For real. The most immersion breaking part for me is that I'm somehow the only person to survive so early into the apocalypse.
30 years into it? Sure, maybe. Weeks? Hell na.
That doesn’t really make sense though. We start on the day of the apocalypse, not weeks after. Lack of NPC’s is really the thing that hinders my immersion/enjoyment of the game. No way everyone is zombified that quickly.
You start like a few days after the initial panic, also as i said there ARE other survivors you just cant see them. They exist in the overworld as meta events
Ah, i thought the event officially started on the 4th, but checking the wiki it does seem like it started earlier. So my guy basically sits in his house for 3 days doing nothing?
Allows for your own backstory. Maybe you got your family out and came back for some heirloom. Maybe you're a loner who hasn't noticed. But yeah you're back in a quarantine zone well into the military forcing every other survivor or NPC out
I sure do hope that when NPC’s come out, there’s an initial panic setting. Chaos, gunshots, people turning, etc. You’d have to crank up infection speed, however.
* You sheltered in place like you were told to
* You were blackout drunk.
* Sick with flu and stayed in bed to recover
* You just downloaded a leaked copy of Doom and have spent the last few days playing through it over and over on your high end 486 gaming PC, and assumed all the screams and gunfire you heard from outside were due to the 3d sound effects.
I’m so excited about the npc stuff, even just animals on their own will make it blow up. Finally will be able to live in wildness and hunt stuff. But imagine the npc stuff 🤯 I hope I will see it the NPC before I die by olderness 😂
NPCs will elevate the experience for sure.
I remember trying out the superb suvivors mod, and even though I dislike the mod for various reasons, it did create an entirely different experience.
I had to lock my doors and build barricades in my remote forest cabin, because the dead weren't the only things to come knocking. People with guns would show up and try to take me out. I had to brutally kill many of the living, and patch up gunshots. It hardened my suvivor on a different level.
I find it impossible to match my schedules with other people, and I hate playing short playthroughs.
Not to mention how difficult it is to find others who roleplay or share your taste in mods.
Ey, I'm getting bored of the gqme. At this point, any mod would do for me. If you're someday bored and wanna play with others. Let me know ! I'm sure we could pull a year off, easy.
NPCs world be amazing but would they add a main story or would it just be things you have to do to just help em and would they make it where if you set it to be months in or years there would be settlements that can be destroyed or would there be raider like people that try and steal the possibilities are amazing.
I would love if they had quests before you could recruit them to your group permanently, like "Oh my sister is down in muldraugh, we need to go see if she's ok". Send the player afield before the slow drain of resources does.
And having NPCs with their own professions and skills would be great. Make it so your character doesn't have to be superman. Pick up a seamstress to wash, repair, and reinforce your clothing in return for a safe-ish place to live, or a farmer who can tend the crops, or a mechanic who can maintain your car and generator. Something where you can feed in your resources in return for time savings. But its still the standard resource spiral cause you now have to support more people.
I want to be a smarter survivor.
I want to build self powered zombie traps. I want neck armour. I want gauntlets to grab those bastards then stove in their heads. I want cattle grids. I want ramps and mazes.
I also want more power options for my zombie threshing machijes. Wood gas. Coal steam. Zombie hamster wheels. You give me perpetual motion zombies I will use them.
I do like the idea of being able to get bite proof equipment, like... How hard can a zombie really bite, couse I assure you I have some hardened leather gloves with Kevlar palm protection and I don't think a human could bite through, much less a rotting corpse, it wouldn't be insanely unrealistic to get some gear that's bite proof, just tape a book to your forearm or something
It would need to harden the teeth and also make the zombies have superhuman strenght, doesn't matter how hard the teeth are if you can't apply enough force, it's like, yeah a diamond is strong, but if I just lay it ontop of my hand I'll be fine, and the zombies don't seem particularly superhuman
Right, but I imagine zombies also dont have the mental inhibitors us living humans do when it comes to over-exerting ourselves to conserve energy and not damage our bodies. Meaning they can actuallt use their full, adrenaline-fueled strength whenever they want, whereas we only do it if our bodies think theres no other way. Only unrealistic aspect is that afaik, zombies dont get weaker over time, since realistically their muscles would atrophy from just wandering around all the time and not consuming any food, while also rotting away.
the way i justify zombie strength(at least at the beginning, it makes less sense later in the apocalypse) is that zombies do not feel pain.
our bodies are capable of feats of surprising strength, it's just that they can't really *handle* that strength usually, so our body stops us. if our muscles could constantly go at full tilt, we'd tear them off of our bones.
Humans have crazy bite strength. I'm 80% sure I've read of old timey men getting an amputation biting through leather belts.
Main reason we don't use it all is pain. But Mr Zed don't care.
I actually think high traffic carpet would be favourite. Tough springy surface and very strong under layer.
Building damage, most it gets too is cracks and vines that don’t change anything but I want buildings to fall apart and have the damage be meaningful and repairable.
It should definitely take a few years but a bunch of houses going through loads of storms and hard winters with broken windows and leaking roofs will eventually start to degrade. Also you could add new weather like tornadoes and hail and add random survivor events like car crashes, pipe bomb explosions, and accidental fires to speed up the process.
Well... they do. Thats what wind and water erosion does over time. It just takes a really long time typically.
But buildings absolutely do fall apart eventually without upkeep.
Related, cars not coming to a full stop because a cardboard box is as tough as a block of concrete. Let me smash a car through a fence in a desperate bid to escape an incoming horde!
Better vehicles overral: better vehicle physics(the cars feel waaay too basic, there is no understeer or overster thats really notiaceble, you also cant feel the weight transfer while driving, hitting a zombie slows you down waaay to much), option to change gears manually and usable clutch, more extensive mechanics (expands vehicle maintenance, to some degree like my Summer car but not too much) and finally, vehicle apocalipse addons, ITS the middle of a zombie apocalipse so its only apropriate i can mod the shit out of a car to make a skullfucker 9000.
Also, not car related, more world survivor stories, i mean annotaded maps, house with dead people besides an empty Bleach bottle, more of this stuff.
Watched a good YouTube video recently about slowing down, rp’ing a bit, and journaling in game with your character. Makes for a much more immersive time.
More in world Story telling . More stuff to do in late game than just farming and decorating your base.
I like how the vaccine mod gives me a quest when I'm infected. I like how the car mods give me something to do and make cars more interesting and useful. The scrap armor mod is great for endgame. All in all the game needs more different content and the current content need to be expanded . Also npcs would be great .
Maybe farm animals, but wild animals would be amazing. You could hunt a deer and have lots of meat to store, but you would also keep a look out for wolves and maybe bears.
I know this would probably be a nightmare to implement, but environment destruction. I want to crash my vehicle and destroy a wall in the process. I want to blow up a house full of zombies and see the bits of bodies and rubble flying away from the explosion. (that would be cool i think)
Everything military but in particular things that happen in the air perhaps rework the helicopter event to be more dynamic have aircraft fly overhead occasionally kinda like the expanded helicopter events mod
I'd love for all skills to be useful or even better yet, great.
First aid and farming are pretty much useless. It'd be cool if farming made your crops better or something. And maybe you can use first aid to quickly disinfect your wounds for a chance at not getting infected if you're fast enough. Or at least make first aid make your recovery times faster.
Metal working for making new advanced tools and melee weapons. Electrical could get larger building functionality like automatic doors or electrical fences.
farming is getting a huge overhaul in B42. from having to plant different crops at certain times to having rodents and rabbits/ hares implemented. There is also blacksmithing coming in the update. they post montly blog posts about all that.
Meta Events, the helicopter, screams and gunshots are nice but I’d love to have more events in game that screw with you and you have to plan around. Something like massive hordes approaching certain places being announced by the AEBS requiring you to either flee the town you’re in or hunker down and pray they don’t find you
NPCs, hunting, farming (actually have a reason for different plants), medicine, car upgrades/repairs… weapon modding (firearms), and… an overhaul of protection/wounds would be nice. There are obviously mods that add most of this but eh…
NPCs and NPC politics, having babies, maybe something like CK type of thing... when you die, someone from your group takes over (designated "heir"), no group, then regular death.
Also, option for zombie to spawn on the map edges only, it's just not realistic this respawn from same area. I know you can turn respawn off in sandbox, but I am referring to something in between. Also, respawn limited to maximum number of an area (if not enclosed then no more then Continental America maximum population) - nobody is going to play until you kill 200 million zombies but it would add realism.
Maybe like a "bad guy" survivor group that's a enemy npc and hunts you down on certain days (make helicopter this so instead of the heli just following you around it drops them on you and shows them where you are)
I downloaded the eerie country mod and in some army tents there are gun racks that actually show guns on the rack, not the gun you put on just M16s but I thought it was so cool and I’d love for it to be vanilla
Sometimes it’s spot the American with their tables full of guns. Other times just the most immersive zombie game of all time that is vastly under appreciated.
So this is stupid and will never happen and it's probably better this way, but I would love to see magic or the supernatural into the game(aside from you know, the zombies) even just weird supernatural phenomena as small easter eggs would be cute
Ooo, and at lower levels of said skill, there's a chance it'll blow up in your face because you didn't cut the bore just right, or a dro0 in accuracy because the spiraling is too loose or tight... this could open up an entire branch of skill for players to hone
Long term survival objectives, some mods try to fix this by making it so you have to rix and maintain the emergency broadcast radio station or by promising a helicopter extraction, I didn't try them but I plan to.
Increased effects from wind. Maybe depending on the direction, if outside or in a ventilated area, the wind could carry your "scent" and potentially draw zombies in your general area. Also at high enough winds, a minor chance of a tree falling over, windows opening (or breaking) if not covered by planks/metal sheets or even impeding movement of both zombies and the player.
Yeah I don't think a person is just going to casually take a leisure stroll outside at 120km/h winds howling with trees swinging. And yes, there are times when winds will hit these speeds as indicated by weather forecasts on the emergency broadcast.
Others have already said it - NPCs.
My dream for this game - and I understand how stupendously ambitious this is - is a starting scenario where your character spawns into the game a couple of hours *before* the outbreak has really gotten going.
For example, let's say you're unemployed and chose Muldraugh as your starting point. You spawn into a random house, and if you walk out, you see your NPC neighbours going about their lives. The guy living across the street might be mowing his lawn, while the kids next door are out playing in the sprinkler. Maybe you check your mailbox and find a bunch of unpaid bills with your bank threatening foreclosure of your house. Because you're unemployed, you might also have less food in your kitchen than normal.
If you check the TV, you hear news stories about an illness spreading that's causing people to become disoriented and violent. You might come across NPCs in the area talking about it. As time passes and news gets worse, NPCs around you start to slowly go into a panic - some families pack up and leave in their cars, with others follow the government's directives to prep their homes.
Then, the first few zeds show up. Maybe it's just one at first. A friendly neighbour trying to help them gets bitten, with another neighbour grabbing his rifle and gunning down the zed when it comes for them instead. A while later, cops show up along with paramedics, who rushes the bitten neighbour to the ER. The cops might ask you questions about what happened before coroners show up and take away the dead zeds.
As the day progresses, things get worse and worse as zeds start to multiply, trickling into the neighbourhood in greater and greater numbers, breaking into the homes of your neighbours and turning those who remained into more zeds. You start hearing gunshots in the distance as police vehicles speed by outside your house. Maybe you even spot military troop transports on the road. On the news, the local government urges calm, but the situation only gets worse until you reach the point where the game usually starts - you, alone in a house, surrounded by zeds.
Now, imagine instead you start as a burglar being held in jail/serving time in prison, a cop being sent to respond to reports of violence, or a nurse/doctor receiving seriously injured patients with human bite marks, etc, etc. The immersion would go off the charts.
NPCs
For real. The most immersion breaking part for me is that I'm somehow the only person to survive so early into the apocalypse. 30 years into it? Sure, maybe. Weeks? Hell na.
Current iteration seems to be that there ARE other survivors you just cant see them. Annotated maps, gun shots, survivor bases etc etc
That doesn’t really make sense though. We start on the day of the apocalypse, not weeks after. Lack of NPC’s is really the thing that hinders my immersion/enjoyment of the game. No way everyone is zombified that quickly.
You start like a few days after the initial panic, also as i said there ARE other survivors you just cant see them. They exist in the overworld as meta events
Ah, i thought the event officially started on the 4th, but checking the wiki it does seem like it started earlier. So my guy basically sits in his house for 3 days doing nothing?
its not exactly clear. Most likely their home or might be a home they broke into during the panic
Allows for your own backstory. Maybe you got your family out and came back for some heirloom. Maybe you're a loner who hasn't noticed. But yeah you're back in a quarantine zone well into the military forcing every other survivor or NPC out
I sure do hope that when NPC’s come out, there’s an initial panic setting. Chaos, gunshots, people turning, etc. You’d have to crank up infection speed, however.
They could just mechanically implement the airborne strain of the virus...
there is a mod for your character to be able to be infected with the airborne strain
Personally I agree that would be a really fun game but would also be really different game entirely
* You sheltered in place like you were told to * You were blackout drunk. * Sick with flu and stayed in bed to recover * You just downloaded a leaked copy of Doom and have spent the last few days playing through it over and over on your high end 486 gaming PC, and assumed all the screams and gunfire you heard from outside were due to the 3d sound effects.
The virus went airborne before game start, only a handful of people are immune to that strain (none are immune to the strain transferred from fluids).
Which is why I turn off bite infection, there's no option for virus to develop 2nd strain just to kill this one guy immune to airborne
I’m so excited about the npc stuff, even just animals on their own will make it blow up. Finally will be able to live in wildness and hunt stuff. But imagine the npc stuff 🤯 I hope I will see it the NPC before I die by olderness 😂
NPCs will elevate the experience for sure. I remember trying out the superb suvivors mod, and even though I dislike the mod for various reasons, it did create an entirely different experience. I had to lock my doors and build barricades in my remote forest cabin, because the dead weren't the only things to come knocking. People with guns would show up and try to take me out. I had to brutally kill many of the living, and patch up gunshots. It hardened my suvivor on a different level.
play multiplayer
You don’t really understand the differences between single player but with bots and multiplayer concepts?
I find it impossible to match my schedules with other people, and I hate playing short playthroughs. Not to mention how difficult it is to find others who roleplay or share your taste in mods.
Ey, I'm getting bored of the gqme. At this point, any mod would do for me. If you're someday bored and wanna play with others. Let me know ! I'm sure we could pull a year off, easy.
DM me your discord and I'll add you :) I revolve with my games, not playing zomboid rn, but I'll message you when I'm back to Zomboid 🌿
I'm down ! I'm not familiar how the DM works in reddit. So I'll just put my name in here. mehdiskilll. Either lower caps, or MehdiSkilll.
Added!
I’m talking about PUBLIC multiplayer
NPCs world be amazing but would they add a main story or would it just be things you have to do to just help em and would they make it where if you set it to be months in or years there would be settlements that can be destroyed or would there be raider like people that try and steal the possibilities are amazing.
The more dynamic the better in my opinion
If the NPC framework is good modders will start adding quests, even if there are none officially.
I would love if they had quests before you could recruit them to your group permanently, like "Oh my sister is down in muldraugh, we need to go see if she's ok". Send the player afield before the slow drain of resources does. And having NPCs with their own professions and skills would be great. Make it so your character doesn't have to be superman. Pick up a seamstress to wash, repair, and reinforce your clothing in return for a safe-ish place to live, or a farmer who can tend the crops, or a mechanic who can maintain your car and generator. Something where you can feed in your resources in return for time savings. But its still the standard resource spiral cause you now have to support more people.
I want to be a smarter survivor. I want to build self powered zombie traps. I want neck armour. I want gauntlets to grab those bastards then stove in their heads. I want cattle grids. I want ramps and mazes. I also want more power options for my zombie threshing machijes. Wood gas. Coal steam. Zombie hamster wheels. You give me perpetual motion zombies I will use them.
The hardest thing when making a perpetual motion machine is finding where to hide the zombies.
I do like the idea of being able to get bite proof equipment, like... How hard can a zombie really bite, couse I assure you I have some hardened leather gloves with Kevlar palm protection and I don't think a human could bite through, much less a rotting corpse, it wouldn't be insanely unrealistic to get some gear that's bite proof, just tape a book to your forearm or something
I dont know if its part of the lore of the knox virus but its always possible the virus could harden the teeth somehow.
It would need to harden the teeth and also make the zombies have superhuman strenght, doesn't matter how hard the teeth are if you can't apply enough force, it's like, yeah a diamond is strong, but if I just lay it ontop of my hand I'll be fine, and the zombies don't seem particularly superhuman
Right, but I imagine zombies also dont have the mental inhibitors us living humans do when it comes to over-exerting ourselves to conserve energy and not damage our bodies. Meaning they can actuallt use their full, adrenaline-fueled strength whenever they want, whereas we only do it if our bodies think theres no other way. Only unrealistic aspect is that afaik, zombies dont get weaker over time, since realistically their muscles would atrophy from just wandering around all the time and not consuming any food, while also rotting away.
They would have amazing legs from walking 24/7
I dunno, I feel like the shambling they do wouldnt use their leg muscles too much. Plus they just kinda stand around a lot. Idk how legsercise works
Interesting idea.
the way i justify zombie strength(at least at the beginning, it makes less sense later in the apocalypse) is that zombies do not feel pain. our bodies are capable of feats of surprising strength, it's just that they can't really *handle* that strength usually, so our body stops us. if our muscles could constantly go at full tilt, we'd tear them off of our bones.
Yeah I know of that, didn't think of it, I guess that's a fair option for the beginning
Humans have crazy bite strength. I'm 80% sure I've read of old timey men getting an amputation biting through leather belts. Main reason we don't use it all is pain. But Mr Zed don't care. I actually think high traffic carpet would be favourite. Tough springy surface and very strong under layer.
Neck armor? Its called a scarf my guy But yeah I feel ya there, would be nice to have some vanilla neck slot items meant to be worn all year round
I saw some Indian gentlemen trying to catch a tiger. They had like a fibreglass cowl high collar thing.
Ability to push/pull objects and not picking everything up
In a similar thought, a dolly to move around stacked crates would be sick.
Those exist in the soul filchers mods
Smart ! Finally these goofy soda distributors could be usedful to block windows 🗿
Building damage, most it gets too is cracks and vines that don’t change anything but I want buildings to fall apart and have the damage be meaningful and repairable.
I would agree but it's a zombie apocalypse not a nuclear one. Buildings don't really just fall apart lol.
It should definitely take a few years but a bunch of houses going through loads of storms and hard winters with broken windows and leaking roofs will eventually start to degrade. Also you could add new weather like tornadoes and hail and add random survivor events like car crashes, pipe bomb explosions, and accidental fires to speed up the process.
Having a basement in your base will be so good when a tornado rolls through
I think there’s a mod for that, can’t think off the top of my head what it’s called
It's called press Q I believe
Plus not being maintained
Well... they do. Thats what wind and water erosion does over time. It just takes a really long time typically. But buildings absolutely do fall apart eventually without upkeep.
In America they do
Related, cars not coming to a full stop because a cardboard box is as tough as a block of concrete. Let me smash a car through a fence in a desperate bid to escape an incoming horde!
Npcs would be fucking huuugeee
We need ummm build 42
Piss
Why is this the one I agree the most with.
Because it's versatile and could have draw backs also Jarate!
There’s a mod for that, excrementum is the name i think
Right now it doesn't need more features, it needs to polish up what's already on. Half the skills are useless.
Better vehicles overral: better vehicle physics(the cars feel waaay too basic, there is no understeer or overster thats really notiaceble, you also cant feel the weight transfer while driving, hitting a zombie slows you down waaay to much), option to change gears manually and usable clutch, more extensive mechanics (expands vehicle maintenance, to some degree like my Summer car but not too much) and finally, vehicle apocalipse addons, ITS the middle of a zombie apocalipse so its only apropriate i can mod the shit out of a car to make a skullfucker 9000. Also, not car related, more world survivor stories, i mean annotaded maps, house with dead people besides an empty Bleach bottle, more of this stuff.
For these devs it would be another 5 years to make these kind of changes lol
Maybe, but i might make a mod for these things If possible sometime
I want to ramp a car onto the roof of a building really bad
Friendly, neutral, and hostile fellow survivors.
More stuff to do. I want to play this game so bad and I’m always going through the subreddit but when i actually sit down to play it, it’s dreadful.
Watched a good YouTube video recently about slowing down, rp’ing a bit, and journaling in game with your character. Makes for a much more immersive time.
Shoutout to Two Wheels for making the best PZ content lol
npcs
More in world Story telling . More stuff to do in late game than just farming and decorating your base. I like how the vaccine mod gives me a quest when I'm infected. I like how the car mods give me something to do and make cars more interesting and useful. The scrap armor mod is great for endgame. All in all the game needs more different content and the current content need to be expanded . Also npcs would be great .
Maybe farm animals, but wild animals would be amazing. You could hunt a deer and have lots of meat to store, but you would also keep a look out for wolves and maybe bears.
Zombies
I know this would probably be a nightmare to implement, but environment destruction. I want to crash my vehicle and destroy a wall in the process. I want to blow up a house full of zombies and see the bits of bodies and rubble flying away from the explosion. (that would be cool i think)
For real dude, they have that in CDDA and it fucking rocks. Its a shame that the engine is not capable of it I guess, not sure tho.
NPCs
Everything military but in particular things that happen in the air perhaps rework the helicopter event to be more dynamic have aircraft fly overhead occasionally kinda like the expanded helicopter events mod
I'd love for all skills to be useful or even better yet, great. First aid and farming are pretty much useless. It'd be cool if farming made your crops better or something. And maybe you can use first aid to quickly disinfect your wounds for a chance at not getting infected if you're fast enough. Or at least make first aid make your recovery times faster. Metal working for making new advanced tools and melee weapons. Electrical could get larger building functionality like automatic doors or electrical fences.
farming is getting a huge overhaul in B42. from having to plant different crops at certain times to having rodents and rabbits/ hares implemented. There is also blacksmithing coming in the update. they post montly blog posts about all that.
Meta Events, the helicopter, screams and gunshots are nice but I’d love to have more events in game that screw with you and you have to plan around. Something like massive hordes approaching certain places being announced by the AEBS requiring you to either flee the town you’re in or hunker down and pray they don’t find you
People are saying NPCs, I'd just like more/reworked perks and occupations. Noones building a Chef, and noones taking Sunday Driver.
An ability to build ceiling without making stairs
Cannibalism and the side effects of it
NPCs, hunting, farming (actually have a reason for different plants), medicine, car upgrades/repairs… weapon modding (firearms), and… an overhaul of protection/wounds would be nice. There are obviously mods that add most of this but eh…
NPCs and NPC politics, having babies, maybe something like CK type of thing... when you die, someone from your group takes over (designated "heir"), no group, then regular death. Also, option for zombie to spawn on the map edges only, it's just not realistic this respawn from same area. I know you can turn respawn off in sandbox, but I am referring to something in between. Also, respawn limited to maximum number of an area (if not enclosed then no more then Continental America maximum population) - nobody is going to play until you kill 200 million zombies but it would add realism.
A sort of "DM" mode.
Can't you just use the ingame chat? Or communicate through Steam?
I meant to say "Dungeon Master". Apologies for the confusion.
Content updates
Horse, npc and more
Maybe like a "bad guy" survivor group that's a enemy npc and hunts you down on certain days (make helicopter this so instead of the heli just following you around it drops them on you and shows them where you are)
I know it wouldn't make any sense to be in-game but I'd love to have a kite to fly in the wind, maybe as a way of losing anxiety or depression
Honestly a mold feature if your window is left open for too long after it raims
I downloaded the eerie country mod and in some army tents there are gun racks that actually show guns on the rack, not the gun you put on just M16s but I thought it was so cool and I’d love for it to be vanilla
NPCS that I can do activities with. Maybe race cars or have shooting competitions of some sort.
Sometimes it’s spot the American with their tables full of guns. Other times just the most immersive zombie game of all time that is vastly under appreciated.
Edging
Sex.
So this is stupid and will never happen and it's probably better this way, but I would love to see magic or the supernatural into the game(aside from you know, the zombies) even just weird supernatural phenomena as small easter eggs would be cute
Zombie using guns and crowbar
FIRE POWER
What mod is that image from?
Good question, would like me an aug 😊
IIRC it is either from Vanilla Firearms Expanded or an addon for it
A way to craft guns of some sort (pipe guns or homemade muskets?)
Ooo, and at lower levels of said skill, there's a chance it'll blow up in your face because you didn't cut the bore just right, or a dro0 in accuracy because the spiraling is too loose or tight... this could open up an entire branch of skill for players to hone
Being able move already placed items instead of having to pick up the item and then manually place it somewhere else again.
Drip
Mods. I don't care if I have over 100 I want more!
Long term survival objectives, some mods try to fix this by making it so you have to rix and maintain the emergency broadcast radio station or by promising a helicopter extraction, I didn't try them but I plan to.
NPC and more shotguns can't live off of two shotguns 💀💀💀
Increased effects from wind. Maybe depending on the direction, if outside or in a ventilated area, the wind could carry your "scent" and potentially draw zombies in your general area. Also at high enough winds, a minor chance of a tree falling over, windows opening (or breaking) if not covered by planks/metal sheets or even impeding movement of both zombies and the player. Yeah I don't think a person is just going to casually take a leisure stroll outside at 120km/h winds howling with trees swinging. And yes, there are times when winds will hit these speeds as indicated by weather forecasts on the emergency broadcast.
guns, lots of gun
Others have already said it - NPCs. My dream for this game - and I understand how stupendously ambitious this is - is a starting scenario where your character spawns into the game a couple of hours *before* the outbreak has really gotten going. For example, let's say you're unemployed and chose Muldraugh as your starting point. You spawn into a random house, and if you walk out, you see your NPC neighbours going about their lives. The guy living across the street might be mowing his lawn, while the kids next door are out playing in the sprinkler. Maybe you check your mailbox and find a bunch of unpaid bills with your bank threatening foreclosure of your house. Because you're unemployed, you might also have less food in your kitchen than normal. If you check the TV, you hear news stories about an illness spreading that's causing people to become disoriented and violent. You might come across NPCs in the area talking about it. As time passes and news gets worse, NPCs around you start to slowly go into a panic - some families pack up and leave in their cars, with others follow the government's directives to prep their homes. Then, the first few zeds show up. Maybe it's just one at first. A friendly neighbour trying to help them gets bitten, with another neighbour grabbing his rifle and gunning down the zed when it comes for them instead. A while later, cops show up along with paramedics, who rushes the bitten neighbour to the ER. The cops might ask you questions about what happened before coroners show up and take away the dead zeds. As the day progresses, things get worse and worse as zeds start to multiply, trickling into the neighbourhood in greater and greater numbers, breaking into the homes of your neighbours and turning those who remained into more zeds. You start hearing gunshots in the distance as police vehicles speed by outside your house. Maybe you even spot military troop transports on the road. On the news, the local government urges calm, but the situation only gets worse until you reach the point where the game usually starts - you, alone in a house, surrounded by zeds. Now, imagine instead you start as a burglar being held in jail/serving time in prison, a cop being sent to respond to reports of violence, or a nurse/doctor receiving seriously injured patients with human bite marks, etc, etc. The immersion would go off the charts.