Project Zomboid

[Perkel]

So they finally released cars. Now just another 4 years and 5 visual updates and we'll maybe see NPCs. Maybe.

There is actually pretty nice mod that adds NPCs and it is really really really working well. It is called super survivors for 39 version of game. There is also superb survivors for 40+ but it is still very buggy and not recommended to use at this point.

I started playing it like 2 hours ago and it really really changes game for better.
It is really fun to see initial outbeak with people panicking around shooting, running away etc.

Also you have waifu companion.

REQ:
- mod
- solo only, no multi (it uses multi stuff and drives players with scripts to simulated npcs)

Features:
- you can group up with NPCs
- Those npcs can make a choice to join you or not.
- They are fully independent with their own needs
- They can group with themselves creating independent groups.
- They can take care of themselves, eat food, outfit weapons, fight with zombies, run away etc.
- They have skills which can be used by you but it depends on their skill level. You can't for example order someone to farm your stuff if he doesn't have farming at lvl 3.
- You can order group to do many things, loot, follow/stand, look for containers for themselves, etc etc etc.
- Each NPC has independat mood. Some might panic and run away, some are very aggressive.
- They all talk and react to different things. They can talk with each other, comment on various stuff.
- Despite being in your group they are still independent. So if you have problem with food they might just go and scavange some food for themselves if they are really hungry.
- NPC will form also bandit groups after some time which can attack your group or other groups.
- Thanks to orders you can actually now build some proper base with guards, people patroling etc.
- You can take over NPC to continue game with that dude. State of Decay anyone ?

https://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php?/topic/23579-super-survivors/

 

[someone else]

Won't the modders have to update their mods every time there is a major game update?

 

[Perkel]

Won't the modders have to update their mods every time there is a major game update?

Which is why you stay on certain patch version
GOG have feature to set game version while i believe devs enabled same thing for Steam

I use gog version and there i set last 39 version.

 

[SmartCheetah]

Can those guys suddenly go on eg. food run, and don't come back? Or they always come back unscathed?

 

[Perkel]

Can those guys suddenly go on eg. food run, and don't come back? Or they always come back unscathed?

They really do search for food and this means they can die.
Also it is worth noting that having that first key can be crucial. Because other NPCs form groups that go from house to house and scavange stuff. So if you can't lock your door someone can just go and take your stuff.

edit:

I noticed that those NPCs aren't random but they have purpose. For an example i started new game now and i spawned instead of a house inside of a hotel room. I went to recepcion and there was hotel owner saying to everyone that hotel rooms are now for free with few people gunning down on street zombies.

I leaved hotel with my waifu and we reached school where someone was mourning their teacher.

It is very impressive stuff for just a mod.

 

[Perkel]

I am changing to 41 to see if it is really buggy or not. I saw YT dude playing it just fine and it looks and play much better.

 

[SmartCheetah]

Keep us posted. I was holding to play PZ because of NPC's. MP is fine and all, but I like my single player games.

 

[Perkel]

Keep us posted. I was holding to play PZ because of NPC's. MP is fine and all, but I like my single player games.

Same as me. I don't like MP in games like those.
The NPC stuff is really neat, from what i read they will be officially implementing NPCs in future.
Also what is weird is that there were NPCs in very early version but they later removed them as they focused on multi which is why modder were able to get so comprehensive mod. Basically he took what was already in game reenabled and patched stuff.

 

[Perkel]

The fresh early start is really fucking great. It is amazing to watch how npcs panic, board houses, form groups and deal with initial outbreak.

 

[Perkel]

btw here is how it looks. Some dude LP with this mod. timestamp to interaction:

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Of course it takes fucking modders to add NPCs to the game because those sacks of shit developers probably haven't done anything on it despite promising NPCs the last 9 years.

 

[Mortmal]

those sacks of shit developers probably haven't done anything on it despite promising NPCs the last 9 years.

That! so much that...

 

[paperjack]

Is this thing still alive and under development?
I remember playing a little ages ago.

 

[Alienman]

Development from 2012 I believe. Time flies.

 

[Perkel]

Is this thing still alive and under development?
I remember playing a little ages ago.

Developement is slow but recent (meaning half year) changes were kind of big.

They reworked animation system, 3d models, clothing system, temperature system, added seasons, dynamic weather, cars but you need to enable beta branch and for now multiplayer in that beta doesn't work so single player only. Buy hey NPC mod works with that latest branch really well.

My latest run seems okish. I took fast reader and fast learner dude, got carpentry to 5, barricaded whole house found key in one of houses, dismantled doors from that house for doorknob that matches my key and i replaced doors for my house. Now i can lock them and don't risk random NPCs or zombies coming in. Started to work on log fence but it goes very slowly due to weight of logs. For a second i thought that i got fucked because there was icon of "i feel weird" which is indication of disease and most probably zombification. But i poped up drugs and slept it off somehow. Got luck as i got 2 rifles and 3 pistols from one house with plenty of ammo. Once i will get 2-3 npcs extra i will stock them with weapons and make them guards.

 

[Perkel]

Forgot about changes to zombies and mechanics:
- they introduced ability to set walkers to 48 hours later likes ones and many other options.
- your melee weapons hit only one zombie at the time, no longer you can just swing your bat and handle multiple zombies.
- zombies deal a lot more damage when they hit you from back.
- if you run while encumbered you can trip, especially when you jump through fences and such.
- you can now spring with alt (shift is jog)


After 6 hours run i just died. I was getting to comfy in me taking out zombies with axe. Turns out that i missed one zed and he came at me from back just when i was hitting the other one. I was too focused on trying to help npc who was besieged in his house to not properly scout area. Also helicopter royally fucked up my surroundings.

 

[Tweed]

I forgot this even existed, again.

 

[Perkel]

Time to necro this thread. Official dev quote on NPCs and progress from june 2020:

After animations, every build will be introducing parts of the NPC systems we have built up until 1.0. It's our 'road to npcs' roadmap

Next 5 builds ->
* Animations,
* Hunting (NPC AI code integrated in simpler form for animals),
* NPC Scenarios/Encounters (Non persistent NPC set pieces and events, Kate & Bob reintroduced)
* Autonomous NPCs and groups (NPCs that can play the game, group with player and be ordered around),
* NPC Group/Faction mechanics (Personalities, group politics, inter-group conflicts, meta game and story interactions)

Animations build 0.41 is still in beta only available in BETA channel. They will keep it like that until they fix multiplayer which was broken due to vast amount of changed in 0.41 beta. But lately they were able to run servers with 20-30 people in it and it seems that they should move toward 2nd goal hunting with 0.42

 

[Alienman]

After 11 difficult years...

 

[someone else]

After 11 difficult years...

How many hours they work in a week.

 

[Alienman]

5.

 

[thesecret1]

Well, I gave it some reading, and they aren't trying to "fix multiplayer", what they're doing amounts to redoing the whole multiplayer from scratch, ergo why they are still working on that now, months later. Gotta admit, they've got some balls to try doing what they're doing (giving ownership of zombies to the clients rather than to the server) – I can't imagine the amount of fuckery they'll need to go through to make it not look like complete ass when two players see one zombie of which they BOTH have ownership, with different latency (they mention a priority system, but seriously, that thing is gonna need some heavy masking on their part to not look like utter garbage), nor how they hope to prevent everyone from hacking the game to high heavens. On the other hand, it would indeed lower server load enough to allow dozens of people playing on the same server.

Too bad this means we won't see them even start working on all the NPC stuff any time soon.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Too bad this means we won't see them even start working on all the NPC stuff any time soon.

But they said they started working on that 8 years ago. You aren't calling them liars, are you? A dog ate their computers, man. And then there were fires. And floods. And a meteor. YOU GOTTA BELIEVE ME

Edit: Though bitching aside, I genuinely do wish they'd fucking get that NPC shit done. Last I heard they were going to do something along the lines of long dead and forgotten Rogue Survivor where basically all the NPCs are playing the exact same game as you, which means people tend to be more peaceful earlier on and then get more hostile and raider-y as resources get scarce. That'd be cool. I don't genuinely think they're working on it because it's been so fucking long and they keep adding shit like 3D models and multiplayer and raccoons to jerk off to, but it'd be nice if it happened.

Double edit: Jesus, and I jokingly pulled 8 years out of my ass but looking at the time that's probably about correct. They've been working on the game for pushing 10 years now and I know I bought it ridiculously early on, I believe when they hosted the game themselves since I remember later getting a Desura key and then getting a Steam key ages after that. For fuck's sake. At least it was sub-$10 when I bought it but it still pisses me off.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

You guys don't want to accept the truth: that "early access" is nothing but a scam to siphon money out of people, all the while never taking responsibility to deliver anything complete or tangible.

It pisses me off every time I see it. That's why gaming from 20-30 years ago was greater. When a game was released, it was complete, and that's it.

None of this buying a game with a few features, and then thanking developers every time they throw us some bread crumbs by adding a few more, and having to sit around with a half-assed product for so long that you forget it even exists.

 

[cretin]

The hellscape of EA games is exactly why suits are absolutely justified in getting in the way of creative's Muh Brilliant Visions in every project ever.

Every field suffers from this, and it's always the money that gets blamed when things go wrong, but what you don't see is all the projects that were rescued from the ether by money coming in and saying "not a red cent more until you produce something tangible, faggots". And if whatever results is shit, there's always people shedding tears for the creatives and getting behind their sob story that if they had More Time and More Money it would've been so much better, and the truth no one wants to admit is no it wouldn't have. "potential" is a spook. It doesn't exist.

My favorite FPS of all time only exists because an outsider stepped in and told day dreaming slavshits they weren't getting dick until something complete was produced.