Zombie 101

[mikerunk2011@gmail.com 6]

So I a few weeks back I heard about DayZ and then a about week and half ago I bought Arma2 and Operation Arrowhead just to play DayZ. As a fan of zombies I couldn't resist playing a game were im thrust in to surviving in a zombie apocalypse. I spent lot of time reading interviews with Dean "Rocket" Hall as well, just trying to understand the thinking behind the game.

Now the whole idea is to create a simulation for a zombie apocalypse in which players have to learn to survive. Now there two elements to the game when you break it down. The first part would be the survival and the second part would be the zombies them selves. Together they make up what we know as DayZ.

The survival aspect is actually very well done if a bit raw around the edges. However this is alpha so no worries. This is not a big surprise considering that Dean "Rocket" Hall used his military survival train to model the game after. The game makes you prioritize what you need first and how quickly you need to get it.

However some minor points I want to make to the whole survival aspect of DayZ. As it stands you need a canteen to hold water, and then you can get water from wells and ponds and stuff. Now first off why not allow use to use bottles to put water in. I mean first rule of survival is to use whatever you have on hand. If you find a bottle it can be used to hold water. Second you need to drop something in the game that will force players using ponds and what not to purify the water. I would make players purify all water source other wise they will contract a disease.

Now the second aspect of the game which is the zombie aspect is puzzling to me. See there is no real model in which to base the zombies off of because zombies aren't real. So the only model you can use are what is seen in books, movies, comics, etc. Now me I'd use The Walking Dead cause it's perfect example of a survival in a zombie apocalypse.

There are certain aspects of zombies that I think Dean "Rocket" Hall should take in to account while making DayZ. The first is Zombies are almost impossible to kill. It takes a head shot to kill a zombie. If you're to create a simulated zombie apocalypse this to me is an element that should be added in. This makes them a threat, especially in large numbers which I'll get to in a minute.

The second element is that zombies are slow. You could walk back wards and still stay head of a lone zombie and even have enough time to aim and blow it's head off. As is right now the zombies in DayZ move way to fast.

The next thing is Zombies are more dangerous in numbers then on there own. Going in to a city or getting out of one is massive undertaking. While they maybe slow there numbers actually make up for there their mobility. While you might be able to stay head of the horde if you're not careful you could find you're self cornered. Zombies are also very strong and relentless which means when they corner their prey they will keep beating down walls, windows and doors till they get in.

Now some of those thing's can be replicated others probably not so much. If I were developing DayZ I would make walking in to so difficult that it would make the most hardcore player cringe. I would increases the number of zombies with in cities and towns. I would make it so once there alerted to a players presence they not only follow you but the come in from all different directions. If you get caught in building you have no hope of escape not unless a group of players comes in with enough fire power to get you out. In short it should be massively hard, hard to such a point that only groups with enough fire power should even attempt it. However in cities should be some good loot, loot worth going after.

Now the further away from cities and towns you get the less zombies you're going to see and less of a threat they are going to be. A lone gas station for example might have a couple of zombies but you should be able to deal with them, if you have a weapon. Even still you should be able to sneak past the zombies and get in to the gas station to find supplies.

Now my final thoughts if you well. DayZ has grown beyond that of being a mod. I think in order to really drive home the survival aspect it needs it's on game. I also believe that it should be an MMO. MMO would give DayZ way more depth and allow the game to prosper in way that it can not in it's current form.

Right now the game is pretty much every man for them selves. While there would be that mentality in a zombie apocalypse there would also be people who would group together for survival. The only way to really accomplish team work is by putting in useful skills that other players don't have but can benefit from, such as a cook or a hunter.

The one thing that Dean "Rocket" Hall and developers working on DayZ need to be aware of is that the cat is out of the bag in a manor of speaking. DayZ has become a hit very rapidly to such a degree that other developers have taken notice. This means other developers are going to see dollar signs and start making there own zombie apocalypse survival game. The question become who will be the first to really pull out all the stop and release an MMO.

[Lachmayne 2]

I hope your trolling. Slow moving zombies would make this game extremely boring. I would never get cornered and I would never die to a zombie. Your trying to make this into a game it is not and it would be terrible. Also, Classes in any game is a horrible idea.

[JagerWulf 0]

The infected in DayZ are not really following the "norm" when it comes to being a dead walker, I don't even think they are dead, they may look like it, smell like it, but they don't fully act like it, they act more like dazed confused very sick people who have become violently psychotic and cannibalistic and can ignore great amounts of pain, but when you shot them they tend to die just like normal people, although a head shot will put them down, so will a few body shots as well, the term infected has been used a few times and think what we’re looking at here is normal people who have become infected by some sort of virus.

If the truth be told I can tell you there definitely not zombies, as zombies only come from voodoo magic, so unless Rocket has a Voodoo priest hidden away somewhere on the map, casting spells on people to bind them to the priests will, then there not zombies.

The normal type of Undead walkers were used to seeing in such movies as, “Night of the living dead, Dawn of the dead” and Tv shows such as, “The walking dead” etc.. Are the ones that can only be destroyed by traumatic head injuries that destroy the brain are the Undead we know and love, these types of Undead are very recognisable by their missing limbs, varied state of decay and slow moving shambling walk, unless there fresh of course.

Food for thought.

P.S. Totally disagree with the mmorpg and classes idea.

[Achilles* 1]

28 days, rage zombies, isn't that what we ate dealing with??

[mikerunk2011@gmail.com 6]

I hope your trolling. Slow moving zombies would make this game extremely boring. I would never get cornered and I would never die to a zombie. Your trying to make this into a game it is not and it would be terrible. Also' date=' Classes in any game is a horrible idea.

[/quote']

No I'm not trolling. You guys can't have it both ways by saying you want a survival game and then ignore all most all zombie based movies, books, comics, tv shows. Zombies don't run fast at least faster then normal human.

You have to have a model by which to follow not just make crap up as you go, because at that point you're must making every game out there. The only models to compare to are the movies, comics, Tv shows etc.

Zombies are typically slow, not saying you can't throw a few fast ones in there but for most part they should be slow. They should be in greater numbers, bigger city or town the more zombies. You should only be able to kill them with a head shot. Also I'd make it so that one or two hits would kill a player, maybe a few more hits if you have body armor on.

I will also make it so that once they have you in a building they will surround that building the longer you're in there the more zombies you will draw to that location.

I never said classes, I said skills better yet crafting would be a better word. Right now there trying to find ways to bring people together but the only way to really do that is to bring in some sort of crafting skill based system.

You can take away every one starting gear but doesn't bring people together, if anything it adds even more mistrust. You need to have something in place that people will want.

If you're a cook then you have the ability to make food that people can use. If you're hunter you can kill animals and clean them so the meat can be cooked. The idea is to develop a system that players can draw upon to add one another, thus setting up communities, which I might add would happen in a zombie apocalypse. It's every man for themselves at the moment.

---

The infected in DayZ are not really following the "norm" when it comes to being a dead walker' date=' I don't even think they are dead, they may look like it, smell like it, but they don't fully act like it, they act more like dazed confused very sick people who have become violently psychotic and cannibalistic and can ignore great amounts of pain, but when you shot them they tend to die just like normal people, although a head shot will put them down, so will a few body shots as well, the term infected has been used a few times and think what we’re looking at here is normal people who have become infected by some sort of virus.

If the truth be told I can tell you there definitely not zombies, as zombies only come from voodoo magic, so unless Rocket has a Voodoo priest hidden away somewhere on the map, casting spells on people to bind them to the priests will, then there not zombies.

The normal type of Undead walkers were used to seeing in such movies as, “Night of the living dead, Dawn of the dead” and Tv shows such as, “The walking dead” etc.. Are the ones that can only be destroyed by traumatic head injuries that destroy the brain are the Undead we know and love, these types of Undead are very recognisable by their missing limbs, varied state of decay and slow moving shambling walk, unless there fresh of course.

Food for thought.

P.S. Totally disagree with the mmorpg and classes idea.

[/quote']

I never said it had to be an MMORPG. MMORPG would be WoW or Rift. If they turned it in to an MMO it would be a MMOFPS. Also you do realize that it all ready is an MMO to a certain degree. The game is played entirely online with other players. You can go from one server to another with the same character. So in a weird way it all ready an MMOFPS. The only difference is that it lacks a lot of elements you see an MMO, which is not a bad thing.

[JagerWulf 0]

28 days' date=' rage zombies, isn't that what we ate dealing with??

[/quote']

Again not Zombies and in 28days they were not undead, just very sick, movie was called 28days because that's how long it took to stave them to death, you can't stave an undead there already dead, maybe rocket should rename is mod to, "28 dayZ" and get his infected to to stave to death after 28 days.

[mikerunk2011@gmail.com 6]

28 days' date=' rage zombies, isn't that what we ate dealing with??

[/quote']

Again not Zombies and in 28days they were not undead, just very sick, movie was called 28days because that's how long it took to stave them to death, you can't stave an undead there already dead, maybe rocket should rename is mod to, "28 dayZ" and get his infected to to stave to death after 28 days.

Does it matter really. They still are not going to be as fast as some of the infected in the game.

[JagerWulf 0]

I hope your trolling. Slow moving zombies would make this game extremely boring. I would never get cornered and I would never die to a zombie. Your trying to make this into a game it is not and it would be terrible. Also' date=' Classes in any game is a horrible idea.

[/quote']

No I'm not trolling. You guys can't have it both ways by saying you want a survival game and then ignore all most all zombie based movies, books, comics, tv shows. Zombies don't run fast at least faster then normal human.

You have to have a model by which to follow not just make crap up as you go, because at that point you're must making every game out there. The only models to compare to are the movies, comics, Tv shows etc.

Zombies are typically slow, not saying you can't throw a few fast ones in there but for most part they should be slow. They should be in greater numbers, bigger city or town the more zombies. You should only be able to kill them with a head shot. Also I'd make it so that one or two hits would kill a player, maybe a few more hits if you have body armor on.

I will also make it so that once they have you in a building they will surround that building the longer you're in there the more zombies you will draw to that location.

I never said classes, I said skills better yet crafting would be a better word. Right now there trying to find ways to bring people together but the only way to really do that is to bring in some sort of crafting skill based system.

You can take away every one starting gear but doesn't bring people together, if anything it adds even more mistrust. You need to have something in place that people will want.

If you're a cook then you have the ability to make food that people can use. If you're hunter you can kill animals and clean them so the meat can be cooked. The idea is to develop a system that players can draw upon to add one another, thus setting up communities, which I might add would happen in a zombie apocalypse. It's every man for themselves at the moment.

---

The infected in DayZ are not really following the "norm" when it comes to being a dead walker' date=' I don't even think they are dead, they may look like it, smell like it, but they don't fully act like it, they act more like dazed confused very sick people who have become violently psychotic and cannibalistic and can ignore great amounts of pain, but when you shot them they tend to die just like normal people, although a head shot will put them down, so will a few body shots as well, the term infected has been used a few times and think what we’re looking at here is normal people who have become infected by some sort of virus.

If the truth be told I can tell you there definitely not zombies, as zombies only come from voodoo magic, so unless Rocket has a Voodoo priest hidden away somewhere on the map, casting spells on people to bind them to the priests will, then there not zombies.

The normal type of Undead walkers were used to seeing in such movies as, “Night of the living dead, Dawn of the dead” and Tv shows such as, “The walking dead” etc.. Are the ones that can only be destroyed by traumatic head injuries that destroy the brain are the Undead we know and love, these types of Undead are very recognisable by their missing limbs, varied state of decay and slow moving shambling walk, unless there fresh of course.

Food for thought.

P.S. Totally disagree with the mmorpg and classes idea.

[/quote']

I never said it had to be an MMORPG. MMORPG would be WoW or Rift. If they turned it in to an MMO it would be a MMOFPS. Also you do realize that it all ready is an MMO to a certain degree. The game is played entirely online with other players. You can go from one server to another with the same character. So in a weird way it all ready an MMOFPS. The only difference is that it lacks a lot of elements you see an MMO, which is not a bad thing.

Yep sorry my typo to auto type mmorpg, yes your kind'a right about the mmo bit, although I think it would have to more like 500- 5000 players per server to really qualify.

[mikerunk2011@gmail.com 6]

O and by the way there no such thing as zombies Jagger. The zombies that you refer to in vodoo are not actually dead, thus do not fit the term zombie.

---

I hope your trolling. Slow moving zombies would make this game extremely boring. I would never get cornered and I would never die to a zombie. Your trying to make this into a game it is not and it would be terrible. Also' date=' Classes in any game is a horrible idea.

[/quote']

No I'm not trolling. You guys can't have it both ways by saying you want a survival game and then ignore all most all zombie based movies, books, comics, tv shows. Zombies don't run fast at least faster then normal human.

You have to have a model by which to follow not just make crap up as you go, because at that point you're must making every game out there. The only models to compare to are the movies, comics, Tv shows etc.

Zombies are typically slow, not saying you can't throw a few fast ones in there but for most part they should be slow. They should be in greater numbers, bigger city or town the more zombies. You should only be able to kill them with a head shot. Also I'd make it so that one or two hits would kill a player, maybe a few more hits if you have body armor on.

I will also make it so that once they have you in a building they will surround that building the longer you're in there the more zombies you will draw to that location.

I never said classes, I said skills better yet crafting would be a better word. Right now there trying to find ways to bring people together but the only way to really do that is to bring in some sort of crafting skill based system.

You can take away every one starting gear but doesn't bring people together, if anything it adds even more mistrust. You need to have something in place that people will want.

If you're a cook then you have the ability to make food that people can use. If you're hunter you can kill animals and clean them so the meat can be cooked. The idea is to develop a system that players can draw upon to add one another, thus setting up communities, which I might add would happen in a zombie apocalypse. It's every man for themselves at the moment.

---

The infected in DayZ are not really following the "norm" when it comes to being a dead walker' date=' I don't even think they are dead, they may look like it, smell like it, but they don't fully act like it, they act more like dazed confused very sick people who have become violently psychotic and cannibalistic and can ignore great amounts of pain, but when you shot them they tend to die just like normal people, although a head shot will put them down, so will a few body shots as well, the term infected has been used a few times and think what we’re looking at here is normal people who have become infected by some sort of virus.

If the truth be told I can tell you there definitely not zombies, as zombies only come from voodoo magic, so unless Rocket has a Voodoo priest hidden away somewhere on the map, casting spells on people to bind them to the priests will, then there not zombies.

The normal type of Undead walkers were used to seeing in such movies as, “Night of the living dead, Dawn of the dead” and Tv shows such as, “The walking dead” etc.. Are the ones that can only be destroyed by traumatic head injuries that destroy the brain are the Undead we know and love, these types of Undead are very recognisable by their missing limbs, varied state of decay and slow moving shambling walk, unless there fresh of course.

Food for thought.

P.S. Totally disagree with the mmorpg and classes idea.

[/quote']

I never said it had to be an MMORPG. MMORPG would be WoW or Rift. If they turned it in to an MMO it would be a MMOFPS. Also you do realize that it all ready is an MMO to a certain degree. The game is played entirely online with other players. You can go from one server to another with the same character. So in a weird way it all ready an MMOFPS. The only difference is that it lacks a lot of elements you see an MMO, which is not a bad thing.

Yep sorry my typo to auto type mmorpg, yes your kind'a right about the mmo bit, although I think it would have to more like 500- 5000 players per server to really qualify.

It depends on how big the world would be, where starting points would be, etc, etc.

[JagerWulf 0]

28 days' date=' rage zombies, isn't that what we ate dealing with??

[/quote']

Again not Zombies and in 28days they were not undead, just very sick, movie was called 28days because that's how long it took to stave them to death, you can't stave an undead there already dead, maybe rocket should rename is mod to, "28 dayZ" and get his infected to to stave to death after 28 days.

Does it matter really. They still are not going to be as fast as some of the infected in the game.

Depends on the environment and how hydrated the infected are, if the enviroment is to cold or to hot they will to dried out and be stiff or to frozen and stiff this of course happens over a couple of days not hours, but if it's semi nice weather with some rain then they will stay fairly limber of movement and therefore be able to move fast.

[TheProphecy 33]

Slow zombies wouldn't be a threat unless towns were completely overrun. You would need more than 100 zombies in Cherno/Elektro to be of any threat at all because those cities are so big and you would be able to outrun them easily. You also have to take into effect the stress this would put on the servers. In a full server, you're talking well over 1k zombies on the map at any given time, which could lead to horrible lag.

As for turning the game into an MMO, no. Your skill/trait idea makes sense, but it also brings with it more problems. You want to add these things for realism, I get that, but here's the flip side. As is, every player is an expert when it comes to everything, including firearms. If you had these skills/traits, you would have to do something about the ability to use certain firearms. I can only see two ways of going about this. You could either be less proficient when using higher end military weapons, basically a dice roll to see where your shots land (terrible idea to me BTW), or you just flat out wouldn't be able to use the higher end military weapons unless you had the skill for it. Another question, how would these skills/traits be determined? Do we have a list of these things to choose before we spawn, or do we spawn into the world as useless meat sacs and come across books or something as loot? If it's the former of those two, how many skills/traits are there and how many are we allowed to pick? All I think this would do is make the game too complicated.

[mikerunk2011@gmail.com 6]

28 days' date=' rage zombies, isn't that what we ate dealing with??

[/quote']

Again not Zombies and in 28days they were not undead, just very sick, movie was called 28days because that's how long it took to stave them to death, you can't stave an undead there already dead, maybe rocket should rename is mod to, "28 dayZ" and get his infected to to stave to death after 28 days.

Does it matter really. They still are not going to be as fast as some of the infected in the game.

Depends on the environment and how hydrated the infected are, if the enviroment is to cold or to hot they will to dried out and be stiff or to frozen and stiff this of course happens over a couple of days not hours, but if it's semi nice weather with some rain then they will stay fairly limber of movement and therefore be able to move fast.

Ok so the game would need to reflect that.

[JagerWulf 0]

28 days' date=' rage zombies, isn't that what we ate dealing with??

[/quote']

Again not Zombies and in 28days they were not undead, just very sick, movie was called 28days because that's how long it took to stave them to death, you can't stave an undead there already dead, maybe rocket should rename is mod to, "28 dayZ" and get his infected to to stave to death after 28 days.

Does it matter really. They still are not going to be as fast as some of the infected in the game.

Depends on the environment and how hydrated the infected are, if the enviroment is to cold or to hot they will to dried out and be stiff or to frozen and stiff this of course happens over a couple of days not hours, but if it's semi nice weather with some rain then they will stay fairly limber of movement and therefore be able to move fast.

Ok so the game would need to reflect that.

Rocket has mentioned that the temp gauge is not working yet and they would be getting around to it sooner or latter fixing it, but I also get the impression that it would be effecting the players more than the infected.

[Delfer (DayZ) 0]

Why don't you just make your own zombie game. You know cause you'd make it so hard to even go into cities and stuff you know what you're talking about