Professions and Perks

[claire]

My suggestions for new professions:

 

Forester. Here I would combine tourist perks, permeability perks in the forest and herbalist perks, as well as a bonus for gathering (for example, +2). I want to highlight the point that perks tourist, cat's vision and herbalist should be unique for this profession. The starting point can be a campsite near the city or even a hut in the woods (a lake house), as well as a hiking bag, a set of herbs, mushrooms, berries, a lantern, a set for lighting a fire (or just a match), some other items.

 

Along with the profession of a farmer and a fisherman, the profession of a hunter would be interesting. +3 to the hunt and starting items: a gun. Perk knowledge of all traps + increased chance of capture (or traps work even when you are in their area of effect).

 

Profession atelier (tailor) worker. To hell with perk for +1 sewing (it's ridiculous to spend 4 points here). Make sewing +3, as starting items: everything necessary for repairing clothes, scissors, threads, needles. Perhaps if sewing machines appear in the game, somehow connect this. A unique perk could be the ability to craft unique bags, strengthen the properties of clothing, and better repair it.

 

Profession teacher: a mixture of unique perks of a book lover and hardworking. Also add the ability to share knowledge with other players. To make books of 3-5 levels in the game very rare, then a player with such a profession could train other players to achieve the desired level in the direction. Think about an idea, that could be really cool.

 

Further, my suggestions for the balance of professions:

 

Firstly, I think that the profession should not affect the number of ability points. It’s better to simply level them by utility and make the starting number of points equal to zero. Also, the profession should have a list of items with which the player will begin his story and a special spawn point, if possible. It is also very important to make professions a more responsible choice and give them more personality. Some perks need to be made bonuses of the profession or to create new ones (like a lumberjack or a guard). Also, the food and cooking system requires processing to make this cooking (and the professions associated with it) really NEEDED. Ready meals, unlike raw ones, should give MORE bonuses. Moreover, with the growth of the skill, in addition to the speed of wound healing, it is worth adding other bonuses, such as relieving stress, relieving fatigue, and more.

 

Also, due to the fact that the developers of the game refuse to treat zombification, the first aid skills in the game become of little use, because a bite = death. I think if the game will be able to cut off limbs and perform operations, these professions will become in demand.

 

Fireman: +1 Fitness +1 Strength + 1 Axes + Running Speed
I have not seen people who take this profession. It is worth adding more bonuses, in any case more fitness and strength (do +2)
A unique perk would be some increased resistance to high temperatures or fire.
Items that a fireman should receive: a full set of equipment, as well as a fire ax and keys to the fire truck. The obvious spawn point: a fire station somewhere in the locker room.

 

Police profession: +1 agility +2 reload + 3 accuracy.
Also a dubious choice. Firearms, to be honest, are not in great demand, because they create more problems than they solve. Here it would be worth adding a bonus to running speed, strength and fitness, at least one unit each, and also make +1 to blunt weapons. 3 precision can be replaced by 2.
You can make a unique perk a special bonus to the reload speed, as well as a high speed of car reprisal (cops are catching up with criminals, right?)
Items that a cop should receive: a full set of clothes, a baton, a gun, cartridges, handcuffs, a walkie-talkie, keys to a car with a flasher.
The system of professions and perks requires explicit processing.

 

Profession park ranger. +1 axes +2 Hunting +2 Gathering + 1 Construction. And also a unique perk.
In fact, the kit is quite tasty, however, I would have made it different. Hunting +3, Gathering +3
I'm not sure about starting items, but a spawn point somewhere in the forest would be interesting. On the map there are a lot of places like campsites where there are several houses and skymakes. Let such a character have in his backpack maps of the area, a walkie-talkie ...

 

Next is the builder. +3 short crushing +1 construction.
Absolutely frivolous choice. I understand that here you want to entice the player with an emphasis on weapons, but this is not enough, especially since the short crushing is essentially the worst choice. It might be worth adding more bonuses to the construction.
A unique perk could be an increased number of lives in buildings. Of the items: it’s worth adding a hammer and something else (maybe even a sledgehammer, what the hell is not joking?)

 

Security guard: +1 easy step + 2 running speeds and a unique night owl perk. This profession is initially much more interesting than others precisely because of the perk. I wouldn’t really change anything here, just add starting clothes, maybe a baton and a flashlight, it's a security guard.

 

Carpenter: +3 construction +1 short crushing
Here I would add a unique perk to the faster construction of wooden constructions or, for example, to higher-quality, untouched constructions. Add a saw, hammer, mount as starting items.

 

Cracker: +2 agility, stealth, easy step. A unique perk of breaking windows and cars. The profession is interesting, however, 99% of the players, as I said, take athlete perks and just run, not sneak. Into the account of breaking windows is ridiculous, because it’s easier to break or try another window, and as a rule there aren’t even windows on the server (everything is broken). I would do all these skills not +2 but +3 OR the ability to open ANY castle with a 100% chance + cat's vision. Then it would come in handy even in a game on servers. Of items: let it be a mount, gloves, black clothes.

 

Profession cook: +1 red +3 cooking +1 strength + knowledge of recipes. Given my suggestion regarding food and cooking at the beginning of the test, everything is fine here. Starting items: knives, cook clothes.

Profession repairman: +2 strength + 1 crushing + construction. I think here it is worth adding the perk associated with the repair of objects (weapons) and, instead of +2, make +3.

 

Next farmer: +3 farming. Let the farmer have, as his special perk, the ability to see initially all the data about plants and take this opportunity from ordinary players. This will give more personality. Starting items: scoop, spade, bag, seeds, watering can and the like.

 

Fisherman: +3 fishing +1 gathering. I would remove the gathering. Would add a special perk, for example, an increased chance of catching large fish. Again, when processing the food system, fish (and fishing) could become more in demand. It is also worthwhile to ensure that the fisherman can catch fish even when an ordinary player cannot already get it (as far as I understand, fish in water is not an endless resource in the game).

 

Carpenter: +3 construction +1 short crushing
Here I would add a unique perk to the faster construction of wooden constructions or, for example, to higher-quality, untouched constructions. Add a saw, hammer, mount as starting items.

 

Fisherman: +3 fishing +1 gathering. I would remove the gathering. Would add a special perk, for example, an increased chance of catching large fish. Again, when processing the food system, fish (and fishing) could become more in demand. It is also worthwhile to ensure that the fisherman can catch fish even when an ordinary player cannot already get it (as far as I understand, fish in water is not an endless resource in the game)....

 

Doctor + 3 medicine +1 cutting. A unique perk should be the ability to do operations (for example, amputation of limbs to prevent infection, I know this is not in the game yet). Starting items: clothing as per profession, scalpel, first aid kit, etc. The name should be replaced with something more generalized: medic.

 

Veteran: +2 reload +2 accuracy + unique perk that removes panic. Pretty cool choice. Perhaps I would change the iron psyche to just a lesser tendency to panic, and replace +2 with +3, respectively. Starting items: weapons, ammunition.

 

Medical staff +2 medicine +1 easy step.
I would simply remove this option.

 

Lumberjack: +1 Strength +2 Axes. For me, this choice has always been special, there are good (necessary) bonuses, as well as a cool ability and all this for 8 points. However, in the new version of the balance, I would make +2 strength +3 axes and change the perk to just a faster swing with an ax.

 

Fitness Instructor: +2 running speed + 3 fitness + nutritionist. Everything is fine here, but I would have done so that the nutritionist perk would be tied to the profession (other players cannot just get it that way, only this profession). Run speed to do +3 (you must admit, few people are interested in seeing calories, so more skills are needed here)

The fast food worker repeats the whole cook with a slight difference, clean it.

 

Electrician: +3 electrician + ability to work with generators. It is necessary to make this choice more popular. Moreover, finding a magazine is not such a big problem. Somewhere on the forum there were already proposals related to lighting (portable and metal, etc. in connection with the new lighting system in the game). I think it's worth thinking in this direction.

 

Engineer: +1 construction + 1 electrician + knowledge of traps and explosives. Doubtful choice, someone took this profession? I don’t even know how to improve this within the game. Let there be more bonuses to strength, a bonus to mechanics, a bonus to metalworking, a kind of hodgepodge. I think then this choice will be more interesting in that the player will receive a small increase in the pro-skills in a bunch of directions.

Welder (metalworker), it’s worth adding some bonuses to metal buildings or the speed of their creation. If homemade auto parts (bumpers and all that) are added to the game, all of this will need to be added here. Or, more radically, to make it possible to work by welding inherent in this profession (but I know they won’t do it), but in multiplayer such dudes would be worth their weight in gold, you see.

 

Mechanic + 3 mechanics, + 1 crushing + knowledge of all machines. I would add here the ability to start a wheelbarrow without keys, as well as the ability to repair car parts (internal) without any spare parts, having only tools or the ability to start a car even at 0% engine strength (something like that).

 

===

 

Perks: speed demon, peppy, book lover, cat's eye, tourist, graceful, secretive, cook, summer resident, courage, car enthusiast, gymnast, herbalist - all this must be removed from the general list, because now it is part of the profession.

 

The perk value system must be removed. All perks must have +1 or -1. Total perks can be taken for example no more than 7. (one is free, and three are still overlapping with three negative ones)

 

Perks related to strength and fitness are literally cheating. 90% of the players take them (and in the maximum options), blocking them with all sorts of nonsense like a sick stomach, smoking and other nonsense. Complete nonsense. To make these perks +1 to strength / fitness, if they want more, let them take a fitness instructor.

 

Similarly perk with weight. Price must be unit. For perk is VERY dishonest. I just always take the fat bass and just do not spend food, thereby getting savings in provisions and a bunch of starting points. Other perks also require rebalance. I just don’t have the strength to write.

[sprkng]

There are definitely some interesting ideas in there, like different sets of starting points based on profession, but then it sounds a lot like you're playing in a certain way and you want to remake the game to fit your play style. So correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you want to pick the "best" profession when you create a character, and you don't think there's any point in picking a profession with less useful traits? Well, there are also people that don't play like you, and even if you haven't seen someone pick fireman they still exist.

 

17 hours ago, claire said:

It’s better to simply level them by utility and make the starting number of points equal to zero.

Why would this be better? This isn't a competitive multiplayer game so professions/classes don't need to be perfectly balanced against each other. It's not bad for an open world sandbox game if there exists a profession that only get picked 1 out of 1000 games. If you wanted to force all professions to have equal utility you'd sacrifice realism, because in an actual zombie apocalypse all professions wouldn't be equally useful. And for what purpose, to make it more like a generic computer game?

 

18 hours ago, claire said:

Also, due to the fact that the developers of the game refuse to treat zombification

What movies have you seen where someone survives a zombie bite by treating it? I can't remember having seen any. 

 

18 hours ago, claire said:

99% of the players, as I said, take athlete perks and just run, not sneak

 

18 hours ago, claire said:

90% of the players take them (and in the maximum options)

Where do you get this information form? How many different people have you observed playing PZ in order to claim that you know how everybody plays the game?

 

18 hours ago, claire said:

The perk value system must be removed. All perks must have +1 or -1

Again, why do they have to do this? I think this would definitely lead to people only picking the best perks because it would be impossible to make them all equally useful. 

 

18 hours ago, claire said:

Similarly perk with weight

I agree, the weight related perks give a lot of points and don't hinder they player much. But there's an easy solution to that, either reduce the amount of points you get for picking them, or make the under/over weight have more impact on the game. No need to rewrite the entire character creation system.

 

[OffitMan]

On 5/1/2020 at 9:32 AM, sprkng said:

On 4/30/2020 at 2:53 PM, claire said:

Also, due to the fact that the developers of the game refuse to treat zombification

What movies have you seen where someone survives a zombie bite by treating it? I can't remember having seen any. 

 

I appreciate people have their own opinions but I find it so annoying that some keep banging on about the fact you can't treat zombification. The only 2 examples I can think of off the top of my head where you can is in the video games Dying Light and Dead Rising and even in those, it's only delaying zombification. Let's be honest though, whilst they are 2 great games and I enjoyed playing them, they're cheddar cheese.

 

It's the same with using amputation as a method to prevent it. People take inspiration from watching/reading The Walking Dead but again, it's cheesy and the amputation is not realistic at all. Do people not realise how fast blood travels around the human body? We all learn this in Science class but if you've forgotten, it takes less than a minute for blood to go from the heart, around the body and back again. Anyone who has been anaesthetised knows it takes seconds for an injection in your hand to reach the brain. Why would it be any different for a zombie bite? Unless you're stood with a really sharp tool over the person as they're being bitten and immediately chop their arm/leg off in one clean swipe, it doesn't make sense.

 

People get upset that hours of work and effort is wiped out in an instant but for me, this is what makes PZ so great. Just learn from your mistakes and try again.

[robcameron]

As I understand it, you are hinting that in the game, you already have the profession of a forester and get additional bonuses for it in the form of your listed items: a flashlight, a knife, a sleeping bag, and matches. Will it be possible to survive long with such a set? On any hike, you will still be quickly found and eaten. I tried… Hmm… although maybe you are a hunter? Then you can get a lot of bonuses. I always choose the profession of a cook, a policeman or a doctor. In this game, I like to cook over a campfire, collect rainwater and grow food on my own. But as we know, there is no way to survive here. No matter how hard you try, these damn zombies will bite you anyway. That's the end of it.

Edited September 21, 2021 by robcameron

[Maltourus]

I think amputation would be cool if it was hand or foot, and done immediately with like a 20 percent chance of survival. It would be pretty awesome to try and survive with one hand. Make climbing fences and various other tasks impossible and driving slower etc.  I'm not sure how foot would work. Crawl around until you could rig a crutch.  Wheelchair?  Seems like a lot of development for a feature most people would opt out of and just drink bleach though.

[duh7]

On 10/20/2022 at 11:03 PM, Maltourus said:

I think amputation would be cool if it was hand or foot, and done immediately with like a 20 percent chance of survival. It would be pretty awesome to try and survive with one hand. Make climbing fences and various other tasks impossible and driving slower etc.  I'm not sure how foot would work. Crawl around until you could rig a crutch.  Wheelchair?  Seems like a lot of development for a feature most people would opt out of and just drink bleach though.

Yes that is an option but devs Say stricte that will be no cure and as amputation cure u it is a big NoNo. U will get more luck with mods. I see somewhere an amputation mod.