Zombie Hunger

[beastoverlord 574]

I think that a cool addition to the game would be an Infected hunger mechanic. What I envision is a much shorter version of the player hunger mechanic. I think that infected should have the lust to eat, but once it is satiated they won't be as aggressive. I think this could be a portion of the Infected life cycle that Rocket talked about (in one of his speeches I think) and what was also mentioned in this thread here: http://dayzmod.com/f...-it-would-work/

What I image is a range of Infected not being hungry at all to them starving to death and dying. When they are not hungry at all, they are moderately fast and will chase anything they hear or see at a moderate range (car, cow, player, etc). When the Infected start getting hungrier, they become faster and have heightened senses because of their desperation for food. I could see these ones being faster than a player and picking you up from just a little bit farther away. When the Infected are about to starve to death, they will become very slow, sluggish, and their senses will be diminished. I see these being very much like the slow walker Infected that are stereotypical of the genre.

When hungry, an Infected will feed from any corpse. This can be other dead Infected, knocked-out/dead players, dead animals, and corpse piles (if they still have them). If an Infected is full, they will just ignore anything dead on the ground until they get hungry again. An Infected will increase its wander speed and range as it gets more desperate for food.

I think the Infected hunger levels could make for some really awesome experiences:

- Infected will be varied in speed and awareness, thus making the game-play more interesting. People have asked for different speeds, so here is a way to incorporate it AND have a good reason.

- You will need to watch Infected more closely to figure out their hunger levels. If you go into a town of hungry but not dead Infected, they will give a better chase than full or starving Infected.

- If you get knocked out and there are a bunch of full Infected nearby, they won't eat you. They are full and the can't tell the difference between you and a corpse. If they are hungry though, your organs might make a good snack

- If an Infected kills an animal out of hunger, feeds from it, and you acquire meat from it, you may catch a disease that the Infected carried. This would be a great way to spread disease once they implement it in the SA

- Infected can spread disease from themselves to dead players they feed off and acquire disease from dead players in return. (Now you'll want to guard that guy you sniped from Infected infecting his loot!)

I think there could be some other cool implications of this. Maybe you can come up with some more? Tell me what you think!

EDIT: I know that this would require a lot more character models, but maybe down the road this would be cool to have in the SA. I know they want a disease cycle too, so maybe they could incorporate it into something similar to this.

EDIT 2: Changed the word zombie to infected in the thread to avoid the confusion. ZOMBIES are reincarnated bodies. INFECTED are merely people infected with a virus. Rocket seems to call the creatures in the mod Infected, so it should be safe to assume they aren't the undead.

Edited January 10, 2013 by BeastOverlord

[Dancing.Russian.Man 1631]

What I image is a range of zombies not being hungry at all to them starving to death and dying.

Nope.

I wish the zombies were more authentic in the sense that you can only kill them by shooting them in the head. (read: brain) And I have never heard of a zombie starving to death. Sure, I've heard them being called hungry, but never starving and/or dying.

Rocket said that the longer a zombie stays alive and the longer it has gone without eating, the weaker it will be. But I don't think he meant that they would eventually die out. I would understand them rotting to pieces, but, damn.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Dancing.Russian.Man

[beastoverlord 574]

Rocket said that the longer a zombie stays alive and the longer it has gone without eating, the weaker it will be. But I don't think he meant that they would eventually die out. I would understand them rotting to pieces, but, damn.

How do the infected have a source of energy to move then? Isn't Rocket trying to make it seem as though this could actually happen from a real virus, hence his brother's 12 page paper? If this is supposed to be realistic there has to be an energy the zombies use to move that is non-arcane.

[Dayz Steve 26]

Great idea, though I think Fully fed zombies would be slower not faster! Oh and have more health.

[Dancing.Russian.Man 1631]

How do the infected have a source of energy to move then? Isn't Rocket trying to make it seem as though this could actually happen from a real virus, hence his brother's 12 page paper? If this is supposed to be realistic there has to be an energy the zombies use to move that is non-arcane.

If this was supposed to be realistic there wouldn't be any zombies, and we'd be running around with Hazmat suits.

And, it was never said that his brother was asked to write the 12-page documentary of what possible infection it could be.

Rocket only said that he(the brother) made one.

I'm talking about authenticity, not realism. And most people have their own version of an "authentic zombie," so it's really just my opinion. Agree with it or don't, I can debate that with you to days' end. And, have you noticed how the zombies don't seem to bleed out? I'm sure the brain would (realistically speaking) die of lack of blood because of all the shots they take, if they didn't die outright. And their muscles are basically rotting apart, so how are you supposed to explain to me the fact that they can ran and hit you with very little working muscles to move their body?

Edited January 9, 2013 by Dancing.Russian.Man

[Inception. 9443]

Well actually I believe Dean stated that they were infected, not zombies. So therefore the bullet-to-the-brain technique isn't the only method of killing them, as they could bleed out as well, or if they're hit in the heart, etc.

Correct me if I am wrong.

[beastoverlord 574]

Well actually I believe Dean stated that they were infected, not zombies. So therefore the bullet-to-the-brain technique isn't the only method of killing them, as they could bleed out as well, or if they're hit in the heart, etc.

Correct me if I am wrong.

Yes, you are right. I actually was thinking about that argument in class

If Rocket refers to them as infected, and not zombies, it means that they never died. Zombies are originally "animated corpse resurrected by mystical means, such as witchcraft."

If they truly are "infected" and not zombies, then they should have to perform all of the normal life functions of a human, just that a virus has changed their mental state.

Edited January 9, 2013 by BeastOverlord

[Jars (DayZ) 63]

They are humans with a horrible disease , that's basically what I take from it , so naturally without food , they will slowly cease to function , even as their body decays from the virus .

[Inception. 9443]

Yes, you are right. I actually was thinking about that argument in class

If Rocket refers to them as infected, and not zombies, it means that they never died. Zombies are originally "animated corpse resurrected by mystical means, such as witchcraft."

If they truly are "infected" and not zombies, then they should have to perform all of the normal life functions of a human, just that a virus has changed their mental state.

Yeah--which means, your starting post would be accurate. I do like the things you suggested, it would make everything far more interesting and difficult at the same time.

[DemonGroover 8836]

Rocket has mentioned a life cycle for the Infected so i am very interested to see how it pans out.

[beastoverlord 574]

Rocket has mentioned a life cycle for the Infected so i am very interested to see how it pans out.

I really do hope he does something similar to this. I feel that the zombies need to be harder. If they all are faster than you, that might be too hard, but if they are mixed difficulty it might be an easier transition.