Hello
Lillith - Welcome to Zeek's Haven!
[...] is the server really all that challenging? After reading the server options, it doesn't seem like finding loot will ever be a problem. [...] finding food, water, and the likes isn't a problem?
We tend to be pretty dynamic with regards to the server set-up, and many a setting and mod has been adjusted as the result of community polls and discussions - so if you find the server isn't quite meeting the experience you're after, we invite you to make an argument for change here on the forums. If it seems the player-base largely supports the change and we've spent some time hashing out the details and possible repercussions, there's a decent chance that we'll make it happen - or give it a trial-run of a few weeks, as we did with shutting the utilities off not so long ago (the test was successful, if you might be wondering - and opened the door to more dynamic variance in the state of utilities down the road).
On the specific topic of loot availability, you may have seen that
dreadlordnaf just brought up the same subject
over here. Since Steam integration made mods a plausible addition to the server, we'll probably re-balance some things as we get a better idea of which mods will become a staple of the Zeek's Haven experience.
[...]How do you longer-terms pass your time on the server[...]? I guess you could just go around harassing other people, but wouldn't that get boring if everyone just creates new characters all the time?
I can't speak for everyone, of course - and it would undoubtedly be better to hear from some of the regulars (*
wink wink, nudge nudge* ). But our server has seen communities of more than 10 players rise and fall, along with their various hand-made towns and fortresses. We've seen communal strongholds and safe-zones taken out by hordes and treachery. We've seen factions rise behind leaders and wage war against each other. Others still provide neutral services as merchants or mercenaries or more uncommon services like our own Treasure of Kentucky, @trashboat. Some players write
lore and diaries in-game collecting their stories and experiences, and many others collect it, and transcribe tales to
the forums, or vis-versa. A few go around harassing people, as you say - and others sometimes band together to harass the harassers.
It may all sound a little dramatized - but it's really how I view our server. The primary reason I stuck around here and eventually became an admin was because I so enthralled by the way these really organic plots and narratives seemed to unfold here, both with and without roleplaying.
It's common for the regulars to maintain multiple characters, often suited to specific tasks or crafted specifically for events; after you've kept a character alive for a few tens of hours, it would be a very difficult thing to do to send them into a deathmatch event. But that doesn't necessarily detract from the importance of a character-death; in fact in some instances it makes it all the more significant, as it allows some characters to survive even longer than would usually be common. Killing someone's "main" can be a pretty momentous event, and might bring with it an air of victory - or it might start a long-lasting vendetta.
I plan on being here for awhile and it looks like the server is host to all sorts of events, guess I just need to ask myself if a hardcore server rule set is really what I'm looking for or if this will actually be a change for the better as my characters on other servers were spent deep in backwood country trying to avoid others at all costs. Then again, some of those servers had an emphasis on keeping characters alive as long as possible.
We've been a little light on the events since we've been grappling with the implications and repercussions of Steam integration, but we'll get back to our old regularity in time.
Just because there are events though, doesn't mean there's any need to participate in them. I myself played on Zeek's in the range of 40 or 50 hours going the backwoods survival route before I ever made it over to an event. And that can be challenging enough, sometimes - on servers with a greater number of active players, it's not unheard of to build a house in what seems like the middle of nowhere only to discover that you've had a few neighbors all along - and it's often stated that no matter how far out of the way you set up shop, eventually someone is bound to find you.
It is definitely worth making your way to the first run of one of the Raid events at some point, though - the first one I went to put on by
RichCoconut and
Hobbes absolutely blew my mind, and really redefined just what the Project Zomboid experience could be, to me - it felt like an entirely different game. Much more panicky and suspenseful than is typical of PZ multiplayer.
Anyway, Welcome to Zeek's Haven! Happy you thought to give us a try