Infection Feature? Anyone?

[mastrovara 0]

I was just thinking that later in the mod devs could add an "Infection-like feature". Like, when you get hit, you have a low chance 3-5% to become infected. This gives you a countdown you can't stop before you die (and eventually become a zombie). The only way to stop this should be an antidote you could find only in some army medic bases crowded with zeds. The countdown could be of 15-20 minutes to give you the possibility to reach medic bases if needed.

I think this could really make encounters with zombies more risky and increase difficulty in general, giving to stealth a more important value.

If this seems too tough for you, devs could give the ability to get infected only to the characters who are under 5000 of blood, to make it easier to not get infected in the first phases of the game.

I didn't read of a topic like this but, if it has been posted yet, excuse me guys.

:) Keep cool!

[terrvik 2409]

I have thought a lot about the infection feature and how to design it to work within the game and be fun as well. I think there has to be a long countdown with several stages. Being infected should bring more risks then just eventually dying. Maybe after a certain amount of time the player starts coughing and such? This would make him dangerous to bring along in a group since the noise will give away position and attract zombies.

You should be able to slow down the infection with some kind of drug, but only cure it with an antidote with considerable risks to find. This way you could live with the infection but other players will be careful when interacting with you, maybe even kill you. I know some people don't like the idea of certain items only spawning at certain places but i think this would be a tense immersive feature with more dangerous hotspots.

The infection thing needs a lot of work and balancing but it would be fun to at least discuss how to make it work. :)

[mastrovara 0]

Yeah of course side effects like blur and audio signals of your illness could really enhance the feeling of being "bad".

I really like the idea of being noisy with coughs and stuff but i think that this should be really carefully decided to not spam the player with a cough every 5 seconds, unless you want to make the player crazy.

[gator (DayZ) 22]

Infection could promote searching the wilderness and dissuade camping in cities. If you have to look through houses often to get medicine you will have to go out and scavage in the wilderness.

This could be realistic, as all drugstores were looted for medicine during the outbreak. Those isolated villages weren't so some houses still have medicine in them.

[Leechman 8]

A potentially good idea.

However, I think zombies as they currently are in the game need to be refined before such a system could be implemented first.

[terrvik 2409]

And when the infection is really bad you start making zombie growls and noises from time to time. Scary.

A way to make other players think about the option of killing you themselves might be that if a infected player dies a more dangerous type of zombie spawns. Faster, tougher and so on.

Of course, curing someone gains a lot of humanity.

[joeyslucky22 638]

To clarify, we're not talking about eventually "playing" as a zombie correct? You would get the disease, have time to look for the cure, die and your player model would become one of the AI infected.

I'm completely on board for this. The "cure" would have to be so seldom found that there's almost no chance of getting one if you don't have one already (spawning in one location per week or something).

Perhaps there could even be a specific kind of zombie which spreading the disease is its trait?

[oktyabr 53]

To clarify' date=' we're not talking about eventually "playing" as a zombie correct? You would get the disease, have time to look for the cure, die and your player model would become one of the AI infected.

I'm completely on board for this. The "cure" would have to be so seldom found that there's almost no chance of getting one if you don't have one already (spawning in one location per week or something).

Perhaps there could even be a specific kind of zombie which spreading the disease is its trait?

[/quote']

I actually started, and debated on a "become a zombie" thread that hit several pages before I had it closed. The reason? I was told by a dev that there will be a back story to this game, not released yet, and turning into a "zombie" doesn't work with that story.

Further, rocket said himself today that the "zombies" in DayZ "are not dead." :huh:

[terrvik 2409]

Yes, you will eventually die, not play as zombie. :)

But you should be able to "live" with the infection (by slowing it down with antibiotics or something) so that you can play a decent time as infected before finding a cure. It shouldn't be a death sentence, and rare enough to not be annoying.

[grounddog 12]

Terrorviktor has something going on over there!

I think making into the game a disease you have to get rid of with over time and medication.

And if you dont care about it then you die of it. Start passing out at first and then die.

Also that you get the disease when you get hit too many times by the walkers and bleed too much making it easy for the disease to get into you.