Dead Body Overhaul

[Uneron]

[quote=“Ferodaktyl, post:37, topic:4692”]you can safely scratch the second point. (just read the official canon)
then again you assume that only by drinking water is the infection spread.[/quote]
that the process requires a critical amount of XE-037 within the body, not as a percent but as pure weight. Around half a pound seems to be enough to insure a post-mortem takeover

Got that from the Official Cannon (http://smf.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?topic=4160.msg60100#msg60100)

Unless the critical amount is present at time of death no revival will take place.

To your second point: It seems to me that tap water was the major source, while there are others (zombie bite) they can be avoided. I simply argue that its not unlikely that at least a small fraction of the general population died during or after the cataclysm without having been infected.

Edit: Or as the case may be not infected enough.

[Ferodaktyl]

In larger animals, expiration seems to serve only to raise the cap on XE-037 within the body - expiration quickly leads to the XE-037 breaking down many of the now inactive bits of it's host until it makes up almost 4% of bodymass by weight. At some point towards the end of this process, the host organism revives in the manner we are all, by now, familiar with, seemingly under the full control of the substance.

;)

it’s kinda pointless, but for the sake of arguing, do you wash your teeth with bottled water also?

[Uneron]

Haha, yeah I agree its sorta pointless I could argue that heat might kill it (the tea) just like the high fluoride concentrations in the tooth paste, but lets no go there.

Instead I would like to argue that the proposed change would improve the game experience. Making things less predictable and more varied. In the end its a game and when it comes down to it, lore can easily be altered to allow more fun game mechanics.

Even if we don’t alter the lore, do you really think the average player will notice that some of the corpses outside might not fit in the whole theme?

[Ferodaktyl]

The devil is in the details, as they say. And IMO the mark of a good game is the attention given to the details.
Look at the situation now : you find scientists bodies, you also find a scientist zombie. You find a crashed helicopter, a zombie soldier is not far. Nice touches that add to game. You find a bear inside your closed house, or a cougar in your truck… well, we all know bears are gods in DDA
And besides, all it takes is enough imagination to fit some other types of corpses in the existing lore. Or at least i hope so. Otherwise we (i mean they, the devs) cold add pokemons in, because

In the end its a game and when it comes down to it, lore can easily be altered to allow more fun game mechanics.

[Uneron]

Hmm, catching a Zombear and letting it fight for you against other zombies: PLEASE

But really, just a tiny science note would be enough to explain all those bodies. Perhaps something like: “We had a possible leak. An obscure internet forum had detailed plans how to avoid contaminated tap water. The site got shutdown and the subject incarnated, but not before it got a few hundred views. Not sure if actual leak or just plain paranoia of some lunatic. In any case, some will likely try to avoid infection.”

Just an idea, but you get the concept: its not difficult to explain this sort of thing.

Now with that established, lets think on how to work pokemon into it.

[Nopkar]

Is this still a thing? If not adopted for the main release as an option maybe a modder could pick it up? I just feel the tone of the game could be changed quite a bit by using corpses a bit more liberally

The scene is set with your survivor breaking through a window in the back of the house. As he climbs through the window his eyes begin to adjust and a gruesome scene greets him from the shadows.

The floors and walls are stained with blood. The remains of a man and a woman are strewn about the far side of the room, torn apart by a mob of hands and teeth. From behind the bed a small, frail hand juts out…your survivor cringes to think what transpired here.

[ClaytonRISING]

It’s still a thing, but I’ve been working on it for my own personal use so far.

It seems like it wouldn’t be very accepted in the main game lol.

I’d offer to release it as a mod, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to make the commitment of keeping it updated and what not.

[deadmerits]

Clayton, if you were to upload a modded version with nothing different but the corpse varieties, I would download and play it.

I know I said some corpses could be less then 6 hours old. That being said, the drug dealer corpses never seemed anti-cannon to me. I always thought they lived longer then average(like the player character has) by being more prepared for violence (guns and attitude) and living long enough for me to find their bodies without rezzing.

So there has been added zombies scientist with scientist corpses (at least it really seems that way), and a zombies soldier with military corpses, a rezzed (obviously drug dealer) zombie with the group of zombie corpses could prove to help this assimilation along.

[Sanarr]

I think that Clayton’s idea is good and add some more flavor to game. Lore-wise, people might not attained critical mass of goo, somehow (bottled/ boiled water etc.). For example - family that tried to escape in their car sure had drank bottled water before being killed by some… thing. Anyway, maybe it would be a good idea to consult with Kevin Granade or someone who is “in charge” of making decisions about development and lore ? And smooth any sharp edges via discussion.

[fishy1234555]

Maybe instead of just dead bodies they could be like car accident vitims, civilian plane crash, gunshot while looting, suicide, decapitated/mutilated zombles. I still like the ‘drug deal gone wrong’ and scientist and all that stuff too, but it needs some work.

[Belteshazzar]

I’ve always had a running headcanon that excessive immune response (perhaps the result of military-grade vaccinations) and drug use could retard the goo for long enough to simply succumb to death without it’s regenerative properties kicking in.

Then again, some corpses should simply be very sneaky/lazy zombies trying to lure in prey.

[Waladil]

What if the drug dealers just died in fights shortly before they got the critical goomass? Emergency Services would usually clean up the drug war corpses, but they never got around to it. Because they were too busy. With the zambies.

Which also explains why there’s occasionally a smoker/spitter zombie with the drug dealers. That guy just stuffed his fat face more than his buddies and was a bit further along in his gooification.

[Nopkar]

Bumping this because I feel the flavor added is just too good to pass up.

The only unbalanced thing I can think of is that the cannibal perk becomes OP as food is now plentiful.

[Pthalocy]

I think the intention was that the rate of corpses would remain the same, but the variation of corpses encountered within that amount would be better.

So maybe I see ten bodies either way today, but now it’s not like eight of them are scientists. I don’t imagine cannibals would gain much advantage, though it’s a valid point to consider.

Of course, spoiled meats also slows that advantage down. I think we can safely neglect that issue.

[Nopkar]

[quote=“Pthalocy, post:51, topic:4692”]I think the intention was that the rate of corpses would remain the same, but the variation of corpses encountered within that amount would be better.

So maybe I see ten bodies either way today, but now it’s not like eight of them are scientists. I don’t imagine cannibals would gain much advantage, though it’s a valid point to consider.

Of course, spoiled meats also slows that advantage down. I think we can safely neglect that issue.[/quote]

I was honestly thinking of expanding the suggestion to encompass more bodies overall. take the finite number of bodies now and jumble them around between all the new categories but never add new ones

but also make a slider much like the city size where we can set how prevelant the dead bodies are as a whole. default 1, 0 for no ‘bonus’ bodies at all or all the way up to like 10 for ALL THE BODIES mode.

At that point the problem might be more of a hardware issue in being able to support the dozens of bodies on screen with the multitude of items and stuff…that could be problematic but I’d hope the idea overall would have merit to the community and devs.

[Zireael]

More variation in corpses is a good thing.

[Nopkar]

More variation in corpses is a good thing.

I feel this way as well but I don’t want to compromise canon if it’s not required or alienate part of the forum base.

Having it be an OPTION if possible could benefit both sides?

[Uneron]

Having to make more variation an option seems weird for such an obvious improvement. Lets face it: It can only improve the gameplay.

[Nopkar]

Having to make more variation an option seems weird for such an obvious improvement. Lets face it: It can only improve the gameplay.

The issue was raised early on with whether or not it was canon. The nature of the infection and the reason for the zombies and other monsters is a ‘goo’ of sorts.

I have no problem with ‘skimming over’ this small potential plot hole or simply changing canon to fit a better gameplay experience but that’s not really my call. So having an option to leave the game as is would be preferable to those who feel the goo and the overall infection doesn’t need to leave corpses very often.

[Ferodaktyl]

it is now possible to have mods. need i say more?