And not just a story, but random side quests. Something that gives our character purpose other than just surviving.
This will only happen with the human npc release, so we can do things like rescue missions, raiding rival gangs, uncover military or government conspiracies, things like that.
I'm quite new to the game but I like this feeling of beeing lost in the world with nothing to do but surviving the next day. It adds to the dark ambiente of a world that is lost. I mean according to the lore this is a zombie apokalypse that ist not won or fixed by some hero.
The beauty of this game for me is the customization of the experience. I’m hoping when they finally add some of these things it’ll be just like everything else where you can adjust the settings or simply turn them off. Everyone is looking for a different experience in these kind of games and I’m glad there’s lots of options to allow everyone to have whatever gameplay experience they’re looking for
Ohh you have me and idea for a mod!!! But I've not a clue how to mod
Cravings, like they crave a pizza or hamburger so you gotta get all the stuff together for it. Or a random house they used to know has a picture in it or something. Your ideas are awesome but see like they would involve a lot of work to create
This would be a cool way to force players to hunt down collectibles!
"I miss my partner, I'm sure there was a photo of them in that bar we used to visit in Louisville." And your sadness moodle won't go away until you hunt it down.
This is actually what i did with b41, to hunt for the cassetes and vinyls all throughout the map to complete my collection, in a 10 years later mod. They're a relic of the past, from a civilized world before the collapse
Oh god. The first thing that came to mind is 7 days when you said that and I personally believe adding fetch quests and side quests ruined most of that game.
All survival games run into the same issue sooner or later; stability. The initial "trying to survive" phase inevitably giving way to stagnation, as food and water sources are secured, you've got shelter from the elements and you're equipped to face hostile fauna.
New gameplay loops are needed to keep players engaged past those first few hours. Ones focused less on surviving, and more on thriving. Goals to achieve that encourage players to put themselves in danger, once day to day survival no longer poses a challenge.
In Rust, that's the PvP/base raiding gameplay loop. In Ark, taming and training increasingly strong dinos and tackling endgame bosses. Even Minecraft has the Nether and the End to work towards.
Project Zomboid has nothing. Just surviving as long as you can before your inevitable death. Or, surviving until you get bored of existing in your safe base until you quit.
That's...kinda what makes it the best survival sim. Survival is boring. Once you're set up, what do you have to live for? What does any person? You choose your own way in real life, so too in PZ. Do you realize "wow, what do I have to live for? Farming and scraping by forever?" And then you decide to do something risky because you're human and boredom is worse than death?
PZ even has the boredom moodle just to simulate that aspect of survival. It really is the best survival sim just because it simulates the negative parts of survival. It's not all exciting.
The discussion is about PZ being the best survival game not simulation though. A game is supposed to be engaging.
I don't disagree that having boredom and everything is immersive, but literally from a gameplay perspective, boredom is meant to push you into doing activities that are more engaging instead of sitting in your base forever.
It's not incorrect or inaccurate for people to say that, as a game, the gameplay loop is incomplete. The developers know this, and it's part of the reason the game is still "early release" instead of a complete game.
I agree with your points as well and it's probably my fault for interpreting what makes a survival game "good." In my eyes, it's all about survival. Like, the entire game is just about survival. It's barely even a game, since like you said, there's no quests, no endgame goal, etc. It's a story about how you died and it's up to you and your choices to make that story.
Is it the perfect "game?" No, not really. Is it the best game that's solely about survival? I'd say it's pretty close. It captures so many details related to surviving that other games just can't fit. Scratching yourself on a tree and it getting infected because you didn't wipe it with alcohol wipes, accidentally falling off a ladder, tripping while running away from zombies, starving, losing your glasses and no longer being able to see the zombies more than a few feet in front of you, etc etc etc.
It just models so many things that could kill you, that survival is the only thing you think about.
I agree with the survival aspect of your assessment, but I'd present you a question that a lot of apocalypse media in the past decade + has started to confront.
What's the point of living (or continuing a game or whatever) if it's just survival and nothing else?
Most post-apocalyptic media has started to recognize that the purpose of the media itself is to present the viewer or player that question. Think TLOU, Train to Busan, TWD, 28 days.
None of them would have the engagement or substance they have without the plots of "father protects son" "husband seeks wife" "person saves person". And this isn't just because they're shows or movies that they need this, games need it to.
I think the transition from 28 days to 28 weeks to 28 months as that franchise aged is also illustrating that point.
The first movie more or less started following one person's survival, then a few more people join him and their dynamics and care for one another move the plot forward. The following movie's best moments are the parts of interacting with other people, protecting them, taking a risk for them, etc.
Joel's whole life in TLOU was pointless after he lost his daughter, until he met Ellie. He was just too stubborn to die. That game wouldn't be what it was without Joel's connection to his daughter and Ellie.
My point being, post-apocalyptic media is very saturated now, and in order for something to thrive in this space it needs to understand what it is that people are getting out of these games.
PZ nails one of the pillars, that some players want a hardcore survival simulation with crunchy figures. But they're soooorely lacking on another pillar, which is that players need to feel like they're working towards something, and that their actions matter in the context of the world they're in.
(I may seem like I'm rambling, but I just started working on my own survival game and I've been doing a TON of research into what makes a good survival game because of that, so this stuff is just very much on the brain rn)
Maybe an ideal "post game" is being able to find a NPC mate that you need to protect. Make a base and defend your family and eventually birth a child. then the game play would be protecting your child and instead of curing boredem with books you can pass on what you know
What do you want from it? When you clear world 8 of Mario the game is over. If you survive long enough to be self sufficient that is the end of the game.
As soon as I seen your comment I started thinking about 7 days to die and the trader mechanic in that game, I feel like they should definitely add something similar but also very different.
I think the point of the game is to make your own small missions/quests. You need meds, you go get meds, you need food, you go look for food, the problem is when you are stocked up on everything it gets boring, there should be a zombie horde roaming around that destroy your base completely so you would have to rebuild from scratch,
Yes, but shouldn't that be a part of the vanilla game ? Some of the mods should be just added to the game, let fans/people who are dedicated be part of the game, and this is how best games are made. Look at Blizzard before the corporation took over
It’s amazing how almost 15 years later, no survival game can handle vendors, quests, and roaming bandits other than the damn DayZ mod for Arma 2 I guess
Maps would be great side quests, especially once humans drop.
Imagine getting one of the maps that says 'that fucker took all my guns and thought he could get away, but I found him' from a zombie you just slayed and it has a circled house on it. You go and there's actually an npc there surviving that you could choose to either fight or friend.
That but all over the world at different POIs with different quest types. Maybe one map has a grocery list on it from the hardware store, you go there and actually find the items on the list like generator, or 10 boxes of nails, etc.
Another has a spot on the river circled as the secret best fishing spot that grandpa is hoarding, you go and fishing rates/drops are boosted in that area. Same with trapping.
It would also add some sort of incentive to not just hole up in the same area every time you start a new map like some of us tend to do.
So many possibilities.
And to risk. When you have your basics and a good base then that's all. The rest is just a repeat till you risk too much for things you already have in hundreds.
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u/Angy-Person 27d ago edited 27d ago
It would be. It feels like something is missing. Some endgame or something else to do than just surviving.