How zombies will change the game

[Dagwood 680]

As I see it, the zombies/infected/undead that we have now are purely placeholders. They are only in the game currently as a way of measuring player and item damage models. As far as I know, an entire studio was hired to tackle the task of developing zombie and animal AI. This means that once this group has conmlpeted it's work, the zombies that we have today will be gone, and an entirely new beast will be replacing them.

My question is: how will these new and improved zombies affect the way we play the game? In the mod, we had more of them, but their inability to run indoors, coupled with their atrocious path finding made them an anchor that held the difficulty of the game back.

I would like to hear how the members of this community think that zombies akin to those in Left 4 dead will affect gameplay when incorporated in large numbers. In regards to KOS, survival, looting, player movement, etc.

[nettles 396]

CoD kiddies' attitudes won't change.  All the sane players are still going to be mortified at the thought of running into someone else.  Survival will be harder, especially with the advent of disease, poisoning, and infection.  Looting will be just about as difficult.  Player movement will be slower and more cautious when zombies' detection functions have been reworked.  

 

All in all, when the zombies are polished, not much will change in regards to players' attitudes toward each other and looting in general.  Everyone thinks they can do everything by themselves.  If they can't? Oh well, they died in a video game. Kill themselves over and over until they get a nice spawn, then start from scratch again.

[Zing Freelancer 58]

Actually, I think it will change a lot.

 

You can mange current zombies easily, even 3-4 of them can be killed with melee. But if you add a horde of say 8+, then suddenly you will be wishing you had a friend with you.

Moreover if gunshots would attract more zombies to your location and trigger new zombies to be spawned, then lone players using loud weapons won't be able to stack up enough ammo to survive constant zombie onslaught.

I think that big cities will only be braved by most experienced loners or groups of players as there will be largest amount of zombies present with greater spawn rate. Also using loud fire arms would attract zombies inside the city as well as cause new zombies to spawn. Same goes for the airfields, consider them the last bastions of mankind, locations where people gathered in hopes of getting a ride out when things went out of control, so these places will also have a very large concentration of zombies. It will be difficult and time consuming to loot them on your own or without a silenced gun.

 

I wish to believe that if infected pose enough of a threat and outnumber players 4 to 1. Then when you see another player lurking outside Elektro, you can approach him and ask if he wants to work together without being paranoid about getting killed. KoS will still be in the game, but it will have consequences and banding together with other survivors will have meaning.

 

When the game have meaningful and challenging enough player vs environment system, where getting killed by infected, disease and starvation is just as common as getting killed by players. People will start playing smarter and perhaps have a change of attitude, the meta will change more towards groups vs group fights. 

[airfell 179]

The ol' Dinner Bell...

 

IMO swarms of zombies will change the game for the better. When people play the game specifically just for wholesale PvP, its not hard enough yet.

[hefeweizen 254]

CoD kiddies' attitudes won't change.  All the sane players are still going to be mortified at the thought of running into someone else.  Survival will be harder, especially with the advent of disease, poisoning, and infection.  Looting will be just about as difficult.  Player movement will be slower and more cautious when zombies' detection functions have been reworked.  

 

All in all, when the zombies are polished, not much will change in regards to players' attitudes toward each other and looting in general.  Everyone thinks they can do everything by themselves.  If they can't? Oh well, they died in a video game. Kill themselves over and over until they get a nice spawn, then start from scratch again.

Maybe it is just me, but I think a lot of the CoD kids have moved on thankfully. The CoD kids are the ones who shit on DayZ because "Da devlpers r too slo! I wnt Epooch now!"

I've seen a lot more friendlies as of late.

[Dagwood 680]

For me I think the change in the big cities will be the biggest. These places are the most popular for pvp right now. But if they are full of zombies, like you mentioned, pvping there will be very difficult.

I think small military bases will be the places to watch out for bandits. There will likely be less zombies than airbases or cities, but still valuable loot. They also seem designed to promote ambushes.

As far as teaming up with randoms goes, I think out of game groups or clans will still be more common, and those groups are the most lethal and least likely to be dependent upon outside assistance; making them prone to KOS to protect their own. BUT, if zombie detection is done deftly, these groups will also be the most busy with fighting off alerted infected.

I think the key to "punishing" the KOS playstyle will be tipping the risk reward balance away from brashly assaulting players like we see today. Zombies and item degradation (from firearms AND zombies beating on recently killed or incapacitated players) could very possibly accomplish this. I don't think killing one another should be completely suppressed, but it should require more preparation and practice to do effectively. I can already imagine groups being ambushed once they've cleared out cities or military bases, so that 3rd parties can swoop in for the kill and an easy hit and run looting sweep.

Edit: spelling errors.

Edited November 10, 2014 by Dagwood

[5mirkeh 98]

Actually, I think it will change a lot.

 

You can mange current zombies easily, even 3-4 of them can be killed with melee. But if you add a horde of say 8+, then suddenly you will be wishing you had a friend with you.

Moreover if gunshots would attract more zombies to your location and trigger new zombies to be spawned, then lone players using loud weapons won't be able to stack up enough ammo to survive constant zombie onslaught.

I think that big cities will only be braved by most experienced loners or groups of players as there will be largest amount of zombies present with greater spawn rate. Also using loud fire arms would attract zombies inside the city as well as cause new zombies to spawn. Same goes for the airfields, consider them the last bastions of mankind, locations where people gathered in hopes of getting a ride out when things went out of control, so these places will also have a very large concentration of zombies. It will be difficult and time consuming to loot them on your own or without a silenced gun.

 

I wish to believe that if infected pose enough of a threat and outnumber players 4 to 1. Then when you see another player lurking outside Elektro, you can approach him and ask if he wants to work together without being paranoid about getting killed. KoS will still be in the game, but it will have consequences and banding together with other survivors will have meaning.

 

When the game have meaningful and challenging enough player vs environment system, where getting killed by infected, disease and starvation is just as common as getting killed by players. People will start playing smarter and perhaps have a change of attitude, the meta will change more towards groups vs group fights. 

 

Outnumbered 4 to 1 eh?

 

How about DayZ ups the ante to 5000 walkers to 1 human

[Bonappetit 117]

Still won't stop those that camp on cranes, buildings etc. They'll just relog if they see a swarm underneath them waiting for him to come down.

[bfisher 561]

The ol' Dinner Bell...

 

IMO swarms of zombies will change the game for the better. When people play the game specifically just for wholesale PvP, its not hard enough yet.

 

This.  I think too many players have forgot or never knew the horror of firing a Lee Enfield in Cherno, only to be swarmed by 30 zombies.  it will really change the dynamic once you have to figure out how to enter a major city full of zombies.

[xX_fr0st-w0lf_Xx (DayZ) 343]

This.  I think too many players have forgot or never knew the horror of firing a Lee Enfield in Cherno, only to be swarmed by 30 zombies.  it will really change the dynamic once you have to figure out how to enter a major city full of zombies.

 

Those memories....

 

"friendlies in cherno?"....followed by a lee shot......followed by a swarm of 25 zeds chasing a guy as he runs creating a train.

[slippery gypsy 107]

CoD kiddies' attitudes won't change.  All the sane players are still going to be mortified at the thought of running into someone else.  Survival will be harder, especially with the advent of disease, poisoning, and infection.  Looting will be just about as difficult.  Player movement will be slower and more cautious when zombies' detection functions have been reworked.  

 

All in all, when the zombies are polished, not much will change in regards to players' attitudes toward each other and looting in general.  Everyone thinks they can do everything by themselves.  If they can't? Oh well, they died in a video game. Kill themselves over and over until they get a nice spawn, then start from scratch again.

i hope they do a RUST effort and remove the zombies cause its to hard and then all thats left is ocd CoD kiddies just to piss you off

[nettles 396]

i hope they do a RUST effort and remove the zombies cause its to hard and then all thats left is ocd CoD kiddies just to piss you off

 

I'd be fine with a survival simulator sans zombies, as long as there's still loot to grab and stuff to build and farm.  At least then I'd know where I stand with other players.  

[Caboose187 (DayZ) 3036]

I'd be fine with a survival simulator sans zombies, as long as there's still loot to grab and stuff to build and farm.  At least then I'd know where I stand with other players.  

Then the game would be called Rust  :rolleyes: .  

 

The "infected" will only matter if they become a threat.  Not by numbers or hordes, but by having to use stealth to either sneak by, or get the drop on them and get them before they have a chance to react.  These are not completely brainless slow walking corpses.   Once they spot you they should react like a person on PCP.  We should be fearing them.

[iRosco 1]

I would like to see hoards of zombies in the big towns, this will encourage players to be more fearful of KOS and promote more tactical & sneaky game play instead of running around like a looney

[LucidHills 94]

I love the idea cities being being full of hundreds of zombies, all on move (slowly) and 1 shot in a city resulting in 20-100 zombies coming running.

But I don't think the game will ever be optimized for that many.

Though if one day it can, I hope you can craft decoys like small fireworks and firecrackers which can be thrown or placed with a timer fuse to draw zombies away from where you want to go.

Tactics like these should be required to enter a city. 

[wuffi (DayZ) 18]

Outnumbered 4 to 1 eh?

 

How about DayZ ups the ante to 5000 walkers to 1 human

5000 Zombies for every human?

Lol then you can count your frames in minutes instead of seconds.

[bfisher 561]

I love the idea cities being being full of hundreds of zombies, all on move (slowly) and 1 shot in a city resulting in 20-100 zombies coming running.

But I don't think the game will ever be optimized for that many.

Though if one day it can, I hope you can craft decoys like small fireworks and firecrackers which can be thrown or placed with a timer fuse to draw zombies away from where you want to go.

Tactics like these should be required to enter a city. 

 

 

It should.  The freakin Mod worked for that many.  Back in the Mod days, just sneaking into Balota airfield to snag an AK was fraught with danger as you might alert one of the dozens of zombies hanging around the base.  It used to be hilarious to watch some poor noob trap himself in the ATC tower.

 

Really, zombies turn the game into a Walking Dead simulator.  Sure, they are terrifying at first when you are new and disoriented and have no weapons.  But ultimately they become a minor nuisance to your clan of ten guys decked out in SWAT gear and silenced automatic weapons.

[Whyherro123 2283]

Then the game would be called Rust  :rolleyes: .  

 

The "infected" will only matter if they become a threat.  Not by numbers or hordes, but by having to use stealth to either sneak by, or get the drop on them and get them before they have a chance to react.  These are not completely brainless slow walking corpses.   Once they spot you they should react like a person on PCP.  We should be fearing them.

Pretty much.

 

I prefer the "super-rabies" rationale behind zombies. An infected individual, once they notice a target, go "berserk". Look up what similarly "berserk" individuals are capable of: tanking several handguns rounds center-mass, or completely ignoring melee strikes. Yes, getting shot, or stabbed/slashed/smashed will kill someone infected..... but not right away. In the meantime, they are busy beating the shit out of you with adrenaline-superpowered muscles (seriously, when under the effects of adrenaline, human beings can do some serious shit)

 

I also dislike how "fast" (fast, agile, etc) we are currently in-game with melee weapons. A two-handed axe does not swing that fast, and even if it did, you would still have to overcome the inertia of the axe-head, then ready the swing again. Using a "two handed" weapon should be an "all or nothing" attack, where if you hit, they are pretty much fucked, but if you miss, you are gonna have a bad time before you can ready-up the next attack. Smaller, more nimble weapons, like knives, tomahawks, etc, should be far faster, both to swing and to recover from.

 

Realistically, melee should be the absolute last resort. Want to know what happened as soon as projectiles (bows and arrows) became more effective than melee weapons 40,000 years ago? Spears, clubs and maces pretty much fell out of favor overnight, and bows became the warrior-weapon. Mainly because of the efficacy (arrows are little spears than work from 30m away) and because melee combat is scary as fuck.

[5mirkeh 98]

Pretty much.

 

I prefer the "super-rabies" rationale behind zombies. An infected individual, once they notice a target, go "berserk". Look up what similarly "berserk" individuals are capable of: tanking several handguns rounds center-mass, or completely ignoring melee strikes. Yes, getting shot, or stabbed/slashed/smashed will kill someone infected..... but not right away. In the meantime, they are busy beating the shit out of you with adrenaline-superpowered muscles (seriously, when under the effects of adrenaline, human beings can do some serious shit)

 

I also dislike how "fast" (fast, agile, etc) we are currently in-game with melee weapons. A two-handed axe does not swing that fast, and even if it did, you would still have to overcome the inertia of the axe-head, then ready the swing again. Using a "two handed" weapon should be an "all or nothing" attack, where if you hit, they are pretty much fucked, but if you miss, you are gonna have a bad time before you can ready-up the next attack. Smaller, more nimble weapons, like knives, tomahawks, etc, should be far faster, both to swing and to recover from.

 

Realistically, melee should be the absolute last resort. Want to know what happened as soon as projectiles (bows and arrows) became more effective than melee weapons 40,000 years ago? Spears, clubs and maces pretty much fell out of favor overnight, and bows became the warrior-weapon. Mainly because of the efficacy (arrows are little spears than work from 30m away) and because melee combat is scary as fuck.

 

*looks at the location of Whyherro*

*Looks out the window*

*Freddy's chime plays*

Oh shi-

 

But on a serious note that would be an amazing addition to the standalone, As soon as a zombie spots you they make a beeline straight for your face making all sorts of crazy rabid noises while you wonder why the zombie is just shrugging off injuries that would drop a man screaming. And when they finally take "too many bullets" they would already be flinging their dead weight with the force of a professional boxer at you with no chance of a quick dodge.

[slippery gypsy 107]

guess we will have to see what H1Z1 comes up with

[youngjediknight 51]

It should.  The freakin Mod worked for that many.  Back in the Mod days, just sneaking into Balota airfield to snag an AK was fraught with danger as you might alert one of the dozens of zombies hanging around the base.  It used to be hilarious to watch some poor noob trap himself in the ATC tower.

 

That sounds unbelievably cool.  And I agree with the assertion that more aggressive and numerous zombies could serve to deter KOS'ing.  If anything, the zeds could be used as a tactical tool in a fight rather than simply being a nuisance which is pretty much what they are now especially once you've got your axe or sledgehammer dialed in.  I had 4 come at me single file spaced out just enough for me to reset my axe swing.  4 swings,4 dead zeds ... there's no way I'm actually that good lol.

[xX_fr0st-w0lf_Xx (DayZ) 343]

That sounds unbelievably cool.  And I agree with the assertion that more aggressive and numerous zombies could serve to deter KOS'ing.  If anything, the zeds could be used as a tactical tool in a fight rather than simply being a nuisance which is pretty much what they are now especially once you've got your axe or sledgehammer dialed in.  I had 4 come at me single file spaced out just enough for me to reset my axe swing.  4 swings,4 dead zeds ... there's no way I'm actually that good lol.

 

Yes, in the mod people would sneak around to not alert the zeds. While you can easily maneuver your way around them, it would easily give away your position. Normally people would track their targets and then shoot to kill them, worrying about the zeds once the other player was dead.  

[Mor (DayZ) 57]

I really enjoyed this post over reddit

http://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/2lwfq2/zombies_the_missing_link_in_the_current_dayz_sa/

Its pretty much what i have been saying for all along only in good native English.

[Mor (DayZ) 57]

Quick dedication to this topic:

In the summertime when the weather is hot

You can stretch right up and touch the sky

When the weather's fine

You got Zombies, you got Zombies on your mind

Have a drink, have a drive

Go out and see what you can find...

Sing along:

Edited November 12, 2014 by Mor

[napalmdog 71]

Still won't stop those that camp on cranes, buildings etc. They'll just relog if they see a swarm underneath them waiting for him to come down.

I don't think so. Players don't have the patience to site someone, take the shot, log out ans log back in to try and find another player to shoot at. It might be clever, but it would also be boring as sin...