I hate zombie dogs. The smoker, the boomer, the hulk, all of them, they feel balanced. But zombie dogs just feel really cheap. Why are there no other zombie animals? I wish there was an option to turn them off, but there is none. Even with classic zombies turned on, they still spawn. There’s no zombie animals in Romero movies.
agreed they gave me alot of cheap deaths, usually from bleeding out. i wouldnt want them completely removed but adding an option to disable them would be nice, but im sure disabling monsters was already planned, correct me if im wrong.
Yeah, they ought to be going into JSONs and/or the worldgen/mod manager things.
Aw, but the cute wittle undead puppies just want to play!
Shenanigans aside, I personally like the dogs though I’d be fine with an option to disable enemies or enemy groups. I do believe there were gonna be more options to change what enemies (and items?) spawned once we got the World Factory. As for dogs in Classic, that does seem a bit odd to me, but I can see the logic in having them since they’re not getting crazy mutations and such. Either way Classic doesn’t really effect me.
And cheap deaths? They’re pretty easy to dispatch with weapons I can make in the Shelter. Sure, they might get a bite or two in but nothing crazy.
More likely what will eventually happen is that things like bears and other wildlife will start coming back from the dead.
As for why their are currently zombie dogs but no other zombie wildlife:
[spoiler=Some Spoilers]
- The human water supply was contaminated, thus many of the dogs became ooze infested (and would therefore reanimate on death). Lots of wildlife was still drinking from relatively uncontaminated sources, so it isn’t ooze contaminated yet.
- When all the humans died, the dogs got caught up in it and killed, thus leading to reanimation. Most of the wildlife still haven’t died yet, even if they are infected.
- The ooze has to reach a certain body % threshold before reanimation will occur in mammals. The threshold for this is right between the average dog and cat, which is why the dogs are reviving and cats aren’t.[/spoiler]
The end result, zombie bears.
Personally I like the variety that the zombie dogs add. Without them it would be trivial to outpace most zeds even while fairly encumbered.
Now if I could just improve my dog food/zombie pheromone recipe sufficiently enough as to recruit some permanently friendly green guard dogs…
I think zombie dogs are fine as they are. They are a good early game hurtle, where otherwise the only other early game challenges are brutes and shockers.
The dogs? Really? Drop torso encumberment, dispatch in 3 or so hits, clear up remaining from nearby 400-movement cover, return for items.
I have “cheaper” deaths 100x more often from the tazer/stun effect from Shockers and and the insane smoke damage from Smokers.
No pain, good distance from a small hoarde, have speed and time to maneuver into cover like bushes or a window…
ZAP
Suddenly 3-4 zombies teleport on top of you, you’re in too severe of pain to flee (though a shocker can pretty much run you down even if you’re in good condition). Shockers LITERALLY teleport you into an inescapable end-game condition unless you’re ready to 1 shot kill and bandage wounds, which every starting character is not.
Smokers can be easy enough to avoid even as a starting character, but actually getting sufficient mouth protection to take them on is sheer fucking luck. Even with two dust-masks, the only things you can actually find unless the RNG decides your character should live, the damage the smoke inhalation does is insane considering you generally encounter them in pairs and you won’t have enough healing items to continue or enough supplies already secured to sit a day or two and heal.
I want zombie cyber bears!
I want zombie Russians which attacks you only if you have some vodka(on any other alcohol)
I want zombie cyber bears![/quote]
Yup, cool idea.
Are we playing the same game?
By the time you’ve hit the dog three times:
[ul][li]You’ve missed at least twice (four times if you’re using the starting knife) thanks to the massive dodge bonus they get[/li]
[li]The dog has bitten you at least eight times, probably infecting you and definitely causing massive amounts of pain[/li]
[li]The dog is still alive because lolknives[/li]
[li]You are now surrounded by zombies[/li][/ul]
Removing zombie dogs?
Casuls. They are quite funny things and also add some variety.
[quote=“asdfzxc, post:12, topic:3158”]Are we playing the same game?
By the time you’ve hit the dog three times:
[ul][li]You’ve missed at least twice (four times if you’re using the starting knife) thanks to the massive dodge bonus they get[/li]
[li]The dog has bitten you at least eight times, probably infecting you and definitely causing massive amounts of pain[/li]
[li]The dog is still alive because lolknives[/li]
[li]You are now surrounded by zombies[/li][/ul][/quote]
The trick is to move behind a bush, through a window, behind a car frame, something to slow it down so you can get an extra hit or two in on it.
My method really early is to throw rocks, hammers, wrenches, whatever I have at them to weaken them before they get to me. If you’re standing out in the open they’re way more dangerous than if you have cover.
The most effective way to take them out, however, is a bear trap. Half the time a bear trap will just kill them outright, and if it doesn’t you just have to smack them once.
Zombie dogs are basically a less boring version of ‘fast zombies’, so the question about other undead wildlife is moot. They could just be renamed to “fast zombies” and have the same behavior, but that would be boring.
Also, I never use the starting pocket knife for combat. Pick up a rock! They’re everywhere and have better stats.
(Alternately, the Set Everything On Fire strategy works well against dogs too)
Take care, animals that could zombify must suffice the challenge and actually act as carnivorous predators. So no Zombie Cow, please. Nice and clean perhaps, have Necros spawn skeletons out of any corpse lying around?
I fail to see what’s so hard about killing them.
I face them on open ground. Just wait for them to get within melee range and a single boot to the head almost always finishes them off.
[quote=“Rivet, post:17, topic:3158”]I fail to see what’s so hard about killing them.
I face them on open ground. Just wait for them to get within melee range and a single boot to the head almost always finishes them off.[/quote]
Uh, Rivet, not everyone has Krav Maga. I know it’s difficult to believe. 
That said, good MA does tend to work well. If you aren’t playing something with swwu’s rebuild-in-progress, consider taking a style at chargen!
I don’t have any probs with dogs. And I don’t have any melee styles.
just get a throwing based character with fast learner, start with pointed sticks by smashing the evac shelter, and throw away when they’re a tile away or right next to you.
Yes, throwing = stabbing.