But the odds are, if there's a mod that improves even marginally the UI, I'm going to subscribe to it sooner or later XD
O_o
Look what is parked in the back of my (currently) favorite base spot in a new save !!! And I made it here on July 9th !
I just HAVE to survive in this run :P Sure, there's only one gas pump working, but I get to drive AN AMBULANCE !!!
THE KEYS ARE ON THE IGNITION ! What are the odds of me being that lucky *and* lasting in this save ?
Aaaand there's a large trauma bag to replace my small backpack ! On top of some medical supplies, of course...
I can't believe my luck.
The basement door is locked this time, so I'm going to have to find some welding stuff to force it open and who knows what's down there, but other than that no Zed in sight. This looks like the best possible start I could hope for. I'm going to gently log off and step away from the computer, because at 4am there are SO MANY WAYS I could mess it up XD
On my way to the base, I drove past Ovo Farms and it looked like they had AT LEAST a truck parked in the front. They've had a trailer parked near the house in the back a couple of times too, so I like my odds. Either way, tomorrow I go get me some fresh eggs first thing, and load up on fridges from the farm to store them, and I'll be set for food for a solid two weeks.
I like that there's a plan, now :) I have the beginning down to a science...
...
...when I don't mess it up.
You know the fun thing about this whole falling in live with Project Zomboid thing ? Supposedly the building mechanics are pretty deep, but I haven't built a single thing yet (other than relocating furniture). Normally that's the reason I stick with a game no matter how anxious it makes me BECAUSE of the building gameplay. It certainly was a huge part of why I stuck with ARK in the beginning (that and prehistoric creatures, obviously). But here that's not even what keeps me hooked !

...Don't get me wrong. I *will* build at some point. But probably not for dozens of hours because that's such a long term goal (and I still die so easily).
It's fascinating how I shouldn't like this game and yet am completely in love with it. Haven't built a thing. Tragic lack of dinosaurs. Full of anxiety. And yet here I am !

It's so interesting I could talk about it for hours. But I will spare you.

I do have to say, I hate the UI though. The fact that I can't display my health AND my skills at the same time, for instance. How the minimap is so vital but always in the way somehow. How you have to hover everything to know essential data instead of, like, having an optional column in inventories for weight or durability. How you can't filter foods by status (it's so needlessly slow to select each rotten or stale item).
Some of this might be settings I haven't found yet. The rest MUST be mods.
Nevermind Ovo Farms' parking lot, there's a trailer parked on the lawn right in front of the laundromat across the street XD
Ok that's just not fair, I just found my THIRD generator in the wild (...in the garage at the back of Ovo Farms). This run is going waaaaay too well.
I'm going to die horribly, aren't I ?
This should not be happening ON DAY 5 ! Three fully functional generators with a tank full...
Things are going to become tragic soon, I can feel it.
Note that my kitchen is also packed with fridges already, also on Day 5. Like, ok they're not all full at the moment (and those that are actually have it all in the freezer), but still.
I am the queen of preppers XD
Well, we all knew this was gonna happen.
I got bit while on a trip to Rosewood's book store.
9 days.

Sure, because God knows there isn't a lot to deal with already, we have to mod stuff like that on top of it XD

(this is a community of masochists and I feel at home)

"I'm not going to download mods just yet, I'm just favoriting them for later"

There is no way this ends with 712 pages of favorited mods, right ? RIGHT ?

I love reading mod descriptions because it teaches me so much about the game. For instance I have been dutifully collecting napkins in every of my saves, thinking "that has to be useful at some point" (we have established I'm of the Just In Case school of thought, yes ?), and I just learned that there's a mod that gives them a use.
Alrighty then XD
No but let's stop for a minute to consider this : Project Zomboid has SO MUCH STUFF GOING ON, and so many items, that this game can afford to have items that have no use. Just for immersion and messing with new players, I guess XD
*cough ARK could never cough*
As a noob in this game, I do wish sometimes it could be easier to see what an item is useful for when I loot it. Sometimes it's very hard to decide what to leave behind without that information !
But that's probably something I won't need as much in the long run.
(who are we kidding, I'm a loot goblin : it's hard to leave stuff behind ANYWAY)
In my second to last save, I died horribly because I absolutely wanted to take back a certain number of wooden sticks and handles back to my truck.
Do I have use for wooden sticks and handles at the moment ? Absolutely not.
Was I going to leave the 3 wooden sticks and 2 handles in the garage where I found them ? Also absolutely not.
I am constantly overburdened in this game. I think the first mod I'll install, if I find it, is a mod that allows me to carry 5 bags at the same time and still be able to hop over a tall fence XD
See ? Something else that I'm learning.
That actually explains a lot XD
Oh sh*t there's been a game update earlier today ! I was wondering why my game was taking so long to launch... there's a new game version on the 42 unstable branch XD
(I have played no other)

I have issues with the PZ wiki, honestly. As a new player it oftentimes isn't helpful at all.

Like, I'm trying to see how food illness works, to see if it's worth taking the Weak Stomach trait.

No problem, I'll just check the "Weak Stomach" page :

https://pzwiki.net/wiki/Weak_Stomach

Uh oh, it doesn't say what it makes me more prone to, and instead advises to check the "Health" page. Fine, I'll do that.

https://pzwiki.net/wiki/Health

Uh oh, it doesn't say. There's only a table for the DURATION of food illness, not the causes.

Fine, let's try something else and look at the page for "Cooking" :

https://pzwiki.net/wiki/Cooking

Nope, nothing.
Maybe over at "Sick" ?

https://pzwiki.net/wiki/Sick

Still no luck. It mentions food poisoning, but not the causes.

So what's a noob supposed to do ?
And look, eventually I'll find out. Either by playing and dying to food sickness, which will inform what not to do for next time, or by accidentally finding that information when I no longer look for it, for instance when I'll be browsing mods or watching gameplay videos.
But isn't that what a videogame's wiki is supposed to be for ?

VERY surprised that noone has attempted to implement dinosaurs. Yet ?
Being chased by Raptors in the streets of Muldraugh would be pretty funny ! Or raising a herd of Trikes for their meat, based on the code of B42's animals...

Am I the only one who can picture this ?

We all knew that would happen, there it is : I'm using my first Project Zomboid mod ever.
For now it's just a very simple mod that allows me to have additional icons for when I write something on my map. But we all know this is the beginning of a modlist that's going to grow exponentially over time :P

Me : "Ow my back 😣 I'm in so much pain on top of everything else... I think I'll go lie down in the bedroom for a bit. As long as I make sure I don't fall asleep at 8pm !!"
Youtube : "Ok how about a great guide to optimize your odds of eventually building a base in Project Zomboid ?"
Me : "Noooo ! Now I want to go back to the computer and play, it involves sitting ! 😭 "

I don't think there's a way for me to come out on the other side of today without frustration.
And pain. So much f*cking pain.

And yeah, I said "odds". Because it is far from being a given, even for experienced players. In other games I have to worry about design and maybe resources, but PZ's crafting system adds a lot of complexity...

https://youtu.be/r1ODdjDmeV4

Ultimate Project Zomboid Base Building Guide

YouTube
New character.
I choose to start in Riverside, and luck out by spawning in the trailer park.
I cross the road to get to the Lectrolux parking lot.
I try the first parked truck I see. It's unlocked.
I check the trunk & glove box. I find the key.
I put the key in the ignition. Half a tank of fuel.
I check the trunk's capacity. 115 units, one of the best I could hope for.
I drive the truck across the road to the gas station, and finish filling the tank.
I grab some food at the gas station's store -

- and find, not one, but two gas cans.
I fill the gas cans too.
I dismantle the two-compartment freezer in the front of the store and load the truck.
At that point all Zeds have stayed out of my way, so I look for one on purpose to kill them, turn their shirt into rags... and find a watch on them. I wear the watch.
It's not even noon.
I get behind the wheel and start driving south.

So far, everything that could go well has gone fantastic. It's my best start in days !

..A feeling of dread starts crawling in my guts.

And yet, not one issue on the road.

I avoid a group of Zomboids that was in the middle of the road like it's nothing.
The truck doesn't kiss a single tree even in sharp turns.
I make excellent time and arrive in Echo Creek in the middle of the afternoon.
I pass Ovo Farms and notice a pickup truck in the parking lot, make a mental note to go check for keys tomorrow.
I snack on some of the Riverside's store food before crossing the bridge.
I pull into the Echo Creek gas station...

...and there it is. The base spot I have so meticulously planned for, the one I have decided to live in because it has access to two gas pumps, a diner's full kitchen, a garage and direct access to a river...

...has two signs in the front that says "out of gas", as well as a horde of 15-ish Zeds waiting for me.

I KNEW IT WAS GOING TOO WELL !
Obviously the underground dynamics in Project Zomboid are recent (they introduced it in December with the Build 42), plus I haven't explored Louisville yet, but I wonder if there'd be a way to have a sewer system.
Sure all the water down there would be tainted by default, but I think it'd be very fun to try and establish a base there !

Aw man, I think I just had my saddest #ProjectZomboid story so far...

Rainie had rolled a bad seed. She started (as I almost always do) in Riverside, but in the suburbs, not the trailer park. She walked aaaaaall the way to Lectrolux, because that factory has a huge parking lot where there's bound to be a utility truck I can get... except this time, there wasn't. Well the parking had tons of them, just, zero keys anywhere, and Rainie didn't know how to lockpick, sooo...

It took so long to test each truck, and to clear the nearby factory just in case one of the desks or lockers had a key, that Day 1 was coming to an end and she had already ran out of food and gotten stranded.
But she perservered (aka I decided not to do a little quit-a-rooney and start over with another character XD ). As the night was getting really dark, she walked to the diner, made sure no Zed was hidden in the toilets (you laugh now...), and slept on its kitchen floor, poor thing.
Next day, bright and early and with neck pain to wake up the dead (maybe even the half dead), Rainie got back up and I decided she'd go take a look in the damn trailer park. On the way there, there was a truck in the parking lot of the auto shop ! WITH KEYS ! Not as good as the Lectrolux ones, but hey, better than walking all the way to the other side of the map.
She packed up what little she had gathered, made a pit stop at the gas station, and started to drive.
So far, the "spawn in Riverside, get a Lectrolux truck, fill the tank and drive south" has been, I don't want to say a dummy-proof plan, but pretty good overall. When things go well, I can cross Kentucky before the end of Day 1 and have a functional truck for my adventures in Echo Creek, where the car situation tends to suuuuuuuck imho.
This is probably one of the worst instances of this plan backfiring, aside from, you know, the deaths for sleeping in the factory's break room.
Don't judge.
Look, I HAD TO LEARN. If you're exhausted, you don't take a nap, you sit down and you wait it out. Growing pains (very painful).
So anyway, Rainie didn't roll very lucky, but things were looking up. The truck was in bad shape, on top of having less storage than the Lectrolux ones (when I tell you they're my go-to XD ), but the engine was functional and the wheels had tires. All three of them, ahem.
So of course that's the run where I hit every single lamppost on the way, for some reason.
...God I hate driving in this game...

Things were so bad, we had to stop on the way and sleep at the camping store on the highway, because there was no way we could reach Echo Creek by the end of Day 2.
TWO ! That hasn't happened to me in at least 15 runs ! I had this down to a science last time !!!

But hey, Rainie soldiers through, she lives on tortilla chips and hope, and ends up finally reaching Echo Creek in the middle of Day 3, in a ride that I swear I could hear scream in agony by the time we reached the gas station.

So, at that point, I question my plan a bit. Normally I'd go for Echo Creek with a sturdy vehicle because this town is so small and so isolated, YOU NEED a ride to get going. This is Kentucky in the 90s, these people don't have a concept of public transportation or even bikes (...I've heard of the mod, I'll look soon into the bike mod). But with the POS that is the current truck, I mean, I don't want to end up stranded on a country road somewhere.
Not AGAIN.
But of course Rainie was born on a Friday 13th so there's no f*cking car anywhere, except for stuff that she can't stea- I mean lockpick. Nonetheless, we clear the gas station (FIVE Zomboids in it, SEVEN others in the back, they almost got me by surprise), quickly drop whatever loot we have on the store's shelves, to sort later, and try to get things going.
See, it's already Day 3. And the clock is ticking.
First of all, there's a small farmer's market on the other side of Echo Creek (a whole block away ! XD ), and I need to get my hands on the veggies there. Not so much because veggies are important early game, but because they're going to rot very fast and I need to put them in the freezer. Bonus points if the random generation of veggies gives us stuff we can extract seeds from, you know, I still have illusions of agriculture.
Second, even bigger pressing matter : Ovo Farms. It's a farm outside the Eastern part of Echo Creek with, like, thousands of chickens, that I intend to stea- adopt at some point but of course never do because agriculture is a pipe dream. BUT ! Ovo Farms has not one but two warehouses FULL of eggs. And that's normally my food for the first few weeks. My characters live on eggs, particularly because I tend to pick the Slow Metabolism trait and they're hungry all the damn time, and eggs are light -
- to carry around in a stack. But here's the thing : aside for a handful of cartons, the eggs at Ovo Farms are NOT refrigerated ! So I have to hurry up and get them into a freezer or fridge before they do, and I've lost a lot of precious time.
Also, did you think Ovo Farms had only chickens ? No, it also has Zeds, of course. So you need to clear the place before you can loot it, and it's HUGE.
But guess what, Rainie is a warrior. She gets the sh*t done. We sleep at the Ovo Farm house to make sure we don't waste time driving that night, and finish packing the eggs that need to be during Day 4. If you're following. I decide we'll come back for the fridges later (the lousy truck doesn't have room for any of them), go back to the gas station, unpack the eggs, cook some, it's all good, I feel like we've corrected course, awesome.
What's next on the list ? Ah, the auto repair factory.
We're going to need that because damn, we need to level up mechanics at some point.
We cross the bridge late in the afternoon of Day 4, scoop up everything we see, even the water cooler of course (another lesson I learned the hard way...), end up finding some lug wrenches and tires and head home for the night. We might just save this run.
Day 5, we head to the July 4th picnic area to get our hands on the generator, and I feel like we're fully back on track now.
Lots of Zeds though. More than usual, I feel. Like, I get that the spawns have changed with the latest update, but that's suspicious.
Not helpful is the fact that the f*cking truck could wake the dead, and does. It's a Zed magnet. Even worse, there was a car with three 1312 on board, in full gear, and they were hard to kill. Got a bulletproof vest out of the fight though. And the generator.
Every time things looked like they were going sideways, we fall back on our feet.
AND THEN. I have the glorious idea of looking for a trailer. Because the looting capacity of the truck is laughable and we just can't afford to do a lot of trips with that engine that could die on us at any point. Not. Gonna. Happen. So I pack up some food, give Rainie some additional weapons, and we head for the Animal Rescue or whatever that's called, because the three times I went there previously, there ALWAYS was at least one trailer. Except... I got lost. And don't ask me how but we -
- ended up in Ekron. For those who don't know, allow me to clarify that Ekron is West of Echo Creek, while the Animal Rescue is South-East of Echo Creek. Don't ask me how that happened. I could tell you that in my defense I've been there less than a handful of times, two of which by accident, but that would barely explain it. I thought worst case scenario I'd land in Irvington (alllll the way to the South West of the map), but we weren't even that lucky.
To this day I swear there was a vortex.

(I try not to play with the interactive map open, come on, how else am I gonna learn ?)

https://b42map.com/

B42 Interactive Map

And so, we're in Ekron, right ? Right next to the damn community college, which of course is packed with The Learning Dead, and by the way, I didn't pack for that kind of trip. We were getting a trailer, not raiding a campus town, in my mind.
I think "hm, last time I was here on a previous run, there was a big supermarket on the other side of the railroad, let's find it again, get some food if anything's not rotten yet, then decide".
Rainie's dying of hunger at this point. Girl's been through a lot, and it's not over.
We drive the zombie magnet across town, I find the supermarket (aka it happened to be where we went), loot the place as much as possible, and spot a small medical office in the same building. Good, because so far I have NO medical supplies other than a bandage I found at the camping store (and I had to clean it up >_< ).
On top of that I was so focused on Rainie's health that I didn't notice the truck is -
- almost out of gas what with all that touring of half of Kentucky. And the gas station is now BEHIND US, on the other side of the train tracks, next to the campus. Damn it.
I decide that it's fine, Rainie has suffered enough for today, we'll use the last of our sunlight to clear a small house* somewhere and get some Zs (the good kind), then in the morning we'll make a decision.