Day of the Infection

[NiceTim]

You guys know what zomboid should have? a day when the infection really, as in really just started.

Something like the story "northway" written by DirectorPr. Like commotions would be made right outside the building you stayed in, people would be running around, both armed, and unarmed, something like the game "zombie simulator" where you will control a group of survivors and gather as much as living people to set up your very own community after the whole Z-Day happenings would be done.

 

There also must be a number of people of course that you could have during the start, like the population of npcs would be either more, medium, or less.

 

I may also think that the game at the very moment do have npcs but in a number of few, as in, critically few considering that at the start, zombies would massively outnumber the player, making the "few" npc's, well, just disappear in a few minutes.

 

Imagine starting the game in a building, looking out through the window seeing people run around chased by dead ones, people shooting back, or hitting them zombies with anything they have.

 

if you may want this, at least act like you really do, just saying.

[willow512]

Unfortunately it's already been clarified that regular pc's probably can't handle the load for that.

 

A zombie has a very simple AI, npc AI is a magnitude more complicated. If at the start of the game all zombies begin as NPC's then you'd need a very big machine to keep track of everything.

 

I think everyone would agree that it is a cool idea  Imagine that patient zero who is supposed to infect everyone, meets up with a cop and gets killed before doing any damage.

[EnigmaGrey]

It's virtually a different game to do this.

[willow512]

It's virtually a different game to do this.

Carpentry and NPC's also changed the game quite a bit don't you think?

[EnigmaGrey]

 

It's virtually a different game to do this.

Carpentry and NPC's also changed the game quite a bit don't you think?

 

It's a very different game in the sense that NPCs would need to be rewritten -- everything from AI to their scripting.

[RegularX]

You'd probably need something like a "Stupid Victim" AI that is nearly as dumb as the zoms, but that probably won't give you much bang for the buck.

[CrazyEyes]

I don't think it's just about the AI you'd have to code for the starting NPCs - dumb or not - but about the sheer number of calculations involved in how each one of the zombies is going to react to each one of the survivors in its field of vision and vice versa.  If you think about the ways in which a zombie detects and follows you, there's a lot going on, and having to do that for hundreds of new survivors all pathing their way around the city - even if you don't count the ones who have transferred to the metagame - gets scary fast.  

 

That's also assuming the NPCs don't have to eat, sleep, drink, or loot and therefore the AI doesn't do anything but path to the nearest empty house and stay there forever.  The more realistic their needs and behaiviors come, the more the code grows and you need exponentially more processing power to handle it.

[Zombiepupz]

Well, It would be complicated to have all these NPCs going about their business like the devs said (I think it was the 'devs' please correct me if I'm wrong), but maybe they could add a skippable intro. scene which shoes this in a intro movie. It would give a little background to the game. Not like the entire thing eg. This person bit this person because ect. ect. ect. because I heard they want to keep some level of mystery of how it started in the game. Maybe just an intro. before the 'This is how you died' thing to show the collapse of society. Like you get to see the people being chased, fighting back, losing ect. without giving to much away. I imagine a short movie at the start wouldn't need to rewrite much? Of course, if they implement this it won't be straight away anyway.

[RegularX]

I don't think it's just about the AI you'd have to code for the starting NPCs - dumb or not - but about the sheer number of calculations involved in how each one of the zombies is going to react to each one of the survivors in its field of vision and vice versa.  If you think about the ways in which a zombie detects and follows you, there's a lot going on, and having to do that for hundreds of new survivors all pathing their way around the city - even if you don't count the ones who have transferred to the metagame - gets scary fast.  

 

Not if the "Victim NPC" AI was handled in nearly the same that current zom AI is handled, I think. Especially if there was no "net new" zombies, and basically the only difference is that this pawn runs instead of shambles, attracts zombies and would be eaten.  They'd basically be zombies that don't act like proper zombies until bitten.

 

I would guess that's plausible, but the outcome wouldn't be terribly satisfactory.  You'd just have random runners here and there.  Actually a better "Victim NPC" would be one that doesn't run away.  Basically just random zombie fodder.  Nothing quite like seeing a horde take down a random stranger to start your day.

 

Update: I should note that I don't think this is possible by modding in Lua.  

[RoboMat]

Update: I should note that I don't think this is possible by modding in Lua.  

 

Not sure ... maybe if we would get an OnSurvivorUpdate event? I think we'll have to wait and see

[kinyoshi]

I like the current time-line of how you start in PZ. I'm okay if it is made as a mod.. But never vanilla...

 

[Egg Bandage Boy]

Well, It would be complicated to have all these NPCs going about their business like the devs said (I think it was the 'devs' please correct me if I'm wrong), but maybe they could add a skippable intro. scene which shoes this in a intro movie. It would give a little background to the game. Not like the entire thing eg. This person bit this person because ect. ect. ect. because I heard they want to keep some level of mystery of how it started in the game. Maybe just an intro. before the 'This is how you died' thing to show the collapse of society. Like you get to see the people being chased, fighting back, losing ect. without giving to much away. I imagine a short movie at the start wouldn't need to rewrite much? Of course, if they implement this it won't be straight away anyway.

 

This seems like the best alternative.