fast and highly observant zombies are bad for the game

[ReDim42 4]

An example for the zombies: Take Resident Evil: Apocalypse. There are humters (strong), dogs (fast) and the zombies slow but many. In the movie the sentence "They are to many, get outa here" i want to tell my group after killing 20 of them.

 

Maybe project nemesis or something for a bozz zombie to realize PVE. 

 

The attention radius should be lower then now for normal zombies. Hunter should have a higher one. Dogs a lower radius but a high smell radius.

 

 

Greeting

ReDim42

[Gdaddy22 299]

What if zombies weren't slowed in the buildings. Then they would be a real fukken threat.  For me it looks unrealistic that zeds are slowed down in the building which makes them easy targets if only we have a wrench or other crap weapon. To escape zombies we would have to shut doors behind us etc

Edited December 24, 2013 by Gdaddy22

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

More than that, because it happens so OFTEN, the zombies completely loose their menacing nature. Being chased by a zombie is a common, predictable and totally boring thing.

 

If you're being chased by zombies that often, it's because you're not moving carefully or quietly. You're probably just sprinting through the middle of town at full speed. Stop doing that.

 

They're really NOT that sensitive. As long as you stay in the grass and stay quiet, it's really rare to trigger one at the moment.

[Gdaddy22 299]

 

 

If you're being chased by zombies that often, it's because you're not moving carefully or quietly. You're probably just sprinting through the middle of town at full speed. Stop doing that.

 

They're really NOT that sensitive. As long as you stay in the grass and stay quiet, it's really rare to trigger one at the moment.

 

The problem of easy and boring zombie chases is still there. What you are sayin is - "the zombies are crap, but just ignore it and don't trigger them and leave this issue be there forever"

Edited December 24, 2013 by Gdaddy22

[mercules 1290]

The problem of easy and boring zombie chases is still there. What you are sayin is - "the zombies are crap, but just ignore it and don't trigger them and leave this issue be there forever"

No, what he is saying is it's not hard to avoid zombies in their incomplete state.

When they get proper pathing in, when the get more zombies in without affecting stability, when all the proper detection comes into play I think zombies will be more than the nuisance they were in the mod. 

[Chaingunfighter 917]

I think Zombies should be a lot harder too kill like 10 shots from a m4 or so and they should also do more damage.

This would make the game a much more challenging  and in order fun experience, at least in my opinion.

10 shots from an M4? With their current zig-zagging and glitching rest assured you're never going to kill them with anything short of a nuclear bomb.

[Atomizer 53]

Have you played SA? they don't zig-zag in SA like they do in the mod, I am also pretty sure they run while indoors, they wont run if they are near their target, but the problem currently is most of the builds dont have proper zombie pathing, so they just glitch straight through walls, its why they slow down indoors in the mod, but being a mod they didn't have access to properly implement pathing in buildings, now that they can modify the engine(and implement directly into the engine instead of scripts), they can fix all these issues, while having better performance then a scripted version.

[nerfed 8]

I remember when zombies in the mod were insanely powerful and everyone hated it.

[daze23 549]

Have you played SA? they don't zig-zag in SA like they do in the mod, I am also pretty sure they run while indoors, they wont run if they are near their target, but the problem currently is most of the builds dont have proper zombie pathing, so they just glitch straight through walls, its why they slow down indoors in the mod, but being a mod they didn't have access to properly implement pathing in buildings, now that they can modify the engine(and implement directly into the engine instead of scripts), they can fix all these issues, while having better performance then a scripted version.

yep, I was going to say the same things. they do run indoors, and they don't zig-zag anymore

[xtharkusx 7]

I agree with the owner of the post.
they allways see me if im crouching and not running,  even if i walk.
i see  a complete lack of "stealth"  to be possible with the actual game.
in arma 2 if you run, cross some trees or walls and stop running , you can evade.
or you can go walking slow,  and get closer to the zombies.  now, in the SA thats impossible. they see you allways.

[gibonez 3633]

I wish the zombies in Dayz took the Gorge Romero approach to zombies.

 

Zombies are never the big threat in his movies, they are just in the background always providing a constant steady pressure on the survivors.

The real threat is always people because humans by nature cannot be trusted.

[Erik (DayZ) 61]

Once they'll stop seeing and running through walls they'll be fine/actually too easy to avoid.

[libertine 351]

I think the absolute KEY to providing a good zombie experience is making their visual system decent, but not overdoing their hearing system. I can sprint at full speed silently and sneak around easily very silently. It was one of my childhood fun things to do, sneak around in camo, with paintball guns in the neighborhood. No human or zombie should be able to hear me while im sneaking around unless im on creaky floor in an old house and they are 4ft away. The loud metal sound of metal flooring would be very quiet in real life too.

Sneaking is a very innate thing for humans and can make a sort of sense in the game if done right, enhancing immersion because it enhances believability, helping to further suspend disbelief. Being able to detect a player easily from a good distance by sight is no problem as long as its not instantaneous. The game should give you a small grace period before the zombie reacts, you should be able to lean around a corner with a zombie staring straight at you, but not be seen if you get back in cover. Ideally, zombie behavior would be pretty complex, as it will get old the sooner it becomes a known quantity. I hope that they continuously modify and add to zombie behavior. In the previous example after looking around a corner, the zombie could go into investigate mode, walking slowly toward "something" that moved.

The whole point of this is that it allows for zombies to be dangerous (i want 30 days later zombies btw), yet making sneaking around logical and more realistic.

[serenityrick 218]

Let's say all the bugs are worked out regarding zombies and their wall hacking and hitting through ceilings finally stops.. this is my personal wishlist for them in terms of their behavior and thread:

 

• Zombies should be slightly faster than the players. This would up their threat considerably. If you're playing alone and you're careless in a town or city and alert a hoard of them, you should instantly feel panic set in because you won't be able to outrun them. You have to find a place to hide and hopefully line of sight some of them and fend off the ones that found you... or die trying.
• Zombies, when aggroed, should constantly be screeching and growling and yelling. Perhaps their screeching intensifies as they get right up on you. Having the same few audio bites play every couple seconds is meh.. Having multiple zombies moaning and shrieking as they are hot on your tail would be absolutely terrifying especially given that you won't be able to outrun them forever.

Short and sweet. Those two things would be fantastic in my opinion. Having them be a threat would definitely encourage people to team up and co-operate.

Having them run faster would also serve the purpose of making obsolete having a designated player who just runs in, gathers a train of zombies so another player can go in and loot a town. On the surface it sounds good because it encourages team work.. but there's just something lame about someone running in circles forever where the zombies will never catch up or do any damage. It's predictable and shallow game-play.

 

On the player side of things, stealth should be easier to achieve. In the mod, you had a GUI telling you how exposed you were and obviously that won't be the case in this game.. And in the mod, the best way to bypass zombies was going prone in a town. This however made things rather boring and slow going.. so in the SA, crouching should be good enough to bypass zombies unless you were in their direct line of sight. Standing up, shining lights or making noise would be near suicide in a town with a lot of zombies though.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 29, 2013 by serenityrick

[Bribase 251]

The problem with "zombies" is that you can never make everyone happy.

 

I think they should be the last thing you want to encounter in the game. More of a threat than players in every aspect.

 

I wouldn't say more of a threat but an equal threat that reinforces each other; You kill a man in the wilderness to take his supplies because a trip to town is too dangerous. You hide in towns because players don't risk firing their guns there.

[xX_fr0st-w0lf_Xx (DayZ) 343]

The problem with zombies is that arma 2 was never meant to have zombies in it, while the engine is altered, it would be still pretty difficult to make interesting acting and varied zombies that both bring fear, intensity and challenge to dayz.

 

Since thats not possible they substitute it for fast running zombies with god-awful AI

[ninjacalypse 551]

2. You run away from him, keeping the exact same distance, until you find some corner you can run around and hide/sneak away

 

I don't know how much you've played of the Standalone but that doesn't work here...not yet at least...since the zombies walk through walls/doors/fences and other geometry.

 

Hopefully, later on in the development, we'll get different types of zombies, more intelligent zombies, more dangerous zombies, hordes, etc.

[xtharkusx 7]

serenityrick, zombies should not even be faster than a player.
in the majority zombie movies, they dont run.  in the standalone they run slower than players and i see it ok, but running faster ..
if you want the zombies being more dangerous, you could add more.. or harder zombies.
but in the movies, generally they dont run as fast as a human.

[Zer0HD2 (DayZ) 40]

Wait until later in development when the full number of zombies is implemented before you say they are no threat...

[grifflyman 1]

At the moment there is nothing that requires true team work, other than medical stuff the game is basicaly a big death match. Zombies don't play a factor at all.

[combatcomm1 234]

I cant tell you how much I disagree with this threads existence....

[ratiasu@hotmail.co.jp 122]

The idea is the zombies are too tough to fight alone, so you group up to make it easier, right?. So you find some people to stick together with, now the zombies are no match for you and your group. They are easy, it gets boring, then what? Buffing the zombies might get people to work together, but then it's not individuals roaming around bored of easy zombies, it's groups of people instead.

 

This could be better though; it would be awesome to have completely player run factions fighting each other, making alliances and forming huge groups etc. Thanks to clothing they could make a uniform for their group, paint vehicles, the sky is the limit here.

These are called clans. Random players want to jump on a server and get a group, instead of the other way around. Imho, they have a mindset problem.

[WrecklessMEDIC 129]

Totally agree with this. But i dont see the Zombies as "threatening" atm (in the mod and the game), i simply see them as annoying.

I know exactly what you mean. In the mod there are waaay more zombies and it's brutally annoying. They're more of a nuisance than anything.

I think they need to increase the number of zombies in the standalone but they also definitely need to decrease their sensitivity radius. It's ridiculous how far away they can spot you.

[Gerandar 212]

The problem with "zombies" is that you can never make everyone happy.

 

I think they should be the last thing you want to encounter in the game. More of a threat than players in every aspect.

 

I dont know what zombies you've read about/seen in movies but the only time a zombie is of any real threat is if it got the jump on you(smashed through the window without you noticing for example) or if there is a huge horde. a group of 5-6 zombies would not be an issue to avoid as they have a hard enough time walking.

[combatcomm1 234]

Let's say all the bugs are worked out regarding zombies and their wall hacking and hitting through ceilings finally stops.. this is my personal wishlist for them in terms of their behavior and thread:

 

• Zombies should be slightly faster than the players. This would up their threat considerably. If you're playing alone and you're careless in a town or city and alert a hoard of them, you should instantly feel panic set in because you won't be able to outrun them. You have to find a place to hide and hopefully line of sight some of them and fend off the ones that found you... or die trying.
• Zombies, when aggroed, should constantly be screeching and growling and yelling. Perhaps their screeching intensifies as they get right up on you. Having the same few audio bites play every couple seconds is meh.. Having multiple zombies moaning and shrieking as they are hot on your tail would be absolutely terrifying especially given that you won't be able to outrun them forever.

Short and sweet. Those two things would be fantastic in my opinion. Having them be a threat would definitely encourage people to team up and co-operate.

Having them run faster would also serve the purpose of making obsolete having a designated player who just runs in, gathers a train of zombies so another player can go in and loot a town. On the surface it sounds good because it encourages team work.. but there's just something lame about someone running in circles forever where the zombies will never catch up or do any damage. It's predictable and shallow game-play.

 

On the player side of things, stealth should be easier to achieve. In the mod, you had a GUI telling you how exposed you were and obviously that won't be the case in this game.. And in the mod, the best way to bypass zombies was going prone in a town. This however made things rather boring and slow going.. so in the SA, crouching should be good enough to bypass zombies unless you were in their direct line of sight. Standing up, shining lights or making noise would be near suicide in a town with a lot of zombies though.

 

 

THIS. Please rocket. Better anims too. More spastic and convulsive like they are on crack, or infected. 

 

 

I dont know what zombies you've read about/seen in movies but the only time a zombie is of any real threat is if it got the jump on you(smashed through the window without you noticing for example) or if there is a huge horde. a group of 5-6 zombies would not be an issue to avoid as they have a hard enough time walking.

 

 

You're clearly late to the party. They arent the walking dead. They are infected with a virus that makes them rage. So theoretically effecting muscle tone and possibly making them faster and not feel pain. 

Edited January 3, 2014 by VictorM