Moose65

Correct

Small update to the guide. Added a small section in Miscellaneous about "The Herbalist" magazine, which essentially gives you the Herbalist trait for free. Spawn locations listed for it in the guide.

I've created a new foraging guide since my old post on here was archived. Here is a link to it on steam http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=556622628 It is current as of IWBUMS build 33, and includes the new herbs as well as the new poison mechanics. Enjoy

Hey RJ, I was just curious......is the mortar and pestle not suppose to spawn at the pharmacy? And slightly off topic, I noticed antibiotics don't spawn at the pharmacy either.....which is kinda weird. Did 3 runs with normal loot, then another run with loot on abundant + lucky. I'm gonna guess Cortman's medical is the only place these 2 items are currently spawning, hopefully that will change though :/ Edit: lol, started a playthrough in muldraugh and cortman medical was already burned down...... Edit Edit: Just tried looting Cortman once at regular settings, and again at very abundant + lucky. If this item is suppose to spawn there, then its simply too rare. Edit Edit Edit: Well, now i feel dumb. You make it out of a....plank? That is not at all what I imagine when I was thinking of mortar and pestle. Also, it requires carpentry 2. I guess its fine to leave as a crafted item, but it would be nice to find at the pharmacy at least.

Sorry, but that really does seem to come off a bit as condescending. Unfortunately, I've yet to see any of the developers comment on better trait descriptions, even when I brought up the point several times when feedback was asked for traits. Again, its kinda hard for people to give accurate feedback when you may not even know if its working (like night owl) or what it exactly does (lucky is one of those traits that requires you to check the wiki or forums for what it actually does). If your able to decompile and check the code so you can personally know what resilient does, then congratulations. But it shouldn't be assumed that everyone is capable of doing that, and I'm sure several people would like to at least have a bit more knowledge for how some traits work (again, exact numbers don't have to be revealed, but for example, if prone of illness meant you were more likely to catch zombification, regular infections, and/or colds, that would help evaluate it much more), and which ones are currently completely broken. When the only source of information that we do get comes from somebody else decompiling the code, what else are we suppose to assume?

Useful information, and its definitely less of a drawback than one would imagine. A more accurate description for this then would be "Slower XP gains with weapons."

You sure you don't mean Cat's Eyes? The developers even said at one point that it does nothing atm.

Some of the trait descriptions are a bit lacking, and not fully understandable. Some of them don't even work atm. Here is a list of traits that could use some cleaning up or explanations. Baseball Player: Currently states +1 Blunt Accuracy. From what I understand, RJ said it also provides slightly faster swings with bats. Trait should state +1 Blunt Accuracy. Slightly faster bat swings. Justifiable, as blunt weapons atm are slightly weaker than sharp, and it doesn't hurt to provide this info. Lucky/Unlucky: Trolliest trait as far as descriptions go. I understand they may want this to remain as is, but the only things confirmed are loot rolls and repair chances. Not even going to dive into this one. Resilient/Prone to Ilness: Currently states Less/More prone to disease. Slower/Faster rate of zombification. This could use some clearing up. If this doesn't affect zombification from scratches, and only affects colds (as its believed to atm), it needs cleared up. Was this ever updated to provide resistance to non-zombie infections? Anyways, disease is too broad of a term, especially when there are no diseases in game other than colds (and perhaps zombification if its not space magic). If it does only affect colds, then both traits need major overhauls, as outdoorsmen makes Resilient completely useless, and makes prone to illness a free +2. Pacifist: Never taken this trait honestly, and I really have no idea what exactly it does. Description says Less effective with weapons. Is it simply less damage done, less knockback, less accuracy, less XP gains, and/or hidden skill modifier? Night Owl: Doesn't do anything, should be removed till it does. Axe Man: Currently states Better at chopping trees. Faster axe swing. Better at chopping trees part is kinda vague, but otherwise pretty self-explanatory.

Will do. Slightly confuse, referring to exact mechanics revealed, or a little bit better description/explanation of how mechanics work? I mean I always did take resilient on all my characters as well, BUT, if it doesn't help prevent zombification from scratches, as this thread was indicating, then it is in fact a 100% useless trait, since outdoorsmen makes you immune to colds, and afaik it hasn't been updated to deal with non-zombie infections. Anyways, I understand there are people who don't want traits to be fully explained, but I'm sure there are just as many who feel that slightly more accurate descriptions would be appreciated when planning out their characters. A happy middle ground exists for sure.

I somewhat remember the respawning mechanics discussions from way back. Its been awhile, but I think most of it was caused by confusion on how it worked, with people thinking zombies could repop in front of them, or inside their base, until it was clearly explained. I think a lot of it had more to do with "respawn" being a dirty word, and confusion on how it would work, since people were still hung up on the idea that it was feasible to have zombies constantly spawn in from the edges of the map, but that isn't really possible due to the CPU issues it would cause? Been awhile, but thats what I'm recalling from it. I'm having a little bit of trouble though understanding how useful feedback is when a lot of times it could be simply a placebo effect players are responding to. They may feel safer when they take traits like resilient (like I did), and report that its useful and fairly budgeted, but then report that prone to illness is a death sentence (again, because of how I believed it worked, and the few times I took it I quickly got a zombie infection from scratches, thus giving feedback that this skill is a horrible negative), when, if that code snippet is correct, its indeed free points. Again, it may be obvious that I like to min/max a build at times, for example, if I'm wanting to build someone extremely resistant to zombies, I always take self defense class, thick skin, and resilient (under false pretenses). I also understand that some people don't want exact information revealed. Honestly, I would be happy with a middle ground, with traits telling what they help with, but not necessarily revealing exact numbers. Easy example would be baseball player. Currently it states "+1 Blunt Accuracy". Would it be so harmful to change to "+1 Blunt Accuracy. Slightly faster bat swings." Or if for example, resilient went from saying "Less prone to disease. Slower rate of zombification." to saying "Less prone to colds. Slower rate of zombification." (under the assumption it doesn't work against infection or zombie infection). Mechanics are still hidden, and tooltips are more clearer on what they do.

Fair enough I suppose, but that brings me back to a problem I mentioned a few months ago when they were asking for balance feedback for traits. When we don't even know if some traits work, or what they even affect, it makes it hard to judge them. Case in point again, I bring up Resilient, and to quote the tooltip exactly: ""Less prone to disease. Slower rate of zombification." This trait was brought out long before medical infection, so I'm under the assumption that it doesn't affect regular infections (which I may be wrong, but I don't recall seeing any notes about it). Just going by the text, I "assumed" that it was a second layer of defense against zombification (at least from scratches), and if for some reason you didn't take outdoorsmen (which at 2 points theres no reason other than RP to not take), gave you protection from colds and infection via scratches. But, with the code revealed above (which may not be complete), indicates that it does not affect "zombie" infection chances. I know you could argue that its not a "disease", as they've stated before that it could be space wizards for as far as we know. But with this new knowledge, that trait is now completely worthless, when before I considered it essential for anyone wanting to have extra protection from zombification. As a side effect, that also makes prone to illness completely free points, since colds are the only thing you have to worry about, and outdoorsmen makes you immune. This completely changes my views on both traits, from resilient being useful and a auto include in my builds, while prone to illness being viewed as a death sentence, to resilient now being completely awful and prone to illness another free point no brainer for all builds (since it gives -4, and outdoorsmen completely cancels it while giving you +2). Long story short, if we could at least get better tooltips or explanations on traits that would go a long ways towards clearing up things. While having exact numbers is nice, I understand they may not want to reveal that, so at least saying "hey, resilient does help prevent (zombie) infection", or that they intend for it to work with regular infections, would help a lot. Right now players have to dig to find lots of information, like Night Owl being completely broken, or baseball player providing a bonus to swing speed with bats. Sorry for the long post, but the trait system could definitely use some better tooltips, and if possible, an short explanation on the more confusing ones for what their intended/not intended to do. They can keep infection rates hidden if they really want, but at least it would be nice to know if something like resilient or prone to illness does or does not affect it, or if its simply currently not implemented, but intended to, later on.

If bites are 100% fatal, then that isn't much of an issue. I knew it didn't help in preventing a bite or scratch, but I thought (especially from the wording), that it could help lower the chance for you getting the "zombie infection" from a bite/scratch, thus acting as a second safeguard. If it in fact does none of this, then its broken and useless, seeing as the only other infection that matters is a cold, and outdoorsman prevents those. This is strange, because way back when I was asking for specifics, I was told to dig through the code myself. I understand you may not want it on the official forums, but a lot of people do like to know this specific information, especially since so many traits are confusing on what exactly they do, and many of them have hidden perks and/or simply don't work at all. Would this information be appropriate on the wiki then, since generally people who go to a wiki are looking for specific information such as this (perhaps in a cleaner format).

......and this is why we need to know what exactly traits do. If that's true, then they are both 100% useless (considering they existed before "regular" infections), since the trait outdoorsmen stops you from getting colds, then that would mean resilient is completely useless and prone to illness is 100% free points. I wonder how many other traits are broken.

Nice information......so unless I misread something, bites should always cause a zombie infection? (Personally I have never had a character survive a bite despite others claiming to). But......this leads to an even more important question......how do prone to illness and resilient affect zombie infection? In theory, both of these should modify the chances for zombie infection, but I saw no mention anywhere in the post....which means these traits are almost completely useless, especially since they may not even affect normal infections.

Personally, I'm waiting for the abscess tooth infection, that requires a ice skate + rock to treat

Except for eating a ton of food and sleeping non stop. Common cure for zombifcation.

I laughed at that more than I should have.

Not to mention that poison has never been clearly explained, as well as how its affected by skills going from 5 levels to 10. But that has a lot to do with cooking being a mess in general :/

Here is the major problem with the wiki. It's pretty damn difficult to get exact information, and when I have asked for it in the past, the response has been "delve into the code and figure it out yourself". There are several pages with "opinions" on it that probably don't need to be there, as well as some things that are flat out wrong. I'll see about listing some examples. http://pzwiki.net/wiki/Traits Down at the bottom, way too much opinion. Phobias are great for Adrenaline Junkie builds and clumsy to me personally, has NEVER caused issues. Too much opinion. The Recommendations is out of date, as light drinker, brooding, and short-tempered doesn't even exist now, and with so many food sources it's really hard to recommend light eater. Traits are missing most of their effects because again, we don't know exactly how they work. Weak is missing a pretty big drawback not being listed of not being able to climb sheet ropes. I understand there are a lot of people who want this information "hidden", but if your going to a wiki, your not going there because your afraid of spoilers, your going there because you want detailed information. http://pzwiki.net/wiki/Foraging My pet project for awhile (although I never actually edited the wiki beyond uploading some of the foraging graphics). Some pretty vague info here, like on frog. "Can be butchered for meat". What is that suppose to mean? Anyways, I'm not even sure how buried my foraging guide is on the forums now, but to even eat a frog you need a kitchen or hunting knife if I recall, and the moment you cut into it, it becomes a "perishable" meat. The frog has some weird mechanics because for some reason they didn't code it to rot in its "frog" state. Mushrooms also haven't been updated to state that they can rot now, and berries are missing the fact that they can be used in cakes. http://pzwiki.net/wiki/Occupation Security Guard description is just wrong, as the perk Night Owl doesn't even work, but yet has stayed in the occupation forever. http://pzwiki.net/wiki/Skills Level 0) 0.25x speed Level 1) 1x speed Level 2) 1.25x speed Level 3) 1.5x speed Level 4) 1.5x speed Whole thing is wrong. Level 0 is .25x, level 1 is .75x, level 2 is 1x, and level 3+ is 1.25x http://pzwiki.net/wiki/Cooking Badly outdated, but again, with this being an alpha and cooking left with a lot of bugs and wonky mechanics, I wouldn't even dare touch trying to update this. Please don't take this the wrong way, but again, the wiki is a difficult beast to tackle with the game being in a constant state of change, players not knowing enough detailed information, and some professions (*cough cooking cough*) still having longstanding bugs that hasn't been addressed in.......well.......a very very long time. Edit: This may cause another big discussion of rather or not players should have access to it, but would it be possible to finally get some answers on what traits "actually" do, what their "intended to do, but not working yet"? Night Owl simply needs to be removed as it seems they have no intentions of using it, especially since wakeful is a trait now. Lucky......oh the many discussions and arguments on what it does and does not do. Resilient/Prone to Illness....These came out before the medical overhaul, so it probably hasn't been updated to affect regular "infections", but we players really don't know. I'm pretty sure it affects zombie infection from scratches and bites......It would be really nice if the devs could be poked about traits to know what is working and what is planned with some traits, as well as finding out hidden bonuses like on Baseball Player. Edit Edit: Speaking of my foraging guide, I had to go to google to actually find it since the forums wouldn't pull it up lol. http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/10851-foraging-findings/ Pretty much all the detailed and updated information I could gather for foraging.

The only question that matters........ Will crayons ever be able to write in journals and on walls?

Demolishing stairs is a legit strategy, and can still lead to your death if you don't have proper exits when a horde comes knocking. Honestly, I'm hoping NPCs will somewhat be the solution to that. If not, then their really gonna have to make hordes migrate a lot more than they do now, as well as removing sky bridges and such.

Not really, they also currently don't perish. So you spend 1 or 2 days digging up worms (from the safety of your own safehouse from the dirt tile you dumped in your living room) and you have food for YEARRRRRSSSSSS..........

If they did some of the changes I listed there, you wouldn't be able to do it during the winter, and if it worked similar to foraging, you would only be able to get so many within x tiles per x time, forcing you to at least a) secure a larger (outdoor) area or b) venture into the unknown.

Jars/lids/vinegar really aren't useful enough to justify the trouble of getting them. Cooking, worms, and the hunger system in general needs some work :/

While not a trait, or even a problem with the trowel, worms are indeed OP. They need nerfed hard Worms need to be perishable, limited in how many you can find a day (or in a area), and not findable during the winter. On top of that, they need to not be findable from placed dirt tiles........IMO this will fix how broken they are for keeping you alive for minimal effort. Yeah, worms are kinda dumb and break the hunger system all by themselves with a trowel, spade, and one empty sandbag :/