Zombies should run faster than players

[TLa/-Elrico 9]

I suppose also making gun noises attratched them would be an idea. I seem to fire a Mosen and ol' Timmy '0 toole in the field doesnt have his hearing aid up enough and therefore doesnt hear me. Increase population (as they are going to), give them a pack mentallity (1 slow, 2 quicker, 5 getting there, 10 they're hungry) which would fall into the horde catergoery, and a non-deaf characteristic. Might even make luring them away from high value stuff a tactic to let off a round or two. But then again, who else might be listening in on whats happening, and can you afford wasting rounds?

 

Edit: Stamina will also fix it as said.

Edited January 27, 2014 by TLa/-Elrico

[TD808 71]

 

 

Lol what is elitist about me not wanting people who get upset about not being able to outrun zombies in our game? that's somebody who doesn't like a challenge :P and this game is going to be one big challenge so its best to weed them out now

 

and why on earth would your first thought as a new spawn to be "OMG LETS RUN AT ZOMBIES!" lmao of course you're going to avoid zombie agro as a fresh spawn. duh. you have no weapons (smh) of course it should be the only way to survive because that's incredibly realistic

 

Talking to you is funny :)

[naterstein 0]

Please no.  Zombies are not and should never be the main antagonist for this game.  Once they are able to respawn and their AI is tweaked so you can be swarmed, then we won't need them to be super fast rage "zombies"  This isn't a Rage Zombie Apocalypse game with survival elements, it is a POST-Apocalypse survival game with the infected serving as the catalyst.  There are already a ton of games for simple Player vs Zombie mechanic.

[Mopa 44]

Zombies being faster = no.

More zombies = yea. 

Stronger Zombies = no. 

[SolidOwlPL 37]

I'm for stronger, faster, more. But not at this stage of the game.

[victusmortuus 1074]

Yeah, they're pretty terrible as-is. My favourite zombie archetype is of the 28 Days Later variety.

 

Y'know, sprinting frantically and spitting goo at your face type of thing. Shuffling, foot-dragging zombies are a thing of the past and can stay there. I've had literally a half dozen zombies slowly chasing me around as I searched a city before. You can have a handful of them in the same room as you and they pose no danger as long as you're strafing around.

 

Beans, sir.

 

I find it kind of ironic you say that yet everything about you screams The Walking Dead.  Slow zombies are better for this game as in the mod they were just annoying, at least now you can deal with them without them zipping around you flailing their dumb arms in the air. 

[6The6Count6 28]

You people do realize the only reason we are aloud to run full tilt without needing to rest in the game atm is because we have no vehicles yet?

The gave us unlimited sprint for now because otherwise getting around would just be ridiculous.

 

So my point is, no zombies do not need to be faster, i find them pretty fast as they are and when there is more or them plus better AI and hit detection they'll be a real problem. Plus the fact we'll no longer be able to sprint indefinitely by then.

 

I'd also like to see some of the ideas from state of decay put in, using loud things to draw them away, timer alarm clocks, fire crackers stuff like that.

Edited January 27, 2014 by 6The6Count6

[Furtherado 100]

Slow zombies are stupid and unrealistic. We`re talking about a virus infection here, how in the hell could slow lumbering zombies spread their virus fast enough to be a real threat before they get perforated by bullets and blown up? Even if the virus i airborne it wouldn`t take long before affected areas would be quarantined and the spread sverely reduced. 

 

Realistically, zombies, even the RAGE virus ones, are horribly inefficient hunters, they have no interest in protecting themselves from the elements or from weapons, They have no concept of self-preservation and would probably die in heaps from hypothermia, infections and self-inflicted wounds. It would probably be open season for insects to eat their soft tissue, and bigger predators to have easy prey. A RAGE virus infected guy wouldn`t stand a chance against a bear or a pack of wolves.

 

They don`t have the intelligence to use tools, stealth or deception to catch their own prey. Zombies, in pretty much any depiction would easily fall for obvious traps (as simple as standing on the other side of a big river and letting the current do the job), ambushes and fortificications which limit their routes of attack.  

 

So, give the zombies a chance, make them fast, crazed RAGE-virus esque hordes of killers who use basic tactics like surrounding and maybe using simple tools. 

[eleventhavenue 204]

Well, at some point, you actually have to ask yourself; where does these zeds come from? Chernarus isn't really a densely populated country... one wonders where all these hordes are going to come from...

I think that I'm more in favor of a few, perceptive, fast, and lethal zeds than hordes.

[flygamer1 176]

They should NOT run faster then players, They should be in groups and players should have stamina. Once stamina is implanted and more zombies(in horde hopefully) they will become more dangerous.

[victusmortuus 1074]

Slow zombies are stupid and unrealistic. We`re talking about a virus infection here, how in the hell could slow lumbering zombies spread their virus fast enough to be a real threat before they get perforated by bullets and blown up? Even if the virus i airborne it wouldn`t take long before affected areas would be quarantined and the spread sverely reduced. 

 

Realistically, zombies, even the RAGE virus ones, are horribly inefficient hunters, they have no interest in protecting themselves from the elements or from weapons, They have no concept of self-preservation and would probably die in heaps from hypothermia, infections and self-inflicted wounds. It would probably be open season for insects to eat their soft tissue, and bigger predators to have easy prey. A RAGE virus infected guy wouldn`t stand a chance against a bear or a pack of wolves.

 

They don`t have the intelligence to use tools, stealth or deception to catch their own prey. Zombies, in pretty much any depiction would easily fall for obvious traps (as simple as standing on the other side of a big river and letting the current do the job), ambushes and fortificications which limit their routes of attack.  

 

So, give the zombies a chance, make them fast, crazed RAGE-virus esque hordes of killers who use basic tactics like surrounding and maybe using simple tools. 

 

World War Z (book!);

 

Through a series of oral interviews, Brooks, as an agent of the United Nations Postwar Commission, describes the history of 'World War Z'. Although the origin of the zombie pandemic is unknown, the story begins in China after a zombie bites a young boy. The Chinese government attempts to contain the infection and concocts a crisis involving Taiwan to mask their activities. The infection is spread to other countries by the black market organ trade and by refugees; an outbreak in South Africa finally brings the plague to public attention. 

 

As the infection spreads, only Israel initiates a nationwide quarantine and closes its borders. Pakistan and Iran destroy each other in a nuclear war after Iran attempts to stem the flow of refugees from Pakistan. The United States of America does little to prepare; although special forces teams are used to contain initial outbreaks, a widespread effort never starts as the nation is sapped of political will by several "brushfire wars", and an ineffective and fraudulently marketed vaccine has created a false sense of security. When the world recognizes the true scope of the problem, a period known as the "Great Panic" begins.

 

The United States Army sends a task force to Yonkers, New York, in a high-profile military campaign intended to restore American morale. However, the military relies upon Cold War tactics, weapons intended to disable vehicles, and the wounding or demoralization of human opponents: these have no effect on a force that uses wave attacks, has to be shot in the head to be stopped, and has no fear of death. As a result the soldiers are routed on live television. Other countries suffer similarly disastrous defeats, and human civilization teeters on the brink of collapse.

 

In South Africa, the government adopts a plan drafted by ex-apartheid government official Paul Redeker, which calls for the establishment of small "safe zones", areas surrounded by natural boundaries and cleared of zombies. Large groups of refugees are to be kept alive outside the safe zones to distract the hordes of undead, allowing those within the safe zones time to regroup. Various governments worldwide adopt their own versions of the "Redeker Plan" or evacuate to safer foreign territory. Since zombies are known to freeze solid in the cold, many civilians in North America flee to the wilds of northern Canada; approximately 11 million people die, many from starvation and exposure.

 

During a conference near Honolulu aboard USS Saratoga, most of the world's leaders indicate they want to wait out the zombie plague, but the US President successfully argues that the only way to survive physically and psychologically is to go on the offensive. Determined to lead by example, the United States military reinvents itself to meet the specific challenges involved in fighting the living dead: automatic weapons and mobility are replaced by semi-automatic rifles and formation firing, troops are retrained to focus on head shots and slow, steady rates of fire, and a multipurpose hand tool, the Lobotomizer or "Lobo", is designed to destroy zombie heads close up. In two north–south lines stretching across North America, the U.S. military leaves its safe zone west of the Rocky Mountains and crosses the continent, systematically destroying the zombies and reclaiming outposts of survivors (whether they want to be reclaimed or not).

 

Ten years after the "official" end of the zombie war, millions of zombies are still active and the geopolitical landscape of the Earth has been transformed. A democratic Cuba has become the world's most thriving economy and international banking capital. China has become a democracy—after a civil war was ended by a Chinese nuclear submarine launching intercontinental ballistic missiles at the Communist leadership—but has been vastly depopulated, while Tibet, freed from Chinese rule, hosts the world's most populated city. Following a religious revolution, Russia is now an expansionist theocracy. North Korea is completely empty, with the entire population having disappeared underground; it is unknown if they survived or have become zombies.

 

Iceland has been completely depopulated, and is the world's most heavily infested country. The United Nations fields a large military force to eliminate the remaining zombies from overrun areas, defeat hordes surfacing from the ocean floor, and kill frozen zombies before they thaw. Major effects of the war are a drastic reduction in the human population, which is alluded to have been brought to the brink of extinction, and the devastation of many environments and species, as much by desperate humans as by marauding zombies. 

[Furtherado 100]

 

World War Z (book!);

 

Through a series of oral interviews, Brooks, as an agent of the United Nations Postwar Commission, describes the history of 'World War Z'. Although the origin of the zombie pandemic is unknown, the story begins in China after a zombie bites a young boy. The Chinese government attempts to contain the infection and concocts a crisis involving Taiwan to mask their activities. The infection is spread to other countries by the black market organ trade and by refugees; an outbreak in South Africa finally brings the plague to public attention. 

 

As the infection spreads, only Israel initiates a nationwide quarantine and closes its borders. Pakistan and Iran destroy each other in a nuclear war after Iran attempts to stem the flow of refugees from Pakistan. The United States of America does little to prepare; although special forces teams are used to contain initial outbreaks, a widespread effort never starts as the nation is sapped of political will by several "brushfire wars", and an ineffective and fraudulently marketed vaccine has created a false sense of security. When the world recognizes the true scope of the problem, a period known as the "Great Panic" begins.

 

The United States Army sends a task force to Yonkers, New York, in a high-profile military campaign intended to restore American morale. However, the military relies upon Cold War tactics, weapons intended to disable vehicles, and the wounding or demoralization of human opponents: these have no effect on a force that uses wave attacks, has to be shot in the head to be stopped, and has no fear of death. As a result the soldiers are routed on live television. Other countries suffer similarly disastrous defeats, and human civilization teeters on the brink of collapse.

 

In South Africa, the government adopts a plan drafted by ex-apartheid government official Paul Redeker, which calls for the establishment of small "safe zones", areas surrounded by natural boundaries and cleared of zombies. Large groups of refugees are to be kept alive outside the safe zones to distract the hordes of undead, allowing those within the safe zones time to regroup. Various governments worldwide adopt their own versions of the "Redeker Plan" or evacuate to safer foreign territory. Since zombies are known to freeze solid in the cold, many civilians in North America flee to the wilds of northern Canada; approximately 11 million people die, many from starvation and exposure.

 

During a conference near Honolulu aboard USS Saratoga, most of the world's leaders indicate they want to wait out the zombie plague, but the US President successfully argues that the only way to survive physically and psychologically is to go on the offensive. Determined to lead by example, the United States military reinvents itself to meet the specific challenges involved in fighting the living dead: automatic weapons and mobility are replaced by semi-automatic rifles and formation firing, troops are retrained to focus on head shots and slow, steady rates of fire, and a multipurpose hand tool, the Lobotomizer or "Lobo", is designed to destroy zombie heads close up. In two north–south lines stretching across North America, the U.S. military leaves its safe zone west of the Rocky Mountains and crosses the continent, systematically destroying the zombies and reclaiming outposts of survivors (whether they want to be reclaimed or not).

 

Ten years after the "official" end of the zombie war, millions of zombies are still active and the geopolitical landscape of the Earth has been transformed. A democratic Cuba has become the world's most thriving economy and international banking capital. China has become a democracy—after a civil war was ended by a Chinese nuclear submarine launching intercontinental ballistic missiles at the Communist leadership—but has been vastly depopulated, while Tibet, freed from Chinese rule, hosts the world's most populated city. Following a religious revolution, Russia is now an expansionist theocracy. North Korea is completely empty, with the entire population having disappeared underground; it is unknown if they survived or have become zombies.

 

Iceland has been completely depopulated, and is the world's most heavily infested country. The United Nations fields a large military force to eliminate the remaining zombies from overrun areas, defeat hordes surfacing from the ocean floor, and kill frozen zombies before they thaw. Major effects of the war are a drastic reduction in the human population, which is alluded to have been brought to the brink of extinction, and the devastation of many environments and species, as much by desperate humans as by marauding zombies. 

 

, 

Yeah in an absolute worst case scenario i guess modern military forces could be "routed" by an unstoppable hyperinfectious disease spread by unarmed human hosts, i just don`t see what unarmed predators with basicly no other tactic than "charge" are going to do about bombs, tanks, planes, helicopters, snipers, and drones even if they only die by destroying their heads, because you don`t need to kill them to disable them, they are still somehow human i guess so even if impervious to pain, how would they move with broken spines or legs?

 

There are so many ways a zombie apocalypse would fail, the only way i see one succeeding is of this "infection" variety where the virus spreads and mutates so efficiently it can`t be stopped from entering your system anything short of living 1000 miles from the closest living organism capable of carrying the virus.  

[victusmortuus 1074]

, 

Yeah in an absolute worst case scenario i guess modern military forces could be "routed" by an unstoppable hyperinfectious disease spread by unarmed human hosts, i just don`t see what unarmed predators with basicly no other tactic than "charge" are going to do about bombs, tanks, planes, helicopters, snipers, and drones even if they only die by destroying their heads, because you don`t need to kill them to disable them, they are still somehow human i guess so even if impervious to pain, how would they move with broken spines or legs?

 

There are so many ways a zombie apocalypse would fail, the only way i see one succeeding is of this "infection" variety where the virus spreads and mutates so efficiently it can`t be stopped from entering your system anything short of living 1000 miles from the closest living organism capable of carrying the virus.  

 

You should really read World War Z -don't watch the movie, ever!- The battle of Yonkers explains this also and it's very very cool. Plus everything is up for interpretation as it's all fiction so sitting in the boundaries of the zombie universe 'anything is possible'.

[InvisiMan2013 229]

I can't stand fast zombies - they are suppose to be reanimated dead, not super-humans.  

 

If fast zombies are going to be added, I hope it's only for some special class of zombie and not universal. 

[over9000nukez 199]

if you want zombies to be more dangerous, how bout every time they attack you it ruins all your cloths, and after that youll get infected, die , and become a zombie.

faster zombies will make me so pissed off, UNLESS you can lock yourself inside a house, and sneak out the back, which will need a better AI, so basicly you could outsmart them by jumping fences or something, OR walking dead style zombies, slow, but their numbers are waaaay bigger.

or fewered, and waaaaay faster.

[victusmortuus 1074]

I can't stand fast zombies - they are suppose to be reanimated dead, not super-humans.  

 

If fast zombies are going to be added, I hope it's only for some special class of zombie and not universal. 

 

They're apparently infected -28 days later style- but for gameplay Rocket should keep the speed they are at. It's simple really, when path finding is in and working, one zombie would be difficult for a new player just as one zombie at the beginning of most zombie films/novels are difficult. However that one zombie to a veteran player is nothing, same as in the zombie genre. 

 

A Horde of them would definitely cause a threat to both level of players so I think until something similar to that is implemented into the Standalone we shouldn't discuss it too heavily.

[hogscraper 328]

I suppose also making gun noises attratched them would be an idea. I seem to fire a Mosen and ol' Timmy '0 toole in the field doesnt have his hearing aid up enough and therefore doesnt hear me. Increase population (as they are going to), give them a pack mentallity (1 slow, 2 quicker, 5 getting there, 10 they're hungry) which would fall into the horde catergoery, and a non-deaf characteristic. Might even make luring them away from high value stuff a tactic to let off a round or two. But then again, who else might be listening in on whats happening, and can you afford wasting rounds?

 

Edit: Stamina will also fix it as said.

Be careful what you wish for. People kept saying that zombies should have a greater range of hearing in the mod and you could hear the screaming and crying in Chernarus all the way to Taviana once they increased it.People would fire off a lee enfield in Elektro then flip out because 30-40 zombies would come looking for whoever rang the dinner bell.

[YassirX 54]

There just have to be different types of zombies, some examples:

Walkers [fast running speed, small damage, low health, attacks in groups]

Infected manifestation = several zombies clustered into one body [very big, high health, walking speed, high melee reach, deadly, poisons items, other zombies and players with infection in a 5 meter radius])  
Soldier-Zombie [running speed, medium damage, bullet-proof vest which heavily reduces the received damage of pistols and other small caliber weapons]

Standard-Zombie [walking speed, low health, has no cheek (hits cause infection)] - Should be 100% of the Zombie Type population in small towns.

 

Zeds should mainly react to noise which makes them very dangerous at night. Everything aside from Walking creates noise, the amount of noise should depend on the speed of movement and the surface.

Shooting with a weapon creates noise too and depending on the type and caliber of the weapon this can attract very many zombies, especially when the player shoots a shotgun inside of a city-center.

Some Zombies (depending on the type) should still have good vision. Soldier Zombies should be able to track movement at ~200 meters while Infected Manifestations and StandardZeds can only see in a radius of about 50 meters. I'm pretty sure that those values would need some testing and maybe should be lower... 

 

There should be a very high amount of zombies all over the map.

Like 50 zombies at a military base, 100+ at the NWAF and Cherno should be a zombie fest with like 500++ zombies walking/lurking around...

Minimum amount of zombies in the major cities should be 300... Zombies-Idle state should makes rather loud croaking noises which sound different depending on the zombie type.

I mean... in the major cities there should be so many zombies that you cannot even go into a building without clearing those zeds in front and of course... inside... of it.

Zombies have to be deadly and devastating, forcing most players to work together to be able to survive.

 

Zeds should be scary and they should be a real challenge. There should be no way a fresh spawn can go straight to one of the major cities.

In fact the major cities should be endgame locations where only well equipped players which operate in groups and/or are very careful can survive a loot run.

 

All Fresh-Spawns should spawn in Kamenka, Kamyshovo or Niznohye. Small towns like those should have ~20 zombies max.

That way players can slowly gear up and move towards the inland... places like balota, cherno, elektro or berezino would mean a fast death for a bambi.

 

Player-Progress (due to area/zombie difficulty) should be like this:

"LvL" 1. Small Towns, Cars/Vehicles, Train-Stations, Castles // Main Opponent: Standard Zeds

"LvL" 2. Medium Sized Towns, Industrial Areas/Factories, Shipwreck, Crash-Sites (Civil Heli/Plane,) // Main Opponent: Standard Zeds. Walkers

"LvL" 3. (endgame) Cities, Military Areas, Airstrips, Abandoned Military Convoys // Main Opponent: Extremely high amount of Standard Zeds + Walkers, Infected Manifestations, Soldier Zeds.

Edited January 28, 2014 by YassirX

[InvisiMan2013 229]

They're apparently infected -28 days later style- but for gameplay Rocket should keep the speed they are at. It's simple really, when path finding is in and working, one zombie would be difficult for a new player just as one zombie at the beginning of most zombie films/novels are difficult. However that one zombie to a veteran player is nothing, same as in the zombie genre. 

 

A Horde of them would definitely cause a threat to both level of players so I think until something similar to that is implemented into the Standalone we shouldn't discuss it too heavily.

 

I'd love to see hordes.

 

Thinking about it more, this game/engine is too clunky (at least at the moment) to be running away from Usain Bolt Zombies.  I mean, they still walk through walls and doors and the hit detection is terrible... it would cause a lot of rage quits guaranteed. 

[louist 163]

Yeah, they're pretty terrible as-is. My favourite zombie archetype is of the 28 Days Later variety.

Y'know, sprinting frantically and spitting goo at your face type of thing. Shuffling, foot-dragging zombies are a thing of the past and can stay there. I've had literally a half dozen zombies slowly chasing me around as I searched a city before. You can have a handful of them in the same room as you and they pose no danger as long as you're strafing around.

Beans, sir.

The real danger of zombies chasing you in DayZ has always been that they alert other players.

[Junos 57]

Until the pathing and clipping is fixed, they should not increase in number nor ability.

 

Eventually, it would be ok for a few of them to be faster than other players, but not all of them.  I think the primary danger should be from numbers and surprise, i.e. walking around a corner into a sleepy horde.  Depending on their zombie lifecycle, maybe some of them could be faster and stronger.

[TLa/-Elrico 9]

Be careful what you wish for. People kept saying that zombies should have a greater range of hearing in the mod and you could hear the screaming and crying in Chernarus all the way to Taviana once they increased it.People would fire off a lee enfield in Elektro then flip out because 30-40 zombies would come looking for whoever rang the dinner bell.

 

I had to give you beans for the dinner bell. I shall forever call it "ringing the dinner bell" when gunshots attract zombies. If you let off a mosin shot, in the middle of a town like elektro, surely zombies within elektro would flock to a rough location. Maybe dont make them K-9's, but something a little sharper then Paris Hilton would be preferred (and prettier too).

[Atomizer 53]

The biggest issue with slow moving zombies in a large open map like DayZ has, is the key aspect, of the slow moving zombies, is numbers, for DayZ, this would mean you would need say, 50000 zombies for the whole map? Just a guess, but either way you would need way more then what the game will ever handle even after all engine optimizations are done.

 

However, if you make them the speed they are now, and include things like knocking the players over, then you really only need a handful to make them very deadly.

 

And for hardcore servers, requiring headshots to kill them :P

Edited January 29, 2014 by Atomizer

[RiggsUK 69]

DayZ doesnt have zombies. What dayz has is an infection on a high percentage of living humans only. Causing them to know only rage and a hunger for the non-infected humans. Yet somehow maintain the motor capability to run at full speed. It's a blatant copy of the danny boyle movie 28 days later, which made no sense to me yet was quite entertaining on behalf of robert carlises performance. If the devs insist on calling them zombies, then they should follow on from the creator of zombies. Namely George Romero, and have them stumble toward you like they do indoors on DayZ mod. The obvious problem with this in a game, is creating the numerous hordes on screen to actually make it challenging. Pretty much improbable to create in an online game at this stage in home computer technology, without procedural algorithms and a real-time animation engine. I keep my algorithms for my own homebrew projects or big companies would exploit them for their own ends. Just as companies are withholding their own bought or sometimes in-house engines for themselves. i will do the same. So back on topic, respect the creator of zombies and don't try to rubbish his legacy for your own ends. This is not an attack on DayZ as it pushes many boundaries in gaming today. More a general disrespect within the media industries of a lone man and his vision.

[knoCC (DayZ) 211]

Fast-moving zombies were lame the day they were introduced...this is supposed to be a realistic simulation correct? A horde of slow-moving zombies is far more frightening than LFD spazzed-out Hollywood shit that we are tortured with. They look great in movies...

 

If you played the Mod, you must have loved the Zeds that chased you from Electro to Balota without losing a step...Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.