Zombie Game Idea

[thegayhare]

Hi Hi all

I'm not sure if this goes here since it's not a discussion of an existing game but the Idea of a game.

And no I never expect anything to come of this but I thought it might be fun to get out

Well anyway I was playing Last Stand which is an interesting zombie shooting flash game when I had an Idea to expand on that and I thought I'd find out what you all think.

See in Last stand the basic premise is you've got a make shift barricade you have to protect from the zombies which only come out at night. So if you survive the night you have to divide the next 12 hours of daylight between searching for survivors, fixing the barricade, or searching for weapons.

I rather liked this but I got to thinking what would it belike if you could guide those forage parties.

The game would be a mix of resource management and fps (or third person shooter), or maybe something similar to Jagged Alliance

So the basic setting
The dead have started to rise and attack the living (and I've got what I think is a pretty cool Idea for what's behind this too) You are near ground zero of the outbreak.  You manage to find a small group of people who've fortified a small building.  Now this is a smallish town maybe a half-hours drive from a major city.

Now These Zombies are really only active during daylight hours.  In fact they seem to seek shelter at night.  And a person doesn't become a zombie if bitten or immediately when they die (that goes back to the zombie explanation) so the game play would move between defending the base during the day and leading search and foraging teams at night.  As you play you find more survivors, the base grows.  Later you have to guide the building of defenses and stockpiling of resources but early on your just one of the little people.

The story line would follow the original group of survivors and conflicts would arise between people in the group, Depending on how you handle these the story could branch off in two or three different paths (as you can see I haven't fully fleshed this out yet).  Locating vehicles will allow you to explore further and further out as well as to carry more supplies, and eventually you'd be able to explore the city

there is allot more I want to post but my brains a bit foggy I'll leave it at this for now and continue in the morning

sorry to be bother

[RJ]

A zombie RTS? That sounds quite interesting. Granted, Urban Dead is somewhat like that in a way, but taking it to a higher level would definitely be something to see.

[King Of Hearts]

yesh, Urban dead was also the first thing that came to mind...

I think Ive played some custom WC maps that has a similar premise, you only got builders and had to relyon placing strategic automated defenses to ride the tide of enemies.

[ITOS]

Definitely sounds intresting but there is the risk of becoming repetitive. You need be able to set NPCs to do the trivial task like gathering food and ammo while the main character goes out and explore.

Also, the setting sound like it would be the same all the time unless you have to move the base or start a new one. It's important that being forced to move is not seen as an inconvenience by the player.

All these things can be solved with a good story that forces the player to go out and explore. I hope you can post the story soon.

[Ryudo Lee]

What would be even more interesting is to play the game from the point of view of different characters from time to time, and eventually all of their parts of the plot intersect.  Kind of how they did back in the day with Blood 2 Nightmares.

[thegayhare]

I've never played Urban dead is it any good?

Oh and Itos I actually had thought about that. 

At first though your just a peon taking orders, later on you'll be able to make command decisions which would involve ordering patrols and foraging parties, I also wanted to include reloading equipment so the npc's will be able to produce your own ammo (you'll specify the percentages of which type say 40% pistol, 30% shotgun, 30% rifle) As you play and explore the small town it'll become safer since I figure the zombies wouldn't flock here.  There will still be attacks but they will be in frequent as D3's wander into the area.

Here is the story line I've worked out
A meteor shower passes close to earth and several large rocks shower down onto the planet, all over the globe.   Now inside of several of these meteors was a hibernating alien life form.  An insect creature I call a Doomfly.  During the aftermath of the natural disaster the flies woke up and found dead bodies to lay their eggs.  The maggot larva of Doomflies are able to reanimate dead tissue, they also secrete a toxin that slows down the decay in a corpse however this chemical is also fairly flammable.  Inside a body the larva have sort of a hive mind governed by how much of the host's brain is still usable. They require a fresh supply of meat to stay alive so the larva sends the zombies off to search for more and more food.  There are three classifications of Zombie with sub classifications in side them as well.

D3s are Eating dead
Basically these zombies have little to no brain function.  Because of there generally poor condition of the bodies they also require 3 to 4 times as many maggots to animate so they also require vast amounts of meat.  These are your basic shambling zombies.

A sub class of these would be Bloats.  These are corpses that sat out in the sun to long there bodies have filled with noxious choking gasses.  Because of the damage to there internal structures not all their meat ids able to be used so that rots as well, causing more gas


D2s or Feral Dead
D2s are better preserved with a more complete brain and an animal cunning.  These dead are faster and more aggressive then D3's, and while d3's may shamble about in hordes by shear luck Ferals hunt in deadly packs. Ferals are also known to use simple tools nothing more complicated then a club mind you.  And they require less meat then a D3.

A subclass of ferals would be animal dead, dogs, cats, deer, zoo animals all can be controlled by the maggots

D1s or Thinking Dead
D1s are the freshest corpses with almost all there brain function intact.  These dead are complex tool users and retain some of the memories they once had while alive.  A number of them can talk, use complicated weapons and operate vehicles.  They also seem to be able to formulate effective strategies and can exert limited control over human D2s.  There is no organizational structure but the D1s seem to work together with a very singular purpose.

The games story would start off with simple survival (at this point you'll only run into D2s or D3s), and then as base grows two factions emerge. One side feels a strict military class system is needed to maintain order, and the other side wanted a more democratic system with an elected council.  The story would follow the conflict between the two until the loser (basically the side you don't choose) is forced out. 

The next section involves you as either a lieutenant or councilor.  As you finish exploring the main town your base starts picking up intermittent radio signals.  The decision is made to start an outpost in the city to in order to find a working radio station so they can find out what the signals are.   You'll lead scouting parties into the city to locate a viable outpost.  Once you find a location you'll decided who and how many to take with you.   Once in the city you go back to foraging for food, ammo, and survivors.  You'll also receive weekly supply caravans from the main base.  In the city survivors are scarcer, and you'll also run into remnants of the other faction and they don't like you much.  As you move threw this section of the game you start running into scattered D1s.  You learn more and more about what's going on.  Once you find a working radio station you make contact with a military unit on the other side of the city.  They talk about allot of stuff organized Zombie squads, Militant humans working for the zombies.

In the final section of the game the caravans suddenly stop and a number of refugees start searching you out.  It seems the D1s learned of the base and an organized troop of zombies attacked and destroyed the base, most of the survivors were captured.  See in the center of the city the D1's have several tower blocks sealed off and they are being farmed. The D1's know they need humans to survive so they are keeping them alive as cattle and slave labor.  Since those who were captured know of the outpost you have to find a new location deeper in the city. Somewhere you can use to raid the strongholds of the D1s and try to free the captured humans

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

UD is fine, but gets boring after you max out your skills.

It plays better in groups, as well, with a lot of meta-gaming.

It's a very simple, web-based interface. You wander around the city of Malton, looting buildings and killing zeds. There are no NPC chars in it, however, and the usual class of folk who like to play zombies (antisocial twits, basically) pretty much make the game difficult for everyone else to enjoy.

Or, at least, that's how I feel about it. :-]

[Boog]

I've always been a fan of clever enemies in zombie games, both in terms of gameplay and storyline. How organized are the zombies for this game? Are you about to run into any D1's with their own base camps? Also, what about rival groups of survivors who see all the shiney shiney supplies you've accumulated and aren't too scrupulous about how they themselves manage to get by? Just spitballing ideas here. It sounds really cool.

[thegayhare]

I've always been a fan of clever enemies in zombie games, both in terms of gameplay and storyline. How organized are the zombies for this game? Are you about to run into any D1's with their own base camps? Also, what about rival groups of survivors who see all the shiney shiney supplies you've accumulated and aren't too scrupulous about how they themselves manage to get by? Just spitballing ideas here. It sounds really cool.

Hmm Well I'd say most of the D1s are united under a common goal mainly survival and continued procriation (I forgot to mention how that happens) but there is individuality among the D1s.  On one front, against the military they are very united  but back in the city they aren't nearly so uniform.   so there could be smallish cattle camps with 4 or 5 humans.  I could also see D1 human hunters using packs of D2s as hunting dogs.

As for human adversaries there are the surviviors of the rival faction, human guards and mercs working for the D1s (work for us and you get to live, and you get the pick of any females we've captured) but yeah I could see mauraders and raiders as a problem.  I could see numbers of small camps and gangs in the city working like that

[Janus Whitefurr]

What would be even more interesting is to play the game from the point of view of different characters from time to time, and eventually all of their parts of the plot intersect.  Kind of how they did back in the day with Blood 2 Nightmares.

Caleb says hello.

[Zedd]

What would be even more interesting is to play the game from the point of view of different characters from time to time, and eventually all of their parts of the plot intersect.  Kind of how they did back in the day with Blood 2 Nightmares.

Caleb says hello.

Its Howdy doody time kiddies..The badman is here......