Shortwave Survivors
Shortwave Survivors is an add-on for Superb Survivors which allows the player to use radios to contact other survivors and survivor groups. Nearby survivors can be contacted and recruited using a Walkie Talkie, but be careful when reaching out, you might attract raiders to your location. Survivor groups can be contacted over large distances using ham radios and these groups will have special NPC’s that give missions and sell items.
Shortwave Survivors adds a complex quest framework to Superb Survivors and will give you a real reason to find vehicles and travel far distances around the map, instead of staying hauled up in one place the entire play-through. You will be rewarded with money for completing quests, which can then be used to purchase items from some NPC’s in groups. Some of the quests also require you to travel far distances in order to find people, items, etc.
Although I have a fair bit of programming experience this is my first Project Zomboid mod so don’t expect it to be perfect. I started working on this mod quite a long time ago and I’m aware Superb Survivors is known to have some problems so I tried to fix any issues I came across instead of switching to a different survivor framework. Here are some of the known issues and other important things you should be aware of before using this mod.
- It only supports the English language (for now)
- It only supports the offline single-player game mode
- It only supports the Knox Country map (some NPC’s are spawned in specific locations)
- Controller users may have issues with certain features, I haven’t had time to test it
- Weird things may happen if you have more than one radio window open or have two radios equipped at the same time
- Error box may appear in corner of screen when starting or loading a game, it’s an issue with Superb Survivors
After installing Shortwave Survivors and starting a new game, you can use any working two-way radio to make contact with other survivors. Walkie Talkies will allow you to contact nearby survivors but wont let you contact survivor groups. You should be able to lower or increase the rate at which survivors spawn from within the Superb Survivors settings.
Ensure the Walkie Talkie is equipped and turned on then you will see a new option in the drop down menu for the Walkie Talkie titled "Attempt to contact nearby survivors". Selecting this action will automatically tune the radio to the Shortwave Survivors radio channel (123.4 MHz) if it isn’t already and then the player will broadcast a message.
If a survivor responds to you over the Walkie Talkie they will begin heading towards the coordinates you provide them. Any raiders you attract will also move towards that same location so I wouldn’t suggest trying this inside your own base unless you are ready for trouble. If the raiders spot you they will begin to pursue you until they can’t find you.
Survivor groups with quest giving NPC’s can be contacted using a ham radio and will usually require you to travel a long distance to find the group, but the group will provide their coordinates and their location will be marked on your map. Ensure the ham radio is powered on then you will see a new option in the drop down menu for the ham radio.
The new option will be titled "Attempt to contact survivor groups" and comes with no risk of attracting raiders since you aren’t giving out your own coordinates but keep in mind yelling into a radio might attract zombies. It might take a few tries but eventually a group should respond and it will start a quest with the goal of finding the group leader.
The group leader has 3 different quests, 1 of them is repeatable after you finish them all. The group trader has 2 repeatable quests and sells a variety of items. The group sheriff has 3 different quests, 2 of them are repeatable. The sheriff also sells guns and ammo. The group doctor has 1 repeatable quest, provides medical services, and sells medical supplies.
Creating a base boundary should keep roaming NPC’s away from your base and prevent them from breaking into your base. This is a feature from Superb Survivors and can be used by right clicking on the ground then within the drop down menu select "Area Selecting" then "Base Area" then "Select Area". Now drag the mouse to highlight your base area then select "Set" from within the same menu.
Having hundreds or thousands of items in your inventory, even if it’s money, can cause the game to lag considerably, especially if you have many mods installed. In order to solve this issue for money I added a new item called a "Money Band" which can hold up to $1000. Just right click on normal money and you will see new options to put it into a money band.
Since a money band replaces 1000 money items with a single drainable-type item it can really help performance when you have a lot of money. Right click on a money band and you will see options to remove money from the band to convert it back into normal money.
If you arrive at a group base and find yourself locked outside, you should see a new option in the drop down menu when right clicking on a door of the group base. This should cause the group leader to come to the door, if they get side tracked on the way just knock again until you get their attention.
Completing a quest will improve your relationship with the quest giver which will result in lower prices if that NPC also sells anything. The more quests you do for them the higher your discount will be. Keep in mind quest requirements tend to get harder the more you repeat them.
If you contact a nearby survivor you might want to keep your radio turned on because the survivor will provide radio updates on their progress as they try to find you. You may also hear other random radio chatter from nearby survivors when tuned to the Shortwave Survivors channel.
This mod should be compatible with most of the mods out there except maybe some mods which drastically alter the vanilla Knox Country map since some NPC’s are spawned in specific locations with a base building. This mod might also conflict with some mods which alter radios in a weird way. If you find any mod conflicts you think should be fixed let me know and I’ll take a look. I intentionally designed Shortwave Survivors to work well with many of the popular map interface mods, see the recommended mods list below.
Since this mod doesn’t alter anything in the base game (besides the weight of money) it should be safe to install or uninstall mid-game although it might not be so safe to uninstall Superb Survivors mid-game.
Feel free to alter this mod any way you like and share your work on the Steam Workshop. Just give credit or share the link to this mod in your mod description.
- Notepad++
- Paint.net
Required items:
Click the title to search on this site.
Superb Survivors! — Steam Workshop
Radio Frequency Manager — Steam Workshop
Revisions:
Old revisions of this mod are available below. Click the link to download.
