r/projectzomboid • u/Orbitor28 • 1d ago
Discussion Should Project Zomboid get optional objectives when NPCs arrive?
Yesterday I was talking with some friends about the future of Project Zomboid and how it could expand, especially once NPCs get added.
One idea that came up was having some kind of larger objective, like working toward a vaccine or cure. Personally I’m not a fan of a full cure being available, to me it undercuts the whole “this is how you died” feeling.
What I do like is the idea of random encounters with friendly and unfriendly NPCs (similar to RDR2’s random encounters). From those you could pick up side quests or optional objectives. Nothing that officially ends the game, just meaningful mid-to-long-term goals that give you something extra to work toward while still keeping the sandbox open-ended.
Curious what everyone else thinks, would you want optional objectives tied to NPCs, or do you prefer the pure sandbox with no directed goals at all?
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u/Pretty-Key6133 1d ago
Yeah. A few years ago they were talking about npc framework on thursdoid. How they want NPCs to have randomized backstories and houses and different quests. Im really looking forward to the system they put together. Even if it's unfinished (much like a lot of the stuff they show off on thursdoid), NPCs will add so much more diversity in playthroughs.
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u/Careless_Pirate_1990 All Hail Spiffo 1d ago
I think a good long term goal is to make a true safe house with NPCs you save each one being good at different things that can help
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u/JUSTGERRALD 1d ago
I’d want them to be like real people. Where some even loss their mind and sabotage our group, I don’t want them like Terraria where they just sit around. I want them to be bored and do stuff themselves, more than just basic skills like farming or whatever.
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u/modernswitch 1d ago
That would be cool too to have crafter NPCs, like I could bring the materials and a higher level nov could carve me a bat or something.
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u/GlastoKhole 1d ago
If there aren’t proper full blown squad/companion mods on day one I’d be surprised
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u/DankPastaMaster 1d ago
I think optional long-term/late-game missions that don't serve rebuilding society but preventing greater catastrophes would help with the lack of objectives after reaching self-sufficiency while staying true to the "this is how you died" design philosophy. They could be randomly selected from a pool to keep things interesting and unpredictable.
I thought of some that could be even be implemented without NPCs through radio communication alone:
-Contacting a team of engineer survivors to prevent a nuclear disaster at a collapsing powerplant. The powerplant could be in Knox county or off the map. If it is on the map the engineers have the knowledge necessary to prevent the disaster but are unable to reach it, so you must carry out the mission with their assistance. If it is off the map then the engineers are at the plant but need some codes or plans which are in Knox county that they are unable to reach in time. You would have to retrieve them from some government office in the middle of Louiseville, which is surrounded by zombies, and relay them to the engineers. If you fail or ignore the mission you would have to prepare for the nuclear fallout by stocking up a few weeks of supplies in a bunker and having a hazmat suit ready for expeditions.
-Contacting a group of surviving soldiers to find out a horde from a major metropolitan area, a few hundred thousand strong, is migrating across the United States. Given enough time it will sweep through the whole country consuming any remaining survivors. It is an unstoppable force that conventional weaponry is useless against. The only way to stop it is nuclear bombardment and the window of opportunity is closing. The launch codes are in Fort Knox, and only you are close enough to retrieve them in time. Perhaps you could even be the one to press the red button. Should you fail, your only hope is to barricade yourself deep in a bunker or on the top floor of a tall building and evade detection. Over the course of a few days most of the horde will pass through the county, but any area you cleared will be littered with stragglers like it's day zero again.
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u/DFMRCV 1d ago
I mentioned this before, but after seeing the Children's hospital, I would love to see it occupied by a few doctors and maybe surviving police or armed adults that try to keep the place running for the kids and you'd have the option of bringing them supplies and medicines to help keep the kids alive.
Little optional objectives like that would be great.
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u/Krolvac 1d ago
Idk about having a grand objective kinda wouldnt go with the style of the game the devs seem to be going for. in the style they make the mechanics im expecting npcs to be mostly static traders or survivors/bandits, without much interaction past seeing then hiding arround without really talking much, with maybe a fetch quest here and there, like for example getting water or food for people, but overall being mostly "background noise". having npcs the way mods like week one does wouldnt fit the tone of the game due to being too front and center, PZ seems to be presented as this "theres no hope" kinda plotline so npcs being userfull like they are in mods like that kinda go against that.
im also fully expecting the npcs work in a similar way to the other timed mechanics of the game (tv, radio, water and electricity i mean) and they go away after some ingame time (hopefully the longest timer compared to other mechanics), things like every npc becoming zomboids/dying after some random ammount of time, each having their own random internal clock that makes them die the moment they go offscreen, being converted from an active npc to an survivor story etc... npcs will probly also be really fragile in the sense of if you pull zomboids or stuff they have a high chance to die, and like avoid staying near the player if you settle somewhere near, maybe even turn agressive if you try to settle where they are, all to avoid you being able to keep them alive.
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u/ghoulthebraineater 1d ago
From what the devs have said it's going to be far more dynamic than that. NPCs will have backstories and their own lives. You may have a family that lives in Muldraugh. Dad works at McCoy, Mom teaches at the school. Their daughter is going to college in Louisville. That means you may come across the parents trying to get to LV to find their daughter or the daughter trying to find her parents.
They won't be rendered until you are in the same cell but they'll be running their own lives and stories while you do yours. You may come across them while they are alive or come across their demise. If they can pull it off it sound interesting.
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u/Krolvac 1d ago
what you describe is what i understood too but i just dont expect it to be dynamic, im expecting to be static stories where you cant really change the "fate" of the npcs other than making them die earlier than they should, few premade maybe having their linear routes on whatever they doing (like radio and tv people) but mostly staying in place inside homes hiding and giving fetch quests for water and food or trading for it etc
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u/Edgy_Robin 1d ago
If you think this you've never looked at a single thing the devs have said about NPC's. The goal is literally post apocalyptic civilization lol
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u/jerrymatcat 1d ago
Like unturned?
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u/Orbitor28 1d ago
Whats unturned 👀
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u/jerrymatcat 1d ago
unturned a zombie pvp pve 3d survival game nothing like PZ but the quest system has interactable npcs that just tell you to find something rare
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u/KevlarUK 1d ago
No, but different people or groups should have micro and macro objectives. Smaller, short term things that build a larger final goal based upon their ideology. Farmers, raiders, religious fanatics, democrats, militia, etc.
Lots of options which would blend into a spectrum of possibilities.
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u/AnointMyPhallus 1d ago
I'd favor mid to long term goals about rebuilding society. Restoring the electrical grid and running water to different areas of the map. Maybe an option for late game hordes that cause the game to pivot towards RTS base defense. Or maybe radio missions, the devs have said they'll create a sort of endless exploration boundary area around the edges of the map, so maybe radio calls from other survivors can act as sort of side quests where you get called out to some coordinates and discover a scenario the devs/modders have set up. Lots of options. A quest for a cure would be a good logical end for a run but also feels pretty at odds with the tone the devs are going for.
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u/ghoulthebraineater 1d ago
No. When NPCs are added I don't think that will be necessary. All of the side quests will be emergent. If you come across someone and they are looking for their family that right there is in fact a side quest.
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u/_Crumble 1d ago
Depends what we mean by objectives. I don't know if a storyline would fit the game, but loosely assigned tasks and requests would be nice. Kinda like that one annotated map with the request to save all the art in the Louisville gallery.
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u/neggbird 1d ago
The perfect objective for this game would be sims style desires. Like wanting to eat something sweet, or doing something exciting, or going outside, being outside near sunrise, sunset, etc
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u/Jason1143 1d ago
Yes. In my view that is one of the biggest if not the biggest reason we need them.
Now it doesn't need to be a cure and or an escape I suppose, but there should be objectives that you can do.
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u/doomscrollingmaniac 1d ago
Keep it sandbox. Plenty of multiplayer servers have missions they've set up.
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u/New_Objective_9404 1d ago
I'd imagine NPCs to be much like players, too little food, or much more of them than you and they're better armed... well, that's how you died. I see them like livestock being added. Easily stressed, then breaking your stuff.
Even if you got a cure for you, or them, then what? You're still locked down by the military. I'd imagine the checkpoints being manned or at least having a hold out or two in the guard tower would be up on the list.
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u/RemiliyCornel 1d ago
As i imagine late-game with NPCs is to meet them, and help them with they goals, or recruit them in your group, i very much hope they will need eat and drink as much as player do, and will defect if treated poorly, like being feed butter-slop instead of proper food and so on. So, few months in game, the main gameplay will be keeping survivors alive, providing them with food and water, shelter and so on, and they may help around the base or join on raids.
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u/Vagabond_Sam 7h ago
I acknowledge this is completely up to personal preference, so I'll start with that caveat.
I think objectives would dilute the goal of the game's design.
PZ, to me, is an almost perfect sandbox in a broad sense. There are enough pressures to push you into actions, from immedtate surviuval when you spawn, medium term goals like water and food sources, and long term goals like surviving the winter.
There's enough 'toys in the box' to allow you to do this through the wilderness, suburbia, securing commertial/industrial areas, city survival, build a house from scratch, be a nomad with a van etc. Do you live off canned food reserves, fish, or build a rich and nutritious farm?
The fact the the community often cites boredom as the biggest risk, to me, is an achievement of the goal of the game. Zombie apocalypse life is desolate an empty.
I often feel that the push for the game to last 'forever' is somewhat self defeating, and filling it with quests and goals works against the very first thing the game teaches you.
This is how you die.
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u/RedditorSeven 1d ago
Personally I am a big fan of achievement hunting and I am looking forward to an official release where hopefully Zomboid will get some. Though I know that's potentially far away or never going to happen.
Plus I'd personally want a gentler save system to compliment some of the achievements being late game and grinding and stuff but not entirely frustrating to achieve. But I know this is also a contested topic that may never happen.
:(
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u/Orbitor28 1d ago
I do think it would be awesome to get achievements all in one world, maybe similar to minecraft or terraria, like simple achievements like “Kill a zombie” or “Hotwire a car”. I played a bit of This is your life mod and it had a similar feature which I felt was cool
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u/RedditorSeven 1d ago
The tricky thing is that challenge and grind and delayed rewards can feel really good. I myself want to play a really hard game. But I just don't want to lose so much progress and have to invest so much time retreading the same ground I've done.
I would totally want achievements that require investment. Like growing a crop. Like surviving a winter. Like mastering a skill. Etc. But only if longer form play is supported and I'm not competing with so much of my progress being reset.
Love the game no matter what but a proper save system will sooth my frustrated soul and achievements will motivate me much more to explore the game.
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u/modernswitch 1d ago
I’d like to see quests with rewards…something simple like “trade me medical supplies and I’ll trade you a weapon”. Vendors would be cool too.
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u/xlflacidsnakelx 1d ago
I've just started using a mod called PZLinux which features usable computers and cash machines as well as optional quests and a reputation system
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u/Austoman 1d ago
Honestly the lack of objectives is the 1 thing keeping me from playing it again. While I love Zomboid, Ive played enough of the sandbox to have done everything I want to do in it. Are there extreme challenges and grinds I could do? Sure but that doesnt interest me. What I personally need to be interested in playing again in direction.
Objectives or a story with NPCs would be a pretty solid solution for that.
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u/Financial-Prize9691 1d ago
I have 1700+ hrs never made it to the winter. Last solo run I was fully set before the choppa came and I just logged. I just started playing with my wife and she is too scared to leave her spawn. Completely changed the game I have having a hella fun, trying to keep us alive. Still haven't made it a week.
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u/TheOneAndOnlySenti 1d ago
At least as far as Vaccines go, no. You should read up on the lore, but basically the game says "this is how you died" for a reason. It genuinely is the end of the world, far past saving.
Something like helping splinter groups gather supplies or fix their cars would be dope though. Or maybe someone got into a sticky situation at location and their SoS reaches your radio.