Zombies should be harder!

[Zeymere 4]

Zombies should be harder!

Almost all books and shows pertaining to zombies end up with a team of people needing to group together to try and survive. Very few loners make it in any zombie apocalypse.

In DayZ zombies are too easy to avoid and maneuver around to get what you want. I am still a newer player and I only see zombies as a nuisance that require me to be a stealthier to achieve what I need.

I don’t know what the right combo is; but I think it would be better if you needed a team to get something you wanted, especially the high end gear. If in the end this boils down to just a PvP game of Bandits vs. Survivors then what’s the since of having zombies?

Z.

[Rage VG 4033]

Very few loners make it in any zombie apocalypse.

And I don't believe any loners have "made it" yet in DayZ either.

[Derpy_Hooves (DayZ) 4521]

The Zombies are being more of a pain in the backside, i mean they are harder than they were.

Maybe making them harder would force player to bond together to survive but i sense that if they become harder some players will just give up...

I mean we all know someone from somewhere that want everything to be a bit harder... but then cries as soon as it does and they are dying.

[SP45M 240]

This is for the most part true although sometimes you will still the the old zombie 123. 1st hit break leg, 2nd hit bleed, 3rd hit pass out. If your up for more of a challenge to survival why not try playing on Namaslk the zeds may not be harder but you will have some fun trying not to freeze to death while finding warm clothes.

Edited November 15, 2012 by SP45M

[Shadow Man 142]

Trouble is, loads of people who have got used to DayZ being a pvp based game will just be irritated by the zombies more, rather than playing the game differently. If Dayz had just appeared as a finished game, it would be accepted for what it is.

Its one of the unfortunate downsides of making an open alpha.

[Zeymere 4]

So I guess that brings me to another question then what is DayZ? Most people on the forums tout it as a survival game. I guess there are many possible aspects to that but when you add a specific element then in my mind that should be the prevalent force.

[Dreygar (DayZ) 178]

Zombie's in almost all forms (until more recently. 28 days later, Zombieland, I am legend, etc) have been slow, stumbling, stupid that are only an advantage in numbers. It is really far fetched to think that Zombies could have wiped out the population. A Zombie/Infected/Whatever you want to call them like those in the previously mentioned movies would make it a little more plausible. Even still I don't see how increasing the Zombies difficulty is going to encourage teamwork.

[Dreygar (DayZ) 178]

So I guess that brings me to another question then what is DayZ? Most people on the forums tout it as a survival game. I guess there are many possible aspects to that but when you add a specific element then in my mind that should be the prevalent force.

I honestly think Day Z is about the harshness of survival in a post apocalyptic world. That is kind of what Rocket was going for, but needed another element to hook in a player. Zombies are a great vessel for that.

In his Q&A he didn't really talk much about the Zombies. Saying stuff like he just wants to get them acting right, so he can go back and focus on the survival aspects of the game. So to me that tells me the primary focus is survival with the element of Zombies thrown in.

[Zeymere 4]

Zombie's in almost all forms (until more recently. 28 days later, Zombieland, I am legend, etc) have been slow, stumbling, stupid that are only an advantage in numbers. It is really far fetched to think that Zombies could have wiped out the population. A Zombie/Infected/Whatever you want to call them like those in the previously mentioned movies would make it a little more plausible. Even still I don't see how increasing the Zombies difficulty is going to encourage teamwork.

Seems simple though if it is harder for one person to get to resource A and more difficult to get to resource B and almost impossible for an individual to get to resource C then you would need to team up to accomplish a certain goal. I am not saying team work is my ultimate suggestion here, I just think the zombies need to be harder or more plentiful. The fact that I can get through a large town and not be concerned about zombies, too much, says something about a zombie game.

[Shadow Man 142]

I guess a good gauge would be this: How difficult should it be even if you are the only player in a server? The z's should present some challenge surely?

[Shag 90]

no brainer - zeds must be harder. thats why there's nothing to do.

too easy to get loot, avoid zeds and survive the elements.

rocket sounds like he agrees.

[Dreygar (DayZ) 178]

I would like to see them behave more predator like. Slow and somber when they are oblivious to the world. I would like to see them a little more aggressive when something catches their eye... investigating (but cautious like, not... I think I see something, full on sprint) and then I would like to see them fully identify something they want and go after it. I think a sense of smell is important, even more so than hearing and seeing.

I am simply going by my own preferences and opinion but I would honestly prefer if they didn't run, but the game had more zombies and they were more aware. I realize that if they didn't run then that encourages people to just run around them, but even if they could lunge to grab a player or would walk with a sense of urgency rather than run.

I would even use the sense of smell as an even heightened sense of smell in which they could detect a player with X radius, and begin to investigate. You could enter the barracks at the airfield but little do you know that Zombies have picked up your scent and are moving to your location... Now the barracks doesn't offer much in terms of escape so you might get bunkered down there.

You can look towards the Zombie genre in cinema and I don't think there are many people that dislike the show "The Walking Dead" ... Zombies do not run but they are constantly on the move because the zombies are more aware and seem to overrun them.

Edited November 15, 2012 by Dreygar

[Zeymere 4]

I would like to see them behave more predator like. Slow and somber when they are oblivious to the world. I would like to see them a little more aggressive when something catches their eye... investigating (but cautious like, not... I think I see something, full on sprint) and then I would like to see them fully identify something they want and go after it. I think a sense of smell is important, even more so than hearing and seeing.

I am simply going by my own preferences and opinion but I would honestly prefer if they didn't run, but the game had more zombies and they were more aware. I realize that if they didn't run then that encourages people to just run around them, but even if they could lunge to grab a player or would walk with a sense of urgency rather than run.

I would even use the sense of smell as an even heightened sense of smell in which they could detect a player with X radius, and begin to investigate. You could enter the barracks at the airfield but little do you know that Zombies have picked up your scent and are moving to your location... Now the barracks doesn't offer much in terms of escape so you might get bunkered down there.

You can look towards the Zombie genre in cinema and I don't think there are many people that dislike the show "The Walking Dead" ... Zombies do not run but they are constantly on the move because the zombies are more aware and seem to overrun them.

Thanks for the very well thought out idea and you have my beans.

[Dreygar (DayZ) 178]

No problem. I'm just trying to avoid the... Make them faster, smarter, hit harder aspect which a lot of people associate with making the zombies more difficult. Will it make them more difficult? Yes. Would it make it a better game? No, least not to me.

Having zombies sprint at me in games like Dead Island, I could run away still. I could climb on top of things. I could cut them down in one hit with my melee weapon. The gameplay, controls, and arcadey feel of the game balanced it.

[DayZoey 110]

Slightly off topic: I hate The Walking Dead TV series. Absolutely hate it. Not because the writer "sold out" or "became a money whore" because those are really stupid reasons to start hating something. The TV series is retarded because they tried the Disney approach to making a story from something else. Take a bunch of existing characters within the setting, dump in a whole new ones that don't even need to be there but somehow TV executives feel its necessary for plot or "racial variety" (it's what I call affirmative casting) and then throw it together and -completely- deviate from the story as it was already told. The Walking Dead game did it right because the game's story has virtually nothing to do with the comic book story and still holds its own fairly well despite being a point and click game (a genre rapidly going the way of the Do-Do I feel). The TV series could have been strong on its own if it had taken all those extra characters they threw in and made their own little plotline. Adding in the CDC in season 1 was just a -really- failed attempt to stop the TV series from catching up to where the comics were and running out of free writing material.

*Eeeeeeeh Haaaaaaaaah Eeeeeeeeeeeh haaaaaaaaaaaah*

/end rant

Back on topic: I agree with Dreygar, I don't think the zombies need to be full on barreling at us to be dangerous. In fact shuffling zombies are even more dangerous because they can easily inspire an air of confidence in the survivor "Oh these bastards are slow as hell, I'll just slide in to this house here and-... wait..." suddenly the survivor's only exit from the house is choked with the slow bastards that want to eat his face off. The air of confidence ended up being that survivor's doom, rather than running in to a fence and bled to death because he got his legs broke and he's bleeding when the zombie hit him while he was waiting for the clunky "jump over" animation to complete.