Aenye Deithven

O_o ...I want a zipline for my safehouse ! This would be an insanely fun idea in terms of travel, especially in the centre fo WP. ^^

When surviving in an urban zone, sure, but what about woodland survival ? Just an example, really, what can be done with the stuff on your back + a little ingenuity. If I may, let's reverse the question - what use would you see for clothing (apart from the obvious and what I've already said, of course) ?

One can come up with a myriad uses for old clothes - i.e. you can even carry water in them short distances if the piece is made of sufficiently thick / soak-resistant resistant material. Holders could be just the start for a whole new set of "desperate times" recipes.

Would also work on any organic matter - plastic was my first thought, but there's a lot more organic stuff out there... ^^

The longsword discussion (don't worry, I'm not going to get started on that one) reminded me of something interesting - Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment". It might be strange that discussion of visiting bloody murder upon the undead made a mental connection to a classic of literature, but... Gaffa Tape Warrior said this: "A sword is convienient; you can wear it on your belt and have both hands free for climbing and carrying and working." in the longsword thread. The fragment of the story I'm referring to has Raskolnikov use his old shirt (AFAIR) to make a loop and hang an axe in it. So, why not have clothes / sheets / sheet rope be craftable into a "makeshift scabbard" of sorts ? Equip it, hang a weapon and have it ready to be drawn in an instant. I would see this linked with a hotkey to make you drop whatever else you had in your hands onto the ground and equip the "holstered" weapon. What do you think about it ?

Seems legit. Having too many of them might be troublesome (no need to look for water anymore, but if we have a river nearby, that's pretty much the same case), so maybe one or two working ones and a few more toppled / no longer operational ?

Writing a journal with a sword = epic win !

Yes, you could, but the steel for common tools is ...not of the highest possible quality to say the very least. Even so, you would end up with a partially sharpened rod of metal - pretty much a blunt weapon rather than a sword. Breakage might not be that much of an issue, but deformation would be a major problem - the "rod" would get bent, twisted and distorted really fast. Construction steel is marginally better, but it's still crappy and the quality alloy steel would be extremely hard to work without damaging it severely. Seriously, take those sawblades from McCoy and fashion them into polearms - these could be a really scary weapon with some thoght...

I'd bet my money that some of the Ph.D. students owuldn't even have noticed the zombie apocalypse. ;-D "Zombies ? Sod the lot, I've got a report to file in by next week !"

Also useful as a hub for stashing stuff on looting trips, instead of having to make the trip to your safehouse each time. Not necessarily "stealthy" (for MP), but I imagine that if one was built a bit out of the way, it could avoid detection, unless being actually sought for.

These two are a confirmed no by the devs. As for the rest of your post, it sounds interesting, but could use some more detail (what I imagine, based on having read through is still rather unclear) - could you maybe elaborate ?

Spears would be nice and easy, but with just a bit more skill, one could make bladed polearms, such as glaives (possibly using the machete that has popped up in this thread every now and then). I'd argue the "obscenely low" part. Without more advanced machinery, the only type of sword blade you could make would be a soft edge smithed around a hard core. While this would give you a large and durable bladed weapon, it would have to be re-tempered quite often, unless you wanted it to become more of a club... That said, making a sword per se might not be the best solution, when we consider the fact that we have the logging company around. Indeed, the circular sawblades used in the wood industry are made of high quality alloy steel - beyond anything else you could find around a typical town... Why not use these ?

Well, yes, but after that, there is not much more bonding to be done. ;-D You got it with Zelda - in my mind, Link is a droid. Where should I send the cookies to ? ^^

I may be a bit strange then, but I find it strange when I can't hear my character (theoretically being perfectly capable of speech) make a single noise (I can understand that voice acting all the dialogues for a RPG might be "slightly" extreme), even in cutscenes (if any are present in the game). Some jRPGs actually managed to annoy me to no end, when the main character's only dialogue through the entire game was "..." (if you know which game I'm tlaking about, you deserve a cookie). So, as Dr Cox said, optional talking characters would be the way to go - pity it's going to be "quite a while" before I can even start expecting such an addition.

Short and sweet one this time - let's add some more sounds to PZ ! The music does a great job at establishing the mood and the "you got a skill point" sound almost gave me a heart attack once or twice - love it ! So, what should we ask for ? My first thought was more background noises to keep the adrenaline high. We already have thunder, rainfall, the occasional rustling bushes and of course various moans. So, how about the occasional house / car alarm in the distance ? The sound of breaking glass just-beyond-a-corner ? A shrill scream or two ? Maybe a firefight flaring up being suddenly silenced ? Wind howling in the empty streets ? Another lovely little thing to get would be audible survivor taunts (Q hotkey), so that I could hear my guy / girl shouting. Actually, a brilliantly evil idea came to my mind - let's convince TIS do a bit of voice acting for that purpose - no idea why, but the mental image of a gritty RJ, shotgun in one hand and cat rabbit jerky in the other comes to my mind... ^^ What are your thoughts on this ? Any more audio that could be included ?

Furthermore, if we ever get 3D terain, it could (well, with some added structural support - think: leaning log wall) easily be used for camouflage, with people walking over it without noticing. That's just daydreaming on my part. Not sure about the structural integrity of a sod + plaster composite, but wood would (sorry about the tongue non-twister) do a great job. Carpentry skill levels could unlock different types of walls, though I'd love to have more source on that.

Anything flashy that would draw too much attention (any attention is too much attention) to my person - safer to have a "background" power. Also, redirect the flow of the thread - get quoted a lot time, it seems.

This is a good idea, but I would use such a technique to build outposts and waystations for looting runs into the city or for hiding points (camouflaged shelter, anyone ?) rather than for the main fortress.

If you wanted to get those several thousand RPMs, no "unmodified" source of running water would do the trick, as you would have to have the water rushing at a very high speed as well. This is typically realised by choosing a location where a significant "drop (or difference in the altitudes at which water flows) is attainable. With such a place at hand, water is drawn from the upper reservoir into a pipe with a progressively smaller diameter, so as to build up pressure and, therefore, velocity at which it leaves the pipe through a proper nozzle (selecting the one best suited to your turbine can be tricky). For turbines operating at high RPMs (such as an alternator would be), several nozzles are typically used. Sure, this gives you great efficiency (mind the diameter of the turbine though), but a floating waterwheel is much simpler to set up, such as this kiddie project: Sure, they're not very efficient and won't give you LOADS of power, but give a steady trickle, require virtually no maintenance and can use any old river, without the need of building a special infrastructure. This actually sounds viable for PZ - would keep your lights on, but not much more. Several could charge a battery bank in ...reasonable time (several days at the least), enabling the periodical use of power tools - not sure why, but my mind keeps whispering *welder* to me. Well, one could possibly build a dam and get to flood the whole of WP beneath their own lake, which would be awesome, but that seems "kind of" beyond the scope of zombie survival.

I would go with steel chain - should be in abundance (particularly around the logging co.), while sufficiently strong (thick) rope might be unavailable. Actually, no need to drive thre logs into the ground - dig a pit and put them in - might require 'a bit' of strength to achieve though. Essentially, yes, though if it were to keep out zeds, you might want to have a bit of a support from the inside, to avoid it collapsing, especially when the ground gets soft after prolonged rainfall... PS: Also post 200, yay !

While pain typically signals damage, essentially it is just a sensation - information making its way to the brain. "Time for some information exchange" said the executioner, taking out the white hot poker from the furnace.

Actually, both of you forgot about another fun fact - what's your pain tolerance ? No need for a prison, when torture may be used to turn you into a sobbing heap for all eternity. That and being unable to be hurt / die, would make you a wonderful training subject for new techniques... That's a lovely power ! If I'm not mistaken the first one that is aimed only at having fun.

Indeed, dowels would do the trick quite nicely. That said, in many countries there are highlanders who build their log houses without any nails / dowels whatsoever. How is that possible ? Simplifying, the process goes like this: The logs have their ends cut in such a way as to form a "patchwork", which holds them together (typically in a rectangular / square pattern). The top of each layer is then flattened and smeared with mud (to act as the binding agent upon drying), onto which the next layer of logs is added. The roof depends on culture, but once again, a "patchwork" approach allows logs to be 'locked' in place, across the last layer of wall-logs, forming the scaffold for the roof. In some cases, the corners of the house may be further reinforced by digging a pit and placing a log upright into it, to act as a bracer for the layers. For an impromtu resource on building without nails, look here

How about shogi ? Also, reality consumption and balloon mimicry. Strangely fitting, in light of what I said about myself in this thread... oh well, it's good to be a children's toy.

We're not, but we get to feel even little changes when prowling outdoors for a while - most people look at the thermometer before going outside, so as to dress adequately. Not saying that we should distinguish between 21.35*C and 21.37*C, but it would be nice to have need for more sets of apparel than eskimo/naked. Seasonal changes of weather, as well as the day / night cycle could do wonders for planning looting trips into town - take less clothes but end up with a flu due to wandering the chilly night away or take more and risk overheating / throwing them away along the way, when a surprisingly warm day comes ? I'd like that, wouldn't you ?