Patient Zero Mode

[Lightning Flash]

Project Zomboid takes place not too long after the zombie outbreak. But what if you could experience the game as Patient Zero is contaminated with the doomsday virus?

 

Imagine being able to walk throughout Muldraugh, West Point, and much more before the outbreak. Seeing NPCs walking to and fro, going into their homes, hearing music being played on a radio. NPCs eating at their favorite restaurants. It seems peaceful.

 

Then suddenly, reports on the televisions and radios about a strange illness quickly spreading around, the CDC warning everyone to wear protective face-wear.

 

Not too long later, reports spring up about random acts of violence.

 

Then soon enough, the "riots" hit Kentucky, striking Muldraugh and West Point first. You see NPCs running/fighting for their lives as the infected rampage throughout their beloved hometowns. The military quickly rolls in and attempts to neutralize as many walkers as possible, but they quickly fail, falling victim to the undead.

 

Soon enough, silence follows.

 

It would probably take an awful lot of coding, plus it might be nearly impossible to do something like that, but imagine how fun that would be to explore the map before Patient Zero.

 

I know. It sounds stupid. But we don't have enough zombie games that simulate the outbreak. 

[Rathlord]

This was discussed at length on our old forums.

 

Basically, it would require a massive amount of programming for something you would only experience at the very beginning of the game. NPC's aren't (and won't be) designed to have that kind of interaction on such a large scale, without enemies or survival abilities.

 

I'll post you the link if you'd like to see it (assuming, of course, I can find it).

[TheCenturion]

... I swear I've seen this exact thread before.

[TinnedEpic]

Actually it's listed on the commonly suggested list
http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/192-commonly-suggested-suggestions-read-before-posting/

second suggestion down, just under aerosol cans + lighters.

[Rathlord]

Yes, that it is XD

[TheBuzzSaw]

I think it's a fun idea to look forward to. Of course it'd be a massive undertaking, but it'd be worth investigating once Project Zomboid has made billions and been mostly debugged/developed. I would love to create such a mod someday.

[larsmaehlum]

Maybe it would be possible to just start with a few "weak" NPCs in each house, and no zombies until day 3-5?

Then the zombies will ramp up the spawn rate over 2-3 days to simulate an outbreak, while possibly killing off the weak NPCs as they start roaming around.

It would be easy to imagine the outbreak already being known at this time, but the spread has not reach our lovely little town yet, as to not break immersion when raiding random houses in preparation of an invasion.
No military, no tv/radio reports, just a ramp up period to give the player a head start and different experience.

 

I, for one, would love to see this as an option in the future, as getting a bit more prepared before the onslaught would be interesting.

[Rathlord]

First of all, it seems from what we know that it actually starts in Muldraugh, not migrates there.

Second, NPCs wouldn't work like that. You seem to not be grasping how complicated this stuff is. It would make no sense if people in a small town were beating each other to death with frying pans if there were no zombies, but that's what would be happening. It's not as simple as you're making it seem, and it's not going to happen in the real game. Maybe someone can mod it.

[larsmaehlum]

Ah, if it starts there, then NPCs killing eachother for their sheets would make very little sense.
My suggestion would only make sense if the country if slowly being overrun with the things, and people are desperately preparing for it.

[Headshotkill]

Please, many people (including me...) have tried proposing this idea and discussed it for A LONG TIME.

It just doesn't work, I'm sorry.

[NinjaHarrison]

I'm certain that its possible, I mean I wouldn't care if they had to dumb down the NPC's for it, just make it an option. Like (patient zero mode, side effects include but are not limited to: Jack stupid npc players.). I mess around with a mod for arma 2 called "undead mod" where I have a country populated with well over 200 people (who just aimlessly walk between waypoints) get infected from one zombie in about 3 and a half hours. And thats pretty fun stuff right there.

[Kajin]

The devs don't want a patient zero mode. They have other things to focus on and they'd rather not waste programming time that could be spent on something they feel won't add anything to what they have in mind.

[Rathlord]

As I've already said, it's not going to happen as part of the vanilla game. Straight up confirmed 'No' from the devs. Further discussion seems… illogical, as the Vulcans would say.

[Fj45]

I'm certain that its possible, I mean I wouldn't care if they had to dumb down the NPC's for it, just make it an option. Like (patient zero mode, side effects include but are not limited to: Jack stupid npc players.). I mess around with a mod for arma 2 called "undead mod" where I have a country populated with well over 200 people (who just aimlessly walk between waypoints) get infected from one zombie in about 3 and a half hours. And thats pretty fun stuff right there.

 

NO, as the others have said, it would be huge waste of Dev time.

 

If you want it, make a mod!

[ApolloDiaspora]

About the ONLY way I could see this working (Which sucks, because Day Zero Outbreaks sound awesome) is starting the game a week or two earlier. More NPCs, slightly fewer zombies, a bit more loot.

 

The ultimate goal being the NPCs are frantically running around and looting with wild abandon, causing chaos and thickening out the horde. Which then leads to the current game-start loot rarity and zombie numbers.

 

Lovely concept, for sure, but, let's leave the Devs to, er, Dev the best way they know how

[NinjaHarrison]

 

I'm certain that its possible, I mean I wouldn't care if they had to dumb down the NPC's for it, just make it an option. Like (patient zero mode, side effects include but are not limited to: Jack stupid npc players.). I mess around with a mod for arma 2 called "undead mod" where I have a country populated with well over 200 people (who just aimlessly walk between waypoints) get infected from one zombie in about 3 and a half hours. And thats pretty fun stuff right there.

 

NO, as the others have said, it would be huge waste of Dev time.

 

If you want it, make a mod!

 

I didn't demand it! I just said it was plausible and not SUPREMELY difficult, just annoyingly long for what seems to be little result, but for a lot of us that result is superfantastic!!! Maybe I should make that mod.. Would need to wait till their pretty much done with their work on NPC's though..

[RorekSR]

 

 

I'm certain that its possible, I mean I wouldn't care if they had to dumb down the NPC's for it, just make it an option. Like (patient zero mode, side effects include but are not limited to: Jack stupid npc players.). I mess around with a mod for arma 2 called "undead mod" where I have a country populated with well over 200 people (who just aimlessly walk between waypoints) get infected from one zombie in about 3 and a half hours. And thats pretty fun stuff right there.

 

NO, as the others have said, it would be huge waste of Dev time.

 

If you want it, make a mod!

 

I didn't demand it! I just said it was plausible and not SUPREMELY difficult, just annoyingly long for what seems to be little result, but for a lot of us that result is superfantastic!!! Maybe I should make that mod.. Would need to wait till their pretty much done with their work on NPC's though..

 

The result wouldn't be as amazing as you make it out to be. First, it will do nothing to immerse anyone any further into the game, especially if knee-capping the NPC behavior is a part of the equation. It might be "interesting" the first time around, because it'll be a little different until settling back into the normal PZ routine you have.

Second, anyone who plays this will do so for one of two reasons. Either they're doing it because they haven't done it, or they're doing it because they can sack a couple houses and be loaded to the brim with whatever they want since, as everyone is saying, there will be more loot around. 

It's a ridiculous amount of effort for a glorified "e-z start" and the way you talk about the difficulty of this undertaking leaves me to assume you don't understand how they'd even go about doing this. And how, might I ask, would the Indiestone finishing NPCs help this cause? The Indiestone isn't working on any pre-apocalypse behavior, and the NPCs being completed would only offer a barebones framework for the requests you're making, a framework that could be duplicated by using the old NPC code where they simply ran around maiming everything in their way. 

Sure, it's plausible. It's also a massive waste of time for the devs to consider, and they've already denied it anyway. If you want to mod it in yourself, I wish you the best of luck. But I'm afraid even a successful mod of this would still be a pretty hefty waste of time for whomever takes up the challenge.

[Connall]

 

 

 

I'm certain that its possible, I mean I wouldn't care if they had to dumb down the NPC's for it, just make it an option. Like (patient zero mode, side effects include but are not limited to: Jack stupid npc players.). I mess around with a mod for arma 2 called "undead mod" where I have a country populated with well over 200 people (who just aimlessly walk between waypoints) get infected from one zombie in about 3 and a half hours. And thats pretty fun stuff right there.

 

NO, as the others have said, it would be huge waste of Dev time.

 

If you want it, make a mod!

 

I didn't demand it! I just said it was plausible and not SUPREMELY difficult, just annoyingly long for what seems to be little result, but for a lot of us that result is superfantastic!!! Maybe I should make that mod.. Would need to wait till their pretty much done with their work on NPC's though..

 

The result wouldn't be as amazing as you make it out to be. First, it will do nothing to immerse anyone any further into the game, especially if knee-capping the NPC behavior is a part of the equation. It might be "interesting" the first time around, because it'll be a little different until settling back into the normal PZ routine you have.

Second, anyone who plays this will do so for one of two reasons. Either they're doing it because they haven't done it, or they're doing it because they can sack a couple houses and be loaded to the brim with whatever they want since, as everyone is saying, there will be more loot around. 

It's a ridiculous amount of effort for a glorified "e-z start" and the way you talk about the difficulty of this undertaking leaves me to assume you don't understand how they'd even go about doing this. And how, might I ask, would the Indiestone finishing NPCs help this cause? The Indiestone isn't working on any pre-apocalypse behavior, and the NPCs being completed would only offer a barebones framework for the requests you're making, a framework that could be duplicated by using the old NPC code where they simply ran around maiming everything in their way. 

Sure, it's plausible. It's also a massive waste of time for the devs to consider, and they've already denied it anyway. If you want to mod it in yourself, I wish you the best of luck. But I'm afraid even a successful mod of this would still be a pretty hefty waste of time for whomever takes up the challenge.

 

 

Hit it on the head there. There's just no point and I imagine it would lead some people to boredom having to suffer through a few days of just occasional zombie or whatever rather than the exhilaration of being thrown into the deep end and learning to swim on the fly. It would be like if you took the start of the games title sequence and stretched it out for a few in game days. Very little going on and nothing you could do except novelty things.

[NinjaHarrison]

 

 

 

I'm certain that its possible, I mean I wouldn't care if they had to dumb down the NPC's for it, just make it an option. Like (patient zero mode, side effects include but are not limited to: Jack stupid npc players.). I mess around with a mod for arma 2 called "undead mod" where I have a country populated with well over 200 people (who just aimlessly walk between waypoints) get infected from one zombie in about 3 and a half hours. And thats pretty fun stuff right there.

 

NO, as the others have said, it would be huge waste of Dev time.

 

If you want it, make a mod!

 

I didn't demand it! I just said it was plausible and not SUPREMELY difficult, just annoyingly long for what seems to be little result, but for a lot of us that result is superfantastic!!! Maybe I should make that mod.. Would need to wait till their pretty much done with their work on NPC's though..

 

The result wouldn't be as amazing as you make it out to be. First, it will do nothing to immerse anyone any further into the game, especially if knee-capping the NPC behavior is a part of the equation. It might be "interesting" the first time around, because it'll be a little different until settling back into the normal PZ routine you have.

Second, anyone who plays this will do so for one of two reasons. Either they're doing it because they haven't done it, or they're doing it because they can sack a couple houses and be loaded to the brim with whatever they want since, as everyone is saying, there will be more loot around. 

It's a ridiculous amount of effort for a glorified "e-z start" and the way you talk about the difficulty of this undertaking leaves me to assume you don't understand how they'd even go about doing this. And how, might I ask, would the Indiestone finishing NPCs help this cause? The Indiestone isn't working on any pre-apocalypse behavior, and the NPCs being completed would only offer a barebones framework for the requests you're making, a framework that could be duplicated by using the old NPC code where they simply ran around maiming everything in their way. 

Sure, it's plausible. It's also a massive waste of time for the devs to consider, and they've already denied it anyway. If you want to mod it in yourself, I wish you the best of luck. But I'm afraid even a successful mod of this would still be a pretty hefty waste of time for whomever takes up the challenge.

 

As I said, it may seem hopelessly trivial and pointless to you, but the immersion of wondering around knowing the apocalypse is spreading around on the map somewhere, watching things turn to chaos and small pockets of the map barely staying out of chaos "even with retarded NPC's" has kept me playing zombie mods for arma 2 for months. It is simply a preference, It makes me use my imagination for a while, wondering whats going on just out of site, and I would happily mod it even if i'm the only one who plays it, but i'm sure others will enjoy that simple pleasure as much as I.

 

       Now as for old NPC's, I just joined this like 2 days ago, they had npc's previously? I assumed they hadn't put them in yet?

 

    And we must have different ideas about how much work would go into it, a year of work isn't that much in my mind, because I would enjoy working on it, the devs might not.. So I shall try!!!

[Fj45]

I don't really see your point.

 

People are different?..?....???

 

 

 

But yes, there were NPCs in the earlier builds but they were quite basic.

[Rathlord]

He's saying he's willing to try it, even if the devs aren't. Nothing wrong with that, and I can happily wish you the best of luck! Cheers!

[Fj45]

He's saying he's willing to try it, even if the devs aren't. Nothing wrong with that, and I can happily wish you the best of luck! Cheers!

 

Ah, yes, I see that now. 

 

Good luck to you! 

 

To stop looting by the player maybe have it that the army/police have set up shop to stop looting? Could have some cool scenes of riot police vs civilians. 

[NinjaHarrison]

I don't really see your point.

 

People are different?..?....???

 

 

 

But yes, there were NPCs in the earlier builds but they were quite basic.

lol sorry i started babbling. Short version: I like it whole bunches even though its pointless to most. Thanks for the reply, guess I should look into that

[k12314]

there were NPCs in the earlier builds but they were quite basic.

 

You mean utterly retarded.

[Connall]

 

there were NPCs in the earlier builds but they were quite basic.

 

You mean utterly retarded.

 

 

They were a bit like lemmings really.