I really, really don’t want this. If we’re building a zombie game that’s actually TENSE, the zombies need to not be a “kill you instantly if i see you” but instead “gonna drown you out from attrition 'cause we don’t need sustenance”
Project Zomboid’s devs gave a really good explanation of this.
Got a link?
I’m not too sure about ‘smart zombies’ either. I would’nt want them all over the place. If the game was about possession ala Doom or a virus like I am Legend, then you could argue for some zombies retaining the muscle memory or instinct to remember how to open doors and swing a crowbar or shoot a pistol.
Mysterious and mindless alien goo? I would’nt mind if the master zombies could open doors or even use weapons, they are uncommon enough and don’t seem to do anything particularly scary right now anyways. Not sure why they’d be different, maybe the goo is competing for control with a cybernetically enhanced mind and the combat reflex programming still works and is trying to be helpful?
Otherwise, NPCs and robots and maybe just always-hostile humans should fill the role of smart zombies. If you were getting ambushed by zombies with LAWs and machineguns every couple blocks it would stop being a zombie genre game and become something else.
OOOH!
That memory CBM!
Have an extremely rare Shocker zombie that has CBMs like blaster arm and flame fingers.
Basically a really rich guy or some poor military dude turned Z.
Mental CBMs help the goo function as a sentient creature
Physical CBMs give a stat boost
Combat CBMs give a deadly edge
Luck to have them not short out
All of them together and you have the makings for a boss.
Kill it give a treasure trove of CBMs and, if a military dude, weapons.
You could put it in a mansion, office tower or bank as an easier boss. AKA rich guy w/o weapons
You could put it in a Military base, checkpoint, or lab as a tougher boss. AKA Uber soldat.
UberSoldat:
Ack mein Got!
I read everything you said, and am absolutely sure y’all talking 'bout muties. Y’know, radiation turned 'em into hideous abominations, or worse. Ghouls in Fallout.
Zombies are undead driven by a sole purpose of clinging only to see living flesh devoured. They can be buffed only by imbuing more necromantia or much more rarely - by an evil deity. I’m positive that this game does not follow that scenario. And thank you for relieving me of magic missiles. 