Let's Make This Game Evolve: Zombies [FUTURE SPOILERS]

Game Talk The Drawing Board
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This is a thread for discussion and refinement of zombie evolutions, an idea intended for the game that got brought to light recently at this thread, pages 1 to 3. Short version, increasing as time passes, zombies in the map will have an evolving chance.

WARNING! If you don’t want to know how your future zombie opponents [size=12pt]may[/size] be, stop reading now. But if you want to help, hop aboard! …and take a shotgun with you. Maybe a few grenades as well.

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[size=12pt]Worked-on Zombies[/size]

Evolves From:
Idea From:
Description:
Abilities:
Combinations:
Strategies:

[size=12pt]Tier 2[/size]

Evolves From: Zombie Bio-Operator

Idea From: jokermatt999

Description: This zombie… bionics crackling, fast movements and a look… it’s not blind of anger. It’s calculating, and completely hostile. And it has a martial fighting stance.

Abilities:

  • Stronger, more HP and even more bash armor than the operator.
  • I Know Kung-Fu: not only with the abilities that come from the Close Quarters Battle CBM, but this zombie remembers the OTHER Martial Art it knew from when it was alive… wherever it was.
  • Knows What’s Doing: this zombie has more intelligence. It will go away if takes too much damage, will try to stay close of advantageous terrain, is smart enough to avoid fire AND can shove zombies out of his way to reach enemies.
  • Wise Attitude: ironically, if his enemy runs enough, or manage to stay alive enough, this zombie will simply NOT continue attacking, just going away.

Combinations: very varied, depending of his extra Martial Style. Can be the bane of night raiders with Ninjutsu, deliver serious damage with Karate, and thrash a survivor with fast hitting from Venom styles. Any zombie that can slow down a survivor is deadly close of him.

Strategies: thanks to Wise Attitude, the best thing to do is to focus in surviving, not winning. Also, having a way to run FAST of him is a necessity, since you won’t know which is his extra style before watching him fight.

Evolves From: Zombie Brute

Idea From: Wanderer

Description: ???

Abilities:

  • Has more HP, Melee, Dodge and Melee damage than a Zombie Brute.
  • Throw: if it sees an enemy in range, have a chance of throwing stuff against him. Objects, even zombies. Throwed stuff takes damage, and diferent effects can happen because of the throw(as Boomer’s range of explosion getting bigger, and Spitters spraying acid everywhere).
  • Ground Smash: it hits the ground with great strength. Chance of transforming the terrain around where it hits in debris(more time to walk through, chance of losing balance) and doing AOE damage. The impact can do STUNNED and GROUNDED status.
  • Smash attack: the usual slam that sends you flying.

Combinations: ???

Strategies: the Evolved Brute have to be taken down with care. Just running towards him without taking the terrain in consideration will result in debris flying to your face. Also, the Ground Smash creates debris terrain around, which is horrible for running away. So, seeking cover in cars and buildings until getting close enough, or shooting from far, where it’s throwing can’t hit you Works best.

Evolves From: Zombie Feral

Idea From: jokermatt999

Description:??

Abilities:

  • Stronger, more HP and faster than a normal zombie.
  • Cutting Edge: its claws got MUCH sharper through evolving. It has a chance of giving BLEEDING status and a chance of doing more damage to clothing as cotton and wool.
  • Pounce Attack: Ferals jump to be close, Evolved Ferals jump to take targets down. It jumps straight trying to throw you to the ground, delivering GROUNDED status. If it misses, will spend some time recovering the sudden jump.
  • I WILL HIT YO-: Ferals are… Ferals. The Evolved Feral will try to jump and pounce even when it doesn’t see you, and in this case, can miss epically and hurt himself and others.

Combinations: ??

Strategies: run to a more advantageous position and fire at will, or blind it and watch it attack anything that makes a noise! :smiley:

Evolves From: Shocker Zombie

Idea From: Wanderer

Description: ???

Abilities:

  • Has more HP and a bit more Melee damage than a Shocker.
  • Electric Touch: small chance of a melee attack doing extra electric damage, that won’t work if it hits an insulated body part.
  • Electric Radiamce: same illumination around him as a Shocker Brute.
  • Sparking: * Each 4-6 turns, 0-3 sparks leave him. They can do electrical damage, and stay for 1-4 turns.
  • More Amp: Shockstorm does a little more damage.
  • Santelmo’s Fire: while in combat, has a small chance of creating a luminous ball of bluish fire. It flies slowly around until touching something, and then explodes in a concussive blast, that can do STUNNED and GROUNDED status.
  • Don’t Throw Electric Stuff In The Pool!: if it enters in contact with water, it will shock itself, taking 30-70% Max HP damage AND losing all electric charge.

Combinations:

Strategies: the easiest way to go is water baloons, or making a water puddle and luring him to it. In lack of water, it’s recommended to get him in more closed space, wait until a Santelmo’s Fire appears and then run to let the explosion of hit deals with him. Non-conductive equipment is very recommended.

Evolves From: Bloated Zombie

Idea From: jokermatt99

Description: It’s gray skin seems uniform and resistant. Cysts cover its body, and ocasionally, a bit of green smoke can be seen erupting from it’s mouth.

Abilities:

  • Has a little more HP and some more speed than a Bloated.
  • Vulnerable to piercing weapons: they can burst it’s cysts and trigger a massive leak of gas, exploding the Bloated in the process.
  • Resistant to bashing: the cysts, more resistant, work as armor that alleviate concussive damage.
  • Cyst Eruption: each damage that it takes has a chance of making a cyst burst, making a 3x3 area around the Bloated be engulfed in thick toxic gas. No, the Evolved Bloated doesn’t die from it.
  • Toxic Breath: a small range toxic breath from it’s mouth. 5 square range, similar to the Spitter acid, in that it won’t hit precisely initially. But as the gas tend to expand and dissipate…
  • In Death, I Go With A Bang: 50% of when dying, bursting in a 7x7 thick gas explosion.
  • In Death, I Go With A…: if it didn’t exploded, it’s body will stay there. Can be harvested for thick toxic gas, with proper equipment.

Combinations: in closed spaces, with the cloak of a Smoker, it can be a nasty surprise. With Spitters, it’s worse: damage triggers the Cyst Eruption, adding another layer of environmental hazard to be aware… that camuflage the acid.

Strategies: Piercing works fast, so threw spears, guns and pits work nicely against it. Fire and debris are a long-term war: yes, you will kill it, but the gas that it will leak… finally, unarmed combat is good only in cases of sending it away, because the cysts work as sort of a as gas armor.

Evolves From: Bloated Zombie, Spitter Zombie

Idea From: jokermatt99

Description: ??

Abilities:

  • Similar to the Bloated Zombie in terms of atributes and abilities, but faster.
  • Acid Spit: same as Spitter Zombie ability.
  • Inertia, I Thank You: a zombie with lots of liquid trying to run won’t be a marathonist. It’s won’t fall, but when making curves, have a good chance of being STUNNED, simulating as it try to move but the acid inside doesn’t help. Is more effect by uneven terrain, as debris and so on. When STUNNED, can randomly spit in any direction.
  • ACID! AAAAA: when exploding, it releases a 5x5 acid liquid surrounding it. Small chances of squares not being hit by it inside the area of effect. If hit by the burst, have good chances of damaging all body clothes.

Combinations: ??

Strategies: acid burst? acid spit? The survivor advantage here it that it doesn’t MOVE well. Running and doing curves, and going where is not easy to keep your feet will result in a zombie that’s more hazardous to what’s closeof itself, wharever it is. Avoid direct fights, your clothes will be happy with you.

Evolves From: Hazmat Zombie

Idea From: Wanderer

Description: ??

Abilities:

  • Attributes a little better than Hazmat Zombie, speed included. More resistant against damage and double of HP.
  • When Life Don’t Gives You Radiation, Cry: all special abilities of it are triggered by radiation. If it’s not present in itself or the environment, this doesn’t work. But when it has…
  • Radiation Mutations: the goo in this zombie had much time to use a body already accostumed with radiation, and learned how to channel the decay that it causes and the particles’ energy. This zombie has 9 Thresholds, each linked to 10% of it’s health. When it hits a threshold because it’s HP went down, this TRIGGERS A MUTATION, that’s quite visible. Each mutation can:
    -> Give more to an attribute.
    -> Give an extra member(gains an extra attack).
    -> Give REGEN.(cumulative with other REGEN it gained).
    -> Give bigger teeth(BITE attack, if cumulative, more damage).
  • It Can’t Be Sustained: it’s a zombie, not a nuclear power plant. It the mutations happen too fast(let’s say, 1 each turn), the body start spasming and then imploding, through excess of mutations.
  • It Can’t Be Ssssssusssstaiiiinnn: if it accumulates more than 15 Mutations, the zombie gets MUCH more slower(10 Speed), since it reached a point where energy is not enough to keep it’s body working fast enough.
  • Too Much Radiation: if it reaches a point where the radiation affecting it is too much, it will take damage that not even REGEN will cure. There’s a point where simply, not even the goo can do something about it.

Combinations: first of all, this zombie is dangerous enough that it need lore in-game to WARN THE PLAYER. Going unprepared can result in death, attacking mindless can result in death, and since it only has such mutation abilites with radiation, it can be easily considered an easy target. So, survivor’s notes, lab notes, blood in walls, anything MUST be in the surrounding area.
Second, it’s a nasty one, in terms of getting your stuff back. Since in the fight, it became more evolved, and so, a harder enemy.
Third, it works well with zombies that deal damage to friends. It’s mutations will be started sooner, and will be a harder oponente from the start.

Strategies: Don’t hit it. If you do and figured what it does, run away, or attack heavily. Stunning does wonders, as it can’t attack you. Also, using the terrain to give it too much mutations is a risky, but worthy strategy.

Evolves From: Shocker Zombie

Idea From: EditoRUS

Worked On: EditoRUS

Description: ??

Abilities:

  • Eletrical Absorption: it sucks electricity from ANYTHING in 5 tiles radius, including car batteries, common batteries, bionic powers, whatever thing that use electricity (also, sucked energy from things will mean there’s this zombie somewhere near).
  • Electrical Output: the absorbed energy can be used to
    -> Evolving. It makes them faster, stronger, etc.
    -> Gaining new ability: Losing power (continuously emitting lightnings from the body), Stunning people (same effect from taser), Grounding (emits energy onto the ground, stunning whatever not wearing isolative boots), Chain Lightning (special ability, it uses CONDUCTIVE WEAPON as a point. Pretty much same with Chain Lightning CBM, but instead using zombies to make a chain it uses conductive items).
    -> Self-destruct. If the zombie has too low HP and not stunned - they may explode, emitting a ball lightning, which acts like homing missile, flying after player and electrocuting or burning them seriously if caught.

Combinations: ??

Strategies: Take it down FAST, or else…

Evolves From: Zombie Child

Idea From: Logrin

Worked On By: Logrin

Description: What was once a grim reminder of a life snipped in the bud has festered into something altogether more dreadful. It’s staunch, rot mottled physique clashing with the child-like expression frozen on its face.

Abilities:

  • Pygmy-back ride: Pygmies latch onto players when they attack, dropping his/her speed. This means they can’t be outrun and must be beaten off or killed after taking hold of a character.
  • Aerodynamic: Pygmies synergize great with brutes and hulks. They fly further, faster and more accurately when lobbed and don’t suffer damage from landing.

Combinations: ??

Strategies: ??

[size=12pt]Tier 3[/size]

[size=12pt]Tier 4?[/size]

[size=12pt]Tier 5!?[/size]

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[size=14pt]Zombie Ideas[/size]

Decayed Hazmat(Tier 2) - Hazmat zombies were people who were properly prepared against radiation, but not everything else. When they found radiation and died, the goo had to deal with it, since their clothes weren’t at best shape. With time, it learned how to control where the radiation would go to jumpstart evolution in case of necessity.

In other words: same as a Tier 2 Normal Zombie, except if it is irradiated. If it is, expected a zombie that can get better and better as it takes damage, to a point where is too much for itself to sustain.

[quote=“jokermatt999, post:17, topic:8060”]Mutated Bloater: more HP, random gas dispersal, and gas lingering. It no longer immediately explodes, but will pause a turn or two to expel a gas cloud then continue.

Bloated spitter: stay far away from this one! Not only does it retain its nasty acid spit, but it also erupts into a massive pool of acid when killed. Of course, you can use this to your advantage…

Bionic Behemoth: this Operator retains their martial training, but has also had its muscles augmented by the goo. Expect to be thrown, stunned, downed, and smashed into a whole new world of pain.

Feral Killer: quicker, sharper, meaner, deadlier. This monster has grown even more dangerous claws, able to rip armor to shreds. Its jump ability goes further, and its gained a nasty pounce attack that grounds you.

Strangler Zombie: This one has learned to go straight for the throat! Its arms seem to grip much tighter, and you can feel yourself suffocating…better finish it off before it gets you!

Ambushing zombie: you thought that was a still dead corpse, but as you were fleeing that feral killer, it snaked an arm out lightning quick to trip you! (…crawling zombies are hard to evolve, ok?)[/quote]

[quote=“gammaflux, post:18, topic:8060”]Might as well add in some of my own ideas.

Obviously we have a couple from my last thread, but here’s some more zombies :smiley:

[T2] Digger Zombie: A feral zombie that has grown longer claws able to dig through the ground with ease. Much like the Giant Worm, this zombie will tunnel through the ground to reach you. (if possible)

[T2] Tentacle Crawler: This crawling zombie has sprouted gooey tentacles enabling it to crawl at a faster speed, as well as immobilize you with them or even disarm you.

[T2] Combustion Bloater: A bloater that has gained flammable properties to its goo. Killing it with bullets, flame, or heated weaponry will cause it to explode, and is overall not recommended. This Bloater shoots out goo at an accelerated rate causing it to catch fire and turn into a fireball of sorts which will burn the ground. (inaccurate attacks)

[T3] Combustion Bomber: Same as the Combustion Bloater, only any weapon will immediately cause this bloater to explode. Its AOE range is also bigger, and its fireball is slightly more damaging.

[T2] Injector - Trait: Zombie gains a bonus chance of infecting you.

[T3] Reverse Mosquito (Normal Zombies only): This zombie has grown a large proboscis where it’s nose once used to be. It will attempt to inject you with a high concentration of blob/zombie virus. (whatever you want to call it). Infection chance is extremely high. This type of zombie has a hard time piercing through armor.

[T2] Unpredictable Stumbling - Trait: Zombie gains bonus ranks in dodging by shuffling side to side and bending in an unpredictable manner.

[T3] Vibration Dodger - Trait: Zombie gains a large bonus in dodging by swinging wildly in an incredibly fast way. In fact its swinging so fast that your eyes are having trouble keeping up with it’s body movements. This Zombie can even dodge bullets. (though less so)

[T2] Rampaging - Trait: Stuns barely even affect this zombie. It just keeps coming.

[T3] Unstoppable - Trait (Brutes and Hulks only): Stuns don’t affect this zombie, and knock-back is practically useless… Furthermore this zombie will plow through most terrain obstacles with ease, never losing speed. You better have a plan before taking these guys on.

[T2] Essence Stealer - Trait (Master only, extremely rare): This Master zombie will repair itself partially whenever it attacks (and hits) you. Additionally, upon reaching low life the Master zombie will try to escape. If it succeeds, it will try to find another zombie to eat, gaining all of it’s (useful) traits as well as repairing it’s body to full. Kill this creature on sight, for if you don’t it will just grow stronger and stronger. (If it were to find a hulk and eat it, well then…)[/quote]

[quote=“NOMOETOE”][T…4,5?] .-.

Or a jabberwock hulk, that would just be one of those things that you see and say nope, and just walk away run flailing madly[/quote]

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Not sure if this is supposed to go here, but I find the name “decayed xy” rather misleading.

When thinking of an decayed version of an enemy I would think that it is weaker rather than stronger, as it is easier to smash decayed things apart, and decayed stuff might not move as fast, etc.

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[quote=“Snaaty, post:4, topic:8105”]Not sure if this is supposed to go here, but I find the name “decayed xy” rather misleading.

When thinking of an decayed version of an enemy I would think that it is weaker rather than stronger, as it is easier to smash decayed things apart, and decayed stuff might not move as fast, etc.[/quote]

Thanks, changing it to Evolved until a better name for it shows up.

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i am not sure whether it was intended to name the enemies like that… i understood the naming chosen for the process of evolution not the result.

7

Exactly that. But i agree that it can be misleading, and also, we already have the decayed zombie, that’s weaker than the common zombies, so if the player sees a lot of “decayed” zombies in a city, it will think that they are weaker.

8

Exactly that. But i agree that it can be misleading, and also, we already have the decayed zombie, that’s weaker than the common zombies, so if the player sees a lot of “decayed” zombies in a city, it will think that they are weaker.[/quote]

Agreed completely.

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As a visual indicator of evolution, why not change the background color of the zombie’s tile?

10

Yes!

Specially because the user is used to see that some enemies with background are dangerous, like the Soldier. So, psychologically speaking, this may make them more like a threat.

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[quote=“StopSignal, post:10, topic:8105”]Yes!

Specially because the user is used to see that some enemies with background are dangerous, like the Soldier. So, psychologically speaking, this may make them more like a threat.[/quote]
I don’t think there are enough colors for all the zombies to have a unique color. So why not have some zombies (like hulk, tough, survivor, etc.) become traits or evolved forms? We might also make bio-operators either a trait of soldiers or an evolution of scientists.

Also, all of this fills me with the horror that at some point, I will run into a spitter hulk. I’m throwing a fucking mininuke at that thing.

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[quote=“TheFlame52, post:11, topic:8105”][quote=“StopSignal, post:10, topic:8105”]Yes!

Specially because the user is used to see that some enemies with background are dangerous, like the Soldier. So, psychologically speaking, this may make them more like a threat.[/quote]
I don’t think there are enough colors for all the zombies to have a unique color. So why not have some zombies (like hulk, tough, survivor, etc.) become traits or evolved forms? We might also make bio-operators either a trait of soldiers or an evolution of scientists.

Also, all of this fills me with the horror that at some point, I will run into a spitter hulk. I’m throwing a fucking mininuke at that thing.[/quote]

Or a jabberwock hulk, that would just be one of those things that you see and say nope, and just walk away run flailing madly

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[quote=“TheFlame52, post:11, topic:8105”][quote=“StopSignal, post:10, topic:8105”]Yes!

Specially because the user is used to see that some enemies with background are dangerous, like the Soldier. So, psychologically speaking, this may make them more like a threat.[/quote]
I don’t think there are enough colors for all the zombies to have a unique color. So why not have some zombies (like hulk, tough, survivor, etc.) become traits or evolved forms? We might also make bio-operators either a trait of soldiers or an evolution of scientists.

Also, all of this fills me with the horror that at some point, I will run into a spitter hulk. I’m throwing a fucking mininuke at that thing.[/quote]

Background tile color for different tiers? Great idea!

Traits are something that we touched but didn’t discuss properly, but yeah, i would like to see it somehow in game.

As evolution will work, makes sense. The result is that instead of looking to a Zombie Hulk and WHOA, now the player will have a vast range of WHOA zombies to expect. Of course, we can still keep high tier zombies spawning soon, using JSON.

I think Hulks fit well as T2 or even T3, Toughs, maybe, but Survivors are more what our survivors would be after death, not a specific evolution.

I’m adding the spitter hulk, jaberwock hulk to the Zombie Ideas post .-.

EDIT: Added the Evolved Bloated to the Worked-on Zombies. As it is, is a persistant environmental threat to survivors, since instead of it’s less evolved counter-part, it DOESN’T go with a bang, at once. I was going to add to it an extra weakness: more space travelled by attacks that throw/push things away, but let’s leave it to the T3 version. ^^

EDIT: Added the Bloated Spitter to the Worked-on Zombies. I thought about making it leak acid gas, but NAAAAH… also, to don’t make it OP, gave some problems to it’s movement.

EDIT: Added The Evolved Hazmat. I got inspired by the talk about traits and decided to incorporate it as a unique zombie mechanic(so, yeah, that mutation list can be improved). The justification is that the hazmat clothes would be torn with the time, and it wouldn’t protect against days and days of radiation exposition… i think. I also think that i may work on zombies that are a problem to RANGED attacks, instead of melee ones next time…

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Nah, survivor would be a trait.

15

Ugh.

One thing I see that definitely won’t work: the injector zed. Wounds getting infected is NOT, repeat NOT, some sort of zed virus. It’s just a typical bacterial infection.

16

How about we let em work like those rare worms that shoot stuff at you that lets you mutate?

Let the injector zeds activate the blob in you for some FUN mutations.

Let them help you over tresholds for extra FUN hrhrhrhrhr

add bad tresholds for even more FUN /evil laugher

17

On a third possible note, how about we make them have a poisonous bite, and when they get further evolved they get even more poisonous.

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[quote=“Valpo, post:16, topic:8105”]How about we let em work like those rare worms that shoot stuff at you that lets you mutate?

Let the injector zeds activate the blob in you for some FUN mutations.

Let them help you over tresholds for extra FUN hrhrhrhrhr

add bad tresholds for even more FUN /evil laugher[/quote]

Even better, they should generally be Nerf mutations unless having Strong Genetics!

19

I vote we leave hulks the way they are, and give them a T2 and T3 variant. Give the player incentive to take them out sooner if they can!

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[quote=“KA101, post:15, topic:8105”]Ugh.

One thing I see that definitely won’t work: the injector zed. Wounds getting infected is NOT, repeat NOT, some sort of zed virus. It’s just a typical bacterial infection.[/quote]

[quote=“StopSignal, post:18, topic:8105”][quote=“Valpo, post:16, topic:8105”]How about we let em work like those rare worms that shoot stuff at you that lets you mutate?

Let the injector zeds activate the blob in you for some FUN mutations.

Let them help you over tresholds for extra FUN hrhrhrhrhr

add bad tresholds for even more FUN /evil laugher[/quote]
Even better, they should generally be Nerf mutations unless having Strong Genetics![/quote]

Alucinogenous, morale-decreasing poison through bite attacks? Sort of how schizofrenic works, but for less time. And it’s meat could be part of some recipe to create drugs and mutations. Or the bite itself could be the goo trying to spread further in things that doesn’t have it, and the bite effects are the result of the internal war between the external goo and wherever you have inside already.

If there’s a good T2 and T3 variant for them, no problem. Warning, if i’m the one to give an idea for them, i’m seriously taking inspiration of the Marvel Hulk himself. :smiley: