Ways to improve Infected

[evoxtom 142]

First off, I will mention detection seems much more natural so I'm going to leave that aspect of the zeds alone. Here are my ideas listed numerically to keep this direct.

1. Zombie spawning (upon shooting/gunshots) should not be immediate. Initial zombie spawns should be large enough to prove a challenge (1.7.2 seems to step in that direction) that additional zombies should have a full minute timer before they arrive. These additional spawns should be further (100m?) from player so the zeds look as if they're investigating a noise, instead of being right on you 5m away

This will allow players to clear, loot, and make a decision to run or risk staying to loot more. The additional reinforcement zeds should be larger in number as they roam the area looking for the noise.

2. Infected should have different skins to signify loot as they do now, just more variation. A police officer zed should have a pistol holstered that can be looted after getting killed, for example. Seeing not all buildings are enterable, this provides additional ways to get geared. It could help noobs get small arms when just starting out if one just knows a police officer might have a gun on him. I'm not sure if code would allow the zed not to use a weapon in their inventory??

3. Zeds should be able to go unconcious like human players. Shots to the chest and head are the only way to kill permanently (seeing that the zeds are just crazed humans.) otherwise, any other shots will render them unconscious for a brief few seconds before they rise again and chase you. This would force players to fear them more if they need to become a better shot.

4. Improve the infected noises; these sound somewhat generic and annoying. Could be worse.

5. The obvious- path finding/zig zag needs to become more predictable. Flesh craving humans who are not thinking logically will bolt right for whatever they need- not worrying about being killed.

6. There should be a random chance hordes will spawn in the woods 400m from an individual player. The horde should just be roaming aimlessly between towns, moving together in the same direction. If a player does not bump into them for a certain time frame, they can despawn.

7. Speed should be dialed down and sprinting zombies need more of a limp or obvious damages. They limp when walking but then sprint like a gold medalist.

8. Attack animations should be smoother and technically, these zeds should be able to knock out a player with a wild swing as they run, or actually ramming\tackling victims if someone runs into a full sprint zed head on.

9. When a player is cut open/ bleeding, there should be a good chance they become infected. Antibiotics should be more common in houses and apartments to prevent you from catching what the zeds have. I think adding an item like a medical face mask or scarf should be placed in game as a rare item that prevents you from getting infected when bleeding out. Many people would be running around like this in time of infection- look at china and Japan.

Will add more as I think of ideas. If someone is going to add or refute, please keep your posts civil abd organized to make it easy for mods to browse through.

[ChiefMasterKush 321]

First, I will say that the Arma 2 engine is limiting what Rocket can and would like to be able to do. That being said you have listed some good ideas.

1) Above

2) How would noobs kill said police officers without first searching out a weapon?

3) I like this idea a lot. I would change it a bit though. I don't think it would make sense for an infected to 'go unconscious' but having a knockback or delay in their forward progress seems to make a lot of sense (they do not feel pain therefore would not pass out from any kind of pain). Depending on the weapon used the time delayed/knockback would vary. I like the idea that only a headshot can kill a infected but I think I would implement it such that there are huge damage reductions when hitting an infected in a limb vs center mass/head. So you would still be able to kill an infected by shooting it in the foot it would just take 10x more damage to do so.

4) Eh. Infected don't have mating calls. I have thought I would like to see different noises for walkers/hoppers/crawlers, though not a big deal. Infected is infected is infected, I don't want them to touch me and I would kill them all if I could.

5) I believe Rocket has stated that the infected behave like this due to the fact that he can only use limited number in an area without causing serious framerate issues.

6) I disagree for a couple reasons. First, I believe that Zeds/Infected will hang out by a town because: the noise/light/buildings plus that is where they may have died. I also like the idea to freely run through the wilderness. Even so I do like the idea of having the chance to run across an infected or two when charging through the wilderness. I would be comfortable with this to keep the edge and tension, just not a 'swarm'.

7) I don't think anyone likes that the infected catch you so quick. I have not come across any 1.7.2 Infected but I don't think they changed their speed in this patch. I think they are pretty good on the speed except for maybe the uphill stuff. They should be gold medalist marathoners/sprinters. No pain no getting tired.

8) Again I believe this is a limitation with the engine. I don't think zed should knock down the player, maybe slow them down for a second.

9) I'm sure Rocket has his own ideas on where he wants to take this.

[L0G!N (DayZ) 149]

While this is not directly a way to make them better in regards to gameplay, i think this thread can give a more complete picture of zombie improvements in regards to the gaming experience: http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/29633-make-the-infected-more-human-and-more-zombie-adding-depth-and-immersion/

[tatelewis 0]

i believe, if this idea were to come into place. i would like newly spawned survivors to have weapons, because without, how would they escape? we have to give them some sort of chance

[khknight 3]

5) I believe Rocket has stated that the infected behave like this due to the fact that he can only use limited number in an area without causing serious framerate issues.

Are you saying it's gonna stay like this past its alpha all the way into its final build? No one is going to want that, people are just okay with it now because the game is in alpha.

[L0G!N (DayZ) 149]

At this issue, stress test 1.7.2.1 that is currently running is trying to figure out exactly how many items and stuff the client can handle, and where it breaks if it does (so it may possibly be improved). So we may see way more stuff happening sooner than we think :)

[evoxtom 142]

Yes I believe Rocket stated he wanted more zombies and players on servers at a given time.