Being able to dig a well

[IndustryStandard]

I'm going to start the suggestion by laying basic groundwork quickly. Feel free to skip past to just the suggestion.

 

Firstly I read this post by Lemmy from Reddit and the part that sticks out to me specifically To answer a few concerns people have had about the crafting plans : projectzomboid (reddit.com)

"That said, our new philosophy is not to stop people doing this stuff, but to gate it appropriately behind both character plausibility, needs and player choice. "

 

My interpretation of what this meant is that while you can technically do a lot of things it doesn't mean your character would or would need to do those things. So I wanted to make a suggestion that is plausible for a character to do, they would have a need to do it and would havefer player choice in the matter. In the spirit of build 42 also looking to add an end game too. 

My suggestion has likely been mentioned before but wasn't on the commonly suggested list and trying to Google it only lead to people talking about Hydrocraft. 

 

 

Actual suggestion

 

I think it'd be incredibly fitting to allow players the ability to dig a well. This at its core just requires someone to dig a deep hole and line it with rocks, bricks, wood etc. Or in the case of the example video they use barrels to do this. Hand-Dug Well Using Primitive Tools? - Frontier Well - Townsends Wilderness Homestead - YouTube

 

Garbage bags are finite and in a server that's going on years with a supposed medieval society it seems incredibly necessary to allow players to build wells to allow them choice in not being stuck near water sources or relying on crude rain barrels. 

 

A player would need to do this for the obvious reasons you'd want a source of water, but the reasons outside of rain barrels is shifting away from the material costs of garbage bags towards a more intense labor cost of digging a hole and gathering the stones, bricks or other materials to build it properly. I think this is crucial for long term survival and will allow players to build away from rivers and into the woods with more space to actually build bases and towns. 

 

A player can plausibly do this since a well is almost literally a really deep hole in the ground. It will be hard, it will take a sometime. But if adult has a pickaxe for busting any stones into smaller pieces and a means of digging then it's completely within the realm of plausible. 

A player should be allowed to do this since the act of getting water for just crops and washing is already fairly easy, the act of getting purified water isn't much more than a nuisance at worst even when playing on the 6 months later preset. But what this allows is a means of settling in a location, more options for bases and a convenience that feels very in line with what is talked about with build 42. I truly believe we need a means of moving beyond boiling individual pots of water. 

 

This can be balanced by putting the recipe behind a VHS tape - I assume most people understand a well is a hole in the ground with water but that's generally as far as they know. The other requirement should be having to have a pickaxe and a shovel in your inventory. A lot of digging dirt/clay is needed and you might need to break any stones into smaller pieces to lift them out. Finally you will need a means of lining the bottom and sides of the well, as well as a bucket and rope. 

 

We already got the well sprite, a digging animation and the tools.

Whadya all think?

Edited August 10, 2022 by IndustryStandard

[mimo_za]

33 minutes ago, IndustryStandard said:

Whadya all think?

I think giving the player the opportunity to learn how to dig a well is a good idea.
It's hard and long work, but if a player wants to play for a long time, then he will do it.

[CannedRat]

Good idea. 

 

It would be good if this was a "big" project for the character as digging a well is not the sort of task for an easy afternoon.  Perhaps start by build a temporary tripod/framework (quick and dirty) to mark the location and represent the interactable sprite which then can manage the time that the project takes... like reading a skill book.  The character can stop digging and go and attend to food/water/shelter/crops/sleep etc and come back to the task and pick up where they left off with some sort of progress bar.    Finally, when the work is complete the temporary tripod is replaced by the finished well sprite. 

 

It would be interesting if the project took resources at various stages and produced dirt/rocks as a resource that had to be disposed of.   It may also be interesting if the player had a choice about how deep to dig.  Shallow well might produce very little water. Medium may produce enough to drink and wash, while a deep well might produce enough to supply a small farm etc.  The player obviously would have the choice to just dig multiple shallow wells, but then they need to run around and collect water from many points during their day.

 

This does raise the question of digging a well inside a structure.  Could you dig a well in your house/base/industrial building?

 

 

[Irken Empire]

In my left hand is a red pill, if you eat it you'll be able to make wells in a specific amount of time, months - years
In my righ hand is a blue pill, if you eat it you'll be able to craft rain collector barrels in a day which will provide water as long as the rain keeps falling
Which pill do you choose?

[IndustryStandard]

20 hours ago, Irken Empire said:

In my left hand is a red pill, if you eat it you'll be able to make wells in a specific amount of time, months - years
In my righ hand is a blue pill, if you eat it you'll be able to craft rain collector barrels in a day which will provide water as long as the rain keeps falling
Which pill do you choose?

 

It'd take a hard days work or 2 to build a well irl

And I'd pick the well and not be shit out of luck during winter or droughts. Or forced to purify water constantly.

[duh7]

Good idea but every Player will dig it in secured base. There shuld be a smol chance to have water after digging a hole. Chances getting bigger when Player have higher survival skill. 

[duh7]

13 hours ago, IndustryStandard said:

 

It'd take a hard days work or 2 to build a well irl

And I'd pick the well and not be shit out of luck during winter or droughts. Or forced to purify water constantly.

If u dont know how to Connect rain Barrel with sink it looks like that.  For now u dont need to purify water from sink meaby that will change and I think it is stupid that well water dont need to be purify

 

Edited August 14, 2022 by duh7

[CannedRat]

Rain barrels are a good solution but have drawbacks.  Resources, rain, purification, plumbing, skills etc.  Similarly wells should have different drawbacks.  This is what makes the game more interesting. Dealing with the challenge of different resource availibility, space constraints, tools, time, choice etc.  If we have infinitie resources then nothing is hard or worthwhile.

 

It would be interesting to be able to plumb in a pump to the well or the rain barrels, then pipe the water through a fuel tank/metal barrel over/in a fire to create a still to purify the water in bulk.  Then fill storage tanks either via pipes or buckets with the clean water.  These should all take resources, skills etc but may be a route that improves the quality of life for players who want to deal with ground water in their base or farm.   Could be a good use for all the scrap wood I seem to generate.

 

 

[getstoopid]

Digging a well would be interesting indeed but it should be a hard and long project and need skill(s) - I could think of a combination of carpentry (as "general" building skill at the moment - maybe masonry sometime) and foraging? The higher your foraging the better your chance to find a good spot rich in water. So you would get more water and maybe need less time building the well as you don't need to dig as deep.

[CannedRat]

There is a mod for this...

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2852690210

 

[getstoopid]

Cool I didn't know this one - thx