Do you think Build 42 will solve the "End Game Issue" in Project Zomboid? Have your say!

@IBatChestI

8 ай бұрын

Maybe

@oCommando

8 ай бұрын

Idk ._.

@Jackal326

8 ай бұрын

I hope so. I always find myself starting a new game than carrying on once I get my safehouse established and become self-sufficient for food and power (either with solar-panels or generators and gas stockpile).

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

Exactly my usual loop, Jackal. Hoping this promotes some good discussion amongst the dev team.

@chimpanzzzgamer

8 ай бұрын

when is build 42 dropping?

I think a great end game scenario would be to repair/maintain Power stations, Water treatment centers. Turn water and power back on.

@touchypainter6936

8 ай бұрын

YES !!! this comment needs to be pinned

@Strideo1

8 ай бұрын

Will we be able to repair downed power lines too? We could basically become a utility company.

@nerfherder4284

8 ай бұрын

I always thought a hydro plant would be cool. I

@tazepatates4805

8 ай бұрын

I think there's a mod for that. It's very popular too I'll be surprised if you don't know the mod. Edit: It's called "Save our Station"

@jakes-dev1337

8 ай бұрын

Someone needs to see this

The issue is that they are giving us complex solutions to complex problems. But we do not face complex problems, we face simple problems. In terms of longevity here are the issues your character currently face: - Getting infected (zombies, Game over) - Build a base with walls, stay away from populated area - Getting wounded (zombies, falling, car crash, etc.) solved in most cases by tearing clothes - Getting food (don't die from starvation) Fishing, looting, farming and then the biggest hurdle preserve food, all answered by a fridge and a generator (vanilla canning sucks right now) - Getting water (water my crops IF you use farming for food) - Getting clean water (don't drink bad water): boil water, find a well, find water bottles, build a rain collector + piping - Getting shelter from the elements (Right now you cannot die from hypothermia I think): Get a house and warm clothes. If they want to make these new system meaningful, they need to have complex problem to solve: - Your character develops serious abdominal pain; Find medical equipment and literature + electricity to find and cure the cause before it's too late. - Something is killing all the fish in the water; Find an alternate source of food or develop pisciculture. - Gas is going bad; create or find an alternative fuel source. - A tropical storm is coming, high chance of tornado; find an underground shelter. - Building are collapsing after 8-9 years without any maintenance; get good at carpentry and fix them up or build your own. - Swarms of locusts are eating most crops; find a way to build a greenhouse to protect your crops. - Medicine goes bad after a few years rotting away in cabinets; make your own. - Crushing depression and loneliness are making your character go crazy; Make booze and drink your problems away.

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

Some really good thoughts here. Thank you for contributing!

@lauramanuel7619

8 ай бұрын

That would certainly add a fun dynamic to the game. Though I imagine they might lose some players not interested in things that require more thought that shooting something with a gun. But players like me would find that fascinating. 😁

@theeljonss

8 ай бұрын

that's a actually great take, all this suggestions make sense in improving the mechanics that already exist, I wish they make some of these changes in the future

@nerfherder4284

8 ай бұрын

All that being said, PZ is still my top 5 favorite games ever, so they have done something right so far

@mariovwcardoso5970

8 ай бұрын

you know what comes to mind? Randy Random, Cassandra Classic, Chloe Chillax... the storytellers from Rimworld... maybe an Storyteller system, that ads events you have to deal with?

I think what we need is survivors that we can fill our bases with, that would actually give purpose to leaving your base because you actually have people to feed.

@gavinmcmordie5517

7 ай бұрын

If I had a base of people who needed meds like insulin, or just in general food and supplies for fortifying the base or expanding it, then I feel like I’d have a major reason to keep going longer. I also like the idea that the colony of survivors your character makes remembers your character if they die, and your new character if you make one has to earn their spot in the colony because the colony doesn’t “know you”

@paxton_wulgus

7 ай бұрын

They did that in fallout 4 and it works, but only to a point. Eventually it just feels like flipping switches for who does what + there's not much of a connection to any of them. Maybe they could do a party RPG dynamic where you have a small group of people and work around their personalities

@VariesMusic

6 ай бұрын

I agree. INDIE STONE, PLEASE I WANT HAVE MY OWN COLONY. THAT EVERY NPC HAVE DIFFERENT SKILL AND OCCUPATION. I NEED THIS, AND I CAN PLAY 24HOURS JUST TO MAKE MY VIRTUAL COLONY SAFE

@ali-ascousin6529

5 ай бұрын

a faction system would do good or atleast basic survivors groups, plus evil ones because bullet defense has like no use in single player without mods

@polishnope5609

5 ай бұрын

​@@paxton_wulgus​@paxton_wulgus yeah but fallout 4 settlers were just a stupid ai and the feel of this game made you think that the people you have in your settlements didnt need your help at all , your suggestion of adding personality to the characters is really good tho, i would also like to see raider groups in the game that would attack your base for example

They just need to add npc's with missions. A feeling that there is something alive.. other survivors who have a base.. trades.. even a safe point that Could get overrun.. horde events perhaps

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

NPC's aren't coming until Build 43 and that could be a few years away or more, so I'm looking for alternatives in the meantime.

@Wzrd8

8 ай бұрын

@@MrAtomicDuck There kind of aren't any. 42 will be better for multiplayer but this game will shine with NPCs in single player. As fun as it is it's a difficult format for multiplayer. Feels like being offline during play is a bigger problem than other games given that time passing is a serious variable. 42 is just going to make that hurt less.

@TRULYTWIST3D

8 ай бұрын

ive played pz since day one back in the forum days, still play it regularly. unfortunately i agree, the only thing that will give the game an endgame is npcs...

@Hanekem

8 ай бұрын

@@TRULYTWIST3D yeah, NPCs, and maybe NPCs factions, both friend, foe and otherwise, are the sorta thing that would make the end game interesting, or make a whole new game since with the new systems you can jump from the post apocalypse to the post post apocalypse, that is a rebuild of the world. though that is far more ambitious, but is the sorta thing that I find is missing on most zombie games. But more matter at hand... fuel goes bad eventually, six month, a year, depends on the fuel, but eventually you are going to get degraded performance, and impurities and the like, so maybe use the above settings to try and build a basic steam plant? (dangerous as fuck, but...) or a simple waterwheel generator if near a river, because modern plants are built to high specifications, and eventually all the critical parts will go bad as well, but using a power plant to operate a workshop

@tfuenke

8 ай бұрын

This works out pretty well in cdda, you can rack up a lot of missions but the really badass ones you make yourself

I personally love the idea of somehow restoring power to entire towns. Just imagine the sense of accomplishment you'd get after seeing the street lights turn on again. Obviously, this would be a difficult task, however it my make the electrician occupation more balanced.

@bobjohnson1096

8 ай бұрын

Try engineer so much better!

@R0GU3ST4TU5

8 ай бұрын

Grand missions like this would be AMAZING.

@blu7384

8 ай бұрын

If that is added I reaaally want ambient music tracks to be added to cities like random little store jingles or some kind of airy wafting music kinda like the music moment in Presentable Liberty 😭😭

@noahjenks88

8 ай бұрын

Sounds amazing. @@blu7384

@noahjenks88

8 ай бұрын

Oh yea. Good shout. Perhaps in same cases it would be good for an engineer and an electrician to be needed. Especially since we are talking about literally fixing an entire towns power supply. However, there would have to be different options for solo players. @@bobjohnson1096

Massive multi-cell zombie migrations that increase in size and frequency as time goes on is something that could really make the late game interesting. Spending months on building great defenses would suddenly make sense, because a giant horde might be passing through any time.

@chilldogs1881

7 ай бұрын

yeah, when I first heard about zombie hordes, I imagined like being in a house, and you look out the window and see 100s of zombies tightly packed all walking in the same direction, like a flood of zombies

@CasuallyShadow

7 ай бұрын

​@@chilldogs1881 It sometimes happens like that, but yeah, once you get better at the game though

@GetAssista

7 ай бұрын

Well, sledgeing away stairs solves that really easy

@adamshouse8985

7 ай бұрын

Trash...

@michaelcoward1902

7 ай бұрын

It does solve the issue...right up until the last scrap of food.

This is definitely my biggest issue with Project Zomboid. Once I get a generator up and running and a decent base established I just think "Now what?". The only thing I can think to do is to set arbitrary goals for myself or look for new mods to change things up.

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

Right, and whilst setting your own goals is always something you CAN do, it doesn't have the same feeling as goals set by the game itself.

@jaymorrison2419

8 ай бұрын

Its really the same issue most survival / crafting games have unless they bake in an end game goal (like Conan Exiles, or modern Minecraft).

@sharpsrain8302

8 ай бұрын

Or 7 days until you get maxed out gear it's big boring after that unless you make a horde night every night and even then its gets to repetitive

@Unknown-ek1ox

8 ай бұрын

I feel multiplayer on RP servers is kinda worse. Yes, you have great dynamic social content. But because actual gameplay problems all suffer at one point, no matter the storytelling you try as community or server, things get stale after some months ultimately. Most places get taken or looted, turfs declared or lost in squabbles, hordes or fights, but ultimately you also grind your skills and get satiated - whether as loner or in a small or esp. big group. And things get stale, too. If the end game could be improved, all would benefit: from the singleplayer to the multiplayer single player (heh word games) and groups of course.

@drake000666

8 ай бұрын

So true, I set a few quest missions like rescue survivors from hard-to-get areas or retrieve information for cure from all the labs and hospitals on map, it would be nice to see quest like this added into a story for the game.

I think a great endgame would be to build a settlement, find survivors and recruit them, or kill them, and randomly forming settlements as well which could either be friendly, neutral or hostile, and you can name your own settlement after it's big enough, basically the walking dead turned into a simulator

@PepsiMagt

7 ай бұрын

Just play rimworld, then

@RipOffProductionsLLC

5 ай бұрын

I think having any human characters, especially the ayer, being able to "age" over time would be an interesting option. You and your allies(multi-player or NPC) will eventually die of old age. Sure that's really not "end game" so much as an ending/limitation, but it feels appropriate considering all the primitive/post-apocalyptic technology and decay/brake down of old structures over time that the devs have shown off.

@seanfoley2447

5 ай бұрын

"Another settlement needs our help" - Preston Garvey

If NPCs get into the game and NPCs give quests and tasks that would greatly improve the endgame. Also if you could create your own settlements with NPCs, that would make the new crafting fundamental and relly used.

@michaelfinger6303

8 ай бұрын

yep npcs settlements and npc raids would add some goal with a faction mechanique...

@dauntedcacti3713

8 ай бұрын

I agree the problem with the game right now is yea there’s stuff to do but after your somewhat settled that’s it but like people are saying if npcs release soon and are really smart and good than it will make the game truly phenomenal

@mixelplik

8 ай бұрын

@@dauntedcacti3713 It would be phenom, but looks like NPCs will not be part of Build 42. They were actually released in a previous build and taken down by developers due to their buggy nature. Maybe Build 43....

@definetlynoteminem255

8 ай бұрын

it would be awesome if the npcs could make own camps or just have some scripted settlements for the players to raid in addition to npcs raiding the players..

@gazzmania150

8 ай бұрын

My worries with npc's are if they're just going to run into hordes or lead them to your house... then stand still fighting and just die from two zombies walking at them... Will they steal/loot half your stuff you try to put down? Leave your front door open for zombies? they'll either be useless or a massive hinderance. Not to mention if raiders end up in the game, how many play throughs will just end to a random npc that has a gun and practically insta kills you with little counter play. At least if the AI is decent.

I think it has been mentioned a lot, but NPCs and some sort of faction system are most likely what would bring most longevity to runs

@fankgaming7753

8 ай бұрын

Which is what they're already planning. So I don't really understand the point of any of this conversation. I don't think it's reasonable to assume build 42 is going to entirely fix the games endgame. Its build 42, not full release, for a reason. Like, a lot of the issues people are deciding to talk about....are already on their radar and working to be fixed. This post confuses me.

@dreygenb9254

8 ай бұрын

Exactly, build 42 isn't meant to fix the endgame, it's just supposed to provide the necessary mechanics to allow build 43 to fix it

@reggieisnotadog4841

8 ай бұрын

​@@fankgaming7753 Because they've been talking about adding NPCs for a decade now and are instead adding yet another crafting system. People are getting sick of it.

@arcanumelite4853

8 ай бұрын

@@reggieisnotadog4841 they already added npcs at one point and had to scrap them cus they just couldn't stay alive... even against small numbers of zombies they would die... they were simply too stupid to survive... building an ai system for the ai that can actually defend themselves and set up bases/safehouses will take time...not to mention they have to allow these npcs to be able to join you at your base (with the backstabbing and betrayal that ALWAYS comes with that in zombie movies) rushing something NEVER works out.... i would rather it take years than come out being bad like their first attempt.

@VHyuro

8 ай бұрын

@@arcanumelite4853so just learn from Fallout series, they dont need to survive but to give player mean to interact

I wish the late game was more about exploring. But instead it's preferable to just base in one spot because food and water become very hard to secure once power goes out. Especially during winter and helicopters keep harassing you and you need so many different skills to not starve to death.

@diegotorres6824

8 ай бұрын

everything you just said can be fixed with the different sandbox settings. you can make the power go out later, you can make it so food spawns more, and have everything respawns after a set amount of months. you can turn off the helicopter or have it where it only happens 1 time, and you can increase the speed of xp.

@ShaimingLong

7 ай бұрын

While I really struggle with the controls and don't usually get to the end game, I'd like there to be a kind of Death Road to Canada mode where your end goal is to travel a very large distance to get to some "safe" place, forcing you to have a limited ability to stockpile or rely on renewable resources. The main problem with that would be the need to constantly generate random maps and have those maps be diverse and interesting enough to have to go scavenging in them without it quickly becoming tedious.

A rather easy solution for the "primitive" start would be to add another starting location on the main map. For example you could be dropped of randomly in the wilderness (far away from any city) with just a bit of stuff like you went on a hiking trip (bag with water, better shos, a jacket, etc) and heard over radio that the zombie apocalypse happened, or you could spawn on the other side of the river (that part of the map would probably need to be reworked ) so that it would not be possible to return to the city or only if you repair a boat or something like you went on a boat trip and your boat did break down.

@sbishopvt4650

6 ай бұрын

The oh, got to take this route again, is quickly played out.

@kingarthur8616

6 ай бұрын

Well with the upcoming b42 update this might be very very viable

@Smackindaface

6 ай бұрын

There's a mod for that

@trumplostlol3007

6 ай бұрын

My current game is like that. I was dropped in the far north of Riverside. Now, I am starting a farm. I do foraging and fishing too. I foraged and got some carrot seeds. I dug furrow for planting these seeds and got worms from it for fishing. I also forage to get crickets for fishing. Life is very relaxed in the apocalyptic world. I occasionally see some easy kill zombies. LOL

@ankilo5519

3 ай бұрын

@@trumplostlol3007 hello! do?you use any mods on that game?

Something I think that could help the loot diminishing idea, is introduce natural disasters to the game. Kentucky could potentially face drought, earthquakes, flooding due to dam failures, extreme temperatures (covered by some mods at the moment), forest fires... All sorts. I reckon that could add a bit of dynamism to the game and change the outlook of the Zomboid world a few years down the line. It would definitely push players to eventually rely on the crafting mechanics.

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

I would absolutely be behind random events like this. Extreme weather conditions are something that deserve to be explored.

@ksweew7476

8 ай бұрын

do trees regrow after they had been cut off ? cuz there's going to be a need for the environement to be dynamic and not just in the destructivness aspect but a good idea none the less

@rkhale02

8 ай бұрын

As someone actually from the exact area project zomboid is set in(Louisville, meade county, fort knox(knox county), etc) Flooding is actually a pretty common occurrence in fall, winter, and sometimes spring(but never summer) and depending on where you're at it can be a huge problem especially anywhere near the ohio river or any of it's offshoots, i've even seen flash flooding. Earthquakes of any magnitude are quite rare, i only remember one earthquake and it mostly knocked a few things off the wall according to my mother but i slept through it funny enough. Forest fires are possible but the area is pretty swampy, pretty rare for that around the area the game is set in but it's possible i assume but more likely in southern kentucky. I would say our summers are the scariest thing because it's ohio valley heat that's very very humid and the heat can get up to 100/110 on some days. The ohio itself is also hugely a horrible river and you'd get sick eating out of it regularly FOR SURE. They actually have a warning not to eat out of it regularly especially if pregnant due to mercury poisoning and heavy metals in the water in general because it's highly polluted. I'd also say they should add in muldraugh hill. Any crappy car would not make it up that and it's between west point(towards knox county) and between louisville. My great grandfather stated that his model T ford would stall out going up it, for example. I'd also love if they added in Otter Creek which is a cool camping area and hiking place with a huge run-down(currently) building overlooking the ohio river. We also on occasion get a "big one" snow storm, i've had about 2 or 3 in my lifetime(i'm 28) and one was an ice storm, another huge snow storm that shut the state down and threw out power. There are photos of people driving OLD vehicles across a frozen ohio way back before my time. So the snow is quite accurate. I've always heard about a huge snowstorm we had way back in the day before my time around 1993 where we had record snow falls and it basically shut the whole state down. Sidenote: I'd love to see some of kentucky's Cryptid locations added into the game like the TB hospital(Waverly Hills sanitorium) in kentucky, the goatman bridge, things of that sort just because they'd be interesting to have a fight or bases in.

@arcanumelite4853

8 ай бұрын

@@ksweew7476 the trees do actually regrow in zomboid... it just takes a really long time... nature eventually starts creeping into cities too and you vines ect forming on buildings.. but this takes a long time of surviving.

@ADcommenter

8 ай бұрын

Imagine navigating through abandoned overgrown buildings of louisville, building bridges to other buildings because of the flood

Great video as always Duck! IMO, most players are either banking on NPCs or Multiplayer bolstering the end-game, neither of which are coming in B42. There's endless replay ability with NPC camps, raiders, settlement building, random encounters with a family, etc. The big issue for me, is that NPCs would require a complete PVP rework since PVP in zomboid comes to down to who can stun-lock the quickest, and NPCs would mimic that pvp combat, but as bots. I can't imagine how many people would quit the game if they go out on a looting run, only to get stun-locked by a random npc in a grocery store. If MP is in their plans and they want players to be able to run servers without ever needing to wipe, the major issues with desync (on top of pvp) needs to be addressed. We keep hearing about optimization fixes, but there has been 0 definitive proof outside of an unloaded cell showcase months ago. These new changes they're posing just feels like something most players have already been utilizing for years via mods (10 years later, scrap weapons/armor, etc) We've found the potential new city they're adding, but is it going to be new, or is it going to be the same 5 houses copy/pasted along with re-used assets from LV? It just feels like the solution TIS has come up with is to just make things more tedious, or changing things for the sake of changing them with fishing. Not to mention over half the map still doesn't allow for foraging.. A new city and farm animals are pretty and flashy, but they don't fix the fact that a huge chunk of the xp you gain is RNG based, or the fact that having more than 4 players driving in a cell can cause enough desync to crash a player's computer. I could keep going but you know what I'm getting at.

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

Thanks for contributing on this, Predz. A lot of what you've raised is very valid. There are serious performance issues that need to be addressed and I'm optimistic we'll see resolutions to some of these issues in B42, but time will tell. As for PvP (or player vs NPC!) combat I'd LOVE to see a system more like the Advanced Trajectory Overhaul mod. Making players actually use their cursor to aim, taking into account multiple factors like character stance, skills, panic and time since last moving.

@jr6366

8 ай бұрын

@@MrAtomicDuck I'd like to see it more like Darkwood with a cone spread outwards showing what your firing at that gets tighter/longer with skill and modified via the weapon/mods/moodlets. Maybe a hybrid of the two with cursor showing what your aiming at exactly with the cone showing where your likely to hit.

@redacted5736

8 ай бұрын

@@jr6366 I really like the cone idea as well, it could be balanced where the type of firearm you are holding plus your characters shooting skill that determines how tight of a cone you can get. That way shotguns can remain as the best gun for low skill players to train skill and pistols and rifles can remain as best to be used with higher shooting skill.

I really like idea of “simulating” other survivors being present in this video. The loot diminishing because of other survivors that you can’t see or interact will give the early game a really interesting decision to make as a player. Either rush and collect as much as you can, risking death in the process, or hang back and work on setting up a base for the long haul using the new crafting mechanics. Either way, you’d be on a time limit and will actively encourage using the new systems because of loot disparity in the end-game. This means, gas, meds, food, weapons, tools, etc all disappear really fast within the first week/month, but slow down as time progresses and supplies dwindle. This will also make survivor houses even more exciting discoveries too. This would be a great step to the road to NPCs so I hope this gets implemented.

@damsen978

7 ай бұрын

They won't implement survivor NPCs because the community has been asking it for years and they never bothered. They're against the idea as far as i recall.

@user-bx9ri2qv3y

7 ай бұрын

@@damsen978not what the person said.

@damsen978

7 ай бұрын

It's 100% related to what OP said. So shut your hole.@@user-bx9ri2qv3y​

@HoangTran-wu6se

7 ай бұрын

@@damsen978 Just that the loot will disappear overtime in places you have not been to, after a few months, meds will pretty much run out and you will rely on crafting.

@Sykomyke

7 ай бұрын

@@damsen978Also they confirmed that survivor NPC's will be coming. NPC's (both friendly and hostile ARE coming eventually, go look at their roadmap) not sure where you are getting your info, but your confidently incorrect about "devs being against the idea".

I think adding more events into the game would help to spice things up. For example, a truck full of soldiers might come through and start shooting at zombies, drawing a horde and eventually getting overrun. They might even shoot at the player. Maybe the helicopter that shows up early in the game comes back and runs out of fuel, crashing in a random location and starting a fire. Later, there could be gangs of raiders that claim parts of the map. Maybe the infection mutates, and after a year of surviving, runner zombies start spawning. I'm not sure how sophisticated they plan on making NPC survivors and their behavior, but I like the imagine NPCs moving into the players' abandoned bases or being drawn to large supplies of guns. I can imagine the event with the soldiers I mentioned, but after they get overrun and the zombies clear out, NPCs could show up and loot their trucks. I'm really hoping for some interesting, dynamic behavior that can lead to unique storytelling moments that will add longevity to the game.

@billfriendo2

4 ай бұрын

That would be insanely interesting and dynamic and definitely make for a more immersive experience! Always thought it would be cool just seeing like broken down military convoys, blocked off areas of road/ highway and zombified soldiers roaming around the map (especially in populated city areas), just as like an immersive current vanilla story event - as surely the Knox infection would’ve triggered a widespread military intervention throughout the affected areas. Guess that’s kinda what they were going for with the sort of military blockade around Louisville. But then actually seeing the real time sequence of events leading to all the military themed chaos during the initial infection would be insanely cool, like watching military convoys get overrun by hordes from your house in the first week, then a secondary backup shortly after of even more military trucks which get overrun again, then like last resort cleanup operations by helicopters/ jets where gunfire and bombings threaten the player either directly by targeting the player or indirectly by causing horde movements from the noise/ possibility of crashing. It would be awesome watching military slowly become more and more hostile towards NPCs/ the player as they become more superstitious of infection threatening their goals, and being able to scavenge their broken vehicles and blockades after they’re inevitably defeated by swaths of horde movement. Would just love to see those kinda events taking place around the player as they not only then have to deal with zombies but also the kind of random encounters that may benefit or challenge them!

Hard veto on the "Refrigerator breaking" stuff. This would be the same as with lightbulbs currently, it just would end up in pointless, funless busywork. Thats why I set my lightbulb lifespan to max, because it is immersion breaking if you have to switch bulbs every couple of days, just as it would be immersion breaking if you would have to switch fridges every couple of weeks.

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

Sure, totally get that! Like I said, just some things I thought of in a short time. The point is I'd like to see a more satisfying end game.

@jessefraser9826

8 ай бұрын

Plus refrigerators don’t really break all that often, just like lightbulbs, especially the newer ones.

@danny_is_dude1725

8 ай бұрын

The current plan is for all electronics to stop working in the long run. Everything will either degrade after not being touched for decades, or will degrade after decades of use, and only what you can repair or build yourself will be what you can still use. Most of the pre-apocalypse parts and tools will last for decades though. Eventually, however, all fridges, freezers, and air conditioners will stop working and be irreparable after decades because the coolant required isn't something that could be manufactured and replaced once it leaks.

@benvictim

8 ай бұрын

The main issue with the lightbulbs and batteries currently is the length vs maintenance. Bulbs breaking every few days in game time (so like every 3-5 hours IRL) sucks. Bulbs breaking every few months in game time? (So like maybe once every few sessions) is a lot better.

@McNab1986

7 ай бұрын

Agreed, both things last years upon years in real life, even eating n drinking do my head in, in game, cause I know from lived experience you don't need anywhere near what you have to consume in game to survive, given I'm still here after 37 years

Grand objectives like the mod "save the station". There be 2-4 power stations around the map that supply power to near-by towns. Maybe a few water towers and hydrostations. You would need to go collect fuel and supplies around towns to keep them running. Eventually supplies will run out and you need to go get more. Eventually loot runs out and you need to interact with the crafting system to produce more to keep it running.

For me the ultimate end goal is to visit each and every point makred on the annotated maps and leave them there after exploring. Each one is like a quest.

I feel there should be a sort of an "end state" - a goal that is hard to achieve and requires concentrated effort, preparation, and time, and can count as "win". Otherwise the problem is just pushed a bit further down the line - when you have everything you need, and challenges get trivial or repetitive, it just turns into busywork. Purely as an example - such end goals could be the creation of a self-sufficient settlement with a certain number of NPC survivors and various amenities, "discover how it all started", etc. At this point you get acknowledgment that you have won, and can start a new playthrough, if you want.

I always treated the lack of concrete endgame objectives as an important psychological layer of the game. At first the player has some remnants of civilization to toy around with, as well as basic survival goals. But as months and years go, just as you need to keep your character entertained so he doesn't get depressed, you need to find motivation for yourself to keep going, to survive for the sake of it, just because you have to, because you're all the humanity has left. It's a great simulation of very real problems of existentialism and escapism, though highly hyperbolized. I personally enjoy watching just how long different people can keep surviving, until inevitably giving up and engaging in risky activities, leading to their doom, or simply moving on to new worlds, which can basically be seen as suicide

@rorixdragonblade8480

8 ай бұрын

like a “how long will your will to survive really last? “ before doing crazy stuff or just giving up. i like your thought

@breakbeatss5174

8 ай бұрын

Interesting take. Hopefully working npcs make the loneliness go away :D

@cksoup

8 ай бұрын

had the same thought on an 8+ month playthrough i had recently. I was going from town to town finding mannequins to dress up and put at various parts of my base when I thought, wait, isnt this straight out of i am legend? im losin it. lol

@mariorossi7225

8 ай бұрын

me too :-)

@pintolerance785

7 ай бұрын

​@@cksoupif you didn't explain the joke I wouldn't have gotten it.

I know RP isnt for everyone, but I think Build 42 will big a huge update for roleplayers. It'll allow people to have specific jobs and things to do, plus people wont feel useless after all the loot is gone since they can start making their own stuff. Maybe you have factions of people with some still modern stuff while others only have primitive things they've made. Will say I wish we had hoard migration. Would be a big event to prepare for or try to divert them to somewhere else.

@arcanumelite4853

8 ай бұрын

the only thing that sucks is after build 42 you can no longer build a sustainable base by yourself.. you will need electricians,farmers,blacksmiths,engineers ect... in singleplayer its fine cus you can still learn all skills... but in multiplayer you will be capped to only having 2 skills (outside of the fighting ones and stamina/strength) also this will be changed once they add in npcs then it will be like multiplayer with the only 2 skills past level 3. pretty sure they said that in multiplayer you could only have 2 skills past level 3... so you could learn a little of all the skills but only excel at 2 of them.

@Mr.Fox1213

8 ай бұрын

@@arcanumelite4853 I do hope we will have some way to customize that like every other setting in zomboid cause that does sound a bit much.

@jr6366

8 ай бұрын

@@arcanumelite4853 you can make and log in different characters in SP, just means more logging in and out and loading which is annoying.

@oscar1107

8 ай бұрын

I dont know how there isnt zombie migration? It would improve late game so much in MP, like you said diverting large horeded romaning the highways. I thought of 1 of the episodes in the walking dead where they divert the hoard from the mining quarry.

@jr6366

8 ай бұрын

@@oscar1107 there is migration and there is a way to see how it is working. Things like rivers, quarantine fence, etc does block it. Turn zombie spawn off but keep migration on and you'll see the effects more clearly. If you want massive migrations like in those episodes turn their rallying count up. I can show you one of these of about 2k zombies that got stuck on the southside river on my last insane pop ravencreek if you really like.

I think the late game could use things like repairing and building radio towers, gathering survivors and npcs to build a community, looting weapons and supplies to equip said community, and then using all of that to contact, rescue or kill more survivors and other communities, etc

@kalender4176

6 ай бұрын

If we have to wait years for them to add even the simplest thing, it will take at least ten years for that. But it's a good idea though.

I'd like to see more ways to preserve food and get water, storing potatoes underground to keep them cool, or maybe in ice when winter comes, which could be preserved in an underground room. Using the new pottery stuff to keep some things good for longer, drying food, using salt, maybe even finding and turning on a canning machine to create your own canned food in the end game, ability to dig wells could be nice too.

in regards to the random side objectives, imagine if, after B43 was released and NPCs were a thing, there would always be a helicopter that lands on top of a building *somewhere* in the city, after at least 1 month. if you manage to get to the helicopter, which should attract loads of zeds to the surrounding buildings, you can 'escape' and skip forward 3 months before being returned somewhere random on the map, maybe with some random stats added to your character as a bonus

@anthonyanderson9771

8 ай бұрын

Nice!

@Tuck213

8 ай бұрын

Yeah this is a good idea for an endgame goal! Especially if the player has to do some work in advance of a pickup, such as reactivating radio stations and contacting the chopper people to figure out the pick-up location, that could be a satisfying ending!

@gemtownMANCHURIA

8 ай бұрын

@@Tuck213 you literally just described wolfs extraction quest lol

@Tuck213

8 ай бұрын

@@gemtownMANCHURIA lol!

I made comment a few weeks ago that I taught getting the train working could be a good "end game" task. For it to work the tracks would need to reach every/most towns and can be able to be looped. The player would have to run around the entire map clearing tracks and switching the tracks to create the loop. Then the next thing would be to find the train itself that spawns randomly on the track somewhere that runs on limited fuel or an old steam train that runs on timber. You will need fuel, parts and high level in a lots skills to get it all running. End game is you have easy method of traveling around the map that reaches most towns for looting or whatever. This would be a very very hard thing to do and only the really skilled players could achieve it or a group of players on the MP server. It would encourage players to build bases or new towns along the railroad generating even more gameplay which would carry the game further. Wars between groups over control of the train would be another.

I think a wilderness map is mainly a lengthening of the start and mid points of the game, where the player has to craft more instead of looting finished items. NPCs look like the key to better long term play. Perhaps with static specialized NPCs in their own camps at first providing quests for crafting/completed products and trading. This'll keep objectives flowing and provide a reason to continue exploring the map to find more survivors. Then later adding official faction features to start their goal of having survivors band together to create a larger settlement and its quests. Then perhaps, inter faction relations/war. Speaking of which, there is a settlement that needs your help.

I think build 42 is more of a stepping stone for the NPCs to come in and add variety in the late game. It sounds more like an addition to many many different tools for NPCs to use independently so the player doesn’t have to because the players attention will be focused on bigger or wider objectives

Before the outbreak you had planned a dental appt for a few months out, if you dont collect certain supplies to pull your own tooth out in single player or maybe if med skill is high enough another player can remove the tooth in multiplayer you get a lethal infection and die. Works for other medical conditions too and would match what you mentioned about long term breakdown of different elements.

@FidoZip1988

8 ай бұрын

Persistent medical conditions could make the Game more challenging, like Diebetes or Cancer

@kqar1

8 ай бұрын

Problem is people are optimizers. They will just learn how to deal with every such mission thing.

@Makrangoncias

8 ай бұрын

I very much believe that dental health would be one of the deadliest in a post apocalyptic scenario.

@mrmurdog100

8 ай бұрын

doctor would go from one of the worst to one of the best professions.

@thelemon5069

8 ай бұрын

​@@FidoZip1988I modded in tourettes and adhd so I can role play myself better and lemme tell ya having tics in the zombie apocalypse is rough. I wish there was a way to supress them in the game like I can irl but regardless it's super funny when we are all on the server looting a store and my character shouts "GUH" or "FUCK" my friends laugh and get mad at me and then we get swarmed and ots always a good time.

I personally think that the problem with the endgame is the lack of challenge. The first few hours are challenging, thrilling, and fun. But when you get set up, zombies just kind of stop being a threat. I think that the zombies need to get stronger as time goes on, maybe add new variants, new events that you have to prepare for like massive horde raids. Something like that. Crafting just doesn't seem like it's going to do anything for the gameplay in my opinion unless you're roleplaying.

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

I'm not sure about strengthening zombies, but as you've rightly said, risk starts to dissipate. Perhaps some mechanics that send zombies to attack your base on occasion? Incentivizing base defence.

@Milenos

8 ай бұрын

Totally agree, the new crafting look like an alternative to looting not a end-game thing to do because you reached the end-game.

@oni-a1010

8 ай бұрын

​@@MrAtomicDuck I feel like the end game could be made a lot harder if wondering hordes existed that simply picked up zeds from existing cell populations on the map, the issue is rn, once you've got a certain set up, you don't "really" have to ever leave your base, it just becomes a choice to loot & risk fighting hordes of the undead.

@gomartini

8 ай бұрын

Def agree with making the game harder by adding hordes to incentivizing base building. figuring ways around dealing with hordes by fighting, traps, pathways or avoidance of some kind, would def add to the end game. even if it breaks ur base down a bit u would try to build it up again which would be sick

@tearr245

8 ай бұрын

this actually happens in series or films too. zombies are usually starts to become not a real problem unless they jumpscare you, which is still a problem. they're power comes from their numbers. 1 zombie is ok, even 10 zombie is okay, but after a while you don't care about 1 zombie so you let your guard down and die.

We keep reaching the point in every Lone Survivor movie where the problems of immediate survival are solved and even some comforts are being restored, and then for us it just stops... But it's the point where almost every one of those films introduces strangers. Maybe another protagonist, maybe a love interest, maybe an antagonist, and maybe we don't even know which, as viewers. It's one of the most meaningful ways to keep building on the narrative, and it's the main reason I think NPC's are essential. Even with multiplayer you can't really capture that, because it doesn't have the randomness and mystery necessary. The second most common solution, which we could apply, is the forced fresh start: A flood that cuts us off from our base, a tornado that wipes out above-ground structures, a forest fire, the hope of escape, like a map to that sparse-loot land you mentioned, with a boat or a small plane to access it. There's not as much narrative strength, and it's basically a kind of NG+, but it would extend the length of play. Finally I think the rarest solution is to shake-up or reset the needs of basic survival. Something like random zombie evolutions, so from the same starting point maybe on one playthrough they become stronger in the daytime and you're safer going out at night, while on another the reverse happens. Maybe on one playthrough they start doing muscle-memory behaviours like in Shaun of the Dead, so cars will randomly move back and forth as they 'drive', police zombies will shoot their guns, they'll be more likely to cluster around televisions that you turn on, or in the farming areas they could prioritise chasing animals over the player. And of course Hunter/Stalker zombies, or Demolition zombies might emerge, that sort of thing. There just has to be a randomness to it so that we don't know what to expect as it builds from something very low-key and subtle in the midgame until it becomes an actual pressing survival problem.

Project zomboid resembles a simulation. Because of that, the end of the end game will always have 1 goal. "Survivej." You can add NPC raids, massive hordes coming through the region, or whatever. The end game will always end up as: Survive. You can't stop that, you have to embrace it or find new ways to play via mods.

Im with you on new hurdles/problems. Ive always wanted 'something' dynamic to happen after X months in-game. Also, when it comes to the crafting they show us, dont forget its a (reworked) framework that will adopt to many things. I really hope they look at the professions overhaul soon too, as that can give unique use of crafting stations and new late game experiences. With the upcoming vanilla NPCs I think crafting stations might become even more important. Say that NPCs want to trade with you, and you are able to craft items to sell/barter - that would mean you wouldnt have to compete with the gunslinging HottiezHorder-faction in populated areas to find loot for barter...

I think a great thing to do is the classic approach that always works. Have the basic zombies just be the beginning. Add abnormals into the mix as time goes on. Fat zombies who cant be knocked over and cause more grievous injury, zombies who dont snarl or make any noise besides footsteps and breaking things, more skeletal zombies that can cause deep cuts due to sharp bone protrusions, etc. And honestly child zombies that are very fast and swarm like coyotes. Also the idea of working towards getting power and water running again is a great end game goal that could require very high skills in electrical, metalworking, etc. Also as much as it seems counter to the "this is how you died" tagline I think allowing players to work on military communication devices and get a ride out in a helicopter would be a good way to have a end game. I also think having the weather directly affect zombies in some way would be good as well. Like slower moving or even frozen solid during winter and pretty much become sickness bombs in the summer due to the rot combining with the heat. And of course my final recommendation is the cure, would allow players who specialize in medical to actually have something to do besides be bandaid and suture slave for a team. Since it usually becomes a redundant role anyway due to survivability increasing with game experience. I find it crazy that yall want the airborne variant of the virus but dont want a cure, that's nuts to me.

@Noah-bi4ll

4 ай бұрын

I'm not sure the ones asking for Airborne Z infection actually have the intellectual capacity to realize that means nobody lives, even the main character

@DizzyDogmaGaming

4 ай бұрын

​@@Noah-bi4lljust seems like a pointless idea for a short lived challenge run for content creators that would die off as a trend within probly 1 or 2 uploads. Spawn in, become infected within 1 or 2 minutes of gameplay, die, upload as a youtube short, somehow call it quality content, rinse and repeat. 🤣

I think build 42 looks great, but power/water stations like others have stated are much needed, that’s part of the reason I love the save our station mod

I dont want to be forced into a fishing mini game. I worry the crafting will be pointless since the looting exists. Diminishing loot simply forces our hand in decisions.

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

Thats totally fair. Perhaps this could be an optional sandbox setting as with many things?

The diminishing loot setting sounds like a brilliant idea. I run the occasional private server with friends, even on the lowest of loot settings we have everything we ever need and run out of storage space within 3-4 ingame days requiring us to rush carpentry and make another 30 crates for loot. It also gives the same vibe as the random NPC sound events, you can hear them and see their effect on the world, now just gotta wait see them in a future update.

As someone who just started playing Project Zomboid, I feel like there needs to be *_something_* concrete to work towards. As it stands, there's little reason not to just flee to some isolated structure and live off the land, never exploring the map, and just surviving, which gets pretty dull. Even if it was just something as simple as there being x number of collectable keychains or one-of-a-kind unique items or whatever scattered across Knox Country in fixed locations for you to seek out, that would probably be enough for me. I just want SOME goal that isn't either self-imposed or as nebulous as "survive". ...Bonus points if it is something to push you towards exploring a bunch of locations around the map. There's a huge map for us to explore! Give us a *_reason_* to stray far from the safety blanket of our early-game safehouses and explore from one side of Knox Country to the other... besides being bored (IRL).

I think the answer can be on the zombies. Having to actually fight, defend your base, use all the ammo that you gather for weeks... That's my ideal endgame.

@user-hl3qv8qg2s

7 ай бұрын

runner zombies groups going randomly in the map. this will make any place not safe. you could travel, and come and discover your base is not yours anymore

@stysner4580

6 ай бұрын

Maybe zombies evolving at a rapid rate, where some have more brainpower and start to direct other zombies/start using tactics against the player (flanking, trapping, etc).

@AndreW-yd5il

6 ай бұрын

@@user-hl3qv8qg2s @stysner4580 the devs already stated thay they would never add special/evolving zombies to vanilla, but maybe something like your base starting to get more noisy/agroing more zombies as it evolve or something like that could be possible.

@user-hl3qv8qg2s

6 ай бұрын

@@AndreW-yd5il that would make the game predictible. its better just to add the random method. so zombies come and go. if you just add noise to your base... its lame. because it will be impossible to defend at some point

I cant wait for the 1000 years later mod. Medieval zombie murder.

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

If I can't bash a zombie head with my lute and play a little ditty after I don't want it.

I personally would love a sort of endgame that caters towards community interplay like what you find in The Walking Dead. I don't think that would be possible with the current feature set buuuuuut a boy can dream.

@xX_DarkPriestessDemonDragon_Xx

8 ай бұрын

funny, i was thinking the exact same thing

My solution is simple, to provide an option actual end game. Right now our true end game is simple. This is how you died. Or reset. Whichever comes first. What if there was a chance of survival, albeit a slim one. My suggestion is at midday each day have a short broadcast suggesting that a rescue attempt is being made. Most days the update is the same, "efforts are being made, keep tuned in". Then after some time a rescue date is announced, and an approximate intended location (being either West Point, Riverside, or Louisville). Finally, 24 hours ahead of arrival, a notification of the exact location, including GPS, begins. You have a day to get there, and start clearing any Z-life. On the day one of two things will happen. Either no ship will arrive, and there should be a medium to high chance of this. Or the ship arrives, to which you need to get on board, defend the ship (with perhaps one or two sailor NPCs) for a day, and then you are free. If the ship isn't defended, but you survive, then it will sink, or at least burn to a wreck. If the ship fails to come, or comes and you fail to leave, there's a reset of the system. Daily messages start again, another chance to escape begins, you just need to learn where, when, and then get there. This would give the game a true end game experience, for those who want to take it.

One thought I had was working with the basements, add in a drivable backhoe and maybe a vehicle trailering system so we can use trucks (pick ups or add semi trucks/road tractor) to move the backhoe and other vehicle projects around. Side note towing in general needs to be sped up. Currently everything tows like an AMC Gremlin towing Toyota Prius, or worse. But anyways back to the backhoe. Once you drive or trailer the backhoe to where you want you can use it to dig a basement which you can then build on top of. The dirt from the basement can be piled off to the side and then used to fill bags for barricading, above ground farming, covering a roof basement to make a hidden bunker. Maybe allow us to use hand shovels to move forest bushes to hide water collectors, air vents, or entrance hatch. Aside from removing a walls height of dirt from a tile, could also mark out a length of gradient to dig out to make a ramp into an underground garage.

One way I've (somewhat) remedied in my own runs is a mod called "Horde Night", which I've combined with a mod that spawns 10% of zombies as sprinters. Horde Night spawns large groups of zombies around you on certain nights, with each of those nights passing increasing the difficulty of the next one. If configured properly it can maintain some kind of pressure and goal (defend against the hordes) even in the end game, and on top if that it even has a good chance of killing you before you even get to the end game! xD

@lifesneverfair6633

8 ай бұрын

At that point you're pretty much just playing 7 Days to Die. I feel like big hordes is just too much, especially if playing solo and you don't get good loot.

@zoyahu

8 ай бұрын

@@lifesneverfair6633 You can actually configure the horde size in the sandbox settings. I don't like the really massive hordes either, so I stick to ~40 max, which only start spawning after 3 months or so. One thing I've noticed about Horde Night is that it's quite likely to spawn "special" zombies: I've seen Hazmat zombies, Santa Claus, naked zombies and survivor zombies. So often it does end up giving you some good loot, to the point you might even consider it unbalanced. I basically always get my first large backpack and machete from a zombie that spawns during one of the horde nights.

Why not have distant events that cause issues with your long term survival? Like after a year or two into the game a nuclear power plant explodes somewhere or something and it causes a nuclear winter that you have to survive that last like two years. Or storms/tornadoes that come in and have lightning that starts fires or something. Or other natural disasters like flooding or something. That way even if you have a secure place then a hole could get burnt/torn into it and let zombies in.

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

I'd absolutely be up for stuff like this!

@Tuck213

8 ай бұрын

I recently burned my base to the ground by going to bed with a steak in the oven. Escaping a burning house while limping from a wound, this disaster was a fun challenge to overcome. More of that could be good!

@QuarkTASCHENjoe

8 ай бұрын

That are cool ideas, but the problem with random "I burn down your house and all what you got" events is that's really lazy game designe and frustrating to the player. More interesting in my opinion would be: there is a place it's really dangerous and challenging but the reward is unique and you will have a big advantage with that. Like Louisville you cant spawn there in vanilla and it's quite challeging to get in. problem is there are no unique items that would be worth the risk. But yes the random nuclear winter idea is really fine.

@8vantor8

6 ай бұрын

nuclear power plants automatically shutdown after a set amount of time without human interaction, thus preventing any explosions

@setcheck67

3 ай бұрын

@@8vantor8 You're not just gonna tell this guy that the nuclear meltdown doesn't cause nuclear winter? Nuclear winter is a theorized phenomenon dictated by the ash of mushroom clouds blocking out sunlight. Nuclear power plants by comparison create no ash even if they full meltdown, because the actual explosion part is hydrogen, which is generated by the separation of the hydrogen in the water used to cool the fission rods.

What are the tilesets used in the RPG MOD Footage section at 4:50?

what map did you use on 0:45?

One of their recent Thursdoids mentioned some work they're doing on making some buildings and shops look ransacked. Perhaps this can be used as a realistic way for the worlds loot supply to diminish over the first year or so. The longer you're around the more often you'll run into these spaces which have already been ransacked and have less loot for you to freely grab.

@jaymorrison2419

8 ай бұрын

More dynamic events would be great just in general. Survivor houses are randomly generated (and you can adjust how often those spawn), why not 'looted' houses and stores.

Agree big time. We def. need bandit raiders, humans, to spice things up.

@blu7384

8 ай бұрын

Highly trained U.S Army Remnants like the Enclave from Fallout or Reapers from twd acting as a roaming band of skilled raiders would go hard 😩

I think that the development team is planning for the future. We have been here a while with this game. The devs are putting in everything to build this game and this update is their first step in building the world for NPC’s. They are preparing for the future of the game. This update as the last will be their best work yet. And the NPC update is going to solidify this game as one of the best ever!

Great stuff as always Mr.AtomicDuck! Thanks for keeping us in the loop, and providing us with your prospective! Much love...

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

Always! Thanks for the support :)

I want this game to have better performance, because it starts to have bad performance the more days u survive ingame, due to a lot of items around the map and zombies spawns

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

Better performance is coming in Build 42, significant changes are being made in that department that look to be very promising.

@GoblinKnightLeo

8 ай бұрын

Even with "Rain cleans blood"?

I think with what is being added the end goal won’t simply be just self sufficiency but also being able to thrive with some of the homemade luxuries of the lost world. You aren’t just making a safe house, you’re making a sanctuary. You didn’t just survive, you thrived, despite the odds. It may not completely fix the endgame, but it’s a step in the right direction, adding a need to maintain your stuff will add to the endgame goals to insure it ain’t gonna be that easy will help.

I believe the game could use some non-mod events like a horde migration during a rainstorm or a just when the wind blows with more intensity. That would give one more reason to lisen to the EBS on the radio. Strong wind blowing south? Better get the northern defences of your base ready!

@kezia8027

8 ай бұрын

That actually sounds like a good idea! Though if the wind was blowing south, then I assume the zombies "smell" you is what you were going for, in which case, you would be upwind/north of them, so you'd need to fortify the southern border. Don't want you to get bit!

The single biggest issue is the lack of interactable NPCs. I'm using the superb survivors mod and it radically changes the game play in terms of survival. You need to not only manage your additional personnel but also random hostile survivors or survivors who are just passing through. This has improved the game and immersion 1000%. The only downside is the mod is extremely buggy and causes lag/slowness. If the developers finally add in NPCs I think the game would be greatly improved.

I would lose my private life with NPCs and some sort of map editor like you can find in many city building games. I'd be so entirely done.

I really think Build 43 is "the" answer for the solo mode. NPC will change completely the game by the fact it will give you a good reason to go outside of your defended area. Some missions to go in the wild and maybe some defense of your own base. The randomnisation of event is also a good way to solve the stalling fealing. ;)

The chopper event is a perfect thing that you need to prepare for, but it is so early on and can be avoided by just going to somewhere with less zombies. I think events like those, kind of milestone events are really cool because they keep the player preparing for the upcoming thing, continuing the checklist of goals rather than just survive.

I can’t imagine long term game without NPC, random generation quests from them and fractions. Expanding survival capabilities you’ll just adding more content to midgame state

There needs to be an incentive to combat in the late game - All of the Build 42 features are just new ways to hide out and never actually see a Zomboid. The game doesn't need more crafting or food systems - it needs a reason to get out there and kill Zomboids after the first few weeks of supply gathering. I love all of these features, they look really good - but we need a reason to risk fighting after the early game. Adding new systems to make the already easy end-game easier is never going to fix the issue. I need something like random horde attacks if I don't go out and keep the population in my area under control - something that makes endgame survival less one dimensional than just farming, crafting, and hiding.

@Peckh

8 ай бұрын

glad people are calling this out. Been a fan of PZ since the first alpha. Game has never needed a crafting overhaul. Sure itll be cool to put on a feature list but seriously it doesnt solve any issues the game currently has which is actually being fun to play past the first week

Give the Players a main Goal to finish the Game. Here my suggestion: after some time ingame maybe 3 months or so you hear noisy messages over the automated Emergency frequency. At the beginning very weak but if time goes on it goes stronger and more clear. You realize that are other Survivors from a community outside of Knox County. They had build a strong antenna and try to get in contact with other people to join their new town. Now its our turn to contact them. They are far away so you need a strong antenna, too that have to be mounted on a high building (Skyscraper in the middl of Louisville for example) For that you need material and a good Electronic skill to build. So build a base get material, learn the skill and shoot or sneak your way to the center of Louisville, build the antenna and contact the Comminuty. Now Part 2: To convince the Community that they pick you up and finaly escape Knox County you have to earn Trust. To do that they give you some quests. That can be: go to a specify Adress and loot a memory from a Community Member.. (home VHS, photos, plushies or what ever..) If you have enough Trust you have to build a landing side for their Helicopter.. When they arrive a huge endbattle starts with Zombies wich are attracted by the helinoise. Keep the Landing Zone clear and jump in the chopper. Finish. This is how you survived.

@arcanumelite4853

8 ай бұрын

that will never happen... after all "this is how you DIED" is the main slogan of the game... you are not meant to survive all of humanity is doomed to die eventually... however build 43 will include npcs with their own factions and bases which you will also be able to recruit... and enemies with guns are a much more dangerous threat than zombies

@toledo6036

8 ай бұрын

@@arcanumelite4853 and where did the devs say anything that confirms factions and bases that you will also be able to recruit?

@SirZelean

8 ай бұрын

This would be cool to play... once. This clashes against the core ideas of the game. Zombie survival games like Zomboid are all about surviving, exploring, crafting, etc. You need a certain level of freedom for that to work. Ideas like this are way too railroad-y for this genre. People come to this types of games expecting them to last long, and not have an ending. It's like if Minecraft had a timer before it ended - after a certain number of days, you get a quest to kill the Ender Dragon, and when you do so, the game ends. That just wouldn't work. It would be a cool experience to play once, but it would annoying as fuck if you were forced into that every playthough.

@arcanumelite4853

8 ай бұрын

@@toledo6036 it was mentioned a long time ago... alongside their desire to have the traditional zombie movie betrayals/backstabbing which is common in most zombie movies... after all in zombie movies humanity is always your greatest threat not the zombies.

@toledo6036

8 ай бұрын

​@@arcanumelite4853 i mean sure the factions and bases is common sense but that's making it sound simplistic. the devs seem to want to simulate entire neighborhoods of surviving families with backstories etc. and obviously those factions aren't going to form from day one of the infection. i hope they put a lot of nuance to the npcs so they don't feel anything like the fo4 "i'll mark it on your map" type of NPCs or just generic nameless raiders

Kinda hope the end game would be similar to Death Road to Canada which we just fight our way out of Knox county to find either we get gunned down by guards or welcomed by survivors.

I definetly think PZ needs to introduce some sort of late game objectives and hurtles. I play with Wolf Extraction Quest and Zombie Virus Vaccine, because it gives me a good reason to leave my base in the late game. Some ideas I have for adding hurtles: late game events like a super horde where zombies from surrounding cities migrate on mass in search of new food. Maybe you can maintain radio recievers to get updates on their movements and know which towns to avoid or leave. Maybe bombings or chemical attacks by the military to desperately try to cleanse ground zero. Maybe possibilities of escape or developing a cure like the mods I use. Maybe a way to contact the outside world and gain lore or trigger other events such as an extraction or possibly even a hostile military incursion. Probably not great ideas but it's what I can think of off the top of my head. In the end, I think the development team needs to create new incentives to leave your base in the late game. Whether it be through end game objectives, or evading real threats

Yes I agree, they whould give all refrigerators and freezers etc etc a lifespan or some sort of health bar where they just break down over time after long periods or usage. lets say the icebox freezer has a lifespan between 6-12 months before it will start to break down/fail. this gives you a reason to head out and find a new freezer once yours has broken down. this can also lead for unfortunate moments where all your food goes bad because your freezer broke down while you where away for a couple of days... I whould like to see more random things like this that will just trow you off guard a bit when you get to later game... Also something I though of was zombies mutating or developing over time. Like what if after 3 months zombies can hear better or whatever or special stronger variations start spawning after 6 months. just little things like this. Also if they ever add npcs I hope they make npc bandids that will track you down and maybe set up road blocades on roads you frecuently take. or they have cars and lure zombies to your location... but I am satisfied with the game as its currently is and I first have to make to a year to fully understand the late game problems haha

My biggest question with the crafting system is: "Are there limits? And if so does that mean certain character builds or occupation has certain traits pertaining to that profession? What if you want to play single player? Can you still craft all of these structure without the need of multiplayer cooperation? How do we know that some professions are better than others and that more players will tend to lend to a specific build rather than being a cog in apart of a system? Will there be job profession that no one pick simply out of inconvenience or bad? What happens if everyone pick the same profession while joining a new game and crafting their own mega base project without the intervention of collaboration?

@theminerboy5694

8 ай бұрын

The devs confirmed that it will be accessible in singleplayer.

@darkmoon4135

8 ай бұрын

@@theminerboy5694 No what I meant is. Are all crafting viable to one profession or do we need another character with a different skill set to use certain structure or crafting menu via trait perks etc. I guess that would complicate things, and I highly doubt they would implement such things just to have more online cooperation in the later game.

To me, two big additions would go a long way to fixing the end game: 1. Dynamic events that push the player out of their comfort zone e.g. horde raids, crop failures, extreme weather events including wildfires, and whenever NPCs come online; raids from rival factions and military kill squads. 2. Toggleable/adjustable win conditions. This could include discovering the (randomly generated) location of an underground facility from clues you find. The facility would be swamped with zombies that you fight through to reach the cure. Or it could be time based with increasingly extreme dynamic events thrown at you. Or it could be similar to the first RimWorld ending; gathering material to build a beacon and landing pad that summons a rescue helicopter, but activating that beacon draws huge waves of zombies (and enemy NPCs eventually) to defend against until the chopper arrives.

Ive always liked the idea of finding a cure or a way to escape/get help. This essentially boils down to a large fetch quest, but it could be quite fun just like getting the art museum annotated map. Perhaps you can repair a radio tower or tv station. Perhaps that requires getting power back. Maybe the cure requires research in multiple labs across the map etc. NPCs will certainly make things better and finding ways to save them, interact, and receive missions would be interesting. I also wouldnt mind zombie swarms that start roaming after a 6 months of game time. They could run into your base or cross paths while youre out. Finally, crafting is nice and will create solutions and play patterns, but in general I prefer additive gameplay over subtractive. Removing resources and causing problems over time doesnt necessarily make things more enjoyable or add longevity; it adds grinding. Gas going bad is realistic, but can you really make a new fuel source as an individual in the 1990s? Meanwhile if gas goes bad you can't use vehicles which just sucks. That would force you into the same game for months 3 to 6 to find all things to make more fuel each game which isnt ideal. End game goals should be large, interesting problems. I would strongly argue against things that just prolong grinding and making things in the game take longer. We have one of the largest, most detailed maps of any game, so it should be quite possible to add a little extra in each region/town to give long term gameplay.

@8vantor8

6 ай бұрын

it is confirmed that the dev's will never add in a cure and on top of that, the whole world collapsed within 2-3 weeks in game, no where near enough time to make a cure; and on top of that, in 2020 it took a little under a year to make an emergency vaccine for covid, the game is set in the 1990's, so they are 30 years behind us and only had 2-3 weeks to live. so there is no way in hell the player could make one in any reasonable amount of time, if at all

I second the posts about NPCs I think the new crafting system sets the groundwork for some really fun stuff that could happen later with NPCs. Setting up safe zones, rebuilding infrastructure. Upgrading production, upgraded defenses and offensive items both personal and locational. (E.g. land mines) Building radios. Adding in a story and possibly the chance to save it. Like building or looting a ham radio giving access to a news report that the infection has spread or messages about resource drops. Take on the idea some modders have of a cure and building things like polearms with a rope to guide the infected to drop locations or building a research lab to assist those outside the zone. Taking different paths or quests leading to consequences or victory. Making a vaccine or one of those test subjects you delivered to the outside escaping. Aaannnnyway. It’ll be fun to see how hydrocraft changes with the upgraded crafting. That mod gives good end game content at least crafting wise.

As of now a vanilla run gets into the dead end late game roughly at around 6 months, this new content will surely add more life to the game before that point but in the end it'll be exactly the same just instead of being 6 month it'll take 12 or something like that Still i'm quite pumped for this new exp to drop

I think a good addition would be more story. Sure we get annotated maps etc. But give a clear goal outside of just surviving. The Journals/Notebooks instead of empty would be an NPCs Journal ala Resident Evil. For example, going to a hospital, we get a doctor's journal to find cures. Will be on a different random city so we have something to strive for if we get bitten. On going to a firestation or police, we get a deputy/marshall's journal of a "safe haven" and when you go there, it's not a sham like in the radio but npc survivors. You can help defend their location and this can have "waves" where if you don't help them they will in time fall leaving you the only survivor again etc. NPC fetch as side quests. Like that damned generator book has got me looting for 3 months ingame still couldn't find 1 so I just opted to always go technician. If we can buy or get rare stuff books/guns/etc as a reward from NPCs. - Find NPC/Items Quest - Escort/Protect Quest - Clear/Barricade House - Repair whatever - Kill a certain zombie OR a rogue NPC who betrayed the community etc - Befriend pets using Dog/cat foods. Add pet NPCs so we can have a dog/cat around the base or as companion (ala I Am Legend) When you go to a radio station, you get a broadcaster's journal about the military secrets, or repair it & broadcast to the outside world that there are still survivors here. Then aid comes in a form of helicopter and you need to rush to this location (jn another random city) with a helipad. Of course with it comes the helicopter event so many zeds will be coming there so you had better fortified that location until help arrives. When you get to a ship, repair the ship or save the pilot/crew and you can stowaway to safety etc. Then end game credits roll and it says "This is how you -die- survive" Many things can be done to make it more alive. I love the survivor's radio mod & the npc mod though it's still bugged. It felt better with a npc suddenly appear in front of me and I'm running after yelling "Hey Joooiinnn me!!" :))

@Noah-bi4ll

4 ай бұрын

This is how you -die- Survive! Bro that's beautiful

Zomboid needs official NPC system with complex AI (also available for multiplayer) with different events centred around other survivor groups living/arriving/passing through the area. They need to have their own tasks, relations, goals, ideology even. Some could be just straight up bandits, others sort of “cultists” with a twist, cannibals, ex-military, peaceful groups and lone survivors (farmers, rangers, traders). Haven’t devs seen Walking Dead series? Zombies were what survivors initially feared most of, but in later seasons different groups appeared and they were much more dangerous.

the real problem is that due to the fact that difficulty stops ramping up after some time you are either skilled/armed enough to kill a screen full of zombies without getting tired/running out of resource/energy or not. if you cant , you will train/loot till you can and if you can , then there is nothing that can ever hurt you since zombies are a static variable. the way this is going to be addressed is through addition of npc humans. but my problem with this is that the more the game goes on , the less it becomes about zombies and more about just survival in a post apocalyptic world, to the point that you can remove zombies alltogether without the game feeling much different, and thats just not project zomboid anymore... They have already said that they will never add special type of zombies to spice up the gameplay, so i dont know how they are going to address that issue longterm.

I think Build 43 is where the real end game fix is if they do it right. The end game moves into being about the NPC survivor community sim game where you're creating social stories kind of like Rimworld, and it's not as much the story of your specific character. It will depend on how deep they go with NPCs, but I could see a system where you can jump to another member of your survivor group on death including the children of your current character.

The power station thing could be cool it could also be integrated with the crafting system if to fix them you have to use some items that you physically can't find without making them. For example to fix the power station your going to need 100 electrical parts, 50 metal plates, and you have to use a new tool only obtainable via crafting.

Some potential endgame ideas 1: With the new basements coming, when we get survivor NPCS could have CDDA style missions given by some of them at unique points of interest (Think say a survivor group under the military base near rosewood as a example spot 2: Utilities Restoration and/or maintainence ; Allow players to keep sections of the game world powered, more regions up more strain on the local grid, too much it blows a fuse which you have to find a replacement with the noise drawing in a horde ; Potential use for NPCs as well, relegating them to the power plant or wherever to maintain in exchange for something like food, water, weapons, etc 3: Add at areas like the Louieville Bridge and a few others what I would call "Excursion Points" (Also potentially accessed via a Heli if we ever get that) These points would unlock a mini map that you "Travel" to for a high risk high reward scenario. You could for example have a excursion point that leads to a FEMA camp, full of all the medical and emergency gear you could need but also full of FEMA workers and refugees fleeing the area (Some living still, most undead) or to any other kind of area that would be a big reward area that currently isn't present on the map (With variant map states for different times since the apocalypse, simulated events that have happened, etc. WIth Higher risk going unlooted by scavs but more and more full of the walking dead) 4: Honestly, maybe a touch of CDDA to the mix. Feral Humans, people that the dead ignore who are a consistant active threat to players, that way even late game you have to be cautious exploring because among that hoard could be say a feral cop with a shotgun 5: More Meta Event variants, bonus if they leave some effect on the world. Heli Crash, supply drops, Last Stand at the Alammo (Police station, Fire Station, courthouse, etc) 6: Make long term survival worthwhile, add activities that are fun that require a certain amount of survival time to aquire, new traits, skills, knowledge 7: More ways to interact with the Dead. Perhaps we could turn on the drive in movie theatre near rosewood, keep the locals distracted by all the sound and light, or maybe some fireworks that we could set off to create quick loud bursts of light and sound, potentially lighting up a local area or starting fires. Maybe have some zombies that have more visual damage on them say you find one that looks like someone actually shot it in the chest and when it dies you could potentially dig out buckshot or brass for making your own ammo, or maybe the zombie is missing a limb or 2-4, could find a zombie kinda shuffling around with no legs or arms, or a zombie walking down the road with one arm barely hanging onto it, possibly falling off should it raise it up to try and grab you. 8: Evolving world, have parts of the map change over time beyond the plant growth, now and then have buildings become fotrified or damaged, signs of both life and death in the midst of the apocalypse. WIth an evolving world the sense of sameness would ideally go down depending on how long it would take to change. Sorry for the essay, just wanted to share my thoughts

Great thoughts and ideas. Unfortunately, I believe the true endgame will arrive with the NPC updates. We will have to deal with a longer early and midgame with no real endgame content for a while before we get it.

There is a mod which reduces loot over time, you can change it to a chance and what percentage the chance is, I use it with extremely rare loot so it emulates other 'survivors' looting, definitely worth using.

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

Sounds cool! What is the mod name?

@repus1386

8 ай бұрын

@@MrAtomicDuck should be "time decreases loot"

@leviticus2001

8 ай бұрын

My problem with that mod is that it only works once each time you visit a lootable container, meaning you could visit Louisville and see all the malls and food stands have been _cleaned_ out while your original base town is still packed with rotting food because you didn't get to eat it in time before it went bad. It's honestly such an immersion breaker and it gets especially bad if you try and play games where the item count has to drop by a ton in a week and you curse yourself knowing that you could just enter the vicinity of all the items in their containers and then come back later when you have something to actually carry it with. Like, give me a material reason to snatch all those woodcraft tapes now, dammit.

@saltyfry3361

8 ай бұрын

Thats it!@@repus1386

@gd88467

8 ай бұрын

Uhhhh dude just play with respawn loot off

After watching your video, It popped into my brain that Rimworld could be a great place to draw inspiration from, specifically, the addition of more random meta events. To name a few: - a wildfire starts nearby (which might have you fight it or If it grows out of control, force you to relocate. It would also destroy loot If it happens in buildings) - raider events (assuming they can implement NPC AI working well, raider attacks could force you to adjust in the end game. Rimworld even scales this off of wealth and other parameters) - disease outbreaks - treasure hunts or long distance "quests" (i.e. you see a new channel on the radio saying they require help or that someone is dying and is leaving behind some goodies) And a bonus one that might be controversial. - find a cure (you would not be able to ever cure yourself, but the idea is an optional long term progression system)

@8vantor8

6 ай бұрын

it is confirmed that the dev's will never add in a cure and on top of that, the whole world collapsed within 2-3 weeks in game, no where near enough time to make a cure; and on top of that, in 2020 it took a little under a year to make an emergency vaccine for covid, the game is set in the 1990's, so they are 30 years behind us and only had 2-3 weeks to live. so there is no way in hell the player could make one in any reasonable amount of time, if at all

I think it's an intermediate update, giving you more options to acquire amenities that otherwise you couldn't if, say, an NPC faction walled of the local gas station, or already hoarded the town loot, or there are so many violent raiders that you are forced to move out of town with barely any necessary items and several other NPCs that would need to be fed, cloth and sheltered. It could be a great answer towards adversity. I'm currently replaying The Long Dark and I'm constantly having to try and work my way around not finding a knife or hatchet, taking risks to try and find them and even prepping to take said risks add non stated goals for a very solid sandbox experience. I still agree with your take, it will all fall on the developers being able to capitalise on the strengths of the system or not. Plus this update brings quite a few of "under the hood" updates as well and we know they have been working in the NPCs code for some time now so hopefully we might see a quicker update to 43, depending on how many features it will launch with. So in a boring conclusion, we will have to wait and see how things go.

@SteelBerserkChannel

8 ай бұрын

@@novakice That seems extremely quick, I wouldn't expect anything before at least 6-9 months after B42 release (around 2 months of bug chasing for B42 and even if the code is there, another 3 or 5 months to tie everything together before launch). Hopefully it's as you said and B43 comes really quick but it doesn't seem likely.

Since my buddies never take care of the plants when I’m not online the cattle addition will save our/my ass 😂 I think the end game is as difficult as you make it yourself to be, also I think it depends hardly on the fact if you’re going to exploit the game features itself or RP as a survivor in the world of PZ. Personally we like to keep it realistic in our group so everyone follows the role they spawn as. But tbh if you want to have a more realistic endgame like resources being more sparse you can set the spawns lower from the begging I mean canonically you start like 2-3 weeks into the outbreak so everything will be looted from the getgo. But yeah that’s only how I view the game personally :)

@8vantor8

6 ай бұрын

2-3 days after the outbreak starts is when the game starts, the whole world falls in the 2-3 week window

I like the way 7 Days to Die did the whole being attacked by a horde of zombies every 7 days, it keeps the tension going all through out your game.

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

I would also love to see reasons to build base defences. Fighting for what we've earned would be awesome!

@Strideo1

8 ай бұрын

@@MrAtomicDuck I wish building your own defenses was more rewarding. The problem is nothing you can build is as effective as just using pre-existing structures since the zombies can't just tear down the walls or fences that already exist but they seem to easily destroy any wall you can build. Even just going upstairs and picking up the floor tiles at the top of the stairs is a more effective defense than the strongest zombie fortress the player could ever construct and it's a bit of a bummer.

@burningshine5524

8 ай бұрын

​@@Strideo1make player structures also invureable then?

@MrErizid

8 ай бұрын

They are adding brick walls you can build that will be invulnerable to zombies in Build 42@@burningshine5524

@millehdk

8 ай бұрын

You might like the mod Horde Night then 👌 .. I've playez with it my last few games, and it changes what I focus on early game, and how I build my base.

Adding NPC survivors would fix this, the NPC's could also loot buildings and consume items which would add to scarcity and actually encourage the use of the new systems

imagine if you could bring power back to part of the neighbourhood at a large cost, and maintain power, by for example repairing powerlines that might get broken during a storm, etc. you could form a faction in multiplayer and collect taxes for providing others with power, or pull the plug and make them use generators XD

NPCs are the big one that will fix the issue I think. It will be a new threat to survival or a ground for different quests and tasks to do in the world. If they also implement some form of settlements and reputation then there will be endless possible game scenarios. It would also be cool if they added some different types of intense weather that could destroy or damage parts of the world or your base from time to time.

Honestly they should consider adding achievements, not everyone cares for them but it would add a bit of replay value assuming you don't bumrush them in one playthrough. Stuff like kill x zombies or survive x days, maybe finding the rare items or exploring the map, all of which it something you aren't going to need to go out of your way to get but it is something to do if you get bored.

@gomartini

8 ай бұрын

I feel like they would add them but later when features are more concrete/when development is close to the properly released of the game

@Jo-Sheski

8 ай бұрын

@@gomartini Yeah that's most likely what will happen, even if I would like to see them add them now and just add more achievements later, it isnt that easy.

@Eighthplanetglass

8 ай бұрын

Yes, this idea, so much. I looooove achievements in games and it would really give me a reason to keep playing past getting a stockpile of food and ammo

How about: 1. Areas of danger ( Zones you need to avoid/Move from due to encroaching superzombies/plague or heck a Battleroyale kind of shrinking liveable zone)? 2. Events: Save important NPC. Collect antiviral medicine. Get a tip of a massive stash. Reinforce a chokepoint. 3. Raids. Either waves of zombies or raiders. Heck, maybe raid the mall find the final loot and unlock NPCs that come and live with you or enable trading. Attack this compound for loot/NPCs. 4. Extraction: Have a point on the edge where you can extract. Could be a military checkpoint thats overrun so you need supplies to kill all zombz so you can leave. Or a smuggler in a deep forest needs a golden treasure to help you escape. You might need to survive a few weeks when you arrive so bring what you can for the duration. 5. Straight up the stuff the devteam is working on now, enable us to establish bases and go on as long as we can. 5.1. Set end goals? Kill all zombies in map/area and live happily ever after lol. Produce X item and win? Make enough to "permanently" establish a community and win. Theres so much one could do its unbeliveable. So how about this, ingame tools where users can define their own win conditions and script ingame events?

We have actually discussed this among our playgroup, most of us are well into 4 digit hour counts and all of us have hit the end game at this point and basically our common consensus was when NPC are introduced and if they are introduced well enough then PZ could very well take on an entirely new dimension of play, less focused on you as a player, but more on a community. The idea we basically came to is, NPCs will not be as good as people when scavenging, if they will be able to scavenge at all, they will (hopefully) be probably there to do stuff you as a player generally don't want to do. So, most of the food/tools/material provision will still fall on player shoulders and as you probably know from the multiplayer side of things, if you are the only one doing the looting, it keeps you real busy getting enough to keep just a couple people from starving. So you will be flying around, doing the fun part of the surviving while NPCs will be at home taking care of the menial tasks, like making timber, watering plants, cooking etc. Truly pushing the end-game into almost a colony sim, walking dead style. Now I also feel as if I have to say something regarding the super late game, which is something this video eludes to a lot, we have to keep in mind while there is a subset of players that can basically survive for months/years ingame, it should be said, these people are a minority, I'd hazard to guess it could be less than 5% of total player base that can truly live that long, without turning off the infection of course. Which is also why I imagine B42 is not that focused on that right now, since if they were, it could very well be content out of most people's reach. I'm not saying we shouldn't see some grand objectives crop up eventually, like traveling for extended distances for advanced and unique supplies, restoring civilization(to an extent) or rebooting the electric grid and maintaining it. But again that's not something many people could ever hope to accomplish even if they know what they are doing and are confident in their survival abilities. TLDR; I believe the next update is a step in the right direction and is something that will already extend everyone's enjoyment a fair bit, but designing super-late game objectives is simply not feasible for multitude of reasons.

Your criticism is perfect. You make enough effort to express that you aren't saying any of these updates are bad or weak, or anything like that. But they don't truly change endgame. Multi-player servers can avoid loot spawning, but really that just gives two options on survival. Craft your own or loot spawn and scavenge. It doesn't give a new endgame goal, just a different path. And if any player prefers scavenging over crafting, they may find little value in this.

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

Right! You've definitely understood my argument here. NPC's, quests and all that are on the way in the distant future, sure, but what do we have to create an end-game loop in the meantime?

Idea: a "super horde" event where a very big group of zomies forces the player to leave the shelter and its surrounding. It can happen after a moment, the same way than the electricity turns off.

@WonkieNJ

8 ай бұрын

Yeah, naturally roaming mega hordes would be great. Horde night mod tries this but just spawns zombs in a ring around you. It might change the fact that once you get past the first week it's hard to ever lose a base. Imagine waking up to find that 200 of them stumbled upon your base and heard your generator. It would be an abandon ship situation.

What you talked about at 11:20 is a genuine problem of the modern world : planned obsolescence. Every home appliance should break around 3-5 years of usage and cars should have increasing malfunction as the mileage goes up. Other than that, gas oxydizes and evaporates starting at 3 to 6 months while ethanol only after 2-3 months. Roofs could leak and houses could have spores infestation. But, as you said, it's all starting - middle playthrough. Maybe endgame event could be planned in a future Build, such as "The Neo-Congress is moving into town... but killing everyone because ______, unless condition _______ has been met" ? Or the zomboid becomes increasingly intelligent / robust as the virus adapts, or something else related to a time condition ?

Giving players more craft options is fine and fun (as long as it doesn't turn into a grind-fest for the sake of "realism") but it doesn't solve the end game problem. Players need generated quests to keep them focused and to provide continual challenges. Characters getting random specific needs such as a craving for a Sno Globe or a fishing trip or to watch an old favourite film etc and having persistent negative moodles until they satisfy that need would add small fetch quests. More extreme weather such as flooding or tornados, that can cause damage and spoil stockpiled loot would be a major problem to prepare and recover from. It would need to be a rare event though to not be frustrating. NPC raiders seems like a simple addition. They don't have to do anything smart. Just spawn with minimal gear and have the aim of killing the player. Basically faster moving zombies that know where the player is. Larger scale construction/repair missions like the Save Our Station mod, where the player can (at least temporarily) restore power or water to an area or call in a support heli to drop supplies or mow down a horde would add a multipart quest, collecting items and clearing out a unique POI building to do the repair, maybe having to then hold off a small zed attack after. More zed migration could help. On lower zed pops clearing an area effectively means it's safe from then on. I actually think a definite end should be an option. A setting that makes an ever-increasing number of zeds spawn in an isolated corner of the map and they slowly take over the whole county. That would probably crash a lot of computers so maybe not that exactly, but some way that eventually your game reaches a final fight with an unbeatable horde.

I havent watched the full video yet. I am somewhat new to this game. I have around 300-400 hours in. I have survived a couple of times for months. my longest was 5 months. For me I like that this game has no end game goal. I like to vieuw it day to day. I like to build bases but when I am done I am happy its done and I plan my next adventures and eventually die. One thing this game does well for me is the freedom of not having a goal or objective to complete. once I am somewhat settled I like to cook meals, prepare food for some days ahead. I really like the cooking system and its always great to make interesting stuff. I love to make pancakes or pizzas to take along on my journey. I also like that I can have like weeks on end without any combat and its just basically sims where I collect/raid shops for furnature and random houses. I like that you have endless freedom in just stealing and grabbing everything. I also like to work on my cars. I collect like 20 cars and I try to maintain my cars rather then get a new one once one gets damaged. I like to go out hunting and breaking down cars for parts. I even went as far one to create a full 100% cars (doors everything included) + all performence parts. You just have to make your own adventures/missions and thats what I love about this game. But I dont know how I whould feel after I survive like 1+year. since my longest lifetime was 5 months. (I do delete my safefile when I die I dont like respawning as a new character in the same world. my rule is death=detele safefile (or at least not play in it I kept my 5 month file but I just went into debug mode to go trough my stuff and I dont make any progress on it))

This is 1000% going to be a wall they CONSISTENTLY run into until all the NPC stuff is worked out. I've never understood why they are so focused on adding more stuff to their baggage when they already have on their plate! Bouncing off what you said about how there is not going to be a initiative to use these new occupation/skills; First Aid is the largest outlier when it comes to work needing to be done, Braven's First Aid Rework is a great start to making it worth while to be a medic! They have so many things that need some fine tuning which is probably going to be lost once they keep adding new stuff to the game. Not saying brining NPC's to zomboid is easy to any feat, if they just changed their focus to be fully centered on implementing them it would help create less of a wonder to why am I playing late game. The NPC potential between them taking over random areas and making a large community to that random hermit who lives by himself in the woods. The possibilities truly are endless once they're past that, then they could focus on new occupations, locations, the whole nine. As a community it would bring a HUGE resurgence of old & new players alike!

Would be interesting if they added spawn points and a few POIs to wilderness forest cells that are currently not visited by players. There's plenty of space in the map for it.

the idea that you could legit have a walking dead esc factions war is enough to make a grown man cry

NPCs are the answer.

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

NPC's will be an amazing thing for the game and longevity, no doubt... But we could he waiting a few years for that. I'd like to see changes made ahead of that :)

@squirrelsinjacket1804

2 ай бұрын

Yup.. need more quests and eventually war between communities.

@soasop1594

Ай бұрын

3 vulnerable factions that try to get your support in building/ razing/ or defending random areas (from off map)

The "issue," like you said, with the crafting updates as a solution to the endgame "problem" is that it's still going to be accelerated into the first couple months of a player's run. The actual primary solution is well done NPCs and more robust cycles for how the zombies act and effective difficulty scaling

It would be awesome if once you build a settlement and are relatively self-sufficient, you could set up a radio station and call NPCs to your settlement… And then, you get to start as survivors that hear the radio station and have to trek a great distance to get there.

I think the devs might also be relying on the PVP aspect on servers to maybe prolong the end game. Since you are not only trying to survive the environment but other players which means the more stuff you can produce at a safe base instead of going on looting runs. I think NPCs, raid systems and such might help with the end game to add risk and reason,as well as them looting items before you.

@MrAtomicDuck

8 ай бұрын

So I'll disagree with this one, because the devs themselves have stated that PvP isn't their main focus. They are intending to change the way PvP works as they realize it's not the strongest point for the game, but it's coming later down the line and isn't their primary concern currently. With that in mind, I don't think they'll be relying on PvP for anything.

@specrtre

8 ай бұрын

​@@MrAtomicDuckah ok I wasn't sure. Just shooting from the Hip. With what might have been in mind.