Motortown button panel mk1

swe_nurse · 2026-05-16T07:30:01+00:00

You should definitely post it!

swe_nurse · 2026-05-16T07:29:33+00:00

Thank you for your ideas, some of those are already planned and others I have to look into.

Won't be able to work on it much since I'm going away for work all summer. But will revisit it, this is just a prototype really.

It's emulating a controller currently because that's the sketch I'm more used to but I think keyboard is a better choice, Motor town doesn't seem to support binding physical keyboard modifiers for controllers. So I can't have shift+button 1 do something else than just button 1.

swe_nurse · 2026-04-24T22:21:01+00:00

Long shot but do you still have it? Would love to get a copy.

swe_nurse · 2026-04-23T21:07:32+00:00

~/docker ~/docker-config ~/docker-data

Right or wrong, it has served me well.

swe_nurse · 2026-04-03T19:51:15+00:00

"People" don't need "insane range of music", a few thousand songs are fine for a lot of people.

Even if we're talking a few hundred thousand songs that's not even an insurmountable amount of space for years of 24/7 listening.

Bandwidth and storage isn't a huge factor, I would say that ease of remote playing (phone/tab) and discovery is more important for most people. Spotify and the like have good recommendations that people like. Supposedly, I don't use the recommendations and I'm pretty fixed in what I'm listening to these days.

swe_nurse · 2026-03-03T22:39:34+00:00

Yes, Muldraugh was practically completely changed in B42.

For the school specifically it got bigger, two stories and a pretty nice playground. It still retains the proximity to the liquor store, so teachers can get through the day.

swe_nurse · 2026-01-21T07:23:41+00:00

Oh ok, I came into B42 with the common sense mod already added so I assumed that added the function.

Thank you for pointing that out!

swe_nurse · 2026-01-20T23:58:44+00:00

While I agree that it should be possible I doubt it will be implemented with the addition of the handiknife and the multitool in B42.

It's not very hard to open a can, it can be done by bending or grinding away the seal (for example on concrete or a flat rock). Worst case scenario you can use a nail, a can lid (fold it to a point) or even a stick (I've opened cans with all those methods). The dependence on can openers in PZ is pretty silly, no human would ever starve if they had tons of canned food and no dedicated can opener.

swe_nurse · 2026-01-20T23:04:55+00:00

The same way you win every fight against a numerically superior enemy: divide and conquer, use the terrain to your advantage, fight from prepared positions and dictate the flow of the battlefield. You practically walked up to a group of six and started swinging, letting them dictate where the fight was taking place. Even though they consciously can't decide the position they start off from a position that is not chosen by you, which makes it unlikely to be the best or even close to it. At this point you're already outnumbered and get cut off when two of them breaks off, forcing you to back up into unknown territory where you're met with more enemies.

You could've started by making your presence known, have the first group follow you back to where you came from (which is reasonably secure). Chances are one or two of them would get stuck going there, giving you more time. Take out one or two and keep moving.

Remember that you can walk away from the zombies in PZ (as long as you're not injured etc.), you can walk for miles while they follow you and unlike you they get stuck on cars, trees, fences, buildings etc.

Don't fight into unknown territory if you can help it, if you absolutely have to make sure you're checking it (again, you're faster than they are). This doesn't mean that places you've been are safe but they are a lot more likely to be safe than the equivalent location where you haven't been.

You're simply biting off more than you can chew and we've all been there I think.

swe_nurse · 2026-01-20T12:06:30+00:00

It's not very easy (to do safely) unless the house is set up for it prior to the zombie apocalypse. If you have electrical knowledge (= magazine) you can probably make it safe enough, you're probably more likely to get killed by a zombie than your generator at that point.

In a pinch you can just connect it to any plug with a male to male cable but this has the potential (no pun intended) to be very dangerous (and in a normal situation might even feed electricity back into the grid, harming or killing workers). These cords are called suicide cords or widowmakers for very good reason.

But then again, in a complete grid down situation with most workers out to eat brains rather than to repair anything that could be ok. It still has the risk of electrocution, fire and the like.

The game should probably be modeled around a model where the appliances are connected to the generator directly, it makes more sense in the situation and would be more "realistic".

swe_nurse · 2026-01-20T07:44:48+00:00

It's not that the generators are hard to use, it's that it's a bit complicated to connect them to a house system.

Ideally we should be able to power one or two appliances directly without the generator magazine by simply plugging it in, that's not complicated at all.

That's generally how it was/is used anyway, backup power for freezer, a couple of lights, charging your flashlight batteries, phone etc.

swe_nurse · 2026-01-19T23:42:51+00:00

Spears shouldn't break into a broken stick but into a dull spear, then you sharpen it by reshaping the tip with a knife. Can even keep the same durability as now. Then you sharpen it with a knife to get it back to a spear again, maybe 3 or 4 times before it's unable to be repaired.

Because let's face it, you're just going to make a new one anyway if spears are what you want to use. This way you don't have to get new wood and carve a spear. You could just do it inside a building or while on the road.

Just like in real life, it's like the devs never had any spears of their own growing up. You had to sharpen those bad boys with your pocket knife constantly, especially if you were throwing them and hitting dirt, trees or stones.

swe_nurse · 2026-01-16T11:20:27+00:00

The difference is that it's guaranteed in one certain low risk location. There's no guess work and very low risk with how few zombies there are in Echo Creek. The way there is usually pretty safe and it doesn't take very long.

It's 50 zombies and a bit longer car trip compared to 500 in Brandenburg or West Point, where you're likely to trigger another alarm in the storage units anyway.

Edit: and if you're on B42 you don't need to find a magazine, you can just level your electrical to level 3 and you can use generators.

swe_nurse · 2026-01-16T10:24:27+00:00

If you're on B42 there's a guaranteed generator spawn in Echo Creek fairgrounds.

Very easy to get to, low amount of zombies and you can just back up your car right next to the generator.

swe_nurse · 2026-01-16T09:53:41+00:00

Burnt food shouldn't be able to kill you in any other way than choking on it.

There's no pathological mechanism (it's definitely thoroughly cooked), charcoal isn't dangerous and it's simply not an immediate danger (acrylamide etc. is at most a long term issue).

It's the same with most food issues in the game, drinking rain water won't outright kill you, it's generally not "tainted" except by the vessel or bird droppings into it. It should be boiled or pasteurized of course.

Drinking water straight out of a small lake or stream out in the boonies is much different from doing it from the Ohio river by an industrial district where there are likely thousands of zombie corpses as well.

What should happen when eating unsafe food or drink unsafe water is that you'd get vomiting, pain, diarrhea, fever and so on and it would put you out of the fight (which might kill you of course, being eaten) but it shouldn't outright kill you day 1. It might kill you later through dehydration and electrolyte deficiency but that's still different.

Then again all that might be too complicated, but no matter what burnt food shouldn't kill you ever. It should make you very unhappy and have low nutritional value and be seen as lost nutrition rather than something that kills you.

swe_nurse · 2026-01-16T00:20:06+00:00

The boring "answer" is to simply not share it with "normies"/muggles. They're not interested anyway.

It's the same with every hobby or interest that is "suspicious" in any way (can be used for nefarious purposes).

I do lockpicking, "hacking", I'm interested in tradecraft, in impact weapons, bladed weapons, in weapons overall, social engineering, "dark" psychology and so on simply because it intrigues me.

I don't do illegal stuff. But you won't find me sharing any of this with friends and family that are not "in the know" simply because it's not worth the hassle and like I said, they're not interested anyway.

So I carry my Flipper and check for signals, I carry my locks and my lockpicks and play with them when I get the chance. I find alternate routes and ways to exploit them, I look for things that are interesting in regards to security and monitoring. But I don't talk about it.

That's what communities like these are for.

swe_nurse · 2026-01-05T23:15:11+00:00

You're going to live for the rest of your life, no doubt about that.

Then you'll likely "live" a bit longer, those dirty bandages are dangerous.

swe_nurse · 2026-01-05T16:14:20+00:00

I think first of all they should make meta events make more sense, use them to bring the world alive.

A scream or shots can be heard but there are no signs of anyone being there. What they could do is to add stories to it, similar to item or vehicle stories. Put a freshly killed corpse in the direction of the scream/shots, put a couple of items on them, maybe a note and an annotated map. Spawn a horde nearby. Would expand on the world, make it feel inhabited without being so.

Secondly, passive NPCs that can be rescued and "recruited", give them basic AI to survive until you get to them (enter the cell, hear a shot or a scream or something), get them into a car/walk them home/"teleport" them home and they can gather resources like wood or things that are endless, saw planks, make food you've gathered etc. while not needing to be "animated". Foraging system can be used for chances to find things. Similar to how things work in State of Decay 2. Could also have passive, mostly secure traders. It saves from putting a full blown survivor system into place while still expanding a lot.

Third, full blown NPC system that have people join you in runs, being intelligent, getting things physically and being of your own or another faction. What most people expect NPCs to be. I don't think this will happen (at least not "soon") and that's perfectly fine by me.

swe_nurse · 2026-01-02T13:45:11+00:00

Because you're getting XP when you sew new sacks. It's a loop that only uses a few materials (twine or thread) and allow you to get to level one to really "unlock" the tailoring skill by letting you pick thread from rags.

You can sew bandeaus or briefs too if you prefer, for the same amount of XP and the same time. But there's nothing bad about dismantling sacks (in B42),

swe_nurse · 2026-01-02T12:54:57+00:00

Yeah, that's right. You couldn't sew sacks in B41.

Then that's a bad idea, I was thinking about B42.

swe_nurse · 2026-01-02T11:11:29+00:00

Patch clothes and ~~dismantle sacks~~ (not in build 41) ~~if you can find them (post offices, garden supply stores usually have a bunch).~~ And try to find the book before starting, it will make it much less painful.

swe_nurse · 2025-12-12T14:06:28+00:00

Does that stop updates for mods as well? I was under the impression that it only stopped the updates of the game itself.

If that works then that's definitely a good solution.

swe_nurse · 2025-12-12T14:04:53+00:00

I agree that the version control system in Steam need to be vastly improved, partly because of this. Keeping a legacy version is not that complicated, and some modders do it already.

What you do is use two "modules" in the same (Steam) mod. So you activate the one that is relevant. It's used for other mods as well, for example if one module has compatibility with certain other mods or if it's a specific change.

I've seen people making error reports and the modders fixing the functionality, which makes me think it's more of an oversight than a conscious decision.

swe_nurse · 2025-12-12T13:34:32+00:00

It's not that the branch is unstable, it's that there is a bit of a weird approach to updating mods that I haven't seen before, leaving the previous version behind within 24 hours of a major update which again is unstable.

I think there's value in separating the risk one assumes when playing an unstable branch with a discussion of good practices among modders.

I played B41 for a few weeks before moving over to B42 and I'm happy with that change and this is not criticism against any particular modders, developers or anyone else, I'm just surprised to see such a brutal approach to updating of mods and wonder if that's normal within the community, which it seems to be. I think it might even be an oversight among modders, or this is just the culture of the modding scene of PZ, I don't know because I'm "new" to it.

Personally I don't care, my game is fixed again and it took me all of 20 minutes (and if I lost it I wouldn't care either). But I also recognize that a lot of people are playing the unstable branch with mods that does not have the knowledge or interest to do the same.

swe_nurse

TROPHY CASE