Zombie mutation?

[zach123b]

i didn’t know about the lore for the game, ty

reading it, couldn’t we say the human player has brought out the blob and uses willpower to control it? in that post it says that everyone has the blob in them from the water supply but uses willpower to suppress it and the blob lies dormant until the host dies. what if we take unclean water and make concentrated blob? the blob shouldn’t care as it’s on the molecular level, right? maybe later levels the blob could fight the player for control of the ‘body’. such as cause hallucinations or random infected status on limbs. maybe have dreams/nightmares of the blob’s intentions or the blob talks to you.

more it sounds like the wardens and darkspawn from dragon age

[Azrad]

It could be interesting, but probably better if it’s less an actual zombie and more of the zombie-like traits of cataclysm zombies while being burdened by a still living human body, or something of that sort. Maybe a body that has a bigger blob presence, perhaps in terms of volume, which leads to a more flexible (and unsafe) mutations.

Off the top of my head, some possible mutation ideas:

-acid spit, much like the spitter zombies. Activate and fire; damaging projectile, and easy zombie corpse removal. Catch is that acid coming out of your mouth is painful. Head damage and pain, will cause you to get hungrier per use. Or you activate it, and it’ll give you a very fast metabolism in exchange for firing off acid spit.

-blob body. Getting hit will remove chunks off your body which can release random blobs that are friendly to you. Maybe a lowered defense since parts of you can easily fall off.

In general, stat-losing traits would seem fitting. Like Hulk-like traits will make you dumber, or less dexterous in exchange for a bigger boost in strength. Think prime/extremely strong, with much higher strong and a big drawback on another stat.

[Pthalocy]

I would think mutations considered safe for the blob might not be equally safe for the human body. While the mutations currently implemented are mostly beneficial to both parties, some… disintegration for example. That’s straightup bad. Blob inside you doesn’t have the mass to survive without a host, unlike the larger blob monsters you fight, so it’s in both parties best interests that the human portion stay alive. I always imagined disintigration as the blob in you trying to alter itself in a way that would be beneficial to itself, but detrimental to you. It’s not perfect at adapting to its environment every time either.

Any sort of ‘zombie’ or ‘extreme blob’ mutation branch would likely be very destructive toward the host body imo. I like where Azrad is going. I wouldn’t want you to become ‘zombie faction’. I know somewhere it was stated that populations of blob that have mutated to be sufficiently different may no longer be recognized by past ‘parent’ blobs. You would be like a rogue blob state as far as the larger zombie population is concerned. Lorewise, I wouldn’t label a new branch like this a ‘zombie’ mutation branch, but something to express this blob-human incompatibility.

You know what it’d be like gameplay wise? It’d be like playing a black phyrexian deck in Magic the Gathering. Or Dragon age’s Blood mages. Pay one life, do one damage. Lose two health, draw two cards. Just, …basically, turn your health pool into a power source, at your own risk.

[Azrad]

Just another idea at the top of my head for the blob having a more dominant stake in your body. Like, say, to get those mutations, you have to spend time in a near-death state; like being unhealthy, and having your body parts in the red, and maybe some radiation for good measure. You sleep, and maybe the blob thinks you’re dead and it starts trying to take control. Keyword try; it makes effort, it makes progress, but your body is still alive enough to retain control. You wake up… different.

Or something like that.

Would be also interesting that some of the methods of healing won’t work or be as effective with an altered body.

And yeah. Not being part of a zombie faction is sound. Like a werewolf, kinda; not quite human, not quite wolf, just stuck between two states of beings as an outsider to the two sides in general.

[Pthalocy]

Haha, yeah, I like that. Mix of both groups, member of neither.

I imagined it the other way around, with the blob’s mutations triggered by radiation, and subsequently, stats like your health’s ‘neutral’ point penalized, or body parts don’t heal to max. The tradeoff being you can do horrible things like wreck your torso to vomit doom acid for days, or damage arms as the blob temporarily overclocks muscle growth and hulkifies you briefly.

I have no ideas for how sleep might change, if only that resting up to heal yourself would mean being able to use your abilities more often. My idea might just be so overtly masochistic that your body would be too vulnerable the second you over-extend. Dunno. I’ve been thinking of it like cut-to-win, when maybe ‘if your health is below x amount, these abilities become activate-able’ might be more interesting.

[Azrad]

It could make a fun scenario of sorts. You cross into that threshold of mutation the hard way; you wake up really badly wounded. Somehow those bandages aren’t working as well as they should. You’re aware of there being something in your mind, and deep down you’re just plain hungry.

You start off the mutation in low HP and health, your stats are reduced, particularly in intelligence. You can’t think straight, basically. You look like hell, and can’t communicate properly so NPCs are very wary of you when they see you. Zombies aren’t wary, but you smell human enough that they’ll attack you on sight as usual. If you survive, you slowly gain other mutations in time that help you adapt to your new form, but it’s a far cry from what you were before.

[Pthalocy]

This stat reduction earlier on in the branch would imply the human portion really has to fight/weather what their particular blob is mutating toward, rather than ‘i stick the needle in and get free claws!’

Injecting and drinking mutagen is a lot harsher on the body than it was back when I joined over a year ago, but this proposed ‘branch’ would be a constant fight against this mutation hijacking. Dang, son.

[Azrad]

Perhaps a little. In general, I think this sort of mutation can only be gotten in dire straits, since my idea requires the character to be near dead. A choice made so that he or she won’t be all dead, more or less. On a more optimistic viewpoint, it’d be like getting screwed by the RNG on normal mutagen and simply just rolling with it.

[Pthalocy]

Hahaha, I see. Reminds me of when I used to leave all my digimon pet’s poop on the screen and fed it well otherwise, specifically to make it evolve into the poop-shooting slug guy that nobody likes.

I realize that is a bit off-topic. It’d be interesting in that this would be the only mutation line (besides the mycus) that you’d take a different behavioural course to achieve, rather than different mutagen ingredients. Assuming you’re willfully trying to direct your mutation, that is.

[Azrad]

Yeah, it’s a bit of a shame that the Mycus is the only mutation line that has a unique method of getting it. Would be nice if there were more.

[arzhul]

What about the zombie necromancer?
It’s kind of power would be vastly useful for the survivor, being able to affect other blobs like that.
I like the idea of damaging yourself to make the blob strong but it should also have a degeneration effect.
Your body is dying, the more you progress within this the more your body decays but the better the benefits.
It should be possible to revert parts of the progress back to the point where it is only “Weakening” but you would lose
most of the benefits, perhaps a special purifier?

As to becoming one, I would suggest the act of dying and being revived within seconds, just to kickstart the blob.
It should be a hidden process and one where the risk of dying in the process if you mess it up is quite high.

I think at some point you should be able to camouflage yourself to other zombies with a high sustain cost like
disintegration.

[Belteshazzar]

I like the idea that the option actually would require you to ‘die’… a sort of hidden option to play on. A good probability of just game over, but then perhaps you wake up some time, perhaps even somewhere else, and an awful splitting headache… and something inside you struggles for a moment, then relaxes… there will always be later.

Lowered intelligence, maybe some lost skills (gots dat Dain Bramage) and even a ‘lost time/sleepwalker’ mutation seem fun. Unique Benefits might include being able to sense the presence of blobs and zeds… reduced aggro ranges against the same?

[Azrad]

Whatever the traits are, I think it would be best to learn them as you slowly get used to your new form. Like you start off with some pretty steep disadvantages; bad health, maybe regular vomiting, perhaps vomiting out blobs which may or may not be friendly, lowered stats, increased aggression from NPCs (since you look like hell and probably can’t articulate properly that you’re human(?)) and continued aggression from zombies (maybe some sort of animal sense that tells them that you’re not quite like them, and thus you’re simply just prey).

Over time, it changes. You notice that things don’t hurt like they used to. You regain your strength, but not quite your intelligence. Maybe the increase of stats would be dependent of your stats before changing. Some environmental hazards seem to be less of an inconvenience now. Ditto with weather conditions. There’s something in your brain chemistry affecting how your body interacts, and you’re not quite sure where it’s leading you…

[Azrad]

Just a random idea; dunno if it’s compatible with the ideas I’ve mentioned so far, but here goes.

Once you cross the kinda possibly a zombie mutation, you start losing your other mutations, and a new group of mutations opens up, which kind of mimic the zombies you encounter. Basically another set of thresholds you may access, in exchange of closing off the other threshold mutations. Maybe you can get them by interacting with other zombies (killing them? eating corpses whole? have your blob interact with the zombie blob? I have no idea)

[zach123b]

what if once the human figures out all this is going on they start to figure out how to subjugate the blob and starts to shift to abuse the blobs powers as a post threshold? such as less eating as to use the blob’s power reserves on a different plane (i think that was in the lore) with the increase of power
maybe less/aversion to water and weakness to fire like an old mummy

[Pthalocy]

As for dying and coming back, the intelligence penalties would have to be damn bad. Brain damage starts after like, five minutes without oxygen, assuming you haven’t superchilled the person’s body beforehand like they do for certain surgeries. Like, I don’t know if a recognizable ‘you’ would come back from actually dying, and if you were, wouldn’t the blob reanimate the body and essentially steal the front seat before you can get in it again?

tl;dr Edmund has zero idea where to draw the line in the sand between fiction and scientifically plausible.

I would much prefer the player not actually die. Going comatose and letting your internal blobness pilot for a while might be more doable? You’d need more blob in your system than the average person! Mmm, time for more tainted meat maybe.

[Azrad]

Yeah, like I said before, something like near death. Body parts, specifically the torso and/or the head have to be at the red. Being unhealthy could work, or alternatively being healthy would make sense for the body to fight the blob as it’s trying to take over in the character’s near death state. Having some radiation might work, like some sort of trigger to get the blob and the body mutating. Heck, perhaps even the spiritual state could have some effect - much like how having cannibalism alongside boosts morale more with the trait on, some sort of thing… like the mind being more welcoming through this strange rebirth of sorts, if that makes any sense.

Instead of the blob taking over and the character becoming completely changed, something like your human self, still being alive but near death, resisted the blob’s takeover in your vulnerable state. However, that interaction has somehow merged your consciousness with whatever the blob is. You’re yourself, but not quite, and you’re not quite like all the other zombies either. Some sort of anomaly.

[zach123b]

from what i understand the blob uses the flesh and body of creatures as a shell to conquer the world, instead of changing the world it just eats it. the zombies don’t eat because the blob fuels them from a different plane. the part that keeps the blob from using humans as a shell when alive is that they have willpower and suppress the blob. why cant willpower that suppress it go the other way? deep down we fear the blob from controlling us but i think we should embrace it such as a marloss berry. i believe we can subjugate the blob within ourselves to provide a way to become stronger, strong enough to survive in this vicious world. the way to enlightenment shouldn’t be as easy as drink a supplement 3 times a day. it should come natural such as we evolve with it. i believe we should have a serum, that once applied it awakens our minds to the presence of the blob and allows us the insight into controlling and using the blob to benefit us. there are great risks as the blob may want to control us or allow us to become stronger as the stronger we become the stronger the blob will be once we fall to it, may that be from over confidence or death. you will be fighting for supremacy within your own body against the blob but with willpower we will adapt and overcome.

we can make a mutation that acts like genetically unstable that only targets certain mutations, right?

[i2amroy]

Yeah, it’s a bit of a shame that the Mycus is the only mutation line that has a unique method of getting it. Would be nice if there were more.

While there probably isn’t going to be “mutations” in that sense for the other factions (even the Mycus ones aren’t actually the same in-game lore-wise mechanism for changing your body, since all the other mutations are caused by the blob) we do have at least fairly well-laid down plans for how you could “join” many of the various factions.

[Azrad]

Pretty neat. It’s already quite nice that you could do a number of things with the outpost faction.