New Monster Ideas

Game Talk The Drawing Board
21

Karkas:

A huge mass of green Zs. They are controlled by a central hivemind (of a different colour, so you can see which one it is… or not?) and will all deanimate as soon as it is killed. They can range in size from 5 to about 20 Zs.

They operate as a cohesive swarm, all stuck together, never breaking off from the group unless an obstacle forces them to. They will attempt to engulf players, making taking them on in the open very, very dangerous.

To balance their sheer strength of numbers, and their ability to block off an entire street to the player, they would be slightly slower and weaker than normal greens, and thus possible to escape.

This would incentivise carrying some sort of explosive or fire weapon, for a quick strike at the centre of the group.

Quantum:

Wraith-like creature that can cross through walls, and is unlikely to be harmed by bullets (like skeletons). Is not slowed by terrain. Weak attack but very high evasion.

Whisper:

Wraith-like creature that can produce refractions of itself. These are indistinguishable from the real thing (unless perhaps to a high perception check) but do no damage, and have only 1 HP. The creature can produce them at an alarming rate, however, and it can be difficult to find the “real” Whisper amongst the 10 or so refractions it can maintain at any one time.

Would definitely encourage melee, as the speed of reproduction would mean that the player would waste a lot of ammo taking care of the clones, and should focus on finding the “real” monster before using his/her gun.

Mutter:

Wraith-like creature that can teleport over short distances. Behaves much like the “fast” enemies (fast zombies, wolves) in employing hit-and-run tactics, except it does so by teleporting from 6-9 tiles away and back again.

Tendril:

An angry tree. Why do we not already have angry trees?

22

Oh, I really like the Whisper idea.

So, for the “Orlok Nightstalker”

Spawns anywhere within “x” of an Orlok Den, rare chance, at night.
Spawns in “Orlok Dens” during the day, which are basements full of corpses with a variety of loot. Indistinguishable from normal basements until entered.
High Stealth means low chance of being noticed at distance, even with flashlight, or even up close if it’s in the dormant state you find it in during the day in it’s den (though it won’t stay that way long. Nice surprise for the unsuspecting player finding this ‘great loot spot’ the first time).
Avoids light sources, with a morale modifier based on the strength of the source. A flashlight will make it hesitate, a fire will make it flee and avoid closing. Takes damage from stronger light sources like floodlights. Takes damage from sunlight during the day.
Has a charge attack that knocks down the player in some way? Fairly powerful, VERY durable. Has Parkour trait equivalent - unslowed by moving past obstacles.

Does this sound good? Anything else I should consider?

23

Make its flesh cook itself in sunlight.

24

[quote=“GlyphGryph, post:22, topic:336”]Oh, I really like the Whisper idea.

So, for the “Orlok Nightstalker”

Spawns anywhere within “x” of an Orlok Den, rare chance, at night.
Spawns in “Orlok Dens” during the day, which are basements full of corpses with a variety of loot. Indistinguishable from normal basements until entered.
High Stealth means low chance of being noticed at distance, even with flashlight, or even up close if it’s in the dormant state you find it in during the day in it’s den (though it won’t stay that way long. Nice surprise for the unsuspecting player finding this ‘great loot spot’ the first time).
Avoids light sources, with a morale modifier based on the strength of the source. A flashlight will make it hesitate, a fire will make it flee and avoid closing. Takes damage from stronger light sources like floodlights. Takes damage from sunlight during the day.
Has a charge attack that knocks down the player in some way? Fairly powerful, VERY durable. Has Parkour trait equivalent - unslowed by moving past obstacles.

Does this sound good? Anything else I should consider?[/quote]

Hit and run tactics like wolves?

Also would it do cutting damage or piercing? Is there a way to give it both a bite and a scratch attack to simulate both?

Lastly, how many can we expect per given area? They sound pretty dangerous, especially for newbs, so I’d be interested to know whether they’ll be a likely encounter in a small town, for example.

25

Nope. Hit and persistent pursuit instead. No skittishness here. (Unless you pull out a powerful light source, or it gets damaged)
Badly damaged Orloks will attempt to flee instead of continuing the fight, and their high health and stealth makes it a real possibility that it might come back and attack you again after it heals fully.

I’d probably give it a couple different attack options. A faster cutting attack and more damaging piercing attack? Maybe they should both be cutting, though, I think bites are currently considered cutting.

Relatively rare. If I can, I’ll tie their count to Dens, and have 1 to 3 per den. So if you kill that many within the Den area, you should be fine. There might also be an even smaller chance of a truly random spawn. I’d look for the average character to encounter one roughly every twenty to thirty days of exploration. (Meaning the average character won’t) The denser the city, the higher chance of a basement spawn (by sheer number of opportunities) means a higher chance of Den spawns as well.

26

I’m glad the cat suggestion went over so well. I pretty much looked at a neighborhood cat that sleeps on my back porch all day and thought of what it would be doing in the apocalypse. :smiley:

I did have one little thing I couldn’t quite figure out how to handle though. A character finds a ‘vampire cougars oh god’ den, and wakes them all up. If a character immediately fled back upstairs (which some newer players might do anyway not necessarily knowing the are vulnerable to light) would they follow, putting them in a very bad situation?

If possible could there be some way to make the Orlocks know not to pursue a character upstairs during the day or give them the option to flee down stairs if they see them?

P.S. Make sure to let some of the dead stuff in the den be sewer rat corpses, if I remember Nosferatu correctly Orlock had a lot of rats. Obviously cats would eat the rats, but it could be another reference.

27

Cursed objects and Poltergeists (Various items with “poltergeist” as a prefix)
IE, poltergeist hammer or a poltergeist rock.
Such items come from a single cursed object that has to be burned to be destroyed, the cursed object could be in a container or out in the open and will bring nearby objects alive to protect itself.

Demonic possession (any non NPC mob with the prefix demonic - demonic dog)
A possessed creature, passive or hostile that has the same abilities that a cursed object has. The corpse must be burned after the creatures death otherwise the corpse will function as a cursed object.

28

Stalker Zombie

Zombie with claw hands that does ferocious damage in melee with average HP. Moves quickly, like fast Zombie. Is only spawned at night using the traditional spawn system. For coolness, is described as wreathed in/emits a small quantity of smoke.

Stalker Zombies flee the player while in the players vision (and for a short period afterwards), unless they are within ~5 squares, in which case they charge like normal. They spawn in small groups. They have no hearing, but a strong sense of smell. They can OPEN DOORS, but only do so at night (for STRANGE REASONS!?!!!)

This creates a zombie that terrifyingly stalks the player by day, and closes in to deliver Fun at night. While you are sleeping.

Grabber Zombie (Revisited)

Zombie with distended, hideous grasping limbs. It uses a disarm attack on players. It alternately prioritizes picking up objects on the ground within a short distance of the player and throwing them in the opposite direction of the player.

This creates a Z that attempts to steal the players gun then hurl it away, as well as rob players of any nearby loot, hurl live grenades away from the horde etc.

Zombie Hound

Zombified feral dog. Spawns in large packs, as per animals, cannot open doors/windows. Fast, strong sense of hearing/smell but no vision. Bites cause players to enter a bitten state, that must be cured with first aid/bandages/regen or result in infection.

29

That gives me a good idea for a zombie… especially if my stealth suggestion is implemented.

“Smoker” - The smoker emits a concealing aura of smoke at all times. This means that you can’t even see them unless you are very close. They will conceal both themselves and other nearby zombies, making them impossible to shoot at accurately - while one can fire blindly into the smoke, this is unlikely to be all that effective. In melee, however, they go down pretty quickly as they aren’t terrible tough, but it means that you can’t fire at OTHER zombies since now everything ELSE is concealed by the smoke.

This would probably be trivial to implement, and seems like a great idea imo.

30

Are any game concepts accepted? I thought of a creature/monster/player from a game that would be fun.

31

Well, I originally intended this thread for original monster concepts rather than more borrowing, but I guess if it’s good enough and adds something the game lacks…

32

I think more humanoid monsters!.
Instead of having zombies, crazy npcs, or third dimension stuff that makes me sad.
If you play Dota 2 you would know this character.
Chaos knight (Fucking Chaos knight).
He is a humanoid guy who rides a horse and goes between planes killing shit, could make sense in the demential rift crap going on with flaming eyes. He can also call other forms of himself from other worlds to fight.
I had a thought of like a guy named Chaos soldier (because changing names) who would use close range melee and appear again after his death. Insert some awkward balls of chaos (Sadly chaos ball is an actual move that is unpredictable) and you have a boss type person. Or this suggestion needs more originality and is total crap.

The fucking Chaos knight thing is a joke between me and my steam friends. Along with dragon knight. …fucking Dragon knight.

33

The four horsemen of the apocalypse (as boss monsters)

War

A rage filled armoured knight upon a fiery horse, the cold air crackles against his red armour, a huge flaming broad sword in his right hand, a signed decree for the destruction of life in his left. This monstrosity has only one task, one objective, one goal, the complete and utter annihilation of all life.

  • Leads a huge zombie horde from city to city as he looks for survivors.
  • Very rare boss monsters , only one per map.
  • Very high health and armour.
  • Can throw massive fire balls that can flatten entire houses.
    *can mind control low intelligent survivors can turn them against you (when NPCS work)
  • Causes a very large increase in the temperature for miles around him.

Famine

A huge humanoid creature seemingly comprised of fat and skin, it’s sickly white flesh struggles to hold this abomination together. Its jade-green eyes gaze with envy at the world. Famine exists to consume the life of the world, his massive horde of locusts feed him as he slowly walks from city to city devouring everything in his wake.

  • Leads a large train of boomers
  • Unleashes hordes of locusts to fight as the scientist zombie uses man hacks.
  • Causes it to rain wherever he is.
  • Damage done by his locusts heals him
  • Very rare boss monsters , only one per map.
    *rots nearby food

Pestilence

Taking the form of a silent old man in a old dusty suit. This sadistic creature exists to torture and infect all life. Pestilence moves from region to region flanked by monstrous giant pet leaches spreading disease and strife to all life.

*leads a small group of giant acid spitting leaches

  • immune to range attacks (surrounded by a protective sphere)
    *can give the player a range of horrible afflictions
    *attacks by throwing large clouds of acid.
    *acid rain wherever he is.
  • Very rare boss monsters , only one per map.

Death

A dark hooded figure in a black robe, wielding his massive rusted scythe. Even the other horsemen fear him. Death has no followers, no orders , no rules , death seeks to bring order to the living world of chaos.

  • Very rare boss monsters , only one per map, only appears after the other three have been killed
  • Immune to all forms of damage
    *Has no followers
    *can teleport
    *kills everything zombies included
    *Roams the map looking for the living
    *can only be killed by destroying his ring which spawns near his own spawn.
  • grass turn to dirt when he’s near, trees wilt and die, sleeping within miles on him causes horrifying nightmares
    *his presence causes it to rain blood
34

[quote=“Captain Cabinet, post:33, topic:336”]The four horsemen of the apocalypse (as boss monsters)

War
A rage filled armoured knight upon a fiery horse, the cold air crackles against his red armour, a huge flaming broad sword in his right hand, a signed decree for the destruction of life in his left. This monstrosity has only one task, one objective, one goal, the complete and utter annihilation of all life.

  • Leads a huge zombie horde from city to city as he looks for survivors.
  • Very rare boss monsters , only one per map.
  • Very high health and armour.
  • Can throw massive fire balls that can flatten entire houses.
    *can mind control low intelligent survivors can turn them against you (when NPCS work)
  • Causes a very large increase in the temperature for miles around him.
    Famine
    A huge humanoid creature seemingly comprised of fat and skin, it’s sickly white flesh struggles to hold this abomination together. Its jade-green eyes gaze with envy at the world. Famine exists to consume the life of the world, his massive horde of locusts feed him as he slowly walks from city to city devouring everything in his wake.
  • Leads a large train of boomers
  • Unleashes hordes of locusts to fight as the scientist zombie uses man hacks.
  • Causes it to rain wherever he is.
  • Damage done by his locusts heals him
  • Very rare boss monsters , only one per map.
    *rots nearby food
    Pestilence
    Taking the form of a silent old man in a old dusty suit. This sadistic creature exists to torture and infect all life. Pestilence moves from region to region flanked by monstrous giant pet leaches spreading disease and strife to all life.
    *leads a small group of giant acid spitting leaches
  • immune to range attacks (surrounded by a protective sphere)
    *can give the player a range of horrible afflictions
    *attacks by throwing large clouds of acid.
    *acid rain wherever he is.
  • Very rare boss monsters , only one per map.

Death
A dark hooded figure in a black robe, wielding his massive rusted scythe. Even the other horsemen fear him. Death has no followers, no orders , no rules , death seeks to bring order to the living world of chaos.

  • Very rare boss monsters , only one per map, only appears after the other three have been killed
  • Immune to all forms of damage
    *Has no followers
    *can teleport
    *kills everything zombies included
    *Roams the map looking for the living
    *can only be killed by destroying his ring which spawns near his own spawn.
  • grass turn to dirt when he’s near, trees wilt and die, sleeping within miles on him causes horrifying nightmares
    *his presence causes it to rain blood[/quote]
    I feel like you only mentioned this because of Chaos knight
35

*acid rain wherever he is. < Nope. Nope. Nope. Acid rain already kills me on a daily basis. That would be evilllll

36

But Mr Pestilence is evil :smiley:

37

Actually thinking about it I think it would more appropriate if Death takes the form of a small cat with red eyes, grim reaper style death is a bit overdone.

38

So, let’s inspire some close combat or even melee.

Kinetic Zombie
A zombie with its hands and arms fused to its head. It squirms and retches. Will occasionally make items levitate and come flying your way. It may even stop or deflect things you throw at it, including bullets!
Get out of here, Stalker.

Can also be used as a funky robot with dodge abilities.

Deflector Bot
This small, hovering orb hums and emits a faint view obstructing field. It is quick and zips around with precise movements. The field it emits deflects incoming projectiles.
You get too close or piss it off and it’ll be coming for you. Used by high prestige factions before the war to keep important supplies and VIPs safe.

These ideas are all very impulsive and lack any original thinking. I tend to not go too deep into the game, just jumping from town to town, trying to stay alive. So, I’d generally just like to see more above-world shenanigans. More variations. Things (robots and mutants) from the world before the disaster. Enemies which keep it interesting, and keep you on your feet. Stuff that’ll scare the shit out of you and make you want to run away. :stuck_out_tongue:

39

Am I the only one who wants a tad more humor in the game? Other than the Npc cursing every fifteen seconds it isn’t very funny.

40

Yes, you are. We’ve got more humour than most games already! After all, we have Actual Cannibal Shia Lebouf.