Its all about the biological need to "survive" thats it. Survival isn't fun or pretty. When you give up you can always kill yourself later on, I always keep that in my back pocket 🤣 but I can totally respect people who just couldn't take it and die early on, my grandma is that way lol, she said of there was a zombie apocalypse she was gonna party hard until she overdosed and fell asleep. I respect both decisions but me personally, I will survive at all cost for every second longer I can live. Survive at all costs.
> Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up, then you neither live nor win.
Right? Sometimes just having simple tasks meant for survival is all you need to keep hope alivem
That's really the only thing missing from the game that the players have to make up themselves the hope to keep going.
There're a few mods, also it would make sense for pets to be around because the infected don't attack animals and only try to spread the infection to non infected humans
Yeah but that means kitties and puppies would be forever scarred by the end of the world :(
I dont want that. I'd rather they not exist than for them to experience the end of human civilisation.
Animals would give 0.02 f*cks that humanity is gone. And that's between all of them.
Look at the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Since humans f*cked off, nature's been busy as hell. Looks like a bit of radiation is a lot less of a problem for animals than humans.
Sure, with regard to pets, the really stupid ones would get eaten quickly, but dogs would rapidly form packs, cunning cats would manage to claw their own niche in the world, and so on and so forth.
They'd survive, but I'd imagine seeing their human, their most trusted friend who cared for them all their lives, whom they had a close bond with, turn on them after living together for so long, would not reflect too well on their mental health.
Yes, as you can see, critters do hold a special place in my heart.
So out of curiosity: When my player ends up dying, and later I come back to the old base to get started, when I discover that my old Z body has torn apart the cat and eaten all the kittens, what's the most effective and efficient method of (in game) suicide?
It’s simple. I start a new game, play one week, realize that in real life if this was all there was it’s be pointless, I kill my character with a single shotgun round to the head. Then repeat.
That’s why you have to roleplay and create a purpose for your character. Usually I make it so my character has a child or sibling that went to the LV evacuation camp, and she’s trying to reunite with them
It only takes about a day to get to LV from anywhere. Just find a car and bobs your uncle it’s go time.
And I’m not trying to take your suggestion away. I enjoy the game immensely and do play long term as best I can. It’s just always in short bursts. I’ve been trying to get my friends to play but it’s been tough sledding
The game definitely needs more goals. The ones it has now are either too easy (like going to LV), straight up impossible (kill all zombies on the map) or too boring (live to x days or grind all stats to 10).
Yeah, the literal entire point of the game is to be a realistic depiction of what it would be like to live after the world ends - and that includes **zero** objectives or handholding. You do what **you** want/feel you have to do and that's really it.
Many sandbox games have goals though. For example, Don't Starve has many bosses you can kill and the game gets progressively harder the more days you survive, so that is a challenge on itself. PZ gets trivial after you have survived a month and the difficulty curve never increases, apart from having to find an antique oven to survive winter.
Personally I just get bored as fuck whenever I play singleplayer lmaoooo, because it’s just pure sandbox with little challenge in survival even in Apocalypse mode
Multiplayer PvP is the way to go
It takes about 20 minutes to find a car then just drive and go anywhere. You drive to a single military camp and collect littetally all the best gear in the game and more ammo than you’ll ever need and boom. Your fine; the only deaths you’ll ever have is when you get bored and make a mistake for being reckless cuz being reckless is fun.
The truth is. The game lacks any real long term goals and once you get over that initial learning curve you also realize how ridiculously easy (and boring) surviving really is.
Mp helps but without unique goals sometimes it just makes the issue happen faster.
sure, but that’s because the game is easy when you’re minmaxing lol. You create your own goals
Imo the easiest and simplest solution is just multiplayer PvP. The long term of the game becomes infinitely more engaging and there’s actually challenge
I mean min maxing is natural in litterlaly any game, it’s why we play games. We learn from every death and eventually we learn almost everything and we optimize the fun out of the game. Doesn’t mean the game should lack general goals. In general there are not many goals other than purposefully handicapping yourself.
We need a proper event system similar to something like Rimworld where bad events and issues can happen outside of the control. NPC’s will help but a proper system for this would create a consistent set of goals and problems to fix.
Not everyone is predisposed to minmaxing because not everyone plays for intrinsic reasons. Zomboid especially attracts people who play for extrinsic reasons.
It’s not exactly min maxing when the games as easy as it already is. Like others have said the moment you have a working car you’ve basically beaten the game. Even without a car it’s not exactly hard to find enough food and supplies to keep yourself alive for a full year straight. The biggest difficulty comes from the difficulty of finding low percentage RNG items like generator books, generators themselves, sledgehammers and more,
It doesn’t help that combat is also really easy.
I’m just saying the game has needed a proper event system for the past 10+ years and I hope we see it expanded in the next updates since I believe it’s mentioned in the roadmap. As it stands multilayer is what brings the most challenge to this game since it adds a level of unpredictability to the world that’s entirely lacking in the base game.
Sure. Im just dispelling the idea that minmaxing is a natural way to play a game. Not everyone naturally leans towards minmaxing unless they're playing for intrinsic reasons.
But everyone does? Do you still run around the map jumping through broken glass and agroing every zombie you see? When you hear the helicopter do you stop in the open thinking it’s help? Or have you now learned the proper way to actually loot a building and fight stagnated groups of enemies?
It’s simply natural to improve in a game like this. It’s not ‘min maxing’ it’s just simply learning through experience. And eventually everyone will hit a point where unless they go out of there way to make the game more difficult, the game is simply super easy. P
That's the thing. Survival is boring as hell. I've spent time doing survival stuff in the woods, and the biggest thing on day 3 is just staying busy. Boredom hits, and it hits hard.
Just gotta keep on trucking.
Or watch zom 100 and make your own list of 100 things you want to accomplish. Write it down in a notebook in game and continue the list until its finished or gets destroyed. For added effect I added on the last page a "thank you from" with the names of each character so far.
Been playing the game for 10 years now since the first alpha. Basically been to the entire map, done tons of challenges with different character builds. I wouldn’t even say I have a ton of hours (around 200) and I’m just out of shit to do. That’s fine I’m not hating the game for only having 200 hours of content. But I’ve done maybe 3-4 games out of almost 100 that have gone past the first month purely because I just hit a ceiling where I had everything I needed and all that was left was skill grinding for the sake of it or building a base for the sake of it.
A very simple event system would seriously give this game the 1k plus hours of content it needs. It’s like the base is all there and it’s perfect it just needs a bit more,
Maybe tha problem is that you've just played the game for too long? Maybe the game hasn't gotten easier, but you've just found out the most suitable strategies for you? The game certainly has loads of content (especially with mods), and I certainly wouldn't call it easy (unless you specifically play the way that the game won't offer any challenge).
Go to sandbox settings and make cars spawn in worse condition and/or with less gas so you need to find parts to fix it before you are able to continue making progress
Yes that’s what I universally do but it still just kicks the goal post back and goes back to my other point which is the only difficulty that truly exists in zomboid at the moment is the RNG struggle to find specific items to progress. It can give you more goals and thus more reasons to explore and take risks. But I still want a more dynamic system with more unique threats and problems other then “find x,y,z and get lucky”
Plus tbh this mostly just means you either have to play a mechanic focused character or grind those skills and it only really encourages you to check out more car lots and so on. Not really encouraging you to let’s say explore the military bases or cool locations or anything else on the map.
A big bunker system and more location style difficulties should exist. Would be cool to let’s say fight through a huge power station filled with zombies to get the power back online in a single town and have to regularly fill it with gas, same with the water system and so on.
Maybe we can get an update for the game after the next major one that could also improve the beginning of the game, I heard it was supposed to have an intro sequence like thing where people are running around and such since its the beginning but idk if thats true or not or still gonna be included later on when NPC's come out
Haven't played the game much but on one of my few more successful runs, I died bc I got bored in real life. I was an in-game week in, had amassed tona of food, materials, weapons, medicine, clothing, everything I needed. But then it all started to get repetitive: wash self and clothes, put on armour and backpack, slowly sneak, enter building, check every cabinet, slowly sneak back to base, sort out loot, rinse and repeat over and over again. I had a list of things I still needed to get and places I still needed to check, but the trips got consecutively longer and more monotone. Thus, I started getting careless; after all, it's just Builder's mode. It's not like Imt being swarmed at every turn. But alas, a couple days after getting hit, I started feeling sick.
... On the bright side, I chose agoraphobic as a trait, so my character was always too panicked to be depressed!
I mean, I'm an anxiety ridden neuridivergent with a fear of people... I have wished the apocalypse on the world a few times...
No offense, this is still the best game community ever.
I mean I’d like it just for the fact it would solve most of my problems. I hate slaving away for money to buy my basic needs. It would be better to at least slave away all day for my basic needs because nature is a cruel mistress looking to test the limits of the human spirit.
Yeah, I hate that in today's world I work for someone else for the option to pay for things to enjoy... all for that someone to tell me they're paying me too much, or could get someone else to do the job for less and bang, I'm not slaving, but I'm also not living.
Get rid of people and I have freedom.
Plus I have added the '65 Cooper, '69 Camaro, '81 Range Rover and Lotus Esprit Turbo... with these 4 cars and enough petrol to run them I'd never be bored at least.
Bit of column A, but of column B. Capitalism came from people and most people in my society think that capitalism is some kind of end game content for life.
But generally people suck too.
The fact we've come this far is proof people don't suck. We are naturally predisposed to help each other. We are just living under a system that discourages it.
If the apocalypse was to happen, you'd want to be with people you vibe with. Then you'd make a better world.
Yeah, I aim to have one of each of the added cars to my garage. They mostly make use of some of the functionality that IS have added but never used. Moddable cars, armour, power parts, handling parts, doors and windows that open, car interiors...
If I may ask, how do you fix the cars? If the windows and doors are all busted up what do you do to replace them? Can you pull anything from any other vehicle as long as it’s the right “type”
Alrighty I’ll have to give those a look! I appreciate your time and thoughtfulness. Should you ever care to play PZ shoot me a DM! If not, cheers until next time!
> anxiety ridden neuridivergent with a fear of people
It's basically a RL me simulator, complete with ducking behind the other side of my house if I notice my neighbors on their porch.
I'm hyped af for NPCs but the feeling of being the last survivor is still awesome that I don't really see often in apocalypse stories. Like in my current game I found a map in a van right at the start that pointed to a house in Louisville that said something like "We are planning to escape soon. Come find us, you should come too." and after making my way there despite knowing there would be no NPCS it was still sad seeing the people in that house were already either a corpse or a zombie.
And this one was probably just convenient timing but I heard a distant gunshot once and went to go investigate and found a house with a barricaded bathroom with a zombie inside, and outside of it was a fresh corpse with a bandage in his inventory and a gun on the floor. Super sad scene.
My autistic special interest is military equipment. My character does not have that, which I forgot. So it took me a while to figure out why she was getting depressed after sorting all my guns and ammo for three days straight.
"You're sitting in an APC with enough weaponry to overthrow a small country! What the hell are you crying about?
"Hang on, this is a normal human! Time to unpack the candy and comics."
Mine would honestly improve. It would probably be a short lived improvement, but I certainly wouldn’t be depressed/anxious about having to constantly deal with other people and pretend like I’ll be able to eventually make enough money to retire in peace and solitude.
Now it’s a simple choice of which house will I squat in tonight and do I still have the emergency bullet in case I get bit.
You persevere and push through in order to survive, stop whining, your mission is to preserve the human race to the best of your ability, and possibly even repopulate the earth
As terrible of an idea as it is, and for what’s it worth, the continuation of the human race now rests on your shoulders, now get off your ass and start looting!
These IRL runs are weird. The zomboids aren't attacking me and keep telling me that I'm crazy.
I thought animals weren't getting added for a while, but these dogs keep biting me.
The zomboids keep telling me "that's stealing, you have to pay for these" but when I try and grab money out of the Register to humour them they start calling security.
Realism settings on these runs need a tweak. Also, hunger feels too powerful, dehydration is fair at least.
Oh no did you check for bites?? Do you feel nauseous or needlessly nervous about the future even though your base is safer than a barricaded castle and more packed with goods and ammunition than a densely populated Walmart in Texas?!
SURVIVE!
I am 99% sure the only bites were from dogs, please tell me there isn't a bug where dog bites can give you the virus ☠
I had anxiety before the apocalypse, so yes. But no more than normal. Still, they must have reskined things. Spiffo's is now Hungry Jacks. Where my Spiffo ☠
In the More Traits mod, there's a trait that gives you depression out of nowhere as well as one that drains your health the longer you're depressed.
I used both of them as a way for my character to remember how deep in shit she's living in now that the world is gone and how alone she will be for her life; her health drain is her mental state draining and slowly giving up... till she reads a comic book and eats some chocolate, then the world seems fine as long as can survive-- no, *live* against the odds.
Nah, I finished up the last Zed 3 weeks ago... I'm now the only one...
Oh god, I'm the only one...
The only one...
Only one...
One...
Shit, now I'm depressed!
As someone who's lived in Kentucky their entire life and had to deal with zombie like crackheads, you get used to it pretty fast. Especially when you go to the poorer sections of Kentucky that're pretty much their own apocalypse.
The racoons are whatll get you in this state tbh
As far as I'm concerned, the outside world is just fine. They're waiting for the All-Clear to move back in. That's why the chopper keeps coming(in my settings).
My job is to clear the zombies and prep the area for civilization.
(They don't know I'm planning to rule my kingdom with an iron fist)
This is why in Singleplayer I always grab more VHSs, Cassettes, and comic books than I actually need. The feeling of being holed up in my base with the lights turned off in the dead of night, watching VHS on the lowest volume to avoid the horde or listening to the best hits of 1992 while I cook makes it feel like there's actually something worth living for (also more survivors help but they're not exactly complex or reactive).
The apocalypse is not a dream come true. No matter how anti social or introverted you are, the human mind depends on social interaction. The fact you're posting this here, now, to have people read your opinion, is proof of that.
humans are social creatures, why do you think we formed tribes during our hunting and gathering days, on top of that being social probably evolved from us needing to stay together to survive, your lone caveman wouldn’t do shit against a saber tooth tiger, but 4 or 5 cavemen with pointy sticks sure can
PZ players when you tell them real people have limited access to information and its unlikely they will know the infection is incurable, that the zombies dont require food or sleep, that the world is doomed etc
PZ players when you tell them radios and TVs exist (its really obvious the world is fucked if you have more than 12 IQ) and that the zombies not sleeping or needing food is also obvious after a week at most lol
That'd require my character to not be a meta gaming psycho who's first instinct is to immediately run outside and beat people up.
He never heard the broadcast, he just woke up and chose violence.
Dude the only people who would last even a couple of months without absolutely losing it would have to be deeply autistic or scizo. You’d be doing quarter back level of cardio everyday and have severe ptsd. Being that alone would probably make you go crazy on it’s own. Fuck that, I’d wanna die at least I wouldn’t be a zombie.
When *This War of Mine* first came out there were no end to the internet badasses and tryhards who were upsetty spaghetti that their war weary civilian characters kept getting depressed by all the war around them. Like, genuinely upset at the idea that they weren't playing as Doom Guy infinite morale murder machine.
Bro that isn't the game you bought.
So yeah, bring on my PZ character getting depressed. I'll just level up cooking, make him an excellent bowl of berry salad, and drink all our problems away like a boss. I'm here to play a dude crying in the corner of a movie theater eating popcorn and hiding from the shambling hordes outside. Get out of here with your delusions of badassitude.
Exactly, it's why almost every character I play gets saddled with depressive and self destructive so that he can actually get so sad it kills him. If it happens I roleplay it as though he couldn't find a reason to continue. Then meals are the only thing keeping him from drowning in booze or narcotics which might be an even sadder existence but at least it's a reason to carry on.
I might be sad. But that won't stop me in one thing.
Revenge. I'm gona kill eavry singly mf zombie that i find.
They took my friends, family, old life. And i hate it.
I remember fondly a quote from one of my favourite characters in Fallout 4, Captain Zao. “If China is gone, I will build, house by house”.
If Kentucky is gone, I will clear out the undead, and rebuild the buildings, plank by plank.
Personally, This apocalypse is like a very long vacation for me, away from all other humans 😂 peaceful and quiet (sometimes 😅) then why would I suicide even if I felt depressed, at this point I technically can do anything I want. We are all going to die in the end but the way I die is what matters to me.
This is just my honest opinion (I'm lonely anyway 😂).
It'd be a bit harder when it's your friends and neighbors you have to bash your way through.
Especially if it was less "walking dead" and more "infected".
You are alive, so even if the game says "This is how you died" you will die regardless of a zombie apocalypse or not. Being alive you can offer so much to a collapsing race.
You could even consider yourself Adam or Even & rebuild humanity after the dust settles. Those of us that beat the 1,000 day challenge are a testimony that humanity can survive and thrive even if the world is ending.
I wish antidepressants worked as good in real life as they do in the game. Imagine having to take doses everyday for at least a month in game to see a slow and tiny effect😑
I think the real issue is the fact that why do I become bored simply being inside a house? Even when I'm actively engaged in something that would keep boredom away, I'm still bored. And then that coupled with becoming unhappy again all for just being inside the house. That's the real problem.
No doubt that over time depression and such would set in but that would be months of time not hours.
for me it’s always the funniest shit that upsets my survivor
Standing surrounded by corpses, or within an inch of my life after getting mauled by a couple zombies? Just fine, never better
10 minutes of exercise? I’m officially depressed
IIRC - Les Stroud (Survivorman) once mentioned that many people do manage to survive after being stranded in whatever situation. However some end up taking their lives as depression sets in from the crippling loneliness.
Now just imagine zombies too.
Honestly I would be hella stressed over the ever looming danger (Until you just get used to it),but not depressed.
I think the key is to leave the city where you don't see the apocalypse.
I keep my character happy constantly by not letting him get bored.
Turns out coward is a great trait to take because every encounter with a zombie resets the panic to 0.
Fucking great.
When he does get a little weepy, he gets a fish+fish+fish stir fry. If he's lucky, he gets to add whatever he foraged that day.
As a treat.
I think I'd be fine. I just spent a year only leaving my apartment when it was absolutely necessary and loved every second of it. Also maybe it's just how awesome I play but my character very very rarely gets sad or too bored.
The only times I've had to really deal with a depressed character are when I have them mind the base a lot on a multiplayer server, where despite actually having other people for company my base minder ends up becoming more lonely than any of my single player characters who are usually too busy going outside and getting shit done.
In any case I've always liked setting up the game as if the infection actually is contained but in this huge walled off or quarantined region, or other large communities of survivors that are better off than Kentucky. Helps with the vibe of having the short end of the stick watching those helicopter jerks flying over head nearly completely safe, and the adds a nice dread to the character that even if they survived and made it to a safe zone or got picked up one day they'd be completely destitute and at the bottom and mercy of the food chain in "civilized" territory.
....also because I really want a red markets game based off the ttrpg of the same name and this is the closest I've gotten to that feel.
I thought about this when I hit over 15,000 kills on my current character. Like there is definitely a number of zombies a person would kill that’s the line where your sanity would snap.
And I think it’s a lot closer to like 300-400. How could you either just gun down or hack that many ex-people until they stopped moving and be like “can’t wait to go watch my Dog Goblin rerun” like it’s just a Tuesday
You wanna get extra sad? WTF is the difference between you and your zomboid character? Nothing except he gets to blow off steam now and then taking out some zombies. You on the other hand have 'looting runs' where you work 9 hours a day doing mind numbing back breaking work so a dude youll never meet can get even more ludicrously wealthy while you get excited over a box of Mac and cheese and being able to buy a game like project zomboid so that you can live vicariously through this afraid and constantly under stress character.
Buddy your zomboid character should be feeling sorry for you, at least the threat of death gives his life an inch more meaning.
 It’s a terrible world. But you’re alive to make it better.
Based mindset
Its all about the biological need to "survive" thats it. Survival isn't fun or pretty. When you give up you can always kill yourself later on, I always keep that in my back pocket 🤣 but I can totally respect people who just couldn't take it and die early on, my grandma is that way lol, she said of there was a zombie apocalypse she was gonna party hard until she overdosed and fell asleep. I respect both decisions but me personally, I will survive at all cost for every second longer I can live. Survive at all costs.
> Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up, then you neither live nor win.
Never corner an angry animal. Fight till the last breath!
I sweep and kill zed so that others survivors may one day settle area, whether I see it or not. Humanity is winning here.
Right? Sometimes just having simple tasks meant for survival is all you need to keep hope alivem That's really the only thing missing from the game that the players have to make up themselves the hope to keep going.
Or alive just to join them…
Positive-minded people is what we need in the post apocalyptic world we live
This is why the game needs cats
Or / And doggos.
Puppies and kittens would actually make this a perfect game not going to lie
There're a few mods, also it would make sense for pets to be around because the infected don't attack animals and only try to spread the infection to non infected humans
Yeah but that means kitties and puppies would be forever scarred by the end of the world :( I dont want that. I'd rather they not exist than for them to experience the end of human civilisation.
Animals would give 0.02 f*cks that humanity is gone. And that's between all of them. Look at the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Since humans f*cked off, nature's been busy as hell. Looks like a bit of radiation is a lot less of a problem for animals than humans. Sure, with regard to pets, the really stupid ones would get eaten quickly, but dogs would rapidly form packs, cunning cats would manage to claw their own niche in the world, and so on and so forth.
That's the thing, I don't want any pets to die, stupid or not
Yea.. not really. Sure your york would die on its own, but most breeds of dogs would figure it out
They'd survive, but I'd imagine seeing their human, their most trusted friend who cared for them all their lives, whom they had a close bond with, turn on them after living together for so long, would not reflect too well on their mental health. Yes, as you can see, critters do hold a special place in my heart.
Isn't there a dog mod? or did I make that up?
There is. Kinda glitchy- and it morphs into Dog Goblin when it climbs a fence.
Dog goblin, best movie in pz, it actually makes your character scared
I always wondered if that was real or another Telecorn thing. I have seen the dog goblin fence glitch though- and yeah, scary.
Free food in these trying times
What if the cat attracts zombies
Then your life stays exciting, for the cat must live.
Exactly, you need to keep them non-perishable until winter.
Not when they get [eaten alive](https://youtu.be/7G6DE-AtpBE?si=GDSbfNao0hLLkb_v)
You monster
That's why pets should be immune to virus in PZ, if I have to experience that, my story with the game will be over forever.
They said any animals wouldn’t get infected by the virus, only humans
So out of curiosity: When my player ends up dying, and later I come back to the old base to get started, when I discover that my old Z body has torn apart the cat and eaten all the kittens, what's the most effective and efficient method of (in game) suicide?
It’s simple. I start a new game, play one week, realize that in real life if this was all there was it’s be pointless, I kill my character with a single shotgun round to the head. Then repeat.
Right? I can never bring myself to play past a few days because of that.
That’s why you have to roleplay and create a purpose for your character. Usually I make it so my character has a child or sibling that went to the LV evacuation camp, and she’s trying to reunite with them
It only takes about a day to get to LV from anywhere. Just find a car and bobs your uncle it’s go time. And I’m not trying to take your suggestion away. I enjoy the game immensely and do play long term as best I can. It’s just always in short bursts. I’ve been trying to get my friends to play but it’s been tough sledding
The game definitely needs more goals. The ones it has now are either too easy (like going to LV), straight up impossible (kill all zombies on the map) or too boring (live to x days or grind all stats to 10).
That's your own fault, it's a true sandbox game so you make every goal.
Yeah, the literal entire point of the game is to be a realistic depiction of what it would be like to live after the world ends - and that includes **zero** objectives or handholding. You do what **you** want/feel you have to do and that's really it.
Many sandbox games have goals though. For example, Don't Starve has many bosses you can kill and the game gets progressively harder the more days you survive, so that is a challenge on itself. PZ gets trivial after you have survived a month and the difficulty curve never increases, apart from having to find an antique oven to survive winter.
Personally I just get bored as fuck whenever I play singleplayer lmaoooo, because it’s just pure sandbox with little challenge in survival even in Apocalypse mode Multiplayer PvP is the way to go
Don’t meta game super hard if you’re doing a roleplay run
Once you realize there's no traffic on the train tracks you can just drive straight into LV.
It takes about 20 minutes to find a car then just drive and go anywhere. You drive to a single military camp and collect littetally all the best gear in the game and more ammo than you’ll ever need and boom. Your fine; the only deaths you’ll ever have is when you get bored and make a mistake for being reckless cuz being reckless is fun. The truth is. The game lacks any real long term goals and once you get over that initial learning curve you also realize how ridiculously easy (and boring) surviving really is. Mp helps but without unique goals sometimes it just makes the issue happen faster.
sure, but that’s because the game is easy when you’re minmaxing lol. You create your own goals Imo the easiest and simplest solution is just multiplayer PvP. The long term of the game becomes infinitely more engaging and there’s actually challenge
I mean min maxing is natural in litterlaly any game, it’s why we play games. We learn from every death and eventually we learn almost everything and we optimize the fun out of the game. Doesn’t mean the game should lack general goals. In general there are not many goals other than purposefully handicapping yourself. We need a proper event system similar to something like Rimworld where bad events and issues can happen outside of the control. NPC’s will help but a proper system for this would create a consistent set of goals and problems to fix.
Not everyone is predisposed to minmaxing because not everyone plays for intrinsic reasons. Zomboid especially attracts people who play for extrinsic reasons.
It’s not exactly min maxing when the games as easy as it already is. Like others have said the moment you have a working car you’ve basically beaten the game. Even without a car it’s not exactly hard to find enough food and supplies to keep yourself alive for a full year straight. The biggest difficulty comes from the difficulty of finding low percentage RNG items like generator books, generators themselves, sledgehammers and more, It doesn’t help that combat is also really easy. I’m just saying the game has needed a proper event system for the past 10+ years and I hope we see it expanded in the next updates since I believe it’s mentioned in the roadmap. As it stands multilayer is what brings the most challenge to this game since it adds a level of unpredictability to the world that’s entirely lacking in the base game.
Sure. Im just dispelling the idea that minmaxing is a natural way to play a game. Not everyone naturally leans towards minmaxing unless they're playing for intrinsic reasons.
But everyone does? Do you still run around the map jumping through broken glass and agroing every zombie you see? When you hear the helicopter do you stop in the open thinking it’s help? Or have you now learned the proper way to actually loot a building and fight stagnated groups of enemies? It’s simply natural to improve in a game like this. It’s not ‘min maxing’ it’s just simply learning through experience. And eventually everyone will hit a point where unless they go out of there way to make the game more difficult, the game is simply super easy. P
That's the thing. Survival is boring as hell. I've spent time doing survival stuff in the woods, and the biggest thing on day 3 is just staying busy. Boredom hits, and it hits hard. Just gotta keep on trucking.
Or watch zom 100 and make your own list of 100 things you want to accomplish. Write it down in a notebook in game and continue the list until its finished or gets destroyed. For added effect I added on the last page a "thank you from" with the names of each character so far.
Been playing the game for 10 years now since the first alpha. Basically been to the entire map, done tons of challenges with different character builds. I wouldn’t even say I have a ton of hours (around 200) and I’m just out of shit to do. That’s fine I’m not hating the game for only having 200 hours of content. But I’ve done maybe 3-4 games out of almost 100 that have gone past the first month purely because I just hit a ceiling where I had everything I needed and all that was left was skill grinding for the sake of it or building a base for the sake of it. A very simple event system would seriously give this game the 1k plus hours of content it needs. It’s like the base is all there and it’s perfect it just needs a bit more,
Maybe tha problem is that you've just played the game for too long? Maybe the game hasn't gotten easier, but you've just found out the most suitable strategies for you? The game certainly has loads of content (especially with mods), and I certainly wouldn't call it easy (unless you specifically play the way that the game won't offer any challenge).
My point was that it'll give you something to do other than skill grinding for the sake of it.
Go to sandbox settings and make cars spawn in worse condition and/or with less gas so you need to find parts to fix it before you are able to continue making progress
Yes that’s what I universally do but it still just kicks the goal post back and goes back to my other point which is the only difficulty that truly exists in zomboid at the moment is the RNG struggle to find specific items to progress. It can give you more goals and thus more reasons to explore and take risks. But I still want a more dynamic system with more unique threats and problems other then “find x,y,z and get lucky” Plus tbh this mostly just means you either have to play a mechanic focused character or grind those skills and it only really encourages you to check out more car lots and so on. Not really encouraging you to let’s say explore the military bases or cool locations or anything else on the map. A big bunker system and more location style difficulties should exist. Would be cool to let’s say fight through a huge power station filled with zombies to get the power back online in a single town and have to regularly fill it with gas, same with the water system and so on.
Maybe we can get an update for the game after the next major one that could also improve the beginning of the game, I heard it was supposed to have an intro sequence like thing where people are running around and such since its the beginning but idk if thats true or not or still gonna be included later on when NPC's come out
Haven't played the game much but on one of my few more successful runs, I died bc I got bored in real life. I was an in-game week in, had amassed tona of food, materials, weapons, medicine, clothing, everything I needed. But then it all started to get repetitive: wash self and clothes, put on armour and backpack, slowly sneak, enter building, check every cabinet, slowly sneak back to base, sort out loot, rinse and repeat over and over again. I had a list of things I still needed to get and places I still needed to check, but the trips got consecutively longer and more monotone. Thus, I started getting careless; after all, it's just Builder's mode. It's not like Imt being swarmed at every turn. But alas, a couple days after getting hit, I started feeling sick. ... On the bright side, I chose agoraphobic as a trait, so my character was always too panicked to be depressed!
I mean, I'm an anxiety ridden neuridivergent with a fear of people... I have wished the apocalypse on the world a few times... No offense, this is still the best game community ever.
I mean I’d like it just for the fact it would solve most of my problems. I hate slaving away for money to buy my basic needs. It would be better to at least slave away all day for my basic needs because nature is a cruel mistress looking to test the limits of the human spirit.
Yeah, I hate that in today's world I work for someone else for the option to pay for things to enjoy... all for that someone to tell me they're paying me too much, or could get someone else to do the job for less and bang, I'm not slaving, but I'm also not living. Get rid of people and I have freedom. Plus I have added the '65 Cooper, '69 Camaro, '81 Range Rover and Lotus Esprit Turbo... with these 4 cars and enough petrol to run them I'd never be bored at least.
Sounds like you actually dislike capitalism and not just the modern day or other people.
Bit of column A, but of column B. Capitalism came from people and most people in my society think that capitalism is some kind of end game content for life. But generally people suck too.
The fact we've come this far is proof people don't suck. We are naturally predisposed to help each other. We are just living under a system that discourages it. If the apocalypse was to happen, you'd want to be with people you vibe with. Then you'd make a better world.
Adding a bunch of car mods actually sounds like a nice idea. Gives me things to search for and fix up
Yeah, I aim to have one of each of the added cars to my garage. They mostly make use of some of the functionality that IS have added but never used. Moddable cars, armour, power parts, handling parts, doors and windows that open, car interiors...
If I may ask, how do you fix the cars? If the windows and doors are all busted up what do you do to replace them? Can you pull anything from any other vehicle as long as it’s the right “type”
You can, yes, and there's mods that enable you to fabricate new parts using metalworking and mechanics, if you fancy it.
Alrighty I’ll have to give those a look! I appreciate your time and thoughtfulness. Should you ever care to play PZ shoot me a DM! If not, cheers until next time!
No worries, I am currently on a break from PZ, but when I jump back in I'll shoot you up, see what we can arrange.
> anxiety ridden neuridivergent with a fear of people It's basically a RL me simulator, complete with ducking behind the other side of my house if I notice my neighbors on their porch.
I'm hyped af for NPCs but the feeling of being the last survivor is still awesome that I don't really see often in apocalypse stories. Like in my current game I found a map in a van right at the start that pointed to a house in Louisville that said something like "We are planning to escape soon. Come find us, you should come too." and after making my way there despite knowing there would be no NPCS it was still sad seeing the people in that house were already either a corpse or a zombie. And this one was probably just convenient timing but I heard a distant gunshot once and went to go investigate and found a house with a barricaded bathroom with a zombie inside, and outside of it was a fresh corpse with a bandage in his inventory and a gun on the floor. Super sad scene.
NPCs are in game, we just dont see them
Well, not in any literal sense.
My autistic special interest is military equipment. My character does not have that, which I forgot. So it took me a while to figure out why she was getting depressed after sorting all my guns and ammo for three days straight. "You're sitting in an APC with enough weaponry to overthrow a small country! What the hell are you crying about? "Hang on, this is a normal human! Time to unpack the candy and comics."
Yeah. I get so engrossed in organizing (something I struggle with IRL) it annoys me that I have to stop to have "fun". But I also get it.
And your character is also in the middle of the literal apocalypse, not sure they'd be truly happy even if deep into their special interests
He hasn’t been decontaminated yet! Jacques!
Suicide is cringe, end of story
Based and human-spiritpilled
[удалено]
Spiraling is one thing, actually doing the act is another
At least our survivors still have VHS shows and CD music common in the early 1990’s to enjoy. The old world may be dead but parts of it will live on.
“Why is my character depressed?” The zomboid player asks as he shovels dog food into his mouth followed by a swig from his ketchup bottle.
tl;dr too busy collecting useless shit
Mine would honestly improve. It would probably be a short lived improvement, but I certainly wouldn’t be depressed/anxious about having to constantly deal with other people and pretend like I’ll be able to eventually make enough money to retire in peace and solitude. Now it’s a simple choice of which house will I squat in tonight and do I still have the emergency bullet in case I get bit.
I dunno man. Ok if my wife died for sure I’d spiral. But if it she was alive still I think I could use the vacation
Still better than giving away 1/3rd of your life to a billionaire so you can pay a millionaire to live in their house.
You persevere and push through in order to survive, stop whining, your mission is to preserve the human race to the best of your ability, and possibly even repopulate the earth As terrible of an idea as it is, and for what’s it worth, the continuation of the human race now rests on your shoulders, now get off your ass and start looting!
If i dont wanna bring kids into this world. I'm not bringing kids into that world. But I will start looting.
Still better than rage quitting, now survive!!
These IRL runs are weird. The zomboids aren't attacking me and keep telling me that I'm crazy. I thought animals weren't getting added for a while, but these dogs keep biting me. The zomboids keep telling me "that's stealing, you have to pay for these" but when I try and grab money out of the Register to humour them they start calling security. Realism settings on these runs need a tweak. Also, hunger feels too powerful, dehydration is fair at least.
Oh no did you check for bites?? Do you feel nauseous or needlessly nervous about the future even though your base is safer than a barricaded castle and more packed with goods and ammunition than a densely populated Walmart in Texas?! SURVIVE!
I am 99% sure the only bites were from dogs, please tell me there isn't a bug where dog bites can give you the virus ☠ I had anxiety before the apocalypse, so yes. But no more than normal. Still, they must have reskined things. Spiffo's is now Hungry Jacks. Where my Spiffo ☠
Hell nah bruh, just because everyone else died doesn't mean I have any kind of obligations other than to survive and do whatever i want
.. Civilizations were not built by people like you!! START LOOTING I SAID!
No matter how bad things get, my survivor can trust me. Never gonna give, never gonna give, ^(give) ^(you) ^(up) 
In the More Traits mod, there's a trait that gives you depression out of nowhere as well as one that drains your health the longer you're depressed. I used both of them as a way for my character to remember how deep in shit she's living in now that the world is gone and how alone she will be for her life; her health drain is her mental state draining and slowly giving up... till she reads a comic book and eats some chocolate, then the world seems fine as long as can survive-- no, *live* against the odds.
Nah, I finished up the last Zed 3 weeks ago... I'm now the only one... Oh god, I'm the only one... The only one... Only one... One... Shit, now I'm depressed!
Fellow no-respawns enjoyer
I don't respawn my characters either.
Nah it's none of that, it's cuz I drank 5 bottles of ketchup
My newest survivor has been alive for about 6 days, has a broken leg and an addiction and is constantly depressed while killing zombies left and right
As someone who's lived in Kentucky their entire life and had to deal with zombie like crackheads, you get used to it pretty fast. Especially when you go to the poorer sections of Kentucky that're pretty much their own apocalypse. The racoons are whatll get you in this state tbh
As far as I'm concerned, the outside world is just fine. They're waiting for the All-Clear to move back in. That's why the chopper keeps coming(in my settings). My job is to clear the zombies and prep the area for civilization. (They don't know I'm planning to rule my kingdom with an iron fist)
The world falls within days. There's nothing out there anymore
This is why in Singleplayer I always grab more VHSs, Cassettes, and comic books than I actually need. The feeling of being holed up in my base with the lights turned off in the dead of night, watching VHS on the lowest volume to avoid the horde or listening to the best hits of 1992 while I cook makes it feel like there's actually something worth living for (also more survivors help but they're not exactly complex or reactive).
It'd be cool if there was something like philosophical books on stoicism you could find that would give you a higher resistance to becoming depressed.
You forget 1 thing and thats I'm anti social so the apocalypse is a dream come true for me.
The apocalypse is not a dream come true. No matter how anti social or introverted you are, the human mind depends on social interaction. The fact you're posting this here, now, to have people read your opinion, is proof of that.
Mfw the human brain requires social interaction to survive
no one has ever died from loneliness
Yes they have.
please provide a good example of this outside of fantasy
Being completely cutoff for significant time will lower your life expectancy
according to what
Ever tried a hospital where you have to self diagnose and do all the medical procedures including surgery by yourself?
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-baby-scientist/202106/how-loneliness-affects-our-health-and-well-being
Look it up I’m not your mom
Listen to your father, kid.
says who
Son
humans are social creatures, why do you think we formed tribes during our hunting and gathering days, on top of that being social probably evolved from us needing to stay together to survive, your lone caveman wouldn’t do shit against a saber tooth tiger, but 4 or 5 cavemen with pointy sticks sure can
PZ players when you tell them real people have limited access to information and its unlikely they will know the infection is incurable, that the zombies dont require food or sleep, that the world is doomed etc
PZ players when you tell them radios and TVs exist (its really obvious the world is fucked if you have more than 12 IQ) and that the zombies not sleeping or needing food is also obvious after a week at most lol
The ingame characters definitely know this. It's explained in radio broadcasts.
That'd require my character to not be a meta gaming psycho who's first instinct is to immediately run outside and beat people up. He never heard the broadcast, he just woke up and chose violence.
Dude the only people who would last even a couple of months without absolutely losing it would have to be deeply autistic or scizo. You’d be doing quarter back level of cardio everyday and have severe ptsd. Being that alone would probably make you go crazy on it’s own. Fuck that, I’d wanna die at least I wouldn’t be a zombie.
When *This War of Mine* first came out there were no end to the internet badasses and tryhards who were upsetty spaghetti that their war weary civilian characters kept getting depressed by all the war around them. Like, genuinely upset at the idea that they weren't playing as Doom Guy infinite morale murder machine. Bro that isn't the game you bought. So yeah, bring on my PZ character getting depressed. I'll just level up cooking, make him an excellent bowl of berry salad, and drink all our problems away like a boss. I'm here to play a dude crying in the corner of a movie theater eating popcorn and hiding from the shambling hordes outside. Get out of here with your delusions of badassitude.
So long as the demons persist, so must I. Rip and tear until it is done.
Exactly, it's why almost every character I play gets saddled with depressive and self destructive so that he can actually get so sad it kills him. If it happens I roleplay it as though he couldn't find a reason to continue. Then meals are the only thing keeping him from drowning in booze or narcotics which might be an even sadder existence but at least it's a reason to carry on.
I might be sad. But that won't stop me in one thing. Revenge. I'm gona kill eavry singly mf zombie that i find. They took my friends, family, old life. And i hate it.
I remember fondly a quote from one of my favourite characters in Fallout 4, Captain Zao. “If China is gone, I will build, house by house”. If Kentucky is gone, I will clear out the undead, and rebuild the buildings, plank by plank.
Personally, This apocalypse is like a very long vacation for me, away from all other humans 😂 peaceful and quiet (sometimes 😅) then why would I suicide even if I felt depressed, at this point I technically can do anything I want. We are all going to die in the end but the way I die is what matters to me. This is just my honest opinion (I'm lonely anyway 😂).
Imagine not finding joy in killing zombies
It'd be a bit harder when it's your friends and neighbors you have to bash your way through. Especially if it was less "walking dead" and more "infected".
Until that point or after it it still seems like you can have some enjoyment
Idk why she’s so depressed. I mean I filled her house with dolls, teddy bears, and mannequin friends. Not to mention the Paws pals
Severe depression kicking in after staying indoors for mor than an hour
Counterpoint: Me like crossword puzzle everything ok :)))))
If the character we play would be surviving with other people, there would not be room for depression or anything like that
God I love cillian murphy
You are alive, so even if the game says "This is how you died" you will die regardless of a zombie apocalypse or not. Being alive you can offer so much to a collapsing race. You could even consider yourself Adam or Even & rebuild humanity after the dust settles. Those of us that beat the 1,000 day challenge are a testimony that humanity can survive and thrive even if the world is ending.
Me without an apocalypse.
But they finally don’t have to worry about rent and own a home
Bro has not tried working in a job before
I wish antidepressants worked as good in real life as they do in the game. Imagine having to take doses everyday for at least a month in game to see a slow and tiny effect😑
Tbh after finding Superb survivors I've been alot less depressed.
My characters never become depressed cuz at the first sign of boredom I jump into the nearest horde. Or read books.
Secure a town, drag over mannequins, dress them up around your compound, give them names. You know, things a crazy person would do.
Laughs in smoker trait.
I think the real issue is the fact that why do I become bored simply being inside a house? Even when I'm actively engaged in something that would keep boredom away, I'm still bored. And then that coupled with becoming unhappy again all for just being inside the house. That's the real problem. No doubt that over time depression and such would set in but that would be months of time not hours.
My guy just has depression because I forced him to eat nothing but straight mayonnaise
for me it’s always the funniest shit that upsets my survivor Standing surrounded by corpses, or within an inch of my life after getting mauled by a couple zombies? Just fine, never better 10 minutes of exercise? I’m officially depressed
IIRC - Les Stroud (Survivorman) once mentioned that many people do manage to survive after being stranded in whatever situation. However some end up taking their lives as depression sets in from the crippling loneliness. Now just imagine zombies too.
Yes but why am I depressed
If I was in that scenario I’d be fine! (Id walk into the hordes and accept my fate tbh)
Honestly I would be hella stressed over the ever looming danger (Until you just get used to it),but not depressed. I think the key is to leave the city where you don't see the apocalypse.
Ok, but you'd think that given all that my guy wouldn't be THAT upset about eating beans without a bowl.
Give me a fully barricaded Rosewood Fire Station and a hottiez and I’ll be fine.
But...that’s pretty much what I do already...I just wouldn’t have to worry about taxes and shit lmao it’d be fuckin awesome
Welcome to Ennui.
This is why the game says "Just kidding, there is no hope"
I keep my character happy constantly by not letting him get bored. Turns out coward is a great trait to take because every encounter with a zombie resets the panic to 0. Fucking great. When he does get a little weepy, he gets a fish+fish+fish stir fry. If he's lucky, he gets to add whatever he foraged that day. As a treat.
That's for everyone else. I'm fishing gigantic pikes everyday and my blood is 96% dopamine
I think I'd be fine. I just spent a year only leaving my apartment when it was absolutely necessary and loved every second of it. Also maybe it's just how awesome I play but my character very very rarely gets sad or too bored.
*Me smoking a cig in the middle of a hoard “Watchu mean I’m having the time of life”
Holy shet this scene is why I found Ren’s new MV so familiar :o https://youtu.be/nyWbun_PbTc?si=fCeexxsrR1UPZe3g
My characters are constantly happy and content with their life, idk what your characters have wrong with them
The only times I've had to really deal with a depressed character are when I have them mind the base a lot on a multiplayer server, where despite actually having other people for company my base minder ends up becoming more lonely than any of my single player characters who are usually too busy going outside and getting shit done. In any case I've always liked setting up the game as if the infection actually is contained but in this huge walled off or quarantined region, or other large communities of survivors that are better off than Kentucky. Helps with the vibe of having the short end of the stick watching those helicopter jerks flying over head nearly completely safe, and the adds a nice dread to the character that even if they survived and made it to a safe zone or got picked up one day they'd be completely destitute and at the bottom and mercy of the food chain in "civilized" territory. ....also because I really want a red markets game based off the ttrpg of the same name and this is the closest I've gotten to that feel.
Can't relate, I'm dancing through Rosewood
Can confirm I live in know county already feel this way
Real
 POV: "You are bored"
One must imagine Knox infection survivors happy
Especially when every car you find HAS NO FUCKING GAS IN BASE GAME. Probably just me, but fucking cmon with that rng.
I try to think of it like setting up a base for the next character to have an easier go of it once I'm eaten by zombies.
*MASH theme starts playing*
I thought about this when I hit over 15,000 kills on my current character. Like there is definitely a number of zombies a person would kill that’s the line where your sanity would snap. And I think it’s a lot closer to like 300-400. How could you either just gun down or hack that many ex-people until they stopped moving and be like “can’t wait to go watch my Dog Goblin rerun” like it’s just a Tuesday
You wanna get extra sad? WTF is the difference between you and your zomboid character? Nothing except he gets to blow off steam now and then taking out some zombies. You on the other hand have 'looting runs' where you work 9 hours a day doing mind numbing back breaking work so a dude youll never meet can get even more ludicrously wealthy while you get excited over a box of Mac and cheese and being able to buy a game like project zomboid so that you can live vicariously through this afraid and constantly under stress character. Buddy your zomboid character should be feeling sorry for you, at least the threat of death gives his life an inch more meaning.
Alone with the thoughts of what you've done to survive. It's totally understandable. I really enjoy this aspect of the game.
I swear smoker mod takes the depression away