A change of... Zombies?

[AccidentalHuman 2]

So I was thinking I would suggest this and see what the rest of the people think about it.

My honest opinion of the DayZ mod is that it has a lot of potential but they are doing it wrong. I feel that the Zombies should be more unintelligent, slow and cumbersome with more zombies.

A prime example of this if you have seen the series is The Walking Dead - the zombies are not overpowered but there are enough zombies to cause issues for the survivors.

My suggestion is this, make the zombies more like the zombies The Walking Dead and less like the ones in Left 4 Dead. I still enjoy a challenge but the way the zombies currently are is ridiculously over powered.

This is a Zombie RPG in which I LOVE the concept and I can see myself spending HOURS each day playing but at the same time if I wanted to play Left 4 Dead with zombies that are fast, swarm you and are hard to kill I would be playing Left 4 Dead not DayZ.

In addition to the current zombies being overpowered there are bandits everywhere, that is a problem all in itself that I see nothing wrong with. But bandits in combination of hordes of fast and overpowered zombies is making it kind of not fun for people who play by themselves.

So in summary I would personally like the following changes:

- Keep the number of zombies that are currently present the way they are (if not - add more)

- Reduce the speed of the average zombie to a walk or a jog when they are aggravated. (keep maybe 1 - 3 sprinters in a cluster but the most should be slow and cumbersome)

Reasons behind the changes:

- Less of a need for bandits (though there still will be plenty - but they will feel slightly less required to kill people)

- Slightly easier to get equipment if you sneak into a location and sneak out.

- Makes the game easier for individuals and new players to play.

- More fun...

[Jamesbiff 4]

Rocket has addressed this before:

The Arma2 engine is pretty demanding, what you can and cannot add is a major balancing act, more zombies would mean less of something else, for slow zombies to be any threat youd need THOUSANDS populating servers, if you did that, the servers would be crashing all the time, the engine just isnt built for that kind of activity. Hence fast zombies.

Its not a development problem, is just part of the engine, you cant change it or code around it, thats just the way the engine works.

[AccidentalHuman 2]

There are always loopholes and workarounds.

[Dutchdude 0]

Then you go and find these "loopholes and workarounds". At this point, its not possible to add thousands of zombies in the engine of arma 2 without the servers crashing.

[Tummynator 1]

Quoted from Rocket

http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=341&highlight=slow+zombie

"Slow zombies would require many, many more before they were a threat. And then there is the problem of disposing of bodies. Even checking on the NUMBER of dead bodies takes a fair amount of CPU at present so cleanup is done rarely and carefully.

That and personally, I don't really like the traditional concept of zombies - they reflect societal fears that we have outgrown somewhat. Modern "28 days later" zombies reflect the fear of infections, of things we can control and see, the loss of our humanity, the breakdown of order, nameless/borderless enemies. The modern zombie interest is really, imho, a social commentary on the fears of modern society. They capture nicely the things we fear.

This implementation was chosen because the infected are threatening, but their number can be controlled and balanced so the servers can be up, living, and remain stable for 24 hours. I realise this is a disapointment to some, but if it comes down to something being cool but costing performance or not being workable - then its not included."