The Future of PZ

[Rathlord]

I don't like the ItemDamage Overhaul suggestion at all. Moodles and color coding kills the realism and suspense of the game. That's why they removed displaying the health of windows and doors.

 

I also disapprove of the random health of weapons. Just how random are you talking about? If I find a bat only to discover it only has 5 hits left in it would suck.

 

I'm not suggesting moodles for the item damage- only graphics. The reason they have moodles and such is to demonstrate things that a person would know, that is hard to translate visually over a game. I'd suggest the sprite changing a bit as it gets more damage. The 'star' they have now is vastly unrealistic, though. Like I said in the other thread about this- you have no way of knowing on which exact hit your weapon is going to fail in real life. Shouldn't be any different in the game.

 

If you read the part on random health (if I remembered the part I wrote about it- I'll check in a second) it says that each item has a base health and then is added or subtracted some from that. Meaning that they'd all have a decent amount of uses left, it's only random inasmuch as you'd have no way of knowing exactly how many uses were left. The variation would only be big enough to keep people guessing.

 

As far as windows and doors go, like I said, they need something to let us know what condition they're in. It's nonsense to not be able to tell when a window is breaking in-game, that's just frustrating and unrealistic. So, whether it's sprites, tooltips, moodles, or whatever the player has to have some way of knowing how broken they are. I'm always open for suggestions for the OP =D

[feral_donkey]

Nice list.

There was also a suggestion somewhere about tying sounds to moodles that I liked.      Like a % chance to make specific noises when wounded, sick, tired, etc.    

[Rathlord]

Good idea, may add that to my list when I get off work.

[RoboMat]

Posted a small update about the sleeping overhaul mod which includes some of Rathlord's ideas:

http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/35-sleeping-overhaul-only-works-with-29910-atm/?p=21757

[Rathlord]

Updated Medical Overhaul to mention a First Aid skill as suggested by Banjo here: http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/1694-first-aid-skill/

 

With, of course, my own spin on it =D

[Rathlord]

Added a "Miscellany" section with gamma and contrast suggestion. More to come.

 

A few small updates to the Item Overhaul section.

[Geddoe202]

i like most of the ideas on here, but one thing comes to mind. I lived in ohio for a few years of my life. for the geographically impaired, it's bordered with kentucky. in those years i discovered that nearly every house had a basement/storm shelter to protect from inclement weather like tornados and high winds. so adding basements to just a few houses wouldn't be entirely realistic. from a gaming perspective i can see how much of a strain it would be to create a basement in nearly EVERY house, but if the devs really are going for realism, and they want to add basements/cellars, they should take that into account.

[Rathlord]

Interesting- I know KY gets less inclement weather than farther west states, but they do indeed get some. I still feel that not that many houses in that part of the U.S. have basements- but maybe we should get someone's opinion who actually lives in KY. We do have a few members who are from there. I've lived close to KY, but can't claim to have ever actually lived there. Thanks for the feedback! Now I'm curious D=

[k12314]

Interesting- I know KY gets less inclement weather than farther west states, but they do indeed get some. I still feel that not that many houses in that part of the U.S. have basements- but maybe we should get someone's opinion who actually lives in KY. We do have a few members who are from there. I've lived close to KY, but can't claim to have ever actually lived there. Thanks for the feedback! Now I'm curious D=

 

I was going to say that a lot of older houses have basements, but I live in Maryland, not Kentucky. Still, most of the houses in Muldraugh are probably older and have basements for various reasons, and a few people probably had some dug out at some time. Not every single house would have them, but I'd assume a hell of a lot of them would.

[Rathlord]

Upon doing some research, Muldraugh has only been near 4 tornados in written history. I'm still not entirely convinced about the storm cellars argument. I have said before that older houses are more likely to have basements, but I remain skeptical that a majority of houses would have. It's all guesswork at this juncture, though XD

 

Did find something else interesting out, though: 57% of Muldraugh citizens use gas as their heating source (with means likely stoves as well).

[EnigmaGrey]

Finally, a difference between the US and Canada: Canadians love basements.

[Rathlord]

Americans used to love basements, just not anymore. Pretty much everywhere that's not tornado-riddled has stopped. They just aren't needed like they used to be.

[Rathlord]

I'll be updating this momentarily with at least one new thing: off-screen sounds being represented visually. Helps deaf people play the game easier, and helps everyone else locate from which direction sounds came from.

[Spaniard]

Awesome list indeed! I just wanted to add some food for thought:

 

 

You’ll get a new option when right clicking a window in sneaking stance- peaking. Peaking lets you look out the window without opening it, vastly reducing the chances of being seen.

I feel peaking through a window should hurt your perception to everything that's behind you. Which, makes sense, because if you're peaking through a window, you're straining yourself to focus more on what's ahead of you rather than on what's behind you. Therefore, I feel that while you should be harder to spot by any zombies that are inside the house, you should become less aware of any Zombies that may behind, or around, your peripheral.

[Rathlord]

Good idea- I'll add this to the OP when I'm updating it. Soon™

[Rathlord]

Big Update!

 

Basically a "PZ Overhaul Suggestions" Overhaul!

 

Made everything fit a bit better with the dev's current gameplan. Added a bit of new stuff, such as rough time period guesses for each thing. Added a bunch to the "Item Overhaul" category near the end.

Added Spaniard's peaking change.

 

Added a section on sound that I promised I'd do quite a while back and forgot about XD

[LeoIvanov]

This thread deserves more love. Well thought out suggestions there, Rath.

[TheNugLife]

I think you're forgetting the most important thing of all. That being: a Spiffo player character skin. (or alternatively a Spiffo Onesie).

 

 

(also I like your item overhaul ideas and the addition of a sewer system would be awesome.)

 

Cheers

[silents429]

Well I love the ideas except some of the crafting system, I don't like the idea of taking to long making items, It feels more sandboxey and fun the way it is now.

I mean yours is more realistic but there has to be a line drawn somewhere, can't let this get to realistic it becomes more annoying then fun.

[sajuuknightfall]

agree there need to be a line because to much realism can also kill the drive to continue playing. Oh great i just got a cold, ' oh no i don't have X Y Z. you get the idea to many items just to do something so simple as going to bed and staying warm.

 

( bandages ) without a warning tell me i need to change my bandages i would be piss if i find out am sick. you should get a massage such as " its time to change the bandages. " something like that. then i would say that's a good idea. i don't want to have to go into many windows just to do a simple action ether.

[Phesired]

Rathlord you should ask them to pin this for you, it's beautiful.

[Rathlord]

I could pin it myself =P

While I did have a lot of fun/put a lot of work into making it, pinning it would probably be special treatment it doesn't deserve XD

[Alphalfamire]

I'm with you on the durability, Rath. But also, I have a slight suggestion which I may post on it's own in a topic soon, but wanna know what you think. My idea is that some items should have alternatives for breaking. Like the axe, it's hard to picture one of those breaking on a zombies head, when they can cut through tons of trees. Although, I could see it getting DULL....See what I'm getting at? Instead of it completely disintegrating, it could just get more and more dull to where its basically a blunt weapon, of course making it far more ineffective against the horde, and as you were saying instead of showing a percentile, it could be sharp(100%-90%), worn(89%-70%), dull(69%-40%), very dull(39%-15%, blunt(14%-0%). Tell me what you think, critique welcome. 

[Rathlord]

Great idea! Might add it to the original post with your name by it, if you don't mind.

[Alphalfamire]

Great idea! Might add it to the original post with your name by it, if you don't mind.

Oh awesome! I'll probably make a topic that goes more in depth tomorrow.