PC Glass shards

Starshawn

Refugee
So, i was doing decently on my run. Finally got enough to start building a base in time for the 7th day zombie hoard. I had picked up some glass shards and was trying to look up the recipies. I used the normal hot Key "A" as well, its glass and you don't eat glass. However next thing I know is I had eaten some and died almost instantly. Who decided that we could eat glass shards and that it was a good idea!?!?!? 

 
Well, since you died, not a good thing, but maybe you really needed to lower gamestage before that day 21 horde night, and didn't want to have to retrieve your gear or fight the Z's camping your body?

It's been that way forever as far as I know.

 
Here's the history...

The game in it's earliest days had a suicide button so that players could kill themselves quickly in case the game glitched somehow or if they got stuck in the terrain as things like that were much more common. As development progressed and the game got more stable there was more and more feedback that the suicide button was being exploited and used to fast travel because at that time the map had several spawn points scattered around and when you died you could choose the spawn point where you would re-enter the game.

So the suicide button got removed during one of the updates and the negative reaction from those who loved their suicide was huge. Eventually, the devs decided that they would create an ingame "suicide button" for those who felt like they needed it and eating glass was born. Of course, once the spawn points were removed there was no more suicide fast traveling around the map and I'm not sure how extensively eating glass is used by the community any longer.

 
It should probably just be removed even though it is kind of a quirky unique aspect of the game with a funny history. If you were around during that time it is pretty hilarious the level of outrage and anger that burned over the removal of an easy way to suicide. So much joy, as well, when glass eating was implemented...lol

In thousands of hours I've never once accidentally eaten glass (hotkey map notwithstanding). Maybe they will eventually cut it though. <shrug>

 
It should probably just be removed even though it is kind of a quirky unique aspect of the game with a funny history. If you were around during that time it is pretty hilarious the level of outrage and anger that burned over the removal of an easy way to suicide. So much joy, as well, when glass eating was implemented...lol

In thousands of hours I've never once accidentally eaten glass (hotkey map notwithstanding). Maybe they will eventually cut it though. <shrug>
Well I've only had the game for like a week so I am still learning how to do everything. I can see a suicide being useful, if only to remove a lot of status effects (primarily infection at 60% and not finding any honey or antibiotics for days) Still though, very annoying when its glass shards and i am just trying to see what its uses are. 

It's candy... with consequences.
A very delicious consequences for the many inhabitants of the land. 

 
 I'm not sure how extensively eating glass is used by the community any longer.


I am pretty sure TFP would remove any suicidal option if they knew how many people actually use it as a teleport home, save on food or to overcome things like broken legs, infections etc. quickly and also gain the advantage of lowering their gamestage by doing so.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
but now with players after level 5 losing the newb jacket and safe time for starters... when they suicide for fast travel the grimm reaper shows up and takes away a perk point and you lose xp gaining until you work it back. :)

i feel as tho now, suicide should destroy all of your loot you had so it becomes a waste. but alas.... someone will always figure a sneaky way around the game as that is what gamers do. :(

 
i feel as tho now, suicide should destroy all of your loot you had so it becomes a waste.
Interesting…. I would also propose a “suicide counter” be added that if you suicide too many times (maybe within a certain range of player levels) when you respawn, your bedroll detonates (in a very large, very powerful, random radius explosion) with high block damage.  I’m being serious. you can suicide and take the XP loss, but this will kill you 2x so double XP loss, and also might have serial suiciders have to put their bedroll far away from their stuff. After maybe 2-3 of these, if the counter keeps going up, make bedrolls not work as respawn points, and possibly enable “really far away auto respawn”?  Maybe even unlock all their locked containers and vehicles?

The “bedroll detonation” might also make playing PvP or with friends a little more interesting :)
 

maybe add a “depression” stat, where the more you suicide the counter goes up and it’s a very long lasting debuff  that takes away 33% of your overall stamina and health?

if nothing else, adding a way to detect “player death type/reason” and being able to do something to the player before/after respawn in mods would be kinda neat and maybe someone will put together the perfect punishment.

note: please do not remove the “accidental eating of glass” mechanic! It should be allowed 1 time without severe punishment.  Of all the times I have laughed with the game, this is one of them that is consistently the most entertaining. 

 
Last edited:
but now with players after level 5 losing the newb jacket and safe time for starters... when they suicide for fast travel the grimm reaper shows up and takes away a perk point and you lose xp gaining until you work it back. :)

i feel as tho now, suicide should destroy all of your loot you had so it becomes a waste. but alas.... someone will always figure a sneaky way around the game as that is what gamers do. :(


They will still do it. I was in a FB group wich was pretty big (Big enough to be way more meaningfull than any poll on here, i have seen screenshots there that got double the likes in one hour than polls on this forum have votes overall) and there was a poll about exactly that. Most people use suicide. Those 10% XP loss even help them more to get their gamestage low and draw out the time before the demolishers show up, wich are a reason why lots of people want to keep their gamestage low.

Ofc the loot loss would be an option. You would propably have to deal with a S storm after that tough. In the end it doesn´t really matter if people use suicide or not as long as the people are happy playing the game. I wouldn´t care too much about it if i would be in TFP´s place.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
One of my favorite mechanic from past alphas was how we had to draw our own blood to craft medkits. (I think blood bag were also lootable, but super rare). IIRC, it reduced your current health a little, and gave you a short debuff (like 15 mins). It was nice and somewhat realistic survival mechanic. First thing I'd do when I was getting home for the night would be to draw some blood (usually 2 bags).  By morning, the debuff would be gone and most health recovered from natural healing. Then the mechanic was removed because people would draw blood until they died, respawn, draw blood until they die, respawn, etc. until they had a stack of blood bag. #thatswhywecanthavenicething

I really think current penalty for dying is way too mild. But since this can be pretty arguable, maybe the penalty for dying should be a setting.  Something like 

  • None
  • Mild
  • Annoying
  • Harsh
  • Nightmarish
  • You'd rather be dead IRL
How that would translate in game mechanics terms would need to be determined.

 
Mild = What we have now

Annoying = Mild + Injury Status persists through respawn

Harsh = Annoying + Hunger and Thirst reduce to 25%

Nightmarish = Harsh + chance of critical injury increases by 25% for one day

You'd rather be dead IRL = Your world deletes and you must start over

Plus, of course, you can add the option of deleting all possessions in your inventory upon death. That is a pretty painful death penalty we already have.

 
Here's the history...

The game in it's earliest days had a suicide button so that players could kill themselves quickly in case the game glitched somehow or if they got stuck in the terrain as things like that were much more common. As development progressed and the game got more stable there was more and more feedback that the suicide button was being exploited and used to fast travel because at that time the map had several spawn points scattered around and when you died you could choose the spawn point where you would re-enter the game.

So the suicide button got removed during one of the updates and the negative reaction from those who loved their suicide was huge. Eventually, the devs decided that they would create an ingame "suicide button" for those who felt like they needed it and eating glass was born. Of course, once the spawn points were removed there was no more suicide fast traveling around the map and I'm not sure how extensively eating glass is used by the community any longer.


This, earlier alpha for a years ago a friend fell thru the “Earth” and kept falling.

Told him to craft broken glass and eat it because I had to do that when I got stuck.

He didn’t have any glass and just fell to seen how long I t would take die. He ultimately starved or became too thirsty because no water in his inventory. Sort of forgot but I do remember it taking a long time.

 
Back
Top