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RELEASED Build 32


EasyPickins

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Hotfix released, sorry about the snafu.  You should see a 46KB update.  Servers do not need to be restarted, just update the client.  It's the same build number 32.6, only a Java file changed.

saved the day! Thank you EP!

 

 

I sunk the boat then threw out lifejackets. :-D

 

good point ahaha

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Is it normal that when i trigger a house alarm, it seems that all the zeds from the whole map are attracted to the house?... The alarm from the house right beside my safehouse was my doom when they came in large numbers :(

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Is it normal that when i trigger a house alarm, it seems that all the zeds from the whole map are attracted to the house?... The alarm from the house right beside my safehouse was my doom when they came in large numbers :(

yeah, that's intentional.

 

see, the Devs want to kill us. that's their "secret", they want to kill us (before we even start the game if possible) so they created random Meta Game events like the house alarms, Troll-O-Copter, gunshots and random noises to get the zombies to come into our area and kill us. if you have an alarm go off, leave that area ASAP.

 

 

edited to add " "

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Is it normal that when i trigger a house alarm, it seems that all the zeds from the whole map are attracted to the house?... The alarm from the house right beside my safehouse was my doom when they came in large numbers :(

 

They don't exactly come from "the whole map", just a few surrounding cells (300x300x8 tiles) all coming for that single noise you made :)

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Thanks for the interessting answers :)

 

I like the game very much, espacaly the survival aspect. But in this state its only nerve wrecking for me. I have no problem to die if im stupid or so. But i saw 8 zeds spawn out of a high fence just in front of me, next to my safehouse.

In this build it seems to me that you really really should die in an extreme early stage. The most of the time i spent lureing zeds away for my safehouse.

What is so wrong to be alive for one year and maybe then you die.

I know its the IWBUMS stage, but i hope the devs will try to to make the game playable not only for masochists ;)

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Thanks for the interessting answers :)

 

I like the game very much, espacaly the survival aspect. But in this state its only nerve wrecking for me. I have no problem to die if im stupid or so. But i saw 8 zeds spawn out of a high fence just in front of me, next to my safehouse.

In this build it seems to me that you really really should die in an extreme early stage. The most of the time i spent lureing zeds away for my safehouse.

What is so wrong to be alive for one year and maybe then you die.

I know its the IWBUMS stage, but i hope the devs will try to to make the game playable not only for masochists ;)

 

I might not be speaking out of the developers' perspective, but that's the idea that have managed to save up in my mind:

 

The problem with giving players the ability to survive for 1 year with no problem is the fact that the game gets boring after about first two months of survival - by that time you've seen everything from the game, and without seeing "moar" features, you won't be able to enjoy the game for much longer. Plus, the game was never meant to be easy, the title screen that says "This is how you die" has been there ever since the first pre-alpha tech demo (2011), implying that developers had a brutal, hardcore roguelike game in mind since the start. 

 

And, after all, if survival feels too overwhelming, there is always "Beginner" or "Sandbox" for you to try, you can tweak the settings there to your liking and get used to the game, nobody said that everyone should be playing Survival from the start.

 

I have said that a while ago, but it's pretty accurate to apply today in my opinion - "Survival" is the game that -developers- want you to play. "Sandbox" is the game that -you- want to play. It's very hard to cater to everyone's opinion and find a middle ground, because they vary from person to person, that's why instead of constantly being pressured to tweak specific feature, they allow you to tweak it yourself, if you find it too hard/difficult/unfair/etc. :P

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As Leo said, and also note this is IWBUMS, this is a beta of the early access build, we're here to balance it. (well, not really me, EP is on this new zombies things :D)

 

We just don't want to lower the zed number as soon as someone complain, spcially when after just 2 days lot of people were like "uuhhh, game's too hard, impossibruuuuuu"... You won't beat the game in just 2 days, that's the point! And after some days I've seen stream of people surviving 1 month and started to build their base, it's hard, but doable.

 

And yup, Survival is our vision of the zombie apocalypse, just go in sandbox and lower a tad the default settings, if you really struggle even in beginner then yes, their is maybe a problem.. :D

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Project Zomboid is like Neo Scavenger in the way that the replay value is really fun, but surviving too long can get a bit boring. For that reason, I'm all for harder gameplay.

 

in the future seasons,animals and npcs come in ........

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I just registered to give some feed back and tell you guys, this is the most fun I have had with PZ so far.

It was good before but maybe a bit too much on the easy side.

 

Now the early game is an absolute blast, it is really wild and frantic. I love it.

I find myself running around like a headless chicken blindly through patches of woods desperately trying to find some sort of shelter for the night but there are none in sight. So I stay up all night under a street lamp until the sun rises then somehow manage to find a safe house after avoiding huge hordes telling myself : ok this is I am going to die....oh crap....NOOOO....etc

 

My last game I managed to survive almost two months holed up in the Giga Mart until one day a horde migrated outside. So I went out to lure them away with alarm clocks and a shotgun but found myself cut off from my base, unable to reach it no matter how I tried. So I decided to make a long detour but to make a long story short, I got ganked by half a dozen zombies inside a store after opening a door.

 

Things i like now :

- zombies seem to wander around a lot more both through meta events but also locally on a smaller scale, they seem more active and unpredictable

- I got the impression they aggro you from farther away but this might be because my last character has no sneak skills

 

Suggestions :

Maybe increase their hearing slightly or at least for some actions like chopping woods or breaking windows. As it is now with the introduction of the 'remove glass' function, you have no risk of hurting yourself when climbing through a window and unles the zombies are real close, less than 10 meters, they won't notice.  At first I was afraid to do it when I didn't manage to open a window, but once I realized that, it became a bit of a no brainer.

 

Anyway, keep up the good work.

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Project Zomboid is like Neo Scavenger in the way that the replay value is really fun, but surviving too long can get a bit boring. For that reason, I'm all for harder gameplay.

 

in the future seasons,animals and npcs come in ........

 

I want zombie animals. 

If the devs add a Zoo with the animals that would be in a  zoo, i wanna see a zombie elephant. If you played resident evil outbreak file 2, the zoo map, you'd shit yourself because a zombie elephanat is chasing you like nemesis and ramming through walls and buildings.

AS A MOD!

Obviously since they act like sticks in the mud to everything that is not precicely romero and brookes lore.

even though the zombies will punch you when they damage you with no scratch or bite.... :P

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Project Zomboid is like Neo Scavenger in the way that the replay value is really fun, but surviving too long can get a bit boring. For that reason, I'm all for harder gameplay.

But Neo Scavanger has a story you need to reach to finish the game, so it kinda pushes you to survive and try to get there.

 

Right now PZ dosent have that, but maybe having NPCs and wanting to see them grow and see how the world reacts is going to be the real motivation to survival.

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Hello,

 

 

 

Traps/Explosive:
  • Molotov, flame trap, pipe bomb, noise maker, smoke bomb and aerosol bomb!

 

 

Are you sure they reintroduced the molotov ? Because i can't craft them ^^ Got empty glass bottle, gas can, dish, ripped sheet and no craftable option.

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Hello,

Traps/Explosive:

  • Molotov, flame trap, pipe bomb, noise maker, smoke bomb and aerosol bomb!

Are you sure they reintroduced the molotov ? Because i can't craft them ^^ Got empty glass bottle, gas can, dish, ripped sheet and no craftable option.

its different recipe now

molotov is: whiskey+ rags

petrol bomb (better molotov) empty bottle + gas + rags

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Hello,

Traps/Explosive:

  • Molotov, flame trap, pipe bomb, noise maker, smoke bomb and aerosol bomb!

Are you sure they reintroduced the molotov ? Because i can't craft them ^^ Got empty glass bottle, gas can, dish, ripped sheet and no craftable option.

its different recipe now

molotov is: whiskey+ rags

petrol bomb (better molotov) empty bottle + gas + rags

 

 

Thank for the precision  :-D

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So, I haven't posted before but I'd like to comment on the migration mechanics. I've skimmed through some of the larger posts but I won't quote them at length; most of this post discusses the migration system and gameplay generally. Build is 32.6

 

The Migration System::

The good news is that this feature has added a good deal to the game. The bad news is that the zombie hordes are tuned in such a way as to be either be harmless, because they develop their mass too slowly, or outrageously dangerous since the compounding growth overwhelms players. This player tried two settings:

  • Spawns every day
  • Spawns once a week

Every Day:

The difference between the two variations is a cliff in difficulty. The first setting -- every day -- seemed to me to be too much -- nearly every residential area or area with supplies was flooded within two months and it became increasingly difficult to manage or otherwise reduce the hordes. After a certain point the effectiveness of the player against the hordes began to level out -- molotovs and bombs were in constantly short supply. I found myself constantly moving around diffuse and omniscient hordes and entirely unable to engage in 'late game' farming. I of course died during a supply run trying to get more bottles. In this game the destruction of my first base happened within a month; the second base was largely incomplete before I found myself engaging in zombie management; which I found to be not very fun and nervewracking. I am not certain the game should punish players if they avoid 'mowing the lawn' as it were. However, if NPCs are introduced this entire situation may change sufficiently to make the current rate tolerable.

 

Once a Week:

Comparatively, the second setting is too slow but 'reasonable'. In this game, the situation is much the same but the hordes are managed: I have set up at the Giga-Mart in West Point and have barricaded the south section of town off. There is a vastly reduced need to manage the hordes, given that they spawn at a rate 1/7th of the prior game. They are still dangerous and I still must raid residential areas for bottles and supplies, but I can at least engage in late game activities -- such as farming -- without a catastrophic attack destroying the entire base. However, as more time has gone on -- 4 months in -- supplies and equipment are dwindling and non-renewable items are picked. When NPCs are introduced I expect the town to be entirely picked within a month; the raw lack of valuable items or the fact that they are containerized in certain areas -- hardware stores come to mind -- makes this entire situation problematic from a gameplay perspective.

 

Tl;dr: 1 day spawns seem too much and 7 day spawns are possibly too little given prevailing gameplay mechanics.

 

From here I'd like to talk about other gameplay issues that occurred to me while playing.

 

Commentary about NPCs & Spawn Rates:

Future mechanics -- such as NPCs -- should also be factored in when determining zombie spawn rates and behavior. This author can envision that current zombie spawn rates would actually be feasible if NPCs were introduced or otherwise in the game to manage the zombie population curve (as stated).

Without this management, it is left to the player to keep the 'town ecology' to a reasonable level through firebombs, petrol bombs, and other things. This creates an odd game where the player must behave in an "I Am Legend" fashion where he/she sallies forth to wipe out the major infestations of zombies before they can properly migrate to his base. Further, this might have a troubling interaction; there will be an increasing resource bottleneck and more zombies with no real assurance that the NPCs will thin out the large herds.

 

Firearms Balance & Hordes:

In response to 1-day zombie spawns, what is to be done? The gut response by players, such as yours truly, would be to disperse the hordes with firearms. However, the shotgun/gunfire creates far too much noise for the current revision, unless the developers have in their intent that firearms be used for specific situations or away from urban areas or against players/NPCS.

 

As of current the vast swarms drawn by gunfire make such weapons useless for their seeming main purpose -- crowd control and distance killing power. Instead, continued firing merely increases the size of the crowd and makes such weapons useless when compared to molotovs or flame based weapons. Given the relative availability of molotovs and petrol bomb components when compared to shotguns or small arms, this seems like an odd gameplay mechanic. In any event, shotguns and small arms have a contrarian effect: they seem to be desperation weapons, but they simply seem to make one's situation worse: deciding to expend precious ammunition to defend a base from a horde seems intuitive, but it will just draw the remaining hordes. This, as stated, seems odd.

 

It may be asserted that firearms are exclusively for deployment against NPCs or other players -- which would explain sandbags -- but this seems to fly in the face of most zombie lore which sees a fairly consistent deployment of firearms. I merely raise this situation as a question.

 

Other Things:

The current passage of time (growing weeds, cracks in buildings) seems too fast. While some of these are indeed reasonable, the cracks should maybe give way to increased trash on the roads. I realize there are more "fluffy" aesthetic considerations in development, such as ruined cars, but the passage of time. Most importantly from this point, I'd suggest leaves from trees: those seems to be missing, or, if it is in, I haven't noticed it sufficiently.

 

With that said, I think the erosion and deterioration of the town really adds quite a bit to the game: it merely needs some alterations or more effort thrown into it.

 

In Closing:

In closing, I'd like to thank the developers or friend readers for looking through this post.

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I agree with Nukeitall about the erosion seeming too fast, when I play on sandbox I set it to 1/2 erosion speed, seems more realistic that way. And might I say, I am loving the new zombie migration. However the 'every day' respawn setting makes building a base impossible, much less farming. My character was chased off by vast converging hordes whenever he settled down for very long.

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About difficulty, I just wanted to say I`m glad the game is moving towards higher difficulty overall in these experimental builds. I miss the good old days of NES and SNES, where just because you bought the game didn`t mean you manage to get to the end. I never did finish Gradius II, and now im'a have to find me an emulator or something to take another crack at it :P

 

Tough game have gone out of fashion  because big studios think them inaccessible to wider audiences or whatnot, but I bet there's a big market for it, I can`t be the only one nostalgic for the brutality of old games :/

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I was looking through the files a couple days ago because i was wanting to add some new medical items such as morphine injections.

 

However, i found no such code file that would allow me to edit the medical system to add a new recipe..

 

Is it hidden someplace else or has it not been implemented into the game as of yet?

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