DayZ Zombies-Infected or Undead?

[Damnyourdeadman 1045]

Hello everyone.

I have been in the forums for quite some time now,

and i know that the zombies in DayZ are in fact

infected people.Now that stands in condratiction with other things.

If the zombies are infected people (alive) the enviroment must take a toll

on thei overall well beign,also do they not require food or sleep?

Now i know you are going to say,that "we" are their food,and i concur.

But don't they get hungry or tired? Let me remind you,we are talking about "alive"

but infected people.Sadly i couldn't find a source for a backstory,

so i made a topic,open for discussion.What do you think?

[mgc 92]

You know my pov: Undead Z all the way. Wouldn't settle for less.

[Window Licker 504]

Maybe, The environment with them being infected, while still affected by it the changes caused by the infection allow them to ignore it, something like when you have your "beer jacket" on, it's cold but you feel it less.

 

Food, they are eating the delicious survivors that unlucky enough to make poor decisions (read: firing a gun at night near a city) the human body also contains a large amount of water, but maybe they do drink at night or something, it's a pretty primal drive and I doubt they'd make the distinction between clean and dirty water. Maybe this could be a factor in determining where the roaming hordes go when they get implemented.

 

Sleep, Lack of sleep causes insanity, those infected are clearly not able to be reasoned with I tried to chat up the blonde, when she tried to kiss me, I think she slipped and bit my neck open... several times.  While we need to sleep I don't see any overly good reason for them to have to they have lost their minds and humanity.

 

Edit: Dean has said "or so i heard from another reliable forum user" that he doesn't want a back story.  If you are interested there is the DayZRP forums and I seem to find myself referring this to a bit, a user posted it and I'm gonna go scrounge about and see if I can't find it again, it was fan written but did a great job of covering events starting from day 0 / patient 0

 

Please note that when they say's "official" it's the official story and therefore the basis of all roleplay in that community.

http://www.dayzrp.com/t-dayzrp-official-background-refined-edition

Edited March 18, 2014 by Window Licker

[cywehner1234 582]

In fact they are living infected. The only thing I can say is add decomposition stages to the infected, they starve, so they get skinnier.

[Duenan 226]

I think 28days later best sums it up

 

Truth is any zombie story fails if you take into account basic biology and the enviornment.

 

An undead zombie like the walking dead would fall apart within a month. Maggots would eat it from the inside out. It wouldnt be able to walk past week since its muscles would be feasted upon by insects. The enviorment would dessicate it's skin in a desert or cause it to blow up into a bloated corpsicle that could hardly move let alone run.

 

28 days later style zombies would eventually fail because even if they had all the attributes of rage virus zombies, they would die out in a week or too due to lack of water  if they were alive and infected. Not to mention passing out from lack of sleep.

 

Zombie stories are just like anything else- a suspension of reason

[irl-calibre 744]

posters say something about zombies, but it's in some heathen tongue I don't understand ;)

 

Edited March 18, 2014 by Calibre

[Damnyourdeadman 1045]

Maybe, The environment with them being infected, while still affected by it the changes caused by the infection allow them to ignore it, something like when you have your "beer jacket" on, it's cold but you feel it less.

 

Food, they are eating the delicious survivors that unlucky enough to make poor decisions (read: firing a gun at night near a city) the human body also contains a large amount of water, but maybe they do drink at night or something, it's a pretty primal drive and I doubt they'd make the distinction between clean and dirty water. Maybe this could be a factor in determining where the roaming hordes go when they get implemented.

 

Sleep, Lack of sleep causes insanity, those infected are clearly not able to be reasoned with I tried to chat up the blonde, when she tried to kiss me, I think she slipped and bit my neck open... several times.  While we need to sleep I don't see any overly good reason for them to have to they have lost their minds and humanity.

 

Edit: Dean has said "or so i heard from another reliable forum user" that he doesn't want a back story.  If you are interested there is the DayZRP forums and I seem to find myself referring this to a bit, a user posted it and I'm gonna go scrounge about and see if I can't find it again, it was fan written but did a great job of covering events starting from day 0 / patient 0

will edit it in here if I can find it.

But let's assume that food has run out.

How are they going to survive after that?

I know zombies from Resident evil for example,have enough energy to keep going

for years without eating anything yet they kill people because of something primal.(scent or something)

Should they be alive,or undead,to avoid this:

 

I think 28days later best sums it up

 

Truth is any zombie story fails if you take into account basic biology and the enviornment.

 

An undead zombie like the walking dead would fall apart within a month. Maggots would eat it from the inside out. It wouldnt be able to walk past week since its muscles would be feasted upon by insects. The enviorment would dessicate it's skin in a desert or cause it to blow up into a bloated corpsicle that could hardly move let alone run.

 

28 days later style zombies would eventually fail because even if they had all the attributes of rage virus zombies, they would die out in a week or too due to lack of water  if they were alive and infected. Not to mention passing out from lack of sleep.

 

Zombie stories are just like anything else- a suspension of reason

they should have exceptional regenerating abilities and to adopt in the enviroment like cockroaches.

But still question remains,are they dead,alive or just to leave it to our imagination?

The lore behind the zombies from the last of us were not half bad.

But still i'm not really sure about the DayZ scenario.

[irl-calibre 744]

So I've been reading a really interesting Zombie novel called tankbread

 

(http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13143326-tankbread)

 

in it the zombies are really fast until rigamortis starts to set in, kinda like the dawn of the dead remake Z's moving towards the more traditional Z's in the original - only they are evolving.  Very interesting twist on the whole thing.

[Window Licker 504]

But let's assume that food has run out.

How are they going to survive after that?

I know zombies from Resident evil for example,have enough energy to keep going

for years without eating anything yet they kill people because of something primal.(scent or something)

Should they be alive,or undead,to avoid this:

But their food hasn't run out because I'm there and their menu just went from alright to outstanding.

 

There is no real reason that they'd still be alive after an extended period of time, but there is also no official (actual official) time or date for the event or how much time has passed.  It might have been last week that patient 0 bit someone, as was pointed out even in 28 days later they eventually starved to death and I doubt there is any "good" answer to why they are alive, what they eat or if they eat  as we simply don't know when everything happened.

[Damnyourdeadman 1045]

Please note that when they say's "official" it's the official story and therefore the basis of all roleplay in that community.

http://www.dayzrp.com/t-dayzrp-official-background-refined-edition

Acording to this:

 

1.1 DAY 2 - JULY 26TH 2012 - INFECTION

By day 2 the news had spread outside of South Zagoria and made national news, because the hunter had first "died" in bed and then started to attack and bite several clinic staff. One nurse was severely injured, but a local policeman shot the hunter before he could hurt anyone else.

In a rare interview from those first days, the officer stated:

"It was horrible. He was chewing on her, litterly trying to eat her alive! I shouted for him to stop but he completly ignored me! I fired in the air, and only then did he lift his blood-covered face and look at me!

He...he let out some beastly howl and started charging me! I had to shoot. I shot him five times and I only slowed him down! Not until I shot him twice in the head did he stop."

The story grew quickly, and hit the blogosphere. Within hours, it was international news, although noone(except the usual zombie fanatics perhaps) were very concerned it was something to truly worry about.

Meanwhile, locals of Sosnovka reported worry that none of the search party that went out to find the man that bit the hunter had returned home.

 

He "died" and after that attacked the nurse,they are possibly undead(at least acording to this story).

[mgc 92]

Yes!

Aced it.

[LeChat 131]

In fact they are living infected. The only thing I can say is add decomposition stages to the infected, they starve, so they get skinnier.

 

If they're living why would they decompose? That doesn't make any sense at all. Decomposition of organic things occurs after death, not before. Unless we're talking something along the lines of gangrene

or some other form of extreme cell/tissue death. But why would they even be alive then? Wouldn't make any sense to have decomposing living zombies.

[Walking Wounded 199]

I understand the need for a story here. I really would liek some in depth back story we could hunt in the map. maybe some book strewn around or a diary of a scientist

 

green mountain!!!

 

anyhow it is a game and trying to reason the biology will only result in madness.

[Damnyourdeadman 1045]

I understand the need for a story here. I really would liek some in depth back story we could hunt in the map. maybe some book strewn around or a diary of a scientist

 

green mountain!!!

 

anyhow it is a game and trying to reason the biology will only result in madness.

When we are discussing something based on realism,we have to be able

to back up our opinion.The game's founded on "realism" so i really want

to talk about it to avoid future misunderstandings.I don't mean misunderstandings

in a bad kind of way,but if they are undead we can indeed talk about stuff like mutiations

or only-headshot kills without fear of spoiling the overall game's realism and the community's immersion.

Edited March 18, 2014 by Damnyourdeadman

[Duenan 226]

I actually think the resident evil series has the best type of zombie mythos. A virus that causes engineered cellular regeneration. This type of virus would result in a zombie that is not actually decaying but regenerating. It even made sense in the last couple Resident Evils that the zombies would decay rapidly into a puddle of organic goo after you killed them. This type of zombie could potentially go through most of cellular repair necessary to keep it "alive" and a threat.

 

The plaga from RE4 thru RE6 is also a good plot device because it creates an embeded parasite that takes control of the host but can remain undetected.

 

People gave the Resident Evil series alot of grief for changing up the story after RE4, but their zombie mythos is probably one of the most realistic in terms of actually being a threat that would continue for some time

[Window Licker 504]

Indeed, but here's another one for you, in the walking dead series it's also a virus that is responsible it "kills" the infected person then reactivates some part of the brain, it's in season two, sorry I can't recall more details.  Afaik Dean has said it's a rabies like infection, which would explain both the speed they move and the blind rage they exhibit. 

 

On a more personal note, I'd like to see things like newspaper articles, journal's and diaries from the time of the outbreak and even some more mundane ones a from people before any of this happened, I feel it would add immersion to the world.  I can also understand the reluctance of the dev team to actually put solid dates etc around the event and where in time we are playing from there.  This would result in more discussions and people getting upset about thing's like oh the grass is too short/long this item/object should be rusted out, this one should be in much better shape and the like.

 

Personally I like to think that 3-6 weeks after the outbreak occurred I was a hand on a research vessel sent to anchor off the coast to examine the progression of the virus as it was the site of the initial outbreak.  The attempts to combat the virus have failed on a large scale and it's becoming wide spread throughout the continent. While there are outpost of civilization the question has become how long do we need to survive before we can start rebuilding? infected where captured in containers that where then bought on board for close examination of the subjects.

 

I don't know what happened exactly all I know it I was awoken by screaming I pulled my jeans on and walked out into the corridor, the screams where coming from a lower deck.  I knew something wasn't right, people where sealing bulkheads and the order for general evacuation was given I turned to return for some warmer clothes but there was one already in the corridor I turned and ran, there was no other option some took exception to me shoving past them I can only assume they figured it out or became one of those things as well.  The evacuation turned into chaos no-one wanted to be at risk getting infected people started shooting it was madness I had no choice and opted to leap, we where a distance from the shore but I knew my chances where better then if I stayed on board.

 

Then I woke up somewhere randomly on the beach.

[TheWalrusNet 6]

In The Walking Dead there were actually two seperate viruses (if I took this correctly) one that was presumably airborne that everyone was infected with, which lays dormant in your system until your death, then reanimates only the portion of the brain that controls our instincts. The zombies' bite itself would give you a so-far incurable fever that would inevitably kill you, allowing the reanimation to happen. They don't need to eat or drink, infact some of them survive with most of their vital organs missing, but it does show that they decompose over time, obviously much slower than they would irl (it'd be boring if they all decomposed beyond movement in a week)

[Deathlove 2286]

Hello everyone.

I have been in the forums for quite some time now,

and i know that the zombies in DayZ are in fact

infected people.Now that stands in condratiction with other things.

If the zombies are infected people (alive) the enviroment must take a toll

on thei overall well beign,also do they not require food or sleep?

Now i know you are going to say,that "we" are their food,and i concur.

But don't they get hungry or tired? Let me remind you,we are talking about "alive"

but infected people.Sadly i couldn't find a source for a backstory,

so i made a topic,open for discussion.What do you think?

They are not infected or dead............THERE HALF BAKED!!!!!

 

That would explain there poor motor functions and driving skills lmao.

[Damnyourdeadman 1045]

If you ask me,we should abandon the

"alive infected people" mentality,and take on

the "corpse brain riden by the diesease" undead kind of role.

It can support more realistic suggestions in the game,like mutations and only headshot kills

whitch is something i enjoyed very much back in mod.

[Damnyourdeadman 1045]

Turns out that the DayZ zombies are indeed infected alive people.

Many thanks to AntonioAJC for providing me the link with the information.

The source is from Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/1zbsks/psa_the_zombies_arent_dead_theyre_infected_living/cfsdipd

 

This is taken from the stringtable.xml file found in the the dayz_code folder of older versions of the mod.(got it from version 1.7.2.3)

its basically just an unused intro,

DEAN HALL PRESENTS

A USECFORCE PRODUCTION

 

On 12 March 2013, a prion disease and spreads among the worlds population triggering a global pandemic The disease causes proteins in the brain to be replaced with prions ceasing regular function Most people progress to dementia and then death as the brain is replaced with ineffective sludge 86% of the worlds population die Some survive with the disease in a chronic state. Lacking regular brain function, they are scarely human. They are unable to communicate, driven by insatiable desire for violence, and attracted to the scent of those uninfected Society crumbles as the pandemic spreads rapidly
You are one of the 2% who are not infected yet

THIS IS YOUR STORY

 

So there you have it.Rocket's vision on the infected.

[Walking Wounded 199]

 

Turns out that the DayZ zombies are indeed infected alive people.

Many thanks to AntonioAJC for providing me the link with the information.

The source is from Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/1zbsks/psa_the_zombies_arent_dead_theyre_infected_living/cfsdipd

 

This is taken from the stringtable.xml file found in the the dayz_code folder of older versions of the mod.(got it from version 1.7.2.3)

its basically just an unused intro,

DEAN HALL PRESENTS

A USECFORCE PRODUCTION

 

On 12 March 2013, a prion disease and spreads among the worlds population triggering a global pandemic The disease causes proteins in the brain to be replaced with prions ceasing regular function Most people progress to dementia and then death as the brain is replaced with ineffective sludge 86% of the worlds population die Some survive with the disease in a chronic state. Lacking regular brain function, they are scarely human. They are unable to communicate, driven by insatiable desire for violence, and attracted to the scent of those uninfected Society crumbles as the pandemic spreads rapidly

You are one of the 2% who are not infected yet

THIS IS YOUR STORY

 

So there you have it.Rocket's vision on the infected.

 

 

Well if this is the case those infecteds need to eat and they need to eat often. Not only that but they need to keep warm.... or they die fast! like i  said its  a game thankfully.

 

Documenttation of diseases that involves subjects displaying similar symptoms exist. Dont eat thier brains!!!!

Edited March 19, 2014 by Walking Wounded

[janol 65]

The "infected" concept doesn't really make sense, because once (nearly) everyone is infected all zeds would starve to disfunctional state as a matter of days and die of hunger in week or so.

 

Maybe the whole "zombie" story should be dropped, so that these so called zeds are just your normal grumpy and somewhat uncommunicative chernarussians, who are very angry at you because you go around their supermarkets, stealing their last bean cans.

[PhillyT 554]

There really isn't a difference.

 

They may start as infected, but they are dead.  The kind of decay and trauma shown in movies, TV shows, and other media make it pretty apparent that they cannot be living things.

[o5pr3y (DayZ) 77]

In this Devblog video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uYtxkrMg5k 

 

they mention zombies with broken necks and broken backs. (check around the 11min mark)

 

This leads me to believe the zombies are reanimated.

Edited March 19, 2014 by o5pr3y

[Damnyourdeadman 1045]

Someone should really ask Rocket personally on this.

People (myself included) need to know for sure,because it's

more important than it appears and contradicts with the overall game atmosphere.