Current Events > Been playing Project Zomboid a lot recently and it's awesome.

(+) Yeah! (+)

The only downside is the issue I have with most other open-ended survival games.

I need...something to work towards. When I've gotten to the point where I'm kinda stable I just start to slowly lose interest.

Honestly I should try multiplayer tbh

Doom_Art posted...

I need...something to work towards

This is the problem I always encounter in these kinds of games, too. Once I have myself set up where food and water are replenishable resources and I have a working generator, the game is more or less over.

Gobstoppers12 posted...

This is the problem I always encounter in these kinds of games, too. Once I have myself set up where food and water are replenishable resources and I have a working generator, the game is more or less over.

It's my same issue with stuff like No Man's Sky where the game has made amazing progress but I still can't get into it because the core gameplay loop is uninteresting to me.

Yeah I just wish there was a goal or something. I guess the goal is to just see how long you survive or w.e. but Iunno, something like a "find a cure", "get to a government safe zone" or whatever.

Honestly I think playing with a group of people would help me with this shit lol.

The game is still in early access (lol). Aren't they adding npcs sometime this year?

Playing with a group of friends definitely helps with extending the longevity of the game, but you will eventually run into the same issue of not having anything to work towards after stabilizing. You could also join a multiplayer server, but I don't have any experience with multiplayer servers, so I couldn't tell you if they were worthwhile.

Once you get the swing of things I highly recommend going into making a custom scenario and utilizing the metric ton of options. You can really tailor fit it into any kind of experience you want. It helps with setting house rules and own goals.

You could look into the modding scene, but tbh it's a mixed bag. There's a handful of quality of life mods on the workshop that smooth the experience out, but the second you touch vehicle/weapon/armor packs the balance goes out the window and the loot pools break -- more or less.

I tend to treat Zomboid as a run game. I set a personal scenario at the start, roleplay it, with a goal or destination in mind. Setting up for the long term is more fun with friends online, where you can eek out the progress session by session.

Pikachuchupika posted...

The game is still in early access (lol).

People scoff at Early Access but the games I've become most addicted to over the last decade have tended to be in some form of it or another.

Like Minecraft could have been classified as EA for some time and I sank easily hundreds of hours into it back in 2010-2012

Valheim was another one. Cleared 100 hours within the course of a month. (Though being in a COVID lockdown played a role lol)

Pikachuchupika posted...

Aren't they adding npcs sometime this year?

Think so? I bought the game on a lark back in like 2014 and just started playing it a few days back because the YT algorithm started tossing me gameplay videos for it

Yamata_Demon posted...

Playing with a group of friends definitely helps with extending the longevity of the game, but you will eventually run into the same issue of not having anything to work towards after stabilizing. You could also join a multiplayer server, but I don't have any experience with multiplayer servers, so I couldn't tell you if they were worthwhile.

Honestly yeah this is what I'm gonna try doing lol

I noticed there's NPC/story mods but ehhhh

Pikachuchupika posted...

The game is still in early access (lol). Aren't they adding npcs sometime this year?

Probably next year. Rumor is that Fall/winter '24 is going to be the 1.0 release. There isn't much to go, but the final steps are systems they've been working on for an extremely long time. I believe this year they've said we're scheduled for animals and wildlife and reworked farming, fishing, hunting, and foraging. After that is the entire map getting a visual update with new props and cells. So, NPCs are probably still a ways out.

Damn, I remember backing that 20 years ago.

Fiddling with some of the sandbox settings

Increasing the population of zombies in the world but disabling respawns.

I figure it'll be a fun way to switch things up. Make hordes and encounters more common but makes clearing an area feel more satisfying.