I have been playing Cataclysm for 6-7 years. As the years go by, I have realised that zombies and monsters are not my enemies. It is clear that they want to kill me and eat me, although this is just their instinct. They have to eat just like our characters.
Sometimes they are very useful. I do not know how many times I have used zombies or monsters in order to rid of ‘a problem’ like a hostile NPC. Moreover, I often take advantage of the fact that zombies fight with other monsters and wildlife. There were situations when I have used a few giant wasps to clear the whole zombie infested city.
I do not like to kill them when this is unjustified. I was detected and chased during many night raids. During such situations, I like to hide in houses and wait there till it is safe. Sometimes, I had to stay there till next night. It was an eye opener for me. This is difficult and risky, but we can live with zombies as our neighbours.
Sometimes, I feel that roles have reversed. Humans are ‘monsters’ now. Zombies are ‘humans’. This is their world, their cities, towns, villages. Humans are parasites now.
In my humble opinion, players may choose between symbiosis and war. I have chosen the symbiosis.
Hell, I would love to have the possibility of imitating a zombie, and to walk with them. I am aware of a zombie pheromone but it lasts only for a short while.
I am curious if there is any player that thinks the same. That zombies and monsters are not just cannon fodder and something to be killed
Of course, they are not just something to be killed needlessly. They are a precious resource that would be wasted if you just kill them and let their bodies rot away. Any post cataclysm survivor with a keen mind would realize the opportunity that they present.
Although they are not as versatile as normal creatures they can still be turned into very useful products such as fuel, soap, glue or charcoal allowing you to use normal creatures for foodstuffs. They are abundant and even come to you so no need to track or catch them. Truly just killing them and leaving them to rot is just wasteful if you ask me.
I know, this is getting weird, but… No, they don’t want to eat you. They follow an other instinct…
(Based on the lore) They want to… you know… grow in numbers…
While I don’t think that they want to mate with you directly (but maybe I’m wrong about that point - until we know for sure: Stop humping that Zombie!), they probably want to use your body and your power to spread, if possible…
So, in a sense, they want the same as you do: To get you to join them.
On a more serious note: I usually don’t smash the bodies; I turn them into Zlaves and store them in a room. Or (lately) I store their bodies in a locker/furniture until I got the skill/material to create a Zombie slave.
I don’t do that because I want them to carry my stuff or something, I do that because I probably would do something similar in the real world if there would be a Zombie apocalypse: Lock them up in the hope that there would be found an antidot one day.
Of course, there’s no antidot (and I actually spoke up against such an idea to add that to the base game), and those human bodies are probably too damaged to turn them back anyway, but my character does not necessarily know that…
So yeah, I usually also don’t just “kill” Zombies. I keep them around…
Side note I just noticed: Did the Zlaves actually got taken out of the game?! I don’t see the entry in the action menu of the X-Acto/Scalpel anymore …
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. And I guess there’s no replacement… Too bad. But thank you for the confirmation.
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