Zombie infections?

[rain64 5]

I don't know if this has been talked about much but what do you guys think about zombie infections?

 

I have thought about it and I think it would be pretty cool if zombies had a certain chance to infect you when they hit you. Then after about an hour you would turn into a zombie. You could get cool situations where you never really know if one of your companions is infected or not and if you know he is, you would have to make the decision of shooting him or chase him away.

 

Zombies would also be extremely dangerous and scary and you would usually have to either run away or shoot them to get rid of them with melee weapons only being the absolutely last option. In certain areas with a lot of zombies you would have to play really carefully to be able to enter the location and get the loot. It would also encourage teamplay to kill off big amounts of zombies.

Edited July 30, 2015 by V-K

[Conrad_The_Comrade 577]

It's been discussed plenty, and shut down even more. The reason being the "zombies" you fight in DayZ aren't zombies, they're just people infected with a disease, that the living people (A.K.A the players) are immune to, otherwise we'd already be infected, and the game wouldn't exist. However, just like any wild creature, they will be able to carry diseases with them, and you could contract those if you don't treat yourself properly, it just won't be the disease that turned them into the infected.

[DemonGroover 8836]

I'd say the Infected are dirty mongrels and there would be all kinds of filthy germs under their finger nails and in their mouths.

 

As stated not sure getting zombified will happen (i believe we are the immune ones) but definitely getting infections would be realistic. In fact i would imagine that infection/disease would be the biggest killer in an apocalypse scenario, especially without medication.

[Whyherro123 2283]

Canonically, the players are immune to the "zombie disease" (which, in my opinion, is a "cop-out" if there ever was one).

 

However, like any other human being/animal that doesn't wash and gets covered in bodily fluids, waste, and dirt, they are extremely likely to be hosts to a whole slew of diseases and parasites. 

 

Get scratched by an "infected", better keep that wound clean, or you are bound to develop a nasty blood infection that probably won't be cured by some pansy tetracycline tabs. Spend too long around them , or loot through one of their "dens" (I am assuming that they are eating, drinking, and sleeping "off-screen", as it were, considering how they are still alive, with all that implies), and you could develop a case of fleas that give you a nasty skin aliment. Etc etc.

[BeefBacon 1185]

Canonically, the players are immune to the "zombie disease" (which, in my opinion, is a "cop-out" if there ever was one).

 

I don't see how it's a cop out. Assuming that this infection has spread rapidly it makes sense to then assume that it's very transmittable. Therefore, pretty much any contact with a zombie should infect a normal person. If players can be infected then they'd all be infected very quickly. If it's relatively difficult for a player to be infected then that means that the disease isn't all that infectious which makes the whole 'collapse of society' thing seem even more unlikely.

 

Zombies should be able to transmit regular infections. These infections should be fairly mild for the most part, but there should be a small chance to transmit something that's almost certain to be fatal unless treated with something (and even then the symptoms should only be reduced rather than removed). Things like antibiotics could maybe provide a protection buff against infection, reducing the chances of becoming infected for, I don't know, 20 minutes or something.

 

Zombie dens would be cool. Each building could have a small chance to contain a zombie den (sort of like crash sites but far more common) which contain several zombies and a variety of low - mid level loot.

[rain64 5]

I don't see how it's a cop out. Assuming that this infection has spread rapidly it makes sense to then assume that it's very transmittable. Therefore, pretty much any contact with a zombie should infect a normal person. If players can be infected then they'd all be infected very quickly. If it's relatively difficult for a player to be infected then that means that the disease isn't all that infectious which makes the whole 'collapse of society' thing seem even more unlikely.

That's a weird explanation. So you're saying there can't be a scenario where most of humans get infected but a few manage to live due to caution, weapons, survival abilities etc?

 

This 'players are immune' thing is pretty lame imo and I can't really see a reason why zombification shouldn't be in the game. You could pretty much replace the current zombies with wild, aggressive animals and it wouldn't make a difference.

 

This zombie virus/infection or whatever you wanna call it, that is responsible for the death of pretty much all inhabitants in Chernarus has absolutely no relevance at all in the game which I think is unfortunate. I could understand that in the mod nobody really concerned  themselves too much about that but in a full game, I would love to see the devs kind of make it relevant.

Edited July 31, 2015 by V-K

[BeefBacon 1185]

That's a weird explanation. So you're saying there can't be a scenario where most of humans get infected but a few manage to live due to caution, weapons, survival abilities etc?

 

 

If the infection is so transmittable that the combined military forces of Chernarus, the US and Russia are overwhelmed no amount of survival ability is going to help you avoid the infection. You come in contact with a zombie and odds are you'll be infected before long. 

 

I'm not strictly against player zombies (unless players actually control themselves as zombies, that'd be stupid) I'm just providing reasoning for players being immune. Anything else would be irritatingly hard or inconsistent.

[Whyherro123 2283]

If the infection is so transmittable that the combined military forces of Chernarus, the US and Russia are overwhelmed no amount of survival ability is going to help you avoid the infection. You come in contact with a zombie and odds are you'll be infected before long. 

 

I'm not strictly against player zombies (unless players actually control themselves as zombies, that'd be stupid) I'm just providing reasoning for players being immune. Anything else would be irritatingly hard or inconsistent.

 

1) We don't know that the US and Russia were also overwhelmed. The only thing we do know is that the CDF is gone, and society in South Zagoria collapsed. For all we know (and this is my personal canon, based on what we see in-game), things could be just peachy-keen in the rest of Chernarus, and South Zagoria is under quarantine by US, RU, and UN forces. (If you want a better, more in-depth explanation of my theory, PM me)

 

2) Even if the disease was particularly virulent, plenty of people could have survived via "quarantining" themselves, essentially by scrambling to the hills and preventing exposure. This happened during the Black Death in Europe: small villages off the beaten path literally didn't know there was an apocalypse-level plague going around until after it blew over, and people from outside the community came in and wondered why they didn't get hit. This doesn't mean they are immune, they just had the foresight to get out of dodge before they got sick. So now, when they start to move around/through the emptied cities, for supplies and to see "what's what", they stand the possibility of exposure.

 

3) Project Zomboid does this very well. In that game, you most definitely are NOT immune to the "zombie disease", and it makes the game atmosphere SO MUCH BETTER for it. Yeah, sure, you can take one one zombie mano-a-mano pretty easily, and come off on top with no/little damage 99% of the time. However, more than one zombie instantly changes "meh" to " HOLY COCKBISQUITS GOTTA GTFO". While you fight one, the other zombie(s) are busy smacking you from the side, and you stand a pretty good chance of getting infected. Once you get infected, you might as well go out in a blaze of glory.

 

By making zombies actually dangerous, the game actually feels scary, like the end of the world. Sure, you can grow food and build up a base, but once a couple of zombies finds your base, you might want to move. (Basebuilding makes noise, by the way)

 

Oh, and while firearms are great at killing zombies, they also cause them to swarm from a wide area. You better have an escape plan, or preferably, more than one, before you start shooting. I've seen swarms of about (I actually lost count, and was too busy freaking out to be more accurate) 100 zombies coming for me after firing, and the more I shot, the more came. I ended up burning down a whole subdivision with Molotov cocktails trying to kill the horde. Worked, but holy shit, that was the scariest thing I've ever seen in a game. They just.wouldn't.stop.

Edited July 31, 2015 by Whyherro123

[BeefBacon 1185]

1) We don't know that the US and Russia were also overwhelmed. The only thing we do know is that the CDF is gone, and society in South Zagoria collapsed. For all we know (and this is my personal canon, based on what we see in-game), things could be just peachy-keen in the rest of Chernarus, and South Zagoria is under quarantine by US, RU, and UN forces. (If you want a better, more in-depth explanation of my theory, PM me)

 

2) Even if the disease was particularly virulent, plenty of people could have survived via "quarantining" themselves, essentially by scrambling to the hills and preventing exposure. This happened during the Black Death in Europe: small villages off the beaten path literally didn't know there was an apocalypse-level plague going around until after it blew over, and people from outside the community came in and wondered why they didn't get hit. This doesn't mean they are immune, they just had the foresight to get out of dodge before they got sick. So now, when they start to move around/through the emptied cities, for supplies and to see "what's what", they stand the possibility of exposure.

 

3) Project Zomboid does this very well. In that game, you most definitely are NOT immune to the "zombie disease", and it makes the game atmosphere SO MUCH BETTER for it. Yeah, sure, you can take one one zombie mano-a-mano pretty easily, and come off on top with no/little damage 99% of the time. However, more than one zombie instantly changes "meh" to " HOLY COCKBISQUITS GOTTA GTFO". While you fight one, the other zombie(s) are busy smacking you from the side, and you stand a pretty good chance of getting infected. Once you get infected, you might as well go out in a blaze of glory.

 

By making zombies actually dangerous, the game actually feels scary, like the end of the world. Sure, you can grow food and build up a base, but once a couple of zombies finds your base, you might want to move. (Basebuilding makes noise, by the way)

 

Oh, and while firearms are great at killing zombies, they also cause them to swarm from a wide area. You better have an escape plan, or preferably, more than one, before you start shooting. I've seen swarms of about (I actually lost count, and was too busy freaking out to be more accurate) 100 zombies coming for me after firing, and the more I shot, the more came. I ended up burning down a whole subdivision with Molotov cocktails trying to kill the horde. Worked, but holy shit, that was the scariest thing I've ever seen in a game. They just.wouldn't.stop.

 

Russian and US helicopter crash sites are evidence of their respective armed forces being overwhelmed, aren't they? At the very least the region of Chernarus we play in has been overrun, which may be indicative that any forces in this area were forced to pull out. That might not be proof that they've been overwhelmed everywhere, but it implies a large scale retreat. Crash sites might even be evidence of military remnants from other regions attempting to retreat but being taken down by a crewmember that turned, which implies that the bases they came from have also been overwhelmed. All speculation, of course. I daresay the devs haven't put that much thought into it.

 

Interesting correlation with the black death. Can't really argue with that. Considering we seem to have washed up on shore it's a fair bet that we might have been knocking about on a boat or something to avoid the outbreak. However, I always assumed that the reason we washed up on shore (if that is indeed the case) is that whatever ship we were on was overwhelmed by infected - again going back to that super transmittable disease thing.

 

I've not played Project Zomboid (though I've seen videos and it looks wonderful) but my understanding is that those zombies are usually quite slow. DayZ zombies sprint, making it much more difficult to simply avoid combat with them. That being the case it'd be very easy to become infected. I'm all for a challenge but that might become frustrating.

 

I absolutely want zombies to be super dangerous. I'm assuming that the danger of zombies will come from their numbers (as seen by some recent videos of the hordes) rather than their individual threat. 100 zombies that can sprint after you and are likely to kill you (from infection) after just one hit doesn't sound like it'd be much fun, especially if so many spawn areas are in and around the main cities. 

 

I can see your point, though. As I said, I'm not strictly against the idea, I'm just suggesting why players are immune from a lore and gameplay stance. If zombies were slower I'd totally support it, but as it stands it's very easy to get hit (bugs/ getting hit through walls notwithstanding) so even individual zombies would become a massive threat. As I mentioned before, though, I like the idea of more mundane infections being transmitted, with a small chance to transmit something that absolutely requires medicine in order to survive.

Edited August 1, 2015 by BeefBacon

[Syphonz 64]

-snip-

Even though you say we washed up on shore, some of my friends have reported spawning more "inland".

 

 

If so, if this is true, wouldnt it be cool if there was a few broken pieces of wood/a broken boat by where you spawned? Could add a little bit more of the whole "hey, how did I get here?" aspect to the lore. (Im getting off topic, I know)

 

 

As for the infections themselves, I dont believe its a very "cop out" moment(in regards to herro123). The only reason I think this is because different people "in RL at least" have different genetic makeups. This allows specific people to be immune to specific things "eg, some people are allergic to certain things, and some are not. Bees yo, bees.".

Edited August 4, 2015 by Syphonz

[Whyherro123 2283]

Even though you say we washed up on shore, some of my friends have reported spawning more "inland".

 

 

If so, if this is true, wouldnt it be cool if there was a few broken pieces of wood/a broken boat by where you spawned? Could add a little bit more of the whole "hey, how did I get here?" aspect to the lore. (Im getting off topic, I know)

 

 

As for the infections themselves, I dont believe its a very "cop out" moment(in regards to herro123). The only reason I think this is because different people "in RL at least" have different genetic makeups. This allows specific people to be immune to specific things "eg, some people are allergic to certain things, and some are not. Bees yo, bees.".

Technically, everyone is "allergic" to beestings, in the sense that it causes a reaction in everybody stung. REALLY allergic people have the super-bad reactions that you mention, but again, technically, everyone is allergic to beestings to a minor extent.

 

And, I still think it is a "cop-out" that, miraculously (/sarcasm), the only people we can play as are those who won the genetic lottery. Where are the people who survived living in the back-country, that essentially put themselves under quarantine so they wouldn't get exposed? Or, those who used proper protection (-snicker-), like face-masks, rebreathers, goggles and gloves, to prevent transmission?

 

Remember: there are "only" a couple of methods of transmission (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_(medicine))

-airborne

-droplet

-"fecal-oral"

-sexual

-oral

-direct contact

-vertical

-Iatrogenic

-Vector borne

 

Now, we can safely assume that the "zombie disease" is a virus, not an "infection", because if it was, it could have been treated via application of "HOLY FUCK"-level antibiotics (yes, we have things like that. They essentially make you wish you were dead, but they are "strong enough" to wipe out any bacterium. They are only used in cases of disease-related MAD, as we don't want some bacteria becoming resistant to our "Hail Mary" drugs)

 

Now, since we can see bags of hazardous biological waste in-game, we can safely assume that the "zombie disease" is probably transmitted through direct contact with infected bodily fluids, kinda like rabies. So, someone sick (they don't have to be showing symptoms) coughs, sneezes, or spits, and people inhaling the stuff or catching some in their mucus membranes will then be infected. Or, through direct transmission via cracks in the skin of the hands, from handling infected individuals or bodily fluids.

 

All of those means of transmission can be easily prevented through the application of goggles, breathing mask, gloves, and a metric shit-ton of bleach. As well as a military curfew (which I believe is more than likely what happened. Society didn't collapse within a day) to prevent the possible spread of disease. People living in isolated towns could have easily remained safe from infection, and we could have therefore, played as "non-immunes". That would give us a rather good reason to wear the face-mask and gas-mask, wouldn't it, as well as adding a whole new level of paranoia and fear to the game.

 

Now, obviously, we are the only people left alive in Chernarus, us "immunes". This still bears out, because even with a military curfew and quarantine of infected populations, eventually the shit must have hit the fan. Either the populace got too pissed off, or the CHEDAKI rose up again to stir the shit-pot. Either way, "law and order" broke down, and infected people were able to move around at will, spreading the sadness. However, this doesn't mean everyone not immune had to die. They could have bunkered up in the woods, killing anyone they see that isn't a member of their group......... sound familiar?

 

Of course, we are all immune because the devs probably couldn't give a damn about the possible gameplay -AND- plot implications of allowing us to play as "non-immune" survivors.

Edited August 5, 2015 by Whyherro123

[ZomboWTF 527]

I'd say the Infected are dirty mongrels and there would be all kinds of filthy germs under their finger nails and in their mouths.

 

As stated not sure getting zombified will happen (i believe we are the immune ones) but definitely getting infections would be realistic. In fact i would imagine that infection/disease would be the biggest killer in an apocalypse scenario, especially without medication.

plus, even without being a mad, infected crazy person, human mouth are very unclean to begin with, a human bite normally gets way worse infected than a dogs bite for instance

though we all know that if there would be a scale, zombie scratches and bites would be an 8/10, while animal bites and scratches probably a 5/10, and a cat scratching your arm about a fivehundred-billion/10