Romero Zombie vs Rage Infected

[pvt_ammo@hotmail.com 164]

Read the last paragraph of my post above yours. =D

Edited July 13, 2012 by Ammo

[jukaga 271]

Read the last paragraph of my post above yours. =D

DURR thanks.

[Powell (DayZ) 734]

How about a nice 50-50?

[Undeadsteak 16]

Slower zombies are much more interesting, with a rare amount of sprinters. Someone mentioned mainly shufflers in main town areas and what not, and sprinters in the countryside. That'd be pretty cool. At the current moment, zeds aren't much of a challenge once you know how to game them. That really needs to be changed. If I can just run endlessly and never get hit by one, where's the challenge? Only people that do stupid shit (try to loot stuff with zeds on them, turn around and fire) end up dying to them.

[Malevolence 3]

There is a certian kind of terror unique to the "walking" or "shambling" kind. On the surface one or two seem harmless or pathetic then as you find yourself scavaging in a city or town, slowly you find yourself with a group closing in steadily. Soon you realize as you have made noise while foraging that some of your routes are now choked by them. Its now you realize you are surrounded your shots must be exact and you have to move now! Nothing better than impending doom even if its not the intial burst of adrenaline that a pack of runners has its still can be deadly if not more so. I would also love to see the idea of a "herd" like the walking dead gave us a wall of walkers that could be encountered anywhere on the map and when you least expect it. With these zombies the poetential to becoming trapped inside a building is real and can be a deadly consequence for the slow or unprepared survivor. I can imagine you and your groups camp youve set up deep in the woods being overun as you least expect it as you and your group must flee in order to survive. I think there is huge potential for this style Zombie. I also think a survivor that dies returning as a npc zombie would also be interesting factor.

[Powell (DayZ) 734]

Slower zombies are much more interesting, with a rare amount of sprinters. Someone mentioned mainly shufflers in main town areas and what not, and sprinters in the countryside. That'd be pretty cool. At the current moment, zeds aren't much of a challenge once you know how to game them. That really needs to be changed. If I can just run endlessly and never get hit by one, where's the challenge? Only people that do stupid shit (try to loot stuff with zeds on them, turn around and fire) end up dying to them.

you know I really like that idea, the slow in cities (A LOT), a few sprinters on the countryside..the sprinters should still be headshot only

[pvt_ammo@hotmail.com 164]

It just needs to be tried and tested.

[Alex067 4]

28 days later did not have zombies, they are merely infected. Therefore the majority of zombies should always walk, but increasing the amount of zombies to compensate for the lack of movement.

[Ejaculacid 19]

Oh yes, a discussion older than time itself. If server performance were not an issue, I'd personally like to see both zombie types - the large meandering Romero Hordes generally conglomerating around cities, with Rage Zombies striking out into the woods and outlying towns, hunting players. That will give you something to be afraid of in the woods other than bear traps.

See this guy has it..

[pvt_ammo@hotmail.com 164]

Sitting here thinking about a mechanic that naturally suits the environment and game. How about this. All servers start with shambling walking zombies with a few fast ones mixed in. If a player gets killed their body has a random chance at a random time to rise as a zombie, but a fast one. This means areas of heavy conflict would be filled with fast zombies. Killing would have some detrimental effect on the gaming environment. As the priest says in Dawn of the Dead. " When the dead walk, señores, we must stop the killing... or lose the war."

This would also make some players think twice about killing others, especially people who have a regular server they play in. Keeping fast zombie numbers down is a benefit to them so killing on sight is a less attractive option.

Edited July 13, 2012 by Ammo

[Powell (DayZ) 734]

Sitting here thinking about a mechanic that naturally suits the environment and game. How about this. All servers start with shambling walking zombies with a few fast ones mixed in. If a player gets killed their body has a random chance at a random time to rise as a zombie, but a fast one. This means areas of heavy conflict would be filled with fast zombies. Killing would have some detrimental effect on the gaming environment. As the priest says in Dawn of the Dead. " When the dead walk, señores, we must stop the killing... or lose the war."

This would also make some players think twice about killing others, especially people who have a regular server they play in. Keeping fast zombie numbers down is a benefit to them so killing on sight is a less attractive option.

that wouldn't make a huge difference currently, as everyone is already used to fast zombies 24/7

Also added this thread to my signature, you guys should too

[pvt_ammo@hotmail.com 164]

that wouldn't make a huge difference currently, as everyone is already used to fast zombies 24/7

Also added this thread to my signature, you guys should too

That's true, but with stamina implemented they would feel the burn. Muahaha. Tried adding the thread link to my sig but kept getting the more than 3 line error even though I only had 1 line.

[Powell (DayZ) 734]

bumpin'

needs more attention

[athrins 39]

Since we know a mix of physically healthy/unhealthy zeds are already being considered and we know the DayZ zeds aren't dead... what where we discussing again?

[Cerbo Knight 48]

I skipped through most of this thread as I need to pee, so I apologise if this is covered already... But a Romero zombie that never stops following you until it's dead would be preferable for me, slow moving and only able to be killed from headshots would be a vast improvement IMO, and it would actually make a zombie a considerable threat in cities. A larger detection range would probably be needed too.

[pieeyedsniper 25]

I really hope the Devs are paying attention to this thread. It may not be possible for smooth gameplay with tons of walkers in towns and slow roaming herds in the country side searching for flesh in arma II. But in a stand alone game this could be reality.

[drewmaw 56]

I really hope the Devs are paying attention to this thread. It may not be possible for smooth gameplay with tons of walkers in towns and slow roaming herds in the country side searching for flesh in arma II. But in a stand alone game this could be reality.

Just learned of Stalker Mod, have you played? I realized that it's not gonna be long before the DayZ community splits into two mods.

[athrins 39]

Just learned of Stalker Mod, have you played? I realized that it's not gonna be long before the DayZ community splits into two mods.

Doubtful. What makes DayZ is the survival aspect and sandbox aspect. Those who merely want to shoot or interact with zeds are better off elsewhere, anyway. Not saying that to be a jerk - I really think so. If I wanna spray bullets or hack 'n' slash my way through hordes of zeds or whatever, I'll genuinely look someplace else, unrelated to DayZ.

DayZ for me (well what I imagine it as, both now and later on) is a Zombie Minecraft with textures that require a gfx card to render (not hatin', just statin'). A place to be creative and strategical. It is also a psychological experience for me, both when playing and when observing the overall progress.

But most of all, DayZ is to me a science project being performed in public. Participating and brainstorming together with the brilliant author of this mod and his team is also a great experience. Basically, loving science as much as I do games; DayZ is a love-child of my two favorite things in this world.

Therefore, to me it is critically important that Rocket stays with his vision involving maximum authenticity and minimal Hogwarts miracles (not for sake of experiment, but for my personal preference :P and its nature as a sim). When or if DayZ starts balancing/developing features and mechanics with anything other than realism, science or psychological experimentation in mind, that is when I will find something else to do with my time.

DayZ is the first game I can finally start excusing my gaming habit by saying "for science!" (still not 100% rational, but it's getting there, the industry just need a little more time to get it right :P).

Edited July 15, 2012 by Athrins

[Katana67 2907]

In my opinion, Romero zombies are just really outdated. I enjoy the 28 Days Later sprinters far more than the shambling ones, simply because they represent more of a threat. In every movie with shamblers, when a person is actually -killed- by them... it's always pretty much the person's own fault. There's plenty of cases, whereby a person escaping from a zombie hoarde runs toward them... simply to die as a device in the plot, and it's just unrealistic.

For the purposes of Day Z, I think there should be -some- permanent shamblers, but they should be a vast minority. Or rather, more oriented to cities. Makes sense from a gameplay perspective, to have a ton of shamblers in urban areas and have fewer sprinters out toward rural areas to simply cover more ground faster. But given the choice, I'd definitely go with sprinters.

That being said, pathing needs to be worked on to make it acceptable. Also, zombie render range needs to be increased. It should be possible to snipe zombies from 800m out, as of now, they despawn well inside that envelope.

I just don't see that much of a benefit to having shamblers. To be honest, I really despise all of the Romero tongue-in-cheek bullshit, even as revolutionary as his lore was to the genre. I really enjoy a more realistic approach to zombies, being infected, and don't think Day Z should deviate from it.

I think Day Z is really oriented toward sprinters, and it fits with my personal preferences.

EDIT - I think, if anyone recalls how zombies behaved in 1.5.7, meaning that under ten spawned per town and they were limited to interiors... I think that'd give people a good idea of how much of a low threat environment shamblers would cause.

Edited July 15, 2012 by Katana67

[Pvt Parts (DayZ) 0]

I don't know, personally I would love to see the Zombies acting like Zombies, not as simply humans with some sort of virus that makes them superhuman with a taste for flesh.Though if that's the intent for this game, then fair enough, but don't refer to them as Zombies or Zeds as that gives the wrong impression, the 28 days later style infected are not Zombies, they are simply humans infected with a virus, and that shows with the fact they can starve to death within a matter of a few months. Now if you are wanting them to be actual Zombies, I feel the ones from the OP's little vid would work perfectly. They shamble rather than sprint, but can only be stopped with a direct head shot, anything less and they simply keep coming. The real threat and indeed horror behind Zombies is the way they work, the fact they are a slow moving wave of death that will shamble towards any living thing they see until they have consumed it, only by destroying the "brain" will they ever cease. Now when I say wave, I do indeed mean wave, a large group of them, not simply 2-3.

As for people saying slower zombies may for less of a threat when you stand there with guns and such, that is not always the case. Lets say you have an AK, 30 rounds left. Now you are on the verge of starving and have reached a town, in that town are around 40 Zombies, what do you do? Sure if you're a very good shot you can take down 30 of them, but that would still leave 10 of them that are going to be heading straight for you. Would you risk firing off that first shot knowing you would be unable to kill all of them? I know I'd still much rather try to sneak around them still.

Now I know this may not be possible to do with the current engine but I would hope that the ArmA 3 engine would be able to cope. Besides which, if they shamble indoors they should also shamble outside. I've been in a barn that's been huge and still they shamble towards me even though they still have the freedom around them they would in an outside space. Also who here doesn't make their way to the nearest house when they aggro more than 3 "Zeds" to have them shamble to take them down? And that's while body shots can still Kill them. So I say have them all shamble like a proper Zombie but have head shots needed to "kill" them. Plus higher numbers of them would be grand.

[REDMAGE628 24]

What bothers me is how there's no happy medium between boringly slow and olympic sprinter fast. Couldn't there be a quicker shambling speed? Not a full out sprint but the equivalent of a slow jog? Enough that survivor didn't need to sprint for their life but couldn't get away by walking on their hands?

[Zexis 127]

I'm ashamed to say that I pictured the literal Romero zombie from Black Ops upon reading the thread title.

[Powell (DayZ) 734]

I'm ashamed to say that I pictured the literal Romero zombie from Black Ops upon reading the thread title.

you should be :D

[pvt_ammo@hotmail.com 164]

What bothers me is how there's no happy medium between boringly slow and olympic sprinter fast. Couldn't there be a quicker shambling speed? Not a full out sprint but the equivalent of a slow jog? Enough that survivor didn't need to sprint for their life but couldn't get away by walking on their hands?

I don't think the boring slow zombie is what the Romero fans want either. We just don't want these uber fast unauthentic sprinty zig zaggy ones. The zeds need more balancing and the character speed definitely needs some sort of stamina mechanic. I play this game because it's authentic and immersive. The current state of the zombies ( and I will continue to call them zombies while the mod is called Day"Z" ) they are't either authentic or immersive. They are just a super fast obstacle with no real personality or character. A mix of slow, medium and fast zombies would be a good compromise.

Optimization really needs to be put into increased zombie numbers rather than player numbers with the current size of the map. In a zombie apocalypse you should feel alone most of the time and not bumping into people every other minute as if you were in a super market. I avoid these super large full servers because it just becomes deathmatch with zombies stuck on the side. The world should feel like a place full of zombies with a few pockets of survivors instead of a place full of players with a few pockets of zombies.

Fact is, zombie speeds at the minute simply aren't cut out for this game engine, they are way too glitchy and quite frankly look stupid IMHO. I'm sure there's a reason behind why they haven't been worked on yet and that's due to net code optimizing among other things. But I truly hope the devs take on board these suggestions as it seems there are a large portion of the community here that would like to see this at least tested.

[Kovah 4]

While it looked great the video made me feel that zombies were no threat what so ever,

You could just WALK away from them even if it was made for player interaction it would just be looking for the slow moving hoard of zombies to follow to find players.