Slower zombies are scarier than the fast ones.

[Horr1d 7]

From first impressions fighting zombies in DayZ compared with ones from Project Zombiod, fave zombie books and films and ofc my imagination, I have to say that slow zombies are way scarier because they give you time to be psychologically scared as you calculate your diminishing chances for survival.

When a zombie runs at me on DayZ, I know fear, but not the same kind and definitely not as scary. The PK factor and sandbox role play drive this game and make the experience so unique but if it didnt exist, I'd get bored with these zombies pretty fast.

I was thinking... if you made them so that when they hear a noise, they turn slowly towards it and investigate, not instantly go mental and attack. Upon seeing me they then at walk speed come towards me indefinably until they lose sight and sound of me for a random amount of minutes? Balance this with a basic stamina system so I cant abuse running away forever and boom, its scary again and allows much greater planning when cleaning towns, not just aggro, run or bang bang and increase scariness, at least for me.

This would open up a way of controlling or herding zombies into hordes if you chose too and had the stamina for. (item energy drinks to replenish?)

Imagine rounding up a horde and attracting it to a nearby PK town for example, player rounds from this town then draw attention of the zeds away from you and towards the bandit gunfire allowing the horde to attack them or make life tougher for them all of a sudden.

Fast ones should remain however but be an occasional surprise like the crimson heads in the resident evil 1 remake, say every 1 in 75 zombies will turn fast when in attack mode.

Thoughts?

[wasrad 42]

I have had leg biters sneak up on me several times. Those fuckers will follow yo from town to town.

[Zoop 343]

I really don't find the zombies in this game scary, tbh. They might give me a fright if they catch me unawares, but they're definitely not scary.

[finland 0]

In order for slow zombies to work, there would need to be thousands of them on each server. Obviously, that's not good for frame rate. On the other hand, I agree that they are way too fast, and sometimes it looks goofy. I think that an easy fix would be either to make them slightly slower, or to have them run in straighter lines.

[Gremlin (DayZ) 0]

Scary is sneaking through town not sure if you're going to get spotted and attacked. Scary is bandits assaulting you out of nowhere. Zombies (like everything) lose the shock-horror through exposure. Things that can kill or hurt you but you can't stop? Still scary.

Since I still have trouble hitting fast zombies, I'm still scared of them, or at least wary. That said, a mix of threats is a good thing for the experience. Don't want them all to be predictably fast now, do we?

[Horr1d 7]

I just know that with fast zombies, I have no time to make a plan, run or shoot is the only option at the moment with fast zombies.

With slow ones, I can formulate a plan and try and lose them. I can gather a horde of them towards gunfire etc, i can PLAY with them more. Try to somehow trick and evade the zombies without sprinting to bumps in the road, ladders or step hills and hope they bug out. Slower zombies with the occasional faster one thrown in the mix would make this a more psychological terror than shock terror upon aggravation of a zombie.

Slow zombies would need to be more damaging when they hit you to make up for the slower speed, and perhaps infect you with the virus that will turn you into a zombie unless you find the antidote from medical tents. Player turned zombies could perhaps be the ones that move faster, and contain some of the players original loot.

[septuscap 42]

Let's not forget the trump card of the slow zombie. You're more likely to underestimate them and get surrounded :D

[Horr1d 7]

Let's not forget the trump card of the slow zombie. You're more likely to underestimate them and get surrounded :D

Exactly, like the complacency that allowed the guy to get bit in the old Dawn of the Dead movie. One slip of concentration and you are infected.

[cesar10022@hotmail.com 3]

Personally think there should be Slow zombies mixed into the group of sprinters. They don't reveal which ones sprint until you alert them.

[The_President 1]

The thing is also that the sprinters stop up for a second or two where you have a chance to pop one of them at a time (or more depending on weapon). People also "just" bottle them up into buildings since they then walk slowly.

I believe that if it is possible via the engine and so forth, that zombies could be made slower, walking zombies to fast walking zombies, could even be a few fast ones -- but still much slower than the current ones -- mixed in and that would be fine as well. NPC speed alone isn't the ultimate answer though.

If they are to be slow they need a more sort of hive mentality, and most likely a higher sensibility for gun shots. So if you fire a shot in town (outdoors) you will 100% attract some zombies, and other zombies might follow them, becoming a horde or at least a group, then starting to circle your building etc - if they can ever learn to respect doors.

Top of that zombie migrations, if they bottle up and someone runs out of town, or whatever would happen, making the landscape quite more interesting and dangerous.

I'm not sure if it is actually feasible within the ArmA2 engine to create a more avid zombie world, or if the bottleneck is simply server power, but if it were achievable I'm overly confident it would make for a better and more challenging gameplay. One where people wouldn't murder each other so easily either, since they'd rather want someone on their side than against.

[deadbolt (DayZ) 10]

i like the fast ones, silent ones would be a nice addition as well

[filaz 1]

the random spawn near you is scarier

[miqueloz 33]

Dunno, slow zombies aren't scary at all to me.

This mod altogether lacks the scary zombies of movies. The zombies are more like pests.

[dabauce 0]

i like the idea of a group of slow ones then one really fast one that has glowing eyes. This would be pretty scary see glowing red eyes coming after you

[Horr1d 7]

Slow ones would pursue you for an infinite amount of time unless they lost vision and sound. After vision and sound was lost they would move in the same direction you were going in, just wandering until someone else disturbed them. I like the idea of a horde mentality among zombies, which would create herds of them which travel the land, listening for that gunshot to slowly move them to your location.

A stamina system would need to be implemented too, so running away would not be something you could constantly do at max speed. The size of the stamina bar would result in the level of food and water you currently have. Sprinting would lower this bar (and regens slow when you are not moving or walking) when the stamina bar is empty, continuing to sprint will result in burning the food/water levels much faster, forcing you to need to eat and drink more frequently.

Slower zombies would for balance, have to hit much harder and possibly infect humans hit with their virus, eventually turning survivors into the undead themselves. When infected, you will turn into a zombie after a random amount of time.

What might be fun is after you turn zombie, you can control a zombie but have severely restricted vision and hearing. You also move slowly. You remain as a zombie until killed again or you choose to respawn.

[ejohnston95@gmail.com 1]

I know Rocket is going for the infected here and he's against slow zombies since they aren't really zombies...

Regardless I'm just going to leave this link here.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/04/television-simon-pegg-dead-set

and...

http://projectzomboid.com/blog/index.php/2011/04/fast-vs-slow-zombies/

[Dingus (DayZ) 429]

The scariest element to the game are other players and the uncertainty of their intentions.

The zombies are important, but are really only there as an environmental element to me. They are restrictive. They prevent your quick and easy exit, escape, or defense if you are fired on.

The zombies are the gasoline tanker driving next to you on a highway 30 feet in the air on columns, and the players are other vehicles around you, or even the driver of the tanker.

What I mean to say is the zombies are a source of constant tension, not fear, and the players are a constant fear of that tension exploding.

Right?

[Powell (DayZ) 734]

I agree, and personally would love slow zombies, but this is Rocket's mod and he can do what he pleases with it

[Techercizer 82]

My signature link is relevant to this thread.

[bonesnap 75]

I think once the engine was optimized to the nines, it would be cool for zombie amounts to be doubled/tripled and with that new 200% of zombie population composed of slow zombies, so it forces players to work together more since zombies would be more difficult but won't make it absolutely tough enough to be unplayable. Key point there being the extra population of zombies are all slow ones. And allowing them to spawn elsewhere a bit, forests are completely void of danger and should have some threat involved.

Of course this is purely hypothetical as it would be rediculously demanding but I would rather play on a 10-20 player server with thousands of zombies than a 50 player server with hundreds of zombies.

Another thought would be the occasional mutant zombie, overexposed to the virus or genetically susceptible to it and would be extra tough/strong/fast/etc and would vary in difference and probably be bigger and scarier. Maybe even different detection mechanics as well. But yeah the games in alpha, at this point any new features are good ones pretty much.

[racecar 0]

First of all, as has been said, slow zombies are impractical from a performance standpoint.

Secondly, this game isn't really about zombies. Zombies are an obstacle. They aren't meant to be the primary threat. Players are the focus of this game.

[lowerplains 0]

i think a nice mix of slow/fast zombies would work, and not knowing which is which would make ya think a bit more while planning. also some Z's spread out in the hills/woods/roads would make ya look around more.

the slumbering zombie horde across the land at various points is a good idear too.

[xaden3 2]

should have to headshot them for a kill imo.

[Areos (DayZ) 106]

I feel the fast zombies are scarier than the slower shambling zombies, but the problem is that the limitation of the engine make it impossible for fast zombies to display their strengths over the slow ones.

By no means is this the fault of the developers of the mod, but the DayZ zombies have jerky, buggy and almost comical movement mechanics, and then they break to a sudden, 60-mph-to-0 stop where they flail their face and arms around as an attacking animation. It's like you're being attacked by a really, really fast retarded person.

For fast zombies to be scary, they need to run in an instinctive straight line to you (which makes them easier to shoot, true, but it's also not realistic for a predatory animal to waste time and energy running all over the place before attacking you), attack you while they're still moving and to possibly hinder your own movement or gun mechanics whilst attacking you.

These kind of zombies in real life would be grabbing at your arm or leg and biting into you, scratching and clawing you and overall inhibiting your ability to fight back greatly. Because they'd attack in such a fierce manner, your ability to fight back would be more limited (if it's biting your arm, you can't shoot your gun at it very effectively, and your ability to run away is basically impossible until it detaches itself from you). If this attack doesn't kill you, the 10 other zombies sprinting to you that will grab you, bite you, rip at you and completely mangle and pulverize you to death will.

Fast zombies, to me, are scarier because they're a lot more effective at what they're meant to do. The problem is that the mod, due to the limiting engine, cannot convey this ferocity effectively at all.