Patient Zero Option

[H_Bomb]

Now Gimme A beat... 

I play Dubstep for atmosphere and to not bore you.

In sandbox mode, have you ever wondered what your character was doing to survive the outbreak before you took control? With this option, you play 1 day before the outbreak first starts, and once you begin, patient zero gets infected and taken to a hospital in downtown, he zombifies, bites a doctor, who both bite nurses and patients and visitors and then the end ensues,
This should be an option on sandbox, allowing you to see how people would react, and how the military reacts walling off the city.

This would give us a chance to get a head start, but the thing is, patient zero is never infected at the same time on any save, on one save he could be infected the second you spawn, or get infected a few hours after...
This would add variability.

It could be different if you have like super-zombies that instantly infect, or you could recreate the walking dead.

[Guest]

As a mod perhaps, but I don't see this happening in the vanilla game.

 

The developers want this to remain a mystery and to use our imaginations on how everything could have begun leaving only subtle clues.

 

Wish I could open Lemmy's book of quotes like other moderators could! 

[MrZombifiedGamer]

Mod, I do believe the devs said no to this previously on the other forums. I'm not entirely positive but I think so, good idea though and it probably will be implemented as a mod.

[Ludio Ludius]

I really want this as a mod. Can someone do it?

[MrZombifiedGamer]

I really want this as a mod. Can someone do it?

 

I'm sure one of the many modders on the forum will be happy to take up the task.

[H_Bomb]

Hell i'd like it even more if YOU get to be patient zero, and have to start the outbreak.

[Rathlord]

This was heavily denounced on the old forums. The amount of work that would go into it would be senseless for not all that much benefit. So yes, a good mod, but very likely never in the actual game.

 

Edit: Slightly embarrassed to say this in public, but enjoyed the dubstep lol.

[H_Bomb]

This was heavily denounced on the old forums. The amount of work that would go into it would be senseless for not all that much benefit. So yes, a good mod, but very likely never in the actual game.

 

Edit: Slightly embarrassed to say this, but enjoyed the dubstep lol.

Look, this only explains why your character starts surrounded by zombie hoards everywhere in a terribly designed map.

[ToastedFishSandwich]

Wasn't there a topic about this on the general forum earlier today?

[Rathlord]

Look, this only explains why your character starts surrounded by zombie hoards everywhere in a terribly designed map.

 

I'm sorry I don't think I quite understand what you're trying to say here. At least, I hope I'm misunderstanding. Can you post it again in a sentence that makes sense =\

[EnigmaGrey]

It requires NPCs to be written in such a way that they could go about their normal lives prior to infection. It's not a trivial addition and it's likely not something the developers are going to spend any time on. In a recent post today, RobertJohnson explained this.

[Rathlord]

It requires NPCs to be written in such a way that they could go about their normal lives prior to infection. It's not a trivial addition and it's likely not something the developers are going to spend any time on. In a recent post today, RobertJohnson explained this.

 

And in a long-winded post in the old forum, one of the other devs did. Far too lazy to search for it, though.

[sumguy720]

Wasn't there a topic about this on the general forum earlier today?

 

Yo yo.

http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/75-early-beginning-still-not-possible/

[Aardman55]

That subject stands infront of the hospital about to enter and suddenly shotgun joe comes in, says LOL NO and fires a buckshot round into zeros head. And there you go, an isometric sims game powered by java !

[H_Bomb]

I'm sorry I don't think I quite understand what you're trying to say here. At least, I hope I'm misunderstanding. Can you post it again in a sentence that makes sense =\

Okay, as we all now, This map is a DOWNgrade from the previous, it's too open, retarded roads. houses without directions, A zombie hoard at every turn on the LOWEST SETTINGS, Buildings spaced too far out, so many texture fails, retarded building layouts, and the fact that there should only be as much zombies as there were people before the outbreak, 50 beds= 50 zomibes, everyone had to have once been a survivor, GLITCHY AS FUCK zombies that don't give a fuck about walls, The fact that you always spawn nearby a shitton of zombies, have no weapons, WE CAN'T EVEN AIM FOR THE HEAD, We should be able to (and this is a overhaul) Go into first person mode and fight them face to face and instead of beating them until you break their back, Pound their face in. Stealth is broken, Zombies Have to be retarded to not be uber predators, the mysterious LACK OF CARS ANYWHERE! NOT EVEN CRASHED ONES!

 

And the fact you don't piss or shit ever, doing this could be a factor in the game, like if you pooped in the resevoir, or dumped zombie bodies in it, it would give you cholera and/or the zombie virus.

Do they even test what they make before plopping out a giant flop of an update with MORE BUGS THAN BEFORE.

 

That subject stands infront of the hospital about to enter and suddenly shotgun joe comes in, says LOL NO   and fires a buckshot round into zeros head. And there you go, an isometric sims game powered by java  !

 

Well then you get arrested for being a murderer and cop's wont believe you if you explained, and boom death penalty.

[Aardman55]

Okay, as we all now, This map is a DOWNgrade from the previous, it's too open, retarded roads. houses without directions, A zombie hoard at every turn on the LOWEST SETTINGS, Buildings spaced too far out, so many texture fails, retarded building layouts, and the fact that there should only be as much zombies as there were people before the outbreak, 50 beds= 50 zomibes, everyone had to have once been a survivor, GLITCHY AS FUCK zombies that don't give a fuck about walls, The fact that you always spawn nearby a shitton of zombies, have no weapons, WE CAN'T EVEN AIM FOR THE HEAD, We should be able to (and this is a overhaul) Go into first person mode and fight them face to face and instead of beating them until you break their back, Pound their face in. Stealth is broken, Zombies Have to be retarded to not be uber predators, the mysterious LACK OF CARS ANYWHERE! NOT EVEN CRASHED ONES!

 

And the fact you don't piss or shit ever, doing this could be a factor in the game, like if you pooped in the resevoir, or dumped zombie bodies in it, it would give you cholera and/or the zombie virus.

Do they even test what they make before plopping out a giant flop of an update with MORE BUGS THAN BEFORE.

Well, you should actually report bugs instead of just continueing to play the game and later on complain about it.

You know, they still dont have it on RC3, one of the reasons is they are still searching and fixing many bugs and I think when you dl an unfinished indie game you should note every bug you see and tell the devs about it, or atleast not complain (which would be stupid imo).

[MrZombifiedGamer]

Okay, as we all now, This map is a DOWNgrade from the previous, it's too open, retarded roads. houses without directions, A zombie hoard at every turn on the LOWEST SETTINGS, Buildings spaced too far out, so many texture fails, retarded building layouts, and the fact that there should only be as much zombies as there were people before the outbreak, 50 beds= 50 zomibes, everyone had to have once been a survivor, GLITCHY AS FUCK zombies that don't give a fuck about walls, The fact that you always spawn nearby a shitton of zombies, have no weapons, WE CAN'T EVEN AIM FOR THE HEAD, We should be able to (and this is a overhaul) Go into first person mode and fight them face to face and instead of beating them until you break their back, Pound their face in. Stealth is broken, Zombies Have to be retarded to not be uber predators, the mysterious LACK OF CARS ANYWHERE! NOT EVEN CRASHED ONES!

 

And the fact you don't piss or shit ever, doing this could be a factor in the game, like if you pooped in the resevoir, or dumped zombie bodies in it, it would give you cholera and/or the zombie virus.

Do they even test what they make before plopping out a giant flop of an update with MORE BUGS THAN BEFORE.

 

 

Well then you get arrested for being a murderer and cop's wont believe you if you explained, and boom death penalty.

 

You realize this is an alpha right? First of all some of this stuff you're asking is sheer nonsense, the others are planned and you're being quite rude right now in my opinion, anyways I didn't post this to start a fight just to simply tell you taht you need to take a breath and calm down.

[EnigmaGrey]

Though I understand you're upset with the current game, you're derailing your own thread in a most un-lovely manner.

Formal warning.

Half hour time-out for this thread.

[Rathlord]

Here's a post from Lemmy101 about how this kind of feedback effects people. It's in response to some other criticism like yours.

 

 

 

 I'd like to say a few words here, because while a lot of the criticism on thread is a lot more pleasant than the original that ruffled my feathers at least, I'm seeing a lot of stuff that irks me and a key point in this 'harmless polite criticism' people seem to be missing (see tattoo analogy later). I should point out I had nothing to do with the map, beyondlittle code related stuff.

 

1) Criticism of the lack of 'authenticity' of the old map was hammered over our head on a daily basis. This is important to note. If anyone would claim that the game lacks authenticity of a real-life Kentucky small town then I despair a little since a ridiculous effort involving satellite photos, street view photos were used in making sure it was. If anyone says 'authenticity is not important' then where were you every day of our lives pre RC2.9 While things being more spread out does make it feel like there's less on-screen (in the suburbs at least - again this spread out nature is MUCH more realistic.) and if you play the game and learn the map a bit better, you'll discover it caters better for gameplay and longevity of the map in numerous important ways. notably and ironically allowing us to get back the 0.1.5d level of drama we'd subsequently lost.

 

2) It's not finished yet. Fine, give your feedback, but saying the dirt roads are bland is a bit premature, since Mash has been in such pressure to get the whole of Muldraugh finished off, yet has still put a ton of detail such as the garbage and stuff laid around. Perhaps the map could use more, and she's looking into that. Houses too small by your standards? Well actually, with the proportions of characters, exaggerated low height of ceiling etc which again has been in there since day dot) for the low value housing I don't think they are too far off. And these only count for a small portion of the map. Don't like the layout? Again, totally authentic. But let's say you're right? What would you like Mash to do? Go through with a bulldozer and delete all the buildings, all the connecting lanes and roads, and start them from scratch, again throwing a good chunk of months of work away? Furthermore, the most mind-numbing part of her work making hundreds and hundreds of houses one after another. I could go on, but just know that this feedback therefore becomes almost entirely 'non-constructive' and probably wholly unnecessary apart from the dishearten her and make her feel a little sad. So using the 'I'm just giving feedback and not being rude' defense starts to fall apart under this light.

 

It's like looking at someone's tattoo they've sat in pain getting burnt onto their skin for the past 20 hours, (one you even watched periods of the tattooing in silence or approval) and saying to their face immediately as they leave the parlour: 'That's ugly and boring. I think you should have got a jester instead.' - Yeah, thanks shithead. 'Oh it's just constructive criticism'. 'Constructive to make me feel like crap, thanks! I'll just get in my time machine.' 

 

I mean, even if you don't personally approve of the map, it must must must be clear that a huge amount of time and effort has gone into this map? any talk of massive sweeping changes taking months and being terribly disheartening, and that therefore broad sweeping criticism is a lot harder to justify 'constructiveness' at this time over 'I don't like that animation' or 'I wish that gameplay mechanic could be changed.'? What are you expecting from it? A complete do over? Or just for the person who made it to rightly feel bad for making it? Again this is probably why criticism in this area rubs a lot of people up the wrong way, not just a gut punch to those involved in making it. In a game where within a month you will likely have your alpha map back in a mod, and countless of modder maps, and could have even made your own map, and never really have a problem if the vanilla map wasn't to your tastes. It's not even like you wouldn't have the choice to have the exact kinda map you want to play. Criticism on small changes is completely fine, even criticism's veiled as suggestions of where to expand in future. But for massive direction changes like this, please consider modding your form of critique and contribution instead of saying what someone's done isn't up to your standards or makes the game worse than it used to be.

 

I may get slightly miffed myself if people make a pop at my changes to say zombie spawning, but just bear in mind you're not critiquing a code mechanic that took a few hours to make, or an animation that took a few hours to make. You're critiquing a map that's took months of exclusive daily full-time from one person and on of non-exclusive time from another person. Furthermore one that them and the rest of the team are massively proud of. And your critical feedback essentially boils down to 'I think it should be redone', or 'massively remodeled', or hell if anyone says that the old map, which Andy bashed together in a weekend with a tiny selection of sprite sheets, no time, and a 'this will all be changed soon' haphazard and kitchen sink mentality, is better, or looks nicer, then holy fuck what a monstrous kick in the teeth for six months work no?

 

This is what people seem to be missing. And why others might get a little touchy at the rather blaze way people on this thread seem to be idly dismissing months of work.

 

She may not be able to stop these things disheartening her but damn, she really has nothing to worry about it, because we can see the big picture and know what's coming. And just like there were those who were seemingly demented enough to suggest they preferred (in any real way beyond nostalgia) the old sprites to the new, eventually the map will be finished and this will all be forgotten. The map is fucking awesome, and this is clear to 99% of people. And the other 1% will come to realize that in time.

 

as.... I don't think half of these people have even seen 1/6th of the map:

 

Quote: "Class/wealth based areas I feel would be a good improvement, having a trailer park as a cluster, while having some much bigger houses as another and so on."

 

I cite this example but there are many many others. FWIW this is EXACTLY what the map has right this second (in spades), to the letter. It seems to me that people are spending their whole game running around just one of these clusters and then making judgement on the entire map.

 

Perhaps there's whole cells of cool shit you've just never gotten near to and need more stable and playable versions of the game to find and appreciate? as 'the houses are too small' seems to disregard the large amount of buildings that are much bigger than the examples you cite. 'No interesting locations'? There's a ton of interesting locations. You seem to be referring to the map as if the only thing in it is a few tiny single storey houses on a dirt road. and I have to say I really think there's an incomprehensible gulf between what I see, what a lot of the community see, and what our few map critics see.

 

But either way, gamers have become so accustomed to talking about the fruits of someone's labours in such a detached, clinical 'I'm the customer' talking to 'Community Manager' way I feel that they forget that right now, they are posting severe sweeping criticisms that to resolve would take months and undo months of someone's work, in a thread where that very person will, and HAS, read what they have said, and it HAS made a dent, as it should be blatantly obvious it would. Try any put yourself in our shoes for once and take your 'customer is always right, just giving feedback to an alpha' hat on and really digest how what your saying could affect a person reading it, that's all I'm asking really. Not just for Mash, or the rest of us, but generally interacting with an indie company who are trying to connect with their fans and customers as much as possible.

 

Because, whether you consider them constructive or not, it's these kinda posts that knock two shades of crap out of a dev team's moral and motivation, and sad but true, counteract the effect of 20-30 positive comments in a heartbeat.

 

[EnigmaGrey]

Topic free.

[MrZombifiedGamer]

I slightly disagree with Lemmy on this one, just because a few jerk faces don't appreciate what they've done doesn't mean they should accept it. You can't allow that kind of stuff to get to you and the fact they do really makes me sad honestly, it's the internet and a very small population will agree with what you do even if they wanted it prior and there is no way of changing it. My point is that if Lemmy, Mash, well you know the rest of the team too, if they can't take criticism from the small percentage of people now how are they going to handle it when it releases on steam?

 

Justified or not criticism will always exist in both forms and quite honestly unjustified will probably be more abundant, but what the devs have to remember is the people that have been around since the beginning (I'm talking mainly about the ones before me) will support the project. That doesn't mean they have to jump on everyone that tears it down or attacks the devs but what that does mean is an abundant support from the people who really matter.

 

If anyone from the dev team reads this then you have to take into consideration that you're seeing only the empty half of the glass. I'm not trying to put the devs down, in fact, I'm trying to make them realize that their work isn't unappreciated and no matter how many bad critiques you get you can't let it destroy your sense of self worth, maybe I'm being a bit too dramatic with this but that's exactly what I'm getting from that long speech. Anyways I don't want to make this any longer than necessary but as an individual speaking to other individuals I feel like y'all are getting to hurt over small comments that you yourself know you've given 100 perecent on and maybe it's easy for me to say, but you have to remember that you gave it 100 [ercent and if that's not good enough for those people then too bad but a lot of people would be very proud of that.

[Rathlord]

We've been around and around on the subject. Like Lemmy said, they're not saying "no criticism" they're saying "make it truly constructive." And saying "the map is bad" like above is just not.

 

And while I agree that they have to live with the bad criticism and likely always will (don't we all) that doesn't necessarily mean accepting it is the right thing to do. I believe in always making a stand for justice whether it's futile or not; maybe that's just me.

 

Edit: And Enigma is right. If people want to discuss the topic further that's fine, but we should likely let the other bits rest. Be glad to banter about it in PM's if anyone feels there's more to be said.

[EnigmaGrey]

I really want this aspect of the conversation stopped or moved to a more appropriate place . . .

We've had this argument a few hundred times between developers and ourselves: Criticism is fine; abuse isn't.

[PoshRocketeer]

Thing is though, there is no "patient zero", in terms of lore it's explained that the sickness is widespread before it claims any victims for real. 

[PoshRocketeer]

On 7/24/2013 at 7:35 PM, EnigmaGrey said:

Though I understand you're upset with the current game, you're derailing your own thread in a most un-lovely manner.

Formal warning.

Half hour time-out for this thread.

I find this statement funny for a lot of reasons.