Customizable zombie AI? A.K.A. - Your perfect game zombie?

[Maharin]

Probably not going to be a thing for this game but if it were, how would you have the zombies behave?  Like 28 Days Later zombies?  Like early Walking Dead zombies?  Whats the perfect game zombie behavior to you?

 

I'd like to see zombies from The Passage books be an option because that would be... scary.  Or maybe some variation or combination between The Passage and 28 Days/Weeks Later.

[IndustryStandard]

Romero zombies

For how that'd translate for gameplay it'd be quanitity over quality, overwhelming players with sheer numbers and possibly cornering them and surrounding them in buildings. Hordes attracting more zombies/hordes over time if not dealt with. Not psychics that hone in on that 1 block that is weak but smacking at your defenses from every angle until something finally breaks and then they start pouring into the opening.

 

[Lemmers]

19 minutes ago, IndustryStandard said:

Romero zombies

I think about Mardis Gras level in Hitman: Blood Money, a 15 year old game. There's just hundreds of simple AI pedestrians on the level, and something like that for a zombie game would be pretty amazing. They'd have to be dead simple AI to be cheap enough to get on screen, but they're zombies so you don't really need good AI to be believable until they get close to the player, and at that point maybe their actions can get more complex. Bring back the "gore block" but have it get bigger in height with each kill, so a horde throwing themselves at your walls would actually build a ramp of corpses over time to scale your defenses.

[Junuxx]

I think a survival game set in the Warm Bodies universe could be kinda fun and different.

 

 

[Colin248]

personaly i just enjoy it when the zombies behave in a way i can make defenses around them. the way i used to play this game way back in the early alphas was by making a elaborate path for them to follow inside on of the houses, slowing them down with camp fires since we didnt have traps back then. and every night was a horde night. but it lead to some realy fun gameplay of scaving for guns and ammo dureing day and holding them off with our tower defence style situation. 

 

that still happens now. hell just did a horde night and my base layout is working perfectly. however, would be lieing if i said it doesnt get annoying when they start wailing on a wall they are not supposed too. 

 

far as im concerned, they should be taking the path of least ressistance. my metal doors at the front of my base. does it make sense that they know its there and home in on it? no. is it exploitable? sure. but it leads to gameplay where im constantly upping my defences, figureing good ideas to put into play and just how to expand my teams base so we are safe every 7 days. 

[eXSe]

I kinda like 'em dumb. Yes, it's nice that you can exploit their "smartness" and funnel them to your liking, but I miss the tension of not knowing where they'll strike and what aspect of your defences needs to be addressed. So, for me the perfect thing would be sheer dumb numbers.

[Colin248]

14 hours ago, eXSe said:

I kinda like 'em dumb. Yes, it's nice that you can exploit their "smartness" and funnel them to your liking, but I miss the tension of not knowing where they'll strike and what aspect of your defences needs to be addressed. So, for me the perfect thing would be sheer dumb numbers.

i can respect such a idea, but it also gets stressfull when your 5 block wide wall is tunneled through effortlessly and they make a stairwell up to you. one of my best defences was ruined because i made the walls too thick. and because the zombies didnt want to travel round the massive wall. 

 

im fine with new specials being added to mix up the gameplay. the demolisher is, as far as im concerned, a great way to mix up the gameplay. im excited for when the popler joins there ranks. 

[Ramethzer0]

I sometimes mix it up.  I also alter and toggle other details about the game to suit the difficulty of the genre I'm attempting to emulate.

[eXSe]

On 7/4/2021 at 8:04 AM, Colin248 said:

i can respect such a idea, but it also gets stressfull when your 5 block wide wall is tunneled through effortlessly and they make a stairwell up to you. one of my best defences was ruined because i made the walls too thick. and because the zombies didnt want to travel round the massive wall. 

 

im fine with new specials being added to mix up the gameplay. the demolisher is, as far as im concerned, a great way to mix up the gameplay. im excited for when the popler joins there ranks. 

My point exactly. It's supposed to be stressful, it's a game that wants you dead by undead 🙂

[Colin248]

3 hours ago, eXSe said:

My point exactly. It's supposed to be stressful, it's a game that wants you dead by undead 🙂

theres a difference between stressfull and bull@%$#. by that logic, if by day 70 all the zombies began to jump on air, you would be fine for it? 😛 

 

consistency is key. small bases get quickly attacked via there front door. but late game? when your base is expansive? well, you need to keep things in mind. such as, only have 1 layer thick walls. or else they tunnel up to you because of course. also make sure there is a door or else a good portion of the horde wont actuly bother to pathfind to it. 

[eXSe]

4 minutes ago, Colin248 said:

theres a difference between stressfull and bull@%$#. by that logic, if by day 70 all the zombies began to jump on air, you would be fine for it? 😛 

 

consistency is key. small bases get quickly attacked via there front door. but late game? when your base is expansive? well, you need to keep things in mind. such as, only have 1 layer thick walls. or else they tunnel up to you because of course. also make sure there is a door or else a good portion of the horde wont actuly bother to pathfind to it. 

 

No, you misunderstand me. I am for a stressful experience playing the game (I mean, what's the point if you can just wall yourself off and watch your funnel defences do the work while you sip tea and nibble on crumpets), but not for bull@%$# zombies (no demolishers, nor flying Krakens)... i.e. I would want a multitude of plain, braindead undead, that you can't predict and who would overwhelm you by sheer numbers.

 

But hey, that's just me.

[Colin248]

2 hours ago, eXSe said:

 

No, you misunderstand me. I am for a stressful experience playing the game (I mean, what's the point if you can just wall yourself off and watch your funnel defences do the work while you sip tea and nibble on crumpets), but not for bull@%$# zombies (no demolishers, nor flying Krakens)... i.e. I would want a multitude of plain, braindead undead, that you can't predict and who would overwhelm you by sheer numbers.

 

But hey, that's just me.

to give you a fair point, i do like it when they climb on top of each other to scale your battlements. but i wish that was more intended, instead of a by prodect of them focusing a single point of the base. 

[Maharin]

58 minutes ago, Colin248 said:

to give you a fair point, i do like it when they climb on top of each other to scale your battlements. but i wish that was more intended, instead of a by prodect of them focusing a single point of the base. 

 

Could not imagine the processing power needed to make a Borg mentality work.  Having any significant number of zombies aware of each other outside of direct contact would slow things down... considerably.