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So I've heard that the NPCs are mainly being scripted in numerous timelines from various backgrounds, traits, and other conditions that are essentially being hand-made. Which I can absolutely respect as that would allow more "human" responses in comparison to AI. I understand the idea of event chains that act like a logic system in a way, but I can't fathom anything short of a small army of writers to make it possible. Atleast without years of development. So I propose the following; why not let us, the community and gamers help write scripts or events? I'm sure we've all been through a number of situations and reacted to them differently depending on our own character builds or goals. If they allow the player base to contribute to this end, it would allow the devs to focus on the mechanics end to aid in speeding up the final release of NPCs. Not only that but it would allow some great diversity in the PZ world as of course, not every writer is the same. This could be accomplished by giving the community some form of template and maybe bracket it into categories of responses, reactions, or goals. Or a similar tool to properly and effectively integrate it seamlessly into the game. Essentially give us the guidelines and a relatively basic tool to help create the NPCs you, the devs, envisioned. Because trust me, we the players would love deep, lore rich NPCs. One way I could think of implementing this is breaking it down by traits or prebuilt classes. This way we could formulate different NPC reactions and goals that could potentially mesh together with other traits depending on their capabilities or limitations. Maybe even adding in reliance on other NPCs (such as potential family members) for negative traits such as deaf, weak ect or vice versa for bonus traits. Maybe have npc cops, firefighters, soldiers ect try to do their jobs at first and maintain the crumbling civilization. The possibilities are endless. A way to allow us access to this could be a form of massive logic chains. Where inputs from the beginning of the game could be handmade by thousands of players. Such as family members, goals, occupation, and some background information such as preferences, relationships ect. Perhaps even slap on a labeling system such as traits, personality ect to easily organize and piece together multiple chains. Finally a team of moderators to accept or decline certain inputs/outputs or entire chains for rating purposes or feasibility. It could be something as simple as a blog similar to this one, or more complex as a plug-in or game extension. Or even a bit of basic coding. Anything that would allow us to effectively help the core game.

This idea is not still complete, but it has been maturing in my mind for a while. I know children got definitely rejected, but I think I found a way to add them without breaking the atmosphere: The heir skill system. It could be a free feature where you choose to either assiign the earned skillpoints to yourself, or to invest in the future and buy your heir some nice advantage. Or the heir could be "created" after you settle down and choose a NPC of the opposite sex to be your partner. This heir, would just be an invisible bunck of skills you are buying for them, and appear into the game after your old character gets killed. I'm open to suggestions to make this idea better. Or to plain reject it if you feel the need of feeling a powerful admin by crusing other members ideas without even considering them.

Hello everyone!, So i wanted to know if there will be an option to spawn with NPC (when they will get implemented) family (brother,sister,wife...) or close friends in the same house so you can actually have someone you can trust in the begining. what do you think guys? leave all your thoughts in the comments and thank you for replying

So I was thinking about how you start out a game of Zomboid. Zomboid is meant to be hyper-realistic, but you begin the game with no family or friends who you want to look after. It's like you're literally plopped onto the world having never spoken to any other human before. So here's my suggestion for when the NPCs are back in: During character creation, you can also choose whether or not your character has any "Family." Family members will include things like wife, husband, father, mother, brother, sister, best friend, grandparents, etc. If you choose to have them (let's say you pick to have 3 family members), all 3 will be placed on the map at random (though maybe all within the same town you start in). They get unique dialogue if you happen to find them, and while talking to other NPCs you can also ask about them to try and find out where they are. This not only makes things more realistic and adds to roleplaying, it also adds a sort of optional sidequest - trying to track down and re-unite your family in the zombie apocalypse! Of course, if you're the lone survivor type, you can choose not to have any family at all. Having family will have disadvantages - if you don't manage to track them down, you'll get the "Absent Family" negative moodlet as you miss them and wonder where they are. Your family are like any other NPC, and can die while you're not there - so if you track them down only to find a corpse, you get Depressed, but at least you know what's happened to them and your Depression should eventually wear off. The Absent Family moodlet, however, is persistent, and affects you when you're not busy with other tasks (perhaps could make it a more believable alternative to Bored?). But if you do manage to find a family member, they'll start with a big boost to positive relations with you, making them a good option to join up with and unlikely to betray you! Also you'll get a positive moodlet from spending time with them. ...Although, of course, if they die, your character will get Depressed. That's another risk you have to weigh against the reward.