Addressed to the people who we like to call as devs and the people who assist them called mods...

Dear people who are in charge,

Please do realize that you have single handedly killed the game, and I strongly advise to restore the old chat as we came to love and know it before its too late; (and I hope it still isn't...)

This is not a mocking but rather a last ditched effort to save the game that I've learned to love; not because of the game itself nor the people who run it... but for the people who I now call friends in game, and for the sake of my clan as well...

I don't care if the rest of the other players will spam this thread as long as a see at least a wee bit of action from you devs or at least some concern of reason from the mods... with that said I hope I made sense and I hope this post will not fall into deaf ears...

Thank you~

The new chat is rly wierd

We have launched a new and better chat which greatly reduces the lag issues experiences at peaks during the day as old chat simply couldnt keep up anymore.

The new chat supports multi chat rooms, more features, the ability to see who is online, better security among several other benefits. You can activate the new chat clicking chat in the footer/bottom of the game and it should show up in a separate window. 

Unfortunately the old homecooked chat system could no longer keep with server stress and rewriting the entire system would take time away from new gameplay features thus the update was unavoidable if we are to keep a chat available for the game.

http://blog.zombiepandemic.com/Blog...ystem.aspx

We see the new chat as rather a nuisance coz we have to pull up a new window just get in the chat, other than that, the new chat hasn't got any clan channels, how do you suppose we can support our new members and coordinate clan activities? And help the newbies who don't know much about the game? I think they don't even know how to pull up the chat window itself..?

How will the game survive without the new players? -_-

Hell, I could get used to the new chat, if clan stuff was added in. But if you're going to pull a move like this, why not just go all the way and host your own IRC stuff? This is basically baby IRC anyway. It would allow for an easier way to make new channels, and an easier PM system, as well as a memo system.

No, my main problem right now is with stats. I'm level 277. I have more than maxed out most of my skills. I can no longer get any skill points for leveling. What the hell is the bloody point in playing now? I've done all the flaming missions, I've explored all the bloody maps, I've killed over 37000 zombies, I know I recently had all the journal entries but that might have changed, and I've personally corrected almost every single grammatical error I could find on the map. There ain't nothing left for me to do, now that there's no reason to grind anymore. I have the best gear in the game, with the best weapon.

And when map 4 comes out, if it's anything like the jump between map 2 and map 3, no one will be able to survive it except a few of the super high players. The same goes for the rest of the maps. I assumed we would be able to get to, like, level 800 or something, before we were supposed to hit map 8. It's damn near impossible to kill groups of 50 zeds in map 3 if you aren't a high level melee player or someone who excels in hit and run tactics, which wastes a lot of SP.

Another problem I've had, and heard a lot about, is looting. It has been heavily nerfed, and is getting really hard for newbs to do much. If you can't find gear to sell or use yourself, and missions can only help you so much, the game will eventually get unplayable unless you roll melee so you don't have to use up ammo that you can't afford to restock or waste time finding.

And the movement costs are too high for some people, but I can somewhat understand why that was done. Still, I've heard a lot of complaints about it. 4 SP seems like way too much a cost of moving. If nothing costs 1 SP anymore but stepping inside or outside and killing zeds, why not just rework the entire SP system so that most stuff costs 1 or 2 SP, but you get less SP a day? Not a perfect outcome, but at least any newbs we get wouldn't wonder why it takes them so much to move a bloody square.

Also, I know it's expensive, but it would be nice if you found someone good at English so they can go over your stuff before you post it. I don't know how your whole business works, so maybe that's impossible, but you really shouldn't have to rely on the players to proofread your work. That's just my opinion, though. I bet a lot of people don't read any of that stuff anyway, so I don't guess it matters that much.

I like the idea of ZP, but it's starting to go downhill. I have seen a lot of online games crash. I rode the tides of Nexus War from its lofty beginnings to its low and ominous downfall. I sailed the winds of Gokrida for years before it sunk under the weight of its own opulence - or rather, its lack thereof. I hitched a ride with Nexus Clash and oversaw much of its beginnings, and bore witness to its slow stagnation due to corruption and incompetence. I'd hate to say I was with ZP from near its beginning and rode it down to its grave as well.

For the devs who are still unaware or atleast is idiotic enough for not noticing what's happening... PLEASE DO LISTEN TO YOUR PLAYERS~!!
We do love ZP (You're creation) we really do, but we're just dumb founded of your lame updates that was supposed make the game "Better" but ended up the other way around...

We care for the game, we just don't understand my our feed backs and other related threads almost always fall on deaf ears...
Please do realize the scope of this issue... we want zp to have a future as a game and its future players...

Before its too late~

Aye, I've already heard a few people saying they're pretty much done, many of them experienced players. I'm not entirely certain I'm far from joining them myself. With there being nothing for me to do, I can't really see any more reason to keep playing. Even if my earning of skill points wasn't restricted at level 200, I'd still max out everything soon enough and have no more reason to keep leveling. I would hate to see another game die because the devs don't care to listen to the people that are actually playing the game, and instead listening solely to the plan they have in their heads of how the game 'should be.'

Yeah, I have already voiced my opinion on the idiotic changes to sp use and the in my opinion, ridiculous way that the loot change was handled.

But this is too much for me, most of what I enjoyed about the game, the way it was more casual and easy going than a lot of the other zombie games out there, is already gone, but the destruction of the last great part of the game, the social side of it, is too much for me.

By removing chat from the main screen you have made it harder to stay in contact with the rest of the playerbase while playing, instead we have to switch between the game itself and chat, which is irritating, plus, because chat is in a small button at the bottom of the screen, its going to be very unlikely that newbies will know where to go to ask for help, and since chat is so awkard to use, I doubt most vets will bother paying attention to chat while they play the game.

The only reason I had to keep playing was the fun I had with my clanmates, and the ability to bitch about the changes with them.

With that gone, I don't see any reason to continue playing, and I have already cut back a lot on my playtime a great deal as it is.

As for the skill cap, well, its insane, and not just for us players.

You do realise you would have to be an idiot to buy premium now right?

If you start today it will take you a while to reach the cap, sure, but who cares, the higher level players aren't going anywhere, might aswell take your time to level.

The worst thing is, I know that some of these changes have been made because of a small group of players, the "hardcore" gamers that seem to want every single zombie game to the same ridiculous grindfest.

I guess its the fault of people like me for not checking the forums everyday for polls. its insane that ten or twenty people can decide the future of the game, while the thousands that signed up for zp as it used to be are told to stuff it.

I hope you guys realise you are ruining a unique game with all this, but considering the response to the previous changes, you seem to have a "vision" of where the game should go.

I'm afraid that at the moment, that vision will end up with you guys broke, while a few diehards beg you not to shut the game down, at least not until you add in the pooping mechanic where if you don't wipe your ass properly you use more sp to move.

Game getting too hard? we're quitting. Stats got nerfed? we're quitting. Looting got a timer? we're quitting. Chatroom got no clan room? we're quitting. New hunger/famine feature? we're quitting. New minimap is too big, too small, too much yellow, not enough yellow? we're quitting.

Well I am not quitting. So that's ONE person who can live wiith the changes. Sorry if you can't live with the fact that this is a beta. Sorry if you can't take changes in stride and adapt. Sorry if you can't wait a few days for the clan chatrooms to show up and pour drama on the forums and chat. Sorry if having a pop up chatbox outsde the browser is too difficult over a pop up chatbox inside the browser. Sorry if you don't have the patience to wait until your demands for more maps, more monsters, PvP, trading and other features are implemented. Sorry if you think SP cpsts are too high, premium is too expensive and clicking surveys is too much work to get it for free. Sorry if, like Queen, "you want it all and you want it now".

You will be missed. Goodbye Moriartys. Send me some negative waves sometime.

Granted, the new system isn't quite there yet... a good solution for clan chat still needs to be added for example, but give it a little while and see how it feels.

Then you should have waited until the chat was ready for public use before springing it upon the game.

It's called alpha version and beta version, and then there's the release version. While the new chat has some good features, it is simply not in release version; it was in beta at best, and that should have been recognized.

Look, devs, you have many skills, but its obvious you don't know anything about programming on a professional level. Please, I urge you, please find a skilled professional programmer to assist in the development. Someone who understands beta and release versions. Someone who knows how to isolate and fix bugs. Someone who knows how to optimize code to save you bandwidth. And someone who knows what programming alternatives to look at to solve a problem.

I am a professional programmer, and would offer my services, but I already have and have been turned down, so I'm not going to do that again. Besides, the direction the game is heading is so ludicrously bad I wouldn't want to work on this game at this point even if you paid me double my normal rates. I mean, stat caps in an RPG; are you serious? If you wanted to make a survival horror game, you shouldn't have made an RPG. RPGs are about gaining power and taking on greater and greater challenges. They are not about sitting around sucking forever and ever.

This game still has great potential, but the devs are letting their flaws overshadow their talents, by putting their fingers in their ears and insisting on using the wrong source material for an *RPG* game. The results: (1) a downhill slide, (2) many many unhappy players, and (3) as the unhappy players leave more and more.... no more game.

Posted By Spiderjerusalem on 18-08-2011 01:05 PM
Game getting too hard? we're quitting. Stats got nerfed? we're quitting. Looting got a timer? we're quitting. Chatroom got no clan room? we're quitting. New hunger/famine feature? we're quitting. New minimap is too big, too small, too much yellow, not enough yellow? we're quitting.

Well I am not quitting. So that's ONE person who can live wiith the changes.

Yeah, you can live with the changes, but why would you want to?

The fun has been systematically cut out of the game, and future plans look to make the game even less fun than it is now. Why spend your time in such a tortured environment where there are so many other games and activities out there?

Just my two hundred cents.

Posted By maxwell_hauser on 18-08-2011 01:21 PM

Granted, the new system isn't quite there yet... a good solution for clan chat still needs to be added for example, but give it a little while and see how it feels.

Then you should have waited until the chat was ready for public use before springing it upon the game.
It's called alpha version and beta version, and then there's the release version. While the new chat has some good features, it is simply not in release version; it was in beta at best, and that should have been recognized.

Look, devs, you have many skills, but its obvious you don't know anything about programming on a professional level. Please, I urge you, please find a skilled professional programmer to assist in the development. Someone who understands beta and release versions. Someone who knows how to isolate and fix bugs. Someone who knows how to optimize code to save you bandwidth. And someone who knows what programming alternatives to look at to solve a problem.

I am a professional programmer, and would offer my services, but I already have and have been turned down, so I'm not going to do that again. Besides, the direction the game is heading is so ludicrously bad I wouldn't want to work on this game at this point even if you paid me double my normal rates. I mean, stat caps in an RPG; are you serious? If you wanted to make a survival horror game, you shouldn't have made an RPG. RPGs are about gaining power and taking on greater and greater challenges. They are not about sitting around sucking forever and ever.

This game still has great potential, but the devs are letting their flaws overshadow their talents, by putting their fingers in their ears and insisting on using the wrong source material for an *RPG* game. The results: (1) a downhill slide, (2) many many unhappy players, and (3) as the unhappy players leave more and more.... no more game.

This game HAS potential, and it'll bound to have problems; but but creating another problem isn't the the way to solve an older problem (which was the prevailing case of most of the other issues...)A lot of players had on the past volunteered to offer solutions on various problems on the game... but apparently those suggestions (and possible solutions...) largely fell on deaf ears...

Posted By Spiderjerusalem on 18-08-2011 01:05 PM
Game getting too hard? we're quitting. Stats got nerfed? we're quitting. Looting got a timer? we're quitting. Chatroom got no clan room? we're quitting. New hunger/famine feature? we're quitting. New minimap is too big, too small, too much yellow, not enough yellow? we're quitting.

Well I am not quitting. So that's ONE person who can live wiith the changes. Sorry if you can't live with the fact that this is a beta. Sorry if you can't take changes in stride and adapt. Sorry if you can't wait a few days for the clan chatrooms to show up and pour drama on the forums and chat. Sorry if having a pop up chatbox outsde the browser is too difficult over a pop up chatbox inside the browser. Sorry if you don't have the patience to wait until your demands for more maps, more monsters, PvP, trading and other features are implemented.

Sorry if you think SP cpsts are too high, premium is too expensive and clicking surveys is too much work to get it for free. Sorry if, like Queen, "you want it all and you want it now".

You will be missed. Goodbye Moriartys. Send me some negative waves sometime.

~it appears you weren't really paying attention to the previous issues... We're not Quitting, we're just really frustrated on where in which direction the game is currently going...

Yeah, you can live with the changes, but why would you want to?

The fun has been systematically cut out of the game, and future plans look to make the game even less fun than it is now. Why spend your time in such a tortured environment where there are so many other games and activities out there?

Because I enjoy a game that stresses survival and ability to adapt. Maybe that's why I don't have such a beef with new massive system changes, I see them as the environment changing around me and as a challenge to adapt, survive and excell in it. Just like in a zombie apocalypse.

~it appears you weren't really paying attention to the previous issues... We're not Quitting, we're just really frustrated on where in which direction the game is currently going...

Well people like to use the "Quitting", "players leaving, "game going under" buzzwords. Alot.

I understand your concern for the game, it shone clearly from your posts. I do, however, find your reasons for concern unjustified. Devs have already mentioned that clan chat isn't gone, merely not implemented yet. The pop up chat external is a minute unpleasantness at worst (to me it's an improvement). And new players will keep joining up and playing the game, even if there's no chat at all. So the whole thing seems blown out of proportion to me.

PS: Should devs have waiting until clan chat was fully fleshed out before deploying the new chat? Yes. Did they have valid reasons for deploying it too soon? Mmaybe. Maybe they got to cut on the bandwidth bill by deploying chat a week too early. I dunno.

Some great posts in this thread, Riana, Navarone and Maryheane.

But I would not hold my breath.

The development staff have made it clear about making the game their way and not doing what its customers want.

I'd like to thank the Devs and somewhat the majority of the mods for the seemingly lack of appreciation for their players who play on this game, and treating us a like "Minority" apart from the seemingly non existent "Majority" that they claim who really calls the shots in this game...

*** Deleted flaming part of this post. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but please respect the forum rules which applies for everyone.***

Wow, first time I see a post being deleted. Or a part of it. Considering how mean some people can be around here, I doubt May insulted someone in any way.

Will be waiting for the clan chat channel. Tried to create new rooms but it seems we can't do that. Do we need permission?

Posted By Mayrheane on 22-08-2011 08:00 AM

I'd like to thank the Devs and somewhat the majority of the mods for the seemingly lack of appreciation for their players who play on this game, and treating us a like "Minority" apart from the seemingly non existent "Majority" that they claim who really calls the shots in this game...

*** Deleted flaming part of this post. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but please respect the forum rules which applies for everyone.***
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Posted By Mina92 on 22-08-2011 09:34 AM
Wow, first time I see a post being deleted. Or a part of it. Considering how mean some people can be around here, I doubt May insulted someone in any way.
Will be waiting for the clan chat channel. Tried to create new rooms but it seems we can't do that. Do we need permission?

Did I get to tickle some not so funny bones..? Coz the situation really forced me to do something drastic coz of the lack of action... on the said matters...

I'm sure your funny bone tickle was what got devs to open up the option of user created rooms, a message on the old chatbox pointing down at the new chat link and killing off sounds by default in chat. All in... 6 hours or less? And NOT the fact that devs and mods had already stated (repeatedly) that new features were going to be implemented soon. (and some old ones were gonna get brought back).


Be sure to tickle their funny bone some more so that the already announced measures to create permanent clan chatrooms can be implemented as well.


PS: "Hey that spider guy's always stickin' up for the devs!"
Sorry if I think that polite suggestions and constructive criticism regarding problems and features of ZP gets more attention/results from the devs than the drama queen approach.

PPS: Foul language get more attention too. Just not the good kind.

Posted By Spiderjerusalem on 22-08-2011 03:20 PM
I'm sure your funny bone tickle was what got devs to open up the option of user created rooms, a message on the old chatbox pointing down at the new chat link and killing off sounds by default in chat. All in... 6 hours or less? And NOT the fact that devs and mods had already stated (repeatedly) that new features were going to be implemented soon. (and some old ones were gonna get brought back).
Be sure to tickle their funny bone some more so that the already announced measures to create permanent clan chatrooms can be implemented as well.
PS: "Hey that spider guy's always stickin' up for the devs!"
Sorry if I think that polite suggestions and constructive criticism regarding problems and features of ZP gets more attention/results from the devs than the drama queen approach.
PPS: Foul language get more attention too. Just not the good kind.

For nobody is a secret you're paid by devs, mate. Sorry.

Well then I guess the devs must be on the right track if there are so many players signing up for premium that devs can afford to pay lil' ol' me to just spam forums all day.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it!


PS: There was a time when I got paid to speak my mind. Alas those days are gone and now I do it for free.

PPS: At least Mayr (and I) have the guts to show our faces along with our opinions, "Anonymous".

Posted By Spiderjerusalem on 23-08-2011 01:00 PM
Well then I guess the devs must be on the right track if there are so many players signing up for premium that devs can afford to pay lil' ol' me to just spam forums all day.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
PS: There was a time when I got paid to speak my mind. Alas those days are gone and now I do it for free.
PPS: At least Mayr (and I) have the guts to show our faces along with our opinions, "Anonymous".

Killing the social side, and stop character progression is a good way to develop a mmorpg u think?
Just accepting whatever the devs does with the game it the way to go?

Don't get me wrong,i think that the devs have tons of great ideas.
But content like crafting and stuff won't save a game that u cant develop in. Period.

U are an intelligent guy spider, but eating whatever ends up on your plate isn't always the best idea

Killing the social side? For crying out loud. You had a chat before. You have chat now. You had clanrooms before. You have clanrooms now. Kindly tell me how the devs are "killing the social side". You can't be in the lobby and in the clanroom at the same time? No, you can't. That's a limitation of the new chatroom. I understand why people don't like it, but there's nothing to be done about it. Old chatroom ain't coming back. Live with it.


Character progression is on another thread, I think I already spoke there as well.


I don't go along with everything the devs suggest/implement. Home made weapons vs trading. 72 hours vs 24. HP nerfing for only half the players. I complained about these things and will complain of others I don't like. Hell I already complained that I want yellow smilies and the old white on black chatroom look back. But maybe my complaints fly under the radar because I suggest solutions/options for them at the same time and don't pour in the "OMG ZP is over because cowboy boots are premium, everyone's leaving!!!!" drama by the truckload.

When i say killing the social side i mean that people don't like the new chat so they won't even use it.
When people stops using the chat, the social aspekt breaks down.

Silly people are silly.

Nothing silly about it.

Much silly about it, as players have no real reason to use the chat <.<

ZP is a game with a great great quantity of death time, in about 20 30 minute at most you have done for the day (with Premium).
The older chat made the death time more appealing (and the actuall game lasting) make player look the chat topic and interact with it during play and death time, make easier help the new player and socialize with the other. Sure it was not perfect but was handy.
Now really few people use the external since is much less user friendly than before (play or look the chat in waithing of an interesting topic/active chatter).
I can't suggest how solve the tecnichal issue that the old chat give (im not a programmer or stuff), but this new chat make the game for a big share of the player much less appealing and for the new one harder to join in, and this is a serius problem with a risk of loosing a nice share of the player.
If this is a acceptable loos for the dev no more can bè said so it bè, if its not maybe a step beck of some sort is nice.

I would have preferred the Devs went with an IRC-friendly client where the channels could be accessed remotely by the program or method of your choice. It could be controlled, moderated... probably more reliable in the long run.
The chat, embedded in the webpage, was inefficient and frustrating (changing pages wiped backlog and had to reconnect) and obviously created an unnecessary load on the server (for those who missed that part). Having it in a separate window/application is the obvious choice. Of course, that's putting aside the fact that the chat content itself was a sad spectacle of youthful zoomanity. What a lilliputian complaint to threaten to quit over.

Ideally in the future there will be an in-game radio system with a limited number of transmits per day, which will naturally keep it to emergency calls or strategic messages as opposed to alt-chat spam. I'm sure I'm not the only one who flipped that "Radio" switch expecting to be able to listen for broadcasts before I realized it was a creepy ambiance music.

IRC has bot problems written all over it. It's 10x less secure than the current chat (and no, I'm not saying current chat is bulletproof, I'm saying it's far safer). Current chat is already controlled and moderated. The upside of it being you don't have to be an IRC command guru to get rid of unpleasant people/bots/exploits. Which would be a necessity if we'd gone the IRC route.

Mind you I originally sent the devs a suggestion that they implement mibbit as the new chat software, which I felt was cheap, easy and mainstream (with support). But now I'm very glad they didn't take me up on that.

Now, if they would only go black background and white font....