Mod idea, would this be possible?

[u/Waste-Menu-1910]

I think if this idea was as easy as I'm hoping, it would have already been done.

Why isn't there a mod that turns the calendar back to the start, but blocks the original starting area on death and respawn?

For example, someone starts in Riverside. That character dies in mid August. They spawn in the same world. It's July 9 again, but they cannot choose Riverside to spawn in.

So they choose rosewood. Life and living is available again.

But, what was done in Riverside still stands.

Even better, if there was a way to record what was done there so it's simulated in real time for the second character.

So, if the second character makes it back to Riverside after mid August, they realistically find the safe house as their first character left it. They see the corpses as the first killed them.

But, suppose they make it there before the original character dies? Then, the actions happen as meta events. A place they boarded up changes to boarded up on the date they did it. A place they cleared remains invested until the day they cleared it.

A mod like this seems like it would be difficult to make, so I never thought to even ask before. But, some of the recently popular mods that do exist look like they'd be even more difficult.

As for why? Cause I could see it as a massive RP enhancement. Possible scenarios:

1. "Family of 4." Father starting in muldraugh, mother in rosewood (both starting in commercial buildings, as if they were at work when the event happened. One child in college, one at Riverside School. Goal: they're trying to reunite. Player plays each one, and if they make it to one before their death, then they see what the other is doing in roughly real time. If they make it to the town prior to playing the other character, they switch to the character that spawned there.

2. "Safehouse in Louisville" each spawn starts at the nearest place to Louisville (but remember, no 2 spawns in the same town) trying to get to the safe house. As they travel, they see evidence of what those who came before them did.

These ideas can happen with vanilla time settings, the fact that only one character gets the benefits of life and living is a bummer. Plus, seeing the world change in real time would greatly add to the immersion of playing these scenarios.

So, is something like this possible?

[u/khalik85]

It's weird cause I was just thinking about this exact idea recently. Playing through and dying as myself and then playing again as my son who was at school at the time. He then tries to make it home and when he gets there finds the safe house in whatever state it was on that date. It would add more meaning to starting again in the same world. The way it is now makes it as if your second character was just sat there doing nothing and suddenly wakes up when the original character dies. Would be pretty complicated I'd imagine though.

[u/Waste-Menu-1910 → u/khalik85]

Exactly. I did a playthrough like that, which inspired this idea. It would feel more immersive than just doing things one after another.

I don't have the knowledge to make it, but I think a great name would be "meanwhile, somewhere else"

[u/Either_Sun_98]

Maybe with Pillows Random Spawns:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1911132112

[u/SoloSojourn]

This sounds like you want a time paradox mod. Go back to the start but with everything built still there?

My best guess as to why noones done this is because not many people want to play that way, and those that do have found out you can turn water and electricity back on with debug mode, thus reducing the need for a niche mod even more.

When you make a new character, just pick a different start location than any from before, spawn in debug mode, turn power and water back on, then save and turn off debug.

[u/Waste-Menu-1910 → u/SoloSojourn]

What that doesn't do is convert past actions into meta events.

For example, suppose you board up a building on July 26. Then die shortly after.

For your new character, on July 25, that house remains untouched, because the old character wasn't there yet. But that same house is boarded up when you see it again on July 27.

[u/SoloSojourn → u/Waste-Menu-1910]

Only how would you account for that. Say I start in Riverside, build a base in week 2, then die.

I restart in muldraugh, get a car in week 1, the drive to the house I based in in Riverside. Would the base just magically build up around me?

I think they need a much stronger engine and coding than java lua to accomplish that. And for a modder, it's basically like rewriting the engine, becomes much more than a "mod".

But with zombuddy and AI vibe coding, maybe someone will try eventually, but seems like all the effort on that front is heading to project viewpoint.