Project Zomboid - The farming simulator disguised as a zombie survival game

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I have played long enough that I have a generator at a main base and a hoard of skill books and VHS tapes and I can generally get a couple of skills back up to what my previous character had before I did something stupid and died, so it isn't quite as painful as before. Still frustrating though.

Thanks for reminding me to make a manual backup!
 
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Getting a server for MP up and running is a pain in the ass.
 
Necro, but have any you been keeping up with the Dev blogs? We have seen alot of neat stuff in them so far, like Deer ai, and the new height limit and while we have yet to see the basements yet iirc, we have seen some work they've been doing on new tiles for the underground.
 
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Been keeping an eye on them but waiting for the update to play again. Seems like its still 2-4 months off at the very minimum. Livestock seems really neat and I'm wondering if a river base would still be viable for raising cattle and such if you put down enough flooring and grew enough grass on it.
 
ProfDongs said:
Been keeping an eye on them but waiting for the update to play again. Seems like its still 2-4 months off at the very minimum. Livestock seems really neat and I'm wondering if a river base would still be viable for raising cattle and such if you put down enough flooring and grew enough grass on it.
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I say we will see the first beta of B42 in probably august, I can't lie i'm not too excited for it past the new height limit, Animals don't interest me much and human NPCs are still way off sadly.
 
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"NPCs are soon guys we swear"
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How about instead of scope creeping the shit out of this game you get on those NPCs?
 
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Poop A Loop said:
"NPCs are soon guys we swear"
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How about instead of scope creeping the shit out of this game you get on those NPCs?
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Your image isn't working, but NPCs are taking forever, it will take i think 3 full updates to have them finished with other updates thrown in, please note, the devs were so anal about the NPCs they were actually planning on not adding animals until after they added human NPCs so modders couldn't use their NPC code, but thankfully they stopped that retarded idea.
 
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Poop A Loop said:
"NPCs are soon guys we swear"
View attachment 5019967

How about instead of scope creeping the shit out of this game you get on those NPCs?
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Scope creep will be this games undoing sooner or later. Rather than add needed features they do stupid shit like implement largely pointless and overly complicated vehicle, temperature and animation systems, do a third iteration of the graphics engine and concentrate on things that are absolutely unneeded in the game as it currently is. They know that because they got called out on it so many times from everybody that their solution was to stop regularly communicating via steam updates. So now they've got their balls in a twist over adding npcs, yet with their history they'll proceed to implement something that manages to be overly complicated by design and half baked at the same time and obsess over scope creeping it as ideas come to them that'll inevitably break the fuck out of npcs. They're already showing the first signs of this with their weird obsession over 'scenes' that 'show off stories' of what happened to said npcs being added before npcs are even close to ready. They don't seem to realize or appreciate the amount of complication they're going to add to the game on their end by adding actual npcs. and it'll bite them in the ass. They're going to bog themselves down doing things like this until development slows to a crawl and people just stop caring, stop buying copies of the game and they run out of money, leading to a half finished buggy mess of a game
 
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WonderWino said:
vehicle, temperature and animation systems, do a third iteration of the graphics engine
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I will disagree regarding the Vehicle, Animation, and Graphics. All of that needed a refresh and total overhaul, look at B40 and B41, did it take forever to do? Yes, but it was needed. The devs have talked about how the team is more of a collection of smaller teams all working on separate things, and I highly doubt them "trimming the fat" so to speak would speed anything up or make anything easier, their idea for NPCs is already really complex, adding campsites and shit won't make it any worse.
 
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Serbian Peacekeepers said:
I will disagree regarding the Vehicle, Animation, and Graphics. All of that needed a refresh and total overhaul, look at B40 and B41, did it take forever to do? Yes, but it was needed. The devs have talked about how the team is more of a collection of smaller teams all working on separate things, and I highly doubt them "trimming the fat" so to speak would speed anything up or make anything easier, their idea for NPCs is already really complex, adding campsites and shit won't make it any worse.
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None of those things needed overhauls. When you're at the point you've spent years of development time redoing what you've already done twice already and putting most of the rest of the game on the backburner while you do it theres a problem. For better or worse, you pick an iteration and stick with it or you'll end up following your own mistakes for years and not getting much of anything else done....which is exactly what they have demonstrated here. What you're describing here is exactly what competent development teams avoid doing. The last thing a development team needs is offshoot teams working at different paces on separate things with their own plans and agendas. Thats how you end up with problems

The fact they're trying to add overly complex concepts to something that by their own admission is already overly complex is exactly how you end up making it worse. You start with a basic implementation and add to it afterwards when its been properly implemented, tested for bugs and for how it actually functions as implemented. Otherwise you end up with a massively complicated mess that'll stay plagued with bugs for years that is that much harder to go back and fix because its needlessly complex from day one and tied into other systems in such a way it creates headaches for everybody involved. This is development rules 101. They're setting themselves up for failure doing things like this and it will come back on them sooner or later
 
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WonderWino said:
They're setting themselves up for failure doing things like this and it will come back on them sooner or later
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This game has been in development hell for 12 years, they've already failed multiple times at this point. They're slow as fuck but unlike other studios they've at least kept up with their product, they could have cut and run a long long while ago. They are dumb but passionate anglos. Three more years until NPCs.
 
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ProfDongs said:
This game has been in development hell for 12 years, they've already failed multiple times at this point. They're slow as fuck but unlike other studios they've at least kept up with their product, they could have cut and run a long long while ago. They are dumb but passionate anglos. Three more years until NPCs.
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As much shit as i can give the devs, they have stuck with the game when most people would have left it by year 4, and the fact it is getting better is a sign they aren't fucking up.
 
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It's going to be several more years until this game is done but it has potential to be the best damn zombie game around. Animals are nearly done. NPCs are coming up eventually.

One update in the far future Indie Stone have mentioned is a kind of medieval rebuilding of society. Windmills and other structures. Food preservation. As of now the endgame is kind of bare and tedious, essentially a perpetual farming loop to not starve to death.
 
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I recently saw Project Zomboid. Had heard about it long ago, and just kind of brushed it off as typical zombie game trash. Boy how wrong. Haven't played it, but looking at Let's Plays, it looks like as close to a video game adaptation of Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide as there will ever be. Brutal, bleak, realistic. The way the sound draws zombies in, the sheer numbers of them streaming in from everywhere, it nails that specific brand of fear.

I kind of like that there's no human enemies. Humans are part of the zombie fantasy, but I'm so sick of zombie fiction (any media) using it as a backdrop for more stories about dudes shooting each other, muh humans are the real enemies, especially when they make a human faction cannibals. I don't even find it realistic at all, peoples instinct is to rally together in response to disasters. I like that it's got a depressing last-man-on-Earth feeling.
 
Ughubughughughughughghlug said:
I kind of like that there's no human enemies. Humans are part of the zombie fantasy, but I'm so sick of zombie fiction (any media) using it as a backdrop for more stories about dudes shooting each other, muh humans are the real enemies, especially when they make a human faction cannibals. I don't even find it realistic at all, peoples instinct is to rally together in response to disasters. I like that it's got a depressing last-man-on-Earth feeling.
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dont worry human npcs are gonna be a thing in a couple of major updates though i dont know the exact date this will happen
 
Ughubughughughughughghlug said:
I recently saw Project Zomboid. Had heard about it long ago, and just kind of brushed it off as typical zombie game trash. Boy how wrong. Haven't played it, but looking at Let's Plays, it looks like as close to a video game adaptation of Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide as there will ever be. Brutal, bleak, realistic. The way the sound draws zombies in, the sheer numbers of them streaming in from everywhere, it nails that specific brand of fear.

I kind of like that there's no human enemies. Humans are part of the zombie fantasy, but I'm so sick of zombie fiction (any media) using it as a backdrop for more stories about dudes shooting each other, muh humans are the real enemies, especially when they make a human faction cannibals. I don't even find it realistic at all, peoples instinct is to rally together in response to disasters. I like that it's got a depressing last-man-on-Earth feeling.
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PZ with Human AI is a really interesting change of pace, if you ever wanna try it Superb Survivors is worth fucking with for a bit (it is really buggy though and isn't something I'd recommend for a long term save.)

I do have concerns regarding how AI will work story wise, since they are randomly generated and their objectives/goals are also random, i worry if it will be either too cookie cutter or too random and nonsensical
 
I started playing this game last week. I'm totally hooked! It can be overwhelming at first due to the sheer size of it, but it's not too difficult to learn. Would love to play on a server full of fellow Kiwi's!
 
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