I've now played for about 9 hours over the last two days. Definitely a steep learning curve. I see a lot of potential in this mod/game, and I do like it; I played for 9 hours after all. However, having come from years of gaming with extremely difficult games, including MUDs like one called Carrion Fields, where people will murder you and take your hard earned equipment, I think I can offer some suggestions without in any way advocating making the game "easy" or like so many of the ridiculously stupid and boring FPS's on the market. 1) Perma-aggro. Has its place in some respects, but takes away from a lot of the fun. There should be a certain distance the zombies stop aggro, especially because they run like 28 days later rather than actual zombies. You don't even start with a knife or any sort of a weapon, so your entire goal is to find one before you can really even "play." Arguing that it's a survival simulator is a valid position, but doesn't have anything to do with fun for 90% of the population. One can spend a long time even finding a weapon, and while that's addictive in a way, it is definitely not fun. 2) Increase percentage rates on weapon drops, and bring back starting with a weapon. See above. 3) Little communication on coms. I realize to RP we're all survivors, and we wouldn't even have access to coms, so it makes sense to be sneaking about, trying to scavenge food and water and first aid and weapons without any hope of survival or contact, but at some point, lack of any furthering of the goal of finding teammates, adds to an already semi-tedious experience for anyone not in a clan, hence the multiple topics all over the place about "Help, can I join a clan." 4) This is not a troll point - I realize a lot of the players may be teenagers, and possibly not totally accepted in normal society due to morbid obesity. Fine. Unlikely, otherwise, that after 9 hours, the first player I even saw literally leapt from the bushes, hit me in just the right way to break my legs, and then ran off leaving me to be eaten. I have nothing on me whatsoever, nothing to scavenge. The only RP for that is that his mind snapped, which would make sense; but someone who is so calculating as to not even waste ammo is obviously a vet and not having a psychotic break. I don't care about the griefing - the MUD had plenty of that. What worries me about that sort of behavior is that this mod, which has massive potential, will go the way of difficult, nail-biting MUDs like CF...a handful of vets who hate noobs, grief them, and drive them away. That just leads to the death of the game (except after 10 years, about 20 people will play at any one time, instead of hundreds or thousands.) It makes sense that survivors would, for the most part, attempt to band together. Obviously exceptions would definitely exist, and axe wielding, blubberous 16 year olds are no exception. 5) Perma aggro. Again. Should be reserved for select creatures and areas, if at all. How many times does one really want to just run for the ocean or docks? Hopefully this is not taken as a complaint thread, but rather some constructive criticism. I think the mod is spectacular in its immersion and potential. I have not been having a lot of fun, but it is certainly addictive, and watching videos on Youtube and the like, I can see that banding together (or even playing solo) once weapons are acquired can be quite the experience and very fun. I did manage to get a crossbow and an axe in one game, and after patching myself up, was searching everywhere for water and food while my temp dropped. It was harrowing and exciting. I'd like to see a bit less of a learning curve - see start weapon and lose perma aggro in all areas - without dumbing this very creative and interesting game down to the level of most of the FPS crap on the market.
