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Project Zomboid >  Workshop > Slayer's Workshop > [B42] Week One NPC > Discussions
[B42] Week One NPC
Description Discussions645 Comments4934 Change Notes
Max Payne 22 Feb @ 11:21am
Week One Lore
I know mostly technical stuff get posted here but a few things seemed curious to me in this mod's lore. So anyone interested in discussing this, welcome here!

1) Where are those words from the entry slides (ones that appear when you start a new game) taken from? They fit damn perfectly. And what's this "truth too dark to be spoken", I wonder? Is it the fact that the government knew about the virus and did their best to make sure no one would ever find out?

2) Is the nuke that hits on day 7 in fact a global nuclear war or just localized strikes on major cities in Kentucky? I'm kinda confused a bit bc there's a nuclear winter afterwards and it wouldn't come if it were only a few hits here and there. Afaik only a full-scale war can cause this.

But if it's a full-scale war, why can we prevent all this by simply going to a local military base and disabling the launch sequence? Only possible explanation I can come up with is that missiles launched from the base near Rosewood target not Kentucky but other states in Europe which in turn launch theirs, thus starting a global conflict. Or not rather a conflict but kind of a mutual "mercy kill" since both the US and Europe at that point are flooded by the infected and nuclear warfare is used as a last resort attempt to stop them. Again, there's a plothole because disarming nukes in one remote base doesn't prevent a full-scale war and they can be launched from another base or command centre.

It might also refer to the previous point, and one more purpose of the nuke could be erasing all traces of the military researching the virus and any witnesses possible.

3) Who are the Sweeper Squad guys and what's their purpose? I know their purpose in the gameplay is to provide a post-nuke challenge but who are they actually? Remnants of the government who are sent out to terminate any witnesses or survivors? Somewhat like the Enclave in Fallout.

But if so, if the government officials were really so hell-bent on keeping this mystery sealed and went as far as bombing their own land with nuclear warheads, why? Why even bother? Why send out cleaning squads to terminate any life left on the surface, be it humans or zombies? This question keeps haunting me, and I can't find a decent answer. But the whole picture is beautiful to say the least...
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Showing 1-9 of 9 comments
Romanian Passanger 17 Apr @ 5:53pm 
as I understand it the nukes aren't there to kill the infected but instead to eliminate survivors. I think that the bombing and nukes are a way of lowering the surviving population so that the very few survivors or government will emerge from their bunkers and find and a relatively infection free landscape with more abundant resources and ability to rebuild. essentially restarting civilisation.
#1
Max Payne 19 Apr @ 12:06pm 
Maybe, but why then bother dropping warning fliers that tell everyone to get a hazmat suit and take shelter in the basements? I don't think their goal was to wipe out human survivors. I think what they attempted to do was to wipe out all that could spead the infection on the surface. Both survivors or zombies. That's the reason why they hit the major cities: they were essentially large sources of infection. The second reason could be to destroy any traces of their research that would essentially make them responsible for the zombie threat. And then repopulate the most intact regions. The only stupid thing in this is they didn't account for the radiation. The fallout would not only take long to settle but would effectively infect all the water in the area, the Ohio river for sure. Unless they had some way to filter out the radiation, their plan to repopulate Kentucky was doomed to failure.

Again, any thing in this mod can simply be explained by "gameplay features", but it's still interesting to speculate what that thing was that pushed the government over the edge and made them do this.
#2
Slayer  [developer] 20 Apr @ 5:38am 
Point 1. The words reflect the fact that the player is the only person knowing what is going to happen. He did not speak about it because its too dark and noone would believe anyway.

The player is indeed a chosen one. He is also guided by his dreams by an angel. The name Michael is the archangel who is a warrior angel according to the tradition / belief.

Point 2
the events unravel so quickly that goverment or military decisions are chaotic and desperate. Its not clear who authorized the strike. it has been only a couple of hours from the moment of decision of strike to the actual strike. in that period hazmat suits were supposed to be dropped for the remaining citizens and fliers were dropped.

The nearest military base happens connected to the global military network and as such can be hacked to stop the strike. the reason why vanilla game starts with no destruction is because the player actually succeded with the mission. the soldiers protecting the base and not hostile.because they are defending the strike. they simply follow orders of protecting the base.

Point 3
The sweeper squad are the soldiers who intercepted the distribution of hazmat suits. they turned against everyone.
#3
Max Payne 20 Apr @ 11:51pm 
@Slayer thanks, interesting point! So the nuclear bombing wasn't a war but rather the government striking its own territory to get rid of the infection?
#4
Slayer  [developer] 21 Apr @ 12:05pm 
Yea, that's what i had in mind
#5
Arnold Schwarzenigg 16 May @ 6:15am 
Originally posted by Slayer:
the reason why vanilla game starts with no destruction is because the player actually succeded with the mission.

So the player actually dooms the whole world outside of Kentucky if successful...?
#6
Max Payne 16 May @ 8:37am 
What do you mean by "dooms the whole world"? I assume if the player stopped the nuclear strikes, he stopped all of them, not only in Kentucky.
#7
Arnold Schwarzenigg 16 May @ 8:59am 
Originally posted by Max Payne:
What do you mean by "dooms the whole world"? I assume if the player stopped the nuclear strikes, he stopped all of them, not only in Kentucky.

Oh I wasn't sure if the nuclear strikes also happen outside of Kentucky, I haven't tried this mod out yet so I'm not familiar with all details. I was under the impression that since after the nuking there are teams deployed with hazmat suits to rid the remaining survivors that in my mind meant the government still had the resources and man-power to actively fight the infection spread and also since the Kentucky areas are successfully nuked to rubble perhaps the virus is contained and not taking over the rest of the world.

However if nukes are stopped it will basically follow the vanilla PZ storyline.
Last edited by Arnold Schwarzenigg; 16 May @ 9:01am
#8
Max Payne 16 May @ 11:26am 
Originally posted by Arnold Schwarzenigg:
Originally posted by Max Payne:
What do you mean by "dooms the whole world"? I assume if the player stopped the nuclear strikes, he stopped all of them, not only in Kentucky.

Oh I wasn't sure if the nuclear strikes also happen outside of Kentucky, I haven't tried this mod out yet so I'm not familiar with all details. I was under the impression that since after the nuking there are teams deployed with hazmat suits to rid the remaining survivors that in my mind meant the government still had the resources and man-power to actively fight the infection spread and also since the Kentucky areas are successfully nuked to rubble perhaps the virus is contained and not taking over the rest of the world.

However if nukes are stopped it will basically follow the vanilla PZ storyline.

Actually I think nukes happen everywhere, not only in Kentucky. After 7 days the infection is confirmed in many other places, so nuking only Kentucky is pointless. As Slayer said under my other topic, CDC Hazmat guys are actually soldiers who intercepted the hazmat suit packages sent out for the civilians. However, many things in the mod are quite ambiguous and are not explained directly, leaving much space for speculation and interpretation.
#9
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