The "Zombie" Virus and You.

[RIGHTLY 87]

A Quick Note

Now, before I start, let me just say I know there are multiple threads out there that discuss players turning into zombies. All the ideas I saw usually involved the zombies being undead, and since that's not what I want, and rocket said he didn't want undead zombies either, I thought I might as well voice my idea on what the mechanics should be like. This is also only my second thread, and the first one wasn't very successful, so lets hope this one gets more attention.

Now, lets begin, shall we?

How Do You Get Infected?

The way I see it, there should be multiple ways you can get infected, rather then just the obvious. Such ways should be, but aren't limited to...

Direct zombie infection: Starting with the obvious first, Zombies should have a large chance of infecting a player by hitting them, and an even larger chance if the player is bleeding. A biting animation would be really welcome, where the zombies will make a running lunge about 1 meter away from where the player is. The player would have to get out of the way of the zombies path. If the zombie makes contact, depending on what part of the body it grabs/lands on, the following could happen. (Players can and probably will be easily overrun by other zombies when grabbed onto). Being bitten puts you into shock, pain and has a 100% chance of infecting you.

The players arms: If the Zombies teeth make contact with the survivors arm, it will bare down and not let go of the survivor. The player will have limited, slow movement when a zombie is baring down or gripping on. Depending on which arm it makes contact with, and what weapon is equipped, different things will play out.

1) If the zombie bites down on the players right arm when they have a secondary or primary firearm out, the player will yelp and drop their weapon. The player will have to spam LMB (left mouse button) to shake the zombie off, beat its head in with his/her free hand, or have another survivor shoot it off.

2) If the zombie bites down on the players left arm when they have a secondary out, they will have the option to aim at the zombie, or other approaching zombies, and open fire, (this would be majorly inaccurate) or can use RMB (right mouse button) to hit them on top of the head with the butt of the pistol to get it off. If they have a primary out, then the only thing they can do is aim at other approaching zombies. This will be even more inaccurate then firing a secondary weapon while being bitten. Press RMB will have your player try to hit the zombie off or shake it off your arm. Of course, another survivor will be able to shoot it off.

3) If the zombie grabs (not biting, but holding onto the players arm with its hands) onto the players right arm they will not let go of a secondary weapon, but will drop a primary, due to the weight. The player will have to hit the zombie with his/hers left arm or shake it off, and will be able to shoot with their secondary, but their arm will be weighted back down if them don't stop moving their mouse upwards. If the player doesn't get rid of it in time, then the zombie will start to bite down, and number one in this list will start.

4) If the zombie grabs onto the players left arm, the player will hold onto a secondary weapon, but not a primary, due to the weight. The player will have the option to shoot the zombie off with their secondary firearm, shake it off by spamming RMB, or having another survivor shoot it off. If the survivor is to slow, then number 2 on this list will start.

The back/chest: If the zombie lunges onto the players back the player will drop their weapon and be knocked over onto their chest, with the zombie trying to bite them. The player will then have to press Q or E to roll onto their back to face the zombie. If the zombie lunges at you from the front, the above will happen, just without you having to roll over to face the zombie, since you already will be. Depending on the actions of the player at this point, the following can happen.

1) If the player doesn't do anything, or isn't fast enough, the zombie has a 50/50 chance of either biting the players face, (which will result in a visible wound, and eventual scar) or biting the players throat out, resulting in an instant death. If the player has his/her back facing the Zombie, it can bite the back of the neck, (resulting in a visible wound and eventual scar) or biting the players vain in their neck, resulting in an instant death.

2) Punching the Zombie will delay it from trying to bite you, but you have the chance of the zombie biting your fist and infecting you. This wont knock it off you.

3) Pressing RMB will make an attempt to kick the zombie off of you with both your feet. This wont always work, and you will probably have to punch it to stop it from biting you.

When you knock the Zombie off, you better be quick with getting back up, or the Zombie will just jump right back on and you will have to kick it off again. Also, if you are prone and a zombie lunges at you, it will count as the zombie lunging onto its back, and will act accordingly.

The legs: If a zombie lunges and gets your legs, then the following can happen. Also, if a crawling zombie gets close enough, it will take the opportunity to try to grab or bite your heels.

1) The zombie grabs your left/right leg and try's to pull itself towards you. You will then have to fire at the zombie to get it off. You can use iron sights when this is happening.

2) The zombie bites down on your left/right leg. You, of course, go into pain, making it harder to shoot it off.

3) If a zombie grabs onto your leg and you continue to run you will fall forwards onto your chest. You will then have to use LMB to kick the zombie away before it has a chance to bite you.

4) The above happens and you don't kick it in time, and it bites you. You are infected and still have to kick it off. If you still don't, the zombie will climb onto your back and then they will have to roll over and kick them off, like in the previous section.

Drinking from a stagnant water source: I'm guessing in the future there will be a requirement for players to boil water they find in ponds and lakes. If they don't, they have a chance of being infected by the Zombie Virus and other kinds of nasty diseases.

Being around infected players: Pretty simple, if you hang around players that are infected, then you run the risk of being infected, too.

Eating infected animal meat raw: If there comes an option where you can eat raw meat when times become desperate then you should run the risk of being infected by the Zombie Virus. Infected animals have noticeable attributes, such as a different look and will be much more hostile then they may end up being.

Symptoms

The virus is extremely fast-acting, leaving the player little time to find a cure. Depending on how long you've been infected, different and more punishing symptoms will occur, (these symptoms will stack, so if your 3 hours into it, 1 hour symptoms will still show) like so:

Stage One. 0-30 minutes: No symptoms thus far.

Stage Two. 30 minutes - 1 hour: The player will start to shake uncontrollably in small, 30 second intervals, making it difficult to aim.

Stage Three. 1 hour - 1 hour 30 minutes: The player will cough and splutter up blood, which will attract zombies and players alike. Small blood specks will be noticeable around the mouth area.

Stage Four. 1 hour 30 minutes - 2 hours: Blood will start going down until it reaches 9000. You will not be able to go above this limit. Aiming will be insanely difficult with your hands wavering from side to side. The players vision will begin to darken, and the player characters complexion will start going pale.

Stage Five. 2 hours - 2 hours 30 minutes: The player will start having audio/visual hallucinations, such as seeing people or zombies who aren't there, or hearing gunshots along with a bullet impact sound, or zombie grunts.

Stage Six. 2 hours 30 minutes - 3 hours: The max blood will drop down to 6000. The player will have psychotic episodes, such as screaming out loud, attracting zombies and players, hitting him/herself in the head, and other kinds of crazy shit. The player will temporally start acting like a zombie, doing whatever a zombie would do, such as attack nearby survivors or just wonder around. If successful in biting a survivor, they also will become infected. The players vision will be even more impaired, with a blackness surrounding the edges of the screen, and the players complexion will go even more pale, to that of a zombie

Stage Seven. 3 hours - 3 hours 30 minutes: Your max blood drops even more from 6000 to 4000. The player will randomly start vomiting blood, which will be evident with blood dripping down their mouth. The player now completely looks like a zombie, and can barely control themselves anymore. The psychotic episodes become even more prominent, happening almost every 2-5 minutes. They start hearing a voice in their head, telling them to give up, and to just "let it happen".

Stage Eight. 3 hours 30 minutes - 4 hours: The player has lost complete control of his/her body, but his/her conscience is still intact, and is able to observe everything his body does. The player can observe his/her zombie until it reaches 4 hours, or until his/her zombie is killed. When the player loses control of his/her character, a message will pop up explaining what has happened, and if the player aborts and logs back in during this, they will be a fresh spawn on the coast, and will be able to go and see their old character as a zombie if they so wish.

When the first symptoms start showing, you have the option to press the respawn button if you don't want to deal with it.

A Cure?

Not all hope is lost if your infected. A new, extremely rare item could be added to military spawns (especially in medical tents) that, for now, we will call the Prototype Cure (we can work on names later). The Prototype Cure is (as you could probably guess) a vaccine the government was trying to push forward. They didn't have time to fix everything wrong with it, because of the fast-spreading virus, so they pushed it forward and hoped for the best.

Even if you do manage to find the cure, it only has a 50/50 chance of working. You can use antibiotics to make you last a little longer, ranging from an extra 1 hour to 10 minutes, depending on what stage of the infection your in.

Immunity

New spawns have a 5% chance of being immune to the virus. Any normal sickness will harm them, but they will never become a zombie.

TL:DR

Gtfo.

So, thanks for reading, guys. I hope this is worth your beans.

P.S: This suggestion was more for the standalone, rather then the mod.

Edited September 15, 2012 by RIGHTLY

[Noggy 20]

This. Is. Awesome.

Beans.

[burritoman259 593]

well said sir you have all my beans :beans: :beans: :beans: :beans: :beans:

[avalontreman 89]

HOLY SHIT, a well thought out idea of players being infected with a full post consisting of more than one paragraph? That's worth 3 cans of beans right there. The other two beans come from the idea and the execution. Awesome, awesome, awesome job :3

MY BEANS, THEY ARE YOURS.

:beans: :beans: :beans: :beans: :beans:

EDIT: The only thing I have a issue with is the Prototype Cure. I don't think it'd really be feasible to just have the cure in the middle of the apocalypse, but that's all depending on how long it took from Day 0 of the first infected to total shitstorm.

Edited September 15, 2012 by Avalon Treman

[sixfeetgiantbunnyrabbit 40]

I like it. I like it very much indeed, except for the 5% chance of being immune to the infection.

I like the way you're handling the problem of players forced to watch their character wander around as a zombie by simply being able to respawn, at least after the first symptoms of the infection kick in.

I like the coughing of blood leaving behind visible traces idea (not mentioned by you per se but somewhat included in your suggestion)

I like the slow demise of the character. I'd never respawn after getting infected. It would greatly add to the experience of the game becoming a highlight of the short life of your character, even if he manages to shake it off.

Maybe the zombie close combat you suggested could feature some sort of random button control popping up on your screen while trying to get loose of a zombie (the RMB not always being the trigger) so these encounters keep being interesting and intense and seem less pre scripted. Not very DayZ-like, i know, but it would add to the horror.

(and on a side note: i like the idea of scars)

Edited September 15, 2012 by sixfeetgiantbunnyrabbit

[Skat3rat 1633]

I like everything but the, "Seeing players and zombies that aren't really there" part. I think everything else is brilliant.

Edited September 15, 2012 by Skat3rat

[Ethan the Drake 5]

:beans: :beans: :beans: :beans: :beans: :beans: :beans: :beans: :emptycan:

sorry i had to eat one in celebration of such a good post :D

[RIGHTLY 87]

Thanks for all the great feedback, guys.

Maybe the zombie close combat you suggested could feature some sort of random button control popping up on your screen while trying to get loose of a zombie (the RMB not always being the trigger)

I thought of that at one point but I decided to go with the other idea I put in the post. If any staff see this they can decide =P

[JoeySTM 4]

I really like the idea, but just in case it's too complicated too add into the game what if the already added system for getting sick could be used to show infection with a random chance of being infected added in the more you get hit, being around infected players, whatever. I'd say make this chance for infection very low and also have the chance of finding some kind of cure for it really low too. I'd say a rare chance of infection just so it doesn't get too annoying like breaking your legs all the time did.

[RIGHTLY 87]

I really like the idea, but just in case it's too complicated too add into the game what if the already added system for getting sick could be used to show infection with a random chance of being infected added in the more you get hit, being around infected players, whatever. I'd say make this chance for infection very low and also have the chance of finding some kind of cure for it really low too. I'd say a rare chance of infection just so it doesn't get too annoying like breaking your legs all the time did.

Well, I made this suggestion more for the standalone, but it could be simplified for the mod. I think a large chance to be infected would make the zombies dangerous again, so players will most of the time have to be sneaky instead of running through cities being attacked loads and loads of times by zombies.

[Sutinen 635]

I like the idea, but you have to drop it with these hallucinations and other stuff like hitting your head, because that is just impossible.

[RIGHTLY 87]

I like the idea, but you have to drop it with these hallucinations and other stuff like hitting your head, because that is just impossible.

How is it impossible?

[colekern 1364]

Love it, especially the 5% chance of immunity thing.

[colekern 1364]

How is it impossible?

It's not, it just might be hard. Beating your own head in first would look weird without a lot of adjustments, and the hallucinations might clip through the ground without some sort of AI to control the spawning of them.

[darquan 9]

:beans:

Beans given good sir.

But how about... controlling the zombie? Lets say, you can control yourself and bite anyone you see for some period of time? Why not, really? It'll be fun!

[John Spectre 32]

very good, 5% chance of immunity per spawn is pointless imo. I like the hallucinations too, very immersive.

[RIGHTLY 87]

:beans:

Beans given good sir.

But how about... controlling the zombie? Lets say, you can control yourself and bite anyone you see for some period of time? Why not, really? It'll be fun!

Na. I don't like the idea of players taking control of a Zombie. When someone becomes a Zombie they shouldn't have any control over there body, but, perhaps, their mind is still active, and aware of its bodies gross transformation.

[IIxSubmarinex 13]

Connor you gypsy ;)

what about if you turned 100% infected you lose control of your charcter and turns into a normal zombie with your, gear, the zombie could be buffed... this would add alot more variety to the game, and imagine some noob seeing a zombie in the forest with a ak on it.

[IIxSubmarinex 13]

very detailed, but it reminds me of resident evil :/ everytime you get attacked one of those repetitive animations where you gotta button mash to get the pricks off.

[starwarsfan@gmx.de 450]

The part about the symptoms kinda reminds me of what I wrote in another Thread, so naturally I like the idea. But I think 4 hours is too long and I don't like the part with the hallucinations either.

Edited September 17, 2012 by James Ashwood

[Kerwyn 77]

I like the idea behind this, I'm not a fan of Quick Time Event combat, as I find I find it cheapens the experience of the moment (As a reviewer once said: "You didn't just defeat the many-appendaged tentacle demon, you just hit the button prompts like a good little monkey and your digital avatar did the hard part") and I don't think it would mesh well with the hardcore 'simulation' that DayZ is right now.That said, one thing I could add to your suggestion, perhaps the player should be allowed to control their fully infected self in a limited fashion (Maybe they can turn left and right slowly, but the model will shamble along in random directions and if a player is 'spotted' (does anything that would attract any other zombie, then the player loses control as the last of their humanity gives way to the pure instinctual beast. Zombie players should also keep what they had in life on them, with the exception of dropping whatever weapon they had equipped when they died.

However, my reasoning for this has an ulterior motive, in that "Player-Zombies" will add an unpredictable element to the game, higher risk, as there is still a slightly human mind behind the controls, but higher reward, as they'll have much better loot than regular zombies. They could also still count as 'players' for the purpose of spawning zombies and loot, thus throwing out of whack the "zombie check" exploit of sitting outside a city and watching for zed spawns to track player movements.

[Colonel Sanders 4]

Take all of my beans, sir, and I mean all of them! Take them all! -Nice suggestion.

[AnAwesomeNinja 0]

the cure should probably be a bit easier to find than just in military bases because of how easy it is for a zombie to bite you, maybe there should be a machine in the hospitals that cures you as long as you are in the first hour of the infection, but if you're past that you have to go to a military base. also instead of an option to respawn what about an option to shoot yourself in the head? or if you don't have a gun you can just drown yourself.

[Bombolz (DayZ) 23]

Playing as a zombies sorta ruins the game for me... and I find that DayZ loses it's uniqueness. It becomes more like left 4 dead, where some people WANT to be zombies. Don't like this idea at all, but then again it might be just me.

[RIGHTLY 87]

very detailed, but it reminds me of resident evil :/ everytime you get attacked one of those repetitive animations where you gotta button mash to get the pricks off.

Yeah, I know, its just that I cant think of a different way to kind of "simulate" a struggle with a zombie. If anyone has any other ideas then that would be appreciated.

Edited September 21, 2012 by RIGHTLY