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

Game Talk The Drawing Board
21

If you’re going to give a zombie a poisonous sting please PLEASE call it a Zombee.

That said, I agree that shocker, hulk, spitter, boomer etc should be evolved traits. If something like this goes in imagine going from day one ((Crawling zombies, vanilla zeds, fat, brute, dogs, cops etc)) to month one to year one of increasing powerful undead.

Other ideas: Converting certain player mutations into zombie mutations as the zeds slowly go full crawling chaos.

Zombie Pygmy

Evolves From: Zombie Child
Idea From: 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.

22

Right! Since it’s a bite, perhaps a ‘Komodo’ Zombie? But yeah, maybe instead of a bite, it could have a prolonged bone, from which it makes the poison/goo/nasty stuff enter its victim. If it’s gonna work like that, Zombee will be. v_v

So unpowered zombies would be Tier 1, the mutated, with abilities would be Tier 2, and the even more mutated and evolved would be Tier 3… can work, and sort of gives a tutorial for starting players: let them work out how to fight against zombies that have more common abilities and then slowly introduce the weird ones.

I fear smart zombies. I REALLY fear smart zombies.

[quote=“Logrin, post:21, topic:8105”]Zombie Pygmy

Evolves From: Zombie Child
Idea From: 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.[/quote]

Added already :smiley:

Ok, monster traits and mutations are a good idea, but how they would work?

Spitter, shocker and boomer abilities would become traits/mutations and could be applied to other zombies? As a T1 Common Zombie that by luck can spit, shock and also slime others? Or traits are gained as a possibility while going to a higher tier(so, instead of a T2 Shocker becoming a T3 Zombie, it gains spitter instead)? Also, players would be able to check which traits monsters have, looking at them?

So far, zombie evolution will work by time passed in game(days, weeks) and they will evolve to higher tiers possible to them, kind of a tree of possibilities.

23

That said, I like the idea of a zombie type that forces a fight to happen. Right now if you’re in a city and there’s enough of a cleared area at your back, you can pick and choose fights easily.

24

That said, I like the idea of a zombie type that forces a fight to happen. Right now if you’re in a city and there’s enough of a cleared area at your back, you can pick and choose fights easily.[/quote]

That role is kinda filled by the zed dogs, about which folks rarely express appreciation. It’s a nice one but I’m not sure folks’d appreciate it.

25

Well as a difficulty curve:

Maybe theres no zdogs/wolves in the first days.

The others that hinder your movemént come even later as in evolution.

I hear complaints mostly from early deaths.

So maybe if its later its okay? (Or worse cause they got further ingame but then die from new stuff)

Dunno just asuming … I don t understand people.

26

But that would need dynamic spawn, it would not work.

27

A future feature depandant on the functionality of another feature? I don t see a problem just get the order right.

Fix dynamic spawns then add the other stuff that needs it.

28

A future feature depandant on the functionality of another feature? I don t see a problem just get the order right.

Fix dynamic spawns then add the other stuff that needs it.[/quote]

Zombies already show up in a certain order in static: at start, you don’t see much zombie forest life, but as time passes, they start to spawn more and more, and the living kind, less and less. I just don’t see a proper explanation to why in static, dogs would show up later in the party, but having one, i’m fine.

29

A future feature depandant on the functionality of another feature? I don t see a problem just get the order right.

Fix dynamic spawns then add the other stuff that needs it.[/quote]

Zombies already show up in a certain order in static: at start, you don’t see much zombie forest life, but as time passes, they start to spawn more and more, and the living kind, less and less. I just don’t see a proper explanation to why in static, dogs would show up later in the party, but having one, i’m fine.[/quote]

I read in lab notes that the blob had problems in canines . They didn t revive at first like humans-

Perhaps it needed time to addapt for the doggies?

I think it also stated in the report that the exposure time to the blob was relevant.~

30
[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)
DO WANT
[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...)
DO WANT [2]
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.
DO WANT [3]

My suggestion: Shocker/Power sink zombie
Very rare kind of shockers, but extremely dangerous. 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). By doing so they can spend this energy on:

  1. Evolving. It makes them faster, stronger, etc.
  2. 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).
  3. 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.

So if Shocker/Power sink zombie is not dealt with fastly - they may become ridiculously dangerous enemy.

31

[quote=“Wanderer, post:22, topic:8105”]Ok, monster traits and mutations are a good idea, but how they would work?

Spitter, shocker and boomer abilities would become traits/mutations and could be applied to other zombies? As a T1 Common Zombie that by luck can spit, shock and also slime others? Or traits are gained as a possibility while going to a higher tier(so, instead of a T2 Shocker becoming a T3 Zombie, it gains spitter instead)? Also, players would be able to check which traits monsters have, looking at them?

So far, zombie evolution will work by time passed in game(days, weeks) and they will evolve to higher tiers possible to them, kind of a tree of possibilities.[/quote]

I think the best answer is that instead of having all zombies branch off of the average zombie, we can instead have a few base zombies with multiple tiers in each tree. (possibly more than 3)

Base Zombies:

Zombie: (obviously) These can take almost any trait and can evolve into ALMOST all forms of zombies except for profession based ones and a few special types.

Next we have the Zombie Dog and armored variant K-9, as well as any other large zombie animal. (gains traits related to animals and/or nature)

Fat Zombie: Evolves to bloaters and other types. (Imagine a fat zombie that pukes feral sewer rats.) Normal Zombies may or may not evolve into the fat zombie. (I can think of reasons that go both ways so I’ll leave this up for other people to debate.)
Special: If a Zombie kills a PC or NPC and survives while not in the reality bubble it has a chance to evolve into a fat zombie. (optional)

Grabbers: Evolves to Feral, Diggers (if it’s ever added), anything involving arms as the main basis. (Zombies can not evolve into this type.)

Brutes: Evolves to Hulks, as well as anything with strength as the main focus. (Zombies can not evolve into this type, also Brutes don’t have to evolve into Hulks, so I’m not sure how this should go.)

Shocker: This only applies to zombies that have CBMs in them, therefore the average zombie should not be able to evolve into this creature. (Really this is more of a trait that can only be applied as a T1 base, and can’t be evolved into, only picked up from the start.) I think this would be better as its own creature.

Skeletons: Evolves into zombies with bone as its main focus. This should be more of a trait than anything I think (excludes fats/bloaters). A trait that can be gained to obtain future bone mutations, with a few special units that can only be made if the tree follows a direct route without any interference from other unit routes such as the shocker or spitter.

Spitter: This should be a trait. Acid Rain Adaption?

Master Zombie: Definitely it’s own unit with a separate tree.

Scientist: Own unit, separate tree.

Professions: Most of these will just have trait evolutions rather than specific unit paths. However there could probably be a couple profession zombies that have a tier 2 or 3 unit that goes along with them as its own unit. Imagine a fireman zombie that has literally fused with its armor making fire damage practically null and void. (or rather something cool and awesome that I’m too lazy to think of.)

Decayed: Humans have good and bad traits, so should zombies. The decayed is basically a trait tree that can affect other zombies negatively or in a way that’s both good and bad.

Crawling: Own unit with tree.

Mechanical/Mutated: Specialty zombies that don’t evolve, instead they have a couple of perks from mutations, CBM’s or both. Think of them somewhere under a brute to over a T5 hulk in terms of power. These are the rarest zombies with the most exotic abilities in their disposal. They can also obtain mutations/CBM’s not available to players, which is basically a form of the blob/mutation/CBM’s power combining into something new.

We should have tiers ranging from 1 - 5 :I (tier 4 has very few paths that can reach it, and tier 5 is basically the maximum power any type of zombie can reach (1-2 paths max.))

Zombie -> Brute -> Hulk -> Berserker -> Titan -> Tank (he’s built like a tank :P) -> Juggernaut (After this was added modders created a giant fighting robot to take on the juggernaut, because as we all know the best way to fight a giant monster is to pilot a giant gundam.)

32

Alrighty! Didn’t have enough time to type out the post I wanted before I hit the road earlier today, so I’m back!

If zombie evolution is implemented I think the best way to go about it would be to consider the difficulty curve. Day zero should be a grace period–a handful of days where you’ll still be recognizing zeds based on body types and prior occupations. (Fat zombie, Tough zombie, Firefighter zombie, zombie cop, etc.) If we’re moving to an evolving zombie dynamic I’d suggest changing the way they are named and generated. Examples below.

[Body Type] Zombie Flavor [Profession/Mutation]

Using the above formula to generate zombies could come up with such early examples as:

Fat Zombie Firefighter
Skeletal Zombie Child
Tough Zombie Cop

Using this sort of formulaic zombie generation would keep freshly genned zombies from being bland and serve as a great framework for the gradual implementation of more heavily mutated zombies.

Body type would grant zeds the bonuses that these zombies currently enjoy as their own monsters. Skeletal means they’re hard to shoot, Crawling or Decayed are less of a threat, Feral or Tough are more dangerous etc etc.

Zombie Flavor would be how we implement ‘special’ zombies into the mix. Swimmers, Boomers, Shockers, Smokers, etc. By the time the start showing up players will be on the road to being properly prepared to take them on. Which is a good thing considering how unpleasant it would be to encounter say, a Skeletal Shocker Brute, for example. Flavor should be distinct from the profession/mutation category in that flavor decides the basic role or ‘monster type’ of the zombie where as mutations and professions are special considerations to be mindful of when fighting them.

Profession/Mutation would be the sort of important information a player needs to glean at a glance. Early on this will mean seeing that a zombie was once a cop, soldier, scientist or if they’re wearing hazmat gear. Later on this becomes a reading of what dangerous mutations a zombie picked up, like if they’re a necromancer, brute, hulk or any number of clever ideas cropping up in this thread. By the time evolved zombies overtake vanilla zeds in number you could run into such horrible combinations as:

Feral Spitter Hulk
Tough Shocker Necromancer
Feral Smoker Brute

Thoughts?

33

I like the proposed evolutions except for skeletons.

Random body type idea is solid, too.

34

Commenting about a few points, but yeah, like gammaflux ideas.

[quote=“gammaflux, post:31, topic:8105”]Fat Zombie: Evolves to bloaters and other types. (Imagine a fat zombie that pukes feral sewer rats.) Normal Zombies may or may not evolve into the fat zombie. (I can think of reasons that go both ways so I’ll leave this up for other people to debate.)
Special: If a Zombie kills a PC or NPC and survives while not in the reality bubble it has a chance to evolve into a fat zombie. (optional)[/quote]

That leads to an interesting point: so, zombies in the Cataclysm eat humans, or not? So far, you can see them slaughtering your dead body, but not eating.

Yeah, RNG could create the equivalente of a zombie dancer area, but hostile. Better if normal Zs can’t become brutes.

Don’t know. Spitters could be zombies that the goo decided to improve gastric acid production(so, normal Zs can become Spitters) or corpses that had too many weird stuff inside BEFORE the goo, and that allowed it to evolve them to Spitters(so, separated tree). Also, adaptation to Acid Rain would make them MORE resistant against it, not able to create acid…

YES.

Also, i like the random body idea, just worried with zombie names getting too big, to a point where there’s too much information to pass at once. We have so far it’s name, foreground tile and background tile, and if there’s more info than it can be passed by this three, the player has to consult the text about it. Now imagine you having to do it with 30-40 zombies. As an example…

Tough Strong Fast Decaying Shocker Brute.

So, even if traits are a good point, there should be a limit to how much a zombie can have extra traits, or limit zombies who can have traits and mutations galore as rare and special kinds, as the Evolved Hazmat and the Power Sink Zombie, that i’m adding in the Worked-On List as a T2 Zombie, thanks to its situational powers.