I was looking on GitHub on what people where implementing and saw that someone wants to implement zombies where the mutations had gone so far that they became debilitating to the zombies. I like the idea and thought i might help out be giving some suggestions of my own:
- Snapping Mound, basically a hulk that got to swol and is now ripping itself apart internally whenever it moves, which can be heard LOUDLY. Is very slow and cannot attack or throw you since its muscles and weight restrict its movements to much. It deals cut/bullet damage to itself when it moves, this with the new bleed system makes it so that it leaves a trail of blood behind as it crawls over to you eventually killing itself.
âThis zombie is a gigantic mound of huge bulging muscles, to the point that it restricts itâs movements to a almost crippling degree. When it moves loud wet snapping and cracking can be heard and blood comes out of its orifices and spontaneous rupturing skin.â
- Dissolving zombie, basically a zombie that has generated to much acid to quickly and partially dissolved itself while melting of any discernible features. It cannot attack, move or even react to anything. It has no loot since that was al dissolved in the acid. Al it does if generate an acid pool on itâs square and the squares adjacent to it.
"All of this zombie discernible features seem to have been molten off. It being little more than a heap of slime coated flesh on the ground with a vaguely in a humanoid shape slowly dissolving in its own acid.:
- Ossified statue, basically a skeletal hulk whose bone armour started to fuse making it unable to move at all and turning it into a living statue. Canât move or attack, but it does have all of the senses that a normal zombie has. Has higher armour valueâs than normal skeletal hulk as well as more mass to make it at least a good roadblock.
âThis statue looks like the work of a mad sculptor. Ossified skin and bony overgrowths fused together to make a deformed mockery of the human form. The only thing that betrays itâs undead nature is the black eyes that follow you as it silently watches the apocalypse unfold.â
- Starved zombie, a zombie isnât given enough energy by the blob and got impossibly thin and weakened to the point of complete immobility. Basically just sits there and doesnât do anything.
âYou would mistake this zombie to be just another corpse if it wasnât for the fact that itâs eyes move and it makes the smallest of movements. The fact that it is able to move at all is a miracle as it seems to consist of nothing more than bones that are visible through the skin.â
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The blob is depicted as an intelligent actor (as a whole entity, anyway), so I donât see why it would make these. Its mutations are deliberate to improve the host, not just out of control traits.
I donât really see a gameplay argument for having them either, they just take up spawn value that could be used for actual enemies. Three of these just seem to be free loot, and the forth is just a spot thatâll probably clear up by the time you actually reach it in the reality bubble.
Iâm not even sure the argument of âits neatâ fits for 'em, you could get the same effect of âoh neatâ from writing these up as being early experimentation notes in a lab for mutagen research off the blob.
Thereâs a difference between the idea of mutations with debilitating traits, and âfunctionally useless zombiesâ. Debilitating might be zombies that canât hear or bite because their skull distorted while growing massive eyes for perfect night vision, or other such trades.
Hmm. Probobly put a giant spoiler warning on this whole thread.
anyways, while the blob is an intelligent actor, it does still make mistakes and fail to recognize them as such. This can be attributed to a few things.
- it spans multiple dimensions and battlefields and earth is effectively a backwater in the middle of nowhere to it, especially since earth is toxic to it currently.
- so it pays very little attention to what it is actually doing here, and could even be argued that the âmental powerâ from local blob might be directed at assisting other worlds⌠Unless there is something in the lore the specifies separated blob of sufficient mass/size is unable to lend âmental powerâ elsewhere?
- its thought is alien to our own, so while it can cause mutation, separates/joins together near at will with the corresponding amount of intelligence in doing so, the apparent ratio of blob mass to intelligence does NOT appear to be equivalent to standard biological brains in most regard. At most things⌠and have far superior intelligence in other areas, or at least the ability to keep in mind simple mission goals no matter how small it divides into.
- Thus we see zombies that wander into obvious traps, mutations that are completely negative, and zombies that will essentially feed opposing factions bodies to be turned back against them with no discernible benefit. â Also Note: These appear to lessen when the blob successfully mutates hosts into forms that use have more intelligence/ use their own intelligence better, not necessarily when there is more blob in the host
Dead End zombie evolution are an approved part of the evolution tree, especially since it helps slow evolution in some ways, with backwards evolution making everything eventually congregate at / near the high end
That said these evolutions seem a bit extreme, especially without any kind of in between step from zombie effectiveness being positive to negative. Perhaps replace entirely with something along these lines, or make 2 stage dead end:
- Overhulk - this hulk has too much muscle mass without corresponding limberness and bone density. when it moves too quickly, or overextends its movements cause damage to itself. literally ripping its own muscles or snapping the bones under the strain. Youâd recommend more stretches, if its eyes didnât stare at you with such hunger and hatred.
Edit: woops thats an important difference
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Some one been reading some Franken Fran? 
Then again, âJohn Carpenterâs: The Thingâ works well for reference here too.