Occupation Income

[Okamikurainya]

With the upcoming release of the animations update and all of it's new clothing options and items, I feel it would be nice to increase character creation freedom in some way...

My idea was having an "income" applied for the selected profession, a set amount of points or money which you can spend on starting gear including clothing and tools to further specialize and individualize your character.
You could kit yourself out with tools to jump right into the game, or you could spend what you have been granted on character outfit customization, to truly be your own as you start to play.

 

Custom Sandbox could even include an "Inheritance" option which will grant you a configurable extra lump sum to truly go mad and create the character you want.

What y'all think?

[ZombieHunter]

The money, of course, wouldn't make sense in a Zombie Apocolypse but the premise of starting gear isn't a bad idea.
Considering the player starts "sometime after" the apocalypse has begun it would not be too hard to imagine the player spend some time salvaging materials before starting the game.

 

Especially with the new  
Survival

Building
Combat 

 

mode it would make sense that at least in Combat mode a feature like this would be more warranted. 
If not by choosing items at least as a "Trait" 

[Okamikurainya]

9 hours ago, ZombieHunter said:

The money, of course, wouldn't make sense in a Zombie Apocolypse

That's the thing, it isn't for the zombie apocalypse, it's for before. You don't bring any money into the game, it's just an RP type reason for the ability to have a limitation on how much and what you could get. You could literally name it "Item Points" or such, rather than "Money".
The premise is that you had a job in the "old world" and these are items and clothing you'd purchased. The amount you have varies depending on what your profession was and/or how much you granted yourself in Sandbox Mode.

 

9 hours ago, ZombieHunter said:

If not by choosing items at least as a "Trait" 

I don't think this is a good idea, the two systems should be separate. The pool of points you get for traits is far too small and if you were to increase it to allow greater customization then balance would fly out the window.
This should be something unique to the main character creation page where you choose the outfit and appearance of your character.

[ZombieHunter]

 

 

 

1

5 hours ago, Okamikurainya said:

The pool of points you get for traits is far too small and if you were to increase it to allow greater customization then balance would fly out the window.
This should be something unique to the main character creation page where you choose the outfit and appearance of your character.

 

That is why you take negative traits, to get more points for positive.

[Okamikurainya]

56 minutes ago, ZombieHunter said:

 

That is why you take negative traits, to get more points for positive.

I think you're missing the point of what I meant...
I'm saying that it lowers character customization to merge the two into a single pool of points. It would require a total re-balancing of values to prevent there being too little customization or too many positive trait bonuses because the apparel and gear part was skipped altogether.

[EnigmaGrey]

Intentionally skipped.

 

Outside of a challenge mode or a mod I don't think you're going to get a store for the character creation screen. Just as it doesn't fit in Rimworld, it doesn't fit in Project Zomboid.

[Okamikurainya]

1 hour ago, EnigmaGrey said:

Intentionally skipped.

Ah alright.
 

1 hour ago, EnigmaGrey said:

Just as it doesn't fit in Rimworld, it doesn't fit in Project Zomboid.

This is pretty subjective and vague though...
If it was intentionally skipped, what were the actual reasons for it? Is it a fear about balancing? Or the desire to keep the character empty handed at spawn?

[ikewimpsley]

Not really a fan of this idea, but if it was an option for some of the easier game modes then I wouldn't mind.

[Exercist]

I disagree with the idea. It's needless. It doesn't really fit without being a bit jarring. Sorry.