Variations of the Undead

[stolas]

I feel as though one of the best features of Rogue Survivor is the ability to customize your zombie apocalypse to be how you want it to be.

The rather basic nature of the game allows a lot of potential for variation, and there are many, MANY zombie films and games and comics such out there and many of them feature very different kinds of undead.

So why not allow the player to choose what kinds of zombies populate your personal Hell?

What I was considering is a sort of option or alternately different modes that simply change what sort of undead would be appearing.

The classic Romero Zombie, slow, powerful, and hungry but not too bright...

The speedy, rage virus infected type zombies from 28 days later or Left 4 Dead...

The mutagen type zombie infection like with Resident Evil, this type could come with infected animals not unlike Deon's Genesis mod's dogs.

Or even the blind, scent and hearing focused zombies of High School Of the Dead?

All of these could work, and a list could be made with simple On/Off switches could be used to let the zombies appear in the world, so the player could have a variety platter or a specific kind of zombie outbreak of their choosing.

I personally would love to see a zombie focused on scent and hearing but with poor or nonexistent sight, able to "see" smells across the full screen or across six spaces or so to highlight such an effect. I mean, eyesight could be argued to be the first thing to go on a zombie, what with brain damage and such.

Such a list would probably best also apply to Living beings, maybe it could also feature a frequency setting to determine how many are generated? Just an idea.

Anyway, anybody else like or hate the idea?

[sgtjacob]

I like that idea. I would also like more/another zombie that has useless combat skills but great scent tracking. Currently, rats are the only ones that really fit the bill but they usually stay in the sewers/basements until a zombie master comes along and they rally on it. They also tend to outpace everything else when they pick up a scent and will sometimes go through obstacles that the others can't go through without breaking it, making it lose the rest of the zombies. Zombie masters are somewhat capable of this, but they are actually competent fighters (well, at least Zombie Lords are) and could actually be a threat.

Of course, that would require said zombie to gather others like zombie masters. Maybe some kind of limit on the amount of "followers" can be added (you will not BELIEVE the hordes I can gather in the late game as an unevolved zombie master) so whole armies don't follow these weak little zombies?

[stolas]

Zombies that attract other zombies really well would be nice, an odd idea would be that there could be an evolved form of ZM that sends out much stronger smells over a much larger area but loses it's ability to fight. Alternate evolution paths may also help Zombayz a lot, it would give them a means of changing tactics.

[sgtjacob]

Tree-style evolution for zombies would be pretty cool. I would hope there is some kind of switch that prevents the AI from doing nothing but evolving into the cripplingly overspecialized form that can't defend itself.

[stolas]

You troper! I was also troping at the same time you posted that. Anyway, I think a max limit should work nicely for it, you know, some small code to block that many from being generated, instead replacing it with another type if it would have been generated normally.

[sgtjacob]

Yessir, tropes are good for the soul.

I'm still thinking about what kind of evolutions could be added to the tree. It's surprisingly hard thinking of ones that are decent.

[stolas]

Ideally, I think that while humans can change tactics, zombies tend to have a much more narrow scope of gameplay options at the moment, so different branches would reflect different play styles. One would be a predatory type with much more power than usual, but would need to eat in order to not starve maybe. Like the Tank from Left 4 Dead.
Another could maybe be a more stealth oriented zombie, I have no idea how that would work without basically being Left 4 Dead all over again. Unless you outright made a ghost playable, since the reincarnation seems to imply the player is a ghost anyway.

[sgtjacob]

I could imagine a branch off a fresh zombie where its body suddenly loses a lot of flesh, making it smaller. It would be harder to hit and faster, but it would suffer because it has low health and maybe a weaker scent tracking ability.

[stolas]

That would make a lot of sense to me, kinda like a more capable zombie rat!

[stolas]

Speaking of which, I would love to see the Zombie Rat have some buffs, like maybe it gives a HUGE boost to INF?

[sgtjacob]

Rats are just supposed to be annoying. Like skeletons, but faster. They keep you from just waltzing into a basement and finding grenades or freely walking the sewers completely unarmed.