for me the hidden timer is when the electricity goes and your world turns really dark out there. no more running around at nite cuz using a flashlight sucks, so you have to get your carpentry up fast to the level to make your own lightposts and have a safe house or three set up, all protecting that garden cuz no power means no food preservation and cans go fast when thats all the food you have, plus the added nutrition needs means a steady loss of wt eating only that.

so 1st thing, carpentry up high enough to make walls, doors, lamp posts, water collectors then the coup de grace, stairs so you can get up on the roofs to garden in peace, then knock out those stairs to prevent zees comin to visit. you also have to prep for winter cold and have a safe place to light a fire, which is pretty tricky as it will set on fire the house if you dont do it right.


im so screwed in my area, only hard ware stores, one gun shop but no sledge in sight so i cant remove stairs to my lair, or walls. there also is no shovel so im screwed with having to garden on the ground, so that means more walls, more wood which is very limited as well. im down to a house to house search looking for those things. very limited ammo, as i cant get into the police station. zees are building up to swarm side, its just a m atter of time till they do and i have crap for a safe house due to not being able to knock out stairs and no top garden.

still... its kinda fun to go out and whittle zees down in the hot zones. she getting quite good at it.

does killing more zombies early make for less zombies later? like you cut off the source of some of the spread by doing an early cleansing of some maps?

I havent played much with the other scenarios such as survival mostly initial infection so cant say about their spawn rates. The zees build up slowly over time to horde size and then you will be in trouble. If you go around and do clean outs now and then you should be fine. I usually clean out an area so I can relax and do door to door searches. then maintenance to keep hordes down.

Ive noticed around 6 zees spawn per time cycle per grid area, cant remember how many tiles is considered a grid area but think city block and you will get the size. Unsure what the cycle is but seems to be if you dont visit the area in a week or so. also, zees will spawn inside barricaded areas such as walled forts if you have missed a gap in the tiles, such as corners of connecting walls, (use wall posts to seal, tho im not sure if latest builds have closed that error) as the game considers the area part of the tile number for the block respawn.

does that make sense?


oh yeah, keep an eye out for these random small pack zombie zergs, you can spot them from time to time, around 6 of them hauling arse across the landscape laying waste to built structures.

No. Zombie logic will cause them to collect over time in larger horde, but if area is clean - it will be slowly repopulated after some time. The best weapon against zombies is suprisingly - big alarm clock in the pocket.

I guess that is what makes the game-line of "this is how you die", accurate

there's never any hope of eliminating the zombie threat, it's just a matter of how long til you bite it

Well, do you really want infection to be eliminated and stare at more positive gameover screen with a sense of accomplishment? Zomboid is just like some good old Jagged alliance 2, the best moments are always the most challenging ones. Just stay frosty all the time, thats where zomboid essence of challenge exists.

What mintee wrote is of course correct: plan ahead, get rid of neighbourhood as soon as possible, don't take risks that you can't handle,

I think the true ending is when you die of age, but real life interrupts me often enough that I cant enjoy so much challenge. That said, I have modded few things into zomboid that make it complete for me, with makeshift axe that can be used a bit longer (so that "Lucky" becomes optional instead of mandatory) - and ability to pump gasoline from gas stations using another small mod.

Btw, if you into Zomboid, you may check "It comes at night" as well, who knows?

no not in the slightest! it's one of the most appealing aspects to the game - I was soooo thrilled when I first fired it up and saw the "this is how you died" message

I was more curious about the mechanics of it all, and I'd probably prefer them to be more 'realistic'

meaning in scenarioA zombies multiply at X rate, so if scenarioA starts with 20 zombies, each individual zombie is coded to produce Y# of zombies per L(length of time) - let's say Y# = 3 and L=24h gametime

so that if you kill 10 zombies before the 24h is over, the # of zombies that remain is 10, times 3 once the 24h mark hits, will mean there are now 30 zombies on the map, making the next 24h 1/3 more zombie-filled, etc. etc.

but once the zombie # is 5 or under they spawn at 5x per zombie in a 12hr period

or something like that

zombies simply spawning at their own fixed rate is kind of meh...cheap and easy?

I think the other modes are more frantic and realistic, with survival time rarely going over a week or so. initial infection is a bit of the starter learning mode imo. but even that can be a bother as you tend to spend time in your quadrant and not go to all corners of the city, by the time you do its pretty horded up and its time to fight your way out.

I also forgot to mention the custom mode, where you can tweak most aspects of the game from environmental stuff, loot, to zee behavior/agression/attack pace etc.

yeah, I'd love to find a dedicated MP partner and setup a scenario for us to try and survive through together

I never could get coop to work but I think there are dedicated forums to that on https://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php?/forum/70-pz-multiplayer/

if you get it figured out give me a hollar and ill scream with you as they claw my guts out

on a side note, I finally resorted to this wonderful map to glean out info on where to look for a sledge and recipes, (*still cant set up a working gennie for ex). I did finally find a shovel in a church of all places, yey!, then promptly found another one, isnt that how it always goes? anyway, riverside isnt as bleak as i thought, apparently there is a warehouse complex way to the west and some sort of fancy golf resort to the south, both are hard traveling thru pretty heavy zee infestation since I hadnt been cleaning them all this time. so im packing up some gear and going for a walkabout. should be exciting to say the least. my next project if I survive this walk is to go to the extreme east to drag back one of those iron stoves from a cabin deep in the woods rotted with the undead. I fancy having indoor heating rather than sitting out in the snow by a fire pit this season. game time to walk there and back should be a week or so, with lots of creepy camping in the woods ....in the dark...with only a tent between me and sharp teeth. good times

https://map.projectzomboid.com/#0.5258429798357493,0.08765985076363246,14.234020128993267

May I share some of my own rules when I play this game? :)

rule n: never move in the dark. Zs senses increase, yours decrease when sun goes down.
rule n+1: pick "lucky" trait, if you want more axes from Zs.

I recommend you to play without this wonderful map. Its indeed wonderful, but current version includes everything for you to start marking area yourself with notebook, pencil, rubber to clean things from paper. The online multiplayer of course defeats this rule, with dozens of players roaming the roads in search for other players stuff...

ooof, that's annoying

guess it makes learning to make booby traps more meaningful/fun, if there is such a thing (don't see how there can't be if fellow-player loot looting is something that is in the design)

all good rules :D cant never get the notebook, journal or sheets of paper to work as far as editing, even with pen in hand. didnt realize that the rubber erasers were supposed to work in game. thats cool. i tend to find shelter around 1600 cuz im a coward! lol i agree about the map, its extremely spoilery, I only used it this time cuz im down to end game and I still hadnt found a shovel/sledge or needed recipes so i was looking for industrial, sheds etc. I also used the map in the past to look for decorations, yes. Im the fool who drags back 30 lbs of curtains, end tables, rugs, lamps, statues, flower beds, hedges and paintings. :D:D:D:D:D:D:D as for multiplayer, after perusing the servers they all seemed a bit intense for me, and most use a modded PZ which im not into. im more into just a few friends in a private server kind of thing. it did seem interesting the idea to trap your fort from looters, like removing the top step from a stair (very naughty!)


i always use lucky, not sure if its helps but ive been grabbed 3 times now and swamped by multi zees, no bite or scratch so maybe....


on a side note, went to the west industrial park, finally found a sledge, yey and two unneeded fishing recipes boo. still cant work the gennie or make noisemakers or bombs. dont care about the bombs but would really like to keep the fridges going.

anyway, game time was around a week to get back and there were at least 14 zees around my fort, some trying to break in so my earlier estimation of spawn numbers and time were a bit off. going to spend two days clearing out the area then make for the east side for that lovely iron stove in the woods.

the sledge did allow access into the police station and ammo, but frankly im enjoying using my feet so much that I prob wont use guns except to call hordes later for a clear out. plus i get that cool blurb on my character that my preferred weapon is my 'bare hands'. yawssssss

no I didnt know that, how do you tell the defense ratings? i did read that using space to kill boosts str and i am seeing it go up, a quarter of a tick with ~700 kills.

I love the old videos of early beta builds, to me they have more heart in them, more story. way less scary tho

heres one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmAhG-FKlTI

the prob with PZ is its so lonely, no one alive but you. I love the idea of trying to keep a spouse/child alive while you protect them. wish that was in the build now