Storms shouldn't deal damage to health

[meganoth]

The block decay is an interesting idea. How about this (hey, I can dream as well):

After day 30 any blocks other than stone, clay, trees, maybe asphalt, ... (i.e. natural ground blocks) in the forest would start to decay slowly, including pois. (this would need to be a background task working on the savegame so no player needs to be in the area for this to work).
Eventually the forest would decay back to pure nature. Also traders, quests and POI spawn points in the forest would be turned off so POI resets would no longer work.

This would have 2 interesting consequences:

1) You either have the choice to repair every block of your forest base every 3 weeks for example to keep your forest base, or you "defect" to any of the higher biomes. I.e. another small incentive to leave the forest.

2) We would finally see some persistent change in the game where one biome changes back to nature. While it happens we would witness the collapse of "civilization" whenever we drive through

Before the usual guys protest: Yes, I know, won't be for everyone, such a change would need an option to turn it off again.

 

[Riamus]

The block decay is an interesting idea. How about this (hey, I can dream as well):

After day 30 any blocks other than stone, clay, trees, maybe asphalt, ... (i.e. natural ground blocks) in the forest would start to decay slowly, including pois. (this would need to be a background task working on the savegame so no player needs to be in the area for this to work).
Eventually the forest would decay back to pure nature. Also traders, quests and POI spawn points in the forest would be turned off so POI resets would no longer work.

This would have 2 interesting consequences:

1) You either have the choice to repair every block of your forest base every 3 weeks for example to keep your forest base, or you "defect" to any of the higher biomes. I.e. another small incentive to leave the forest.

2) We would finally see some persistent change in the game where one biome changes back to nature. While it happens we would witness the collapse of "civilization" whenever we drive through

Before the usual guys protest: Yes, I know, won't be for everyone, such a change would need an option to turn it off again.

That seems like a lot of work for the devs for not much of value. It might be aesthetically pleasing and it might get some people to build somewhere else, but I think you'd probably agree that most people would likely just disable it rather than dealing with that, especially when you're talking about POI becoming unusable due to decay. I don't think putting a lot of dev time into something that (imo) most would turn off is worth it. Having just a simple visual "dirty" texture applied can have a similar effect (visually) with far less effort.

 

[meganoth]

That seems like a lot of work for the devs for not much of value. It might be aesthetically pleasing and it might get some people to build somewhere else, but I think you'd probably agree that most people would likely just disable it rather than dealing with that, especially when you're talking about POI becoming unusable due to decay. I don't think putting a lot of dev time into something that (imo) most would turn off is worth it. Having just a simple visual "dirty" texture applied can have a similar effect (visually) with far less effort.

Weell, just from you wanting to disable it (and I was already sure you would chime in and tell us you would do this ) doesn't follow that most would disable it.

In fact there have been a lot of pimp dreams where people hoped for seeing permanent changes in the world. The speed of decay or the start of it could also depend on how many POIs the player has cleared or zombies killed, giving it the "YOU did this"-effect

Anyway, my mention of a "dream" should give a hint that I don't expect this to be implemented before gold, it has as much chance as storms doing block damage.

 

[Suxar]

After day 30 any blocks other than stone, clay, trees, maybe asphalt, ... (i.e. natural ground blocks) in the forest would start to decay slowly, including pois. (this would need to be a background task working on the savegame so no player needs to be in the area for this to work).
Eventually the forest would decay back to pure nature. Also traders, quests and POI spawn points in the forest would be turned off so POI resets would no longer work.

Don't you think this is strange? Everything stands still for several years after the cataclysm, and then everything breaks in 30 days? It's day 530 on the server I'm playing on now. What do you think the fox biome should look like there?

 

[meganoth]

Don't you think this is strange? Everything stands still for several years after the cataclysm, and then everything breaks in 30 days? It's day 530 on the server I'm playing on now. What do you think the fox biome should look like there?

Well, there are stranger things going on with buildings when you click on one of those exclamation marks

But seriously, time is relative in a lot of ways in the game as trees and farm plants grow up in a few days. Day 530 is an exception as the average game probably lasts 50 days or less. Having an option for longer durations of the decay could help open servers to make it more natural.

But what do you lose if the forest biome were pure nature again? The travel to exactly one other biome would have a somewhat boring scenery. Players on big unsupported servers would have less space to distribute themselves (I would guess most of the operators would move the size slider of the forest biome to "small").

 

[Suxar]

But what do you lose if the forest biome were pure nature again? The travel to exactly one other biome would have a somewhat boring scenery. Players on big unsupported servers would have less space to distribute themselves (I would guess most of the operators would move the size slider of the forest biome to "small").

It's not that simple. Some people start playing on the first day of a server, while others join on day 500. What's it like to start a game and realize you're surrounded by forests and need to somehow get to another biome, but you have no equipment?

Open servers are a completely different game than solo or co-op. Accordingly, the concept of a day is very relative there.

 

[Riamus]

Making a biome essentially unusable doesn't really make sense. If they want to make a bunch of overgrown POI, then that would be great. But to have POI become nothing? That isn't even realistic. Even wood buildings will take many years to be gone, and anything from cobblestone up will generally last hundreds of years or longer. They might loot worn down and old, but only the wooden parts will really be gone unless there's some major disaster (earthquake, hurricane, etc.). I don't think it's a good option, even as an option. Make it look overgrown or dirty, but that's about it. And that can be done with a dirt layer and potentially adding plant growth that is added to walls.

 

[Suxar]

Even wood buildings will take many years to be gone, and anything from cobblestone up will generally last hundreds of years or longer.

It depends heavily on the climate. More precisely, on annual temperature fluctuations. If no one lives in a brick house, then in my climate it will completely fall apart within 30-40 years. However, that's a considerable timeframe, half the average person's lifetime.

 

[meganoth]

It's not that simple. Some people start playing on the first day of a server, while others join on day 500. What's it like to start a game and realize you're surrounded by forests and need to somehow get to another biome, but you have no equipment?

Open servers are a completely different game than solo or co-op. Accordingly, the concept of a day is very relative there.

Ah right, forgot that.

It depends heavily on the climate. More precisely, on annual temperature fluctuations. If no one lives in a brick house, then in my climate it will completely fall apart within 30-40 years. However, that's a considerable timeframe, half the average person's lifetime.

Which in this game is about 25 to 30 days

 

[Riamus]

It depends heavily on the climate. More precisely, on annual temperature fluctuations. If no one lives in a brick house, then in my climate it will completely fall apart within 30-40 years. However, that's a considerable timeframe, half the average person's lifetime.

True, though this is in Arizona and they say the heat in Arizona is a "dry heat" and from my understanding, dry locations preserve stuff far better than humid areas, so it's even less likely to take long to be gone.

 

[Suxar]

True, though this is in Arizona and they say the heat in Arizona is a "dry heat" and from my understanding, dry locations preserve stuff far better than humid areas, so it's even less likely to take long to be gone.

Besides humidity, there are also temperatures, as well as all sorts of bugs and bacteria. In my climate, wood simply rots, but brick and concrete undergo a slightly different process. In the fall, everything gets wet, and in the winter, the water inside freezes and simply tears apart the structure of the material. When 10 parts water freezes, it becomes 11 parts ice. While a building is occupied, it is heated and the water evaporates from the walls, but when it is abandoned, it begins to deteriorate.

Post automatically merged: Feb 17, 2026

Ah right, forgot that.

It's a shame the developers forget about this too. Some new features are great for single-player or co-op, but they have a negative impact on dedicated server play.

 

[meganoth]

It's a shame the developers forget about this too. Some new features are great for single-player or co-op, but they have a negative impact on dedicated server play.

Co-op is often on dedicated servers as well. Correct term would probably be "open server play"

It is the question whether they forget open servers or regard them as secondary objectives as both semi-permanent and >8 player-servers are outside the scope of the game.
On the other hand Madmole recently said they would add a feature that must be christmas and easter rolled into one for you. I refer to the endless progression stuff he wants to add

 

[Suxar]

It is the question whether they forget open servers or regard them as secondary objectives as both semi-permanent and >8 player-servers are outside the scope of the game.

I hope the developers will work on different game modes after they've finished all the core functionality, which means around the release of version 4.0.

Different modes require slightly different features. For example, limiting a merchant to three stacks of a particular item isn't a big deal in single-player, but it's a real hindrance in online play. For example, weapon parts drops—I'd like more randomization in online play to encourage trading between players.

And I hope that sooner or later there will be official support for large-player servers, at least 32 players.

 

[meganoth]

I hope the developers will work on different game modes after they've finished all the core functionality, which means around the release of version 4.0.

Different modes require slightly different features. For example, limiting a merchant to three stacks of a particular item isn't a big deal in single-player, but it's a real hindrance in online play. For example, weapon parts drops—I'd like more randomization in online play to encourage trading between players.

And I hope that sooner or later there will be official support for large-player servers, at least 32 players.

I can imagine that could be part of a PvP mode.

 

[Suxar]

I can imagine that could be part of a PvP mode.

PvP here needs a serious overhaul. You spawn in, craft your first stone axe, and then a player with a machine gun comes out from behind the bushes and completely destroys you. This game is poorly suited for PvP, at least in its current form.

 

[meganoth]

PvP here needs a serious overhaul. You spawn in, craft your first stone axe, and then a player with a machine gun comes out from behind the bushes and completely destroys you. This game is poorly suited for PvP, at least in its current form.

And that is exactly why PvP (and sandbox) are prime candidates for being made into special modes. Can't be in vanilla because vanilla is designed around a long progression with big differences in player power that rival the zombies progression.

Sure you can dream that TFP also adds a "open server" mode, but modes don't grow on trees and take time. Your best bet is probably that one of the two most likely modes is also made with persistent open servers in mind

 

[Suxar]

And that is exactly why PvP (and sandbox) are prime candidates for being made into special modes. Can't be in vanilla because vanilla is designed around a long progression with big differences in player power that rival the zombies progression.

Sure you can dream that TFP also adds a "open server" mode, but modes don't grow on trees and take time. Your best bet is probably that one of the two most likely modes is also made with persistent open servers in mind

There's a lot we could do with game modes. But I don't think anyone will think about it until version 4.0.

And yes, I'd like to see mixed modes on the map, meaning the ability to define PvP and PvE zones, or leveled PvP zones. Or perhaps a mix of these mechanics. The modes and settings could be very diverse.

 

[SabinSnake PS5#1]

I think the fact that storms deal damage over time to your health is excessive. They already reduce visibility, make vehicles go crazy. The health damage is overboard. I think to make storms more engaging, remove the health damage but increase penalties to things like stamina and thirst/hunger. You could also make the zombies more aggressive but also more rewarding to fight in storms.

This way we aren't forced to run for shelter and sit around for 10 minutes.

When it comes to storms in the snow biome, health damage would be relevant, considering that people can suffer frostbites and hypothermia, among other things in real life.