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[Wolfy's] Moodlet & Trait Suggestions


Fuzzy Wolfy

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So, ever since Build 31's release, I've been extremely pleased with how many more traits and occupations there now are. Compared to earlier builds, this is a much more balanced and fleshed out means of creating a character who's pros and cons align themselves pretty accurately with their profession. I, myself, was guilty of choosing the Construction Worker or Ranger profession during the earlier builds due to Thick Skin/Builder and Outdoorsman being pretty overpowered, at least when compared to things like Night Owl - when Sleep was not even properly implemented, yet.

So anyway, this is just a small list of things I've come up with. I've based the suggestions off of my own observations, so obviously they're far from perfect, nor do I think they're properly balanced. That being said, I'm not looking for these to be implemented as is, nor do I really expect anything to be done with these ideas-- I'm really just trying to give the Zomboid Devs some food for thought and ideas for future additions. I already love what they're doing, so I'm more than confident that - regardless of my input - the future bulds (like 32) will be equally as amazing.

But enough of that. Onto the list!


Firstly, some traits. These were the easiest to come up with due to how the game currently functions. Some traits have no counterpart, whilst other factors seem to have not been tapped, as of yet. There's a lot of potential, is what I mean.

Negative Traits:

TraitHemophobic.pngHemophobia
"Panics when performing First Aid on self. Cannot perform First Aid on others."
It already exists, I know. However, I think this could have far more of an impact to how the player interacts with the world. How? Well, blood is everywhere. Literally. Zombie kills often result in a comically large splatter of blood that leaves the ground, walls, and such utterly drenched in the stuff. A hemophobic character could easily react negatively to being in close proximity to large blood stains. This is easily counter-acted by just cleaning the blood - something we can now do with Bleach and a towel. This'd give people a good incentive to keep their home clean.

fhS22Rb.pngHemophilia
"Blood loss is harder to stop. Scratches have a greater chance to become Deep Wounds."
As the name implies, this is a medical condition related to the body's inability to produce blood clotting agents, meaning that blood loss is a greater danger to said suffering individuals. I can imagine this being a costly trait to take, one that'd make treating one's self for bleeding wounds a lot more challenging, but not impossible. Still, it'd force people with said trait to act more carefully around things such as broken windows and what not, as Deep Wounds could easily cost them their lives.

HHNFY63.pngWeak Heart
"High Panic and High Stress will lead to Health loss."
Again, pretty self-explanatory. A costly trait that would glorify Beta-Blockers and stress-reducing items such as books. In extreme scenarios that would otherwise cause the player's stress or panic levels to rise to their maximum state, the player would begin to lose health - slowly, but exponentially faster until they can calm themselves down. I imagine this to be a killer combo with Coward, literally.

dLXka5L.pngThanatophobia or Necrophobia
"Corpses freak you out."
The presence of corpses, either of Zombies or of Players, will cause the character's stress to rise. If close to a large number of them, it may also cause the player to panic. A good incentive to keep your body pile across the street, or just outside your home base in general. The trait may even potentially cause characters to become unable to loot and/or move corpses altogether, which would be a pretty heavy drawback considering how they sometimes carry rare loot.

vaIXkDY.pngNyctophobia
"Low-light environments will cause Panic and Stress."
This could go one of two ways; either this prohibits the character from normally functioning during the night - which I think is a bit much... Or, it could cause the player to abnormally function in low-light environments - dark rooms, night time, etc. Personally, I like the latter of the two as it would dramatically increase the value of lamp posts and flashlights.

G4twFoz.pngFybromyalgia
"Increased susceptibility to soreness and exhaustion."
As suggested by Dragonbahn, this would cause one's character to more easily become sore when performing especially taxing tasks that would otherwise exhaust them. Increases the value of resting and sleeping without directly / immediately affecting things such as movement speed or sleep requirements. Basically allowing for 'high speed / high drag' type of builds that'd rely on the player monitoring and moderate their daily activities.

 

4CibjlK.png Psychopathy

"Disconnected from reality, you are emotionally deadened."

A pretty controversial trait, if I do say so myself. Psychopathy would likely be a negative trait seeing as it would largely hinder the character's ability to manage their emotions, meaning that while they would not succumb to Unhappiness as easily as characters without this trait, the same would be said about positive moods. To do this, the player would likely have a permanent 'Numb' Trauma moodle - see below, as it would hinder NPC interaction and halve the positive values of luxury items.

 

vtLRGtK.pngAddictive Personality

"You are more easily addicted to drugs and alcohol."

I'm not sure if addictions are even in yet, but I do think that they should be considering how easy it'd be to become addicted to Anti-depressants, Painkillers, or alcohol in general. Whatever downsides the addictions bring, this trait would likely boost them and make getting rid of your addictions that much harder, as well as give you a harder time managing your intake of said substances.

 

 

Positive Traits:

S8jcyuB.pngAdventurer
"Reduces stress and panic when outdoors."
A little overpowered as it is, in my opinion, but a pretty evident counterpart to Agoraphobic. Essentially the complete opposite of it; being outside slowly reduces high levels of stress and panic.

TcJavEk.pngHermit
"Reduces stress and panic when indoors."
Again, a lil' overpowered as it stands, but a good counterpart to Claustrophobic. Same as the above, but for indoor environments.

zz1CK2G.pngPatient
"Boredom builds more slowly."
A largely useless trait, but one I think'd be interesting to have considering reading skill-oriented books and waiting often times leads to a very fast build-up of boredom, which then leads to unhappiness. I can imagine this being an optional but convenient thing to have for someone who's aiming for a specific build. Potentially similar to the 'Optimist' trait there used to be, if it needs to be beefed up - making negative moods easier to cure.

 

EWycsub.pngAnimal Empathy

"Animals are less likely to attack you."

Honestly, this is a crap shoot seeing as I'm not sure what animals are being added, or if they will be able to attack you at all. But yeah. If they can, this would be the animal equivalent of 'Inconspicuous' where aggressive animals are less likely to target you, and friendlier animals ignore you more readily.

 

H6vyTq9.png Fleet-Footed

"Yeah! Parkour!"

You traverse obstacles more rapidly, falls from a certain height also have a decreased chance of harming you. As is, this is not a very important perk, but perhaps adding the ability to scale walls or high fences might further increase its value.

 

dnIn0f1.png Gourmand

"You enjoy food with a greater passion than most."

Something that might encourage people to take the 'high hunger' trait as it would have greater synergy. A trait that essentially boosts any food-related positives; normal food provides happiness, stale food does not provide boredom, and so on. It essentially allows the player to moderate their mood via the use of food, all food - not just chocolate and ice-cream.

 

YMKeKII.png Heartless

"You are unaffected by NPC deaths."

Any mood or psychological effects provided by NPC deaths, regardless if you caused them, will not affect you. Works hand-in-hand with 'Psychopathy' as NPC interactions would be hindered regardless.

 

Pain Resistance

"You have a higher resistance to pain and its effects."

This trait allows the player to ignore most pain-related effects such as slowed action speed and sleep prevention.

 

4QvFrtJ.pngTough

"It takes a lot more to bring you down."

Boosted overall player health. Simple as that. More damage is required for the character to die, and more damage is required to inflict major wounds such as broken bones and critical damage. Does not affect the damage you output, it simply allows you to soak more damage.


Moving on to something of similar note, I only have one new idea for an Occupation, as well as a suggestion for a pre-existing one;

Conspiracy Theorist
"Your years of preparedness finally paid off!"
An occupation revolving around the type of person who, during their pre-apocalypse life, spent their time training and conditioning themselves to said disaster scenarios... Usually by developing a love for canned food and fantasizing about being a badass marauder.

foWci6L.pngBorn Survivor
"Canned food fills you up more efficiently and offers a minor boost in happiness."
Essentially, canned food fulfills your hunger a little more efficiently; Canned soup, which offers a base of +30 hunger, would now give +40, more or less. On top of it, canned goods also offer a very minor boost in happiness due to how familiar and prideful you would be of your foresight... About +5 for each canned good, maybe.

Burglar
My suggestion for Burglars would be the ability to craft lockpicks out of a dozen or so paper clips... It's a pretty dirt simple suggestion, but one I think would be pretty cool to see. Instead of struggling with locked windows, why not give paper clips a little more value as they can be crafted into a single-use item that allows them to successfully - or semi-successfully - open locked doors. This wouldn't negate the possibility for house alarms, but would have an easier access to windowless establishments and Player-made bases.




Lastly, some moodles... Simple stuff;

 

VpbmXqJ.pngHealthy Diet

Level 1: "You feel pretty healthy."

Slightly slower rate of exhaustion

(A slight boost in endurance.)

Level 2: "You're full of energy!"

Slower rate of exhaustion

(Exhaustion sets in much more slowly, and fades more quickly.)

Level 3: "You're gonna' eat lightnin' and you're gonna' crap thunder!"

Slower exhaustion rate & Healing bonus

(Strengthened immunity system - Less easily affected by sickness. Heightened healing, and lowered need for food and water.)

Potential to temporarily gain the 'fit' or 'athletic' trait when exposed to a healthy diet for long enough.

od4Bjjr.pngUnhealthy Diet
Level 1: "Lay off the junk food, maybe?"

Slightly faster rate of exhaustion

(Endurance is lowered.)

Level 2: "You feel a little flabby."

Faster rate of exhaustion

(Endurance is halved, exhaustion sets in more rapidly.)

Level 3: "Your clothes don't fit as well as they used to."

Faster exhaustion rate & slower movement speed

(Weakened immunity system - More easily affected by sickness. Hunger and Thirst degrade much more quickly due to bad eating habits.)

Potential to temporarily gain the 'overweight' or 'obese' trait when exposed to an unhealthy diet for long enough.

PDMnTQn.pngSore

 

Suffering from higher levels of Exhaustion without allowing them to rest will cause them to become sore due to them being over-worked. Soreness is a longer-lasting version of Exhaustion that primarily affects action speed, but can grow into affecting your movement speed as well, if left untreated. Treatment of soreness would likely be very simple; Rest. Allowing your character to take a break, and avoiding strenuous activities for a day or two, depending on how sore you are.

 

Level 1: "Feel the burn!"

You feel as though you've just finished a great work-out.

(Initial warning that Soreness is setting in.)
 

Level 2: "Your muscles ache."

Slower action speed

(Action speed is halved, melee weapon attacks are slightly slowed.)

Level 3: "Your body feels stiff."

Severely lowered action speed

(Action speed reduced to 1/3rd its normal rate. Sluggish melee weapon speed.)

Level 4: "Your joints are locked."

Indefinite High Exertion

(Everything you do is slowed. No longer able to sprint. More hours of sleep required per night.)

 

(Sorry about the shitty moodle, I tried to make a good visual for 'soreness', but really, nothing came to mind.)

MGIiJg5.pngTrauma

Level 1: "Disturbed."

You've seen things...

(Initial warning that Trauma is building)

 

Level 2: "Wired."

A recent event has left you on edge. Seek comfort immediately.

(Second warning that Trauma is building)

 

Level 3: "Numb."

Emotional shock has left you feeling numb.

(Interaction with NPCs potentially compromised, comfort value for luxury foods and activities halved.)

 

Level 4: "Scarred."

Spontaneous Flashbacks & Panic Attacks

(Semi-random rises in Stress and Panic. Nightmares cause fatigue to lower more slowly when sleeping.)

 

Level 5: "Haunted."

Your memories hound you endlessly. You no longer sleep.
(Sleeping normally no longer achievable without Sleeping Pills. No longer capable of reading. Panic rises extremely quickly without the use of Beta-Blockers. Potential visual and/or auditory hallucinations.)
 
Countered by 'Desensitized' and partially countered by 'Brave'

 

What do you guys think?

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I LOVE IT!

With this suggestion of soreness I would like to give another suggestion for a trait:

Fybromyalgia. Increases susceptibility to soreness with chronic soreness whe exposed to cold and stress. Maybe a -7 to balance it?

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I LOVE IT!

With this suggestion of soreness I would like to give another suggestion for a trait:

Fybromyalgia. Increases susceptibility to soreness with chronic soreness whe exposed to cold and stress. Maybe a -7 to balance it?

I like it, I saw 'soreness' as being a more long-term version of exhaustion brought on by the player exhausting themselves too frequently or not taking a rest when performing physically taxing tasks. Just something that'd penalize characters 'burning themselves out' in a minor way. Fybromyalgia would be perfect to enhance that.

I had ideas for traits too but i feel ashamed to post them now. You have pictures and everything. This needs to be added. This would be a game changer.

If you, or anyone, have suggestions, I'm more than interested in hearing them. I might even add them in the list, if you'd like as well as make a neat lil' image for 'em. Like I said, I'm mainly looking to give the Devs ideas, so anyone is welcome to do the same.
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If you make the bad nutrition moodle very punishing, people would actually need to cook, and might consider the chef profession. It's so unrealistic living off 40 bags of chips for 2 weeks...

 

Exactly why I added the diet moodles in the first place.

I also updated the moodles, added Trauma after reading up on Silents' suggestions.

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These are little things i had come up with but they are not fully thought out or as in depth as yours.  ;)

  • Addict- These people get anxious and stressed when away fro alcohol or cigarettes. This will fade over the months but if you do happen to acquire some they will attempt to use it if the player is randomly standing still. The player will also drink alcohol if in the main inventory before water. 
  • Insane- This will cause the player to develop different traits that shouldn't be developed at times. For example the player may be scratched and not feel pain until they are seriously wounded but will instead feel hungry or what not.
  • Distracted- These people will do everything a little bit slower and will stop if they hear any noise such as gunshots or a zombie at a door.
  • Depressed- They are more commonly depressed like almost always.
  • Daredevil- These people don't get panicked from most things and what would normally cause fear causes  the player to be energized.
  • Allergenic- The people will randomly sneeze. Its higher outside and even more so when in a forested area. Being in a city or building decreases the chance but it will still happen.

These were most of my trait ideas. the rest are to be in my posts about other topics. Let me know what you guys think.

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So what causes trauma in game exactly?

 

The way I see it, it'd be a long-term effect of a character experiencing an extended period of high panic or high stress - likely panic. That amount of fear, technically speaking, wouldn't be healthy and would likely leave a lasting effect, even if a small one. But being exposed to high panic and fear repeatedly for long periods of time would most definitely leave a character a little worse for wear. Hence, you'd be feeling the effects of a traumatic experience, or a traumatic lifestyle.

 

Same way 'Soreness' is a long-term effect from constant Exhaustion... Your body isn't given enough time to properly recover, physically. I can definitely attest to that, personally.

 

Killing NPCs might also do it, but I don't yet know how they'll function, so I can't make any accurate assumptions as of yet.

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So what causes trauma in game exactly?

 

The way I see it, it'd be a long-term effect of a character experiencing an extended period of high panic or high stress - likely panic. That amount of fear, technically speaking, wouldn't be healthy and would likely leave a lasting effect, even if a small one. But being exposed to high panic and fear repeatedly for long periods of time would most definitely leave a character a little worse for wear. Hence, you'd be feeling the effects of a traumatic experience, or a traumatic lifestyle.

 

Same way 'Soreness' is a long-term effect from constant Exhaustion... Your body isn't given enough time to properly recover, physically. I can definitely attest to that, personally.

 

Killing NPCs might also do it, but I don't yet know how they'll function, so I can't make any accurate assumptions as of yet.

 

 

That sounds like a good idea. I think there should also be events that can sometimes/randomly trigger a trauma moodle (some to a higher degree than others)

  • Killing your first zombie
  • Killing an NPC (probably bumps you up to Numb right away)
  • Finding a dead NPC
  • Watching an NPC get eaten
  • watching a corpse turn into a zombie
  • killing a zombified NPC
  • Escaping a burning building
  • Seeing a horde of 50+ zombies for the first time
  • Witnessing the power turn off (just be disturbed for a day)
  • Finding out the water is off
  • Killing your 100th zombie (bumps you to numb for a bit)
  • Seeing a crawler for the first time
  • After looting a wedding ring off a dead body for the first time
  • Entering a food store after all the food on the shelves has rotted for the first time.
  • After eating this type of mushroom MushroomA.png
  • after looting bricktoys or a toy bear
  • Surviving a serious injury or a zombie scratch/bite
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Wolfy, you are genious. All of the stuff is great and realistic. I want also add a new player death. It popped in my head as i read about Weak Heart trait. Slight possibility(maybe 20%?) to die from heart attack. For example, if char open doors to those 1x2 rooms, where tools use to be and hidden zed attack you right there. And chances to die this way can be multiplied by your Trauma moodlet. Last trauma level may kill char, let's say... 45%? Because 50 is too much and no player would not take this negative trait, even with big score of +points for it.

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Wolfy, you are genious. All of the stuff is great and realistic. I want also add a new player death. It popped in my head as i read about Weak Heart trait. Slight possibility(maybe 20%?) to die from heart attack. For example, if char open doors to those 1x2 rooms, where tools use to be and hidden zed attack you right there. And chances to die this way can be multiplied by your Trauma moodlet. Last trauma level may kill char, let's say... 45%? Because 50 is too much and no player would not take this negative trait, even with big score of +points for it.

I lol'd because it happen to me in real life.

 

After taking a break from the game for several months, the loud panic sound emited from my headset caused me to shivered with fright when my character spotted a hidden zombie.

 

Glad I didn't have a weak heart.

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Wolfy, you are genious. All of the stuff is great and realistic. I want also add a new player death. It popped in my head as i read about Weak Heart trait. Slight possibility(maybe 20%?) to die from heart attack. For example, if char open doors to those 1x2 rooms, where tools use to be and hidden zed attack you right there. And chances to die this way can be multiplied by your Trauma moodlet. Last trauma level may kill char, let's say... 45%? Because 50 is too much and no player would not take this negative trait, even with big score of +points for it.

I lol'd because it happen to me in real life.

 

After taking a break from the game for several months, the loud panic sound emited from my headset caused me to shivered with fright when my character spotted a hidden zombie.

 

Glad I didn't have a weak heart.

 

Haha sometimes when i playing PZ alone in the night, everything is quiet, i'm tense and jumpy and every random sound in the rooms IRL pushes me to hit ESC and taking a deep breath. And when bathroom zombie attacking me, i'm more panicked literally, than my char. :D

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Personally, I don't think any trait should apply a 'sudden death' scenario that would cause a character to suddenly drop dead.

 

I get what you mean though, and the sudden levels of panic could, in theory, cause a player with said trait some damage - but an unavoidable death is a lil' much.

 

Edit: Added positive traits.

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  • 2 months later...

Jesus Christ how i never seen this list before.

 

I would literally pay money to see the diet stuff get in, making me have to cook food instead of eating 1/4 of cheese the first week and then 1/4 of chips for the rest of the game.

 

This is the best suggestion post i seen, great stuff

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Jesus Christ how i never seen this list before.

 

I would literally pay money to see the diet stuff get in, making me have to cook food instead of eating 1/4 of cheese the first week and then 1/4 of chips for the rest of the game.

 

This is the best suggestion post i seen, great stuff

it is very well thought out and i really wish i could draw moodles like that. still i agree they are great ideas.

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