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[KA101]

Re gambling: if I need that item cache to avoid starvation, rigging the cache and calling it a "gamble" strikes me as unfun.  If it's a question between having to put people on food/water detail rather than training or doing XYZ long-term beneficial task (rig up solar panel, etc), that might be a "gamble" and a value-add to the game.  I'm looking for being able to pass up the potential-trap (perhaps I only sent in two people?) without endangering the ZSS' long-term survival.

It would help to have a farlook.  If the player hasn't yet realized that bright symbols are high-value--and therefore likely to be trapped--the "gamble" fails because it's not an informed decision.

[mainiac]

I think that guns should have a lesser chance of turning the zombies into the % corpses that don't come back.

I love the come back to life feature.  It gets a verbal reaction from me more often then not.

[Jonathan S. Fox]

F-shooting with a zombie and a human within view targeted the human first. (Wut?)

Also saw this. Did you also see the human before you did the zombie?

Characters. seem to prefer the 9mm to the shotgun. Is that intended?

Humans are barely in the game right now. They're basically zombies that don't attack you and that say stuff instead of being attacked when you bump into them. They have equal targeting priority to zombies, are (in this release) a legitimate target unless there are zombies closer to you than they are.

Sidearms are used interchangeably with primary weapons, but always to your benefit. When your characters use a 9mm instead of a shotgun, it's because their shotgun attack was going to do less damage on that turn, probably due to a bad roll. I'm concieving of sidearm use as less of a "dual wielding system" and more of an opportunity attack thing, where it's always helpful to have a backup weapon on hand to take advantage of unique circumstances. I'm thinking this can be flavored up more to make it more cool and easier to understand what's going on.

Problem with sidearms is that they too would be subject to degradation.  Fists are ineffective IME.  If weapons must be made limited-use, best to make it comparable to LCS and leave melee weapons invulnerable.

What I'll probably do is have no durability on weapons, but track ammo for ranged weapons. Balanced right, this makes ammo caches a really exciting find. Not all ranged weapons will be really hard to supply; some ammo is more common than others, and I think it makes sense to support crafting things like crossbow bolts or arrows.

I think that guns should have a lesser chance of turning the zombies into the % corpses that don't come back.

I love the come back to life feature.  It gets a verbal reaction from me more often then not.

The % corpses are extremely mangled to the point that they have no head or no body. I'll probably do something like LCS, and make it so most guns can't remove body parts. Which doesn't mean they won't permanently kill zombies, but they won't render them into comforting % corpses in the process. This already happens to a certain extent; you get a lot more dismemberment with a shotgun or katana than you do with a 9mm or combat knife.

[mainiac]

I like your thinking on ammo.  Given the nature of the game you should be able to get the balance on ammo just right and it's the best system IMHO if you can do that.  One thing I'd suggest would be making it so that all ranged attacks have to be done before melee attacks, forcing you to make a strategic choice of whether to use ammo or not.  This might work better if there was a way to quickly switch between your gun and melee primary.

That's cool to know about the sidearms, pretty cool system actually.  I was wondering why my character would sometimes randomly punch instead of using their weapons.  I take it that the punch roll was better then the weapon roll.

[a1s]

If it's a question between having to put people on food/water detail rather than training or doing XYZ long-term beneficial task (rig up solar panel, etc), that might be a "gamble" and a value-add to the game.

That does help me understand the difference between our views on "gambles", thank you. I would call this a "tradeoff", rather than a "gamble" (which, like I said, in my view entails high risk and reward scenarios), but I think 'doing noncombat stuff' should be in the game too, so at least on this point we a agree.

[My Name is Immaterial]

Are there any plans for modifying/combining weapons and armor? Or using them for another purpose? Or at least a discard option, for all of the junk we pick up, once we get everyone in full army vestments.

[ff2]

How would one win? Kill the 7 billion or so zombies roaming around, or get a stable shelter that can last long enough that the zombies kill themselves?

[mainiac]

Well the intro text says "restore hope" so that is kinda vague.

I remember a while back Mr. Fox was talking about a victory condition involving going through multiple steps to equip a transport and get out of dodge.  I'd like to see the option to set up a society though.  I think LCS could actually be a pretty good inspiration here.  Where LCS has a politics page, ZSS could have a "society" page with the different needs of survivors beyond your immediate group.  Through your raids you can provide for societies needs and help rebuild the survivor community.

For instance there could be a "barricades" need.  More barricades mean more people survive attacks meaning there will be more survivors around.  There could be several ways to increase the barricade level.  You could have your squad members "build community barricades" directly through the job menu.  You could donate tools, books and/or materials to the community (or get a smaller impact by selling them.)  The barricades would decay without your help, just like the issues in LCS slowly turn conservative.

Other possible needs:
Armories (find them, make them or help weaponsmiths), these increase the number of survivors and make it so the ones you find on site are better armed.
Electricity (Scronge up a generator, provide gasoline).  Helps the community the rebuild and protect itself (lighting helps defenses)
Water (provide bottled water or help the survivors get it from the pipes).  Helps survivor numbers and at the top level gives you free water.
Food (provide canned food or help farmers or farm yourself).  Helps survivor numbers and lowers the price of food when trading for it.
Squad Reputation and Squad Respect: Based on your actions people can like you and have respect for your abilities.  Respect lets you attract survivors and reputation means you'll attract higher heart individuals who are more trustworthy.

[jakeread1]

Well the intro text says "restore hope" so that is kinda vague.

I remember a while back Mr. Fox was talking about a victory condition involving going through multiple steps to equip a transport and get out of dodge.  I'd like to see the option to set up a society though.  I think LCS could actually be a pretty good inspiration here.  Where LCS has a politics page, ZSS could have a "society" page with the different needs of survivors beyond your immediate group.  Through your raids you can provide for societies needs and help rebuild the survivor community.

-snip-

I love that idea! I would also love to see a map of some sort, so you could explore different locations throughout the city without using menus.

[mainiac]

Sadly coming up with the idea is the easy part.

[KA101]

Well the intro text says "restore hope" so that is kinda vague.

I remember a while back Mr. Fox was talking about a victory condition involving going through multiple steps to equip a transport and get out of dodge.  I'd like to see the option to set up a society though.  I think LCS could actually be a pretty good inspiration here.  Where LCS has a politics page, ZSS could have a "society" page with the different needs of survivors beyond your immediate group.  Through your raids you can provide for societies needs and help rebuild the survivor community.

For instance there could be a "barricades" need.  More barricades mean more people survive attacks meaning there will be more survivors around.  There could be several ways to increase the barricade level.  You could have your squad members "build community barricades" directly through the job menu.  You could donate tools, books and/or materials to the community (or get a smaller impact by selling them.)  The barricades would decay without your help, just like the issues in LCS slowly turn conservative.

Other possible needs:
Armories (find them, make them or help weaponsmiths), these increase the number of survivors and make it so the ones you find on site are better armed.
Electricity (Scronge up a generator, provide gasoline).  Helps the community the rebuild and protect itself (lighting helps defenses)
Water (provide bottled water or help the survivors get it from the pipes).  Helps survivor numbers and at the top level gives you free water.
Food (provide canned food or help farmers or farm yourself).  Helps survivor numbers and lowers the price of food when trading for it.
Squad Reputation and Squad Respect: Based on your actions people can like you and have respect for your abilities.  Respect lets you attract survivors and reputation means you'll attract higher heart individuals who are more trustworthy.

These are the sorts of long-term pursuits that successfully getting the MREs would enable.  I still think solar panels are a better call--though they won't provide much power they aren't loud, gas-guzzling units that by rights ought to attract zeds.

Thanks for posting, mainiac.

[tenmillimaster]

MREs do go bad...
http://www.mreinfo.com/us/mre/mre-shelf-life.html

Having to contend with seasons as start options would be VERY fun.

A complicated world that balances resources and player actions. (The store shelves are bare. This looks like the third time you've raided this house; the ketchup soup last night wasn't very satisfying). Ammo scarcity- finding that one guy with 1000's of ammo neatly packed in ammo cans, a lot of homes have evidence of having had a gun, but it's gone for obvious reasons. Finding things that are absolutely useless and heavy at first. (There's a MIG welder in this house, you probably don't need it.)
Another idea for ammo scarcity:
At first you can find ammo. Then you stop finding it (a graph resembling y=1/x).
Keeping shells isn't easy, but you can spend an hour picking up brass, something to make players angry over not doing so in the beginning due to time contsraints.
Finding components, but no handloading equipment, and the inverse.
Finding Black powder weapons (you find a muzzle loading .50 rifle! all that gunpowder you found 2 months ago suddenly comes to mind...)

[BoxOfAids]

I've got a general question for you programmers out there. I'm dabbling in the field myself (degree in computer science, but not actively programming for a career), and I was wondering how one even starts making a game like this, like what steps do you take to actually get this to a working state? I'm sure you can't just start coding then figure it all out later, especially making ascii-based games requiring tilesets etc. I'm just wondering what order you do things in, the steps needed to get something like this working, and things like that. I'd be interested in making little games like this as a side project, but I just have no idea where to start or anything. Assume I'm not completely dumbfounded by programming, I have some minor experience in Java/C++ and a little bit of python, I just wouldn't know how to get everything to work together, or how to implement save states, or even how to make the whole graphics portion of it.

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

[a1s]

I've got a general question for you programmers out there. I'm dabbling in the field myself (degree in computer science, but not actively programming for a career), and I was wondering how one even starts making a game like this, like what steps do you take to actually get this to a working state? I'm sure you can't just start coding then figure it all out later, especially making ascii-based games requiring tilesets etc. I'm just wondering what order you do things in, the steps needed to get something like this working, and things like that. I'd be interested in making little games like this as a side project, but I just have no idea where to start or anything. Assume I'm not completely dumbfounded by programming, I have some minor experience in Java/C++ and a little bit of python, I just wouldn't know how to get everything to work together, or how to implement save states, or even how to make the whole graphics portion of it.

There are several ways (paradigms) of how to do it. And, surprisingly, one of them is (I'm over-simplifying) "start coding and then figure it all out later". Basically what that approach entails is that you always keep a working prototype (or rather minimize the times when it's broken) and add features to it as you go. This approach is great for game development, because there's always an alpha on hand to show people and get feedback. Getting that feedback (even if it's your own feelings on the game),  you can "figure it out" and take your project in a new direction.
If, on the other hand, you're pretty sure you know exactly what you want (like maybe you have a course assignment), then there's a model where you plan everything out, figure out how all the parts connect and build your application. This will make coordination easier, as well as testing, and you won't waste time on stuff you later decide is too complicated (or not enough) and have to replace. It's also, in my experience, less !fun!. 

[BoxOfAids]

I've got a general question for you programmers out there. I'm dabbling in the field myself (degree in computer science, but not actively programming for a career), and I was wondering how one even starts making a game like this, like what steps do you take to actually get this to a working state? I'm sure you can't just start coding then figure it all out later, especially making ascii-based games requiring tilesets etc. I'm just wondering what order you do things in, the steps needed to get something like this working, and things like that. I'd be interested in making little games like this as a side project, but I just have no idea where to start or anything. Assume I'm not completely dumbfounded by programming, I have some minor experience in Java/C++ and a little bit of python, I just wouldn't know how to get everything to work together, or how to implement save states, or even how to make the whole graphics portion of it.

There are several ways (paradigms) of how to do it. And, surprisingly, one of them is (I'm over-simplifying) "start coding and then figure it all out later". Basically what that approach entails is that you always keep a working prototype (or rather minimize the times when it's broken) and add features to it as you go. This approach is great for game development, because there's always an alpha on hand to show people and get feedback. Getting that feedback (even if it's your own feelings on the game),  you can "figure it out" and take your project in a new direction.
If, on the other hand, you're pretty sure you know exactly what you want (like maybe you have a course assignment), then there's a model where you plan everything out, figure out how all the parts connect and build your application. This will make coordination easier, as well as testing, and you won't waste time on stuff you later decide is too complicated (or not enough) and have to replace. It's also, in my experience, less !fun!. 

Yeah, I would definitely be one to get it semi-working and then add stuff as I go. But I was more wondering along the lines of what exactly I need to do to get it working. I can code fine, but I have no idea on how to make it into a working exe or even where to start to actually have it do stuff. I can do logic and programming, but I don't know how to, say, make the whole game into a package that can be run and worked on, or even how to display anything graphically. I'm sure, using ZSS as an example, that I could do the actually gameplay elements like programming AI for zombies and stuff, but I don't know how to package it all together and get it to work, like I have no experience with compiling or anything like that.