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Build 40 was like 5 years ago. That is an astronomical length of time in terms of development time and still being stuck in early access. Absolutely nothing in build 42 even excites me in the slightest. Some new clothes, crafting stuff, fishing, pottery... what the actual ♥♥♥♥?
Nah, this game is stuck in development hell, and will be lucky to be out of early access before the natural lifetimes of the developers. I check in ever year or so and try to feign being shocked that nothing worthwhile to the game has actually changed... and it's a shame, because this game does have a lot of potential, otherwise I would just bin it and never think about it again.
what i am saying is build 40 to build 41 was like making a hole new game
they are trying to pull the same trick with build 42 i mean there are things they are adding
that people have forgotten about and yes there are things that i hate (a hole lot new moodles) but things like generators and such
and as far as the whole NPC thing is its hard to code a AI i was the head of a dev team for a school project that lasted 2 years and if you want to be as ambitios as they are i can see it taking forever
now can they higher more people? no if you keep track of the amount they have sold it is only about what 4 million that sounds like a lot but with what 20 people working on the game you don't got much wiggle room.
What they have done so far is incredible and rather complain that it is taking forever be thankful they don't sell it to a mega corporation that will royally f*** up the title
Curious what drew you to project zomboid in the first place if basic survival/sustainability, crafting, and immersion factors do not intrigue you, why continue watching development?
To me it seems like it just might not be the game for you then if all these necessities that we are very much are in need of arent your thing. The community has asked for new vehicles and they showed us new vehicles. The community asked for firearm rework we are getting firearm rework. The community asked for better endgame and we are getting better endgame. Like if it was a triple aaa studio feedback would usually be ignored.. but when indie companies listen to their community and take the time it takes to implement these features people are angry about it? lol like i really don't get some of you guys.. do you want a game or not? Also i swear to god if this is about npcs im turning the bus around.
I don't think the EA tag really matters much. Even if it was not in EA and had some other tag or was continued to be developed people would find something to complain about.
But... D&D dice you can place on a table... come on... I mean... don't you want to pretend you are in a zombie apocalypse pretending you are a wizard???? ...A GOBLIN Wizard?
Its brilliant!
Not even a little...? No?
D&D dice... you can place on a table...
Still not happy about waiting 3 years for a half baked crafting update.
ICK. No thank you, is my opinion. I didn't buy it then, and I won't ever try it for funzies.
Forward, march!
Yes, AI takes some time. It's not insurmountable, and it's not like they even need to be particularly intelligent. Literally anything would be better than nothing. A dude to talk to or get to do simple chores would be a huge leap in the right direction.
They sold 4 million copies??? Not sure how good your math is, but that's $80 million at $20 a pop, skim off the top for Steam's cut, taxes, and other stuff and you could call it around 20-40 million. They can afford to hire a coder or two.
You're right, it's not 100% my type of game. I get bored quickly due to the monotony of what you would call "endgame".
This isn't particularly about NPCs, but that would certainly make the game more enjoyable and add a lot of potential with endgame content. Examples:
-NPC faction has a guy in a building overrun with zombies, your job is to get him out. Here's some guns and ammo, godspeed.
-NPC faction is beefing with a rival faction, your job is to wipe them out. Doesn't matter if you kill them directly or ensure an unfortunate accidental noise alarm goes off, hell even just torch the place, we just want them dead. Keep the loot and here's a bunch of supplies, good luck.
The potential of the game is extremely high, It's good and all that people are content with where it's at and where it's going, but to me this is a game that's just completely devoid of actual gameplay aspects. Adding more things to craft in the "endgame" is completely worthless to a person such as myself. None of this is going to happen if the development cycle is 2 years for a simple update.
You don't think that would become repetitive? Is there anything outside of npcs and "extraction" like quests that you would like to see ALONG with npcs?
I have a hard time seeing how just npcs would prolong peoples playstyle if upcoming and current mechanics in place don't appeal to people.
I read the footnotes of B42.
-Animals is just farmville simulator 2.0. I couldn't care less about it. It doesn't add anything to the game other than chores.
-Basements and highrises are alright. I mean, I really couldn't care less about it, but sure, I don't exactly hate it other than the fact that this is what they decided to spend their time doing.
-Large map expansion... okay? Who asked for this, or why do they think this is a pressing issue to spend time on? I stopped exploring the map because it's already massive and there's really not a whole lot to see anyways, just more loot containers.
-Blacksmithing is alright, but really doesn't add anything other than you can now make... what, weapons? Who cares?
-Fluid system I'm not even sure what that means. More ways to hold water? Hurray...?
Yes, none of these excite me. They are not going to make me go "I want to play this game again and add farm animals to the already boring endgame".
I'm complaining because the complaints are legitimate. I'm not the only person going "what the actual ♥♥♥♥ is happening with development of this game", go look on the forums yourself. It's really becoming a joke at this point, people are comparing this game to the longest game in development ever.
Would it become repetitive... as in what is already in this repetitive game? Yea, it would after a while, but at least there's some sort of high-risk high-reward type of activity that isn't just looting containers for food or building supplies. It's a payoff for becoming strong and well-equipped to do the job. It would take some planning and possibly some advanced tactics. It would be a step in the right direction to adding actual gameplay elements into this game. But okay, guess we can right-click a cow and milk it now, great gameplay addition.
plus to not have them just be follower NPCs - which i believe was the original implementation - that all/most of the NPC mods have been based on
what that poster is describing sounds like the most run of the mill, boring, "fetch quest, kill quest" type "NPCs" imaginable
in fact there is barely any NPC behaviour in there at all - first example is a building full of zombies - which will end with someone following you out once the building is empty - and is somehow related to an undefined "NPC Faction"
same with the second one - go and clear a building of enemies - so all that will be needed is the combat AI - no story - no behaviour - no improvement to fighting zombies except they can use weapons
plus, in single player, the player would likely need some AI companions to be able to take on anything more than a small group - especially if they have guns or if the player does not
i think what many of us single players are excited for, are NPCs with stories - that we maybe encounter wandering, or injured - and that can encounter eachother - so that there are actually groups and factions with their own goals and behaviour and stories - that the player can interact with in a variety of ways - and that can interact with eachother
obviously all of that needs to be designed so that it seems that is what is happening, since there is no need for the NPCs to actually do anything if the player is not there to witness it - or no players in MP - although i wonder if there will be different implementations for MP - maybe just companion and combat NPCs
either way - i believe B42 is going to have some of the story generator system they were talking about - with story elements procedurally generated on map creation - and maybe even as time goes on
and i would imagine that there will be NPC evolution from that - with all kinds of options for how NPCs will be generated and what they will do - likely customizable - so you could have a game with just lone survivor NPCs - or one with already existing groups or factions - or mechanisms for lone survivors to group with others - and members of a group to have roles such as scouting or hunting etc
obviously this is all a bit undefined and nebulous - which is kind of the point - there needs to be a lot of thought about what kinds of NPC behaviour make sense - and will be interesting and fun and rewarding - as well as what is feasible - and how they will interact with the rest of the game and the systems
especially with zombies - will they fight them? - will they hide/run from them? - will they get killed by them? etc
and i am sure the animal mechanic will be a good first step with that - especially with wild animals
but also - deciding how players will communicate with NPCs is important - especially when it comes to things beyond giving them orders - plus will they be able to give us orders? e.g. if we meet a faction leader and/or join a faction
and will they build or destroy structures and objects? will they loot locations? how will they interact with vehicles? etc etc
i will stop there, because it really is a far more complicated topic than many posters seem to understand - basically demanding that TIS toss out some rushed implementation - when even massive AAA games with hundred million dollar budgets rarely manage to provide anything close to a satisfying interactive NPC system, especially one capable of emergent gameplay or dynamic interaction and world building
it is a good thing that TIS has become successful enough that they can afford to take their time - and do things in stages
B42 is going to be awesome - and will have many new frameworks upon which future functionality will build
but human NPCs are the end, not the beginning - in a game that has multiple more major builds on its roadmap
so even when human NPCs are introduced, i would suspect they will be in very specific roles and scenarios, with more complex behaviour and population architecture (e.g. dynamic groups) coming later if it is deemed suitable
anyway - like i say - i am glad they are not rushing it - and i am looking forward to the additional single player immersion and world building they are adding for B42 - which may be the last version where we will not have the option to not be the only human left alive that we will ever meet
alone in the dark, with just the sounds of the dead, and the occasional gunshot from a doomed survivor, never to cross our path, and soon to join the horde - as we all eventually shall......
Yeah I am not really following and most seems contradicting, I can only guess that a majority of tools used to do your "npc quests of clearing/extraction" will rely on these features they are implementing. I don't think that npcs should give us the materials to do these things we should have to get the tools whether it be loot or make them.
Animals- There is no way to sustain ourselves; no way to get butter, flour, salt, etc. Which causes problems for people trying to maintain a healthy weight while out fighting zombies and doing things like clearing locations. I think a lot of these animal products will be very beneficial to us especially the crafting.
Basements and the map expansion again will tie into your npcs im sure, npcs and factions being located in specific areas. After about thousands of hours in the game it will be a nice change to have basements and different areas to explore I think.
Blacksmithing again that is going to tie into things for you to make for when you want to clear locations, again what youre wanting. There is no way to have a well off character unless you put effort doing so.
Yes complaints can be legitimate sure but saying that the features theyre adding are going to be useless, just because you personally and few handfuls dont like them, is a bit strange to me especially when what youre wanting is literally tied into everything they have showed us.