Hey! Another winner! My congratiulations and also many thanks for showing the patience and perseverance to get to that point!
Yeah, the game is supposed to be unforgiving and brutal. I see it in line with games like Project Zomboid or The Long Dark. I am deeply familiar with the history of TLD - played it since the very early alpha release and still playing it today. Players (including me) were outraging back then how harsh, brutal, unfair (add any unconvient attribute here) this game was. But many kept playing, gave feedback - and what a great game it became! Always walking close to the abysse, always balancing on a knife's edge... that's my ideal survival and exploration game experience - but it is so hard to achieve!
In that sense, I really welcome your feedback. Winning the game, with all the flaws it still has, is a true achievement.
What I will introduce in one of the next releases is a tutorial battle. When players choose tutorial mode, a zombie will stand close o the starting place - clearly showing "I am a tutorial - attack me to learn how to fight.". Everything regarding fighting enemies then will tought in this tutorial. Players won't loose their items after tutorial is over, but will be warned, that from now on this will be the consequnce of fighting "real" zombies. What you think about this? It's my best idea for now of how to teach this important part of the game.
And so many thanks for "stronger zombies more frequently get you better items when you beat them". This is a huge idea, and I will implement that for sure! My thoughts were circling around something like this, without getting to your point. Makes me so happy !