New Zombies/Infected

[kani (DayZ) 0]

@ Aseliot, it all sounds like a fairy with a copy resident evil nemesis.the only one happy about what I would do is the reduced speed of the zombies, often they are the bigger threat than 3 players shoting at you, first would be a progress, .... and a point which I would like to address. is a German forum. there are enough players that have a significant... mit freundlichen Grüßen kani :-)

[aseliot 23]

You don't understand natural selection, that's why.

Regarding a zombie apoycalypse, yeah right okay.

I don't even know where to start with these comments lol.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Aseliot

[Miki (DayZ) 15]

Add walkers, i'm getting enough trouble of runners.

[KrystoferRobin 67]

No. No offense, but special infected are stupid for this mod. It is meant to be realistic, and not some weird mutated special monster zombies.

At no point are claims to realism made, only authenticity.

The only sort of "special" infected I could understand and get behind would be the occasional military zed who turned with his NVG's on, flashlights in hand, or active walkietalkies (just think if we had radios, and random zeds walkies would broadcast whatever channel it was left on's activity. Fuck yeah). As for mutations with even more SUPER COOL ABILITIES DOODS, gtfo out. You have L4D for that shit.

[Stane (DayZ) 0]

Well lets go back to topic and try to normaly argue about it.

I'm also a supporter of the idea to have different Zombie types or at least change something with them.

AFAIK there are atm already 3 kind of types

-normal walking one

-crouch jumping one

-crawling one

They differ in visibility for the player and i think also in speed. Their behaviors and values are the same. The players possibility to "interact"(shoot them, get hit, get noticed) with them are also very limited. There are tons of them randomly running around in the towns and the only way to get to the loot points is to try to sneak your way through this chaos.

So my point is, after a the 10th time its just gets boring, you are loosing patience and tension. Fun is decreasing. There need to be change.

So to change things its important to know in which way the changes will change the game experience and what experiences should be supported and which not.

For Rocket the core of the game is the survival feeling, the Zombies are just a modern scenario to represent the danger. The player needs to bring it self on purpose temporarily into danger in order to survive. The Arma2 engine is just the wrapping which supports the whole experience by giving a "realistic"/authentic/believable surrounding.

So in addition to this survival feeling other for me important DayZ experiences w were also the constant paranoia, at least in the beginning, the discovery, the unprediction, the finding and building of some kind of a home, looting and gearing up, keeping alive and ofcause to share this with a friend. These are the points I would orient on for deciding if a change fits in or not.

So one point to make the zones with the zombies more interesting is to increase the possibilities to interact with the zombies. This could be:

-More ways to distract them, for example throwing a stone/can/bottle/...

-Hunting an animal to place it near the zombies to attract some.

-more doors and fence gates, to slow down zombies who are hunting you, zombies cant open doors/fences just destroy them, which gives the player some time to run away

-attract zombies not only by a gunshot but also a shout

-Setting a blood track, to lure zombies somewhere

-Some Zombies are hiding, in the house or some where else

Horde:

I think would fit very well in big cities. Cities have more and better loot so the challenge to get them should also be bigger.

Maybe smaller hordes(around 5zombies) are also a good thing, instead of a zombie every 20meter.

Infestor:

Have to think about L4D. To get infested to become a Zombie opens a total new ways with tones of new questions. Are dead when you are a zombie? Can you controll the Zombie?... Would change the game to much atm in my opinion.

So I disagree with the infestor and the idea of becoming a Zombie. Maybe to a later point in development I would think about this idea again.

-Instead of that I would suggest an extremely rotten Zombie which just has a higher change to make you ill when it attacks.

Mutant:

To argue with realistic evolution, natural separation and stuff in a zombie scenario in a game isn't probably the best argument. I would argue more from the point of the mentioned game experiences.

A Mutant is like a Boss. And you need a Boss in a Game only when all the other enemies are no real challenge anymore. I think it should be always dangerous for a player to go in town, of cause with higher gear its not so risky anymore as in the beginning but there is still a risk. So for that i disagree to the mutant. So instead of making stronger and stronger zombies I would suggest to make them more tricky, more scary or something like this. Or the environment is more challenging, like have to fight in the night, danger fields(like radioactive fields in Stalker), swamp, fog,...

Wanderer:

After you play a while, you start feel pretty save in the forests. Atm i think its kinda ok, because you dont really have a home/savespot and you need this contrast from dangerous zone and save place. but with the idea of future underground structures and further supporting of camps. There should be more danger in the woods. So for the moment i would say some single Zombies should spawn around town with a higher distance.

Nightcrawler:

I recently saw a dayz video about guys who are running through the forest in the night and go super paranoia by things they belive to see in the darkcombiend with some realy Zombies. The night is already scary enough but with the knowledge that there possible is something out there that is tracing you, would be awesome. Not sure if it has to be a special pitch-black-stalker-zombie, but some kind of zombie it must be. Maye the spawing radius around town for zombies should increase or this rare spezial zombies who hunt you.

Southern & Nothern Zeds:

Not should about that. It looks a bit like an increase in difficulty and i would argue the same as i did for the mutant.

What i would more agree on are location based zombies like soldier zombies with armor and helmet in and around military bases, where you can find all the cool stuff.

If this is not challenging enough its probably a good idea to let loot spawn rare loot at those places only in the night.

Zombies with different shapes or states of rottenness is also a cool idea. Would like to give it a try to see how it affects gameplay.

Any other ideas of Zombie types or how to enrich the expirience with them?

Edited July 16, 2012 by Stane

[aseliot 23]

Horde:

I think would fit very well in big cities. Cities have more and better loot so the challenge to get them should also be bigger.

Maybe smaller hordes(around 5zombies) are also a good thing, instead of a zombie every 20meter.

I actually thought about it and everyone seems to disagree with the wanderer, so i guess that instead of hordes spawning in cities they could spawn all around the world and wander around places (kind of like migration groups mentioned in another idea i read here). They would obviously also wander through open fields and forests like this, making the zombie spread bigger instead of having it fixated on towns only.

Mutant:

To argue with realistic evolution, natural separation and stuff in a zombie scenario in a game isn't probably the best argument. I would argue more from the point of the mentioned game experiences.

A Mutant is like a Boss. And you need a Boss in a Game only when all the other enemies are no real challenge anymore. I think it should be always dangerous for a player to go in town, of cause with higher gear its not so risky anymore as in the beginning but there is still a risk. So for that i disagree to the mutant. So instead of making stronger and stronger zombies I would suggest to make them more tricky, more scary or something like this. Or the environment is more challenging, like have to fight in the night, danger fields(like radioactive fields in Stalker), swamp, fog,...

I actually ment this to be a creature that only were present with 2-3 per server, and then only at the NWA, Stary Sobor and other highlight places where you could get military stuff. To make those places more challenging.

Nightcrawler:

I recently saw a dayz video about guys who are running through the forest in the night and go super paranoia by things they belive to see in the darkcombiend with some realy Zombies. The night is already scary enough but with the knowledge that there possible is something out there that is tracing you, would be awesome. Not sure if it has to be a special pitch-black-stalker-zombie, but some kind of zombie it must be. Maye the spawing radius around town for zombies should increase or this rare spezial zombies who hunt you.

Yeah that was generally the idea. The appareance is just to make them creepy and unusual so you know it's a nightcrawler instead of a normal zombie... although that insecurity might make you even more paranoid.

Southern & Nothern Zeds:

Not should about that. It looks a bit like an increase in difficulty and i would argue the same as i did for the mutant.

What i would more agree on are location based zombies like soldier zombies with armor and helmet in and around military bases, where you can find all the cool stuff.

If this is not challenging enough its probably a good idea to let loot spawn rare loot at those places only in the night.

I don't know if there will be random spawns, it kind of depends on that. But i see a solution in making army zombies being stronger with their bulletproof jackets and all.

Zombies with different shapes or states of rottenness is also a cool idea. Would like to give it a try to see how it affects gameplay.

Any other ideas of Zombie types or how to enrich the expirience with them?

Yeah well at any rate i would like to see the crawling zombies without legs, it would give them a reason actually crawl. (Sure they have their legs broken but you know its a zombie game)

But regarding that anyone doesnt want any special zombies makes me have a very small amount of options... regarding this subject the word "modest" comes to mind rather than "authentic". As in not overdoing things...

To argue with realistic evolution, natural separation and stuff in a zombie scenario in a game isn't probably the best argument. I would argue more from the point of the mentioned game experiences.

This is what i mean...