Some suggestions on zombies and player abilities

[fearz0r 128]

Hey all, I put in a real long shift in this over the weekend, and I can safely say I'm hooked.

That said, there were a few occasions yesterday where I spawned into the game and found I'd instantly aggro's a zombie or two. Now normally this is a case of running up a steep hill, in a house (with two entrances), up some stairs or popping a few rounds off in their heads to remedy the situation. But one instance last night I aggro'd just after starting over. I had no weapons, no friends on the server, and in trying to find a building to "lose" them in just resulted in adding to the undead fan base I had. In the end I made a dash for the woods. To my annoyance I discovered I was in a relatively flat area with no real steep hills. I tried using the built up trees and dry-stone walls to break their stride but they simply 'glitched' through them. Well, over 15 mins later (no seriously) and about 15 miles covered I turned and faced my doom. Which came swiftly.

What I would really like to see are one or more of the following (to add to the realism of this game/anti-game/social experiment etc):

1) stumbling zombies - Ok, so a sprinting screaming zombie is pretty damn scary, and I would definitely run away from these buggers. But to be honest, they're the undead/infected, surely their ability to run long distances would be slightly hindered? Can't there be a small % chance that your pursuer could stumble or trip, slowing them briefly and giving the player a chance to build some space between them and their pursuer?

2) de-aggro - I know this sounds weird but seriously, running for nearly 20 minutes straight, up and down hills, around walls, barns, buildings, trees.. surely, eventually, maybe, you know.. you might lose them? Especially if you're in the dead of night?

3) zombie speed - if either of the above were considered, I'd potentially ignore this point (although they could go well together), but until then; the zombies seem to have this insane speed when aggro'd sprinting 100 meter faster than usain bolt could ever dream to, but then oddly they can't quite make up that last 2-3 feet to get you while you run. How about you make their sprint a gradual thing? Allowing the player to get some distance and/or obstacles in between himself and the zombie(s)? And if out in the open with nothing to hide behind, well son, you're sh!t outta luck.

4) a basic melee - a punch/kick or shove to try and at least stun the zombie from eating you immediately. Nothing crazy, a 2 second stun that can only work on one zombie, with a 30 second cool down. To give us fleshies a fighting chance. I mean, if I were being chased, I wouldn't wait until I ran out of steam, I'd turn punch the undead fekker in the face and then peg it! :D

I know Day Z is alpha, but it would be nice to see what other thought of the above.

[fearz0r 128]

shit. just read that in the latest patch zombies now run up hills the player's can't as well as in buildings.. if that's the case I guess the above suggestions are going to be ignored.

/close thread. :(