How Cooperative Is It

[Garbodor #BoycottTF2]

I don't own this game, nor have I ever played it. I've spent a decent amount of time in Rust though, and have very negative opinions on that game. The core design of modern Rust encourages KOS purely because the game is so grindy, which then in turn makes the game excessively competitive. To make it anywhere on Rust you have to play 8+ hours a day to make a bare minimum semblance of progress, and to even hope to speed that up you must KOS anyone you see in the hopes they've done the grinding for you. The core design encourages this behavior, making the game completely unfun for anyone looking for a genuine survival experience. I've theorized that adding a universal threat to all players in Rust would increase player cooperation naturally to deal with this threat. Project Zomboid looks like it's a good way to test this. I don't trust YouTube to give a genuine example of a game, which is exactly why I wasted $40 on rust, but I want first hand experience from players. This game is brutal and unforgiving, but how cooperative is this game? How much does the in game mechanics encourage players to cooperate with each other? Just how sweaty is the player base?

[Shady Allie]

unless you are seeking pvp i think most people want to pve, even on an open full pvp server.
Your mileage may vary.

I play on vanilla full pvp servers, and rarely find a kos player, they do exist though. most players in zomboid understand the need to groups up, or not go out killing everyone as soon as they spot.

it all depends on the server and what the admin or players want from it.

if you get the game, look at the LFG or server AD discussion sub topics to find the right group.

[Frío pero elegante]

Do not buy this game for MP experience trust me

[Garbodor #BoycottTF2]

Originally posted by Mittani:

Do not buy this game for MP experience trust me

Please elaborate. The game looks fun in and of itself, but I'm speciffically curious how the PVE elements (I.E zombies, food, drink, exposure, tempature, moodles) effect the desire for cooperation in this game.

[Puppers]

I sunk many hours in this game both single and multiplayer, if you have decent internet connection and computer you should have no issues hosting. If you purchase a dedicated server its even better. I have had no issues with desync or anything since having a more stable internet, the only time it gets a little weird is if you jump in a car with a friend whos ping is 300 from being in another country.

The game is great if you can find like minded people with similar playstyles but there is no real endgame or sustainability so if you have a server of say like 10 players you will be forced to upp the loot settings if people start mentioning not being able to find items. But overall its still great and I love playing it both single and multiplayer.

I do not play pvp , there are many pvp servers out there and roleplaying but i have never tried them. The official PZ discord has an abundance of servers to go through along with the steam server browser and steam forums.

As far as survival goes its pretty straight forward and if you have coop team working together its really fun.

[Shady Allie]

it is all subjective to how the server was set up. some are easy, some hardcore.

how long has the server been running? is loot respawn on? how soon did you join the server? is all loot already gone? are the players talkative and group friendly? it will vary huge.

I play online, like I am playing solo. When I see other players it is at first "woah" real live guy. is he gonna kill me? (i always join pvp for this adrenaline) sometimes they talk, sometimes they join. rarely do they just attack.

You will need to find the right group to play with though.
some players will want ALL the loot. others will want to share.

it takes time to find a good group.

build 42 upcoming in the future will be setting the game up for further co-operation within the game. you need to read all you can about build 42 for info on that.

The game can be EXACTLY what you are looking for, it will take time (in learning) and finding the right group though.

Keep researching though. keep digging.

[Frío pero elegante]

Originally posted by Garbodor:

Originally posted by Mittani:

Do not buy this game for MP experience trust me

Please elaborate. The game looks fun in and of itself, but I'm speciffically curious how the PVE elements (I.E zombies, food, drink, exposure, tempature, moodles) effect the desire for cooperation in this game.

ok then sorry if my grammar is incorrect hope you understand.
First in the server browser you'll find a lots of servers most empty a few full,you can join them but probably those server have more than 1 month time ingame(If you have bad luck the game is on winter, vanilla character creation has a limited option of clothes not enough to survive the winter unless they use a mod to change that) that means you'll find almost nothing to loot and few zombies to kill, then player bases r protected w invisible walls so you cant go into them and loot them I forgot to say that you probably wont have a player encounter bc the map is too big, but you have another option find in the game's forums some dedicated servers i know it is a lot of work to do(join a discord add some ppl gonna take some time) and most of them are full of op mods(clothing, weapons, vehicles, etc) and bc you havent play the game yet id not recomend mods finally there is another option have a friend to play in a server that you or him can host but soon or later it'll become laggy as you keep exploring new areas.
Its not worth it, all the hrs i've played this game are SP probably only 5hrs from MP.

[Puppers]

Originally posted by b1gf001:

Nearly all the friends i made and people on my server were met through the official pz discord server, people that now i consider more than just online acquaintance. Its easy making and finding friends for this game if you just know where to look, and the discord has a really nice community. I would def check there for people to play with before steam forums.

I even hosted a public server for the vets there with no problems as far as griefing or anything. I had fire spread on and the only thing I had enabled was safe houses and people still acted like human beings and didnt cause problems. Again like anywhere online it depends but its nothing like what some of thes comments are making the mp out to be.

[b1gf001]

Game devs strongly advise you do not host a public server unless you're renting a dedicated server. There's literally a dialogue box you have to acknowledge after every launch of the game, even if you plan to play singleplayer.

[Puppers]

Originally posted by b1gf001:

Game devs strongly advise you do not host a public server unless you're renting a dedicated server. There's literally a dialogue box you have to acknowledge after every launch of the game, even if you plan to play singleplayer.

Yeah i only use dedicated servers and i always recommend that over hosting from pc.

[Siodog]

In short:
The game encourages coop, like any other survival you help each other with different tasks, traits, professions altough can always do it alone.

The game does not encourage multiplayer, if you are thinking like rust forget about it is the complete opposite. Yes you may go on servers killing players and getting their loot but is nothing like that and is not something ppl do or the game works well with. (Nor it should)

As a side note the game has many Roleplay servers something even like capturing ppl as prisoners with mods and loot their stuff not just plain kill+loot

[dubsmith]

Project Zomboid is like a zombie game system, and you can set it up how you like which allows for complimenting different play styles. It does come with presets you can use, or you can customize most of the aspects of the game using customized settings.

It is good for sp and mp. There are countless mods to enhance the game, and you will likely run into mods (which can be auto-loaded) on public servers.

If you're hesitant to try the game, watch some folks play it on twitch or youtube and see if it is something you can get into. It's a solid way to see different ways the game is being played before investing money.

[Anix]

it is very cooperative if you and your friends can see eye to eye

[Garbodor #BoycottTF2]

All in all the game seems to be evidence of my theory. Maybe I didn't convey my purpose for posting this well, but I just wanted to see how the elements of this game encourages cooperation. In Rust there's virtually nothing PvE outside of dehydration and starving, so nothing really encourages cooperation between players outside of mutual defense and division of labor. Where as in zomboid the game has many things aside from defense and labor that encourages cooperation. As has been mentioned in this thread, certain characters and their backgrounds allow for them and only them to make and craft certain items. This encourages players to diversify their group with different abilities. There's no systems even similar to this in Rust. Rust is so unfun as a survival game because the "survival" aspect is attempting to hide from other players long enough to get some kind of a foothold. Zomboid seemingly does not have this problem nearly as bad.

Honestly I'm genuinely impressed just how finely crafted this game is, as I've seen BigBtheFluffyRedNeck's video on the game. He gives a very concise and clean representation of the game and it's systems, but did not go very far into the multiplayer aspects of the game. I definitely look forward to trying the game, and to get first hand experience myself. My opinion on Rust is already set, and the only fun I've ever had on it were in roleplay settings since the vanilla game feels like the worst game of Call of Duty I've ever played. There it felt like there was a reason I was fighting another faction, not just because the enemy faction wanted to save a few hours of grinding by stealing my stuff. I think Project Zomboid will put in perspective even more on what exactly it is that's wrong with Rust and survival games that emulate it.

[hi]

Originally posted by Garbodor:

Originally posted by Mittani:

Do not buy this game for MP experience trust me

Please elaborate. The game looks fun in and of itself, but I'm speciffically curious how the PVE elements (I.E zombies, food, drink, exposure, tempature, moodles) effect the desire for cooperation in this game.

the short of it is, play with friends or randoms in order to get to know people, it wont make surviving any easier if u already know how to play the game.
the game is very grindy when it comes to certain skills like metalworking or woodmaking, having more people will just allow u to build things easier (which btw is rarely ever worth it, the only reason people would fortify their base in larger extent is for roleplay reasons or pvp reasons.)

the longer ull play the game, the more ull realise that zombies are actually not that big of a deal anymore and so u'll want to try pvp, which adds in pvp opportunities and alot of people who WILL KOS u. it just depends which u like better, pvp or pve, this game does both of them pretty nicely i guess, however pvp is still a bit unpolished, it works but spaghetti code might find a way to fool with u.

in short, play it with friends for fun, for immersion. play pvp if u want more excitement (the adrenaline rush is almost the same as if u play rust, since u get all of their items and they lose all skills.)

[LeCat]

Originally posted by Garbodor:

I don't own this game, nor have I ever played it. I've spent a decent amount of time in Rust though, and have very negative opinions on that game. The core design of modern Rust encourages KOS purely because the game is so grindy, which then in turn makes the game excessively competitive. To make it anywhere on Rust you have to play 8+ hours a day to make a bare minimum semblance of progress, and to even hope to speed that up you must KOS anyone you see in the hopes they've done the grinding for you. The core design encourages this behavior, making the game completely unfun for anyone looking for a genuine survival experience. I've theorized that adding a universal threat to all players in Rust would increase player cooperation naturally to deal with this threat. Project Zomboid looks like it's a good way to test this. I don't trust YouTube to give a genuine example of a game, which is exactly why I wasted $40 on rust, but I want first hand experience from players. This game is brutal and unforgiving, but how cooperative is this game? How much does the in game mechanics encourage players to cooperate with each other? Just how sweaty is the player base?

Well, i will give you my opinion based on my own experience. This game is deeply enjoyable at singleplayer, but what about coop? Okay, on PvP servers many people will only play for KOS, even on roleplay servers some people only care about getting weps and look for newcomers to just kill them. But there are a lot of PvE servers, based on cooperation, trade and those stuff, other servers are more newbie friendly, others look for a more deep PvE challenge. So, it is worth? To me is totally a yes, you will really enjoy it. Just keep in mind that in regular gamemodes the beggining will be so slow untill you got some experience, you will die lot of times on various ways, so be patient