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  1. First impression of Project Zomboid is very good. The somewhat sparse gameplay paired with deep, dynamic elements ensures that there's a lot of things for the player to do, and a lot of 'objectives' you can create for yourself. Right off the bat, though, I have one large source of annoyance in the game, and it is the system of vision and 'fog of war' as it is commonly called in RTS games (I know that PZ is not a RTS in the strictest sense but it is in a very similar style.) There needs to be a clear visual indicator to the player of what their character both CAN and CAN'T actively see, and what the character HAS or HAS NOT actively uncovered. There is something of a FoW system in place inside houses (you get a brief glimpse through the window, but much of the rest is blacked out) which works very well, but at present there is only two levels of visibility in the FoW system within buildings. 1) I cannot see (the interior appears black) and 2) I can see (the interior is perfectly lit). In addition, and the biggest issue, is that there is 'invisible' FoW for the EXTERIOR world. There is no indicator to the player that your character can't see behind them, or how limited your vision is when you're nearsighted or panicked. My suggestion is: Rework vision to a 3 tiered system. Tier 1: Black, can't see anything and have never been there. Just like the current system when you can't view a house. Any place that a character has not ever been would be blacked out to indicate to the player that they have no idea what could be in that area. Tier 2: Grey, can't see but have explored there before. This represents your character's memory in "realism terms." Any buildings, trees, fixtures, etc that the player had explored would still be on the screen, but the character isn't actively looking at them. This is a way to kind of avoid the "magically appearing zombies" that happen outside in broad daylight to nearsighted or panicked characters. Additionally, this would prevent a player's safehouse from becoming a pit of blackness at night, as the character would probably remember the basics of where his bed is or where the staircase was, without necessarily being able to see the horde of zombies pouring in the ground floor windows. Tier 3: Clear, I'm looking right at this. Give players a clear, but subtle shift in clarity to indicate the approximate extent of their vision. That way, the player can see a rough cone in front of them that constricts as their character panics, or as it becomes night time, or if they chose the nearsighted trait. Possible implications of this system: You might argue that this gives players "too much information" in terms of exploring, peeking into buildings and knowing how far away zombies will appear, but this actually carries some interesting ways for the devs to make the game more challenging. Currently, you can scroll around the map and see all kinds of building exteriors, and the veteran players will be able to place themselves very quickly in one of the two landscapes. Then, they'll know easily to head to the most valuable/defensible buildings on the map and proceed to set up shop. With the more dynamic exploration system, the devs could add a "town knowledge" aspect to the game. The character could know of a certain radius around their starting point (Their neighborhood) but nothing further-everything else would be Tier 1 Blacked Out until they go exploring. Combine that with the fact that often, you sneak up to a window and only see one cone-shaped swath of a house, only that portion would go down to Tier 2 Grey-players would have to circle and find different angles from which to case a potential looting spot to collect the full picture. Additionally, you could possibly add a trait of "lived here since birth" and "moved recently" (or something) that would expand the player's knowledge of the area or restrict them to basically just their own front yard at the start, putting them completely in the dark. Veteran players who want to prevent themselves from knowing exactly where they are could select "moved recently" and have a new exploration challenge with every game. One final possibility is that the devs could implement Area Maps (in tourist shops/information centers/hiking trails) that move a large area for the player from Tier 1 Black to Tier 2 Grey, allowing them to know the general lay of the land and plan out their explorations.
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