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[Girlinhat]

In my opinion, rust just needs a few tweaks.
1: When you exercise a skill, it will not rust for several days.  This way your fighting skills will never have a chance to rust, while other skills can be upkept.
2: Add a method to idly practice what level you're at.  Just spend a few minutes practicing movements and thinking about what you know.  You could write a set of notes as well, at your current level, that would decrease the practice time and allow you to wake up, eat, perform a few practices of mechanics, first aid, and computer, and then go survive.

The BIGGEST issue is that skills will rust as you work on them, because there's nothing that stops the rust timer.  Depending on how unlucky you are, you can spend time sewing together a trenchcoat, and end up with lower skill.

[i2amroy]

Here's the basic system that we have planned out for skill rust at the moment.

[Girlinhat]

This all seems decent!  I'd also give skills a variable rust rate, so as you accrue more rust levels, it takes progressively more time to gain any more rust, until maybe -3 levels when you stop rusting entirely.  This way, when you hit level 4 in a skill, it can only ever rust down to effectively 1.

Also, allow certain things to bypass skill requirements.  If reading no longer gains actual levels, then ranking Mechanics will be a total pain.  Disassembling vehicles is a GREAT way to gain skill, but requires level 2.  Getting from 0 to 2 is very difficult if there's not a book nearby.

Other skills are rather unique, and will need game changes or exemptions to make them workable.  For instance, Computer is only ever used to hack very rare doors, and as such is always at either 0 or someone turned off rust and read books.  Computer, First Aid, and Driving (maybe Launcher as well) should probably be excluded from skill rust entirely simply due to their nature of how they're used and the available chances to train them.  If new mechanics got added, like, to build and use personal computers using the skill, then it'd have a valid use and should be rusted normally, but right now there's a handful of skills I feel fall into 'special rules'.

[Darkmere]

Right, and all that stuff just adds more complexity without adding any interesting gameplay decisions. GirlInHat's points bring things home further... some skills just don't work well with the system and would need special rules or else be even more annoying and complicated.

It just seems like a few more buttons to push for the sake of pushing buttons.

[Girlinhat]

Right now the game is just 'run around and zombies' but HOPEFULLY with NPCs being worked on, we'll get into bases and stable gameplay, and skill rust and gain will matter more for long-term survival.  That's why I'd suggest that skills not rust for 2-3 days after being practiced - it's fine for short-term running-and-gunning but it's also fine for long-term sit-and-farm.

[Lukewarm]

I prefer to play with the rust off myself. It doesn't play towards the realism of not having a photographic memory, but I like the feeling of advancement. That thing you're doing? Do that enough, and you'll be able to do more things like that.  Having your skills rot just seems like a push to grind everything all the time.

[Mephansteras]

I play with it off as well. A certain amount of rust makes sense, but a lot of things are rather punishing compared to how it works in reality. For example, I only use my leatherworking skills a few times a year, but I don't have any difficulty picking up where I left off despite that.

[Vgray]

I found a crate full of explosives just sitting on the side of the road. Should I be scared that the RNG is being so generous for once?

[Akhier the Dragon hearted]

   What if instead of an actual loss rust is a temporary thing and while it still takes xp to polish said rust off the actual cost is divided by ten or something. that way you lose skill in it but gain back what you lost quickly. Maybe have the amount the cost is reduced by a formula relating how far below your max it is, how long it has been since you last practiced it, and your int. Also maybe put a minimum to how low it can get such as a third or a fifth of your best, maybe related to int.

[Girlinhat]

   What if instead of an actual loss rust is a temporary thing and while it still takes xp to polish said rust off the actual cost is divided by ten or something. that way you lose skill in it but gain back what you lost quickly. Maybe have the amount the cost is reduced by a formula relating how far below your max it is, how long it has been since you last practiced it, and your int. Also maybe put a minimum to how low it can get such as a third or a fifth of your best, maybe related to int.

That's essentially what's proposed.  You have an actual level, which determines your recipes and only rises.  As skills rusts, your success rate for crafting goes down but your recipes remain, and rust will be removed quickly through practice.  Reading does not increase your level, but makes it MUCH easier to gain levels through practice immediately after.

[Vgray]

....Did that zombie just take a GRENADE to the face and live?

[GrizzlyAdamz]

(COME AT ME BRO)

[Kaitol]

Uglagh heagh kleh blaghhh hegehgegh, Braaaaaaaaaains

(dumb @#$% thinks a walking corpse cares much about shrapnel and minor concussive force, heheheh. GIMME YO BRAAAAINS FOO!)

[BurnedToast]

I have a shopping cart. I have a scooter I found that actually works and has gas. I have a welder and a welding mask. Can I somehow weld my shopping cart to the back of my scooter?

Also is it possible to make the viewable area bigger? There's a certain point where enemies are too close so it no longer shows them on the N/S/E/W thing at the top.... but I can't yet see them in the viewable area so I have no idea where they are. I tried adjusting the viewport in the options but that just seemed to make the whole window bigger, not add more viewable tiles.

Edit: nevermind, changing the viewport does add more tiles, but it also makes the black bar bigger so you don't get all the new tiles as viewable area so it does not help much. Setting the sidebar to narrow didn't seem to make it any narrower it just squished everything to the top

Edit2: it did make it narrower, I guess, just not much. I guess I just need a bigger screen

[Sheb]

You can change the number of tiles displayed in the options. As for the shopping cart, you'll have to tear it down into peices first with a hacksaw and a wrench, then weld the casters and box to your scooter.