Search the Community

I am here today as an everyday real life bicycle commuter and a new fan of Project Zomboid to advocate for Bicycles. In short, my claim is that bicycles would be a great addition to the game because they are 1) realistic, 2) fill a good spot in the game's difficulty curve, 3) have a good risk/reward gameplay mechanic, and 4) have their own depth. I'll detail each below. 1) realistic I understand a primary goal of PZ is to be a realistic simulation. In a real zombie apocolypse, I believe a bicycle would absolutely, certainly, without doubt be my #1 form of transportation. A human in reasonable fitness level can travel about 40-80 miles in a day depending on slope and average speed. 1. Efficient mode of human transportation (see Steve Jobs quote on locomotion per km, humans as tool makers) 2. Few moving parts, serviceable with common tools 3. Tolerant of parts failure (eg: brakes fail? can still slow down in other ways. Chain fails? can still scoot/coast. Tire fails? can still roll, slowly, damages wheel hub.) 4. Few external world dependencies (plenty of inner tubes and chains in the world to last my natural lifespan) 2) Fits well into the game's difficulty progression My first couple play throughs, I thought cars were impossible. Keys, skills, gas, noise, broken parts. Bikes fill a gap in between walking and driving (+1 from axiomatic) -- they aren't as safe or high capacity, but it's easier to get one going. I would guess that fewer than 5% of players have seen more than 5% of the map's buildings. (not sure if you have stats like that) -- it's really hard for a new player like me to get out and see some of the amazing and detailed locations that have been modeled out. 3) Good risk/reward gameplay mechanics. Bikes are fast, long range, and easy -- but the tradeoff is they're incredibly exposed. Similar to a "glass cannon" build in an RPG. Crashing on a bike is more dangerous (exposure, injury) than crashing on car Good to get around, but carrying cargo is a real pain (drop stuff, slower, no free hands, turn slower) Inverse relationship between cargo weight and safety/stability -- could even model high center of mass penalty (backpacks) if wanted. mountain bike tires are loud on a road at speed. road bike tires are terrible on bumpy/grassy terrain long legged pants protect from scratches but get caught in chain 😂 4) They have their own depth Depending on how deep you'd like each skill tree, bikes have this option. Bikes can have trailers and other bolt on parts (lights, baskets, etc) Big range of bike types Skill with riding could be distinct from fitness/finesse/lightfootedness Other support on the forum: mrtrololo thiago marco7 etsamaru roach extrema Implementation details: Lots of new animations needed here. Mount, dismount, go, turn, crash, wobble, bump, attack. This is tough. Maybe there's a way to test the gameplay mechanic without going all-in on animations. Eg, in a beta build; just represent the bicycle and a shadow of the person, but not your specific character. If it takes off in beta and seems fun, then you know the animations are worth funding. Physics. Hard to say without seeing how it feels, but it could be that vehicle physics are good enough with added visual feedback for falling down, bumpy terrain, and wobbling/about to fall down. I wouldn't want to build a whole two wheel balance thing, instead just assume if the player slows they are walking over the bike. Summary Really amazing (and long term!) project, you've done incredible work here. I am advocating for bikes. I know it has been asked before. I know it's been asked for years before. But still. It's such a realistic apocalypse option and fits the game so freakin' well. And think of the FUN! Zombie-slaying knights on bikes 🚴‍♂️ 🐉. Bikes at night 🚴‍♀️ 🌙. Bike with friends 🚵‍♂️ 🚴‍♀️ 🚴‍♂️. It's not my right to have bikes, but I sure would like bikes. Thanks!

Hi, My conclusion: be careful not to overwhelm the (new) player with entire lists of items, skill levels and crafting recipies. In fact I think it already is too much! Instead, change the inferface to hide skills, items, recipies and other mechanics until later in the game or if the player asks for it. I think this is crucial for your game to be a growing succes. And I feel I have to tell you, because your current audience (loyal game testers who embrace every addition to the game) might not see the danger. I started playing PZ in 2014. Back then the game was full of bugs and technical limitations but it was more intuitive than it is now. Recently I got back to this great game (so after 4 years) and these are some of my impressions: - The character screen shows so many (ex-) jobs, perks and tweaks all with corresponding statistics but I mostly don't know what they mean so I skip the min-max-ing stage in fear of unpurposely making a permanent mistake. Let's just start a standard game. - Opening the skills tab, it shows more than just a crafting skill. In fact crafting is seperated into electricity, metal working, and carpentry. Realistic perhaps, but worrying... and after 2-3 hours of play I'm still at 0xp. - Browsing through the skills catalogue: 'create smoke bomb'; 'create smoke bomb with timer'; create smoke with proximity'; create bomb#2 with combination #4; etc. etc. while I don't even have the skill level for it. Where do I even start? Do I need this? - I notice that I can use the sink to fill a pan, but not use the pan to fill in the sink. That means that apparently I've come along many electrical and craftable objects but simply didn't notice how to use them. We're >8 hours later and I haven't seen a single bush to forage. And no, I'm not going to read a wiki or other manual to play a game. - Wait, did I say foraging? Trapping and fishing? Am I supposed to grind through all these skills in order to survive? Is this Runescape? XD Enough complains: please change the interface and hide some mechanics for new players! I just want to invite friends to this game, but with the current first impression they won't be convinced. Thanks! Joris