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I found that Pravus's Additional Skill Book Mod was a bit out of date (last worked with Build 28), so I went and updated it for Build 32. Also added a few new books and took out some redundant ones. http://pz-mods.net/weapons-items/AdditionalSkillBooksMod2/ Anyway, first mod, first post, etc. I've been following this game since the very first release, and just got back into it and sort of obsessed recently. Hydrocraft inspired me to start updating some older mods that appear to be abandoned, and maybe try making a few of my own I played around with some more flavorful names on the foraging books, using this list instead of the normal beginner/intermediate/advanced/expert/master progression. Cub Scout Handbook Boy Scout Handbook Eagle Scout Handbook Survivalist's Guide Ranger Manual Open to any ideas for other more flavorful names. For some of the new books I changed the naming format to something like "First Aid: Expert" instead of "Expert First Aid". Easier to differentiate in a list of books when there are a half dozen that say Expert/Master etc. at the start of the name.

Ok , this might have been discussed or a really stupid question . What does the "Skill points available" mean in the skills panel ? I've looked for some sort of answer but have found nothing . In my skill panel there is a Blue square with a white 3 in it . It sits next to the Skill points available at the top of the panel . What is this for , mean or used for ? Screen shot of what I mean as well .

Quick and little suggestions for the game which I would think would be neat. (doesn't even need to be added to the game, just even to the wiki is good enough for me) Add descriptions to a particular skill level. For example, how much more efficient you are in a skill when hitting a particular level, maybe even showing what you unlock for carpentry upon leveling it. Maybe showing some evidence of what some traits do. In particular, Cat Eye's. Whenever I take this trait I am unsure what the actual difference is. Maybe display a tutorial or something in video form to show comparison? +2 section (traits) Deconstruction: Gain more resources (nails, planks, etc) from deconstructing and/or do it fasterGeneral Laborer (job..?): Reduces the penalties of "heavy loads" (makes it so you are less likely to have a back injury when you have an extremely heavy load, reduce the movement penalty for each rank)

Soooo i'm curious about adding new skills. Or better said replace carpentry for more suitable skill like Builder, or Engineer, or... i don't know name that covers all the things player can made by himself... Maybe Handyman? There is a mod, where player can create almost any building that you can see in the city. But i don't really like mods that adding many things in this game, because of so many releases and mod compatibility, even one can be lost in many mods in some future build, where some mods would be added into vanilla. So why not add it into vanilla? I really, REALLY would like to see that player can made things out of metal(no more nails-hungry in survival mode), or making glass windows. And adding feature of making roofs(without making stairs build before, scaffold kit would be needed). And if making glass works are too much, so at last being able to disassemble windows from neibourhood houses and add it into your house/fortress. Oh yes, another idea just now popped out. Disassembling. Wooden walls, doors, floors... and destroying things with sledge into visible rubble, where something usefull can be, if lucky. Another idea is... TIME. And DATE. IRL human can't know, what time and date is now, without watches. I saw digital watches once in great mall, so... Why don't take out time and date from the upper right corner? It will be more realistic. And give watches a purpose. Wearable loot. If char find watches, from that point he can have his upper right corner back. Another thing... different looks of zeds. Bodies. Some skinny, some obese... even char. And more clothing types, like for example raincoats, jackets, necktie, uniforms/overalls...

Hello PZ community, I am about to dive back into the game and enjoy it once more and live another story about how I died. I have been doing some research to try and catch up to the changes since I last played in build 29.3. I can't seem to find any solid answers on the questions I'm about to ask, so any information about them would be greatly appreciated. 1) Strength skill. I noticed you have this in character creation screen, but in-game under the Skills tab, there is no such skill and I cannot seem to locate the value anywhere else in the game.. but yet I see that it is possible to add Experience points to it in lua files. Q) What specifically does Strength affect in gameplay, and is it possible to increase your Strength level after character creation? If it is, how do you increase it? 2) Fitness skill. Same as #1. Q) What specifically does Fitness affect in gameplay, and is it possible to increase your Fitness level after character creation? If it is, how do you increase it? 3) Blade/Blunt Accuracy. Q) What specifically does this affect in gameplay? 4) Blade/Blunt Guard. Q) What specifically does this affect in gameplay? 5) Blade/Blunt Maintenance. Q) What specifically does this affect in gameplay? Thank you for your time, everyone. ^^;

I'm looking to fool around in the game a bit, and it's a simple thing to give myself all the positive traits. I'm wondering though, how would I go about getting all the profession-specific traits as well? I like to have a God Mode game running parallel to my REAL games, so I can take out my frustrations when the REAL game kicks my ass to the curb. Thanks

Though the title is pretty explanatory, the idea of this is that certain traits, such as strong, obese, and (if returned) hardened drinker, can go away if not used in a certain amount of time, or if certain requirements are met, be gotten. For example, lets say there's a character named John. And John starts the game as strong, but after three months, the power goes out, and John is having trouble finding food. Right now in the game, instead of losing muscle, then starving to death, you just starve. However, what would make a lot of sense, would be instead John goes from Strong, to Stout, to Normal, and all the way down to weak, before finally succumbing. (Note, your moodel would still say something like hungry, or starving while all this happened.) You also would be able to do this with something like Obese, except it would just go Obese, and after a long while, Overweight, and then just be removed, except it could be removed not only by starving, but also by running, or even just walking all day like most players do, at least at first. Now, if you can lose those traits, you should probably be able to get them back. Let's say John, who is now weak and starving, managed to find an un-looted house, full of canned food, and has started to eaten his fill. But now, he has to carry the extra back home. After carrying over a certain capacity of his inventory maybe 60% or something, he'll start to gain muscle back. Maybe have different rates for different amounts, and penalties for going over the weight limit. John has now made it back to his home in the woods, but while he was away, he forgot a few things about say, farming, maybe just 15 exp, but if he went for a year without farming at all, he would lose a level or two, and then, since it's usually easier to pick something back up versus learning it for the first time, he can learn the farming levels he lost back more quickly. If you guys can think of anything I may have missed, or have any other ideas, please comment.

Hi everyone, Had the idea while having some fun with build 31 feature where you can stomp zombies on the ground. While it is tremendously fun, i feel it's a bit risky to do, as a zombie on the ground could still scratch your legs while doing it, maybe even bite them (unless treated as temporarily stuned as well as being proned). I don't know if it is already in there, if so, i'm playing with fire... If it's not in there, then I think it should at least for the scratching part. Then it got me thinking that it could be lessen by a ''guard'' melee skill. While we are at it, a ''accuracy'' skill wouldn't go amiss. I beleive that the ''maintenance'' part could be left out, unless the dev plan to have use sprain our ankles or something. These same melee skills (guard and accuracy) could be used for fist fighting as well. Same comment for maintenance but for wrist. By the way, I appologize if my writting is not perfect, english is my second language (french is my first). Same goes for all my post.

Topic title. I'm trying to ease my friend into Zomboid and I'd like to start us both off with extra trait points just to smooth things out a bit. I can't figure out how to do this. Help?

One of the main problems with multiplayer in any survival game is encouraging teamwork. A feature that would add to the need for teamwork, while also increasing realism (imho) would be max skills. A person who starts off as a doctor would be much better suited for healing than someone who just started. So people who do not take doctor would have maybe a max first aid skill of 2-3, since they have not had the proper training. Whereas the doctor could get all the way up to 5. Same example with farming. Someone with the farmer profession would be able to have 5 farming skill, but without books any other person might have to settle for less knowledge, maybe a max of 3.

Detailed stat building Each Attribute breaks down into multiple skills. Then, each Skill breaks down into multiple Techniques. And then, each Technique reveals the Endurance and Stamina of the body parts it directly uses. But, you should only be allowed to level up Techniques by choice. Beyond that, everything should really be leveled up through your bare actions. Attributes. The attributes should be simple, Intelligence and Physique, that's it. Since inherently, we are just a Brain and a Body. Skills. Intelligence and Physique influences ALL skills. This just makes it easier to categorize the Techniques. Techniques. Each Skill should have two Techniques. One, will be the Intellectual part of the skill, and the other will be the Physical part. Basically, the Techniques are the parts of the Skills that the Attributes directly influence. And like I said, Techniques should be the only things you have a choice in building. They still build up through your bare actions though, but only because the choice still needs bare action to reveal itself. Endurance & Stamina. Based on your Techniques, each part of your Body (in your own prefence of detail of course) should have an Indicator. Just like in my last Suggestion in, "Fixing, Mr. Fixit," we should have an Indication of when the Body Parts are Healthy and when they're Infected. AND, Indicators for each Body Parts Endurance and Stamina. Your most used Body Parts will fair the best against your obstacles. And I'm talking about the Brain, and the other Organs as well. So besides building up your Endurance & Stamina for say, your Arms or Legs, you could. . . develop your reading skills, or build up a drinking tolerance, that sort of thing. Specialities. Each and every Item and Body Part we are able to use, should give you a temporary buff to the Techniques they use, but only while you're using them. So, whatever it is that you use the most, will give you the biggest Bonus. And I'm still talking about the Brain, and the other Organs as well. Plus, if you've ever played "Borderlands," you might have an idea of what I mean (Minus the Body Parts). Karma & Luck. I'm a firm believer in "What Goes Around, Comes Around." You do good things; good things happen to you, and the opposite. Professions. Detailed Attributes, Skills, Techniques, Endurance, Stamina, and Specialities that you start off with. Because that's what you got paid for before the outbreak. Traits. Traits should involve everything on this list. So we can have very detailed starting points. And I personally would love a long character creation. Gaining & Losing XP. Don't Shame your Pain, because if you don't Use it, you Lose it. (To an extent.) Detailed Details Attributes. Intelligence and Physique Skills & Techniques. ex. Skill (Meaning)= Techniques (Usage). Learning (Rate at which you absorb experiences.)= Brain Memory (Rate at which the Intelligence Attribute increases.) and Body Memory (Rate at which the Physique Attribute increases.). Willpower (Ability to stay Conscious and Calm)= Adrenal Glands (Brain Juice) and Heart & Lungs (Blood & Air Flow). (Survivalist) Foraging (General Searching & Finding), Fishing (Water Foraging), Trapping (Animal Foraging), Reading (Word Foraging)= Comprehension (Quantity Understanded) and Strength (Limit at a Time). (Crafts) Farming (Grow Food), Cooking (Prepare Food), First Aid (Exterior Healing), Living Anatomy B & R (Interior Healing), Carpentry (Wood Work), Stonework (Stone Work), Metalsmithing (Metal Work), Engineering (Work with Moving Parts), Chemistry (Chemical Work), Electronics B & R (Metal & Electricity Work)= Coordination (Quality Work) and Strength (Speed). (Movement) Running (Fast & Loud), Sneaking (Slow & Quiet), Swimming (Horizontal Quad-Strength), and Climbing (Vertical Quad-Strength)= Coordination (Gracefulness) and Strength (Speed). (Combat) Unarmed (Bare Bodied Weapons), Edged Weapons (Stabbing and/or Cutting Objects), Bashing Weapons (Blunt Objects), Combustion Weapons (Explosive Momentum Projectiles), Sling Weapons (String Momentum Projectiles), and Throwing Weapons (Hand Momentum Projectiles)= Perception (Gracefulness and Critical Hits) and Strength (Speed and Weapon Handling). (AND, with both Perception and Strength, Ranged gets more Accuracy. PLUS, Melee and Throwing get more Accuracy and Damage.) Other Stuff Punching. With the Mental and Physical Abilities we have access to, Punching would give us the Capability to knock out Living People. Done just like weapon attacks, but not as damaging though. And significently faster, especially if you're Punching with Both Hands. Plus, it might be cool to have a means of using some Brass/Spiked Nuckles or something. No Profession. Instead of picking one job to focus on in life, you bounced around a lot. So instead of having a certain build that you focused on from the biginning, in your Attributes, Skills, Techniques, Endurance, Stamina, and Specialities. . . you instead, start off with a tiny bit in everything. But, no matter how much of my opinions you don't agree with, that's okay. Because I know you all have Brilliant Ideas of you own that I didn't think of. And I know you're doing everything you can to continue to make this game awesome. And that's kind of why I love you all, peace.

I think there's a definite place for a non-carpentry crafting skill, representing one's ability to make or repair mechanical items - firearms, generators, cars, etc. (I would probably have "Car Mechanic" or "Automotive Technician" or whatever you call it as a profession which gets a boost to that skill.) There's overlap with the Trapping skill as well - I don't know if it would be better to have this replace that, parallel to that, or to start work on some new skill-tree system which might have Trapping as a separate node. That said, thinking about various survival books, games, television shows, etc., there are a lot of possible applications besides traps that could be brought in, here: Lockmaking and lockpicking - the latter much earlier (level 1?) than the former;Simple mechanical power generation - foot pedals, stationary bicycles, water wheels, windmills;Basic engines or engine modifications - wood/coal gas adaption for Otto-cycle motors (e.g. standard generators, cars), low-pressure steam engines, modification of standard engines for improvised fuel sources like cooking oil to replace diesel;Transmission and application of power from the above to various applications, from tabletop appliances like sewing machines to industrial appliances like lathes and grain mills to electricity;Simple crafting tools - spinning wheels, looms, grinders, forges, mills, &c;Furnaces for making charcoal, firing clay, smelting ores, forging metals, melting metals, etc.;Basic boilers, stills, fractional stills, etc.;Hard personal armor - easy would be things like greaves and skull caps, intermediate would be chainmail from chicken wire, hard would be something like Gothic plate armor;Primitive or improvised ranged weaponry - crossbows, air-pressure guns, bombards, etc. - and basic gunsmithing for existing firearms;Simple transportation tools - rollers, wheelbarrows, carts, hand trucks, etc.;...the list goes on and on. A number of these suggest other skills, like blacksmithing - I remember being told that one of the best first-time-smith projects is making a knife blade out of an old metal file - and fiber arts - there are sheep raised in Kentucky if you can manage to keep them alive and healthy - but I think from a game-design perspective a skill specifically about making, remaking, and repairing devices would be grand, and specific things to build can be chosen based on what you have or want in the game.

I was reading through a topic in General Discussion and it got me thinking about how some players seem to dislike the pure rogue-like nature of the game, and how they want to have something to work towards. Is there the possibility for some sort of bonuses within the same world if you start a new character there after you die to give progression-minded players something to strive for? As it goes currently, if you die in the world and start a new character in the same world, that character is a blank slate as though they've been completely unaffected by the world. It's like every new character is "28 Days Later"-ed into existence; no skills for survival, even higher handicaps if the world's food has decayed and power and water has stopped, and higher zombie count due to the time elasped in game world. What I'm suggesting is an option to either start in the same world with that clean slate, or offer a sort of Legacy bonus to the new character, at the player's choice. If you choose a clean slate, you get the above-mentioned situation as currently implemented. If you choose a Legacy bonus, perhaps you can start with a negative amount of points for traits so you can take more positive ones with less negative ones. Or perhaps you get 50% of your skill point XP and 50% of your skill levels XP, except the skill level experience is randomized across the skills (e.g., level 5 cooking becomes level 2.5 blade maintenance). I haven't quite figured out what the system could be, or how to balance it so that it's not overpowered. But this could help in giving the people who are complaining about a lack of feeling progression something to get that feeling. Other rogue-likes have implemented similar such systems; Wayward Souls, for example, lets you buy upgrades for the characters that persist across all future playthroughs. I'm not sure if that would necessarily work for PZ, but I think keeping it within the same world/save might.

I was able to max out aiming at level 5 and only gain one level of reloading. This was done though serious min/max reload after every shot of the pistol grinding. That can't be right. Reloading needs rebalanced to gain much faster so it's reasonable. A problem with this is reloading is already fast enough at the first skill level if you take away panic or any other factors. The entire skill needs looked at for rebalance. Sprinting is another strange skill. I can run from Knox to Muldraugh and back and only gain half a level or so. Even intentionally grinding it by running laps around an area would take months of work but I have not tested that thoroughly yet. It seems like this skill takes far too long to gain points in and needs adjusted. Skill books could address both these issues, a rebalance of the time it takes to gain a skill point or the amount of points gained, or another approach. As it stands, it's pretty silly.

Hello, I didn't see a thread like this beforehand, but I'm sorry if I there is one already and I missed it My idea was that I feel that the player character should be able to improve more over time when it comes to skills. Things like the coward/brave and weak/strong skills should work like the stats in-game such as sprinting. It would make sense that a person who's survived for a month or two and has killed hundreds of zombies should be able to control themselves more over time so they don't get to extreme panic when they sneak up to 2-3 zombies to bludgeon them with a bat. Same goes for characters being able to improve their carry weight or capacity to swing a bat/run before getting to high exertion. Constantly carrying stuff near their limit, killing zombies with melee and building structures like walls and fences could give exp for a strength stat. Those that pick the stout or strong perks at the beginning could start with having a few levels of it unlocked or have exp boosts for the stat while those with weak or feeble could start with either none or a debuff/negative exp or reduced exp gain. The skills chosen at the beginning could still affect your character long term such as a coward character still becoming higher levels of panic easier than others or strong characters still having a bonus to knockdown chance.

The thing: So, now that the aiming skill is working I think it would be nice to be able to Practice it. At the moment I think that the only way to improve your aiming skill is going out and killing zombies and that boders me a little,I would really love to be able to improve my aiming without leaving my safehose. Real life shooters spend more time at the shooting range than actually shooting people and they get a really good aiming... So I think it would be nice to see this introduced in the game. I know, ammunation is not much, and the noice is a problem, but think about it when ARCHERY is added to the game, assuming that you can re-use or craft arrows both problems are solved and you have a funny and usefull whay to kill time. How it would work: You should be able to Craft some kind of dummy or target using wood, nails, hammer and whatever the developers decide. Then just place it where you whant and start shooting at it , or maybe to make it easy right click on it and then click on "Train" from a Pop-up menu. Not overpowered: To avoid this for becoming overpowered it would be good to just be able to train your aiming or archery skill only To lvl 3 while using this method, so you will be obligated to go out and serch for a real fight to become a real master... Thanks you all for reading and sorry for my bad English...

!! THIS MOD IS NO LONGER MAINTAINED/AVAILABLE !! Hello there, just wanted to show off the first mod I'm working on: The Bookshop Adds various books to PZ, some with learning skills. In the WIP version you can press "B" to spawn all books in your inventory. Available books: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy The Restaurant at the End of the Universe Life the Universe and Everything So Long and Thanks for All the Fish Mostly Harmless And Another Thing...Various: Programming in Lua Second Edition Brave New World Roadside Picnic Cunninghams Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs Gone With the Wind The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead The Great Gatsby 1984 The Catcher in the Rye For Whom the Bell Tolls A Clockwork Orange The Futurological Congress Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Lord of the Flies The Lord of the Rings A Brief History of Time Fahrenheit 451 Slaughterhouse-Five or The Childrens Crusade The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea The War of the Worlds Todo: Next step(s) will be to add spawn rates and some more books, some adjustments to weight and tweaking BoredomChange.!! THIS MOD IS NO LONGER MAINTAINED/AVAILABLE !!

Hello there, I hope this is the correct forum to post, if not, feel free to move it. I'm currently in the progress of writing a mod for PZ called "The Bookshop". Two things I noticed that have to do with the tooltip when hovering (skill)books: Grammer The tooltip currently says "The book give you a xp multiplier for the lvl2 skill". While I'm no native english speaking person, I think this should be something like "This book gives you an XP multiplier for the lvl2 skill" The tooltip should include the skill name This is ok for books called "Farming for Beginners", but in the case of a book called "Cunninghams Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs" (or any other) it would be nice to have the skill name inlcuded in the tooltip, like so: "This book gives you an XP multiplier for the lvl2 skill Cooking" or something like that. Thank you.

Hi guys! What I REALLY miss from the game and I think it would be an excellent addition is the craftable weapons. There is nailed bats, nailed plank and thats it currently. 1. Spears - Long weapon made of stirdy sticks/pool cue and knife and ductape/wire. Has the same kind of durability as a knife (so not much), but provides a slight advantage as you are able to hit/stab the zombie slightly further away from you, providing you with some safety. 2. Shields - Now this one might be slightly obvious, but none the less exciting and fun! You could either make these out of planks, nails and a belt (I crafted many of these practise shields at home for fun with friends), these would not be very durable and would either reduce the chance of being scratched or damage, or give you a little more pushback when zombies aproach. Could be very nicely animated as when they are close and you push with your axe, it would push with both hands shield and axe. (Riot shields and reenforced versions could also be handy e.g. Spikey Shield (extra nails needed like 20). 3. Swords? - Under swords I mean either traditional American civil war weapons (there are some in every household) or craftable metal weapons. I believe that a home made forge could and WOULD be very nice addition to the game, recycling some old car batteries for bullets, or create knives/smaller swords/ machete from old metal trash. This however would be a late game feature requiring a lot of hard to find items that are also heavy (like an anvil). 4. Tinkering existing weapons - Very much like the nailed bat/plank other weapons could be tinkered. First thing that comes into mind is a laser sight or small torch ductaped ontu a gun so that the lamp does not occupy the second equipment slot. This could either increase accuracy, or just simply add the light effect there so you see in the dark better. You could also fix a knife in front of the shotgun for the close combat scenario when you run out of bullets. Not to mention the Scythe which is a very popular weapon in many games and it can be located at farms, hardware stores. Not more durable than a spade, but looks much cooler. Sharpening the weapons could also be an option, or repairing if you have a forge /hammer anvil, or just a sharpening stone (increasing damage, reducing durability slightly). 5. Bows/crossbows - I am sure many threads are on this one already, but as I am a sport archer I think I can add to it First bows are hard to make, the ones you make first time will probably not even kill anything. The ones we use for sport are quite strong and hard to come by which means I would suggest that you have to find these. However the arrows can be made easy, if you aquire the materials (arrow head, stirdy stick, glue, feathers (3)) this makes a nice arrow, which could be recollected from dead bodies and have a chance to break. Then there are the carbon arrows, which hardly ever break and are commonly used by professional archers. These could be recollected many times before breaking or loosing the edge. If we want to make bows craftable, as I said they should be either very weak at first that you shoot 3 times at a zombie before killing it, then slowls increase in quality as the more you craft, or very bad durability and break after 2 uses (very much like fishing rods. Now there could be some other fun craftable items that are weapon related: 1. Ammo pouch - can be equiped as a separate bag for the ammo, and the weapon takes out the ammo from this as a priority. This would allow you to separate the ammo from the other stuff and also maybe reduce the weight somewhat, or make it easier to keep track of your ammunation. It could be crafted at 2-3 level of tinkering. 2. Placeable torch - a lit torch that can be put in the ground and lit for an amount of time. Can be very useful when setting up a battlefield where you will battle the zombies, and very cool light effects Or just when you hear a horde knocking on your door light the ones placed on top of your wall for more visual. Rain puts them out. 3. Scope - When equiped on the weapon, durig the aiming you are able to see further away but your vision gets very narrow. Increases accuracy and can be attached to guns, (rifle) and crossbows. Needs 2 mirrors and a crafted tube (could be just a plastic tube found somewhere). 4. Bayonette - A sharp knife used on the front part of a weapon, can be crafted from a knife and ductape/wire. Or found maybe. 5. Poison - Now this would be interesting Could be made from mushrooms, rotten stuff or dead zombies. Create arrows that are infected with the virus (dipped in zombie blood) and shoot them at that looter who just broke in your house. Use them to set up traps to unwelcomed looters too. Could be used to ruin the water/food supply of another gang. 6. Binoculars - How cool would it be if you could scout your area from a rooftop with your awesome binoculars? They can be found in most hardware stores, or in hunting cabins for sure! This would be an excellent item for those who wish to entrench themselves in one place and looking out for hazards from high places. Could be crafted from two toilet paper rolls and 4 magnifying lenses ^^ These are the ideas I could quickly summon I hope we will get some ideas bouncing back and forth and get some developer insight.

Hi all, Long time lurker & player, first time post. Pretty much everything within my suggestions is based on modifying numbers within the mechanics of the game so (in my opinion), everything is completely realistic to implement. I have gone through about 25 pages of this suggestions thread and couldn't find a post to piggyback on, only smaller threads about individual facets of the character building system. If there is a relevant thread then apologies, but I did have a 'more than reasonable' look. I like the skill, trait and profession system as it obviously helps within the game (levelling skills and picking traits makes your character better\worse) but also contributes to re-playability and also with role playing. It also has massive potential to be built upon. I believe there is an 'official' appetite to build on this area so hopefully at the very least, this thread sparks ideas within the community to help make the system amazing. Please do leave feedback whether good or bad, as you can see it has taken a lot of thought and effort!! Skills At the moment you have 3 categories of skills; crafting, combat and agility which you start off with 0/5 points. You gain XP overall but also within each skill. When you fill the skill level you can use a point to level it up. First change would be to remove the overall XP and the skill point and just allow the skills to level naturally when performing tasks. Also at the character creation page they all start with a base 1/5 in every skill which would equal no bonus modifier. This would give the introduce traits / professions that lower the skill to 0/5 which would give a 'negative' ability to that skill to start with. I would also like to see the list grow so you would have the following categories and abilities within (some of these already exist, some look like they are being implemented imminently and others are just my imagination). Will list the skill and then in italic what levelling will give you (colours just to make it easier to read) Crafting Building (replaces carpentry to have a more generalised skill that isn't a profession) Increases items available to build; increases item durability (repaired or built) Cooking Increases items available to build; decreases hunger timer; decreases boredom Farming Increases crop harvest; increases chance for seed reuse; reduces chance for crop disease Fishing Decreases chance of damaged equipment; decreases time to fish; increases fish variety / size Hunting Increases chance of trapping; decrease chance of equipment breaking Medicine Decrease permanent injury / illness affect; increases healing time with bandages / pills; Combat Blunt (Hammer / Baseball Bat / Golf Club) Increase damage; decrease chance for depreciation; increase chance to hit Blade (Knife / Axe) Increase damage; decrease chance for depreciation; increase chance to hit Hand (No weapon equipped) Increase damage; increase chance to knock over; decrease chance of taking damage Firearm (Guns / Crossbows?) Increase damage; decrease loading time; increase aiming accuracy Projectile (Throwing / Crossbows?) Increase accuracy; increase damage?; decrease noise made Physical Sprinting Increases sprinting speed; increases sprinting time without exertion Lightfooted Decreases noise made when moving (walk / run / sneak) Nimble Increase sneaking speed ; decrease noise made performing actions; Strength Increase carry weight; increase blunt, blade, hand combat damage Constitution Decreases illness chance; Decreases injury chance Mental Bravery Decreases panic chance; decreases panic escalation Interaction Increases good reaction chance from NPC; decreases boredom Awareness Increases sight awareness ; increases noise awareness Wily Decreases time to open windows; decrease time to open locked items Temperament Decreases mental illness chance (depression / boredom / anxiety) Now with the removal of the overall XP and skill points, you now could create an overpowered character quickly, so to combat this each category will have mechanics to reign that in. Crafting: when you hit a level it slows down the rate at which you gain XP within the other crafting skills but increases the rate in which you gain XP in that skill. This plays on the idea that the more you learn the basics the quicker you become advanced at something but will also stop you becoming proficient in every crafting skill quickly. The longer you survive the more chance you will have to get 5/5 in all of them. Reading books helps negate the slow XP rate triggered by level rises. What this also promotes especially within the multiplayer side is specialisation. Combat: The same as above happens but like crafting only has an affect on other combat skills. (I.e by levelling firearms, you don't slow the farming ability). This also allows the introduction of combat books. Physical: With the exception of Constitution, these stats are levelled up by performing the actions (sprinting levels sprinting etc) and would level quicker than crafting and combat, but would have a way to keep them from levelling too quickly. Each physical skill will have a % chance of injury in a particular area and a % severity of injury. So for example when performing a sprinting action, you have a chance of injuring your leg or back with a severity of (unnoticeable, minor, medium, severe, untreatable, debilitating). Sprinting / Lightfooted Nimble Strength Legs Back Legs Back Arms Back Arms Unnoticeable x x x x x x x Minor x x x x x x x Medium x x x x x x x Severe x x Debilitating x x Unnoticeable, minor, medium and severe are all temporary 'moodles' that slow down XP gain and temporarily decrease physical stats with unnoticeable for a very short period of time (~6 hours) and severe for ~5 days . Medicine crafting can help increase healing time to help clear up this ailments quicker. Debilitating can occur through a seperate incident or repeatedly injuring a particular body part. This is a permanent level and XP debuff which can be slightly reduced through medicine crafting. An example of this would be to be carrying heavy items all the time, which will increase strength over time, but you could also keep injuring your back which could then lead to a debilitating back injury which will then have an adverse affect on strength. Mental: This would work like physical (with the exception of temperament). For example bravery gets better over time as you encounter more zombies, but have a dodgy situation occur that causes you to just escape with scratches and this permanently drops a level or two. Same with interaction (which is more NPC based), have a bad experience with an NPC (they are evil or one of your NPC's gets eaten) and this has a permanent level drop. Constitution and temperament increases naturally the longer you survive as your adaptability to the zombie situation increases but can be slowed down through injury and illness. Potential for conflicting skills There is also the option to have skills that conflict or lower another skill level. For example as your bravery rises, this could have a detrimental affect on awareness as you become more cocky. Increasing strength could also decrease nimbleness and vice versa. Again this could lead to more specialisation which would be excellent on MP. All of these can also be affected by professions and traits which I will go into in a follow up post.

Hi, I lost my character on MP, and it had some pretty good stats, and an incredible inventory. Lost him due to a corruption error. Computer shut off during mid game, and now everytime I load the character on the server, it goes under an infinite with "delay processing XX packet" where XX stands for a series of repeated numbers. Is it possible to edit any of the map.bin files and restore my character? Is there any modding tools that could allow me to add skills and XP to a new character? That is all, thank you.

Hello survivors! I propose a new system/skill to be created - Teamwork I feel the ability to accomplish tasks as a team is vital in any zombie survival scenario. What better way to reward such actions than with new abilities and skill-sets. How i imagined this working is having an option upon right clicking another player / NPC thereafter would display a list of options for said player to choose from. Examples: Ask for a boost - Used to boost another player/NPC into a otherwise unreachable height. Fairly simple but possibly cause falling damage if failed. Help walk/ carry- One day i imagine someone might lose a leg from an emergency amputation, or a person might pass out from drinking too much whiskey. However the scenario plays that person will need a shoulder to lean on and this will be the way to do it. Push object - The bigger the object the more strength needed to push it, two is always better than one. The ability to move larger objects than one could themselves. These abilities would require a confirmation from the receiving player to assure both parties are game. Various difficulty levels would be assigned to the new abilities and unlocked by gaining experience similar to other skills. I feel this request is one that would clearly take much time and effort to implement but also could be one that changes the dynamic of the game to push players towards a more team oriented play style. Thus creating more dynamic player interactions and game depth. Please share you opinions/ ideas

Disclaimer: I've only played a couple hours since 2012 so I'm not entirely sure if some of the mechanics and additions I describe would fit in with the game, or be possible in the engine, but here goes. Suppressors I think firearm suppressors would be a great addition to the game because right now, firearms are very rarely a viable option, and can turn an emergency situation into an even worse one by attracting more zombies. Crafting: This would necessitate the existence of a mechanics/physics skill, or maybe a firearms knowledge skill? Anyway, the player would need several materials, tools and the correct level of said skill/knowledge. This would make it difficult to acquire quickly. There could be several levels of crafted suppressors, each being more effective than the last, but likewise requiring more materials, time and knowledge. Looting: Pre-apocalypse manufactured suppressors would be extremely rare (There'd be a good chance of none spawning) but to make up for this they would be more effective than a DIY one. However, they would only work for a certain class of firearm and no others, whereas crafted ones can be made for any firearm. Gameplay: When attached to a firearm, a suppressor would nullify the report. However, the volume of the shot in the direction of fire would remain similar to that of an unsuppressed gunshot. This means that if there are zombies between you and your target, they will also hear the shot, however the radius the noise travels from the shooter would be reduced. At longer distances though, it would be practically silent. Ammunition crafting: Now this one is a bit complicated and probably won't be added, but with advanced firearms knowledge the player would basically be able to craft different loads, IE high-velocity, or sub-sonic ammuntion. Sub-sonic ammunition would reduce the volume in the direction of fire at a cost of decreased penetration and damage, and would be practically useless without a suppressor. High-velocity ammunition would be the opposite, it would make the firearm have a louder report in exchange for increased damage and penetration. It would also degrade the firearm and the suppressor faster than regular or subsonic ammunition. The player could also manufacture hollowpoint rounds which have increased damage against a single target but virtually no penetration. This doesn't yet seem necessary since zombies will die to one shot anyway, but if there are any changes to that it would be a welcome addition. Weapon Modification: With advanced knowledge in firearms, survivors would be able to make minor modifications to their weapons provided they have the materials. These would include magazine size (In the two higher reloading difficulties, these modifications would be made to the magazines themselves where applicable), stability/accuracy (Stocks and grips [Though they seem 100% accurate at the moment]) and view distance (Improvised/looted optics). With a scope attached, when in aiming mode your field of view would be very narrow, but very long and increase the distance you can scroll off-screen. If you've played Jagged Alliance 2, you have some idea of how I imagine it in my head. Firemodes would also be another possible modification, in other words making a semi-auto weapon full-auto. The rate of fire of shotguns could also be increased by converting it from pump-action to semi auto (I'm not sure how possible this would be IRL but I'm sure it would be, given enough patience and knoweldge) The main suggestion here is suppressors. The other two are ballpark, but I included them anyway.

Been on the hunt for skillbooks now that I've updated and getting water is tough again, I'd like to find carpentry skill books, but I'm struggling for them, the places I thought might have lots of books, the school and the adult learning centre have nothing, not even one bookshelf between the two as far as I could see. Where is your go-to place for skillbooks in Muldraugh, and PS. If anyone reading who regularly reports to the devs, plead with them to at least have a bookshelf in the adult learning centre, maybe a cookbook at least, it actually totally broke my immersion in the game having nothing in the way of learning material in a learning centre!

One of the things I've noticed with my game style, is that I really like to get good at carpentry. Whenever I start a game I go straight to the Warehouse in Muldraugh, barricade the doors and windows, and grab an axe. I scavenge for food occasionally, killing zombies along the way, but not really getting terribly good at Blunt or Blade. But I primarily go across the road, and start swinging away at the trees, making planks and making fences to keep the baddies out. Then I make a crate to store things in. But I've always thought, swinging that axe so many times, and breaking the fences with a sledgehammer would benefit my ability to use them, or other things like them, as the character becomes more proficient with the object. So, my suggestion is to add the standard experience for completely chopping down a tree as one would get from killing a zombie to the blade skill. And for destroying carpentry, the player would get the standard experience put into blunt as killing a zombie would. Or maybe add a woodsman skill. My next suggestion is that destroying certain carpentry items such as crates (I know there's lot of them) would give back some of the materials used to make them. in a way that they have items hidden to the player in their inventory, which are dropped upon destruction. This could lead to the requirement of more materials for construction, or the individual plank, rather than planks.