Any mods for more casual players?

[corestandeven]

I've had this game for a while, and whilst I like the visuals, the movement and combat system, the setting, the large amount of items, I personally feel the game is not very accessible for those who don't, or can't, sink hours into the game. Its seems like the game has deliberately positioned itself to put off casual gamers who only have a short time to play games. If that is the devs intent, fine, it was my mistake to buy this without reading the forums or reviews, but I feel it is a shame this game is not more accessible.

I've tried several play throughs and I feel each time I'm only at the starting blocks. I cannot start base building, and every time I do learn some skills my character ends up dying. I have a character at the moment who is always stressed, depressed, terrified and has injures that will not go away, and whilst I understand the game is going for realism I don't find it fun to have to spend hours trying to deal with this.

So my long winded question is, are there any mods the community can recommend that make the game a bit more like a video game, and less a The Sims life simulator? For instance I see there are some Instant Read and Instant Action mods which I will try, as watching my character do certain actions for ages is not fun to me (even with the speed setting up), but anything else that makes the games pace run a bit faster?

Are there any mods where your character has a bit more skills or knowledge, like an Advanced Start mod? Having to learn basic skills every time again isn't fun for me. Also the inability for a player to build some pretty basic defence structures, until you learn more carpentry skills, which again takes ages, seems an odd game design choice.

Are there any mods that make the game a bit more forgiving, like a save or checkpoint mod? Yes I get the devs have decided to go for Permadeath as a design choice, but not all players want to play that way. Other games that had Permadeath as the recommended play choice do have options to cater for those who want to play differently (e.g. Rimworld), so i'm surprised the devs havent introduced this.

I'm sorry this comes across a bit whingey, but I want to enjoy this game but feel some game design choices are just holding me back. I'm watching some Youtube channels, like Mr Atomic Duck, and I want to play the game 'he' is playing – where my character can shoot zombies and actually do fun and exciting things – rather than just barely getting off the starting block, spending hours getting no-where, then dying and have to repeat.

Thanks

[Drawn]

Use sandbox settings. Increase the exp multiplier. If you play alone you can fast-forward your game..

You can give yourself more points to use in character select.

There is a journal mod that gives back exp.

Just google. Your questions are answered elsewhere a dozen times and you can think for yourself too.

[Undefined]

Originally posted by corestandeven:

Are there any mods that make the game a bit more forgiving, like a save or checkpoint mod?

Skill Recovery Journal allows you to save your leveling progress.

But, from the sound of it, none of this is going to help you.

I sympathize with what you're going through and I almost quit the game before giving it one last shot and coming to the realization that I needed to learn some very elementary concepts before I could even play the game. I also decided that I needed to set goals and make an effort to reach those goals.

The things you absolutely need to learn

• Being good at combat
  
• Losing a hoard
  
• Finding a good weapon

Your goals should be to survive a week, then two weeks, then a month, then two months. You get the picture. If you die, did you repeat a mistake that you made previously? If so, stop it. Learn from your mistakes and make a concerted effort not to repeat them. You will eventually break bad habits and form good habits, like stop carelessly opening doors and, instead, holding the aim butting, positioning your cursor, and being ready to shove if there's a zombie behind the door.

My post will end here, but I'll leave some advice for you in case you're interested.

-------------------------------------------

Being good at combat: don't bother with anything else until you're good at combat. Everything else is a waste of time if you can't survive, and combat is a key indicator of how far you can go. Tips for melee combat: zoom in, fight horizontally, and keep the circle of the aim cursor at the level of the zombies feet. I'm assuming you have aiming outline enabled, right? If not, enable it.

Losing a hoard: there are three ways to lose a hoard. They all involve clumping the zombies together (putting them in a "ball") and, if you've alerted too many of them, it's best to gather as many as you can by shouting. Once they're in a ball, from easiest to toughest:

1. Lead them to a tall fence then jump over the fence.
   
2. Lead them into a forest then form a hook and exit the same side you entered the forest.
   
3. Lead them to the side of a building with doors/windows, sneak-run to the opposite side, wait 2 seconds, then sneak run away. What this does is change their pathing so that they try to break down the doors/windows and go through the building, which buys you time to get away, and they will forget about you once you're far enough away.

Finding a good weapon: check sheds, garages, the trunks of vehicles. More risky locations include businesses (hardware store, bars) or warehouses.

[=JpS=Red5]

Go Sandbox Mode and look over all of the settings. There are a lot of options you can use to make the game easier like zombie population, starting points for character creation, reading speed, etc etc. Take Veteran to avoid panic and as many traits as you want.

Do remember that PZ is a zombie survival game with the tag line 'This is how you died'. By default, it is not meant to be a casual, chill experience. I won't say to 'go find another game', but the survival genre is not for everyone.

[Arran Chace]

For really a casual expierence, i think you made here a wrong choice in game, at best the game can be made more easier, abeit with mods or tweaked sandbox to cater it more to your liking, but the mechanics in place mostly make it never really a fun casual game, and in that regard there are many games that would suit you better i think, and make a more casual expierence more enjoyable in gameplay and graphics even.

I played before this, 7d2d alot, and really enjoyed it, but started to look for a more indepth harder survival expierence, PZ Zombloid dispite its simpler more 2d GX offered that.
Yet imho if i want a more "relaxed" zombie stomp survival i grab 7D2D again.

[Foxtrekker]

I also suggest sandox. Adjust the settings for xp gain, zombies strength and hordes how u like them. I find the hordes to be op and repetitious fighting them using the tricks people are saying. if you can get them more spread out where you're not running into a horde of 50 zombies everywhere you want to go it allows you to do much more in the game, while still have enough zombies around for the challenge. Also, tons of zombies lag your game. Boosting your xp gain also helps when your character does die you can just make another and get the skills up faster and just continue on the same map with all your safehouses and gear intact. I don't like the melee combat at all so without these adjustments i wouldn't even be here.
If you like just killing zombies fine, but if u want to really get into all the other aspects of the game, custom sandbox is a game changer.

[Babok3k3]

Mod: They Knew and then in sandbox option virus transmission only with bite.
Do you like john romero zombies ? then remove these stoopid zombie runner in sandbox also.
Should be a good start

[Drizzt]

hi - i'm going to echo other posters to point you to the Sandbox Settings (the Custom Sandbox mode)

i assume you have been playing on Apocalypse or Survival?

These are very hard for new players (and personally i find Builder a bit too far the other way on some counts, while also being somewhat bothersome in different ways - since really a new player will generally want to find lots of all of the different types of loot while they are getting used to things)

i would definitely suggest playing on easier settings to learn the game mechanics

i would recommend:

Custom Sandbox -> Initial Infection preset (fewer and weaker zombies, lots of loot, player gains XP quicker and starts with some gear, better condition of vehicles, power and water last longer)

- enable "Multi Hit" in the Character tab (hit multiple zombies at one)

- set "Rear Vulnerability" to Low in the Character tab (less chance of getting bitten from behind)

you could also turn off "Environmental Attacks" in the Zombie Lore options (stop zombies from attacking doors and windows if they haven't seen the player)

another option is to change "Transmission" to Saliva Only (can only get the zombie virus from bites - otherwise there is a chance top get it from any wound caused by a zombie attack) - you can even turn transmission off, which means you can only die from injuries or sickness

There are plenty of mods to do the various things you mentioned - but probably the best one to start with would be the Change Sandbox Settings mod

So you could start the game with maybe a 10x or 100x multiplier on your XP gains (can go up to 1000x max) - so that you gain skill levels quicker - and when you feel you have enough levels you could then use the mod to reduce the multiplier - and then increase it again if you die and start as a new character (you just need to remember to quit and reload after changing the settings to make sure they are applied)

you can also play the game in debug mode, which allows you to select things such as instant timed action - as well as setting the game speed way above the regular max

but first i would suggest those easier settings, as well as having a look at any others you want to set - before experimenting with debug - simply because debug may be a bit confusing before you are so familiar with how everything in the game works

also, the sandbox settings are extensive

i haven't even mentioned the rest of the character settings where you can give yourself up to 100 additional starting trait point

and also set your character's needs to very slow, and injury rate to low

i reckon this stuff should get you going to start with

and as for mods, there are loads - and browsing through the most popular mods in the workshop should find you hundreds - filter by build 41 and then maybe check out most popular of all time, or the past year - and then you can also filter by additional keywords, such as interface, balance weapons or vehicles

there are also lots of good mod collections

but again - i really can't stress enough how amazingly configurable the vanilla game is - you just need to go into the Custom Sandbox mode

i would suggest setting those first settings i recommended (Initial Infection preset plus multi hit and low rear vulnerability etc), and then saving that as a new preset - and you can then tweak other settings as you like - and also save those as new presets

although often i like to have the preset have a bit less in it - and then just tweak a few things for each run - for me that might be zombie settings - but for you it might be the XP multiplier and how many trait points you start with

hopefully this will help you out in having a bit more fun

do post again if you want any more advice on settings or mods

good luck :-)

EDIT:
also, while i think about it - in Custom Sandbox, the 3 "default" modes all have a preset (that you can't delete unless you use the DEV button in debug mode) - which allows you to see what they have the settings set to - and any settings that are different from Apocalypse will be highlighted in yellow (there are also a bunch of other presets such as the Initial Infection one i suggested to modify, save and then use as a base)

[corestandeven]

Thanks for those who responded positively. On reflection I think when I said 'casual gamer' I should of explained better. I didn't necessarily want an easy game, or one without challenge, but just not one where it takes ages to do the most trivial of tasks, and without gameplay mechanics that seem intentionally grindy or slow. I don't have the time to sink hours into a game getting nowhere, so games where you can achieve 'something' in 30-60 mins are preferred.

There were some really useful replies, but many thanks to Drizzt. You are right, there are some options at the start that I seemed to miss or was reluctant to adjust, but after reading your post I have had another go. My character now is probably too much of a Super Soldier, but I've at least experienced some more of the game in the short time I've played. I'll probably tweak my settings downward and start again.

If any others are like me, and don't have hours to sink into this, and have mods they recommend I'd still welcome suggestions.

[Drizzt]

Originally posted by corestandeven:

Thanks for those who responded positively. On reflection I think when I said 'casual gamer' I should of explained better. I didn't necessarily want an easy game, or one without challenge, but just not one where it takes ages to do the most trivial of tasks, and without gameplay mechanics that seem intentionally grindy or slow. I don't have the time to sink hours into a game getting nowhere, so games where you can achieve 'something' in 30-60 mins are preferred.

There were some really useful replies, but many thanks to Drizzt. You are right, there are some options at the start that I seemed to miss or was reluctant to adjust, but after reading your post I have had another go. My character now is probably too much of a Super Soldier, but I've at least experienced some more of the game in the short time I've played. I'll probably tweak my settings downward and start again.

If any others are like me, and don't have hours to sink into this, and have mods they recommend I'd still welcome suggestions.

glad to have been able to help :-)

i may post some more mods when they occur to me, but this one very much did when you mentioned the starting a little too powerful and wanting to tweak things down then you start again

so this mod will kind of do the opposite, and is configurable for when it kicks in and how much it adds - but it gives you additional trait points every time you die - and so you could start with some lower settings and see how you go - and when you die you will be able to start with a more powerful character, without needed to select negative traits to offset them:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2659093221
i would note that you seem to need to start your new character immediately when you die - if you quit and then reload it seems to lose the accumulated trait points

also, the skill recovery journal mod that got mentioned can give you back your experience if you find where your previous character stashed it:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2503622437
that one can be configured to only give back a % - also only gives back full levels i think

there are also various respawn mods, some of which try to spawn your new character where your old one died and with their equipment (which is a little weird, since that may well duplicate the equipment since your zombie will have it all) - this one is just skills and traits i think:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2687842971

anyway - good luck in finding that perfect balance between challenge and fun :-)

[DeadMeat]

Thanks for the post. I've been playing basic Apocalypse mode with the "Handy" trait set. Over time I've lasted longer and longer, using the same techniques mentioned. I also usually set up my first few safe house out of town ... way out of town. Longest run so far is 1 month 15 days. I decided to move closer to town and well, got over-confident with my crowbar fighting skills. Combat is the hardest thing for me to master. Going to try again with Survivor mode.