Zombies should be like the weather. (What DayZ is doing right)

[Falcrist 119]

Isn't that exactly what the OP what trying to explain?

You died because of 'human' error, the zombies punished you.

What I'm saying is that since that time, even human error near zombies doesn't cause deaths.

That death was during my second night in the game. Now I'm not scared of zombies at all any more.

I don't bother to hide. I don't bother to plan around them. I don't bother to avoid them. I'm not scared of them any more.

What's the point of having zombies if that's the case? They're just a slight annoyance.

[Joekanone 3]

100% agree - The Zombies should be avoidable, like they are right now. What usually makes the Zombies a threat is their numbers. There are far to few Infected, especially in the formerly high populated areas aka cities.

Herds have been suggested a couple of times, which i would like to see.

And referring to the Romero-Style, Zombies should be far more attracted to sound. A shot in the open can be heard for miles and should attract tons of zombies moving in the general direction.

Technically i think it could be done by spawning 0 - 10 Zombies with each shot or salve fired within a radius of 10 - 400 Meters.

This also could be a solution for the KOS Playstyle, thinking about it twice shooting s.o. for their loot, knowing that each shot attracts a number of x zombies.

It also could add a little tension to the Sniperbandit Playstyle taking out Flashlightwarriors at the coast and the usual hotspots. At least they have to watch their back more often and change positions to avoid to get overrun.

[hunterkilla 67]

Kudos and Beans to you. I have had a few moments in the game where it kept spawning zombies, once in a tower I was running low on ammo and the bodies had piled up and I ended up making a run for it and just getting away alive. Due to the numbers it made it intense rather than, oh look 4 zombies.... easy. It should make it so yes you can avoid them or if you aggro them you have to run away etc etc or decide to stay and fight. Knowing that the amount of zombies could be suicide so you would be more likely to team up with people ( but I say the zombie spawn numbers should increase with more people in the vicinity )

This would then make it so you are careful and pick your fights with other humans but you would know that the worse thing in the game is other humans

[Banicks 55]

I am a great lover of zombie fiction, if you look at my book shelf and movie collection they are both filled with zombie fiction good and bad. I've also worked as a co-writer and consultant for a few small independent zombie films. The one thing that is consistent across all of it is that great zombie fiction is that its about people, not about zombie. They should be like the weather: a constant, a threat that can be protected against. Something which is only a danger when human error is introduced. One guy I worked with half-jokingly said that you could take the undead in great zombie movie and exchange it with a storm (eg twister) and it would still be able to provide the same emotional response.

That is why the older Romero films are great: the zombies are slow and pathetic but numerous and stubborn, if you work together or intelligently they don't provide a threat. Death ONLY happens with human mistakes or when the dark side of humanity comes out. The prison in the Walking Dead was COMPLETELY safe from zombies until humans came to invade it, the mall in the original Dawn of the Dead was blocked off and free from zombies until looters broke through.

This is why I think that DayZ is moving in a good direction, the zombies shouldn't be much more of a threat than hunger or starvation, they should be something that you can handle with a little preparation. Humans SHOULD be the biggest 'what if', the biggest element of chaos. Much to the point, I believe that making this game better is NOT about making zombies harder, but about giving players more reason to group together for good OR evil. Friendship and dealing with bandits are the human element that gives this game so much potential as great zombie fiction.

Thanks for reading.

Depends. Sounds like your collection of Zombie items focuses solely around the braindead, slow moving, BRAINZ nom nom nom type zombies.

If you haven't already done so, watch 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later and Dawn of the Dead (the new one). Quicker moving, aggro hightened and hungry to boot.

I like the zeds as they are, not mindless lemmings that will not figure out how to get to me in a crows nest popping them off one by one.

[bankst3r 45]

Well said. I also agree with you. Still, I can see why many experienced players don't feel threatened by Zeds at all and only care if other survivors are around them. Once the stand alone is released I hope we'll see a new or let's say a proper kind of Zeds. For example they should be able to run in buildings so you can't take them out easily if you have a gun and enough ammo. What I would also love to see is dire consequenses for firing a gun in the city. That should attract a herd of Zeds making it for you almost impossible to fight them off. I think this would go hand in hand with your idea of the game.