1) Zombie Distribution
The zombie distribution setting changes the density of where zombies will spawn. There are a couple different options for this setting: uniform and urban focus. The uniform option will make zombies spawn evenly throughout the map. The urban focus setting will make more zombies spawn in areas where there would be more people, such as the shopping districts in towns.
Changing this setting makes Project Zomboid more realistic because it changes the population to be more realistic to real life. Of course, there are more people at the mall than a random parking farm in the middle of the map, so obviously there should be more zombies in a place like the mall.
What to set it to:
- Urban focus
2) Day Length
The setting for day length changes the real time it takes to go through a 24-hour cycle in-game. The automatic setting for the day length is one hour, which will give players around 30 minutes of daylight and 30 minutes of night.
If you want to make Project Zomboid feel a little more realistic, you can increase the time for day lengths. You can even make the game follow real-time, to have a completely realistic day and night cycle.
What to set it to:
- At least two-hours
- Real-time
3) Water Shutoff
This setting will determine the time frame for when running water will turn off. Realistically, running water would last a bit longer than electricity in the case of an apocalypse. But players are free to change when the water will stop running, starting from water shutting off instantly to a year into your gameplay.
If you want your gameplay to be realistic, then you should use the 0-30 days option. Since, water and electricity would likely last between a few days to a few weeks. This gives players some time to work on building water collectors.
What to set it to:
- 0–30 days
4) Electricity Shutoff
Sadly, electricity will eventually stop working in Project Zomboid. Which makes it a lot more difficult to do things like cook, watch tv, or even navigate your base. But, like water, you can customize the general time-frame for when the electricity will shut down.
To make Project Zomboid more realistic, you’ll want to set the electricity shutoff to around the same time as you set the water shutoff. Generally, electricity in real life would last up to a couple weeks after something like a zombie apocalypse.
What to set it to:
- 0-30 days
5) Locked House Frequency
In Project Zomboid there’s a chance that every building you walk up to will be locked. With locked doors and windows, which adds some more challenges to trying to loot. Changing the locked house frequency will make it more, or less, likely for buildings to be locked.
I don’t know anyone who just leaves their house unlocked. So, I doubt people would just start leaving their home unlocked, especially during an apocalypse! To make Project Zomboid more realistic, I think players should increase the frequency of locked houses to at least the ‘often’ option.
What to set it to:
- Often
6) Loot Respawn
One of the most important parts to trying to survive in Project Zomboid is looting for all sorts of supplies. The loot respawn setting makes it possible for loot to respawn in containers after a certain amount of time passes.
The best way to make Project Zomboid more realistic is to completely turn off loot respawning. In a real zombie apocalypse, stores aren’t going to be restocking their shelves! So, loot shouldn’t be respawning in your game.
What to set it to:
- Never
7) Helicopter Event
Most people who’ve played Project Zomboid know about the dreaded helicopter event. Your character will be in the middle of sneaking around a horde and suddenly a helicopter will start circling your character, drawing all the zombies in the area right to you. Well, you can change the settings to make the event occur more often, or even remove it from the game altogether.
Even though the event can be annoying, changing your settings to make the event happen more than once is more realistic. I can’t imagine that there wouldn’t be a ton of helicopters flying around if an apocalypse started, so I think increasing the frequency of helicopter events is a good idea for a more immersive experience.
What to set it to:
- Sometimes
8) Meta Events
The helicopter event isn’t the only meta event in Project Zomboid. Events like gunshots or even screams occur randomly and draw in zombies.
Increasing the chances of meta events will make Project Zomboid feel even more realistic. Since in reality you would be able to at least hear other people fighting off zombies, even if you don’t see them.
What to set it to:
- Often
9) Sleeping Events
Sleeping events is a setting that controls the chances of meta events happening even while your character is sleeping. It also includes night terrors that will wake your character up in a panic, even if there aren’t any zombies around.
Life doesn’t stop just because we’re asleep, and the same goes for the zombie apocalypse. It’s just more realistic that things will happen while your character is sleeping, so it’s a good idea to at least turn on sleeping events.
What to set it to:
- Sometimes
10) Time Before Corpse Removal
The setting for time before corpse removal is simply how many hours pass before dead zombie corpses will despawn.
If you can, I suggest increasing the hours it will take for corpses to despawn to between 300 and 500. It’s more realistic to have zombie bodies laying around long after you killed them, since decomposition takes a lot of time.
What to set it to:
- Increase to between 300 and 500
11) Starter Kit
The starter kit will start all players off with a small school backpack, chips, a bottle of water, and a baseball bat.
Most people have the things that are in the starter kit laying around the house, minus maybe the baseball bat. But having some sort of food, water, and weapon to start the game is more realistic than not having anything.
What to set it to:
- Check box
12) Weapon Multi-Hit
The weapon multi-hit setting allows players to hit more than one zombie at a time. This pretty much means that when players use a weapon it can hit multiple zombies at a time as long as they’re standing close to each other.
I think it’s more realistic than not to be able to hit more than one zombie at a time. Especially when using weapons like baseball bats and axes.
What to set it to:
- Check box
13) Recent Survivor Vehicles
Recent survivor vehicles will increase the spawn rate of cars in pretty good condition that may have supplies in them.
Since our character isn’t the only survivor in Project Zomboid it’s safe to say there should be more survivor vehicles laying around on the map. It is also more realistic since a lot of people would simply hop in their car and try to drive somewhere if faced with zombies.
What to set it to:
- Normal
14) Chance Has Gas
This setting will make cars more likely to have more gas in them once you turn them on.
I don’t know anyone who just leaves their car with little to no gas. So, having cars set to have at least some gas is more realistic than every car having an empty tank.
What to set it to:
- Normal to High
15) Car Alarm Frequency
Like the frequency of locked houses, the frequency of car alarms makes cars more likely to be locked and when opened, they will set off an alarm.
Most people lock their cars, at least I know I do. So making cars more likely to have alarms go off is annoying, since it will attract zombies, but it’s also a lot more realistic.
What to set it to:
- Sometimes
