jonahcutter

If you can gauge the time-of-day (server-time, that is), you don't need a compass in the game. Just check your shadow. I don't think seasons are modeled in the game, so shadows should pretty much fall east or west, depending upon whether it's afternoon or morning. A way to know whether it's afternoon or morning without a watch is to observe whether shadows are getting longer (afternoon) or shorter (morning).

The mod has purple-fever already, as bad as any mmo. If you create l33t gear, players will min/max to get it. Is the game about surviving in a zombie apocalypse on a day-to-day, moment-to-moment basis? Or is it about min/maxing to accumulate the best gear? I want to play the former. If I want to play the latter, WoW has already perfected it. The focus of this mod's gameplay isn't real clear right now.

The mod would be far more intense if 99% of pvp encounters happened within 50 yards of the combatants. And the person initiating the pvp was very likely to draw zed aggro. Right now the mod plays like a military sim that also happens to have zombies in it. And the zombies are largely a nuisance, if not outright inconsequential, to players with long-range, scoped, high-RoF weapons. It'd be fun to play a build of the mod that has just pistols and shotguns, and see how hardcore everyone really is. Exactly. I made a suggestion that death by gunfire causes any loot on the killed player to be potentially damaged by the bullets. 50% roll per bullet per loot item. I have no idea if it's even possible in the game engine. But things like that is what the mod needs. Forcing the difficult decisions on bandits that survivors already have to make every moment they are dealing with unknown players. As it is, there's very little downside in outright killing other players to farm loot. If you're just interested in farming loot, it is by far the most efficient practice to simply KOS. Right now, it's very easy to play as a bandit, and very difficult to play as a survivor. Make bandits have to weigh the risk vs reward of murdering another player. Will it damage the loot that I could of otherwise traded for? By firing first, will I draw zed aggro? Will I then get a chance to loot my murder victim before the zeds are on me?

A few radical ideas: I'd like to see a build of the game with only pistols and shotguns, and very low ammo spawns. Maybe very, very few scoped hunting rifle spawns, but with such low ammo that you'd be lucky to be carrying more than 2-3 shots. No high end, shiny-loot, long-range, high-rof military weapons. Not even any cqb assualt rifles/submachine guns. Make pvp happen up-close-and-personal. And within the context of likely drawing the horde. If you make pvp have to happen when the initiating party is likely to draw aggro first, then you put a natural brake on KOSing. Increase zombie spawns, and put zombie spawns in all the treelines around cities to keep campers/snipers on their toes even that far out. More melee weapons, to help new players deal with the increased spawns. Maybe new players spawn with a basic, close range club. It's not zombie survival without a frying pan! Super low spawns of food and drink/clean water. Make basic survival from starvation/dehydration your main concern. And you've got so few rounds, you have to weigh whether you want to open up a firefight, or save them for zed defense. Then the last twist: make it so deaths from gunfire can potentially damage the loot of the killed player... 50% roll on every item being destroyed from each shot. Scenario: Player A has a nice weapon/gear. Player B ganks him for it. Player B's shots hit that weapon/gear and destroys some/all of it. Player B is now out scarce rounds for his own weapon, has murdered a potential ally, and likely has drawn the attention of the horde. Will he even have time to loot his murder victim before the zeds are on him? Player B could of attempted diplomacy and traded for what he needed. He made the selfish, easy choice and suffered worse for it. Or he could of gotten lucky and made out like a... well... bandit! And he had to do it all up close, inherently putting himself at risk. Make everyones' choices have consequences. And the more self-serving choice has the much higher chance for both risk/reward. Right now, the most self-serving choice (KOSing) maximizes rewards while minimizing risk.