time, alongside erosion, buildings could get dirtier or start missing floor tiles. Worn out walls, etc.

we should be able to use wet towels as a weapon.

Sniping zombies with a silencer from your apartment would be nice.

Can't do anything from a different level at the moment. That needs to be added in.

[ !Wall of text! ]

I can't quite play the new version until a few hours from now, but I have been reading up about the endurance system. I totally agree that backing off over and over pointlessly breaks up the pacing, but..

Well, with the new system, you're balancing that I see! I just want to know if it holds up well with your well of energy. Think of it this way: you can still get exhausted after facing so many zombies at once, in one fight.. right? Taking on eight zombies could still be a challenge, a daunting one; I cannot imagine a survivor kiting that many zombies around, beating them all down without getting winded, and then suddenly beginning to get tired from exhaustion hours later.

Maybe there could be temporary stamina, and then long-term? Use up your temporary stamina, and when you recover, that counts against your long-term energy?

As a demonstration, let's say we kill eight zombies in the morning. The last one goes down, but now you're out of breath.. some heard the scuffle, and are coming your way. You have to run off and hide because your stamina is low. Fighting them now would be suicide, because you're too slow to take on another horde. You use the remainder of your strength to quickly walk off and escape. Now you're back home. It's noon, and your body's a little bit tired. You've rested, you're not sleepy.. but if you took on eight more zombies, you would get more tired by the time you knocked down the fifth or sixth! And so on!

So basically, the more stamina you use, the less you have when you recover! Not only that, but you get less vigorous when you're ready again. After taking on a little horde and resting up, your strikes don't have that much oomph. Your running isn't as quick.

This might make firearms good for people who are overweight, or don't want to put up with fighting using stamina. As it stands, I think guns could use a little more affection; they're impractical and rare, with the system before. Melee is too simple and easy, while firearms are at the other end of the spectrum. Just, why bother?

It also makes stealth a more viable option, when it's more fleshed out! Sneaking becomes the way to go, as it should be.  I don't think anybody runs out and kills fifty zombies with a bat, in one day, without getting scratched, bitten, or maimed. Especially if he took them all on in chunks, rather than singling out the ones he needed to get rid of.

I may have slipped off the main point a little bit, but I still think this adds up to it. Just my thoughts.

READ THIS POST FIRST BEFORE REPLYING! DO NOT SKIM OVER THIS, PLEASE; READ EVERY DETAIL.

I made a similar post to this in the "exhaustion feedback" topic. This mechanic has always been vague and difficult to understand unless it was explained to you via a text document. This almost means, every time, that if someone new doesn't known about the tutorial they'll consequently miss out on this mechanic.

There's no visible representation of this, in-game, audibly or visibly of the science happening. It's no wonder everyone doesn't understand.

Your character stands and attacks the same regardless if he's "charged" or spam-attacking. So here are my suggestions. There are numerous ways we can accomplish this without having text notifications in the corner of your game, or some immersion-breaking gauge-bar on the side.
 
More or less your character visibly winding up with their weapon, and becoming slightly rigid when it's "charged." When you attack from this stance, and connect, the screen jerks and the hit-sound is more crunchy and audible, thus voicing its effectiveness.. and ultimately making this technique more satisfying and easy to notice.
  The cursor could also have a reticule around it that, when charging, fills to the edge and pulses when ready.
  When wound up with your weapon, the character can begin rotating his weapon subtly in a batter fashion, looking more ready for that perfect, solid swing.
  Zombies, when hit by a charged attack, could recoil with a different animation. Like they got hit really hard, compared to your standard swing. For example, their head snapping to the side on impact, with their torso rotating. Anything to let the player know that this is working more than erratically spam-clicking.


 

Get me out of here, already.

When I use a wet towel, and it basically becomes wet forever, never drying out.. I kinda just scratch my head and eventually throw it away for more space.

Highly unrealistic and not practical.

When I use a wet towel, and it basically becomes wet forever, never drying out.. I kinda just scratch my head and eventually throw it away for more space.

Highly unrealistic and not practical.

Y'know, I was thinking that with this new animator.. why not just add a "winding up" animation? Pulling the weapon back a little slowly, and then when its peaked, tensing up a little, ready to swing?

It would tell players that your character is "charging" an attack, and that there's something happening, while making it fluid enough to not break up a sloppy, fast swing. People just don't see a difference between charging and crazily attacking; and there really isn't any feedback, in-game, during combat that lets the player know there's even a charging system. The fact they have to open up a tutorial and such might seem a little excessive, when you can make it immediately obvious without breaking immersion with a gauge, or meter.

BEFORE RESPONDING, READ THIS BEFORE POSTING.
 
Currently, firearms are really dangerous to fight with and are not very useful compared to melee weapons. Guns are not practical in-game; they're loud, difficult to reload, and ammunition is scarce. They're also very rare to find modifications for that make them more manageable.

The only pros I can think of for using these weapons, is their raw power and ranged attacks. They also do not require any exertion of energy to use.
  On the other side of the spectrum, melee weapons are more quiet, easier to repair and maintain but at the cost of eating up energy.


So what's the problem here? In my opinion, guns are too much trouble to even want to use despite the satisfaction. Everyone is going to use melee, and ignore the guns unless they have extremely rare/hard to access modifications.

The result is a lopsided sort of balance here. Everyone uses melee, and guns are for people who want to get killed, usually. I wish there was some other way to do this, but I don't know what exactly to suggest, other than fixing this somehow.

What do you all think?





 

These would be marvelous things for setting the mood, and also giving the zombies something to do; eat corpses! It would make you feel like you jump into an apocalypse, not a world that suddenly had all human life stripped away, and zombies thrown in. I want to walk outside, take a deep breath in.. smell the ashes, see some zombies munching on corpses, distracted.. sneak past 'em while stepping over bodies to check crashed cars for loot.

Some windows could already be smashed, just a few, besides the ones NPCs break. More garbage could be littering the floors of buildings and stores, to give that looted/run down/closed look. Everything looks like it's still open and ready to go, even with erosion.

Maybe over time, alongside erosion, buildings could get dirtier or start missing floor tiles. Worn out walls, etc.

When I use a wet towel, and it basically becomes wet forever, never drying out.. I kinda just scratch my head and eventually throw it away for more space.

Highly unrealistic and not practical.

When I use a wet towel, and it basically becomes wet forever, never drying out.. I kinda just scratch my head and eventually throw it away for more space.

Highly unrealistic and not practical.

Yeah, there are bath towels and stuff. When you use them to dry off from the rain, they get wet. And they never dry off, thus becoming totally useless.

I noticed that a lot of the time, you never ever get hurt or need the medical skill if you're "lucky." I can play the whole game for days without getting any kind of injury, and it makes the medical update feel tame, underwhelming.

So, let's throw in some more stuff that can hurt you, based on random chance! Maybe. Let's make it realistic though, so it's something you expect and are not infuriated by.

You're a beginner at carpentry, and here you are trying to barricade windows. You've done two or three planks, and this is your first time. SUDDENLY, BAM, you smack your thumb with the hammer! It hurts a lot, and you need to take those painkillers you have, and get a bag of ice.

Or, you're sawing planks when you realize you've got some really nasty blisters and sores. Preparing food when you cut your finger, due to your low cooking skill; and this is random mind you. How about hopping fences, when you're not really that nimble.. and get a tiny cut from the wire fence getting your ankle at the top.

None of these things are extremely major, and you can keep going on in the middle of a chase without it killing you. But these things need to be tended to eventually, to get them to heal faster. Gives medical stuff a purpose, and a way to level up the skill. And hey, the more pain you get in? The more you learn, in that particular instance of using the skill in question.

As it stands, it's so hard to be applicable that it may as well not even be there, you don't notice it or have a reason to use it.

Lucky should help with these things, but they're simply uncommon as it is. Unlucky could make them worse, but still not as common.

There's no way. This has to be a bug, then. It makes the water and power not shut off as soon, last I checked. I am tempted to go make two separate characters right now and find this out myself. I'm pretty sure it also does things with fishing, and foraging.
But, seriously, I never get cut by windows or set off alarms. Really stressin' that, and I break into buildings, hop through broken windows all the time.

Agreed, actually.

Read my first, original post, please! That's exactly what I asked for, and I explained everything there.

It's not that it's complex, it's that it's vague, sorry. People do not see the difference, or even know that spamming is less effective. Hence "wind-up" during that second which you wait, and all this other stuff to make it seem like it has more oomph, because most people can't tell.
Apparently newbies everywhere are spam-clicking, getting frustrated, and blaming the game instead of themselves; this is bad. Things need to be clear to the player so that when they die it's their own fault or carelessness.
If they die because of unclear mechanics, they will think they're playing an awful game, or that Project Zomboid's combat is terrible/underwhelming when it really isn't, at its core.. with the currently hidden charge attack.
If you consider this suggestion though, and it's implemented.. the game will become that much less like an arcade beat-em-up to new players. They will understand that it "requires effort to puncture a zombie skull!"
All without reading the guide, flaming on the forums, or debating with people. And that's how it should be, in my opinion.
 

If only there were a waaay..

That's a relief.. but, the sooner the better, y'know?

Agreed. Someone in another thread said that the overall feel of a freshly generated world in PZ was that of someone having waved a wand and transformed all of the people into zombies. There are some concessions to the sort of carnage you'd expect implemented in the game, but no barricaded houses, no signs of resistance or struggle, few corpses not of the player's own making, etc.

I didn't even know there were wet towels but I ain't played the game for a long while. Been waiting for an update like the last one but now I'm on holiday and can't play :'(