Jump to content

Operation Fix Late Game By Killing You Before You Get There


lemmy101

Recommended Posts

-snip-

Well vehicles and generators are already planned. On the subject of chainsaws, it has been suggested before, quite a many times actually. But I don't think you'd really want to use a weapon that sprays infected flesh and blood around your face and body. Plus it'd just most likely get stuck with the intestines and clothing and break. As a tool, sure, but not as a weapon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey guys, this is my first post on this forum. I've been playing PZ for a few months and absolutely love it. I truly cant wait to see where it goes. Here are a few of my thoughts on late-game difficulty (mostly plagiarized).

 

Zombies: increase their grip strength and allowing hordes will help complicate late-game. I liked the earlier idea of have massive hordes passing though the map occasionally.

 

Animals: Packs of feral dogs in the urban areas, bears and mountain lions in the rural areas. Wont be many at first but as nature reclaims what man has taken their numbers will increase.

 

NPCs: I think a lot of the difficulty of late game will come from NPCs. Dealing with the emotional toll on you group, as well as conflicts with other groups, will definitely help make things harder as time goes on. It would really complicate things when one of your group goes to loot the local gas station and comes back with 30+ zombies in tow. Of he got bit and didn't say anything.

I also liked the idea of random packs of raiders, looters, and bandits passing through, with some deciding to hang around town for a while. Some would just want to loot the town and avoid conflict unless provoked, where as others could be vicious killers just as interested in hurting people as they are in taking their stuff.

 

Farming: I think the growth periods could stand to be longer, and crop yield could be a little lower. But I think we need to keep NPCs in mind. Your 1 month stockpile is a 1 week stockpile if you have 3 other people with you. I think sustainable levels of farming should be a lot of work and be a little tedious. This way you have to make the decision to shut yourself in and farm or go out and continue looting, not both. Once you have more members in the group they can take care of it for you, but they wont have time to do much else. I also agree that seeds are a little too easy to find. It would be great if they were still in houses, just much less. The really stockpiles should be at the farms and hardware stores, necessitating a longer ranged looting trip to go get them.

 

Weapons: I would like to see some more diversity. Machetes, hatchets, pipe wrenches, combat knives, etc. I also think ridiculous weapons like chainsaws should be included. It will totally get you killed, but some people learn the hard way. For that matter i think katanas should be included. If you didn't spend your entire life training (not just swinging it around your back yard), you probably don't know how to use one correctly. Plus any katana you run across in modern Kentucky likely came from a flea market and isn't suitable for actual combat. I think these would make interesting pitfalls for players to fall into.

 

Random Encounters/Events: Storms, fires, gas main explosions, sewer back ups are all pretty much guaranteed to happen in an apocalypse. Especially as time goes on and the infrastructure isn't maintained (i.e. erosion).

 

I had a different way of think about late game boredom. Your character is basically a reflection of you, so for the player its boredom, for the character it is soul-crushing despair.  A lot of people have said they farm for a while, then get bored and eventually go out in a shotgun rampage. I think that is "How you Died". Your character cracked after a few weeks cooped up in his house, that ran into the streets and got himself killed. Also, people who get bored and quit, their characters are basically committing suicide because they just couldn't take the boredom/despair anymore.

 

Thanks for reading, I hope I didn't ramble too much. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let me reply to this in particular.

 

--

Farming: I think the growth periods could stand to be longer, and crop yield could be a little lower. But I think we need to keep NPCs in mind. Your 1 month stockpile is a 1 week stockpile if you have 3 other people with you. I think sustainable levels of farming should be a lot of work and be a little tedious. This way you have to make the decision to shut yourself in and farm or go out and continue looting, not both. Once you have more members in the group they can take care of it for you, but they wont have time to do much else. I also agree that seeds are a little too easy to find. It would be great if they were still in houses, just much less. The really stockpiles should be at the farms and hardware stores, necessitating a longer ranged looting trip to go get them.

--

 

I think it should be different though, the tedium should be removed and farming made to take longer, allowing the player to do more than farm, in fact it promotes doing so exactly to lower boredom and increase risk. Farming has to be one tool in your arsenal and not a surefire way to live. You gotta scavenge, forage, fish and hunt as well. Designing the game so that farming is tedious is just bad, it will make thousands upon thousands of players not do it.

 

You want the player to do both because the the main problem with farming currently is exactly that they turtle up and can never do other things even if they want to. Dropping difficulty to the floor and boosting boredom to the levels where players will quit and rather play something else. Because they can't leave the garden for a few days to set up another safe house or try and clear the mall or do something the player wants to do without large scale plant death.

 

At least those are my thoughts on it. As someone who hates farming on rooftops even being possible without largely reduced yields.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The farming process, as I've advocated before, needs to be nerfed and streamlined. Make it FAR easier to do on at least a basic level, but reduce the payout per tile and make the whole process take longer so that you have to scale up the size of your farmland if you want it to be anything more than a dietary supplement.

 

The difficulty should come from the need to protect such a large amount of land from the undead and other survivors instead of from the farming itself. If you make farming more tedious as a way to make it more difficult, you're gonna ruin that aspect of the game completely and no one will want to do it. And if no one wants to do it, why bother having it in the game at all?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I had a different way of think about late game boredom. Your character is basically a reflection of you, so for the player its boredom, for the character it is soul-crushing despair.  A lot of people have said they farm for a while, then get bored and eventually go out in a shotgun rampage. I think that is "How you Died". Your character cracked after a few weeks cooped up in his house, that ran into the streets and got himself killed. Also, people who get bored and quit, their characters are basically committing suicide because they just couldn't take the boredom/despair anymore.

 

 

Welcome to the forums! Nice first post mate :)

 

While I don't completely agree with some of your suggestions, most of them are pretty valid. I particularly like the quoted part, 100% matches my view of the game. Once the player is a skilled survivor, death is most likely coming from either over confidence or a crazy movement inspired by the day by day on an apocalyptic scenario. 

 

 

 

As someone who hates farming on rooftops even being possible without largely reduced yields.

 

This should definetely change. You could get close to the ground yield rate on a roof, but you would need tons of soil. We are currently using less than 1kg soil per tile! It should probably be around 20 kg of soil per tile if you want to get a decent harvest. 

 

The difficulty should come from the need to protect such a large amount of land from the undead and other survivors instead of from the farming itself. 

 

There we go!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After over 200 hours of game play I've learned this game will be as boring as you make it...doesn't really need fixing. If you build a base and hide in it...it gets boring. Which I can't do, I'm always off looting and killing Zeds...which in the end kills me  :oops: . Had a sweet double wall base by the river,tons of seeds, fishing pole,lures and rain barrels...walkway build from one house to the house next door. But I want in the gun shop so went in search of a sledgehammer in the other town...got bit and died. 980 zed kills and maybe 3 months of food stores...didn't have to go anywhere. Could have live til I died of old age (clyde)

 

Now that I've been playing alot I've changed my goals in the game from how long can I live to I many zed I can kill before they get me and I'm having fun  8-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The late game is in desperate need of being fixed SailerWolf...I got to the late game within 5-10 hours, I have a walled up base, zombies killed for blocks around, farm going...I can live here indefinitely.  I could go looting, but really, whats the point?  I have everything I need to maintain my survival.  I even forced myself to go out looting one day and it was absolutely boring because I didn't have anything I really needed.

 

Zombie kill records don't do anything for me so I don't try to get as many as I can, there's nothing that I need to survive, and nothing has been around my base in months, as far as I'm concerned the game is over, and theres no point in starting a new game because I'll eventually be right back in the same position I am now within a few hours, even less now because I know what to get and how to do it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I gotta disagree with SailorWolf, if your killing 980 zombies and living in a fortress that is never under attack something is wrong. The game should thrust excitement and hazard upon you, if you are saying "Don't farm." or "Don't build." then the game is not balanced properly in terms of difficulty. As simple as that.

 

The player being bored and then having to go out and get themselves killed is not at all a good approach to the game. In fact it is the sum of the late game problem. Because the moment you do that you are gonna exit the game and go play something more challenging and engaging instead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, it's my turn to say something. 

 

First of all i haven't read all the thread, but i will share my ideas how easily can someone die during the ZA. (sorry for my english)

 

1. Blood and entrails of zombies - when a survivor fight zombies and smashes their heads, their blod spreads everywhere. Weapon, clothes - these things can possibly infect u. And when u use the same kitchen knife to kill a zombie and then u cut your carrot into pieces using it, u should probably turn into a zombie soon.

And what with other weapons like bats, hammers and axes. We are using them to cut trees down, to nail. And what if we hit our finger with the infected hammer.

Bags, bagbacks - if u have multiple weapons, u are probably carrying some in your bag, but what when u find a cooking pan first, smash some brains with it and then in one of the corpses is an axe and u put your pan in a bag full of food, pots with water etc... How high is the chance to get them infected?

 

So.. maybe we could disinfect our stuff and wash ourself to avoid being easily zombified.

Or using another weapons to fight (bats) and other to build (hammers, axes).

 

2. Hygiene - some of u can survive for months, having huge reserves of water and food. But no one washes himself. Shouldn't the stink of dirty body attract zombies?

And what with illneses? Lack on hygiene leads to them.

To wash our bodies we need more water so we must decide whether we wan't to water plants or wash our bloody hands and axe or drink something.

 

3. As i wrote, there should be a possibility to wound, for example when someone is tired, hungry, angry or simply weak. Wounds should be common, because it is impossible to build big fortresses, fight tons of zombies, run dozens of miles without getting any scratch or bruise.

 

4.  I was also thinking about two handed weapons and opening doors or jumping through windows. When u open a door, u can't handle your weapon in both hands, for a few seconds your axe is only in your left or right arm. And windows...

How can a player use a rope to climb down or up with a full bagpack, i think there should be a limit of weight. If your bag is to heavy u can't climb up, and if u try to climb down, u will fall. It should maybe depend on our general condition.

 

5. It should be also impossible to have full pots, bowls or mugs in the inventory (only in hands or prams [baby carriages]).

 

6. And water - the river could be a good source of it but u should maybe collect some sand and coal to filter it and then boil it to kill bacteries and remove other stuff. 

 

 

Think about it next time when u play PZ and after killing a zombie using your kitchen knife u go to the grocery, take an apple and eat it and drink "fresh" water from your pot, that was laying in your bagback under a (bloody) nailed bat. Maybe u should been using gloves during the fight, or u just could avoid this undead woman whose blood wanders now in your veins and turns u slowly into one of them. :)

 

That are only suggestions and i apologize if they were already mentioned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I gotta disagree with SailorWolf, if your killing 980 zombies and living in a fortress that is never under attack something is wrong. The game should thrust excitement and hazard upon you, if you are saying "Don't farm." or "Don't build." then the game is not balanced properly in terms of difficulty. As simple as that.

 

The player being bored and then having to go out and get themselves killed is not at all a good approach to the game. In fact it is the sum of the late game problem. Because the moment you do that you are gonna exit the game and go play something more challenging and engaging instead.

 

I understand more needs to be added just saying right now the game is as boring as you make it. I've only been playing for a couple of months so it's still new to me. My last base was the best I've had and I built it with hordes in mind....because if you have 100 or 200 zeds show up in the middle of the night to attack your base it's gone. There would be nothing you could do but grab what you can and get the hell out. (Well with the ammo and guns I had..I could survive one attack and not lose my base maybe)

 

I think adding NPCs and a little story line would go a long way along with hordes (but not huge ones). With only getting to play a couple of hours a day after work and on my days off....spending hours building a base only to have it ripped to the ground would make me give up on the game.  Maybe 3 modes of play would work, one for new players, one normal and a insane mode for those who want to die within 2 hours of starting a new game.

 

But my point has always been why have all this cool stuff like building, cooking and farming if the whole point of the game is to kill you? Take it all out, make sleeping a must... put hordes back in and make the best weapon in the game a butter knife...oh make the hordes spawn at your door everytime you go to sleep. That should cut the game down to under a hour of playing time  8-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Yeah I gotta disagree with SailorWolf, if your killing 980 zombies and living in a fortress that is never under attack something is wrong. The game should thrust excitement and hazard upon you, if you are saying "Don't farm." or "Don't build." then the game is not balanced properly in terms of difficulty. As simple as that.

 

The player being bored and then having to go out and get themselves killed is not at all a good approach to the game. In fact it is the sum of the late game problem. Because the moment you do that you are gonna exit the game and go play something more challenging and engaging instead.

 

I understand more needs to be added just saying right now the game is as boring as you make it. I've only been playing for a couple of months so it's still new to me. My last base was the best I've had and I built it with hordes in mind....because if you have 100 or 200 zeds show up in the middle of the night to attack your base it's gone. There would be nothing you could do but grab what you can and get the hell out. (Well with the ammo and guns I had..I could survive one attack and not lose my base maybe)

 

I think adding NPCs and a little story line would go a long way along with hordes (but not huge ones). With only getting to play a couple of hours a day after work and on my days off....spending hours building a base only to have it ripped to the ground would make me give up on the game.  Maybe 3 modes of play would work, one for new players, one normal and a insane mode for those who want to die within 2 hours of starting a new game.

 

But my point has always been why have all this cool stuff like building, cooking and farming if the whole point of the game is to kill you? Take it all out, make sleeping a must... put hordes back in and make the best weapon in the game a butter knife...oh make the hordes spawn at your door everytime you go to sleep. That should cut the game down to under a hour of playing time  8-)

 

 

There are alternatives to dealing with hordes.....and I'm sure once Zombie AI gets some much needed tweaks you could find ways to keep them from demolishing your base. For example, leaving out a backway to lure them away from you base is one way to stop a horde from demolishing your base (you do build your base with multiple exits right?). Wiping out a horde is not always the best solution. Make some noise, drag them away, and then attempt to lose them.

 

Also, I don't believe a horde would randomly show up while your sleeping and attempt to tear down your base UNLESS you did something foolish, like leaving on lights or having uncovered windows or open doors. Zombies mindlessly destroying windows and doors is something that will hopefully be addressed later on anyways. I would be more worried about the NPCs that may later show up in the middle of the night then the zombies......

 

Right now they want to fix the problem of players NOT wanting to play it as a survival game because it gets so boring and SAFE once you've established your base that you simply go on a shotgun rampage to end it. They want there to be constant threats to show up that you need to worry about and properly address.

 

I for one am looking forward to a difficulty ramp up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven't been playing too long but, like many, have found survival mode a bit too safe. If you're careful you can clear a whole city block with nothing but a couple dozen eating utensils. What I've been playing instead is extreme sandbox mutators on the zombies, and I agree with hordes and zombie alertness add to the experience greatly.
 

One of my favorite game modes so far has been:

 

Cold weather, raining often, September

Zombies: Insane population, pinpoint hearing (terrible vision and smell), extremely strong, extremely durable.

I found myself playing to more typical zombie lore of luring them with sound (breaking windows and booking it) and being oppressively and endlessly chased by unkillable hordes. And this was sneaking to the outskirts of West Point ASAP. Even in melee, your bludgeoning and the zombies' moaning will often draw a small crowd just off screen. I have never leveled my athletic/sneak skills so fast.

 

 

------

I also think that when reinstated, NPCs will be a gold mine for shaping horde behavior. For example, NPC sprinting for his life past you or your safehouse with a horde of zombies in pursuit. Or better yet, the same idiot breaking into your house/a nearby house to hide with the same horde chasing them. Firecrackers and throwing rocks (possibly at windows or cars w/ alarms) could be forms of horde control in a desperate situation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Yeah I gotta disagree with SailorWolf, if your killing 980 zombies and living in a fortress that is never under attack something is wrong. The game should thrust excitement and hazard upon you, if you are saying "Don't farm." or "Don't build." then the game is not balanced properly in terms of difficulty. As simple as that.

 

The player being bored and then having to go out and get themselves killed is not at all a good approach to the game. In fact it is the sum of the late game problem. Because the moment you do that you are gonna exit the game and go play something more challenging and engaging instead.

 

I understand more needs to be added just saying right now the game is as boring as you make it. I've only been playing for a couple of months so it's still new to me. My last base was the best I've had and I built it with hordes in mind....because if you have 100 or 200 zeds show up in the middle of the night to attack your base it's gone. There would be nothing you could do but grab what you can and get the hell out. (Well with the ammo and guns I had..I could survive one attack and not lose my base maybe)

 

I think adding NPCs and a little story line would go a long way along with hordes (but not huge ones). With only getting to play a couple of hours a day after work and on my days off....spending hours building a base only to have it ripped to the ground would make me give up on the game.  Maybe 3 modes of play would work, one for new players, one normal and a insane mode for those who want to die within 2 hours of starting a new game.

 

But my point has always been why have all this cool stuff like building, cooking and farming if the whole point of the game is to kill you? Take it all out, make sleeping a must... put hordes back in and make the best weapon in the game a butter knife...oh make the hordes spawn at your door everytime you go to sleep. That should cut the game down to under a hour of playing time  8-)

 

 

There are alternatives to dealing with hordes.....and I'm sure once Zombie AI gets some much needed tweaks you could find ways to keep them from demolishing your base. For example, leaving out a backway to lure them away from you base is one way to stop a horde from demolishing your base (you do build your base with multiple exits right?). Wiping out a horde is not always the best solution. Make some noise, drag them away, and then attempt to lose them.

 

Also, I don't believe a horde would randomly show up while your sleeping and attempt to tear down your base UNLESS you did something foolish, like leaving on lights or having uncovered windows or open doors. Zombies mindlessly destroying windows and doors is something that will hopefully be addressed later on anyways. I would be more worried about the NPCs that may later show up in the middle of the night then the zombies......

 

Right now they want to fix the problem of players NOT wanting to play it as a survival game because it gets so boring and SAFE once you've established your base that you simply go on a shotgun rampage to end it. They want there to be constant threats to show up that you need to worry about and properly address.

 

I for one am looking forward to a difficulty ramp up.

 

Yes my last super base was two houses and a shed...double walled with double front and back doors on the main base grounds. My third route was out the bathroom window across a walkway to the second house and out it's back door which exited outside the base walls. Also had a big hiking bag loaded with a axe, saw, hammer, nails, trowel,seeds and food loaded for a fast escape near the back door of the second house. I look forward to hordes and npcs but as I said I'm having fun now....but thinking ahead never hurts I guess :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having zombies that pretend to be dead, then get up is a great idea. Adds an extra element of the unexpected for the player to fear.

 

There is actually a little of this in Build 29, as MrEckyman demonstrated - they certainly could expand on that, though. If they kept the separate sound effects for hitting and killing and the separate models for dead and fallen, but had a random chance of a knocked-down zombie waiting to get up until a survivor approached (or until a meta-event or other sufficiently loud noise)...

 

Hey guys, this is my first post on this forum. I've been playing PZ for a few months and absolutely love it. I truly cant wait to see where it goes. Here are a few of my thoughts on late-game difficulty (mostly plagiarized).

 

[snip]

 

I like your suggestions a lot, original or not. Especially the storm drain and sewer backup problems. I was already thinking that farming would benefit from modeling drainage and water retention (it should be possible to find places outdoors in Kentucky to plant carrots where they won't drown from ordinary amounts of rain), but now I'm imagining flash floods and other fun times blindsiding the unprepared survivor. A tornado hitting your house specifically should be very unlikely, but there are definitely parts of the map that would be more or less prone to flooding, and paths across the map that will have water flowing down to the river from rain and snowmelt. (And perhaps survivors trying to collect water from these currents and getting bit....)

 

Also, sudden thought: there are dams on the Ohio River. West Point is between the Cannelton Dam and McAlpine. In a zombie apocalypse situation, maintenance and operation of those dams is going to go completely to pot. I imagine that there is some emergency plan for what to do if the dam has to be abandoned for a long period of time, but the river is definitely going to grow more unpredictable over time.

 

(Especially the Salt River, just east of downtown West Point, which had annual flooding until the dam was put in. Holy crap. I can't wait.)

 

I had a different way of think about late game boredom. Your character is basically a reflection of you, so for the player its boredom, for the character it is soul-crushing despair.  A lot of people have said they farm for a while, then get bored and eventually go out in a shotgun rampage. I think that is "How you Died". Your character cracked after a few weeks cooped up in his house, that ran into the streets and got himself killed. Also, people who get bored and quit, their characters are basically committing suicide because they just couldn't take the boredom/despair anymore.

 

Boredom system revamps would be awesome. Yes, you get bored sitting around in your house all day ... but you also get bored if your days are full of routines: make salad, check perimeter, check crops, check traps, check food stores, check equipment ... at some point, you should go stir-crazy.

 

I think it should be different though, the tedium should be removed and farming made to take longer, allowing the player to do more than farm, in fact it promotes doing so exactly to lower boredom and increase risk. Farming has to be one tool in your arsenal and not a surefire way to live. You gotta scavenge, forage, fish and hunt as well. Designing the game so that farming is tedious is just bad, it will make thousands upon thousands of players not do it.

 

You want the player to do both because the the main problem with farming currently is exactly that they turtle up and can never do other things even if they want to. Dropping difficulty to the floor and boosting boredom to the levels where players will quit and rather play something else. Because they can't leave the garden for a few days to set up another safe house or try and clear the mall or do something the player wants to do without large scale plant death.

 

At least those are my thoughts on it. As someone who hates farming on rooftops even being possible without largely reduced yields.

 

Yes. We have to remember that this is a game, and whether or not the character is bored the players shouldn't be. Take it from me: sometimes, a plant will grow food with almost zero intervention from you.

 

(On a related note, I think untreated problems should sometimes go away on their own. Let someone see that their crops have mildew and start praying for dry enough weather to bake the mildew to death so they don't have to use up more of their precious mildew spray.)

 

Ok, it's my turn to say something. 

 

First of all i haven't read all the thread, but i will share my ideas how easily can someone die during the ZA. (sorry for my english)

 

[snip]

 

Think about it next time when u play PZ and after killing a zombie using your kitchen knife u go to the grocery, take an apple and eat it and drink "fresh" water from your pot, that was laying in your bagback under a (bloody) nailed bat. Maybe u should been using gloves during the fight, or u just could avoid this undead woman whose blood wanders now in your veins and turns u slowly into one of them. :)

 

That are only suggestions and i apologize if they were already mentioned.

 

These are really good suggestions. I think the devs were opposed to forcing players to deal with routine hygiene (like Viceroy pointed out, we don't want to bore the players), but especially when zombie guts are involved, contamination is a huge factor in your ongoing health.

 

And carrying twenty bowls of water in a duffelbag without any of them spilling is definitely ridiculous. Make people use their primary and secondary slots if they want to transport open containers of liquid - probably both, if they're moving cooking pots. Let them use a thermos (or water bottle, or whisky bottle, or...) if they want soup on the road.

 

And open containers of water (including rainwater collectors) should be breeding pools for mosquitoes, fungi, bacteria, and all sorts of other goodies unless they are regularly emptied and allowed to dry. (Or treated with water purification tablets ... or a little bit of that whisky...)

 

And water, soil, residues, &c. should be the primary problem you have with your firearms. Any competently-designed weapon (and incompetently designed weapons probably aren't going to turn up in-game for years) should be good for tens of thousands of rounds over its lifespan if it is kept clean. Almost any weapon - even the legendary AK-47, and the official assault rifle of Project Zomboid should probably be the M14 instead - will start jamming, misfiring, and other such fun times if not kept clean. Edit: You should be able to find cleaning kits in most houses that have firearms (and a very few that do not, because the resident left with their gun), and you should find loads at the gun shop in West Point.

Edited by Packbat
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

(...) The only sure way to please everyone is to have very detailed game customization options, so everyone gets their cup of tea. 
 
It's obvious that each person wants a different thing for the game (as it should be). Some want to feel like their lives hang by a thread every single second; others want to get a sense of progression and feel that they can make their way with enough effort and skill. Some don't care if realism is thrown out of the window for the sake of difficulty, and others feel the other way around.
 
And, I think, most people want their own personal middle ground somewhere between the extremes.
 
What I humbly think that could address all concerns is making more aspects of the game customizable in Sandbox Mode - let each person play the game like they want to. Set sliders for food spoilage, zombie horde strength and behavior; enable, disable, and set difficulty levels for things like food preservation, refrigeration, fishing, loot respawn, overall survivor behavior... Stuff like that. I could make a huge list! (...)
 

"RJ has also been adding several new options to further customize sandbox, such as changing the speed that characters level up, and adjusting how quickly basic needs like hunger and thirst increase. This will allow for a lot more difficulty customization: playing with rapidly increasing hunger and rare loot will keep even the most seasoned Zomboid players on their toes."

- November 10th Mondoid 

It's... Like devs actually read the forums! =D

Game is amazing, and devs are amazing. Catering to all players, no one left behind. Customization IS crucial to the game.

 

AAA companies should learn something from you guys. 

Sincerest thanks, The Indie Stone!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

(...) The only sure way to please everyone is to have very detailed game customization options, so everyone gets their cup of tea. 
 
It's obvious that each person wants a different thing for the game (as it should be). Some want to feel like their lives hang by a thread every single second; others want to get a sense of progression and feel that they can make their way with enough effort and skill. Some don't care if realism is thrown out of the window for the sake of difficulty, and others feel the other way around.
 
And, I think, most people want their own personal middle ground somewhere between the extremes.
 
What I humbly think that could address all concerns is making more aspects of the game customizable in Sandbox Mode - let each person play the game like they want to. Set sliders for food spoilage, zombie horde strength and behavior; enable, disable, and set difficulty levels for things like food preservation, refrigeration, fishing, loot respawn, overall survivor behavior... Stuff like that. I could make a huge list! (...)
 

"RJ has also been adding several new options to further customize sandbox, such as changing the speed that characters level up, and adjusting how quickly basic needs like hunger and thirst increase. This will allow for a lot more difficulty customization: playing with rapidly increasing hunger and rare loot will keep even the most seasoned Zomboid players on their toes."

- November 10th Mondoid 

It's... Like devs actually read the forums! =D

Game is amazing, and devs are amazing. Catering to all players, no one left behind. Customization IS crucial to the game.

 

AAA companies should learn something from you guys. 

Sincerest thanks, The Indie Stone!

 

Yeah, it's great that the devs read suggestions, best game company EVAR

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Ok, it's my turn to say something. 

 

First of all i haven't read all the thread, but i will share my ideas how easily can someone die during the ZA. (sorry for my english)

 

1. Blood and entrails of zombies - when a survivor fight zombies and smashes their heads, their blod spreads everywhere. Weapon, clothes - these things can possibly infect u. And when u use the same kitchen knife to kill a zombie and then u cut your carrot into pieces using it, u should probably turn into a zombie soon.

And what with other weapons like bats, hammers and axes. We are using them to cut trees down, to nail. And what if we hit our finger with the infected hammer.

Bags, bagbacks - if u have multiple weapons, u are probably carrying some in your bag, but what when u find a cooking pan first, smash some brains with it and then in one of the corpses is an axe and u put your pan in a bag full of food, pots with water etc... How high is the chance to get them infected?

 

So.. maybe we could disinfect our stuff and wash ourself to avoid being easily zombified.

Or using another weapons to fight (bats) and other to build (hammers, axes).

 

2. Hygiene - some of u can survive for months, having huge reserves of water and food. But no one washes himself. Shouldn't the stink of dirty body attract zombies?

And what with illneses? Lack on hygiene leads to them.

To wash our bodies we need more water so we must decide whether we wan't to water plants or wash our bloody hands and axe or drink something.

 

3. As i wrote, there should be a possibility to wound, for example when someone is tired, hungry, angry or simply weak. Wounds should be common, because it is impossible to build big fortresses, fight tons of zombies, run dozens of miles without getting any scratch or bruise.

 

4.  I was also thinking about two handed weapons and opening doors or jumping through windows. When u open a door, u can't handle your weapon in both hands, for a few seconds your axe is only in your left or right arm. And windows...

How can a player use a rope to climb down or up with a full bagpack, i think there should be a limit of weight. If your bag is to heavy u can't climb up, and if u try to climb down, u will fall. It should maybe depend on our general condition.

 

5. It should be also impossible to have full pots, bowls or mugs in the inventory (only in hands or prams [baby carriages]).

 

6. And water - the river could be a good source of it but u should maybe collect some sand and coal to filter it and then boil it to kill bacteries and remove other stuff. 

 

 

Think about it next time when u play PZ and after killing a zombie using your kitchen knife u go to the grocery, take an apple and eat it and drink "fresh" water from your pot, that was laying in your bagback under a (bloody) nailed bat. Maybe u should been using gloves during the fight, or u just could avoid this undead woman whose blood wanders now in your veins and turns u slowly into one of them. :)

 

That are only suggestions and i apologize if they were already mentioned.

 

Yeah devs if you refuse to put hygiene in the game then why even put things like toothpaste and comes and soap

 

I feel like I'm being mocked at this point

 

Those items have no purpose, nor will they ever have a purpose

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dare say we also need a hunger / thirst / happiness / boredom / temperature meter.

 

Hunger / thirst. After you play for a while, you learn how much food you need to eat to mitigate a certain amount of hunger. A new player, when he sees the pink indicator in the right... he will probably panic and eat the most nutritive thing he have, even is only peckish. Yeah, he will be well fed, but for no reason. Waste of food.

Ah, and by the way... but that's just me, in real life: if I get hungry in the night, I wake up and raid the fridge. But I guess I have "hearty appetite" trait. :). Maybe should be an option to wake up for certain needs?

 

Temperature. I'm in summer, in a house, with sweater, pants and shoes, in a bed... and got the nippy or even cold warning. Put some thermometers in game please. We have so many useless items, maybe is time for something that actually have an use? :)

 

Happiness / boredom. I get it. As long you don't have a warning, you are fine. But what if I'm not just fine, I'm happy? Being happy makes me noisy, maybe reckless (like "I'm invincible, nothing bad can happen to me"). Being bored makes you more aware of the surroundings (makes sense, when you are bored you look around with more care, just to find something to focus your mind on)

 

Just my 2 cents.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Yeah devs if you refuse to put hygiene in the game then why even put things like toothpaste and comes and soap

 

I feel like I'm being mocked at this point

 

Those items have no purpose, nor will they ever have a purpose

 

I have a feeling some degree of hygiene is planned . . . it's excretion and Sims style hygiene that isn't, seeing as how you have to play the character rather than watch it go through various states in an automated process (not to mention that someone has to animate / model everything and program it).

 

For example, razors could be used to alter visible beards. Soap could be used when dealing with blood and wound treatment. Toothpaste? Well, I don't know: a very minor happy boost when used.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Yeah devs if you refuse to put hygiene in the game then why even put things like toothpaste and comes and soap

 

I feel like I'm being mocked at this point

 

Those items have no purpose, nor will they ever have a purpose

 

I have a feeling some degree of hygiene is planned . . . it's excretion and Sims style hygiene that isn't, seeing as how you have to play the character rather than watch it go through various states in an automated process (not to mention that someone has to animate / model everything and program it).

 

For example, razors could be used to alter visible beards. Soap could be used when dealing with blood and wound treatment. Toothpaste? Well, I don't know: a very minor happy boost when used.

 

 

Oh cool

It's just that I saw that hygiene was a No by the developers in the suggestion list

 

Didn't mean to come off as rude, maybe I just had too much wine at Thanksgiving :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, and Mash did say that she'd like to have an option for showering, but only as a positive buff.

Yep I remember this being mentionned, and that makes sense !

I could see a slightly deeper impact on the gameplay tho, like taking a shower once every week could lower the probability of wound infection or something. (being a smelly wanderer means you have a higher chance of wound infection if hurt)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Yes, and Mash did say that she'd like to have an option for showering, but only as a positive buff.

Yep I remember this being mentionned, and that makes sense !

I could see a slightly deeper impact on the gameplay tho, like taking a shower once every week could lower the probability of wound infection or something. (being a smelly wanderer means you have a higher chance of wound infection if hurt)

 

Maybe once a month. A week isn't going to get you dirty if you're not doing some especially nasty stuff. But yea I agree that it should affect infection chance, but at the same time disinfecting the wound is basically the same thing... Even more potent I'd imagine. It could be a failsafe for that though.

Edited by Suomiboi
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...