Infected dogs and scared shitless

[unconsciousobjector 69]

During my weeks of playing DayZ I've been trying to think of a way to add some "oh shit", or I should say more "oh shit" moments.

Why not infected dogs?

Imagine making your way through the forest or a field and hearing a dog (or better yet dogs) howling in the distance. They have picked up your sent, or another's sent? The sounds grow closer as you scan the horizons for movement. A survivor breaks from the forest line followed by an infected dog hot on his(her) heals. Another infected dog and then another are hot on the survivors trail. Clearly the survivor is losing the race. In all four infected dogs are steadily gaining on the doomed soul. You raise your weapon, draw a bead on the damned soul and mercifully take the survivor out before the dogs rip his guts to shreds. Big mistake.

The sound of your weapon alerts the dogs to your presence, they mill around sniffing at the ground and looking your way as they slowly approach your position. The lead dog lets out a howl followed by the rest of the pack. They have YOUR sent.

Do you run? Try to hide? Hope you can take all four out before they're on you? You check your ammo count, 12 rounds, probably not enough. You choose to run. There's a town a click away. Running for your life through the forest the sounds of the infected dogs grows closer, Half a click, you might just make it. More howls come from the left, then more from the right, other infected dogs have heard their infected broithers and answered the call. You exit the forest into a field, you can see the town, so close. Dogs are also breaking from the forest to your left and right, there's 10 of them now. The dogs at your heals are so close you can almost hear their bated, hungry breath.

A shot rings out from the town, someone has taken mercy on you and ended your miserable existence before the dogs have their way. Big mistake.

[mcghee102383@yahoo.com 4]

Too bad we can't climb tree's!

[unconsciousobjector 69]

Too bad we can't climb tree's!

Ya but, it would suck to be stuck in a tree with infected dogs snapping at your toes!

[unconsciousobjector 69]

The main reason I would add infected dogs is this:

I believe that DayZ should be about man vs. the environment. Environment meaning the post apocalyptic pandemic that is the DayZ sandbox.

It would seem to me that at the moment the main focus is on PvP as opposed to surviving. The zombies/infected aren't anything more than a nuisance right now and the only thing you have to "survive" is other people.

Probably 90% of the suggestions I've seen are directly related to surviving PvP and has very little to do with what I believe was the original intent or at least suggested premise of DayZ. Make the world tough enough to survive and people will pull together out of pure necessity.

Packs of infected dogs would inevitably lead to "herds" of people traveling together just like in nature. Think wolves vs. buffalo (Canada for example) or impala vs. dogs in Africa. If the environment is severe enough alol creatures will adapt to overcome the challenges. If they do not, there's plenty of examples of creatures that have gone extinct.

I can envision a "world" where it's just too dangerous if not down right impossible to enter a city alone, where even the wilds are fraught with danger. Danger other than or more prevelant than killers. Damn I wish I knew how to write scripts for Arma2.

[curtis19 10]

I like the idea, but I tihnk maybe we should just focus on zombies doing what you described, I agree totally thoguh zombies need a big boost to their danger level. Right now easy to survive, unlike other players, i tihnk zombies need a tweak for sure, moving hordes and maybe more. however beofre they can make it this hard I'd think they need to make grouping up much easier.

[nabehobby 13]

i don't really like it when zombie games/movies have infected animals.

it kinda ruins it for me, and definitely is not horrifying. :|

Edited August 30, 2012 by CaptainBingo

[unconsciousobjector 69]

i don't really like it when zombie games/movies have infected animals.

it kinda ruins it for me, and definitely is not horrifying. :|

I think animals offer a alternative form of Zombie that is more believable than "mutated" forms. If that makes sense?

Regular "zombies" behaving like described would mean ALL zombies would have to do it. Dogs offers a alternative while leaving "regular" zeds as they are.

Maybe a new form of Zed would suffice?

[rainf 76]

I think animals offer a alternative form of Zombie that is more believable than "mutated" forms. If that makes sense?

Regular "zombies" behaving like described would mean ALL zombies would have to do it. Dogs offers a alternative while leaving "regular" zeds as they are.

Maybe a new form of Zed would suffice?

I think this is going to be covered in standalone as Rocket mentions Zed evolution, fresh infected, infected, long infected in regards to deterioration speed etc.

[unconsciousobjector 69]

I think this is going to be covered in standalone as Rocket mentions Zed evolution, fresh infected, infected, long infected in regards to deterioration speed etc.

Good ideas on Rocket's part but, if I may, I don't think he was talking about increased difficulty but, rather more along the lines of various states reduced effectiveness. If memory serves me right his brother is a virologist and he wanted to get his brother involed in the project.

What I'm talking about is introducing new dangers into areas that currently pose no threat other than other players. New dangers and new challenges other than the current formula that involves infected in towns.

I think trying to model "advanced infected" (for lack of better term) or rather "early infected with advanced intellectual capabilities" would be much harder to do convincingly than dogs or another form of simpler minded creatures. One would expect a "person" that has recently been infected to be somewhat more capable than one that has been infected for a longer period of time. Unless of course Rocket decides to go down the path of mutated infected that gains abilities outside those that would normally be associated with uninfected people.

Dogs or similar creatures have abilities (and limitations) that humans simply do not. Sight, smell and hearing to name a few and that can be easily explained without going down the path that so many other "zombie" games have traveled.

To simplify, the mad has become a PvP playground where infected are little more than a nuisance at best and a tool used by killers to aid them in murdering other players. For example zeds that are active more than 200m from your location usually indicates another player in the vicinity of said infected. Certainly aggroed zeds not aggroed on the players is diffiative confermation another player is around. Or take the debug menu and the active zombie count, yuou can almost certainly tell when player(s) enter a large city due to the sudden increase of active zombies and the number thereof. Forty active zombies suddenly jumps to over a hundred then you can bet your behind someone or someones are in Cherno or Electro and raising hell.

Basically, make the game about surviving a hostile world again. Hostile world in the sense that the "world" itself is harsh and hostile if not down right deadly as opposed to other players being virtually the only real danger that's not directly the result of a simple mistake. Infected dogs would be a great addition IMO. I'd also love to see a tornado come ripping through the world too.

When DayZ was in it's early days people worked together because they simply didn't know that all you have to do is run through a building to lose zeds or faceplant in a bush/tree to lose them. Things were fresh and the unknown was in and of itself a danger. DayZ is in it's current state a very limited COD or BattleField3. I hope the Dev team Gets back to the "man vs. the land" experience. Certainly other players will always be a threat/danger but, as it stands, other players are the only real danger.

[unconsciousobjector 69]

I'm a firm believer in "hunters". I dont believe that infected just mill around until "food" just happens their way.

[Diabetic and Bean Allergy 0]

TL:DR - Zombie dogs should exist to pick up the scent of sniper bandits in the woods (or any low humanity) to even the playing field.

I have mixed feelings about this - though I would like to see dogs, both infected and not, the swarms of wolf packs may become overwhelming...

Originally, I purchased DayZ (well Arma II) to team up with some real-world friends and slay hoards of zombies. Unfortunately, we haven't had good timing on when to play and this leads to a lot of "single player" action in which zombies quickly gain the advantage. Looting cities becomes a much slower, delicate process. Having those woods in the horizon to run to is a temporary relief, and having a pack of zombie wolves roaming there as a trap would be futile. I understand it's an apocalypse, but if you can't play the game alone sometimes, I feel as though it'd lose popularity from the less dedicated.

There should be zombie dogs. Maybe they could spawn with normal zeds but have heightened senses (smell/hearing) and can outrun a survivor after long distances. This would make running away and losing their line of vision almost impossible. To combat them, survivors could find scent masks and would have to use those pointless tin cans/whiskey bottles to divert their attention before they aggro. How about tossing/dropping raw meat to lose their aggro or distract? Maybe "raw meat + antibiotics = non-infected dog" whom you can heal and train (as Rocket/dev team announced) with whistles?

My final (and personal favorite) suggestion would still include everything above. The new attribute created for avoiding zombie dogs, scent, could be based off a player's humanity. The lower the humanity, the stronger the scent. As a bandit sits in the woods sniping poor flashlight wielding spawns, they would start to hear some rummaging and howls. Soon they hear the charging footsteps and would have to swap weapons to take 'em out. Sure, they could use some scent mask, but when it wears off they better start handing out blood transfusions or they'll have a tough time dealing with their karma...

1st post, start hatin'

[unconsciousobjector 69]

TL:DR - Zombie dogs should exist to pick up the scent of sniper bandits in the woods (or any low humanity) to even the playing field.

I have mixed feelings about this - though I would like to see dogs, both infected and not, the swarms of wolf packs may become overwhelming...

Originally, I purchased DayZ (well Arma II) to team up with some real-world friends and slay hoards of zombies. Unfortunately, we haven't had good timing on when to play and this leads to a lot of "single player" action in which zombies quickly gain the advantage. Looting cities becomes a much slower, delicate process. Having those woods in the horizon to run to is a temporary relief, and having a pack of zombie wolves roaming there as a trap would be futile. I understand it's an apocalypse, but if you can't play the game alone sometimes, I feel as though it'd lose popularity from the less dedicated.

There should be zombie dogs. Maybe they could spawn with normal zeds but have heightened senses (smell/hearing) and can outrun a survivor after long distances. This would make running away and losing their line of vision almost impossible. To combat them, survivors could find scent masks and would have to use those pointless tin cans/whiskey bottles to divert their attention before they aggro. How about tossing/dropping raw meat to lose their aggro or distract? Maybe "raw meat + antibiotics = non-infected dog" whom you can heal and train (as Rocket/dev team announced) with whistles?

My final (and personal favorite) suggestion would still include everything above. The new attribute created for avoiding zombie dogs, scent, could be based off a player's humanity. The lower the humanity, the stronger the scent. As a bandit sits in the woods sniping poor flashlight wielding spawns, they would start to hear some rummaging and howls. Soon they hear the charging footsteps and would have to swap weapons to take 'em out. Sure, they could use some scent mask, but when it wears off they better start handing out blood transfusions or they'll have a tough time dealing with their karma...

1st post, start hatin'

I like it.

[Nichols 13]

I have stated this before...I can't stand the thought of having a dog to care for in the game. If dogs are forced on us as players I will shoot mine and then proceed to start shooting other dogs instead of players just for the hell of it. I have dogs in real life; what makes you think I want to have a virtual pet of any type shoved down my virtual throat in a game.

I would like to see the implementation of wild animals like Bears, wolves, etc... that you have to survive against as well as the basic food animals in the game also. However you should be able to harvest meat from those non-farm animals also.

Edited August 30, 2012 by reschke