Been playing the game for a few days, I am quite impressed.
I specially love the item system, it's terribly deep and interesting. Plenty of "interesting junk" as well, and over-the-top "fun" (not "Fun" as in DF's Fun) items. It's fresh after so many roguelike developers decided to be strictly realist or medieval to add a few implants.
The terrain generator is also splendid. I always wanted to see procedural generation applied to towns instead of medieval castles and other fantasy clichés. The houses make sense (except for the lack of furniture), the town placement makes sense, and I love that enemy deployment system. I hope you don't mind if I adapt my own algorithm to match yours a little bit 
I am missing or wondering about a few things:
-I am having a severe issue procuring water. Is there anything else out of drinking from a toilet? Can I purify that water? (Water boiling is possible?)
-Or even better, how about taking the water from the water canister of the toilet instead of from the bottom with all the disease?
-If there isn't, there should be a way to procure rain water or from condensation that isn't bionic-only. (Rain collectors might spoil your water if acid rain comes, too, so they wouldn't be almighty)
-Is it possible to put items on a container? Are there container tiles such as chests (modern ones of course, not treasure chests ) or just shelves/wardrobes?
-Is it possible to push shelves or wardrobes? Some of the generated terrain does contain doors blocked by beds or wardrobes, or is it merely coincidental? If not, would be a fancy thing to do, and would make sense (specially when more furniture comes in)
-Just a little bug report (latest git on linux), I unloaded a radio and it gave me...several stacks of .44 ammo. I wanted the batteries...
-I actually love the "alone vs the zombie world" theme of the game as it is now...will it be possible to simulate the current behavior in later stages of the game's development? Perhaps a generation option? On that matter, will it be possible to have any input on world generation later on? Or, at least, will it be possible to disable NPCs voluntarily?
(The reasoning of the later is, as others survival games showcase, human NPCs can be terribly overpowered, annoying or make the game extremely unfair (to the player), or if you work with them, they are just bait, or you need to babysit them, or make survival by resources impossible for two...so there are times I would have them, times I wouldn't.) What's your opinion on this?
-Will it be possible to use some sort of generator to power a fridge so you can keep food fresh for longer?
-Is it possible to build fences, or only boarding is allowed? Will it be possible sometime?
-A suggestion for defects: Narcoleptic, which can make you fall asleep while waiting and sleeping is less refreshing (don't fall in the hollywood cliché of narcolepsy being falling asleep while walking or fighting or such. It doesn't work that way (but does with driving, so if it's going to be implemented...))
-Dreams? Nightmares? Might be interesting small morale (+-5?) bonuses/penalties.
-Pr*ngles cans so we can make cantennas! It's a classic low-budget DYI thing.
-When furniture comes into play, how about gas burners in kitchens? Can be a replacement for hotplates. Portable gas burners also exist IRL, and might double as bashing weapon or explosive How about making a mini-burner with alcohol, a can and string?
-Portable consoles can be a stupid addition, but can be fun too. They can be addictive xD Maybe you can have them check the amount of hand encumbrance so playing with your hands fully covered actually gives a morale penalty.
-How about an alarm item? That way sleep schedules can be controlled. (Unless they already exist)
-Would it be possible to have notes around the game? They are a staple of survival horror, and can be interesting in the shared server, where players will leave notes around. Random generation can also work, you should be able to write a "apocalyptic log" generator in no time, using references to locations and items around the area where the note is generated. It might require "writing" items though. Also, it's a way to make literacy matter more. You can also have them point to stashes or even stuff like safe combinations if they are going to exist.
Glad you're enjoying it! All my code is open-source (of course) and I'd be thrilled if you used some ideas I've had (and even more thrilled if you did a better job than me
)
Building fences is a good idea. A near-future update will include lots more building options, and I'll make sure fences is one of them.
Narcolepsy is a good idea, but yes, would be kind of tricky to balance to make sure that the player doesn't fall asleep when danger is imminent. I'll start thinking about just how I'd do that. Dreams and nightmares, too! Probably more the latter than the former, since your character is probably a
little on-edge.
Cantennas are an awesome idea, as are gas-powered burners as an alternative to the battery-powered one. Alarm clocks are a good idea as well. TODO'd
Portable consoles are kind of planned, especially once I drop this computer update. Down the road a bit, though.
Leaving notes is an interesting thought; however, the sheer size of the game world means that it'd be a bit like finding a needle in a haystack (heck, even on the server, just finding a dead body isn't THAT common, right?) I'm planning to add your personal map to your corpse-drop (so that players finding it can get the benefit of your exploration, AND any notes you left on your map--e.g. "ammo stash here"). Maybe I'll toss in an auto-generated journal that can be read by players who find your remains?
On the subject of NPCs:
Going into this, I knew that NPCs had the potential to be overpowered in two ways--first, it is exceptionally easy for one to kill you with a shotgun. I didn't want to go the FPS route and make damage from guns reduced by 90% when they hit the player, so it's an issue. Second, a player who wants to could use NPCs as "item pinatas," rather than the allies (or albatrosses) they're intended as. To combat both of these, I decided that killing an NPC should be a big penalty, strong enough to make the player want to avoid it--and that NPCs should view killing the player as undesirable as well. This is why most NPCs, when hostile, will simply seek to mug the player rather than shoot you and take your stuff.
Currently, NPCs make pretty decent allies. If they're a good shot, they'll take out zombies quite quickly; however, they're ignorant of the zombie-attracting nature of firearms. This is issue 1. Issue 2 is that there's no system in place for dividing up loot; it's basically "who gets there first" when desirable items on the floor are concerned. Otherwise, there's no great need to babysit NPCs; occasionally they'll get in trouble with monsters and you'll need to save them, but they'll try to save you if you're in trouble too (though this behavior could use some improvement). They're also smart enough to know when there's a risk of friendly fire; the "acceptable" level of risk is dependant on the individual NPC's personality, but generally they'll tell you to move, or try to navigate so they can get a clean shot.
"Useless" NPCs like children or the badly-injured are vaguely planned as a part of the mission system ("Find and retrieve my child," "I can't walk--carry me to safety" etc.). Family members are planned as well (My half-coded default starting mission is "Find your brother"), with the expected penalties should they die.
Overconfidence got me killed. I suddenly grew tired in-game and took a nap in the safe house instead than in the basement. What can happen? It's full of traps and all boarded and nice, and I got inconspicuous trait.
My house burned, with me on it.
I guess it wasn't a good idea to burn those zombie corpses near my doorway. 
Fires within a few tiles of your house generally aren't a good idea--especially as zombies may stumble through the fire, get lit themselves, die, and drop the books they were carrying right at your doorstep. That said, I'm aware that walls seem to be made of pine needles right now and fire spreads too quickly. This will be toned down soon.
Where can I get nails, mutations or bionics?
Nails have been added to the new "home hardware" item generation group, which occasionally will be placed in your house somewhere. They're much easier to obtain this way.
Hey what do you use experience for, I've got like 5000 (found a bunch of whiskey and marijuana) so I really need to be able to spend it on something.
Using a skill puts XP into that skill. I am also planning to let the player use large amounts of XP (on the order of thousands or tens of thousands) to improve their stats, craft an artifact, take a new trait, etc.
One question, do beds have any effect on sleep?
From player::can_sleep, they only have an effect on the chance to fall asleep, i think it is like:
(if you are not tired and/or have not taken any stimulants, insomia, etc)
8/16% on for sleeping on soil
9/16% on floor
13/16% on bed.
...and sleeping is a disease.
Thanks for code-diving! This is accurate as far as I remember. Generally you won't need the extra help from a bed unless you're an insomniac, not very tired, coked up, etc.
Sleeping is a disease, yes--this is a result of poorly-chosen variable/function names on my part. When I created "diseases" it was intended to be used for just that--common cold, flu, fungitis, etc. Then I realized that the same system would work great for things like boomer-blindness, being on fire... and even beneficial things, like sleeping, having painkillers in your system, etc. Maybe one day I'll rename it to "temp_effect" or something.
monkey, I spent like 3 hours trying to hunt down that bug. The unloading code is weird. Good luck, though!
I believe I have fixed this bug, and it'll get pushed to git as soon as I can do such a thing.
Just had my first trans town swamp experience. "theres no zombies around here, im so far from the city!" BAMMOTHERFUCKGIANTCENTIPEDE MOSQUITO TOAD ATTACK. I died quickly.
Yes, swamps are deadly--perhaps too much so. Mosquitos are a pretty good reason to keep a shotgun handy
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Topic: Cataclysm: A Zombie-Survival Roguelike (Read 1316878 times)