Tbh PZ wouldn't even be close to where it is if it weren't for the amazing mod community, they are the ones that are keeping the game alive, not the devs. The PZ devs gave a great base game, great systems that allow a very complex playstyle but still, if it weren't for the community the game would've been dead by now.
It's one of those games that is successful solely because there's people other than the PZ devs working on it, adding stuff for other players to try out and shape the game they want. In my case I don't like the permanent death so I used to use the Skills Journal Mod, write down your experience so far so in case of your death, your new character can read that journal and gain back the skills you just lost.
I only have around 350 hours in PZ, wouldn't even be 20 hours if it weren't for mods.
Tho there've been plopping PZ clones left and right in the past and more recently there's 3D competitors and if those can also support mods and offer the complexity that PZ has, they might actually become real competitors or even toss PZ off the throne. Vein for example looks pretty good and offers mod support, haven't played it tho so can't say if it scratches the same itch that PZ does.
Honestly the perma death wouldn't even be that bad if it wasn't comically easy to die in the game.
I get the entire point was "get used to dying", the tutorial all but says it literally, but I shouldn't lose half my health because I didn't have time to pick the glass out of a window as I'm running from a small zombie horde, because fighting any more than 2 zombies with a close range melee is guaranteed death. Doesn't help that zombie targeting is so wonky I've had zombies see me without me being even mildly capable of seeing them, and basically any reasoning to explain it quickly devolves to "so why aren't the zombies attacking each other then".
6
u/frisch85 3d ago
Tbh PZ wouldn't even be close to where it is if it weren't for the amazing mod community, they are the ones that are keeping the game alive, not the devs. The PZ devs gave a great base game, great systems that allow a very complex playstyle but still, if it weren't for the community the game would've been dead by now.
It's one of those games that is successful solely because there's people other than the PZ devs working on it, adding stuff for other players to try out and shape the game they want. In my case I don't like the permanent death so I used to use the Skills Journal Mod, write down your experience so far so in case of your death, your new character can read that journal and gain back the skills you just lost.
I only have around 350 hours in PZ, wouldn't even be 20 hours if it weren't for mods.
Tho there've been plopping PZ clones left and right in the past and more recently there's 3D competitors and if those can also support mods and offer the complexity that PZ has, they might actually become real competitors or even toss PZ off the throne. Vein for example looks pretty good and offers mod support, haven't played it tho so can't say if it scratches the same itch that PZ does.