What happened to this game?

[stc105]

I don't mean to be a troll, but what happened to this game? I bought this game back in March of 2012. So next month it will be 2 years since I bought the game. I quit playing after a few months, and waited for development to continue. I saw it went on steam, and I am now playing it again, and I am confused at why the game hasn't advanced much over the two years.

 

While the game has improved in many areas, it feels like a only a small improvement. For one, where are the NPCs? I haven't met one NPC. Back in 2012, I remember getting my head blown off by a shotgun wielding lunatic. The game feels pretty empty without a single NPC.

 

I do enjoy the bigger map, and the overall UI and controls are a lot smoother, but seriously Indie Stone, where is everything? What have you been doing these last two years?

 

Yes this is a new account, and I am not trolling, I am just confused (frankly shocked) at the state of the game. I like the look of the website, and I read some of the articles about multiplayer and map editing. I guess that is cool. I just feel like this game has slowed in development.

 

Anyway, no offense to the Indie Stone Team, it looks like development has picked up pace recently. Congratulations on your steam release. I wish you guys the best, and can't wait to see what you have in the next 4 years.

 

-Old time ProjoctZomboider

[EnigmaGrey]

Eye of the beholder and all that.
 

We'll try to douse the inevitable flames. Scaring may result, however, and we cannot be held liable for any cosmetic and/or mortal injuries you receive.

Just be lovely in response to them.

[EreWeGo]

Like Enigma said, eye of the beholder and all that. I'm also an "old time projectzomboider"' and have been following the game since it's very early releases.

For me, I can see huge changes and improvements, in nearly every area, crafting, zombie AI, map design, graphics etc. the only thing I too am really looking forward to, that was in earlier releases, is NPCs. However, to be honest, the old NPCs, although helping with the immersion factor of a zombie apocalypse, were next to useless in practice, and I'm sure I'm not the only player that just unused to kill them to save resources...

The current build is so much more playable IMHO. Sure the old version had a nice little urban town with everything in close proximity, and I definitely enjoyed it, but I also found it far to easy to run through massive hordes of zombies without fear of being killed, and it got to a point that your biggest problem was boredom.

Anyway, each to their own, I'm truly excited about where PZ is, and where it's headed, and once NPCs are back in, well, damn, I'm going to need to find more hours in the day!

[Oddzball]

Actually, under the hood there has been so much stuff done/redone.

 

I mean, look at the graphics compared to old versions for one. Its a massive improvement.

 

New UI, which is amazing, switching to an isometric 3d Engine, and now netcode for multiplayer. Remember, for a long time it was pretty much Lemmy doing all the coding.

 

And yeah, I understand about missing NPCs, I do too, but... *shrug* it is what it is my friend.

[silents429]

Obviously you didn't play much if you can't see the obvious improvement and the vast amount of changes.

[EnigmaGrey]

Obviously you didn't play much if you can't see the obvious improvement and the vast amount of changes.

Well, we might be able to remedy that!

http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/2064-older-versions/?hl=%2Bdownload+%2Bversions#entry29858

Note, my dropbox is probably-currently down, use the ones in the OP.

[TheCenturion]

I'm going to go ahead and be the one who says; I can understand your point of view. Somebody that stopped playing and following the game for two years won't be able to immediately see the changes, since most of those changes have been 'under the hood' and not so much a visual element. That said, those changes have been pretty massive; for one, the game is now far more stable. There's a new map, revamped combat, zombie spawning, tweaks and bug fixes galore and... well... a lot. 

 

There's also a lot of work on game elements (such as NPCs) that simply haven't yet been included because they ain't finished. 

[Blasted_Taco]

The current build is so much more playable IMHO. Sure the old version had a nice little urban town with everything in close proximity, and I definitely enjoyed it, but I also found it far to easy to run through massive hordes of zombies without fear of being killed, and it got to a point that your biggest problem was boredom.

 

Well about that...

You can still do that, the zombies should really grab you to not let you go unless you punch them or something, running through a horde is easy.

[stc105]

Okay, I retract me statement. A lot has changed! As you guys pointed out, it is mostly to do with game engine and under the hood stuff.

 

Memory is a fuzzy thing. Therefore, I went and looked at the old version I was playing, and it looks very different.

 

Correct me if I am wrong, but it is kinda like the team worked hard to get a version out, realized it wasn't going to work (with what they imagined), and then did massive tweaks to the game/engine.

 

I guess I was just disappointed. Oh well, I think I wait and pick this game up again when NPCs are back.

 

Good luck zombie survivors.

[EnigmaGrey]

That's a pretty good interpretation of events, yes.

They've come a long way from green-skinned Martians invading the Smallest Town in America.

[PvtJamesRyan]

they added mutliplayer a few days back. and i havent had a gamebraking bug happen to me after playing a few hours. it was also suprising to me how much fun i had with it but its just too amazing to be running through a world knowing there are different people. its pretty creepy to hear an alarm go off in the distance or hearing a gunshot going off and knowing that its another player doing it. also noone has tried to kill me yet but multiplayer is still fresh and things could still change.

 

but anyway for a public test multi seems to be running very smoothly, although once i had to wait a few seconds for the map to load but thats cool considering ive been playing on an us server from germany

 

anyway the day they add npcs i think ill have to quit my job, my gf and all my rl friends to become an 24 7 zomboider

[Marrik]

all i want to know is, wheres the download link for the newest version? its been forever since i checked on PZ and i cant find it

[EnigmaGrey]

all i want to know is, wheres the download link for the newest version? its been forever since i checked on PZ and i cant find it

Through Steam.

[EreWeGo]

 

The current build is so much more playable IMHO. Sure the old version had a nice little urban town with everything in close proximity, and I definitely enjoyed it, but I also found it far to easy to run through massive hordes of zombies without fear of being killed, and it got to a point that your biggest problem was boredom.

 

Well about that...

You can still do that, the zombies should really grab you to not let you go unless you punch them or something, running through a horde is easy.

 

If you know what you're doing, yes, in general, it's still a bit easy sometimes to avoid the hordes. However, in those earlier versions, as long as you kept moving, you could run right through the main pack, with very little fear of being grabbed, bitten, or scratched.

 

They've definitely improved the threat that a horde poses to you, but yeah, would be cool if once they grab you they were a little harder to avoid....

 

I still want to see the odd mega-horde to truly threaten my safe house once you're well established! 

[turbotutone]

where are the NPCs?

 

best NPC is another human being ;p

[PlasticandRage]

Like Enigma said, eye of the beholder and all that. I'm also an "old time projectzomboider"' and have been following the game since it's very early releases.

For me, I can see huge changes and improvements, in nearly every area, crafting, zombie AI, map design, graphics etc. the only thing I too am really looking forward to, that was in earlier releases, is NPCs. However, to be honest, the old NPCs, although helping with the immersion factor of a zombie apocalypse, were next to useless in practice, and I'm sure I'm not the only player that just unused to kill them to save resources...

 

I second that. I was watching a video of someone playing the build that was most current when I started playing a couple days ago, and it's unreal how much has changed. Combat and crafting stand out specifically for me. When I first started playing melee combat had 2 frames. Not that it wasn't still enjoyable, I played the crap out of it in fact, but there have been some huge steps forward there. A lot of it might seem like small steps, but having been around and playing the game regularly while a lot of those smaller steps were taken has really amounted to a lot in my opinion.

 

All in all the general idea of the game is still the same as it ever was, but I personally don't really want that to change much. That's what drew me in to begin with.

[Marrik]

i bought PZ on Desura, is there no other reason to get the latest version for mac other than Steam??? (my PC is out of commission ATM)

[EnigmaGrey]

i bought PZ on Desura, is there no other reason to get the latest version for mac other than Steam??? (my PC is out of commission ATM)

Correct.

[Marrik]

crap well, thanks for telling me

[Sadeyx]

Your expectation is unreasonable.  2 years in development is not a long time at all for a small dev studio.

 

Unless you make a point to follow the development cycles for indie games, your expectation is understandable, however.

 

The expectation is distorted because when a Large, well funded Development studio's makes a game, they can afford to keep their game secret for upto 5 years, so when its announced, often final release is only a year or so away.  At the very least, the first taste of the beta is almost fully complete and ready for public feedback/criticism.

 

With Indie studios they cant keep it secret and need to follow a modern and widely accepted way to obtain funding by releasing very early iterations of their product.  'Alpha tests'   This means that the average player, accustomed to main stream time-lines, often start an imaginary clock ticking in their minds from the moment they get their hands on it, making the false assumptions about how long until final release. 

 

In the case of Project Zomboid, it seems to have had several massive overhauls of its graphical engine.  Unfortunately "engines" by their very nature are un-seen.   As you might be able to imagine, there is no point building the vehicle that engine is meant to run, when the engine itself needs work.

[rabbit]

^ i don't think that you're being fair in saying his expectation is unreasonable, really. i can completely understand how someone could leave the game for two years, come back, still find no NPCs (in fact, at face value, seemingly find *less* singleplayer content) and wonder what had been going on.

 

the engine has been overhauled - huge improvement which will be felt for years to come, for sure. MP also a big and unexpected boost. but i think to just up and say he's being unreasonable is veering a little close to white knighting.

 

the game has been hugely improved but a lot lot lot of what's been improved is under the hood. you can't blame him for wondering where the bells and whistles have gotten to.

[Walther]

"What happend to this game?" a lot my friend...

 

there have been big milestones since i joined this community (which was not so long ago) and I too am eager to see NPCs... nonetheless I know that coding NPCs is very complicated and if they'd just made some NPCs that shoot you or that just run around scared everyone would go batshit insane on how lame the NPCs are... anyways. have faith and support your indie stone development team!

 

multiplayer and the 3dmodels are pretty big steps in my book... there have been lots of improvements which made the game more stable and fluent. NPCs is something that doesnt come after a couple of weeks. I imagine that testing NPCs alone will take a couple of months to find all the bugs and stuff

[nasKo]

(in fact, at face value, seemingly find *less* singleplayer content)

I don't understand how one could come to that conclusion. The only "feature" that's lacking compared to the old versions are the completely useless NPCs and the 3 minute long tutorial.

 

Everything else has changed. There are now three gamemodes, one of which is extremely customisable. Overall more items and a way larger map.

[Sadeyx]

^ i don't think that you're being fair in saying his expectation is unreasonable, really.

 

It is perfectly fair.  If you take even the smallest amount of time and look into other indie titles you will notice they all follow the same pattern.

 

Minecraft is the flag-ship example.

 

I purchased Minecraft in 2009 and wasn't released until well over 2 years later (20 months later to be precise)  and 'release' version wasn't much different, content wise from the beta.  (Still isnt, to my mind)

 

Minecraft saw unprecedented worldwide success during its beta, selling millions of copies.   So if its perfectly understandable and reasonable to expect a game like Minecraft, with its huge popularity and funding, to take almost 3 years, I find extremely un-fair to expect that ANY smaller, less well known title or studio would be the same.

 

There is wide-spread ignorance on the subject, so while I feel its unfair, as I stated, it IS understandable.

[rabbit]

 

(in fact, at face value, seemingly find *less* singleplayer content)

I don't understand how one could come to that conclusion. The only "feature" that's lacking compared to the old versions are the completely useless NPCs and the 3 minute long tutorial.

 

Everything else has changed. There are now three gamemodes, one of which is extremely customisable. Overall more items and a way larger map.

 

 

 

 

^ the assumption was that OP hadn't dedicated any real time to the game. if he had, as i said, he would have found some - but i can buy that if someone took a brief look at the game after a two year absence, they'd immediately notice ''no NPCs or new player experience''

 

'overall more items' isn't what i meant by 'face value' - nor is 'larger map' - both of them take a bit of digging into the game to realise. which, as i said, it didn't seem that he'd yet done.

 

wee bit overly defensive there, chief.

 

 

 

^ i don't think that you're being fair in saying his expectation is unreasonable, really.

 

It is perfectly fair.  If you take even the smallest amount of time and look into other indie titles you will notice they all follow the same pattern.

 

Minecraft is the flag-ship example.

 

I purchased Minecraft in 2009 and wasn't released until well over 2 years later (20 months later to be precise)  and 'release' version wasn't much different, content wise from the beta.  (Still isnt, to my mind)

 

Minecraft saw unprecedented worldwide success during its beta, selling millions of copies.   So if its perfectly understandable and reasonable to expect a game like Minecraft to take almost 3 years.  It's extremely un-fair to say that ANY smaller, less well known title like to be the same.

 

There is wide-spread ignorance on the subject, so while I feel its unfair, as I stated, it IS understandable.

 

 

2 years = 24 months

20 months later

?

 

EDIT: i'd like to (again) raise the point that i think people are being overly defensive here. OP, by his own admission, was a) not up-to-date on how things had been in the last few years, and b) had only very briefly looked at the game - and he asked where main up-coming feature #1 was as it still hadn't appeared after two years. i said that it wasn't altogether unfair of him to ask this given his lack of knowledge of recent developments. i wasn't making any kind of attack on the game - i've bought several copies of it for other people, checked the website at least once a week since forever & been here for a few years. i'm not a hater or a critic or anything. i'm just trying to be honest and have always found it a bit unendearing how this community tends towards the either the 'la la la i can't hear you' or the 'leave my poor game/devs alone' approach when dealing with anything other than glowing praise.