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

[Lomaster]

Been keeping up with the Project Zomboid updates, and man, this is amazing! Clay production, enhanced crafting, blacksmithing, the late game was always something that I fet needed work but this really helps solve that! Mods are gonna crazy too. I know it'll take forever but I'm still hyped.

Latest video on Build 42.

 

[Tepes Thot]

I love this game. If I could just figure out a good Steam Deck layout so it’s actually playable, I’d almost never need another game.

 

[The Early 2000s]

I hope the devs drop an unstable beta branch for Build 42 before the year's end. They have a lot of shit to show off, but are insistent on releasing everything together. Seems like they're asking for trouble with that decision, if you ask me.

 

[Serbian Peacekeepers]

Seems like they're asking for trouble with that decision, if you ask me.

It can fuck them over either way.
Option 1: Release select features first (Animal AI, Black Smithing, Height Limit Changes) but leave out other features (Basements, Fishing Minigame, Etc) and people might be very disappointed and throw a fit.
Option 2: Release everything and risk extremely broken gameplay and possibly fucking over mods by ruining everything.

Parting out B42 per update could easily cause issues, like when the accidentally fucked B41 by adding unfinished Multiplayer code, so I think personally its smarter to dump everything at once and build up from there, not having to worry that X fix for something in the beta will fuck over something in the dev build later on.


I am still somewhat cautious about B42 and mainly the Animals, given the fact the AI will be basic and is purposefully stunted in favor of B43's NPCs worries me that the AI will be a burden more so than a nice feature. I fully expect the AI to be utterly retarded and do dumb shit that causes issues that would be fixed if the Dev's weren't so anal about their AI code.

 

[Johan Schmidt]

Finally got into this. Going to do a Null run soon, what traits would Dear Feeder have I wonder?

 

[wopirish]

Finally got into this. Going to do a Null run soon, what traits would Dear Feeder have I wonder?

Overweight is a good negative trait, it is very easy one to fix. Also not starving is a good thing if you cant find food.

 

[The Foxtrot]

Overweight is a good negative trait, it is very easy one to fix. Also not starving is a good thing if you cant find food.

I respectfully disagree, Underweight is better as a "negative for positive" trait. The -1 to Fitness on both can be a major problem in the long term since Fitness is the slowest skill to train, but it actually takes less time to gain weight versus losing it.

FYI, the hunger moodles and the actual mechanics of starvation/weight loss aren't connected. If you eat nothing, you can only lose around 1 unit of weight a day, while if you just eat a single stick of lard you've already exceeded the 3,000 calories-a-day needed to maintain weight (a stick of lard is 4,095 calories) and you can gain up to 3 units of weight a day. The hunger moodles are just more of the typical survival game "Eat Food or Bad Stuff Happens!" rather than a genuine status update of "If I don't eat, I'm gonna start losing weight."

That being said, if we're going for being accurate to Null...I'd recommend the "Anger Plus" mod and take "Irritable" and "Berserker".

 

[Lomaster]

I am beyond hyped.

 

[The Early 2000s]

I am beyond hyped.

lemmy said Q2 of this year; whether or not that's the unstable branch or the actual release, IDK.

Build 42 is coming to unstable first, confirmed by the most recent zomboid blogpost. I'm gambling on February being the unstable branch drop. Honestly can't wait, those engine changes sound like my frames will be boosted immensely.

 

[ProfDongs]

I've been in it for the long haul but its good to see them actually say something about a release and at the very least nothing can be worse than when they originally tried the NPC release. The modular crafting system from the last blog post looked really neat and seems like it will add purpose to most of the stuff in the game too since its mostly decoration right now. Usually when they mention anything about a release its relatively soon but I still expect it to be some time around March/April given the size.

 

[Pippa is a spic whore]

I stumbled on this thread and need to give my opinion: The human NPCs will be the death of this game in the eyes of many.
They overpromised early on, likely when they were inexperienced in proper gamedev, and as a result have promised a system which no sane professional would touch with a 10 foot pole.

To summarize:

The NPCs would not only need to have the human logic the player has, but also have complex logic such as faction alignment, and loyalty (as they promised that fights could break out in groups and so), family units and relationships (they said there would be quests involving loved ones, which when combined with world persistance means keeping track of relationships.
They would need a level of responsiveness; Them being vague left most of the fanbase have expectations raging from survivors of some fuckery having the ability to realise you put bleach in their food and turning agressive on you, which is doable if they make sure to think of edge cases, to straight up procedural dialogue, cleverbot style- which is unlikely to happen, as a rando NPC #12312/9213849238 having a full on neural network, and as I have found a post of higher-ups being asked about chatGPT and giving the usual commune poet suddenly-180d-on-automation response that they will be using writers. Which now means a database of responses which would need to be fluid enough to feel human.
There would need to be quests which don't feel skyrim-y and actually have a story element. See above as to why that is hard. I fully expect "HELLO PLS RESCUE <INSERT NAME> (S)HES MY <INSERT ROLE>" *fuckoff random map marker* to be the actual implementation which they will have to somehow make more "fuzzy"
as human language can be affected by generation, location and personallity.

AND THEY HAVE TO DO ALL THAT WHEN EVEN THE BEST AAA IMPLEMENTATIONS OF NPCS ON THE MARKET RIGHT NOW ARE MOSTLY GENERIC NPCS WITH SOME SCATTERED SCRIPTED ONES.

Do you see the issue here? They would have to put in an immense ammount of work, which would eclipse the whole game so far.
They promised effectively real humans, if we take the UAE definition that made sophia the robot a human by law, and are realistically only capable of implementing the superb survivors mod with some more polish.

Think of all the people who got overhyped on the NPCs and bought the game expecting them to be as good as their imagination.

The difference between promise and delivery will hit like a truck.. And they know it.

 

[Serbian Peacekeepers]

The human NPCs will be the death of this game in the eyes of many.

I think really what most people expect currently is "Superb Survivors, but better" and that's a pretty low bar to cross. I don't think the NPCs will kill the game since people will be so happy to finally have AI in the game. There will almost certainly be a honey moon period with the AI and after that people will probably start complaining a bunch, but I doubt it will kill the game.

 

[Pippa is a spic whore]

I think really what most people expect currently is "Superb Survivors, but better" and that's a pretty low bar to cross. I don't think the NPCs will kill the game since people will be so happy to finally have AI in the game. There will almost certainly be a honey moon period with the AI and after that people will probably start complaining a bunch, but I doubt it will kill the game.

If the playerbase ignores the bullshit that Lemmy still insists will be implemented, sure. Either way the bitching will result in a meltdown.

 

[std::string]

The NPCs would not only need to have the human logic the player has, but also have complex logic such as faction alignment, and loyalty (as they promised that fights could break out in groups and so), family units and relationships (they said there would be quests involving loved ones, which when combined with world persistance means keeping track of relationships.

Wouldn't be the first zombie game with NPCs that flip out and kill you for seemingly no reason.

 

[Poop A Loop]

I'm looking forward to both NPCs and Lemmy's inevitable meltdown when people give him feedback.

He's been thin skinned ever since they launched. If they hadn't purged the original indie stone forums you could find his old meltdowns when people would ask what was going on with development and provide suggestions. Then, when they'd inevitably ask about NPCs Lemmy would have an existential crisis and trauma dump about how hard it is being Lemmy and how unreasonable finishing the game people paid for before the heat death of the universe is for the poor guy.

 

[Tepes Thot]

I'm looking forward to both NPCs and Lemmy's inevitable meltdown when people give him feedback.

He's been thin skinned ever since they launched. If they hadn't purged the original indie stone forums you could find his old meltdowns when people would ask what was going on with development and provide suggestions. Then, when they'd inevitably ask about NPCs Lemmy would have an existential crisis and trauma dump about how hard it is being Lemmy and how unreasonable finishing the game people paid for before the heat death of the universe is for the poor guy.

It’s a very fun game, but that’s why I pirated it for years, and then bought it cheap on a key store later.

The dev is the worst thing about it, he’s like George R.R. Martin. Too prideful to get any meaningful help with their work that’s clearly overwhelming them.

 

[DeadwastePrime]

I stumbled on this thread and need to give my opinion: The human NPCs will be the death of this game in the eyes of many.
They overpromised early on, likely when they were inexperienced in proper gamedev, and as a result have promised a system which no sane professional would touch with a 10 foot pole.

To summarize:

The NPCs would not only need to have the human logic the player has, but also have complex logic such as faction alignment, and loyalty (as they promised that fights could break out in groups and so), family units and relationships (they said there would be quests involving loved ones, which when combined with world persistance means keeping track of relationships.
They would need a level of responsiveness; Them being vague left most of the fanbase have expectations raging from survivors of some fuckery having the ability to realise you put bleach in their food and turning agressive on you, which is doable if they make sure to think of edge cases, to straight up procedural dialogue, cleverbot style- which is unlikely to happen, as a rando NPC #12312/9213849238 having a full on neural network, and as I have found a post of higher-ups being asked about chatGPT and giving the usual commune poet suddenly-180d-on-automation response that they will be using writers. Which now means a database of responses which would need to be fluid enough to feel human.
There would need to be quests which don't feel skyrim-y and actually have a story element. See above as to why that is hard. I fully expect "HELLO PLS RESCUE <INSERT NAME> (S)HES MY <INSERT ROLE>" *fuckoff random map marker* to be the actual implementation which they will have to somehow make more "fuzzy"
as human language can be affected by generation, location and personallity.

AND THEY HAVE TO DO ALL THAT WHEN EVEN THE BEST AAA IMPLEMENTATIONS OF NPCS ON THE MARKET RIGHT NOW ARE MOSTLY GENERIC NPCS WITH SOME SCATTERED SCRIPTED ONES.

Do you see the issue here? They would have to put in an immense ammount of work, which would eclipse the whole game so far.
They promised effectively real humans, if we take the UAE definition that made sophia the robot a human by law, and are realistically only capable of implementing the superb survivors mod with some more polish.

Think of all the people who got overhyped on the NPCs and bought the game expecting them to be as good as their imagination.

The difference between promise and delivery will hit like a truck.. And they know it.

you could get away with a rather basic npc system, which would still be complex in all the behaviors and states necessary for making them seem believable enough. you want raiders? make them actively hostile to the player. traders/merchants? make them generally peaceful to the player unless provoked and set up some sort of bartering system. you could steal from minecraft's villagers way of doing it. potential allies you could recruit? make them neutral at first, willing to attack you if you provoke them but gaining their trust enough could allow them to join you, and you could assign them basic roles and give them basic commands if needed. you can get away with reusing certain dialogue options to save time and money. point would be to make them believable enough to not be completely retarded. if they falter at that, there is at least the modding community to fix what is broken with the system.

 

[Serbian Peacekeepers]

planetalgol

Never expected to bring this name up again. For a quick run down, planetalgol/Blair Algol was a PZ modder and current Indiestone Dev, known for making a large set of mods that ranged from frameworks for other mods, skin packs, and really anything you can think of. I use the term "Was" because as of April 21st/22nd, Blair has deleted ALL of his mods (say for one)

This action has broken countless collections, save games, and other mods all over the workshop. The workshop is currently being flooded with reuploads of his mods to fix collections and mod packs. I quoted my prior post from 2 or 3 years ago because back then he also removed all his mods. Well actually he updated them to remove all content, and later updated them/reverted the update to make them work again, this time the mods are completely gone. Blair already had a very shaky reputation with the community, being a anti-social asshole who would block people over minor shit and had something of a god complex/victim complex over his status on the workshop.

I said Blair was a "current indiestone dev" but that may not be true anymore? who knows right now, all thats known is that Blair nuked all his mods and in the process ruined saves and collections. While the damage seems to be minimal, the Reputation hit won't be. I highly doubt he'll comeback from this.
Archive of a indiestone interview with Blair, from May 2021.

This isn't the first time a big mod was nuked recently, last year 3 mods by the Modders Shark and Cyt were nuked, Police Overhaul, Military overhaul, and Ready set Surplus. Though these mods had a warning given out regarding the removal and there is a officially supported reupload of the three mods on the workshop.

 

[Dr. Two-Time Champion]

Blair nuked all his mods and in the process ruined saves and collections.

Having to figure out and remove missing mod IDs from PJZ server is a hell I wish upon Blair. Only seems fitting.

 

[Serbian Peacekeepers]

Having to figure out and remove missing mod IDs from PJZ server is a hell I wish upon Blair. Only seems fitting.

Its probably a good idea to make a mod pack for your server if you plan on using a bunch of mods, even outside of a modder throwing a fit and nuking their workshop its a good way to prevent a update from totally killing your server.