Hot take... vanilla helicopter event should be removed.

[Eyeless Pilot]

I'm just going to put it out there, I don't really see the point in the helicopter event anymore. Most players but the absolute newest of us know how to deal with it, so it isn't really that big a deal after your first few of them. And, prior to B42, no doubt most of us were playing with extended helicopter events anyway...

But the vanilla helicopter event makes no sense to me. If you were up there flying away, why would you follow the only (known, current, on the ground) survivor around dragging all the zombies in the area to them? Surely, after the initial, "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, there is a survivor, we should help and/or follow." You would see the millions of zombies coming, and just leave before you get them eaten.

[Ronin]

Having the Helicopter on "Sometimes" helps spice up the late game and can make what would be an otherwise normal/dull loot run quite interesting, especially if you have to divert away from your base for a night. Other than the meta events which make even less sense past the first week (If starting on 'Day 0 of Infection') there's nothing else that can create dynamic zombie movement, even if it is on a small scale.

With the Wandering Zombies mod set correctly the helicopter event will cause hordes to continuously move in the direction of the last sound, which I find is much more realistic. I used to think it was a news helicopter and that maybe outside of the Exclusion Zone, things were ok. My current roleplay is that it's just a guy with a helicopter who likes to torment me but is too cowardly to land and interact with me.

Rather than removing it, they should enhance the idea by implementing things from the Expanded Events mod such as the jets flying over, or have like an extra loud military helicopter fly over without stopping. They just need to add more logical events to fit in with it. Another idea would be to leave it as it is, it visits once and then is never seen again and combine it with a setting that reduces meta events over time. In the first week there'd be meta events all over the place simulating NPC's, maybe a zone story gets placed where the sound occurs so it's worth investigating, then as the weeks pass less and less events occur until you truly are the last one left.

[rgarrett]

Originally posted by Eyeless Pilot:

I'm just going to put it out there, I don't really see the point in the helicopter event anymore. Most players but the absolute newest of us know how to deal with it, so it isn't really that big a deal after your first few of them. And, prior to B42, no doubt most of us were playing with extended helicopter events anyway...

But the vanilla helicopter event makes no sense to me. If you were up there flying away, why would you follow the only (known, current, on the ground) survivor around dragging all the zombies in the area to them? Surely, after the initial, "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, there is a survivor, we should help and/or follow." You would see the millions of zombies coming, and just leave before you get them eaten.

actually i put the helicopter event on
repeat mode
why do they make it only happen once thats boring

helicopter mode should happen i get bored of the game when i settle nothing ever attacks me and the zomboids are predictable

[Eyeless Pilot]

Originally posted by Ronin:

Having the Helicopter on "Sometimes" helps spice up the late game and can make what would be an otherwise normal/dull loot run quite interesting, especially if you have to divert away from your base for a night. Other than the meta events which make even less sense past the first week (If starting on 'Day 0 of Infection') there's nothing else that can create dynamic zombie movement, even if it is on a small scale.

With the Wandering Zombies mod set correctly the helicopter event will cause hordes to continuously move in the direction of the last sound, which I find is much more realistic. I used to think it was a news helicopter and that maybe outside of the Exclusion Zone, things were ok. My current roleplay is that it's just a guy with a helicopter who likes to torment me but is too cowardly to land and interact with me.

Rather than removing it, they should enhance the idea by implementing things from the Expanded Events mod such as the jets flying over, or have like an extra loud military helicopter fly over without stopping. They just need to add more logical events to fit in with it. Another idea would be to leave it as it is, it visits once and then is never seen again and combine it with a setting that reduces meta events over time. In the first week there'd be meta events all over the place simulating NPC's, maybe a zone story gets placed where the sound occurs so it's worth investigating, then as the weeks pass less and less events occur until you truly are the last one left.

I said remove it, because I knew it would get people fired up and comment. The reality is, I just want it to have a purpose beyond moving the zombies around the map. Being able to communicate with it, or shoot at it was a good idea somebody already had. Even if it just crashes on the map somewhere and you could go loot it would make it better.

[Eyeless Pilot]

Originally posted by rgarrett:

Originally posted by Eyeless Pilot:

I'm just going to put it out there, I don't really see the point in the helicopter event anymore. Most players but the absolute newest of us know how to deal with it, so it isn't really that big a deal after your first few of them. And, prior to B42, no doubt most of us were playing with extended helicopter events anyway...

But the vanilla helicopter event makes no sense to me. If you were up there flying away, why would you follow the only (known, current, on the ground) survivor around dragging all the zombies in the area to them? Surely, after the initial, "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, there is a survivor, we should help and/or follow." You would see the millions of zombies coming, and just leave before you get them eaten.

actually i put the helicopter event on
repeat mode
why do they make it only happen once thats boring

helicopter mode should happen i get bored of the game when i settle nothing ever attacks me and the zomboids are predictable

Yeah, I played B41 with expanded helicopter events on permanently.

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by Eyeless Pilot:

But the vanilla helicopter event makes no sense to me. If you were up there flying away, why would you follow the only (known, current, on the ground) survivor around dragging all the zombies in the area to them? Surely, after the initial, "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, there is a survivor, we should help and/or follow." You would see the millions of zombies coming, and just leave before you get them eaten.

It seems like your assumed theory is that the helicopter is there to somehow 'help' us... It isn't.

The predominant hypothesis is that the helicopter is a rogue news chopper that broke the no-fly zone to get footage on exactly what the ♥♥♥♥ is going on in the knox exclusion zone. They're there for one thing- Footage of the events. For a story. Your survival is not on their list of priorities. Indeed, Making your life harder only serves to improve their ratings. But reporting on the human element also is exactly what they would do- They would follow a found survivor to see what a living uninfected human is doing.

The only other option that stands up to any reason, imo, is that there could be a secret organization bent on human eradication that is the one that released the knox virus and later releases the airborne variant, and it is Their helicopter coming to look at the handiwork of their virus and see it's effects and impact. But, This hypothesis falls apart currently since there's literally no indication of the existence of such a secret organization in any of the available lore. But also, even if this were the case, it's much the same as the news chopper- They're there for one thing, to see the results of releasing the virus, and to research what's happening in person... which means following the only living human around wondering why they haven't turned, and seeing how well they manage on their own against the coming tide of zombies.

Thing is, There's not a whole lot of other things it could be.. So while I say 'predominant hypothesis', It's almost the only one. Like, There is a military enforced No Fly zone over the entire region that even the military won't break, So whatever is flying over us is someone that doesn't care what the military says. It's not a military craft, The chatter you can hear on the radio leading up to and announcing it's arrival indicate the military's displeasure with the approaching craft. It's not a random chopper from within the exclusion zone. It's not a rescue team- No fly zone, and they're not going to risk breaching containment for one survivor. If they cared that much they wouldn't have sealed the knox exclusion zone up entirely in the first place.

[Animalman]

they go make a news report

SEND AID!

surely this chopper see's all the hordes in the streets and thinks wtf this is caused by a disease?

The chopper could in fact go on to trigger other events based on whether it got a good look at you or not. There for a story, but for the purpose to profit? or for purpose to ultimately aid people.

[larhtas]

Originally posted by Eyeless Pilot:

Originally posted by maviscruet:

Well done you. I'm a baby as I've only been playing since 2015. But as sandbox lets you have none, one or many helievents then with the click of a mouse you get your wish. Unless you think you've got a right to tell anyone else how their game has to be. Which is ludicrous.

does anybody on this discussion board know what a Hot Take is? I think I have the right to say my opinion on a discussion board, yeah. It is literally its purpose, after all.

Ok then happy crying.

[8Squirrels]

So turn it off? It's not going away from any of the default modes, but the whole point of the sandbox mode is to customize the game as you see fit. Otherwise, if you feel so passionately on the subject, I would recommend you write a calmly worded e-mail to the developers. People in this forum will just flame you (as you've already discovered).

[maviscruet]

Originally posted by Eyeless Pilot:

Originally posted by maviscruet:

Well done you. I'm a baby as I've only been playing since 2015. But as sandbox lets you have none, one or many helievents then with the click of a mouse you get your wish. Unless you think you've got a right to tell anyone else how their game has to be. Which is ludicrous.

does anybody on this discussion board know what a Hot Take is? I think I have the right to say my opinion on a discussion board, yeah. It is literally its purpose, after all.

You do. I support your right to say whatever you want on here 110%.

But I also have the right to say that you're being ludicrous. Which you are.

Freedom of speech is awesome isn't it?

[Eyeless Pilot]

Originally posted by 8Squirrels:

So turn it off? It's not going away from any of the default modes, but the whole point of the sandbox mode is to customize the game as you see fit. Otherwise, if you feel so passionately on the subject, I would recommend you write a calmly worded e-mail to the developers. People in this forum will just flame you (as you've already discovered).

Flaming is fun and a part of gaming culture, I would not have it any other way. I am here for two things, for the fun of arguing with the people that say, "tURn iT off In thE SanDBox." Or to talk about good ideas of how it could be changed to make it more purposeful and impactful, of which there have been a few.

[Sunderbraze]

lol@ 7DTD jannie longposting in a competitor game's sub

nothing personal, just found it funny

Originally posted by Shurenai:

The predominant hypothesis is that the helicopter is a rogue news chopper that broke the no-fly zone to get footage on exactly what the ♥♥♥♥ is going on in the knox exclusion zone.

That's just it though, all we've got are fan theories. The one of it being military forces from a different command from those enforcing the exclusion zone (i.e. National Guard under the orders of the governor instead of the DoD) or even it being from a state or federal government agency outside the remit of the intelligence apparatus (many of which still have their own aviation divisions for field operations) would make sense to me as well, since each of these factions would all have some interest in learning more about the exclusion zone. Even foreign governments would have an interest, though I don't think any could get a helicopter into Kentucky in the 90s without getting intercepted long before they got there -- unless, perhaps, they were a spy utilizing a civilian helicopter.

Originally posted by Shurenai:

The only other option that stands up to any reason, imo, is that there could be a secret organization bent on human eradication that is the one that released the knox virus and later releases the airborne variant, and it is Their helicopter coming to look at the handiwork of their virus and see it's effects and impact.

Feels unlikely for the reasons you stated, and also I feel like if the helicopter was actually malevolent instead of callously/criminally negligent, they would have an interest in getting the survivors killed in a more direct way than just luring zombies at them.

In a previous post in this thread I hypothesized about something more interesting happening with the helicopter event once human NPCs are part of the game. It reminded me of an older longpost I made hypothesizing about how scripted NPCs (which the helicopter event would surely be part of) could drive a more centralized narrative for Project Zomboid, potentially even giving the player a measure of autonomy in the fates of named NPCs who already exist, if only through radio broadcasts and prior builds.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/108600/discussions/0/4290314847489895896/

[larhtas]

What argument? There isn't any argument with someone that is basically saying: "let me cry".

[Eyeless Pilot]

Originally posted by larhtas:

What argument? There isn't any argument with someone that is basically saying: "let me cry".

why are you here then?

[larhtas]

Originally posted by Eyeless Pilot:

Originally posted by larhtas:

What argument? There isn't any argument with someone that is basically saying: "let me cry".

why are you here then?

To say there isn't any argument. Can't you read?

[Eyeless Pilot]

Originally posted by Shurenai:

It seems like your assumed theory is that the helicopter is there to somehow 'help' us... It isn't.

I don't have a theory. I do know that even in the 90's, helicopter news crews had no need to be that close to the ground that they would cause the problems they do in this game, to get the footage they need.