Suggestion: Zombification

[Jaybopper 49]

Just reading the http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/165709-pending-changelog-experimental-branch-031114343/ and got as far as dead character cleanup. It reminded me of a no-brainer suggestion I meant to suggest so here it is..
 

You ready? This is gonna knock your fuckin socks off.. here it comes..

Dead characters should... guessed it yet?.... return from the dead as zombies!! Still wearing and carrying all the shit they had when they died!!
But not just any zombies, they would be fresh zombies. Much harder to take down than your usual, run-of-the-mill, decaying mess.

Some of you may know me as "Jaybopper: Promoter and defender of immersion!" but let me give this some more value besides the obvious.
 

I have been battling tirelessly against any kind of humanity mechanic to discourage KoS, suggesting instead things like:

 

1. Discharging a firearm alerts every zombie in ear-shot of the shot.. more zombies than you want to alert.

2. Melee weapons made from fragile materials deteriorate the more you bash them off of hard objects like zombies and other players. For example a badly damaged baseball bat that has been sitting in a shed for a long time is likely to break if you keep whacking things with it. Same goes for a shovel.

3. You can apply this deterioration to the firearms too. The more you fire it the more it deteriorates. Unless you clean it. Maybe one thing leads to another and you don't have time or forget to clean it. Now you need to find a replacement part which means scavenging the world without a gun. You might not be so trigger happy with it from now on... that's if you survive long enough to repair it.

 

Well here's another thing to add to the list; dead player characters return from the dead as fresh, meaty, bean-stuffed, super-zombies!
Maybe they're wearing a ballistic helmet! Maybe coupled with a mask so you can't even tell it's a zombie straight away!
If they are carrying a weapon they could randomly pull the trigger. Firing if they have ammo left, just clicking if they don't. That should make for some interesting scenarios!

Lots of love and apologies to those who suggested this already. I searched but could not find your threads :(

[Rōnin Rick 98]

They aren't zombies. They're infected.

[blurhitz 244]

I can't say for sure but I think rocket totally disapproved the idea :|

Not that I don't like it, just saying

Edited January 19, 2014 by xBlurHitz

[Baarn 53]

1: Zombies are not dead but infected. Survivors are immune to the disease, afaik. That's why they survived basically.

 

2: Wrong forum.

[Jaybopper 49]

They aren't zombies. They're infected.

 

So you mean like the player characters aren't infected?

[Jaybopper 49]

1: Zombies are not dead but infected. Survivors are immune to the disease, afaik. That's why they survived basically.

 

Well that's news to me :(

I guess I'd have known this if I played the mod?

[unicornsmustdie 32]

i don't know or care much about the difference between zombies and infected; what I do know is that letting the game bring your corpse back goes against immersion if you yourself respawn not five seconds later on the coast. If you're happy to be out of the game/server for a day, then cool all for it. but a infected/zombified copy of yourself that theoretically you can run into yourself again, that just takes away from the realism.

[Jaybopper 49]

i don't know or care much about the difference between zombies and infected; what I do know is that letting the game bring your corpse back goes against immersion if you yourself respawn not five seconds later on the coast. If you're happy to be out of the game/server for a day, then cool all for it. but a infected/zombified copy of yourself that theoretically you can run into yourself again, that just takes away from the realism.

Hmm good point.. This really only matters if you find yourself though. Come to think of it people would just hunt themselves down to get their stuff back. Then again this is already happening..

I must also mention the fact that there are already zombie duplicates roaming around..

[fulipes 15]

I can't be the first to suggest this, but still putting it out here:

 

What if being struck by a zombie gave you a disease which, if left untreated, resulted in turning a player into a zombie.

And I don't mean you could play as a zombie, but you would die, leaving your old body wandering aimlessly. Items in the zombies inventory would deteriorate with haste and eventually vanish, if not killed and looted.

This would create scenarios where an entire squad of players hunt for medicine to cure one unfortunate sick player before he turns into a zombie, and if unsuccesful, end up shooting him before the turn.

 

Just throwing ideas at you.

[phoboss 224]

i don't know or care much about the difference between zombies and infected; what I do know is that letting the game bring your corpse back goes against immersion if you yourself respawn not five seconds later on the coast. If you're happy to be out of the game/server for a day, then cool all for it. but a infected/zombified copy of yourself that theoretically you can run into yourself again, that just takes away from the realism.

Well that argument makes somewhat sense and doesn't at the same time. Because you miraculously "respawning" after you got killed is completely unrealistic in itself already. So unless you turn of respawn all together, it makes no difference if your char comes back as a zombies or not. People already go and loot their own corpses anyway. And I like to think of it as a new person rather then the same one. For the above reason. 

 

All the realism talk aside, simply from a diversity point of view, I love the idea. Have my beans good sir. Seeing zombies run around that look like players at first would be great for the gameplay. Them having backpacks, maybe even a shouldered gun on them would make the world feel more "real".

Edited January 20, 2014 by phoboss

[byrgesen 1341]

The only reason your character is human, is because he is immune to the virus, which has turned the rest of the population into infected.
Just like real life, a small percentage is always immune. (us the players)

 

That is also why you can kill them by shooting then in the chest, it is not a "regular zombie", so this idea is far from "lore friendly" :)

Would like to add aswell, the "respawn" is not an actual respawn, its a new life. That is why we have permadeath.
When you die, you "reinkarnate" into another human survivor, i feel respawn is a very bad word for a game with permadeath :)

Edited January 20, 2014 by Byrgesen