Should zombies be a better source for loot?

[DevilDog (DayZ) 455]

Was just thinking today that it would be great to give players a reason to kill zombies, instead of sneaking around and running away from zombies all the time. I think most of the looted clothing should come from zombies. Imagine sneaking around until you see a zombie with that red hoodie you want and you got axe him to death and steal his clothes.

 

Other ideas:

Media zombie- with press vest

firefighter - with fire axe some medical supplies

doctor zombie - with more medical supplies

police zombie - police vest maybe, side arm, maybe some rounds, hand cuffs

 

 

All this stuff could be in various states of damage and also shooting the gear would ruin it just like a player, so aim for the head if you want his pants.

 

 

Zombies on the coast could also carry basic food stuffs.

[marsmars 155]

I think it's a good idea, especially with the introduction of the new Zombie Soldier I hope you can loot him for his vest and helmet

Edited January 21, 2014 by SurvivorX

[creature 1189]

I just want to wear the entire military zombie ensemble and stand around at a military base with no weapon and see how long I live. Maybe grunt and stuff at passers by. :D

[infammo 15]

Logically, their clothes would already be in a worn or damaged state, due to previous struggles and how recklessly Zombies move. While say a fireman with a fire extinguisher strapped to his back could reasonably have a decent condition extinguisher, even if depleted.*bonk*

 

With the current 10 minute despawn on bodies in experimental, I could imagine it happening. It would all depend on what they are carrying.

 

If, for instance their clothes could not be turned into useable rags without cleansing alcohol, due to contamination risk. As an example. (read badly damaged).

[antonioajc 500]

Well, if they add loot that can kickstart a new spawn, then they might want to upgrade the zombies a bit. Also, going with what Felandi said, these items would range from damaged to ruined. It would be extremely rare to find an item in the worn condition on the bodies.

Edited January 21, 2014 by AntonioAJC

[Rōnin Rick 98]

I'd support that. Makes sense as far as whoever the person was before they became a zombie likely had stuff on them at the time.

 

Of course you likely wouldn't find much on a zombie corpse that was 'pristine', so you'd be looking rather grungy going about wearing whatever you took off that zed you just axe-murdered!   ^_^

 

This would also help cut down on KoS, which is killing the game atm. By both making the zombies more of a threat, and a source of loot, you are encouraging players to WORK TOGETHER to kill zombies and PvE, instead of just murdering each other for the lulz.

Edited January 21, 2014 by Rōnin Rick

[mercules 1290]

Epoch does this to some extent. Off "Police" zombies you can sometimes get a padlock or hotwire kit to drop, both of which are very useful. Off farmworkers you can sometimes get a Sledgehammer head needed for making a sledgehammer which is a handy tool. Off Buisness Suit zombies you can get LockBoxes. All these are handy things to have and so you not only shoot zombies, you actually go check the bodies for loot!  :o  I Know!

[Captain Pronin 28]

Pretty sure rocked said thats not going to happen because of performance.

They need to keep the zombies as simple as possible so they can eventually spawn a few thousand of them.

[HIHBGaming 14]

If anything, I think if the Zeds did have lootable items it would have to be mostly basic shtuff. Maybe rarely find something really useful like rounds or the like, farming Zeds shouldn't be an option for good gear. The Zeds are going to be mostly there to be an antagonist once they're fixed, at the moment not so much.

 

Once they're sorted we will have a reason to shoot them because they'll kill us if we don't.

[sigvatr 154]

cant wait for zombeis with payday mask

[sigvatr 154]

i think zombies should have their own skins but use teh player models instead of having their own crapy ones. they arent scary wif dat shit but if they caried same stuff and wore same clothes as players da game would be much scarier

[Rōnin Rick 98]

Pretty sure rocked said thats not going to happen because of performance.

They need to keep the zombies as simple as possible so they can eventually spawn a few thousand of them.

Ah, didn't think of that. I suppose I would rather have A LOT of zombies than a few well-kitted ones. Aren't there threads though talking about soldier zombies? I would imagine they could place relatively valuable loot on these ones, so long as soldier zombies are uncommon.

Edited January 22, 2014 by Rōnin Rick

[Rōnin Rick 98]

i think zombies should have their own skins but use teh player models instead of having their own crapy ones. they arent scary wif dat shit but if they caried same stuff and wore same clothes as players da game would be much scarier

Nah, we don't want people being mistaken for zombies. There is enough KoS already, thank you very much!

[HIHBGaming 14]

i think zombies should have their own skins but use teh player models instead of having their own crapy ones. they arent scary wif dat shit but if they caried same stuff and wore same clothes as players da game would be much scarier

 

Server/Client performance is the issue, that is why they are the way they are.

[infammo 15]

Epoch does this to some extent. Off "Police" zombies you can sometimes get a padlock or hotwire kit to drop, both of which are very useful. Off farmworkers you can sometimes get a Sledgehammer head needed for making a sledgehammer which is a handy tool.

 

Precisely, it would not be strange at all to find a pair of pristine or only very slightly worn handcuffs on the belt of a police zombie. They are durable and the worst you could expect is a bit of corrosion, or scratches from being dragged through the dirt assuming the zombie fell over.

[sigvatr 154]

Server/Client performance is the issue, that is why they are the way they are.

nah man its entirely possible, lots of stuff is but dean just sux at coding

[Atomizer 53]

I posted about zombies having a base skin, which could have several skins for some variety, but then they would be fully customized by the equipment they wore, which also means the equipment is lootable and any time new equipment is added, there is no extra work to add them to the zombies(they just have to adjust the spawn tables).

I didn't consider the performance issues this would bring with it though, and don't misjudge this, this has nothing to do with how good a programmer is, it's just fact.

Zombies are one simple model with some animations and AI, and with having thousands of zombies on a single server, this system would essentially be like keeping track of thousands of players, with their own AI(which would be equivalent to the networking overhead of players, if not slightly better in terms of performance).

There is no way this would be feasible, even with major optimizations, running into a town would be like running into a town with 50+ players running around, towns already have their own performance issues they need to work out, without adding to it.

 

So yeah, have my beans.

 

 

Edit: Oh, almost forgot, in regard to people being mistaken for zombies, it goes the other way too, zombies mistake for people, in my opinion that would be more ideal then instantly knowing if it is a player or zombie, though chances are, you would know pretty quickly based on movement, it is hard to say without seeing it and playing around with it, but I have a feeling it would add to the game, rather then detract from it.

Edited January 22, 2014 by Atomizer

[chodemaster 0]

well i program video game engines for a living so i am an expert

[DirtyscumbagLith 270]

f zombie loot. i want to make a zombie ear necklace.

[mercules 1290]

well i program video game engines for a living so i am an expert

 

I had some asshat tell me that once concerning some software I support and QA. "It's a simple little thing to fix in C++ I don't know why your developers can't do it." I replied, "Um, because the software is written in Java so it will work on Macs as well? Do you know anything about Java?" His reply, "Well I'm sure it's simple in Java too." Yeah... move along buddy.