How to make zombies scary

[laszers 6]

hello everyone. i thought i would give a little suggestion i thought of to see what other people think.

so the idea i had in mind was making zombie count higher and ammo count lower. look at it this way, you can go into any barn anywhere, or walts into any military installation and grab tons of ammo. but what if you couldnt, and there were tons more zombies to prevent you from doing that so easily.

lets take a look at the walking dead. what makes them so hesitant to engage zombies? lack of ammo, too many zombies. an example is when shane in otis are in the school, they obviously cant stay and fight, because they simply dont have enough ammo.

now dont get me wrong, i am not saying to make this the walking dead. but i think that this would help to make player cooperation much more useful. notice when Rick and Hershel were at the bar, and they get into a firefight with a hostile group. you know what happened? a huge horde came in and made them crap their pants.

so tl;dr, more zombies less ammo.

[Dagoth Wit 21]

I think that would only work if they walked everywhere. The meth addicted infected we have now would be too much to handle in large numbers.

Personally, I wouldn't mind if they really ramped up the zombie count, but made them slow zombies. I remember reading a suggestion similar to this with a random number of zombies being fast, a la Dead Island.

[laszers 6]

yea, i agree, if hordes and the like are added, they do need to be slower.

[lowerplains 0]

zombies do need to be more numerous, and a good mix of slow/fast without ever knowing which is which. a horde will be nice if its totally random and i think more zeds in the woods/hills could be a welcome addition.

as it stands now, the zombie type in game has ceased my playing until its fixed/added. hopefully rocket can get this done soon. id like to play again.

[zorisx 7]

I do enjoy the punishment of not taking zombies seriously, as encountering them not only endangers you and your fellow players, but reveals your position and forces you to shoot them or, even harder, evade them. Simply running by zombies is not possible and reminds me that this isn't just another game where zombies are just bystanders over a PVP/Looting/MMO element.

[laszers 6]

well it isnt so much a punishment as it is, people getting the shit beat out of them.

[WhiteTigerShiro 25]

I like the idea of numerous zombies, too; but keep in mind hardware limitations in rendering them all. Even the best computers can only render so many 3D models at once before they start to really chug.

[chefwillis 33]

I agree completely. Though the zombie ai routines aren't exactly top notch in the performance or pathing department. It would be fairly taxing on the computer to implement a significant amount of zombies in an area.

Zombies as they are now are just silly and laughable. They're constantly screaming at you when they chase you, they run away from you before at you, they stumble like they're injured but run faster than the Flash, and their animations like like they're having seizures and preforming karate.

Obviously a lot of that is just bugs and in development but still I laugh half the time I see a zombie.

[WhiteTigerShiro 25]

they run away from you before at you

I still remember the first time that happened to me. It was in the middle of Electro, and I accidentally spooked a zombie, at which point he ran down the street. "Where the heck is he going?" I wondered, when I noticed that he was running down to the corner to cross the street. I guess even in the madness of the infection, at least the zombies make sure to obey the jaywalking laws. ;P

[laszers 6]

yea, i definitely dont want hordes of zig-zagging zombies.

[DannyRed 32]

I don't think they need to be more numerous. Just a little bit more effective.

Slowing a player with each hit for awhile would help. If there were group of zombies after you and one punched you in the nuts you would be swarmed by every last one of em.

[laszers 6]

yea, that actually makes sense, take a look at left for dead, they added that. so you cant just rush and not worry about anything.

[DannyRed 32]

yea' date=' that actually makes sense, take a look at left for dead, they added that. so you cant just rush and not worry about anything.

[/quote']

Exactly. You could actually feel like needing someone when trying to raid a town.

[Tyrog 10]

I think that would only work if they walked everywhere. The meth addicted infected we have now would be too much to handle in large numbers.

I think that's exactly the point of this thread.

I'd like to see a real zombie threat.

It won't make any difference for the moment though as you can always DC whenever you feel threatened.

[Lukio (DayZ) 24]

Just yesterday a buddy of mine said in TS, these infected are kind of scary because of their noise, but I am so happy that there is nothing like the sound of the Witch or Tank from L4D.

What was really awesome in L4D is that you could hear the wailing of the witch or tank growls from really far away.

Just having a random freaky sound emitter added when x number of zombies are in one area would make things scarier on a more subtle level, without removing ammo or adding more infected.

Imo this mod is a lot about uncertainty and we all know how sometimes you freak out when you hear that "creaky gate close", "birds flying away" or "twigs snapping" sound.

[laszers 6]

lol, i agree completely, every time i hear the birds or twigs i lay down and look around.