Note, this is a basically a big WIP for this, so lots of words ahoy. I wanted to get feedback before going on, for things like lore, feasibility, how stupid of a name Globster is, and how silly the idea is. I’ve got to go but wanted to upload everything I put together for right now. The purpose, if there is one, is to get any feedback/criticism to help focus on how to do this.
I was playing Resident Evil Revelations 1 and came across the globster enemies on a new playthrough. Long story short, weak blobs of flesh with mouths on the underside that feed on flesh. Much faster in water. This gave me an idea for a class of zed, which I am working on creating. I am still new, so I am using the default zombie format and working from there, but I realize this isn’t really a normal zed so I don’t want to get stuck.
So, for Cataclysm I thought of a new type of enemy: the Glob, a mass of flesh with goo
But the idea is that there are three tiers and one helper enemy associated with it.
Tiers:
0- Glob: This is an immobile collection of bodies that have become metastasized in a layer of stretched and oozing flesh. It is rather immune to bash damage at this stage, but is weak to slash damage (as its flesh is still forming), and fire (since its still a loose collection of bodies being melded together by the goo, so lots of flammable parts). While they have a lot of health, they are completely immobile, blind, deaf, and helpless. The goo, however, will react violently to you so be prepared for more and more goo to come out as it takes damage.
Related to real-life globsters, there is the risk at this stage of a corpse explosion, especially in warmer environments and (potentially) when ignited. While not powerful, it is both loud and does produce bone shrapnel that can infect any wounds they create.
I was thinking they could be more common along bodies of water, along with places like intersections with pile-ups.
I don’t believe they are actively being cultivated by the goo or zombies, perhaps a necromancer could be a big deal with these nearby since they can help it grow to tier 1.
Tier 1 - Globster: This is the next stage, the outer-layer of flesh is fully formed and hardened, making it resistant to both bash and cutting damage. It is also now mobile, though still blind and deaf, though it has a basic sense of smell now, and can detect bodies within two tiles of itself in any direction, with it losing or gaining on tile depending on wind direction. Its sense of smell is very primitive and designed so that it only detects smells close to it due to its slow speed and lack of offensive ability.
When they find a body, they will move to it. For a non-infected body, it will basically messily (and slowly) cover it and begin abxorbing nutrition and biomass. They will become immobile at this point, and while I don’t know how many turns it should last, its long enough so that they don’t hoover up a lot of corpses, but quick enough that if let alone will eventually, will clean out a large area, up to 50 percent of its current volume. At this point, it will become inert and “close-up”, meaning that it will also take moderately reduced damage from explosives.
Its main weaknesses, at this stage, are attacks during its detection phase. Its smell organs are along the lower edges of its body, meaning that damage from weapons like grenades and other explosives tossed onto a tile next to it will do more damage. (most explosives when tossed on the tile itself either bounces off or detonates on top of the globster, dealing significantly less damage.).
I don’t know if its possible, but a straightforward way of dealing with them is traps, pits, and mines. Deep pits, especially, may trap the glob completely, making it immobile until either it finds a way out or dies. As mentioned before, while in the lurking phase, they are weak to damage from the tile they occupy. While all non-flesh materials on a tile it is “digesting” are continuously damaged, explosives with the right timing will basically kill the globster outright.
They aren’t able to split, but the benefit in its digestion comes in with its “Tenders.”
1a - Zombie Tenders (limited to 4): Basic zombies that are connected to the glob by thin strands of goo. Their flesh appears distorted, their limbs now being thick and lumpy. The goo within both the globster and the zombie can be considered to be one entity. These zombies will aggressively attack any non-zombie from a two tile radius of the globster, but they are limited to these two tiles from the globster. Should they be more than two tiles, or the globster dies, the resulting shock will continously damage the body until death, to represent the Goo being primarily centered in the Globster itself, and thus the relatively little goo in the zombie itself begins to decay. If the globster is unable to move, for any reason, the Zombies will attempt to push it in a random direction.
There are up to 4 tenders around a globster at a given time. These tenders have the same values for regular zombies, except they are able to slowly regenerate HP while the Globster is digesting (At a very, very modest rate. Its just enough to be there, as to why, it is so it can lead into the next evolution). While they are aggressive, they will not act to defend the globster directly from damage, just anything within two tiles. If the Globster ends up an area where it cannot have 4 tenders around itself, it will disconnect them until it is left with a single tender, in which it will try to move into an open area. Being buried in Rubble, also, greatly slows them down. As well, difficult terrain slows them almost to a standstill. Tenders, though strong, are rather limited and can be remade from nearby regulat zeds at a quick rate.
Finally, while the evolution factor from Glob to Globster is relatively short, the evolution factor slows down massively here, though it is incremented slightly by .1 for every 10 Units (Volume or Weight) of bodies it has currently gone through. This is increased by a much more generous .4 for every 10 units of zombie flesh. While Globs are still rare, themselves, Globsters are even rarer since they have to have enough intake to evolve, so you don’t have to worry about the world becoming infested with Globsters.
Much like their inspiration, globsters are much faster in deep water, but lose their tenders, so they will be unable to move if they get stuck.
2 - Overglob: In the unlikely event that the Globster is able to evolve, it becomes an Overglob. Here it is completely covered in thick, hardened flesh that is also coated in thick, dense tumors. Its bottom side is also now closed off, as it no longer needs to intake a large amount of flesh in order to evolve. Instead, there are many, many small pores in which tendrils of goo shoot out and latch onto anything within range. These hollow tendrils then pump goo and mutagens into whatever it is latched into, rather indiscriminately so it may pump things that aren’t even living with goo and mutagen.
As a result, however, it is that the Overglob only has two tenders, known as “Retainers”, instead anything within two tiles of itself can be "grabbed’ by its tendrils. A single roll is made to see if the tendril penetrates the target (doing bashing damage if it fails, and ripping clothing regardless.) using its piercing damage versus the targets defense. For any zombie, it will rapidly regain health and likely start ro evolve quickly. For players, this isn’t an instant game-over, but this not only badly infects wounds, it may also cause chaotic mutations, on top of the damage of being pierced.
Its worth noting that zombies take a fair bit of damage with every attempt, so in theory an overglob could end up killing dead, weak zeds around it.
The main weakness now is that while the overglob is still mobile, it can only sense its surroundings if there is at least one "retainer’ zombie within two tiles of itself. This means it is lack the original Glob in that if left without one, it will be completely unable to sense its surroundings.
2a - Retainers (limited to 2): These are evolved Tenders, though with a different purpose. These captured zeds are instead the sensory organs and shield for the Overglob. Their bodies are now effectively encased in chitin-like bone, and their head becomes like a misshapen orb of eyes, ears and smell receptors. In the rare chance that a Globster evolved into an Overglob and has 4 tenders, two random tenders are evolved and the other two are killed, as to me this is still a creature running off of instinct. These Retainers will attempt to move to face any detected threat. With them, the Overglob is effectively able to sense using an enhanced zombie’s sensory ranges. The overglob will never willingly release these retainers until death. As well, the retainers have a rapid regeneration, but if they are killed, it takes a long time for a new Retainer to be made. They also will only have a weak ramming attack.
As far as killing them goes, they are still weak to mines and traps, though pits will now only slow them down. As it has its two retainers, and it has to be really close to other zeds to do anything, the best thing to do is use explosives or weapons like fusion rifles or the like. Its main thing is that its slow, and the horde loses much of their bonuses as they move away from it, so using sound to lure away the horde will cause it to be outpaced.
Upon death, its body is basically a cocktail of goo, which spills in all available tiles around the body (perhaps one small blood for every tile, with them combining for every blocked tile), unless it is buried, in which case the goo is crushed with the body. The good news is that while its tougher, it loses its ability to navigate faster in water. Slow and steady. They are especially weak to Triffid Queens as their special ability effectively boxes them in and denies them any chance of recovery.