Zombie headshots?

[JRavens]

Does a strike to the head flag a zombie to not revive? If not it probably should… well at least if the blow is a killing blow (which headshots generally are due to a generous multiplier)

[GlyphGryph]

Zombies are perfectly capable of recovering from lethal headshots, unfortunately for our survivors. The goo will plug up and replace whatever it was that ended up damaged.

[JRavens]

So then they’re not actually zombies? At least not in the traditional sense. It’s genrally accepted in zombie fiction that you take aim for the head (just as vampires die from wood stakes or sunlight and werewolves from silver).

[Fniff]

They shamble, they eat human flesh, they moan, they rot. They’re zombies. The headshot thing isn’t the main part.

[GlyphGryph]

Actually, the headshot thing is pretty Romero-specific. Traditionally headshots did little more than slow them down and maybe rob them of their ability to see, smell, and hear, making them pretty harmless.

[Fniff]

In one of the main codifiers of the zombie genre, Reanimator by HP Lovecraft, the resurrected undead could only be taken out by the removal of the spinal column. So, yes, zombies don’t have a unified way of murdering them. Just fire like crazy and see what sticks.

[JRavens]

Hmmm well most CURRENT (last 10 years) zombie sources are very Romero inspired and they feature this weakness. Obviously not EVERY reference has this, but the vast majority do and nearly every single video game that has zombies features this.

Any way I’ll suggest it on the github. If it clashes with the game’s mythology or backstory then yeah I get it not fitting, but otherwise it strikes me as odd that people are resistant to the idea.

Any ways not trying to be dick-ish just offering a suggestion.

[GlyphGryph]

Yeah, most games are pretty heavily Romero inspired nowadays, but not all of them! The zombies in Resident Evil 4, for example, the las Plagas kind, would often get MORE dangerous after you removed their heads! Flood zombies in halo have no weakness to headshots either.

[DWC]

Well, then what exactly makes a Cata zombie drop down and become temporarily inert after savaging it with a crowbar?

Kinda puzzled how this whole goo business works.

[GlyphGryph]

Systemic homeostasis. Or, more specifically:
The goo hijacks existing bodily functions. If they are destroyed, it will “drop”, and attempt to begin repairing - just like it did with the initial revivification, where it grew into the space left by rapidly dying brain cells and took over. I can’t maintain full function until the damage is repaired. So a headshot can certainly down the zombie, since it will have to repair all that brain damage by shoving slime in the holes, but it probably won’t kill it permanently.

Any damage to a core component of the body (brain, spinal chord), or simply enough damage that the slime can’t afford to waste resources moving around and has to jump into full-on repair mode (heavy fire damage, torso shots) is enough to take them out of the action for a while.

Note that in-game right now, headshots actually ARE more effective at taking zombies out, they just don’t finish them off for good.

[kevin.granade]

Which is balanced by the fact that our “headshots” act more like “hitting center of mass” shots than headshots, since there’s an automatic promotion from “hit”->“good git”->“headshot” based on better skill checks. To really sort it out, we need an aiming system.

[TheRealTenman]

Which is balanced by the fact that our “headshots” act more like “hitting center of mass” shots than headshots, since there’s an automatic promotion from “hit”->“good git”->“headshot” based on better skill checks. To really sort it out, we need an aiming system.

Please use something like this:

I would love to blind a spitter with an aimed shot, just to have it spray acid everywhere.
Or paralyze a bear with a groin shot.