Shocker Brutes are too strong

kevin.granade · 2014-10-12T20:50:50.000Z

I could see adding this, but I could also see that sucker tearing open rather quickly.
Rubber boots might do a little more protection, but that would be HELL to try and do martial arts in, not to mention cushioning your attacks a bit.

A bit better would be (dry) neoprene gloves, or even boxing gloves (cotton is an insulator, go figure).

The main thing is we simply don’t have a robust system for handling gloves having an affect on unarmed attacks.

I have some ideas, but it’s not something I’m going to get to say in the next few weeks.

Bonevomit · 2014-10-12T21:06:16.000Z

Kevin Granade:

Rubber boots might do a little more protection, but that would be HELL to try and do martial arts in, not to mention cushioning your attacks a bit.

I’m suspicious of this. I don’t imagine they would have that much effect.

KA101 · 2014-10-12T21:15:27.000Z

Bonevomit:

[quote=“Kevin Granade, post:43, topic:7388”]Rubber boots might do a little more protection, but that would be HELL to try and do martial arts in, not to mention cushioning your attacks a bit.

I’m suspicious of this. I don’t imagine they would have that much effect.[/quote]

Kevin’s been known to do that Tai Chi stuff. I’ve not performed TKD in over a decade but would suspect the galoshes wouldn’t be much fun.

Just checked and Youtube doesn’t seem to have any videos of folks doing MA in rubber boots.

FunsizeNinja123 · 2014-10-12T21:29:36.000Z

How about rubber soled shoes? Not gumboots.

KA101 · 2014-10-12T21:42:41.000Z

FunsizeNinja123:

How about rubber soled shoes? Not gumboots.

I’m wearing Doc Martens with industrial-grade rubber soles right now. Most sneakers have rubber soles, too.

I have NO desire to test the theory.

Bonevomit · 2014-10-12T22:02:04.000Z

I could test it. I’ve been meaning to buy boots for a while now anyway.

Keyreper · 2014-10-12T22:56:12.000Z

Im pretty sure you’ll die if you try to prevent electrocution using regular rubber soled shoes, not enough insulation.

eatdembeanz · 2014-10-13T03:43:20.000Z

I would definitely support a reduction in spawn rate. As it stands, I’m finding Shocker Brutes more than I’m finding regular Brutes and possibly even generic Shocker Zombies. Call it whatever you want, but I don’t think it’s bad luck.

Keyreper · 2014-10-13T04:42:42.000Z

personally im finding around the same number of shocker brutes and regular brutes, how about instead of lowering the number of shocker brutes increase the number of regular brutes?

kevin.granade · 2014-10-13T05:47:02.000Z

No, it’s bad luck if that’s what you’re seeing. The frequency of shocker brutes is 1/2 to 1/10 the frequency of brutes everywhere except large electrical stations.

dragonlaggin · 2014-10-13T21:55:28.000Z

Kevin Granade:

No, it’s bad luck if that’s what you’re seeing. The frequency of shocker brutes is 1/2 to 1/10 the frequency of brutes everywhere except large electrical stations.

What the boss-man said.

BoaDrago · 2014-10-17T08:43:49.000Z

8 words: Power Storage, Joint Torsion Ratchet, Dielectric Capacitance System.

Also this post is like saying i “decided to run around a military bunker without safe mode on and a chicken walker blew all of my extremities off, nerf chicken walkers”

Coolthulhu · 2014-10-17T09:20:38.000Z

[quote=“BoaDrago, post:54, topic:7388”]8 words: Power Storage, Joint Torsion Ratchet, Dielectric Capacitance System.

Also this post is like saying i “decided to run around a military bunker without safe mode on and a chicken walker blew all of my extremities off, nerf chicken walkers”[/quote]

Not really. Not everyone can “afford” dielectric at the start of the game. Once you get it, shocker brutes become CBM piñatas. The problem is - you don’t start with it.
Also, the game warns you about LOTS of things, even those that aren’t at all dangerous (“Piss-weak legless zombie appeared on the other side of the river! Do you want to stop crafting?”), so being warned about attacking a really dangerous enemy (without CBM on) is to be expected. You can attack shockers on accident, because they look similar to stunned zombies.

Another issue: where are the non-brute shockers? In my games, the shocker/shocker brute ratio seems to be around 1/2. While the differences aren’t big, early game survivors can assassinate non-brutes, while brutes are better left alone until dielectric.

Abbysynth · 2014-10-17T12:03:02.000Z

I am totally fine with how shocker brutes are, I’d just like a config option to crank down the spawn chance of special zombies. It just seems like every single time I fight in towns it’s more than 50% special ones, but I don’t want to turn them off completely.

i2amroy · 2014-10-18T05:47:52.000Z

Abbysynth:

I am totally fine with how shocker brutes are, I’d just like a config option to crank down the spawn chance of special zombies. It just seems like every single time I fight in towns it’s more than 50% special ones, but I don’t want to turn them off completely.

Crack open the mongroup JSON file and start editing. You can’t really set up an overall option that differentiates between “special” and not special because literally the only things that differentiate between them is frequency. If you made shocker zombies way more popular than the current normal zombies we would all be calling shocker zombies “normal” and current normal zombies something else.

jcd · 2014-10-18T10:14:42.000Z

Keyreper:

Im pretty sure you’ll die if you try to prevent electrocution using regular rubber soled shoes, not enough insulation.

It all depends on the voltage iirc. If its high enough, it could arc around (or even through) the rubber soles even if they do insulate (assuming perfect insulation). The higher the voltage, the higher the arc can reach, so thicker soles protect better.
The other possible problem could be imperfections in the rubber soles (can’t believe rubber sole sneakers have perfect insulation)

From a gameplay standpoint, i think that shocker brutes and shocker zeds should be producing a high enough voltage for arcs to happen, so that just rubber soled sneakers, or even rubber boots aren’t enough.
But maybe a full-body rubber suit + rubber gloves + boots could suffice - and this could be an alternative to the dielectric capacitance CBM for skitterbots too.

Coolthulhu · 2014-10-18T15:43:38.000Z

jcd:

But maybe a full-body rubber suit + rubber gloves + boots could suffice - and this could be an alternative to the dielectric capacitance CBM for skitterbots too.

I like this idea.
Ghetto capacitance for those poor survivors who can’t afford the real deal.

Bonevomit · 2014-10-18T18:39:57.000Z

If we were being realistic here the shock you receive from these zombies would at least knock you out, and possibly kill you instantly.

jcd · 2014-10-18T19:37:13.000Z

Bonevomit:

If we were being realistic here the shock you receive from these zombies would at least knock you out, and possibly kill you instantly.

well 10 turn stun ~= death almost always.

i2amroy · 2014-10-18T23:35:32.000Z

Bonevomit:

If we were being realistic here the shock you receive from these zombies would at least knock you out, and possibly kill you instantly.

If we were being totally realistic they wouldn’t even be able to shoot you with the lightning without first creating an ionized pathway to you to prevent it just arcing straight into the ground (and most ways of doing which would probably cause serious damage to you anyways :P).

That said it could probably be a fairly simple check to see if the survivor is wearing rubber boots/gloves for some of this stuff to at least provide some sort of resistance (even if it isn’t total). I’ll look into what it would take to do.