Boredom/More Entertainment

[Maverick99]

Boredom is something that I personally find more obnoxious than anything else in game. Admittedly it's not a huge problem if you're constantly fighting zombies and getting panicked, or if you're privy to consuming books constantly. For example: I'll be laughing hanging around my group of 4 and mysteriously my character becomes bored, or I'll just take a minute break after almost being consumed by an entire horde and I'll see the cursed Moodle. The best way to get around this weird boredom problem is to make some additions or tweaks to entertainment. My proposed solution is just allow us to entertain ourselves more than Magazines and Books. Occasionally there are checkers around named "Game Pieces" items like this should be able to be used. Maybe we can find a board and play some checkers with a teammate? Or even a round by yourself, (could be less rewarding if you play yourself) Musical instruments are also present around the map, so maybe we could strum a guitar a few times to eliminate our boredom? Maybe blow into a saxophone and sooth the zombies with some sexy jazz. Rimworld also comes to mind during this nitpicky suggestion, we can make a horseshoe pole and play it for a reduction to boredom; at the cost of finding a magazine or an already built pole. Maybe we could have some more objects like this in game. A few games come to mind, Hop scotch if you find some chalk, That weird sport with a ball on a pole you could do with some minor metalworking skills and even skipping rocks across a pond for some childlike fun (Could even give you more entertainment the better your aiming skill!) . In general boredom is something that is just an annoyance, there could be some more ways to ward it off. 

[PoshRocketeer]

More ways to entertain yourself sounds delightful, and would give a lot of life to the world.

[ZombieHunter]

One thing they should have added was "Favorite" skill 

Since a lot of people enjoy doing a hobby

 

For me it was tinkering with electronics as a kid. 

When I was 8 I made my own radio from scratch with a lot of messy soldering.

 

So picking something a favorite skill you do to relieve boredom would help a lot.

[dannyisdude]

On 4/1/2023 at 8:53 PM, Maverick99 said:

For example: I'll be laughing hanging around my group of 4 and mysteriously my character becomes bored

This makes me realize that maybe being around other characters should alleviate at least some for boredom for some time. Maybe the effect decreases the longer you've been hanging around the same character(s), and seeing each other again after a few days of not seeing each other renews it.

But yeah, I agree boredom comes on way too quickly when in a building. It doesn't make sense that reading indoors is gonna make you bored significantly faster than reading outdoors, particularly if the weather is bad or there are zombies outside. 

IMO the way boredom and focus works in CDDA is fantastic, and I would love to see something similar in Zomboid. An incentive, but not a huge punishment for doing things like listening to music while crafting, and keeping your character entertained, with a debuff that is mostly mild, and only gets bad if you ignore it for a really long time works really well to keep you striving to have your character lead a life with creature comforts that you would want in real life, without making your character feel suicidally-depressed or massively debuffed because they forgot to catch the sunday cartoons.