Paiper Zombee
Refugee
The following post came from Reddit from user Emotional-Lab-751 in response to the developers remarks about jars. I wanted to share it here because it covers everything from jars to the state of the game now. It's a mammoth, but well worth the read.
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Jars, Dew Collectors, and Survival — Why We Strongly Disagree with the Dev’s Premise
Reddit wasn't letting us post any comments, so we decided to make it in a separate post here.
Our Perspective On Jars, and Everything Around Them:
The developer, Joel (u/funpimpcolt), argues that the old jar system was removed because it was essentially never really a survival mechanic. To quote:
"You could scoop up some sand, craft 5000 jars and never have any struggle with water ever again... Nobody ever spent a nickel on water... it was so easy to have endless water that it shouldn't have even existed."
They suggested that if jars were ever brought back, they'd need major nerfs like:
"Is it the realism you liked, or that it was easy?"
Our answer is: neither and both. My friends and I strongly disagree with the removal of jars—and more importantly, we reject the design philosophy behind that decision. We reject the premise that survival systems must remain hard forever to be valid. We reject the idea that progression is a flaw. We reject the trajectory of this design philosophy that has developed over recent years, which punishes players for solving problems instead of building on their creativity. Survival gameplay, in our eyes, has been increasingly, gradually, reduced to a narrow formula: if players find a sustainable solution to a need, it must be taken away. That’s not how good survival systems work—and we believe this change reflects a growing trend of removing depth in favor of grind.
It also felt like something you’d actually do in a survival situation.
Yes, it became easier over time. That wasn’t a flaw—that was progression. The entire point of a survival game is to overcome basic challenges and build stability. Jars made that process immersive.
It replaced the jar system instead of extending it. And worse, after basic water boiling, it became the first, only, primary water solution in the game. You now just find jars sitting in toilets, etc. Both of these things are illogical to a believable survival situation.
In any real survival scenario, your first instinct is to look for natural water and contain it. You don’t start by crafting a high-tech machine that magically fills with purified water.
The dew collector could have been an upgrade:
Removing jars didn’t just affect crafting—it erased water as a meaningful part of gameplay.
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Jars, Dew Collectors, and Survival — Why We Strongly Disagree with the Dev’s Premise
Why This Is a Post (and Not a Comment)
This was originally intended as my friends & I's direct response to the developer post about Jars found here:Reddit wasn't letting us post any comments, so we decided to make it in a separate post here.
Our Perspective On Jars, and Everything Around Them:
The developer, Joel (u/funpimpcolt), argues that the old jar system was removed because it was essentially never really a survival mechanic. To quote:
"You could scoop up some sand, craft 5000 jars and never have any struggle with water ever again... Nobody ever spent a nickel on water... it was so easy to have endless water that it shouldn't have even existed."
They suggested that if jars were ever brought back, they'd need major nerfs like:
- Being non-craftable
- Breaking on death or falling
- Limited interaction with water sources
- Being tied to dew collectors in convoluted ways
"Is it the realism you liked, or that it was easy?"
Our answer is: neither and both. My friends and I strongly disagree with the removal of jars—and more importantly, we reject the design philosophy behind that decision. We reject the premise that survival systems must remain hard forever to be valid. We reject the idea that progression is a flaw. We reject the trajectory of this design philosophy that has developed over recent years, which punishes players for solving problems instead of building on their creativity. Survival gameplay, in our eyes, has been increasingly, gradually, reduced to a narrow formula: if players find a sustainable solution to a need, it must be taken away. That’s not how good survival systems work—and we believe this change reflects a growing trend of removing depth in favor of grind.
Why Jars Mattered
The jar system wasn’t perfect, but it worked, and it felt right. It felt intuitive. It connected survival to the environment. It offered a tactile, intuitive loop:- You find a river or toilet
- You collect water with jars
- You boil or purify it
- You store it
It also felt like something you’d actually do in a survival situation.
Yes, it became easier over time. That wasn’t a flaw—that was progression. The entire point of a survival game is to overcome basic challenges and build stability. Jars made that process immersive.
There Were So Many Ways to Balance It
If the jar system became too efficient or "abusable" (covered later in this post), it could have been refined without being deleted. Some examples:- Noise penalty: The more jars you carry, the louder you / your inventory "clinks". That noise could attract zombies or increase threat level. Makes stealth (which has also been nerfed in recent years) more important again.
- Exponentially-Curved Weight Scaling: A few full jars? Fine. Dozens? Now you’re a slow-moving, high-risk target.
- Break chance: Fall damage or death could break a portion of your carried jars, discouraging hoarding without punishing reasonable use.
- Spoilage: Clean or boiled water, or maybe instead the jar itself, could mold over time unless stored properly. Maybe you have to re-boil that water, or clean that jar, or the jar reaches a mold threshold to where its permanently moldy. This adds upkeep to your supply chain, and is even a complement to bringing back the rotting of food.
- Dew collector integration: Collectors could require jars to function, grounding automation in real logic.
The Real Problem with Dew Collectors
The dew collector isn’t the issue. Its role is.It replaced the jar system instead of extending it. And worse, after basic water boiling, it became the first, only, primary water solution in the game. You now just find jars sitting in toilets, etc. Both of these things are illogical to a believable survival situation.
In any real survival scenario, your first instinct is to look for natural water and contain it. You don’t start by crafting a high-tech machine that magically fills with purified water.
The dew collector could have been an upgrade:
- A mid-game tool that collects purified rainwater
- Slow, passive, and dependent on jars for output
- Rewarding for long-term planning
How the System Could’ve Evolved Instead
Removing jars wasn’t necessary. Rather than eliminating jars, the game could have expanded the water system to be more engaging and immersive. Here are a few intuitive ways that could’ve worked:- Irradiated natural water: Give water a green hue. Scooping it applies a radiation debuff unless purified. Depending on the biome, this natural water could be more / less irradiated, or even have certain impurities that require specific solutions to remove.
- Purification tablets: Craftable & Purchase-able items that convert irradiated water into murky water.
- Interactive POI sources: Toilets, sinks, bathtubs, and water coolers should be (limitedly) interactive, not lootable. Require jars to collect water.
- UV jar lids: Real-life inspired tech. Slowly purify water inside jars via solar or battery-powered lids.
The Ripple Effect: Water No Longer Matters
The Ripple Effect: Water No Longer MattersRemoving jars didn’t just affect crafting—it erased water as a meaningful part of gameplay.
- Rivers, lakes, and ponds are now irrelevant. They’re no longer strategic locations, just visual filler.
- No reason to settle near water, scout for it, or build infrastructure around it.
- Environmental risk and planning are gone. You don’t weigh travel decisions or manage hydration routes.
- Fishing, when brought up, is typically met with disinterest or dismissiveness from the dev team.
- Underwater bases frequently break with updates—maybe unintentionally, but consistently.
- Water has no physics—rain doesn’t fill basins, there’s no flooding, no waves, no terrain reaction to water, no water reaction to weather or storms (which are now part of the game as of v2.0).
- No aquatic mobility—wearable fins/swimming gear, rafts, boats, pontoons... even buoyant blocks are missing. Crossing water is always clunky, annoying, & slow, never strategic.
- No aquatic life—no fish, amphibians, or water-adapted zombies.
- Underwater is Empty—There's no underwater POIs, loot, chests, containers, quests, .... anything.
- Biome-Specific Water—Things like snow that falls and actually collects/piles on the ground are no longer in the game.
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