NPC survivors as respawns.

[Daywokr]

Here's the idea: You find an NPC in the world, and have them follow you, or wait somewhere. If your character dies, you respawn as your follower, or, if you don't have any, as an unknown survivor. (Basically the same as it is now if you don't have a bed). This gives weight to dying, without being too punishing. It also creates it's own story, perfect for a sandbox game. It's like a tv series where the main characters die off and the story shifts it's focus to a previously known side character, who must cope with the loss and carry on. I'd suggest an option to lose map data when you die, too. It also gives you another reason to keep exploring, and to build bigger, and stronger camps. Further on, NPCs could be given equipment to fight zombies, and told to protect the base or provide backup when you're exploring. Both options would be weighty decisions because either could mean losing your follower/s. You could even give them individual characters, and conversations, or quests. Maybe, even make them react to other survivors you find. Picture having a survivor accompany you, and you run into another survivor. Maybe they know each other and their friendship allows you to recruit someone who would have been hostile to you, or vise versa. I'm sure some of this is already in the works, but, I think it would be a major game changer. What do you guys think?

[Euzio]

Sounds like an exact copy of another game though. I can't remember what its called but there is another game like this whereby you can recruit a bunch of NPC survivors and toggle between them to control them. If one of them dies, you loose them for good and can only control the remaining ones.

[SoulChaserJ]

Turning this game into a rogue-like would likely kill the game. I like the idea of adding weight to death but you can do a lot of that by dying without a bed/bedroll down. I know with me, I start a whole new game if I die, just to mix things up.