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Flooding, Puddles, and Other Rain Mechanics


uberevan

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As of now, rain impairs the movement and senses of zombies, makes players sick, moistens crops, fills barrels, and puts out fires. However, there is a lot more that can be done to make it feel more like true rain.

 

Flood Tiles by Riverbank (And future added Creeks/Streams)

When it is raining/has just rained, the banks of the water sources really should be raised.  My suggestion is that the Devs add a "transition tile" of sorts, basically a tile that will switch states from land to water based on the amount of time it has rained, the time since it stopped raining, and what month it is.

 

Puddle Formation 

Similarly to the flood tiles I just suggested, the game should randomly select different spots of the map to have "Depression points", basically the land/water switchtiles that accumulate water at the center and expand outward based on how rainy it is.  That way, if you're not to the point where you have rain barrels yet you can still collect a little bit of water, albeit water that's probably really grainy even if you boil it.

 

Bugs Forming Around The Puddles And Rivers/The Day After a Storm

The few days after a rainstorm, or just being around a body of water should make bug bites a possible affliction. This can be reduced by wearing longer clothing, or by trying not to stand by those bodies of water too long.  You can also douse yourself in smoke, or perhaps create your own bug repellent out of household materials/some natural item.  Bug bites should have a really low chance to give you a disease.

 

Rain Smearing Blood

Basically, if it rains, splotches of blood should get lighter and maybe spread a little more, eventually fading away.

 

Rain Creating Mud and Impairing the Player

Have you ever tried sprinting on a rainy day through dirt?  It doesn't work too well if it's been raining for a while.  Players (and zombies) should be slowed way down when traversing grass/dirt as it is much more slippery and muddy than it usually is.

 

Outdoorsman/Skill Alerting Player to Weather

The character you play as should be able to observe the sky and predict what kind of weather they may experience.  Just add another tab to the health/skills/info panels for "observations".  Observations could include more than just weather but for this example I will stick solely to weather.  This can be a passive skill that increases the more time you spend in the outdoors.  I'll make a new suggestion specifically for this one actually.

 

Multiple-Day Storms

Sometimes when it rains, it should rain for multiple days.  This is where the heavy flooding and puddle formation really kick in, damaging your house, equipment, crops, and leaving you stuck indoors or traveling around in flood weather.  Imagine how hard sloshing around in foot-deep water is while trying to evade zombies!

 

Intense Storming Destroys Baby Crops

If the flooding or overall weather is bad enough it should tear out, wash away, or damage young crops.  This means that you have to keep them in pots until they're big enough to stay rooted down or just hope that it doesn't rain too badly.  You can find pots or make them from clay you forage in creeks or puddles after it rains.

 

Foraging After Rainstorms Should Give Different Items

The items you get from foraging after it has rained heavily should be slightly altered.  For example, most berries would probably have been knocked down, but so would many branches.  If you forage near the future creeks, the river, or in hypothetical puddles you should be able to gather clay and make pottery from it.  You should also be able to gather frogs and water, and the wood you collect be slightly soggy. 

 

Rainstorms should wash up fish/make them more plentiful 

The fish inside the river could get stirred up or washed away if enough water comes pouring down.  After the water recedes, this could leave dead fish on the shore, which may not be the cleanest option, but if you're really desperate, food is food...

This could also stir up more fish from the bottom, making them easier to catch

 

Future water vehicles such as boats should wash away if too near the river

If the aforementioned flood tiles overlap where you're storing a boat on land, it should wash it away, meaning you'll have to build a new one/lose it forever, or maybe have to go downstream to look for it.  This will be especially important when river travel leads to communities built along the river. 

 

I will add to my list as I think of more things, feel free to comment what you think rain should do as well.

Edited by uberevan
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I like this suggestion a lot. It would add a lot more realism to the game because the weather would effect the environment and player.

 

14 hours ago, uberevan said:

Outdoorsman/Skill Alerting Player to Weather

The character you play as should be able to observe the sky and predict what kind of weather they may experience. 

 

I hate being caught off-guard by harsh weather. If it rains and I'm in a precarious spot it's difficult to find shelter and dry yourself. Predictions would allow you to plan your travels and be better prepared. It doesn't necessarily need to be a skill (since most people with common sense know that dark clouds usually lead to some sort of rain/showers) but perhaps if more severe weather conditions are added then a skill that can be leveled might be useful.

Edited by Uphox
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Thanks for all the support guys

 

7 hours ago, Queen Glory said:

Good suggestion, maybe the Devs could listen because like everyone, i hate being caught out in the rain.

The Devs are pretty good about reading all the suggestions, so I'm sure if they like the idea they'll give it attention and if they don't they'll just keep on doing what they're doing

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Very nice suggestions...

 

Could be even better with darker rainy days, brighter sunny days, and moon cycles (darker and brighter nights).

 

Also, rain duration seems weird, I've yet to see a 2-3 days-long draught, lile it happens sometimes in winter IRL...

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Actually, washing out baby crops after intense storming would make an awful lot of sense, then you'd have to keep them safe in pots or something until they're big enough to stay in place

3 hours ago, Slice985 said:

Look man... its hard enough to tend to my crops. You quit beating up on the little guys. Meanie.. they need love and not floods.. 

 

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2 hours ago, sharkstertheshark said:

Okay, we really do need this at some point. Nothing would be scarier than running through knee deep water and getting tired while getting chased.

 

Honestly though.. I don't remember much about flooding. I know West Point flooded really badly in 1997 and 2011. They were even evacuating people, water up to the roof line in certain places. Good luck with your idea about knee deep water there. More like that one Christian Slater movie about the bank trucks and money. 

 

Louisville itself usually doesn't flood very badly as far as I know because of the damn and locks there. New Albany across the river has flooded fairly often. The city has been pretty good on building reservoirs to channel and hold water during floods. I own two pieces of rental property in Okalona which is on the south side of the city, its a flood plane there, but there are like 10- foot deep, 20 foot across storm channels for that water. It doesn't flood much there anymore, I think the deepest ti got was to the ankle. 

 

Maybe i'm a bad person, but I tended never to pay much interest to flooding and water unless it was around my properties.

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Here is a flood map from our city water company. Yea, the east side where I live doesn't have much trouble, but Valley Station which is the SW side of the map here is a flood plain. This PDF even speaks about the 1997 Flood. 

 

MSD Louisville Floodmap

 

Here is that same MSD site which has a tab you can look over floods in our history

 

MSD Site

 

 

I know most people won't really care, but if the Devs wanted something to look at if they cared about water. No idea. I find it interesting.. now at least because I haven't really cared much in the past and this data is interesting.. lol. 

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On 4/19/2016 at 7:53 PM, Demonic_Kat said:

This makes me think of some game I saw on youtube a while back. They took the weather pattern for X  year and applied it to their game. Would be interesting to use data from a number of years to match each day. Probably too much of a pain though...

I think it's more interesting if weather is more random each time you play, determined a few days in advance, but they could definitely base part of it on actual weather patterns

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On 4/21/2016 at 0:03 PM, uberevan said:

I think it's more interesting if weather is more random each time you play, determined a few days in advance, but they could definitely base part of it on actual weather patterns

I agree and would be cool to work it with the radio's and TV's to give a heads up. Some guy warning that rain will appear from north to south, it will drizzle for a little while from here and eastward. The winds are blowing hard so random bang may be heard but it looks like the storm will pass over west point into nearby towns.

I like this idea.

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On 4/25/2016 at 10:36 PM, King jjwpenguin said:

I agree and would be cool to work it with the radio's and TV's to give a heads up. Some guy warning that rain will appear from north to south, it will drizzle for a little while from here and eastward. The winds are blowing hard so random bang may be heard but it looks like the storm will pass over west point into nearby towns.

I like this idea.

That would only work for the first few weeks, because after the virus escapes the quarantine society will collapse and there will be no one to monitor weather, except maybe the military, so unless you get your hands on a military radio you're fresh out of luck

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On 15/4/2016 at 3:27 PM, sharkstertheshark said:

Okay, we really do need this at some point. Nothing would be scarier than running through knee deep water and getting tired while getting chased.

How about crawlers still crawling underwater? It will be a minefield for as much as you know :D I love this even more now (my first bite ever was from a crawler pretending to be dead, I'm quite fond of them)

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On 4/27/2016 at 1:12 PM, Livio Persemprio said:

How about crawlers still crawling underwater? It will be a minefield for as much as you know :D I love this even more now (my first bite ever was from a crawler pretending to be dead, I'm quite fond of them)

I could understand them maybe popping out of the water but it seems almost a little unfair to be bitten by something you can't even see, even if it's plausible

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1 hour ago, uberevan said:

I could understand them maybe popping out of the water but it seems almost a little unfair to be bitten by something you can't even see, even if it's plausible

true, perhaps i spoke too fast.

well, they could be visible then, maybe a little bit hard to spot though

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/2/2016 at 6:32 PM, Livio Persemprio said:

true, perhaps i spoke too fast.

well, they could be visible then, maybe a little bit hard to spot though

I guess that begs the question: Do zombies need to breathe?

Can zombies drown?

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good point, but zombies are illogical by nature, i guess we could just skip this one if this means just a little bit of immersion (is it just me or crawlers are way less common than they used to be a couple of builds ago? in particular those crawlers that pretended to be dead already)

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On 5/15/2016 at 3:41 PM, syfy said:

wondered about that myself, whether or not zombies need to breathe.

if i have to draw in breath to vibrate the vocal chords and make noises....does a zombie need to?

The only issue is when you start asking these questions you realize that zombies aren't really feasible lol

I just think chilling at the bottom of a river til someone walks by is too much suspension of disbelief

On 5/15/2016 at 3:58 PM, Livio Persemprio said:

good point, but zombies are illogical by nature, i guess we could just skip this one if this means just a little bit of immersion (is it just me or crawlers are way less common than they used to be a couple of builds ago? in particular those crawlers that pretended to be dead already)

I agree with this, especially the fact that Crawlers are super uncommon, I only see them when I hit a zombie but it doesn't die

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 4/27/2016 at 1:12 PM, Livio Persemprio said:

How about crawlers still crawling underwater? It will be a minefield for as much as you know :D I love this even more now (my first bite ever was from a crawler pretending to be dead, I'm quite fond of them)

A few things on that and other peoples comments.

(1), love the idea!

 

On 5/2/2016 at 5:10 PM, uberevan said:

I could understand them maybe popping out of the water but it seems almost a little unfair to be bitten by something you can't even see, even if it's plausible

(2), flood water is usually very muddy, I'm sorry, but I've never seen flooded water that is crystal clear. So in short, I agree with the minefield comment

(3), I think that a few may end up floating to the surface, turning them into floaters, but they would be at the mercy of the current.

(4), I also think that upright zombies would:

     (a) get caught by the current

     (b) get stuck in the mud [this would be more likely after the flood waters were gone]

     (c) become floaters themselves due to being knocked over.
 

Quote

 

Flood Tiles by Riverbank (And future added Creeks/Streams)

When it is raining/has just rained, the banks of the water sources really should be raised.  My suggestion is that the Devs add a "transition tile" of sorts, basically a tile that will switch states from land to water based on the amount of time it has rained, the time since it stopped raining, and what month it is.

 

(5), I think that fishing would improve, mostly from my own catfishing experience.

  (5a) I also think that you could extend your fishing range into any flooded tile.

(6), they would need to add water vehicles such as:

     (a) canoes

     (b) kayaks

     (c) rafts (crafting recipe?)

     (d) motorboats

(7), I think that is all, but if there are any problems with my comment please point them out. Thank you!:D

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 6/7/2016 at 6:51 PM, TheWraithPlayer said:

 

(2), flood water is usually very muddy, I'm sorry, but I've never seen flooded water that is crystal clear. So in short, I agree with the minefield comment

 

That's exactly my problem :P

You can't even see what's biting you, which is pretty unfair and frustrating gameplay

Maybe you could see bubbles coming from them or something?  But then the question is whether they can drown or not lol

On 6/7/2016 at 6:51 PM, TheWraithPlayer said:

(5), I think that fishing would improve, mostly from my own catfishing experience.

  (5a) I also think that you could extend your fishing range into any flooded tile.

(6), they would need to add water vehicles such as:

     (a) canoes

     (b) kayaks

     (c) rafts (crafting recipe?)

     (d) motorboats

(7), I think that is all, but if there are any problems with my comment please point them out. Thank you!:D

I like all these suggestions as well!  I'll add them into the original post

It'd also be cool if maybe intense flooding could wash your vehicles away if you aren't careful!

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