Slow Zombies in a large mass

[Beizelboss 0]

I know people think that slower zombies would make the game too easy but please hear me out.

I feel as though the zombies move at too high of a speed for multiple reasons. The first being that in my experience, you could run from them in the open for 20 mins straight and not put any distance between 2 - 5 "walkers." This is frustrating. Also from the look of the towns time has passed since the initial outbreak, so rigor mortis and clotting would have started to take its effect in the undead.

Second, the current speed makes killing them a very hard due to the games lag not really cause of speed. The speed and sporadic nature of their movement makes them almost impossible to kill once they have already started their pursuit. You almost have to let them get next to you while in the open to get a clear shot once they stop to smack you around.

Now I don't want the game to be easier. I LOVE the difficulty. and being that it seems this mod aims for realism, to which I find it curious that the you can kill a zombie by shooting it in the torso or even the legs. I feel the rule of killing the brain should apply.(not with melee, as I feel that the aiming of such weapons is not fine tuned enough)

This goes hand in hand with the slower zombies, having to get a head shot would become more possible, while eliminating the crazed animations.

Now now, before you get all worked up, to keep the difficulty high, make the zombies travel in larger groups on an average. That way, even though they might be slower they can still overwhelm you in quantity and the fact you have to aim with each shot would cause for a added panic.

[TheTigger 34]

Once I get aggro I run to the nearest building to ether make the undead lose line of sight or to kill them.

[FrIEND (DayZ) 9]

zombies are VERY, almost too EASY to outrun!.. just run inside any building and out from the other end. or use fence's or any other obstacles to slow them down, heck.. even running uphill will work just fine

zombies arent thread anymore, and slowing them down would make them as total joke

[moofactory 62]

One thing I do have to say about the runners speed.

I opened up a zed model in the armory, they run a hell of alot faster than players.

Like twice as fast, WAYY too Fast.

I think this is what I think is the cause of their jerky running patterns when running strait.

Like if you run at full speed and they chase you then when they catch up just behind you they suddenly fall back then run up again, rinse repeat.

It seems like there's something coded into them to periodically stop running when ever they reach a player then start again. (collision detection?..causes short pause stand then run again)

If this was slowed down to the same speed as a player model, You would still get them chasing you the same but no more start stop running.

As for the jerky running in directions, this looks like they try follwing the player's running path but can only run in a strait line, hence the zigzag patterns and sharp snap turns.

As for slower chasing in general, I guess it depends on the zed type, the runners are really the only ones I think that need tweaking really.

Having said that, some things you said raise interesting thought.

Your damage impact on how they change stance or animation.

All zeds that can run do so at about 10%-20% faster than standard player run.

Can turn in a fluid curve like a player can.

To kill any zeds they need a headshot. (insta-kill any gun or melee x2-x4 hit)

x2 Body shots will make them kneel stance move

(ie hoppers or on all fours in that creepy Grudge crawl/run)

x4-6 body shots or x1-x2 Leg shots will make them prone crawl (broken legs)

This would not apply to military guns that already do 1 hit kills.

(anything that in real life would blow off a limb or a hole as big as 4 inches or more like a 50 cal)

My thoughts on this are due to the fact that we cant blow off limbs in Arma 2, legs arms heads.

to compensate for this, we give insta-kills to high powered weapons when they hit the torso.

I guess x2 hits for legs or arms.

(zeds could potentially still attack you with no arms, pull themselves along the ground with no legs, Sit there like a meat sack moaning with no limbs)

just my 2c :D

[pvt_ammo@hotmail.com 164]

Made this suggestion a a while back.

http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=24415

[Caine Hollow 5]

Kinda stopped reading after rigor mortis... Arent "Romero Zombies" but rather "28 days later" i.e infected, not dead.

But do agree their movement need a overhaul, would be nice to shoot them in a distance.

[pvt_ammo@hotmail.com 164]

Kinda stopped reading after rigor mortis... Arent "Romero Zombies" but rather "28 days later" i.e infected' date=' not dead.

But do agree their movement need a overhaul, would be nice to shoot them in a distance.

[/quote']

Then the mod should be called DayI and not DayZ. Living Infected aren't Zombies. Even Danny Boyle the creator of 28 days stated “It’s not a zombie movie, everyone. It’s not a zombie movie…They’re infected. They’re not zombies.”

If this mod continues to advertise with the name DayZ, assuming the Z doesn't stand anything other than Zombie, then these "infected" should act more like zombies instead of these super human sprinting athletes they currently are.

[Fisheadthethird 0]

Rigor mortis stops after approximatley 48 hours, so that wouldnt slow them down for long.

Maybe you could have them at varying stages, with some that can only walk or crawl and others that can run.

[Beizelboss 0]

My main point, which moofactory added to, is that the zombies or infected, still move at a ridiculous speed. and it causes the animations and there movement to be ridiculous. I never stated that I wanted them at a snails pace, just a pace which looks more natural and somewhat balances out the game.

There could still be fast ones just not every single one of them. On another thread someone had called them runners, pretty sure they almost all are, you don't see as nearly half as many of the other 2.

[Bat (DayZ) 230]

Kinda stopped reading after rigor mortis... Arent "Romero Zombies" but rather "28 days later" i.e infected' date=' not dead.

But do agree their movement need a overhaul, would be nice to shoot them in a distance.

[/quote']

Then the mod should be called DayI and not DayZ. Living Infected aren't Zombies. Even Danny Boyle the creator of 28 days stated “It’s not a zombie movie, everyone. It’s not a zombie movie…They’re infected. They’re not zombies.”

If this mod continues to advertise with the name DayZ, assuming the Z doesn't stand anything other than Zombie, then these "infected" should act more like zombies instead of these super human sprinting athletes they currently are.

DayZ is only a project title. Dean never talked about zombies, always about infected.

Also, infected run 2times faster than the player because of the way they are coded. They have to stop everytime they reach you. Think about it, if they ran like only 1.5 times faster than player speed, given they stop 1 sec everytime they reach you, they would not be a threat anymore.

And we don't want that.

Remember zeds are currently entities dependent of ambient life AI, which means there are strong limits to what can be achieved with them.

EDIT : I could just have yelled : ALPHA!! too.