General-ish Feedback

Feedback/Feature Requests
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Hi y’all, my name is Auto and I have completely unsolicited Opinions (and feedback) on GenZero.

A few notes: I first started playing GZ around the middle of October 2020, and didn’t really follow much about the game before that. As such, I don’t really have a whole lot of context for what the game was like before then (combat, inventory system, etc). So read this with that in mind.

I’m a PC player. I play primarily solo and occasionally with a friend, I have only one character around level 24 at time of writing, I’ve put in ~80 hours of playtime, and I love using bulletpoints to organize my thoughts so much that I horribly overuse them.

So without any further ado and in no particular order of importance…

Hacking (mostly the spec)

  • Hacked bots are too slow to engage other bots or in some cases simply don’t engage at all (usually when hacking from stealth)
    • Hacked bots should probably go into a kind of “turbo aggression” mode for the duration, ideally engaging/being engaged by nearby bots within 1-3 seconds; having less wasted time during a hack will make the spec feel more useful
  • Hacking needs an audio cue for successful hacks, failed hacks, and when the cooldown is over.
    • Primarily because when playing as a client in another’s game, hack sparks don’t usually appear. also, when the effect does work, it’s hard to see the sparks through tech vision
  • After a hack runs out bots know exactly where you are, killing any kind of sneaky approach
    • Maybe instead of knowing where you are post-hack it puts bots into the orange “searching” alert level
  • Runners and seekers should have 100% hack chance
    • Hacking already has a hilariously long cooldown so it just feels like a huge waste when a hack fails on something small like a runner or seeker.
    • Seriously, the hack chances feel low, even on hunters. Tanks and harvesters I understand being low, but 60% for a prototype hunter? I may as well not even try!
    • Maybe if a hack fails the cooldown is much shorter? 5-10 seconds?
  • Hacked bots ought to grant experience from getting kills or by being killed
    • No real justification for this one, it just seems like a waste of xp when a bot dies via hacking
  • Why is this the only spec that has a chance to not DO anything
  • Can you guess what specialization I went for first?

Respec

  • I know, I know. This is probably one of, if not the most, requested features for the game
  • Being able to try new skills respects my time as a player
    • I’m a busy person! I can’t say that I enjoy it when a game pretty much says to me “You put points into skills that aren’t useful to you, huh? Oh, you wanna fix it? Sucks to be you, start all over”
  • Respec only outside of combat and at a safehouse
    • using a token (dropped from tank/harv/rival) granting one (1) respec
    • or cost one tungsten or other rare material
    • or maybe just for free? I dunno. it’s an idea
  • I’d have more Great Opinions on the other skills/specializations but the idea of having to create a new character and level them up all over again just to try other specs and skills (half of which don’t look very useful to be honest) is just exhausting

Bigger items stash and materials stash

  • I don’t really have an argument for this one, I just want more space.
    • Please. I’m a hoarder when I play games with a loot system so I end up spending more time than I would like having to manage my inventory and stash.
    • I just wanna spend more time exploring/shooting and less time trying to cram three more fuel cells into my hoard.
  • Speaking of the inventory, why do the thumbnail icons for items have to load when scrolling? Is that an engine thing? Can y’all make it not do that please? It’s super distracting.

The Skill Tree

  • Spotting (Support-T3) should be stock
    • I don’t understand why this isn’t baked into the player.
    • THREE skill points just so I don’t have to do the “they’re over by the tree. not that tree. the other one” with my buddy
    • Or at least ought to be a tier 1 or 2 skill
  • Spotting Intel (Tech-T1) becoming a 1-point skill
    • I can’t imagine anyone using a valuable skillpoint just to see how far away a bot is.
    • Just combine the level 2 into the level 1
    • Having Spotting Intel as a two level skill isn’t breaking the game or anything. I just don’t see the purpose in the lvl2 part of the skill.

Co-op

  • Kills by allies ought to grant 50%-100% xp if you haven’t dealt damage to the bot
    • so it feels less like kills are being stolen
    • Could add a conditional to it so it only applies if you are within 100-150m of your ally or the bot in question
  • I’d like to be able to see my ally’s health
    • Lets me know if I should put down a paramedic bag, or put the pressure on/throw flares at enemies to give my buddy time to heal
    • Also I’m nosy :^)
  • A “Friends Only” lobby privacy option
    • Just so my buddy doesn’t have to keep manually inviting me to his game any time my connection acts up

Other Gameplay (or “Where Most Feedback Goes Because I Only Had, Like, Three Coherent Thoughts”)

  • Teleporting enemies
    • Let’s say I’m taking cover in a barn during a firefight with a group of bots. all the doors are closed except for the one door I am shooting out of. if I turn around and there is a hunter or a runner somehow in the barn with me, I don’t think “ah, I have made a tactical mistake and have allowed myself to be flanked” what I’m actually thinking is “ah. the bots are cheating”
      • I understand that this is probably some kind of pathing failsafe/resolver; like [if RUNNER CanPathToTarget = FALSE then move RUNNER to any open space near PLAYER] or whatever, but it just feels like artificial difficulty instead of me the player making a mistake or bad decision
  • Numerical values for weapon stats
    • Numerical values for damage, accuracy, recoil, RoF, range before bullet drop kicks in, etc
      • The more information you make available to your players on the tools available to them, the easier it is for player to make meaningful decisions on how to go about playing your game
    • Payday 2 did this relatively early in its patch cycle to great effect.
      • (Though I understand that PD2 and GZ are two wildly different games and that since PD2 had an enormous selection of weapons it practically required the player to have accurate method of comparison to make loadout choices)
  • Scoped aim sensitivity
    • When aiming down sights with a scope, the sensitivity of moving the reticle is not relative to the scope’s zoom level and ends up feeling very sluggish
      • at 200% sensitivity on a 1-4x Rifle Scope, at max zoom (4x) the sensitivity feels mostly fine; a little fast actually, but fine. However if I zoom out to 1x, or any graduation in between, the reticle feels as though I’m dragging it through molasses.
      • Even the x2 red dot sight has this issue
        -Maybe this is just a keyboard and mouse problem, I dunno.
  • Inventory sorting
    • It’d be nice to have an auto-sort button for the inventory and stash
    • Sorting weapons by type. ammo by weapon type and then caliber. items by healing item, throwable, placeable, etc. Attachments by weapon type then slot… you get the idea.
    • (I have OCD lol)
  • Expanding item equip slots
    • Maybe this is just me, but two of my four item slots are taken up by medkits and the binoculars, what I consider to be “essentials”.
    • The fact that I feel like I only really have two slots puts a damper on using most of the junk I find in the world
      • On controllers you could either map four more slots to double tapping or holding the dpad equipment keys. (Doubletap or hold could be an option, like the sidearm setting)
      • On Kb&M, you could map four more slots to 7 8 9 and - (or even do a doubletap/hold setting for 4-7 maybe)
  • Health displays actual points instead of as a percentage
    • Didn’t realize this was a thing until I invested points into the Health Amount skill
    • Makes it difficult to understand how much health I restore with medkits at a glance
      • i.e. at base health, a medkit restores 25%; with three health upgrades, it looks like it restores ~19%
    • Just… increase displayed max health by 10 for every point you put into Health Upgrade
  • First Aid Kits
    • Why are higher grade FAKs heavier? I don’t understand, specifically from a gameplay perspective.
      • There’s not really a point in carrying anything other than the Simple FAK due to how light and plentiful they are.
    • The Advanced First Aid Kit is a bit of a letdown, what with it being 4x heavier and only 3x the healing of a Simple FAK.
  • Network Disconnect popup
    • This is an entirely personal issue lol
    • My connection is very flaky at times, disconnecting and reconnecting every minute or so when the weather is bad, someone sneezes in North America, or just when God decides to punish me for my various transgressions.
    • This does result in the disconnect box to appear constantly, locking all inputs until I close it. Which isn’t great during firefights.
    • Can I get a toggle for the disconnect popup box? Or at least have it be some kind of UI element that appears during network trouble.
  • x2 Red Dot scope
    • Not gonna mince words here, the x2 Red Dot sight looks bad. It’s literally just a texture at 50% opacity.
      • Scopes are important to do well! I’m gonna be looking through the damn thing all the time!
    • Can there be some kind of glow to it? The dot is pretty difficult to see in low light. Though I don’t know how easily the Apex Engine will let you do that.
    • Also, from what I can glean, the Red Dot replaced an ACOG for whatever reason? Completely unrelated, just confused.

There were other things I wanted to say but I forgot what they were lol

I know I kinda just wrote a whole wall of text complaining about GZ, but I wouldn’t write all this nonsense if I didn’t genuinely enjoy the game.

Love, Auto

5 Likes
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uhhh… ermm… Hacking? :wink:

I am not agreeing nor disagreeing on any of the feedback you give. I like to play the game as it is presented, with all its strangeness, illogical, or annoying things, because that makes the game even more like real live for me where nothing is sure and everything can go in directions we don’t like. Coping with that adds to the emergence for me.

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I’m only going to reply about hacking in your post. I agree, and if you search the forum you’ll see that most everything you mentioned has been brought up before, one way or another.

As for

I’d argue Engineer is worse, a lot worse, in that regard.

I’m still hoping for a complete overhaul of all skills in the game, it’s long overdue.

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I agree with your points here wholeheartedly. It still exposes that skill tree I don’t use anymore, but initially picked myself! It was such an interesting concept that died quickly and just exposes another avenue of work needed. I like the way you present things and that you’ve specifically mentioned what feels off with an actual suggestion to what can be done.

Well, I can’t say I’m too happy about just respec as a button to be implemented, because it removes weight of decisions from the game, which so far has ruined what I enjoy, but I agree a solution should be created. Not that you can’t already start a new character and make your grind even slower (which I went through), because all the story is already done and makes progression extremely slow. I am very 50/50 on this solution, because even if there is a token system (an actual solution that isn’t a simple request to add a button), but how do you explain forgetting a skill?

I would rather not see an increase in stash. I get that hoarders play the game and I’m hoarder as well. I at least was. The inventory space you already are given and how much you can upgrade, how much you can store is MASSIVE. You can hold each type of gun with upgrades and plenty of ammo for said weapon as you carry around or switch between. There is no restriction on weapon playstyle and holding ammo. The one thing I can see taking up a lot of space that I’ve dropped is storing traps, but here’s a good tip to save space, since there’s a lot already -
Remove all propane tanks you store in there, because they’re extremely easy to get in bulk and also take tons of space you think you are missing.
Another good tip is recycling ammo past 1k-2k mark. I have guns with each ammo type that have 1k stored now. Used to have 2-3K… Just recycle it and you’ll eventually get crafting recipes for ammo types you might end up needing. Not that you actually do these days with the overabundance of resources, making the crafting itself redundant, but it’s a good solution on saving a good amount of space and slowly tear down that hoarder problem within yourself.

I know what inventory management you’re talking about and it’s less enjoyable than before with a grid that was a bit more fun, but less realistic. Now it’s a lot more realistic and narrow, so actually boring to manage resources, BUT by eliminating waste I’ve not run in to the hoarder issue at all anymore. I continue to not even get near the issue by only picking up ammo I need with the current guns on me, since my inventory holds the weapons and their appropriate ammo in amounts that I won’t be able to use up when switching to those.

A long paragraph for one specific request, but I guess you can see how much I care for that move not to be made. I’d rather see other options to be explored -

  • Scarcity of ammunition, which weighs down on the crafting component more
  • Restriction of space, which also weighs down on crafting + makes you recycle more
  • BOTH - Because I’d love it, but I can’t imagine that taking effect, since a lot of people don’t like to think about their inventories when fighting, they just like fighting.

Here I can partly agree it’s a bit strange, but just as strange is being able to accurately pinpoint a machine in a forest with your finger with calling out a specific distance. One way I could see this making a bit more sense is if there were another type of binoculars or scope module, because the way you already call out the machine when with a friend (well we use discord, so maybe not the perfect example), but we specifically communicate with words and describe the surroundings. It’s way more fun IMO, because it’s more considerate of the co-op ability to communicate and create synergy.

Pretty sound and good feedback here! :slight_smile: You’ll see me only talking in big words and long sentences in the sections that I have personally found issues in :smiley:

And here I will conclude that I don’t oppose too much further, but this is overall great! I didn’t want to leave on a negative note where I only disagree, but this mix of agree and disagree should be a good indicator that there are coherent (yes, they are) thoughts displayed with actual solutions instead of ‘just add this, it’ll be cool’ and it just provokes discussions with the ability to go point-by-point. A good read!

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Everything above has been covered over the past year in some form of another in the feedback / requests.

One thing I have thought of, and it’s been on my mind since the November update - and may be worth @Aesyle & @Zesiir even pushing this as well…

How about - a community inspired update. Where all the issues are all, finally collected in one place, and a member of the team deals directly with a forum moderator to get the actual issues addressed.

We’re not taking respec, or the Pontus Magnum - > but actual issues since day 1 that are still to be addressed in a community led update.

2 Likes
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A good idea, getting all the main issues together in a direct and simple way, without any type of requests, a Fix for what still needs fixing.
No “game too hard” nuisance or “Please add something”, just what really is important.

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Exactly. We’re taking actual, day 1 issues that have not been addressed.

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I’d back that notion. There needs to be a visible poll and visible roadmap that has a confirmed status by mods or someone that CAN speak to the Devs as to make the status of such board be acknowledged. To the developer - You can say that you read all the posts every day about these issues, but it doesn’t Seem like it. We don’t know your roadmaps, we don’t know what you’re doing in regards to new or retaining. I know it’s supposed to be mysterious when you add new enemy types or story, but for general fixes or focuses, I’d like a clearer vision to what you guys are focusing on and what you will focus on next.

Possibly we can organize a timed event by the community to gather concerns (not content) and we have a moderator overlook the process, organizing a list of requested fixes/changes. That list can then be made in to another vote with what points need the most addressing. The part where I say this is a good idea, but might fall through is because the Devs could’ve been more forward and taken the initiative. Community organizing this might be a bit hard to tackle immediately unless organized and then there was guarantee that Devs would overlook that list.

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This kind of topic is already in place and is handled by @Zesiir, topic: [IMPORTANT!] Popular Bugs List

As stated by several people above, ALL the issues you cover have been reported/discussed in the forums already and if you would’ve searched the forums, you could’ve found them all, where to post your feedback/ideas.

Your current topic, however, is one big list and it cannot be merged with other, relevant topic, due to you covering several aspects at once (opinion, feedback, feature request, bug reporting).

That being said, i’ll lock this topic and i suggest that you post your ideas/feedback in the proper topics.

//Mod

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