Wall cracking/erosion happens too quickly, need a way to repair cracks.

[quackquackquack]

I was playing on sandbox with erosion set to the 2nd slowest. Even then, after just a few months in-game, there were cracks in my safehouse walls. How long does it really take for walls to crack like that? Last time I checked, I didn't have to replaster the outside of my house every few months in real life.  Maybe change the wall cracking to happening after a few YEARS.

 

Also: A way to repair cracked walls is very much needed.

 

ALSO: On normal erosion settings, the plant/ivy growth happens far too fast. In real life, it takes more than a few weeks of neglect for a house to be completely overgrown with ivy. 

[Demonic_Kat]

47 minutes ago, quackquackquack said:

I was playing on sandbox with erosion set to the 2nd slowest. Even then, after just a few months in-game, there were cracks in my safehouse walls. How long does it really take for walls to crack like that? Last time I checked, I didn't have to replaster the outside of my house every few months in real life.  Maybe change the wall cracking to happening after a few YEARS.

 

Also: A way to repair cracked walls is very much needed.

 

ALSO: On normal erosion settings, the plant/ivy growth happens far too fast. In real life, it takes more than a few weeks of neglect for a house to be completely overgrown with ivy. 

No one would be able to experience these erosion changes if they were set to realistic time frames.

 

To play one year you would have to survive 7.6 days of continuous game play on 30 min days. If you played 2 hours a day it would take 3 months to complete that. So a few years would literally be an entire year of playing the same map.

 

I do have to disagree with the plant growth though. I have a neighbor who hasn't mowed in a couple of months and their house is completely overrun with vegetation. It is actually quite hard to see their house from the front now.

 

I would like to see a way to fix the cracks though as well.

Edited July 12, 2016 by Demonic_Kat

[MLFHNT]

I would love to be able to fix the cracks with plaster. I actually thought that i could do this when played for the first time.
But in my opinion the timing is decent. Playing with friends and seeing those cracks everywhere in August with default start date settings. 1,5-2 months is more than enough for me and my friends to progress and sometimes even get bored depending on the map size, so it's pretty good to see the world changing. The thing that i'm concerned of is the speed that these plants grow and cracks appear. It takes about two in-game weeks to cover the whole GIGAMART wall with cracks and ivy when it just starts happening, which i find quite unrealistic.

[Asparagus]

23 hours ago, quackquackquack said:

ALSO: On normal erosion settings, the plant/ivy growth happens far too fast. In real life, it takes more than a few weeks of neglect for a house to be completely overgrown with ivy. 

One could say that the zombie virus also affected plant growth... beware the plants... O__O

[SaltandPretzels]

Speaking about demon plants.  Imagine if this was zombified 

[Magic Mark]

On 7/11/2016 at 11:20 PM, Demonic_Kat said:

No one would be able to experience these erosion changes if they were set to realistic time frames.

 

To play one year you would have to survive 7.6 days of continuous game play on 30 min days. If you played 2 hours a day it would take 3 months to complete that. So a few years would literally be an entire year of playing the same map.

 

I do have to disagree with the plant growth though. I have a neighbor who hasn't mowed in a couple of months and their house is completely overrun with vegetation. It is actually quite hard to see their house from the front now.

 

I would like to see a way to fix the cracks though as well.

 

This is true about the plant growth, but I think the vines going up the walls in a matter of weeks is a bit too much. I mean, from a quick google search fast-growing vines grown for decoration purposes take well over that timeframe to get to 10-20 feet.

 

I understand not being able to see the changes, but I mean, perhaps it could still be tweaked just a bit slower as the default. Not so slow that a guy who lives for 2 weeks can't note that erosion is there, but slow enough that it's growth doesn't seem so unreasonable. I lived in a house for like a little over a month on survival and it looked like the house had been through a stampede (even though it hasn't) by the time I moved and it annoyed the heck out of me. 

 

This is easily the most common complaint erosion that I've seen (other than that bug where grass grows through floors) so there could probably be some room for tweaking.

 

I still insist that adding certain sandbox settings is the key to fixing the complaint, so that way everyone wins. This way the people who don't like their walls cracking can change their game to fix what their idea of feasible growth is, and the people who are fine with the way it is don't have to listen to the first demographic complain about it (and they have the ability to change it themselves too if they want). I made a pretty decent thread about it a while ago that got a lot of positive response, so it's not as far out as one may think.

 

IMO the current sandbox settings aren't enough for adjusting erosion as if you want to set back the cracking to take a while you are only limited to 500 days maximum and the grass will never grow either (because both of them are controlled by the same variable).

 

Of course all this is still my opinion, but I detailed my thoughts on the effects of additional sandbox settings and how to fix the erosion issues here: 

 

Edited July 15, 2016 by Kim Jong Un

[Demonic_Kat]

Hm. Separating the two variables would be nice, but I think 500 days is an over reasonable amount of time. How many people live that long on normal settings? If you're playing easier settings, wouldn't you want to see some changes after around 250 hours of playing?If not, perhaps an "off" switch on the erosion would be in order.

[Magic Mark]

3 hours ago, Demonic_Kat said:

Hm. Separating the two variables would be nice, but I think 500 days is an over reasonable amount of time. How many people live that long on normal settings? If you're playing easier settings, wouldn't you want to see some changes after around 250 hours of playing?If not, perhaps an "off" switch on the erosion would be in order.

500 days is the time it gets to full overgrowth, not when it begins. So you would be seeing changes around the 250 mark. At least that is how I think it works currently.

 

Well the thing is, though, that that is the player's idea on what is reasonable. Some people have zed respawning turned off and migration turned down so they can have a feasibly long life in their idea of the apocalypse (which is what the sandbox serves as).  I'm all for more server options, the 500 days set back does not cut it for me because it basically means the tall grass never regrows, and if I didn't want it at all I am stuck with dealing with it at some point.

 

Honestly if both of the settings were separated it could fix most of my qualms with it but I think there should be more control over the erosion rates (including that off button for both sides of the coin (nature's growth and urban decay))

Edited July 16, 2016 by Kim Jong Un

[Scyoni]

Considering they already have it as a variable option, adding a few extra settings to accommodate more playing styles seems worth the effort IMO (I mean if the background is a mess and it's really really hard to do that it may be a different story - but only the devs know that.) Ditto for splitting plant growth and building decay.

[Last_Man_Standing]

At the bare minimum erosion needs to have its own variable. Plant overgrowth as-is now is fairly realistic but buildings in my long playthroughs start falling apart like they're made of cardboard. It's somewhat ridiculous to see a commercial building's walls start to crumble when IRL my city has abandoned buildings that have stood for decades with zero maintenance and the only thing broken are the windows. Concrete and brick just do not erode that fast and I am very much with you that things need to change.

[quackquackquack]

On 7/12/2016 at 2:36 AM, MLFHNT said:

I would love to be able to fix the cracks with plaster. I actually thought that i could do this when played for the first time.
But in my opinion the timing is decent. Playing with friends and seeing those cracks everywhere in August with default start date settings. 1,5-2 months is more than enough for me and my friends to progress and sometimes even get bored depending on the map size, so it's pretty good to see the world changing. The thing that i'm concerned of is the speed that these plants grow and cracks appear. It takes about two in-game weeks to cover the whole GIGAMART wall with cracks and ivy when it just starts happening, which i find quite unrealistic.

 Exactly. The house next to mine was abandoned for a couple of years before being demolished, and even for this wooden residential structure the walls, floors, ect. looked dirty but otherwise ok. Maybe have structures become grungy/ dirty before they actually start cracking, with a way to clean them? I'd also like a sandbox option to turn off erosion entirely, maybe have it as a number the player enters rather than a drop-down menu?

[pershgn]

Quote

Honestly if both of the settings were separated it could fix most of my qualms with it but I think there should be more control over the erosion rates (including that off button for both sides of the coin (nature's growth and urban decay))

 

Completely agree with this, would love to see the two separated.

 

As of now I like to imagine the cracks in store walls are from all the zed pounding... on the doors..

 

I like the vegetation growth though, part of me would actually like to see natures growth expanded on, or maybe just a higher setting (anyone ever experienced a kudzu problem? I have watched it grow a foot a day, if anything is ever going to mutate into man eating vines, its kudzu).

 

I'm curious about thoughts on trees growing also, really just saplings to make open spaces somewhat less open over time, I feel like it has been addressed somewhere before though. I try to live as long as possible, never anything near long enough to see a full grown tree develop, but 3-5 ft saplings of many types of trees develop quickly (i pull new 4-6" maple shoots from my rose bushes every two weeks), and it could make for a really interesting complication as months go by and those open space become more obstructed.

[tomasz12345678]

Well, this might make a use for the cement powder you can find... 

[Zargo]

Add me to the plant life is ok how it is. Building erosion should take a much longer time (if at all)  Category.   We all know how huge the map already is and how much more larger it is going to become. As I am out exploring the world I wouldn't want 80% of it to be so corrupted and eroded I can't even see what it is or what it used to be.   Plant life growing over it is awesome and maybe you could just make some simple textures changes instead for adding rust and dirt ect to buildings but I don't think erosion should straight out destroy the structure.   Leave the destruction of buildings to the zombies and players and npcs so the scenes our character comes upon has a story to tell.