Additions To The NPC System, One-Shot Cure, Renewing Power/Water

[Dark_Author]

First of all, all of these ideas sort of tie into each other, so please read the whole thing to see how they relate.  I hope everyone likes these ideas, because my husband and I both think that they would make the game even more awesome.

 

1.  A cure for getting infected

       -- I read through the approved ideas page thing and I know that this is already a "no", but I have a bit of a catch to it that I think might make it okay.  Bury the cure in a research center way out in the wilderness, and FILL that research center with the zombies of the dead researchers.  I'm talking maybe a hundred zombies.  ALSO, the cure only works once.  If you are infected, the cure will remove that infection one time.  If you get bit again, you're screwed.  It is NOT immunity.  Once your survivor dies, if you start a new game in the same save, the cure will be gone.  It's a one time per world deal.

     --WHY?  This is mostly for people who have been playing their character for a while (say you've survived six months) and get infected.  You will likely die trying to get to the cure, but if you do get to the cure, it only buys you one more try.  You will still die eventually...probably on your way out.

 

2.   Turn on the water and the electricity.

         -- This ties heavily into my NPC ideas, which I haven't got to yet, but the idea is this:  Around the town, have one main water company/electric company and three or four local pumps/power stations scattered around the entire city (Maldrough, West point) that all need to be turned on in order to turn on the water/electricty again.  This can only be done if you have an NPC in your group that used to work for the water/electric company and knows how to do it and knows where the locations are (if you stumble across these places on your own, you won't know what to do).  IF you survive the long journey to find all of places and have an employee NPC who knows how turn them on, you can turn on the water and electricity (these are two separate things and require different NPCs).  If that NPC dies, the water and electricity will turn off again eventually, because no one else knows how to maintain the system.

        --WHY?  For fun.  This would be extremely difficult to do, but the fact that you could do it if you had the right people seems realistic.  I know the game is supposed to try and kill you, this makes it more likely that you'll die trying, but accomplishing this would really give players a huge sense of accomplishment and rebuilding society...even though it may shut off again.  That, and it won't stop you from eventually dying, but at least you can say "I survived two years and managed to turn on the electricity again!"

 

3.  NPC's give you bonuses.

       -- This may be planned already.  If not, here's the idea:  If you find an employee of the water of electric company you have a chance of turning the water/power on again.  If you have a doctor in your group, sickness amongst your population can be treated (not infection from zombies, just general sickness.  If you have a farmer, diseased crops and crops that need waters could be highlighted in red so you know they need attention (the farmer told you), having an electrician means you can build security systems...ect.  You get the idea here.

 

4.  Assignable stuff

       -- This takes some explaining.  Lets say I've barricaded an area of the city in my attempt to rebuild society.  Maybe I want to designate one house or tarped over area as a medical clinic.  If I build a lookout post, you could assign someone to be the lookout (especially if they were a former cop or something and had good aim).  You could assign certain NPCs to be scavengers, perhaps assign a construction worker to build something (if you have the resources) or assign a farmer to grow a certain crop (if you have the seeds).  Also little things, like having a place for everyone to sleep and knowing how much food you need to maintain for your population.

 

5.   If you do well enough, people from "other towns" will immigrate to your group.

        --Since you can't have kids (and I understand why) this seems like a good way to increase your population (and make things more difficult.  Word spreads about how well you are surviving, so people will seek out your group and you have to decide whether to accommodate them or not.  Also, raiders might be increasingly attracted to your group if you haven't bothered with security and try to take your stuff.  This gives you an added threat.

 

So, that's the basics of my ideas.  What do you guys think?

 

Please note that everything here is intended to make the game harder...the two things with the biggest payoffs (turning on the water and electricity and getting the one-shot cure) are supposed to be very, very hard to do.  Possible, yes, but extremely difficult. 

[TheCenturion]

Welcome to the forums! It's good to see well thought out suggestions, and they are welcome. It's also good to see you've read through the common suggestions, which not doing so is a mistake many newbies make. So that's good.

 

1. The issue with a 'cure' is that it seriously damages the 'you're going to die no matter what' element of the game. It's also not exactly lore friendly. In terms of mechanics, no matter how hard it is to acquire, having a 'cure' is going to give you another life, and ultimately will cause players to play more recklessly with the concept being doubled up. However, I believe there's a mod that adds a cure, and even if there wasn't there's no reason it can't be added (with a mod, that is).

 

2. I'm no expert on how either electric or water services work, but last time I checked they need some type of resource to run. For example, my entire state in Australia is pretty much powered by a single coal powered power station. It's gigantic and obviously needs coal to run. Even if you had a single character that knew how to run one aspect of it (I doubt a single guy could run an entire station), where would you get the resources to run it? 

 

3-5. These are all maybes, I dunno. I'd say most of that is reasonable and probably on the developers list of things to add, though I'm a little uncertain about the base assigning thing. Sounds a bit like SoD to be honest. But then, I have no idea how the NPCs are going to work and therefore I'd say all of that is quite possible. 

[Dark_Author]

TheCenturion,  I like the assigning stuff around the base because it gives you more control over who does what and where they do it.  If I assign a medical area that gets attacked by zombies, my plan might be different than if my storage area got attacked (not that a storage area should be assignable thing).  Also, SoD having the option to assign scavengers and lookouts was awesome, and I really think that in a game like PZ, those elements would be right at home.

 

I see your point about the cure, but I really think that going for it would be an act of desperation and couldn't really be relied upon (It's supposed to be extremely difficult to get to) and since it would only work once, it wouldn't be worth it to players that just started the game...it would be more for people who have already survived a long time and a last ditch effort to extend that time (it only works once).

 

I agree with you about the power and water.  I didn't think of that, honestly.  I live near one of the great lakes, and our water is mostly automated...though there are people to watch it and fix things that go wrong.  It would still be cool in the game, though.  As a substitute for this, perhaps if they can add the ability to dig a well if you have the people with the right no how (so that anywhere could potentially be a long term survival base) and also have generators to run fridges (I think I read that these a planned).

[Connall]

1. It's a firm no and I doubt that will change. It's also tied to the fact we will never know the origin of the virus, which is something else the devs touched on. So you would need to have them reverse their position on two firm no's. Beyond that, it's not really that sort of game where a person will be finding a cure.

 

And hey, even if you had a cure you would probably still end up dying anyway.

 

2. See with electricity and the water supply, I always feel it's just something for new players and when starting up the game, to give the player a fighting chance to establish farms and water barrels and what not. I think if you turned on the water/electricity (we'll leave aside whether that would be possible) I think it would kind of make some aspects of the game just too easy.

 

3. Yeah I'm quite fine with this, hopefully it will actually happen (barring the electrician being able to get the power back on. Maybe he can share his knowledge of circuitry or something? Expand knowledge?)

 

4. Yeah I'm quite happy with this idea as well, I figured this would come under NPC jobs, which they have touched on in the past as something they want to do/are doing.

 

5. I'm.. not sure how I feel about this. Kind of yes? I'm not exactly sure how word would get around about your community and how good it is though, unless you are interacting with NPC's outside your town.

 

As TheCenturian does mention though, 3-5 does sound rather SoD.

 

Edit: By the way, decent first suggestions.

[Dark_Author]

Well, liking 3 out of five things isn't bad! I know its a bit SoDish, but there's nothing wrong with  borrowing a good idea from another game (I don't think they can copyright those concepts).  As for how other communities might hear about you...I'm not sure.  Perhaps the electrician can help you get radios working (the devs have mentioned radios in the past...I was reading the backlogs today).

[tomga1]

Ok lets put this in perspective.

This is what you need to turn on the power:

 

 

And this is what you need to fuel it:




You see why that could be a problem?

[ExcentriCreation]

Welcome to the forums

 

1. Gameplay aside, having a cure implies a scientific nature to the "infection". This is a quote from one of the devs on the issue

 

"Also, there is one golden rule of proper zombie films IMO. Satirized by Shaun of the Dead perfectly. It should never be really explained why the dead are rising. You can think it's a virus, and there's sure to be scientists working under that assumption. It can be spread from zombie to person like some infection, but we don't want to black and white state it's a virus and not, say, some supernatural apocalypse.

Even though it is very likely a virus in actuality." - Lemmy101 2011

 

2. This would be a MASSIVE undertaking for a handful of guys, the towns in game are based on RL towns & I don't think there are any Pump Stations in the immediate vicinity (correct me if I'm wrong). Given that generators are planned, it would be far easier to use pumps/wells/water towers to supply water to your new society

 

3, 4 & 5 like

 

this is from the  How To Write A Good Suggestion topic

 

Posting your idea!

 

Time to post your idea, finally! (Finally? Oh come on it didn't take that long.) First, your title.

 

Titles should be short and they should give the basic idea of your suggestion. Three examples to show the extremes people go through with titles:

 

1: idea

2: Automobiles

3: Devs, add in cars now please and also buses and trains and tanks and bicycles and blimps and zeppelins and submarines and autogyros.

Please don't ever make your title just your name followed by the word suggestions (Rathlord's Suggestions!).

 

Its not that big a deal it just makes it difficult to reference your ideas in future topics

[Fj45]

Please read this: http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/192-commonly-suggested-suggestions-read-before-posting/

and this:http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/26-how-to-write-a-good-suggestion-read-before-posting/

 

1. A "cure" will NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER. Please do not try to debate that any further.

 

2. Been discussed a bit, no way in hell you would be able to restart any power/water plants. Opening up fire hydrants and tapping into water towers would be okay though. Pretty realistic and simple enough to do.

 

3. Pretty much planned, there wouldn't be any game-y stuff like magically highlighting plants though. 

 

4. Planned.

 

5. Nope no way, not even going to go into detail on why this is stupid.

 

 

I like how you go: "Please note that everything here is intended to make the game harder"

Like it somehow makes your suggestions perfect and immune to criticism. (most of them would hardly make it harder too)

 

The game aims for realism. That is not up for debate. We do not care if you think it will be "fun", if it isn't realistic, its out.

[tomga1]

Fj,

[Dark_Author]

Fj45,

 

  I've been lurking the forums for a while.  I read the above posts.  I thought my idea for a cure was a bit different than the standard and that it might be worth mentioning.  I did attempt to change the title of my post after a remembered the good title suggestions, but I couldn't figure it out.  I could edit the text of the post, but the title didn't seem to be an option.  I may have missed it.

 

Also, I didn't say that everything was intended to be harder to make myself somehow magically immune to criticism.  If the ideas were implemented, they were not supposed to be easy to do.  Simple as that.  I understand why some of them won't be implemented and it's not that big of a deal.

[ApolloDiaspora]

Talk of a cure aside, as I know it simply isn't happening, having to raid a laboratory complex/field-tent-lab-thingie for SOMEREASON, when you know in advance the area is crawling hard... Could be fun. Only GOODREASON I can think of for the moment though is scrounging up some insulin or asthma medication for an NPC.

[Dark_Author]

ApolloDiaspora, that would be a cool use of a building like that!  You could also bag a lot of other medications and stuff for your base, too.

[ExcentriCreation]

5. Nope no way, not even going to go into detail on why this is stupid.

 

Yeah, getting kinda harsh there.... 

Any particular reason? Scratch out "other towns" & the idea pretty much consists of NPC's seeking you out for one reason or another

[Kirrus]

Please ignore FJ45's post. I think he was just having a bad day.

[EnigmaGrey]

Back when I was a Secret Agent, it was mentioned that the devs were considering the possibility of adding some sort of medication that would make you slightly healthier, with the net effect of delaying the inevitable for a short period of time. It wouldn't make you invulnerable to zombification, preserve your life for a long period of time, or be easy to find, but it was considered seriously.

If it were generic enough, say a concoction of antibiotics and antivirals that merely improved the state of your base health without combating the zombification illness (similar to how vitamins currently give you a slight energy boost), it could well fit in the game as a minor speed-bump on the way to your inevitable and assured demise. This, of course, makes it somewhat pointless and is probably why it's never been added.

To say it'll never, ever happen . . .

[Xunzul]

I answer only for the electricity argument.

 

Here how you can turn on electricity:

 

http://www.broadcrown.com/diesel-generator.php?gclid=CID2v9Oh4rsCFYJP3godYh8AtA

 

Diesel generator, it can be brought at hardware shop or at hypermarket stores.

 

Diesel fuel can be replenish with the simple oil used to fry potatos and can be made by sunflowers or mais.

 

Even solar panels are easy to obtain, some houses and some farms use it, and if you can take it and fit in a good spot with sun light, you can obtain for the entire day the electricity need for 1 person.

 

There are even dynamo generators to recharge batteries work with wind (heolic energy) or bycicle style generator as someone will see for sure in some tvfilms.

[Connall]

I answer only for the electricity argument.

 

Here how you can turn on electricity:

 

http://www.broadcrown.com/diesel-generator.php?gclid=CID2v9Oh4rsCFYJP3godYh8AtA

 

Diesel generator, it can be brought at hardware shop or at hypermarket stores.

 

Diesel fuel can be replenish with the simple oil used to fry potatos and can be made by sunflowers or mais.

 

Even solar panels are easy to obtain, some houses and some farms use it, and if you can take it and fit in a good spot with sun light, you can obtain for the entire day the electricity need for 1 person.

 

There are even dynamo generators to recharge batteries work with wind (heolic energy) or bycicle style generator as someone will see for sure in some tvfilms.

 

That's certainly true and possible.

 

However, I think her suggestion is less to do with powering one or two houses, but rather entire sections of the city which he discusses pumping and electrical stations. Which I think would be a problem. Still I'm pretty sure generators have been talked about and planned to be implemented, still perhaps to be in keeping with the original idea, tie generators to electricians or something?

[Dark_Author]

 

However, I think his suggestion is less to do with powering one or two houses, but rather entire sections of the city which he discusses pumping and electrical stations. Which I think would be a problem. Still I'm pretty sure generators have been talked about and planned to be implemented, still perhaps to be in keeping with the original idea, tie generators to electricians or something?

 

 

I was initially referring to powering up whole sections of the city, but I do like the generator idea!  Tying them to the electricians would make sense (maybe they work better if you have an electrician?).  It would be cool, I think.  Also, I'm a girl.  Just so you know. :cool:

[Connall]

 

 

However, I think his suggestion is less to do with powering one or two houses, but rather entire sections of the city which he discusses pumping and electrical stations. Which I think would be a problem. Still I'm pretty sure generators have been talked about and planned to be implemented, still perhaps to be in keeping with the original idea, tie generators to electricians or something?

 

 

I was initially referring to powering up whole sections of the city, but I do like the generator idea!  Tying them to the electricians would make sense (maybe they work better if you have an electrician?).  It would be cool, I think.  Also, I'm a girl.  Just so you know. :cool:

 

 

 

Amended the section.

 

In which case, generators are already a confirmed yes.

 

http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/192-commonly-suggested-suggestions-read-before-posting/

[DirectorPr]

1. The cure idea sounds better as a mod. I wouldn't mind installing a mod like that of one that would give me hope that there might be a saving grace out there for one of my group or myself. But as said before, doesn't fit well into the lore, but that's why the modding community is here for.

 

2. Also would work well as a mod. Isn't very realistic, but would definitely be cool if someone decided to mod some power stations and water treatment plants in.

 

3,4,5. I think the devs are making the NPC system like this already, but still good to suggest in-case an idea was left out.

 

Overall not bad ideas, just 1 and 2 would suit better as mods. 3, 4, and 5 would be awesome to have. I love being a ruthless dictator to my survivors. 

[Dark_Author]

After reading everyone's opinions, I also agree that 1 and 2 would be better as mods.