Thread 719686583

Challenge: can you guess which game is Project Zomboid and which is The Sims?

I'm an idiot and fell for all the Project Zomboid propaganda again. I bought the game in 2019, refunded it because of the early The Sims and X-com graphics, watched a stream of it today, bought it again, then refunded it again because I thought the streamer lowered the graphics since their PC wasn't that good. Surely the developer has moved past the nearly identical graphics and gameplay from the 1990s XCOM games since 6 years ago? NOPE!

Buyer beware. What you see in the unofficial screenshots and videos IS WHAT THE GAME IS. Go ahead and berate me because I don't care. This thread is for people who got conned into buying it and just want to vent.

>>719686583 (OP)
Zomboid is as wide as an ocean and as deep as a puddle.
There's no reason to grind up skills and build a base because the game actively incentivizes you to never use anything but the same boring melee strats you use since the beginning of the game. Great, you've stored a year's worth of canned food and can swing a pickaxe like nobody ever has before. Those fun, rare shotgun or rifle drops? You're fucked if you use them. You can't even build a proper, normal-looking shelter without mods.

Beyond that, the devs are lazy as fuck and it's been in early access for nearly a decade. I feel like if you release a game in 'early access' and exceed five years (and that's being exceedingly generous) you give players the option to refund if they want.

>>719686583 (OP)
of all the things to criticize this game about you chose graphics?

>>719686894
do mods fix it? I bought the game years ago too and dropped it because I died in what I felt was an unfair way.
I actually dont mind a slow burn like kenshi or whatever, but the game seemed to encourage and punish that gameplay at the same time.

>>719686583 (OP)
The updates have been shit and the devs cater to the faggots and casuals that just wanna grind out retarded skills in the wilderness with zombies set to low and infection disabled. The game should've leaned into the fact, which everyone everywhere has already pointed out, that once you settle down the game becomes incredibly boring to the point where your only hope of fun is to deliberately send yourself into increasingly daring suicide missions to remind yourself it's a zombie game. Instead of fucking pottery and all that useless shit they should've used the animation update and 3d to make the combat more interesting, like kicking while you're using melee, zombies lunging forward, etc. but your point about the graphics is retarded. The game looks miles better than it did back then and it keeps getting lighting updates, and it does have its own style. Though I think at this point they've stuck by the 2D-world 3d-entities to allow for potato players, and because of sunk cost of making thousands of tiles and pieces of furniture

You could have just made a normal thread if you wanted to talk about it instead of this pathetic attempt at engagement bait

>>719686583 (OP)
I still play it and enjoy it because the graphics are my favorite part lol

>>719687141
Yes. I don't want X-Com: UFO Defense graphics from 1994, but with slightly better gameplay. PZ looks like an extremely early alpha test of someone's first time making a graphical artstyle.

>>719686583 (OP)
Muldraugh Warehouse my beloved

>>719687206
Kenshi has actual progression and you can get the shit kicked out of you and come back (it's kinda mandatory but you already know that).
In Zomboid you're trying to work towards a short list of goals for a safe base, and when you achieve them, you've more or less solved the game and there's no reason to explore further. If you get bit, you're dead - you can turn off infection though. I do, because the first aid skill is practically worthless if you don't. Like >>719687303 said, it's more of a survival game than it is an action game, and fighting zombies is so shallow and under incentivized, unless you like sorting things into their respective containers, you're probably not going to have a good time if you want a Kenshi equivalent.

>>719687303
>faggots and casuals that just wanna grind out retarded skills in the wilderness with zombies set to low and infection disabled
Thing is, I don't even think this demographic exists. I think it's the devs' autism alone that makes them want to add this crap instead of adding more to the fun parts of the game. About a year ago Lemmy had another meltie and threatened to sell the game to another dev and I didn't see a single person who was opposed to that idea.

>>719687565
>unless you like sorting things into their respective containers, you're probably not going to have a good time if you want a Kenshi equivalent.
But anon, you can also do that in Kenshi.

>>719687402
I believe in art style over fidelity. As long as I can easily discern between objects in the world and clearly understand their function, I'm happy.

There was a thread a few days ago about Morrowind vs. Gothic and I reinstalled Gothic and found it to be a beautiful game. Yes, 2001, lumpy looking models, but everything is clear and there is a consistent style, and at least with some light modding, the lighting effects are atmospheric.

There's a lot that isn't very good about Project Zomboid, plenty of things that, given its long and drawn out development, seem even worse than they should be, but one thing I cannot fault the game for is art direction. In fact, that's one of the things about PZ that makes me want to play it.

>>719687612
>tfw you will never get to do short dashes, kicks, rolls, or jump vault over furniture and tables to evade the zombies
They should've compromised and remade furniture to be 3D so it can be interacted with perfectly

>the game's screenshots are exactly what I got, this is theft
>don't get conned like me

>>719687206
Mods are great but devs fuck multiplayer with each build which is the only good part of pz, i have 300hrs in pz out of those i only played solo for 5hrs

>>719688156
PZ does have a lot of graphical soul leftover from its earlier, more experimental years. It's a shame they seem to be moving away from that. The moodles are now far too fuckable, whenever I look at the top right of my screen I should not be suddenly distracted by wanting to pound my user interface- they're also super smooth in a game of primarily pixel graphics which looks odd.

>>719686583 (OP)
Just play Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead like every proper autist. It's better than PZ in every way.

>>719688161
stupid cocksucker devs made their own engine from scratch instead of just using unity or whatever
14 years and we didn't even get shadows with the lighting 'update'

>>719688441
Buy an ad shill

>>719688589
It's a free game (unlike PZ)

>>719687402
>mfw interceptor theme intensifies
https://youtu.be/un8B0oKCERk?si=eITcJV7t5sh8_ZF9

>>719686583 (OP)
based schizoid OP

>>719688375
holy fuck did they seriously swap those earlier icons with this zoomer titktok tier shit?

>>719687402
Go play Seven Days to Die or DayZ then you dumb nigger

>>719688375
Drunk and Exhausted are literally porn

>>719688441
For real dude Zomboid doesn't even have a skeleton warlock that shoots ASCII shoop da woop lasers at you it's all about building and survival Ugh boring much?

>>719688473
Why the fuck would I want shadows?
What does that add to the game?
Same shit 3d models added: Fucking nothing.
It's a game not a movie, faggot.

>>719689418
In CDDA you can build a house from scratch, with walls, multiple stories. Then you can install wires into the walls, rig the whole house for electricity, install freezers, kitchen, welders and a dozen other tools.
You can build and survive if you want. You can start indawoods and survive from gathering and hunting.

>>719689550
So true dude and it even has epic turn based Shia LaBeouf

>>719689550
Is there a game like Cataclysm DDA, but with realistic graphics?

>>719689771
Fallout New Vegas :^)
Seriously though open world/free roam roguelikes are not exactly a lucrative genre.
There's CDDA, Elona, and not much else.

>>719686583 (OP)
All that buzzwording, yet you make threads praising CDDA lmao have some intellectual consistency

Did B42 ever get better or are the combat methods from B41 still "balanced" out of existence

what a retarded "bait"

>CDDA
>Play as a 20 INT average ST lawyer-genius.
>Start half a year into the apocalypse so everything can kick my shit in
>Pitifully scavengs what easy pickings there are and spend the winter grinding skills, gear and intel.
>Winter is over
>Hit a nearby lab with my bronze + leather armor and a kevlar vest.
>Have to pickaxe in from the side bc no keycard.
>Get shot at by the CROWS turret immediately upon entry.
>Dash to a room off to the side.
>Hear the turrrt continue to fire as i work to staunch my arterial bleeding
>Huh
>Eventually it stops
>Peek outside
>It's infinity SUPER SOLDIER ANTS
>The turret alerted the nearby anthill
>They all aggro on me
>Pull out my glock and start blasting
>Immediately grabbed by an ant which causes me to drop my gun and get dragged away
>Die like a bitch because of a fucking ant.
Made me mad

I built a rock forge and kiln and spent irl time hours smithing bronze gear and gathering copper from fucking wall wiring and i just die to a random ant.

>>719691425
Yeah, anthills fucking suck.
I found an underground lab level that was right near an anthill. On the map the lab sort of merged with the anthill caverns and it was a shitshow.

>>719691425
imagine not save scumming in CDDA
there's way too much repetitive grinding, it's not a roguelike and should not be played like one

>>719688375
Why did they make exhausted look like someone having an orgasm?

Anons really are so desperate they'd fuck an emoticon huh.

Is this project browntoid?

Is there a game like zomboid's first month in game where you're foraging and developing your base but that's the whole game? I find that I'll make a new world when I find a modded map I think would be cool, have a great time for the first 10 hours or so, and by then I've found a base and have my water and food situation sorted out in the long term. I'm basically post scarcity at this point and I pretty quickly stop giving a shit and let that character go into quiet retirement.

>>719693670
No. Developing a base is the first and most fun aspect of every game. Self sufficiency is the entire point of the survival genre, once you solved it, it's over.

>>719686894
Dude I bought this game on in 2011

>>719686583 (OP)
>What you see in the unofficial screenshots and videos IS WHAT THE GAME IS
Uh yeah? Did you think it would be different?
>hey here's the game
>wtf it's exactly like they showed me
What do you mean "got conned"?

>>719693670
Factorio solves this by giving you more problems to solve once somethings fixed.
survival games could do with a similar loop, but I dont think any have and im not sure they could.
apart from taking your progress away, what more do people need to survive but food/water/shelter?

Why are you buying unfinished games?

>>719696093
This is when something like being a woman and getting pregnant or being a man and getting your wife pregnant would be a natural progression. Having to gather even more resources for the more mouths to feed and hungrier pregnant woman etc. Having shit like raccoons appear and eat your food etc

>>719696362
Kind of makes me think of This War of Mine out of anything. You'd get periodic problems you have to address or opportunities you can put yourself in danger to pursue, zomboid could be a bit more dynamic like that. There is that mod where every so often a plane can drop a care package but it's loud and alerts every zombie in the vicinity, vanilla needs more situations like that.

>>719686583 (OP)
The artstyle is very nice and certainly a lot better than boring old "realism" artstyles.

>>719687303
I would say, delete one hit kill infection, add lunging zombies, add a roll/dash (doesn't have to be i frames) and then slowly add special infected that show up as the apocolypse progresses. First just fat zombies with more health, later sprinters, spitters, bloaters, long thin grabbers and eventually, maybe starting after two weeks, powerful brutes that are best avoided unless you have high martial arts skills, a good weapon and armor, unless you have a lot of explossives or a smart plan. Another variant could be juggernauts which roam the countryside alone and are quite easy to avoid, but extremely strong, tough and still quite fast and hard to lose once aggroed so taking them on in a fight would be an endgame goal for a maxed out character.

>>719686583 (OP)
I wish there was a game that was a mash up of this and the Sims 2.

>>719689489
Then should have stopped and made the game 2D instead, better yet make it like ZORK.

>>719689489
3d models can give you a much better idea as to where your character is facing, as well as increased dynamism, as well as working a lot better with zooming in and out as well as allowing far far more outfits and requiring far fewer assets to do this, it's also a lot easier to mod the 3d models than it would be to recreate animations for 2d images with all the separate angles, on so many levels is it superior, worse yet there's nothing stopping the devs from using shaders to redraw the 3d models as if they were sprites. Same goes for vehicles, vehicles as 2d sprites with natural movement would be hell, as a 3d model it's significantly easier to work with.

Yeah ok M**k

memeber when they added ragdolls instead of literally anything else? member all the absolute retards pretending to be giddy as children at the floppy zombie mans. member how you turned them off when the novelty started to get outweighed by the annoyances. i member.

>>719688156
How well does Gothic1 run on modern Windows? I only ever hear people recommend its sequel.

>>719693539
Dude, you are Mexican

why nobody post their bases?

>>719686583 (OP)
the vg for project zomboid is like doomer central. i can't think of a more abused, battered housewife who keeps holding out for a promise that will never be fulfilled than them. i don't even play project zomboid but i still go there occasionally just to laugh at them in a brutal car accident kind of way

>>719701493
my base is boringg also my game keeps crashing when i boot up now so idc anymore

Did they ever add fucking NPCs yet?

>>719701493
Because I keep losing my base over and over again and I do not even have one currently.

You know what, I will do another run because why not.
Let's see if it ends in 20 minutes or 6 hours.

"make your own story" isn't a gameplay feature

over here is a metalworking shop thing. you can see a mooer outside :p. sheeps are a little to the right.
>>719701579
that sucks. i had crashing issues when my fan control software updated and reset my curves to 0 causing overheating.

>>719686583 (OP)
>Bought it in 2019
That's not so bad. I bought it back in 2014 like a fucking moron, when early access was still a bit of a novelty. That was BEFORE the whole "we lost our laptop boo hoo" incident. It's been in early access over 10 years. This game is the reason I don't purchase early access games anymore.

>>719688473
>made their own engine instead of using Unity
If more companies did that we'd have less of the trash that infests the industry now.

>>719686894
>nearly a decade
2013 is more than a decade ago, anon. And that was just the Steam early access - it's been in development for longer than that.

Instead of developing things that the playerbase actually wants, the fucking retard makes an in-depth crafting system including blacksmithing, bowcrafting, and pottery. These systems make sense in some survival-crafting games, but this game is set in 1993 Kentucky, so nothing you craft will be as effective as simply getting a baseball bat or a compound bow from a sporting goods store. If you mention that this is a retarded waste of development time, expect a 5000 word blogpost "development update" complaining about how hard it is to be an indie dev and how the game is super difficult to develop for, and also don't worry NPCs are coming soon!!!

Is the new update any good? I heard it ruined a lot of things

Care to share some good mods or a collection?
All I see is fucking cars

>>719686583 (OP)
>WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT IT IS
Op thought this was a godlike own

>>719702585
The new update is kinda crap.
Highlites are:
>Post apocalyptic weapons that require many long hours of skill grinding to craft and are only barely tronger than crowbars and axes.
>A whole lot of pointless junk that is useful for role playing
>Some vehicle skins for the old vehicles
>Non-playable furry races
>Deformed crawler zombies
>Yo ho ho Pirate ship

Lowlites are:
>Muscle fatigue
>Most cool new items are locked behind real life hours of grinding in a permadeath game
>Crop farming is completely worthless now
>Politically correct zombie terminology (Overweight > very high weight; Axe man > Axe-pert; Unemployed > Custom Occupation)

>>719686583 (OP)
I'd write a longer reply but I'm still suffering muscle pain from my previous shitpost.

Now I'm off to siphon some gasoline into a wineglass while I blacksmith a new axe blade for the one that disintegrated after chopping down its third tree.

>>719702973
Do weapon heads actually evaporate if you break the handle?
That would be fucking awful if true.

>>719686583 (OP)
Foundation for it to be the ultimate zombie survival sim is there but as it stands it is not only being developed at a glacial pace but the dev's priorities are all wrong, not to mention there's countless retarded decisions that need to be fixed through sandbox settings or mods it feels like I'm booting up Skyrim.
Despite being less complete in their mechanics and sometimes jankier, I've had infinitely more fun playing Survival Crisis Z, State of Decay, Zed Zone, 7 Days to Die, Terminus, Invisible Strain...
I predict the community will hit a breaking point too, there's already two projects going on of people who previously modded for Zomboid, Vein and Dandelion Void, it wouldn't even surprise me if those end up releasing before PZ (would be the ultimate joke). Indie Stone better count their lucky stars that their community hasn't turned on them yet, any other EA taking that long to release gets massively review bombed whether it's being worked on or not.

>>719703015
You get one back but like 1/3 of their maximum repairability
You obviously need to make/find a new handle too
Better to just make another one rather than bother with wrecked trash if you can do that lol

>>719703204
>You get one back but like 1/3 of their maximum repairability
Is that just the normal durability loss from using the weapon or does it actually lose 2/3 of max durability upon the handle breaking?
I thought one of the good things about build 42 is that shovels are now semi-viable because, while the handles still break quickly, the heads have nearly baseball bat level durability if you regularly exchange the handles. But I haven't got to try this yet, mostly because I never survived long enough to run out of baseball bats to the point where I needed to use shovels in build 42 yet.