I have this problem whenever I start a new game on Project Zomboid. I call it the death spiral. I spawn into a house but the loot containers don't have any useful weapons. So, I walk outside to go searching, and inevitably attract the attention of some zombies. This means I can't stop to search other buildings, so I have to keep walking… which attracts more zombies, which means I have even less time to search, and so on. If only there was some way to guarantee the presence of certain objects and resources. We're not quite there yet, but the new Project Zomboid update for unstable build 42 offers some small control over the randomized maps.
I like Muldraugh the most. It's not too busy, but it's not too quiet either, and you have the Mass-Genfac building on the north of town where you can normally find the almighty sledgehammer. New for unstable build 42, survival game a lot easier. Now, speaking to PCGamesN, The Indie Stone confirms precisely what another new feature means for PZ.
After the latest update, when you go to the spawn screen you may have noticed a new 'map seed' option at the bottom. In a lot of other games, including the monolithic Minecraft, map seeds are essentially codes or s for creating specific maps with specific characteristics. Let's say you spawn into a map that has a lot of ore. If you copy and paste the seed code the next time you want to start a new map, you'll once again get a map that has a lot of ore.
Project Zomboid map seeds aren't comprehensive – they don't dictate every random element. But if you copy and reuse them, you can guarantee that certain elements will reappear. I asked The Indie Stone precisely what is governed by the map seed codes.
"The seed determines many aspects of the game world," the developer says. "It defines the generation outside the original map, including the location of trees, grass (in the future), and underground areas. When copying the seed from another game, that will copy over those elements, like the basement type that was generated.
"So you can use it to generate some of the same elements generated from one game to another. It doesn't define or include other randomized elements, like car stories, house stories or anything like that."
If you've ever been driving along in Zomboid and found two police cars surrounded by zombie cops, or an upturned car that's burnt out, that's a car story. Alternatively, you might have broken into a house and found loads of loose dollar notes on the floor and empty beer cans, indicating that the now zombified inhabitants were in the middle of a poker game. That's a house story. These elements don't copy over – but if you've found a really great basement hideout, and want to reuse it again and again, you're in luck.
Perhaps this could mean an expanded map seed system in the future – maybe in later Zomboid builds, there will be ways to guarantee other elements in your new spawn. Knowing where to find survivor houses would definitely be useful, and consistent generator spawns would also help. At the same time, you don't want to make the zombie game too easy on yourself. We'll just have to see.
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