Mastodawn

ladyteruki May 15

Two days ago I decided to bite the bullet and finally give #ProjectZomboid a try (with an arrr🏴‍☠️ version of the game) and...
...I'm already watching guides, gameplay videos, and drooling over potential mods. Well, I think I have an idea of where my summer is going to go XD

ladyteruki May 15

The thing I have the hardest time with so far is combat. I can't for the life of me get the right reflexes, my brain does not seem to process the right click thing (...proof if anyone needed one that eating my brains would be a bad idea). Driving a car has also been annoying, it's so weird that you don't use WASD (well, in my case, WASC, but I digress) the same way you do for your character...
But other than that, it's going well. I've moved into an empty diner and it took a couple of days -

ladyteruki May 15

- to get all my loot that I, as a notorious* loot goblin, had already gathered within a few days at my spawn house. But now I'm set and quite comfortable. At least until water and electricity run out, which could happen any day now according to a Youtube Short I accidentally ran into (if Youtube could not spoil this game for me, that'd be great ; I'm careful about what videos I watch when this kind of thing happens !).

ladyteruki May 15

*in ARK, I keep eeeeeeverythinguh. Like, even duplicates of recipes. And I prefer building more storage than putting stuff in the grinder XD You know, "just in case".
Anyway, my storage has storage and I like to play that way and that has absolutely nothing to do with poverty and the fear of running out.

ladyteruki May 15

I've had a few jump scares so far, but I accidently picked a spawn region that I didn't know was pretty empty in terms of zombies, and it turns out it was a great choice.
Well to be fair I'm already at my second character. The first one died on Day 2. F*cking right click.

ladyteruki May 15

With my anxiety being through the roof these days, I thought that was going to be a very bad idea to play Project Zomboid at first. But now that I'm playing, I remember how much ARK has helped me, back in the day despite being very scary (...to me, someone who had never played a first person survival game until ARK), to manage anxiety, and this game has many of the same mechanics : the open world that lets me stay in a quiet area when things are too overwhelming, the non-linear progression -

ladyteruki May 15

- which lets me decide what I feel valiant enough to confront or not, plus building mechanics (I picked a carpenter and have high hopes) to keep me interested.
Honestly if this game had a rideable dinos I'd say it's my new favorite :P

ladyteruki May 15

I'm giving it a bit more time until I make a decision ; I've been known to be very much into a game the first few hours, and then lose interest or find that it's too stressful to continue. But I might just add it to my Steam wishlist in the future if this arrr🏴‍☠️ version keeps me involved !

I don't often have fun things to talk about, so I hope you'll forgive this long chatty thread...

ladyteruki May 16

Well. I died.
It's my own fault really. I drove a car a bit too recklessly (I can't get used to those commands >_< ), and it eventually broke down in the middle of the countryside. I walked for two days, as it took a while to progress without much energy nor rest, and when I finally found an empty house...
...well, it wasn't THAT empty afterall.

ladyteruki May 16

Sidenote : does anyone play #ProjectZomboid around here ?

I keep finding garbage bags with stuff inside, and I can't find how to open them. The wiki lists all the stuff you can find in it... but uh, doesn't say how to actually put it into your inventory.
Ideally I'd also ask how the hell you dispose of a zombie's corpse in the garbage to delete it, as I've heard some people mention in videos, but you know what, baby steps. I'm fine making piles for now.

https://pzwiki.net/wiki/Garbage_Bag

ladyteruki May 16

Holy sh*t. It's impressive how features are planned so much in advance ! Now THAT is what I call Early Access, goddamn !

https://pzwiki.net/wiki/Upcoming_versions

ladyteruki May 16

*tries really hard not to mention how much WildCard sucks compared to this*
*fails*

ladyteruki May 18

With my current character, I have survived 15 days in #ProjectZomboid. New personal record.
But I think the end might be near. I went looking for a car in all the wrong places. I'm now stranded in the countryside, and electricity was just shut off. This does not look good for me.

ladyteruki May 18

It's looking more and more like that game is going to end up on my wishlist XD

ladyteruki May 18

I had to restart with a new character (this is going to happen a lot XD ), and the first place I explored for loot had a zombie corpse in the toilets... with three weapons and three boxes of ammo O_o
If I weren't too afraid to shoot guns and alert all the zombies in a 50km radius, that would be very broken XD

Anyway, I'm having a blast, and #ProjectZomboid has been added to my wishlist. As the prophecy foretold XD

ladyteruki May 20

New record : 20 days.
Honestly most of my deaths so far are a direct consequence of driving horribly. This time I had found a backup car, so I was proud of myself to still have a vehicle after I crashed my first car. Then I got cocky and took the second car on a long trip to the garden center. While trying to avoid a tree, I swerved, swerved again, and somehow ended up doing a barrel. The car landed on the passenger side. Thankfully I could go out, but I was stranded on a long road and -

ladyteruki May 20

- the only place I found was a farm in the middle of nowhere. Fields and fields and more fields. No car anywhere, assuming I'd be lucly enough for any car to have gas in the Middle Of Nowhere, KY... I walked for about 5 days. Sometimes I'd find another farm, would pack my inventory with whatever food and water I could find, but mid-thing the water was shut off. I ended up by night at a train station infested with Zeds, had to go around walking in the fields, got attacked by a loner -

ladyteruki May 20

- and finally was bitten. I also ran out of food and water, and despite swallowing antidepressants like TicTacs, I was permanently in a state of terror, which only made me weaker. I ended up dying to two Zomboids in yet another farm. I was too exhausted to fight well, my baseball bat broke, and they ended up finishing whatever was left of my health.
And that's the story of how my dumb a** died this time. God I wish I had public transportation rather than cars XD

ladyteruki May 20

And I had had such a good start, too ! Before the whole car acrobatics, I had moved to a gas station, collected 3 generators, stockpiled on food... I was really trying to improve my prepping for when the electricity was going to be shut off ! What a shame XD

ladyteruki May 20

Nonetheless... I love that game. There's so much to learn ! It's so detailed ! And I'm sure I've just scratched the surface.

ladyteruki May 20

As a sidenote I am EXTREMELY SURPRISED not to have had any zombie-based nightmare since I started playing #ProjectZomboid.
It's probably not gonna last, but it's interesting nonetheless !

ladyteruki May 21

Death seems to be inevitable once I start driving. I don't die in the car crashes, mind you, but get stranded in the worst* places.

*in a game where there is no good one

#ProjectZomboid

ladyteruki May 25

I have reached a stage where I don't crash my car within 2min of driving it, but now I have another problem : I really, really don't know the map. It is HUGE ! in my defense...
This time I spawned in Muldraugh, found a black van in good condition fairly fast, loaded it with items, and tried to drive south to get to Echo Creek... and couldn't find my way. I drove for days, and...
...died of thirst on the highway.

ladyteruki May 25

I hadn't seen a zombie in two days by the time I died. It's ridiculous XD I almost never die to them. If they weren't in the game I'd struggle to survive exactly the same XD

ladyteruki May 25

Did I mention the game is on my wishlist now ? It is SO on my wishlist. I haven't had fun like this in a long while.

ladyteruki May 25

*logs off the game for today*
...
*immediately start watching videos about the game*

ladyteruki May 28

*gasp*

ladyteruki May 29

I really can't seem to be able to go past 20 days u_u

#ProjectZomboid

ladyteruki May 30

My current run is going ok, except for one major disappointment.

I found a huge warehouse full of vegetables !!!
...except I found it during week 2 and all the veggies were rotten u_u

ladyteruki May 30

I salvaged the strawberries by extracting their seeds for when I start farming, but in terms of immediate food, it was a huge setback. Eventually I found a gas station not very far and packed up on chips and candies, but this is not going to get me very far.

ladyteruki May 30

"For when I start farming" is the thing that never happens, but I'm not losing hope. At some point I'll get far enough that I reach the point where I have time to plant crops XD

ladyteruki May 31

...Ok, no sudden movement, no rash decision : this is where things usually get tricky...

I'm sure it's a coincidence that the electricity just shut off.

ladyteruki May 31

I do have 4 generators, though, so I like my odds.
God I just jinxed it, didn't I ?

I didn't get bit so I imagine I got infected through a scratch.
...Waiting for death in my purple car...

ladyteruki May 31

New best !

(personal best, obviously)

ladyteruki May 31

This aged well.

And a lot.

ladyteruki Jun 1

Started a new Project Zomboid save (of course).
Found an ambulance within 5min of playing.
Killed a zombie EMT, got the keys to the ambulance from them.
Got behind the wheel, realized the tank is half-full.
Started the car, turns out the engine is in great condition.
Drove south towards what I want my base to be.
20 ingame minutes in, smashed a tree by veering too abruptly to avoid another tree.

Now stranded on the highway next to a destroyed ambulance.

I'm this close to hating myself.

ladyteruki Jun 1

WHY CAN'T WE DRIVE A CAR THE SAME WAY WE MOVE OUR CHARACTER ?!

When I'm on foot, if I need to go to the right side of the screen, no matter what direction I'm facing, I use D and immediately go right.
When I'm driving a vehicle, if I need to go to the right side of the screen, I need to think : "ok, so, wait, I'm driving towards the bottom of the screen, meaning I need to use Q* to drive to the car's left, so I can take a right"

WHAT GIVES ?!

ladyteruki Jun 1

*not QWERTY keyboard, obviously.

ladyteruki Jun 1

There's probably a mod of that. There has to be a mod for that. No way I'm the only one who wants a mod for that.
Only problem is, I've spent all the extra money I had last month, so I won't be buying the game during its sale on Steam. And so, I don't think I can get mods for an arrr🏴‍☠️ version of the game.

ladyteruki Jun 3

Everything was going well. Everything was going so well ! Everything was going TOO well...
My latest run was really good. Found a functioning truck within two days, drove all the way to my base spot, didn't crash the f*cking truck by the way, secured the base spot, started scavenging for important stuff (additional fridges/generators/water coolers...), packed food from the nearby egg factory, looted the gardening center and the car repair factory...

I was on a f*cking roll !

ladyteruki Jun 3

Every time I had a setback, which did happen, I recovered. I found decent gear, I organized my storage, I was ON IT.

And then, it happened. Because of course, something was gonna happen.

ladyteruki Jun 3

See, I found a trailer at a nearby farm, and decided I was going to try and use it. I've never had a trailer before but I've seen the videos, I know how they work.

I approached the trailer with the back of my truck. Slowly, to not ram into the truck.
I had to do it at an angle, but I didn't damage anything.
I turned off the truck's engine.
I used "V" and attached the trailer to the truck.

ladyteruki Jun 3

AND THAT'S WHEN THE TRAILER DECIDED TO START FLYING, TAKING MY TRUCK WITH IT, AND LANDED ON THE FARM'S ROOF.

So, first bug with my arrr🏴‍☠️ version of build 42 (which is itself unstable).
Fine. I'll go do the dishes.

ladyteruki Jun 4

At the risk of tempting fate... NEW PERSONAL BEST !
...and counting. For now. But given that the electricity was just shut off, a lot of things are going to be more complicated now.

ladyteruki Jun 5

Jeanie had a f*cking good run. The best one so far, in fact.
But it had to come to an end...

#ProjectZomboid

ladyteruki Jun 5

My base was STACKED. All my shelves were full and I had 7 fridges running, each full of food (although admittedly I didn't have shelves for canned food, so they were in the fridge too). Electricity shut off ? No problem, had 3 generators. Water shut off ? No problem, I had just filled a barrel of clean water (complete happenstance : I filled it right before the water shut off, which is a randomly timed event). Need to loot a farm with a garage full of goodies ? No problem, just found a trailer.

ladyteruki Jun 5

Honestly I was doing pretty well. When the zombies got me (and in my defense, there were 6 of them in a tiny trailer with what looked like party hats), I had just leveled up in fishing, maintenance and foraging the night before. I'm so getting the hang of this !

ladyteruki Jun 5

Granted, I've come to understand something I didn't know at first, which is that "Builder mode" is code for "Noob-a** b*tch easy level", so this is clearly not as hard as it can get. But given how I've progressed in the past month, at some point I should be able to try my hand at the Apocalypse mode (...in hindsight, I could have guessed THAT was the hardest difficulty XD ). Or I can choose to play Builder for however long as I f*cking want, of course, but I might give it a try at least once.

ladyteruki Jun 5

By the way, I did the math real quick and...
...With at least 5 characters surviving a lifespan of 20 ingame days, in which 1 ingame day is 1 IRL hour, plus some shorter lives (especially in the begining) for some characters here and there, it's very likely that I went over 100 hours since I've picked up the game.
So whenever I can finally buy the game, let's all remember that Steam's data will only tell PART of my love story with #ProjectZomboid XD

ladyteruki Jun 6

Extremely grateful to @ham_sando for their generous donation which allows me to do this !!!
IT'S HAPPENIIIIIIIING !

#ProjectZomboid

ladyteruki Jun 6

So far it's not going great XD

My first official character was turned into flesh ribbons by zombies. The second one was... well, in a way I got extra lucky because there was only a 7% chance for me to get that result XD

https://pzwiki.net/wiki/Knox_Infection

ladyteruki Jun 7

That's too bad because the second character found a golf bag within five minutes, with 4 golf clubs in it !
And the golf bag was purple !

I really thought things were going my way, instead I exhausted all my good luck on a bag XD

ladyteruki Jun 7

Ok, file this under lesson learned, but the warehouse full of food ? The game starts on July 9th and when I got to the warehouse the next day (at the expense of other early game choices...), 99% of the food there was already rotten.
I will no longer focus my energy on that damn warehouse, I think XD

|~hamu_sandowicz~|Jun 7

@ladyteruki enjoy :D

Iris K. Vaughan Jun 5

@ladyteruki it's really fun to read what you have to write about it, I appreciate you making it accessible to someone who doesn't know shit about video games

ladyteruki Jun 5

@Iriskv : this is completely accidental XD At this point in my life, after 10K hours in ARK and God knows how many in the Sims franchise combined (probably 10K hours too, if I had to guess), I am utterly incapable of picturing what is understandable for non-gamers or not ! So if there's ever something that doesn't make sense to you, feel free to ask !

Iris K. Vaughan Jun 5

@ladyteruki 💜

|~hamu_sandowicz~|Jun 6

@ladyteruki you should be able to buy it on steam now :0

ladyteruki Jun 6

@ham_sando : sadly not, it's too expensive for my budget. Maybe during next sale or for my birthday, whichever comes first.

|~hamu_sandowicz~|Jun 6

@ladyteruki did you check your PayPal? :S

ladyteruki Jun 6

@ham_sando : wait, what ?

|~hamu_sandowicz~|Jun 2

@ladyteruki
After finding the ambulance:

|~hamu_sandowicz~|Jun 2

@ladyteruki
after crashing the ambulance:

ladyteruki Jun 2

@ham_sando : something like that !