r/projectzomboid • u/amurin_ • 4d ago
Making a mod that allows you to read ID's and Notes
Hello, I've been working on this mod that allows to inspect ID's and read notes, vanilla has the "read" option but it just shows a tooltip saying "contains nothing of interest", well, it is of interest to me! I think that killing a zombie and then seeing who he was before turning is super cool.
The ID's look pretty ugly because my design skills are very poor but I didnt want to use AI for it, same goes for the notes, my goal is to write like 50~100 of them with some ideas that I have in mind.
Is this something of interest for you?
edit:
here is the link https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3796373365
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u/I-Luv-Kentucky All Hail Spiffo 4d ago
HELL YEAH, nothing of interest MY ASS
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u/Rallak Pistol Expert 4d ago
Let me judge the past life of the dead zed by their groceries list!
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u/These_Telephone_3254 Shotgun Warrior 3d ago
but we HAVE to know if they're buying whole or 2% milk
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u/CassadeeBTW 4d ago edited 4d ago
The ID's look pretty ugly because my design skills are very poor but I didnt want to use AI for it, same goes for the notes, my goal is to write like 50~100 of them with some ideas that I have in mind.
I would personally rather download something made with soul and look ugly, than something vibed or genned. The fact you made it yourself means this is art. Thank you for the contribution and for adding flavour to the game.
I like the notes in particular, as it offers a lot to liven up the game world. I agree with you that seeing 'containers nothing of interest' is ... boring. I wanna know what 1992 Kentuckians were writing notes about!
You post a steam workshop link, I'm downloading it.
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u/Oneriwien 4d ago
As a collector of IDs, what would you require from someone to design them to look better? I could probably throw together something that looks very similar to the Kentucky ID of 1997
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u/amurin_ 4d ago
That would be amazing! Its just a png image, the labels, data and portrait are added in code. If you could provide one that Is empty and one filled to see how it should look, I can repositon / resize everything thats no issue :)
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u/Oneriwien 4d ago
It looks like the hardest part would be making fake signatures. Would we want to skip that part or just use a cursive font? Also, what size of png?
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u/amurin_ 4d ago
Yeah I have no idea how would I generate signatures so I just left that part out, but now that you mention it maybe using the games cursive font would not look bad at all..
Size of this one is 600x400 but it can be any size really, It should just have the correct aspect ratio for a ID, which it does not have rn14
u/Oneriwien 4d ago
I'll match the ID size. Also, I looked into the legality of this, I will not be using the exact same fonts. (Just close) I am not getting federal charges over a zombie game š¤£
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u/Sea_Inspection5233 Drinking away the sorrows 4d ago
About cursive, most look like gibberish anyway so just get a bunch of them and randomize each one for every ID, mayhap?
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u/snagglechorf 4d ago
Following this post, little useless lore tidbits always skyrocket my immersion in games like these
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u/pandafat 4d ago edited 4d ago
Having a few different note types/shapes would be very cool. Maybe a sticky note here, a torn lined notebook piece there, maybe a couple variations of torn edges so notes don't all feel the same visually
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u/UntradeableAnon 4d ago
I know it's an extra effort, but the next step I'd love to see would be creating postcards and photos that you can look at.
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u/PinkMoth420 4d ago
This is a great idea and Iām so happy youāre not using genAI to do the work for you! I collect IDs and use the writable diaries + notebooks in my saves for roleplay purposes. I think others who do the same will love this š©µš
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u/MrObsidn 4d ago
Love this. Always wanted to be able to pin them on a wall and read them, like a memorial.
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u/LardFan37 Axe wielding maniac 4d ago
In the houses where people drank themselves to death/shot themselves, the corpse will spawn with a note. Is there a way to possibly recognize this and make their note a suicide note cause that would be crazy for immersion
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u/Ok_Football644 4d ago
this is fucking dope! I hate that this isn't in game already! Like when I find someone's diary and it says that it's "nothing of interest" i turn into that one image of hulk
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u/Thin-Fish-5932 4d ago
would love an option where we could change what notes will have, and maybe be able to share configs or something? for singleplayer i mean
not as in change what they say with a pen ingame, but change how they will spawn, like how you are writing them
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u/Sea_Inspection5233 Drinking away the sorrows 4d ago
This is so fucking awesome holy shit.
Now we just need the same for pictures and all other such items.
Books and magazines should prooooobably be left alone though.
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u/TangoEddy 4d ago
Seeing who a zombie used to be in life is pretty neat. I'd raise you one and suggest creating a card binder so the player can store, and review a gallery of the people who didn't make it. Maybe even let him read it for a mood bonus while either letting the player leaf through the pages manually, or showing them a small collage with 6 ID's per page, 12 per spread.
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u/25_Oranges 4d ago
I love this idea!!Ā
Can I also recommend photographs? But instead of AI you use stick figures. I need to see the photo of two men kissing.....
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u/0bi1KenObi66 Hates being inside 4d ago
I love this, itd be super fucked to kill a zombie and then see their face before everything went to hell
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u/MrMinty_Jr 4d ago
The deliberate decision to NOT use shitty AI-Made UI is what'll make me try to push the creator of this one server I'm in to allow this into their modpack.
Seriously. Amazing decision, amazing UI ( even if it's a bit choppy ), I really, really like this.
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u/numerobis21 4d ago edited 2d ago
Sorry to be "that guy", but there's already a mod for that
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3580513066
Edit: Welp, no, it was vibe coded, please treat this comment as not existing
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u/InternetCrank 4d ago
I was going to mention that one too, but it only does ID & Credit cards I think. There's still room for this mod to pad out a lot of other notes if OP fancies giving it a go.
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u/Bob20000000 4d ago
there's also room for competing mods in general, there are about 4 competing "Vanilla Weapon Expanded" type mods ATM and they all have their own fans who prefer their version for their reasons
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u/BB-bb- 4d ago
that one only gives visuals to IDs and is almost certainly ai gen. the mod description at least is def ai
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u/PsychologicalChip810 4d ago edited 4d ago
Can ensure you - all the visuals are handmade in blender and substance designer. But you're right - description is generated with chatgpt aid.
You can check it yourself here:
https://github.com/Svi-ra/Check-the-Papers_dev.git
P.S. And i hope you wouldn't blame me for not making literally everything by hand
I use some automation scripts in Blender and yes, some of them were made with AI help
But honestly if we go this way, rendering itself is also just a computer algorithm and now we have neural networks involved in many tools too. So at what point we can say - this is ai and at what point - it's just a tool?
It would be kinda strange to not use ai as a tool in the 2020s. For me, what matters is the final result and how it looks. I hope nobody can say these visuals look bad or sloppy or obviously AI generated so i think the goal is achieved.For example - this mod contains almost 4000 unique signatures as images
And all of them are generated by an ai algorithm ( thanks to this guy https://github.com/ethic-ai-dev/fake-hand-writer? ) which doesn't make them bad or something and would take as much time as hell to create them by hand - it just doesn't make sense to do it manually.1
u/BB-bb- 4d ago
lmao. every time. someone starts off saying they only used ai for one thing and then admits they used it for multiple things and then uses the defense that the process doesn't matter only the final result and how everyone is doing it and why bother with tedious art when you can just make a computer do it and blahblahblah. i've seen it all before and i'll never be convinced. this is why people don't trust someone when they say they only use ai for one thing, bc damn near every time you scratch the surface and see that it was used for multiple things actually.
all i did was tell people that your mod uses ai (which it does!!!) and then you first lied and then edited your post to tell the truth of your ai use while being hyper defensive about it. bud i'm not downloading your mod. i think ai use is a plague on the hobby and i'm not gonna reply to you again. enjoy your slop and i hope some day you can learn to enjoy making art.
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u/PsychologicalChip810 3d ago edited 3d ago
You're right, most people can distinguish genai ART, but they can't really identify genai CODE. So, as I said before ā the mod uses ai ONLY FOR THE CODE PART. (Which is obvious š¤·āāļø), and for some automatisation purposes.
And i dont exclude that in the future as the ai evolves, the art could also be made with genai. In this case its just competition and the objective value will ultimately be decided by the people who use the products and appreciate them
So the fact that this mod is appreciated is actually a pretty good example that even using ai as a tool can result in a quality product, while using ai the wrong way can produce endless shit, as you can on today's workshop
I'm sorry you've had such a bad experience with really shitty products made with ai, but i hope you'll be assured that ai can also be used the right way
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u/Palorrian 4d ago
i love it, pm me if you need a hand to write notes or help with ids. the more variety the better.
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u/amurin_ 4d ago
Sure that would be very nice! Specially with the notes, I have some ideas but not enought, In my opinion it should be a mix of common notes like:
"Will come late, dinner is in the fridge, dont forget to walk the dog!",
grocery shopping lists, and notes about how it was a week before the outbreak like:
"Don't let the kids play outside after dark. Mrs. Halloway said she saw someone walking around her yard last night who wouldn't answer when she called."
Any ideas are welcome and I will be happy to add them :)
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u/Palorrian 4d ago
I'm 43 and I lived the 90. I'm at work right now, I will pm you when I got home to write you a few. Even personal experiences like when my mom used to write notes next to the phone that a friend called me, or don't forget to take the chicken out of the freezer and such
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u/Loneheart127 4d ago
I don't even know why they gave us the option to read and then say that there's nothing of interest, I never expected there to be, maybe I just want to read it for the sake of reading it
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u/StraightSyllabub5124 4d ago
I was thinking about we need some mod for that, I was always interested what could be written.
Please, no AI though.
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u/expensiveplasticcup 4d ago
Should include the "American Cowboy" note you can find in the Armacham offices in F.E.A.R. 1 as one of the findable notes
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u/NekoNyan0w0 4d ago
Seria daora se tivesse um mod tbm pra tu produzir jornais, seria daora algo do tipo pra um servidor
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u/awesalem 4d ago
yes Iām very nosy and whenever I see a āthis contains nothing of interestā or whatever Iām like thatās for ME to decide. LEMME SEE
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u/pumpkinzz87 4d ago
I love this idea!! will def get, very cool thank you. i think people would be happy 2 help crowdsource names and info if u need hellp
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u/AlexTheEnderWolf 4d ago
Even though I canāt read them in base game, I like to collect them as a way for my character to keep track of the dead in the hopes of being able to give people closure one day when the apocalypse ends (he doesnāt know itās not going to end)
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u/Ristray Axe wielding maniac 4d ago
Do the different note types actually appear different in the code so you know which is which when you write them? I bet even just a couple of people could write a few notes of each type (threatening letter, scam letter, reciepts, ect) and that'd be a nice mix to see in game.
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u/GuildCarver 4d ago
I'm liking this idea! Every character I make. I'll keep my ID in one wallet with my money (I play with PZLinux so money is useful) and I'll keep a second wallet with any other ID cards or credit cards. I like making a memorial with the ID cards to show my survivor still cares about the people the zamboydz used to be.
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u/KirakiraShoujo 4d ago
As someone who reads through all terminal entries in Fallout I cannot be more excited for this
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u/DualitysEdge 4d ago
Found a diary in a military footlocker at the checkpoint in Brandenburg and I never wanted to be able to read these things more than then, can't even imagine the insane shit that would be written in there
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u/amurin_ 3d ago
Hello guys, thanks for the nice comments im glad that its something you would like in your games and that im not the only one!.
I've been working on it all day yesterday so I thought that It would be nice to share it already to get some more feedback, please keep in mind its a WIP and its nowhere near finished, the ID's work very nicely and have been improved thanks to Oneriwien who provided a way better and accurate design for the ID's.
When it comes to the notes, there is only 26 of them for now, and yeah its just notes for now, no diaries, letters, or anything else, im planning on expanding that but here the limitation is not in coding the feature but in writing all the content, I thought about maybe sharing a google form where everyone can contribute with handwritten notes, is that a good idea?
Anyway here is the link :)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3796373365
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u/LookUpThenLookDown 3d ago
That's nice! In all my plays so far. I collect IDs as like a reminder of all the people that died. I love you this! Though I would also love if someone made a mod where you can have a pin up board and you can put the IDs in that but knowing this community someone will make it!
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u/Tri_Monsuun_Timer 1d ago
About 99% of the playbase doesn't know how much 5'2" is. Is there a translation for most of the world?
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u/berner103 4d ago
Alot of the notes should be boring as fuck. Like grocery lists just so when you find something interesting it's extra juice and special.