Project Zomboid's Fundamental Problem

All i want is npcs that won't get stuck running in circles and make my 8-core 4ghz old powerhouse processor go 100% for little to no reason.
It's just too lonely in singleplayer and too lively in multiplayer for me.

My end game often relies on mods. Green fire has me looting every village for a grinder or a jar to craft the best joint the world has ever seen.

this seems to be why you only have 5k subs. your critiques seemed to be aimed at a game that ISNT sandbox. its a sandbox. YOU make the story

If they add npcs that can forfill base roles then you could work towards rebuilding

You just described all games.. the answer is to stop playing and go outdide

Now that you mention it isn't that the exact gameplay "ladder" of kenshi ?

At first you are nomadic look for people to hireand get some equipment to start out. Then you start setling somewhere building everything up etc and then the base managment part starts


or for me the black dragons gang almost murders your whole team so you are forced to go mining until you can afford some armed thugs that help you retake the base.

Honestly, as time goes on in PZ, it gives me 'Zombieland' vibes. I used to host a server before I mistakenly deleted it that lasted almost 10 months in real time and 7 months in game. Having a base, solid source of food and water, and of course, the friendly neighborhood of zombies. After a point in time, the whole thing just becomes the new norm.

World's gone to shit cuz of the infection and you just make do with what you got. Zombieland and Zombieland 2: Double Tap showcases life with the zombies. ESPECIALLY the second movie. Been 10 years and showcases more of life in a zombie infested world since the first movie.

And just like how the beginning tells you; "This is how you died." You just go on with life in PZ until you die. Whether it'd be literally 5 minutes or 5+ months in the game. I don't mind the game having no sort of 'real ending'. Because in all honesty, if there's any "real" ending to PZ, whether by the zombies or your own terms, it's just you dying in the end.

Sorry for the lengthy comment!

zombies should mutate over weeks/months maybe idk - or maybe building a settlement with NPCs to keep alive and give them jobs

Thinking there is truly an "Endgame" to a game that literally has no end shows where we are as a society.

Honestly I think they have to really nerf farming, though I haven't a clue how exactly, because the main thing killing my engagement is surviving a month and no longer having a reason to ever leave my base again besides entirely self-made "goals" like killcount, a cooler gun, cosmetic improvements to the base, etc.
Once you have a farm up and running and some rain barrels, you really stop needing to leave your base, ever, aside from a fuel run once a month or so, and even that's optional if you minmax the growing time of your crops.
Either solving food has to go, or there has to be a penalty to hanging out in your base, such as the game coaxing the zombies into assaulting YOU specifically in their migrations by clustering up into large hordes that start shuffling towards wherever you are from everywhere on the map

Like yes, of course, the holy grail is to achieve total self sufficiency and safety in the zombie apocalypse, but the game should never actually let you do that. It should be a carrot on a string hung in front of you, keeping you moving by making you constantly seek out more firepower, more food, more resources because you WILL run out if you stay put.

I thought i was weird for thinking the same thing
Once you got a house and survive you.. Did it? Your not dead now and theres nothing else to do

I mean idk theres plenty of ways to make it more fun self made challenges even mods i mean community is pretty good

This is actually my only real proper complaint with PZ outside of micro issues (like multiplayer desync) and recently I've been thinking about giving that extraction quest mod a go. I have no idea how customizable it is but I know the zones you can extract from can be randomized which would make it so you can't just park yourself in a nice spot and perma fish / farm till you get bored. I feel like having an unpredictable ending goal is the perfect answer to the dull PZ end game issue since you might have to pick up and move at a moments notice to drive across the county just to prep for the extraction that's coming in a few days. Would be awesome to see other mod integration too for random scenarios, like parachuting in as an agent and forced to develop the cure before extraction can begin.

The biggest problem I always had with single player was that the further you get in base building, the slower your rate of progression. It's not nearly as bad in multiplayer when you can assign one guy to be on gas+generator duty, one guy to farm, one carpenter, one metal worker, etc but your daily checklist of maintenance tasks gets really old really quick when you try to start branching out into different skills.

My number one hope for the NPC update is that they'll let you assign NPCs to those roles and cut down on wasted time doing busywork like tearing apart dozens of clothing parts for a fraction of a thread or dissembling every piece of wooden furniture in a building.

me and my friend are surviving for 2 mounths now we set up our base on the border of louisville where there are 3 mansion with a metal fence around them, there is even a lake close to it we disable the respawn of the zombie and i set up in way that make the max population reached on day 1, after around 4600 zombie killed the road in front of our house is still a hot place forcing us to clear it every 5/10 days because the zombie come out from the town with the migration system and start to occupy the same road.

The thing that kills it for me is the "random zombie spawns." It doesn't matter what you do or how well you actually play, you are one helicopter or gunshot away from your base being swarmed.

> can't sex with zombies

😂

I play to take risks and survive. The survival is the whole fun and point of the game. And if you feel you’ve done everything your wrong. There’s sandbox and mods. There’s endless content for the game from what I see it. A new fun experience every time.

I will defend a bit project zomboid, which isn't my favorite game and i was pretty disapointed to find there is no real "ending" (yet) except for some mods.

But it have tons of quality and one of them and what you missed in this video. Yes, when you start, everything is new, you discover, you are afraid of zombies and more you play, more you become bored by the playstyle.

But now, if you look closely about what the majority of the community provides about this game (mods and stuff), it's story contents and challenge. And that's the essence of Project Zomboid. PZ isn't made to stay alive for 3 years or more, trying to avoid being bitten. It's about made something meaningful before you die.

Now when i start a new save of PJ, i can play vanilla and just decide to randomly attack a military base, armed with my knife and bottle of water. I can try this mod when you drop on the floor you die, and you are forced to play above the ground and survive. I can try another mod where i need to find a cure. Or simply decide to create the best base possible and trying to make it the most zombies proof possible. I can turn off respawn and kills all the zombies in the map ! You can decide to get all negatives perks and try to survive this way !

No way you can simply get bored because of the gameplay when you have so much different way to enjoy the game, simply by giving yourself a challenge.

Ive been playing 10 years. The next big update is going to add animal NPC's and will act as a test for human NPC's. Also its a huge crafting update. Give them time. This is a passion project. Remember, you aren't the main character. You're just an ordinary guy/girl. Towards the end game when you have enough guns and gear to not be afraid anymore is when the real survival starts. Sure it can get monotonous, but thats how it would be in real life too. End game mods like helicopter events and things like horde night extend the gameplay for much much longer as well. One thing I do is make it so zombies progress from weak shamblers to eventually strong sprinters. It gives me motivation to really harden my base and keep prepared at all times.

You say you want more challenges like big zombie hordes, but you don't like the helicopter event, which the sole purpose of it is to increase challenge and to bring a big horde to your base. You are very hypocritical person for saying this.

I do agree the crafting expansion should be pushed back. It doesn't add to the late-game experience. They need to add purpose. Things to strive for other than surviving.

Aaah, but you are mistaken. Indeed.
In your foolishness, you have assumed that I have survived long enough for winter to come.

I don't know if settlement building, faction wars and deep NPC interactions work well combined with permadeath and one hit kills.
You can't really get attached to NPCs or factions.

I think the devs themself said that "surviving a year is supposed to be a big feat that only the most dedicated players will reach" one time.
To me, this is a "how far can you get" rougelike game where I try to survive as long as possible.

They will add NPCs eventually.

Absolutely agree with NPCs and factions. That really should be the first focus.

Your video is kinda made ... invalid, because there 'are' zombie wandering hordes and migration mechanics :/

Has been this whole time.

I'd like something to happen like 3+ years in, like a military group starts pushing through, clearing out areas and rebuilding stuff, you can either fight, join or avoid them.
The horde would then fight them too.
Imagine a full scale horde fighting a group of military soldiers, right outside your safehouse.

PZ Just needs a massive multiplayer experience. Like DayZ.

an mega update is in the Works and npc will soon be added so ..

For me i just really want other survivors lol. Make it so i can interact with them and stuff so its like an undead animal crossing.

Something that a lot of people don't really consider is that Zomboid is a passion project that is very much in early access. They're completely transparent with their development cycle which is something that most, if not all, companies neglect to do. In many games, updates come as DLCs and unannounced or unpredictable free live updates. Zomboid is a game that is devoid of both of those. There will be no DLC. The game will continue to receive predictable and functional updates. Everything is added as a system and in cycles.

As far as the crafting update being released as it is now, I think it's to allow the players to familiarize themselves with the new tools and systems that will be implemented to the game before they're added onto by future updates. It's a workable and reasonable release that will be further enhanced by future plans. I could be wrong, but I do recall reading that in an earlier dev blog. Like another commenter said, let them cook. THAT SAID. I think analyses like these and good feedback are important and healthy for the game. You had well constructed points and I appreciate the effort that went into this.

You see, when I "quit" at endgame it's not only because I'm bored it's because...

I won. I survived.

Also think, if your survivor has a well fortified base, tons of resources and food, you've basically conquered the apocalypse, your safe by most standards, for your char to enjoy the rest of their lives in the apocalypse.

I do agree with your points, tho and it would be fun to have some events more later down the line mods are what can currently scratch that itch.

I genuinely don't understand why NPCs aren't a thing in this game. What keeps me coming back to Zomboid right now are mods and the difficulty curve but I figured I'd check out of it pretty quick once I've mastered that. There needs to be more than just surviving for this game to really have legs.

The game is fantastic
Why are we whining ??
Oh i forgot “ human nature “

achievements.

Honestly this is by design limitation this game is about how you die.

It needs to go beyond its current design philosophy to extend the progression.
OR double down on its early to mid game flesh it out even further to retain its current philosophy

I don’t disagree with most of what you want for the game, but I do think the team is making the right decision in overhauling the crafting system first. The crafting system currently has a lot of clunky dependencies and annoyances, and hundreds of loose threads and fat that needs trimming after 10 years of patchwork additions and alterations.
A crafting overhaul will dictate the entire flow and balance of the game, and it's better to set that up as a solid foundation before tackling the complexity of integrating NPCs or more dynamic zombies/events, so that they don’t wind up either constrained by previous decisions they made for NPCs, or having to redo large portions of work to not create redundancy.
I do have some misgivings about the idea of playing Gregtech in Project Zomboid (the minecraft mod that their machine crafting trees are explicitly inspired by) since it's very different gameplay than what I associate with Zomboid, but I'm very curious to see how it will turn out, and happy to watch them cook.

There's a lack of dynamic events in the endgame. You find a safe place, get enough food and water and then it's just... do whatever. There's no real goal or incentive to do anything. A sandbox is good, but if every playthrough in the end becomes the same, it's just repetitive.

I got my friends together for a play session and one of them asked "So what do we do in this game?" and it was a harder question to answer than I thought it would be. The lack of any real end-game content means there's nothing to really work toward and even though I enjoy the solitary aimlessness of the single-player experience it's a lot harder to get multiple people to keep playing without a goal. Here's hoping the NPC update gets finished soon.

Project zomboid is the perfect example of a game that would massively benefit from procedural generation. Part of it feeling stale is the static map and kills a lot of replayability at least for me, as soon as I drop in I know where I am and where I need to go to get the best start.

I dont understand how devs havent figured out that even something as basic as a military outpost on the opposite end of the map, that promises a shelter for survivors but upon arrival is completely overrun, gives the player an objective to strive towards.

you are the problem. Not PZ.

I would love this, one issue I had when I played the game is asking myself "what's the purpose?" "Why bother surviving?" Being given the option to go from scared boi to rebuilding from the ruins of cities you watched fall into disrepair would be awesome.

Just random horde events and survivor NPCs would make a huge difference.

And this... is why MODS exist!

They could introduce more realism. Make canned food expire at some point. Make certain types of canned food expire quicker than others. Make farming and fishing harder. This would make those skills more valuable, and make long-term bases harder to sustain. With the animals, I hope they introduce wild animals like bears that stalk and hunt you. Then you'd have to be on your toes even in the woods.

Yeah until they add I'm just really not interested in the game anymore, you're right on the money

I have play zomboid for about 1000 hours. I absolutely love the game and I am looking forward to the crafting update/animals. But the real meat is definitely going to be when npc's come in. I don't think it is bad to have the crafting update first because it will give players more time to experiment with the crafting system before the npcs come but as it stands right now I generally get to winter and then restart due to the lack luster gameplay at that point. I super enjoy building an awesome base and becoming self sestainable, but then the "what do I do?" creeps in.