NPC's

[Oc]

So like devs, I went to high school, graduated, finished college and like totally got an actual job in my field (for 5+ years now) and got married. When will NPC's drop? Are we scared the guy who mods them in half ass will have them better or?

[Rose]

5 years? try 10 now.... that 1/7-1/8 of an average human life span

nice to see theyve been conveniently dropped from discussions about build 43 as well.

Its pretty gross really, selling early backers a game, the people who funded your starting point, then bait and switching them for a decade, we were told in january of this year they would be in the game very soon, over a year isnt very soon. all those backers have long since gone, they dont have to worry or care about us anymore.

other parts of the game get added in as a shambles and fixed in future updates, but for some reason NPC are the point of pride. its like when you have coursework due, and instead of doing it you mess around with animations that look no different and add in a hotbar and worry about your fire looking pretty, and expand your world so you have even more things to fix about instead of getting on with the coursework youve been promising will be done for 10 years... kind of, very, like that.

i always use these devs as my go to example of bad developers, they like to think theyre bay12games 2.0, because of how long theyve been working on their game, like that can only be a good thing, but the key difference is, early players still play dwarf fortress, PZ has just cycled through generations of players.

[TromaVille Citizen]

This game is a passion project. The fact they allow us to play it is a bonus. Like you many others have come around over the years with the same old tired story of how much they've accomplished in life and yet still find the time to come back and worry.

[Rose]

Originally posted by TromaVille Citizen:

This game is a passion project. The fact they allow us to play it is a bonus. Like you many others have come around over the years with the same old tired story of how much they've accomplished in life and yet still find the time to come back and worry.

allowing us to play it? we paid for access to product... what do you think this is? its a product not a passion project, if you want to see a passion project, go look up battle for wesnoth

i think this comment is indicative of how devs like this get away with it, they build a sort of cult-of-personality around themself and their games, and at that point it doesnt matter what you do, criticisms are always invalid because "our god doesnt make mistakes"

[Willheart]

Originally posted by TromaVille Citizen:

The fact they allow us to play it is a bonus.

Wat?

Considering CDDA is in a similar boat (they're in but they're buggy and love hurling their AR15s, taking their belt off and whipping zombies) I'm just waiting to see whether this or that manage to get NPCs working correctly.

It's a big feature for us single-player enjoyers on the back-bench, but I'm not losing any sleep waiting for it though.

[Death]

What? You mean life continues even though we're waiting for a feature in a game? No way, that's just crazy.

Originally posted by ImNotNotSatan:

5 years? try 10 now.... that 1/7-1/8 of an average human life span

nice to see theyve been conveniently dropped from discussions about build 43 as well.

This is just an outright lie. It's well known at this point that after the animals in 42, that a basic type of NPC will be coming in 43. I'm not sure why you would lie about something like this, but it's just ridiculous at best.

Originally posted by ImNotNotSatan:

allowing us to play it? we paid for access to product... what do you think this is?

No. You paid for the product as is when you bought it. Period. All the updates being given for free is a bonus.

[Willheart]

Originally posted by Death:

You paid for the product as is when you bought it. Period. All the updates being given for free is a bonus.

Normally I'd agree, but not necessarily when it's 'early access' or pre-purchase beta testing: there's a mutual understanding that features will change, be added, updated, even if it isn't a 'legal obligation'. If PZ (or any early-access title) was marketed 'as is' in every stage of development, it would not be anywhere near as successful or funded as it is now.

//Nobody buys early access because they want to experience the buggy mess of the game devoid of features as it is, but rather because they want to support what that game will become. PZ is slightly different because it's already feature-rich, but I'm sure NPCs will be regarded as a future core feature of the 'finished' game once it reaches that stage.

When multiplayer came out, that's where devs had to focus their immediate attention, since that's where they've captivated an expanding audience (and been publicised with). I think one of the MODs commented on another thread that NPCs were still something the devs were passionate about, but since most of the playerbase is focused on the multiplayer that's what they're focused on fixing, and that it's only a 'minority' of the current playerbase that regularly play singleplayer, and only a few vocal individuals screaming for NPCs reintroduced (although I think if NPCs were introduced properly, we'd quickly see singleplayer as the majority of recurrent players).

I'm hopeful they'll get around to it, but keeping attention by dangling the carrot only works for so long. By the time NPCs are 'fixed' and ready, I might not be interested anymore, or even remember this game exists.

It's not a shame for my wallet, but that I might not see the game actualised in the way it was meant to be.

[ProtecTron]

Yeah I want the NPCs too, really, and I've played a bit even when everything was 2D and there were no cars...

But, come on! It's one if not the cheapest and greatest zombie games of the moment... It's a jewel in a sea of mediocre AAA copies that can be forgoten after finishing them, playing for 50-100 hours or even finding a similar title with a flaming sword or superpowers.

I'm sure this time they'll comply and we'll be getting news once B42 is rolled out, the player base has increased significantly, while most zombie games lasts two or three years...

[Puppers]

Originally posted by ImNotNotSatan:

5 years? try 10 now.... that 1/7-1/8 of an average human life span

we were told in january of this year they would be in the game very soon, over a year isnt very soon. all those backers have long since gone, they dont have to worry or care about us anymore.

i always use these devs as my go to example of bad developers

After reading the 2022 and beyond blog with the road map that was released after multiplayer was released I was never once was I under the impression that NPCS would be released this year, especially considering how long it took them to add mp. I purchased in 2014 during slow development times, I mean I didnt even know there was npcs previously...but after playing the mods on workshop if the npcs were anything like that I can totally understand removing them for a later time when they have the ability and resources to implement them.

The god worshiping comment is funny, where do I sign up? Hail spiffo god of burgers


Also house plants!!!!!! ARENT YOU EXCITED FOR HOUSE PLANTS , im a ♥♥♥♥ on a shingle for that. Heck

[taxhelp_pro]

Given how stupid AI NPCs are in every game I have ever played, I'm actually not that excited about them coming to Project Zomboid. When they do get there, they will mostly just be annoying because they will do foolish things and just be in the way when they try to be friendly and hostile ones will either be sitting ducks or over powered and nearly invincible depending on which side the programmers err on.

Meanwhile, the game is pretty darn good the way it is.

[Death]

Originally posted by Willheart:

Originally posted by Death:

You paid for the product as is when you bought it. Period. All the updates being given for free is a bonus.

Normally I'd agree, but not necessarily when it's 'early access' or pre-purchase beta testing: there's a mutual understanding that features will change, be added, updated, even if it isn't a 'legal obligation'. If PZ (or any early-access title) was marketed 'as is' in every stage of development, it would not be anywhere near as successful or funded as it is now.

//Nobody buys early access because they want to experience the buggy mess of the game devoid of features as it is, but rather because they want to support what that game will become. PZ is slightly different because it's already feature-rich, but I'm sure NPCs will be regarded as a future core feature of the 'finished' game once it reaches that stage.

When multiplayer came out, that's where devs had to focus their immediate attention, since that's where they've captivated an expanding audience (and been publicised with). I think one of the MODs commented on another thread that NPCs were still something the devs were passionate about, but since most of the playerbase is focused on the multiplayer that's what they're focused on fixing, and that it's only a 'minority' of the current playerbase that regularly play singleplayer, and only a few vocal individuals screaming for NPCs reintroduced (although I think if NPCs were introduced properly, we'd quickly see singleplayer as the majority of recurrent players).

I'm hopeful they'll get around to it, but keeping attention by dangling the carrot only works for so long. By the time NPCs are 'fixed' and ready, I might not be interested anymore, or even remember this game exists.

It's not a shame for my wallet, but that I might not see the game actualised in the way it was meant to be.

It doesn't matter if you agree, because the early access blurb on the store page says exactly this and makes no promise of the game even making it to completion. You are buying the game as is with no promise of further updates. It's really that simple. We can argue about whether it's good or bad, but you are warned of this fact before you even press add to cart.

[crossed]

Yeah, waiting a year or even multiple years for updates seems to be the norm now, and it will probably get even slower when they start working on actual AI and NPC stuff.
Though in this thursdoid they didn't point out how b42 is nowhere on the horizon, so maybe we're getting close xD

[LOLgotyou]

Originally posted by taxhelp_pro:

Given how stupid AI NPCs are in every game I have ever played, I'm actually not that excited about them coming to Project Zomboid. When they do get there, they will mostly just be annoying because they will do foolish things and just be in the way when they try to be friendly and hostile ones will either be sitting ducks or over powered and nearly invincible depending on which side the programmers err on.

Meanwhile, the game is pretty darn good the way it is.

Im sure they have some kind of goal in mind too keep the npc in check, if they miss the mark they'll surely make changes lets just hope that they do that before launch. But even if they ended up bad for years im sure they added an option so you could disable npc in sandbox.

[schnappkatze]

I am with you here, I actually played the very first version that got stolen eventually (Baldspot ftw) and am still waiting.

I'm glad that they have success with their game and have the freedom to shape it exactly like they want. Truly. But for me it feels like every update focuses on stuff that I don't really care about or that goes too much in a direction I am not that interested in. The whole nutrition system and the very detailled cooking (with a way too awkward UI in my opinion) or cars for example.

But that's life and that is Early Access, and this game is despite everything definitely one of the better EA games.

[Shady Allie]

Originally posted by Ocular:

So like devs, I went to high school, graduated, finished college and like totally got an actual job in my field (for 5+ years now) and got married. When will NPC's drop? Are we scared the guy who mods them in half ass will have them better or?

I'm still wondering where the flying cars and jet packs my grandparents were promised back in the 1950's are. They lived their lives, saw the horse and cart replaced by automobiles and the promise of the wonderful flying cars dlc. Two generations later, we are still waiting for that.

[Puppers]

Originally posted by Shady Allie:

Originally posted by Ocular:

So like devs, I went to high school, graduated, finished college and like totally got an actual job in my field (for 5+ years now) and got married. When will NPC's drop? Are we scared the guy who mods them in half ass will have them better or?

I'm still wondering where the flying cars and jet packs my grandparents were promised back in the 1950's are. They lived their lives, saw the horse and cart replaced by automobiles and the promise of the wonderful flying cars dlc. Two generations later, we are still waiting for that.

Flying horse and cart when ??? and wheres our colores tents and colored sporks? Gosh not even christmas decorations.

!when