[Zombie AI Suggestion] Allow Closed Doors to be Hit Open

[twing1 4]

This is a humble suggestion to give closed doors a hit box with a given durability value.

Similar to how locked doors can be broken open by players punching them for a certain amount of time, I propose that closed and unlocked doors be given the same treatment.

Then, these closed doors should be made targetable by the zombie AI.

Right now, closing a door in a zombie's face completely stops the zombie from chasing the player, unless another, unobstructed route to the player is available. If another route is available, the zombie will magically know of this existing route and start navigating it's way through it.

This interaction breaks the realism of the zombie AI by either 1) having the zombie give up the chase because they know they cannot get the player or 2) having the zombie exhibit intelligence far beyond what they are capable of in having them omniscient of another, unseen route to access the player.

Allowing closed doors to be targetable by and broken open by zombies would alleviate this issue. 

I believe this should be fairly easy to implement, as similar code already exists in the game.

Locked doors already have this functionality, as they can be targeted and broken open by players after their durability value reaches 0. The idea would be that simply closing (and leaving unlocked) a door would function similarly to this. A closed and unlocked door would be given a durability value, and reducing this durability value to 0 would convert the door to its open state (similar to simply performing the action of opening the door). Locking the door could further increase this durability value. This durability value should be persistent, even if the door is opened and then closed again in order to avoid exploitation. Additionally, a 3-5 second cool down on closing a door after it is broken open could be implemented.

After these changes are made, doors would then need to be made targetable by the zombie AI, but only when they are aggrod on a player and it is obstructing their path. The zombie AI code already has a similar functionality found in its ability to choose to mantle some obstacles in pursuit of a player instead of pursuing through the longer, unobstructed route. The zombie door break mechanic can be further polished by adding unique zombie attack animations, reserved for only when they are targeting doors. 

I'm sure there are levels of complexity that I am not accounting for, but it seems like it should be a fairly easy and straight forward implementation that would go leaps and bounds toward improving the zombie AI and increasing the overall threat of the infected.

 

I am curious to know what others think about this change. Would zombies being able to break open doors in the way described be good for the health of the game?

Feel free to discuss below. 

Edited March 24 by twing1