Zombies crawling out of the ground

[Arez]

It's one of my favorite bits in a zombie movie, seeing the zombies crawl out of their graves. There is that one POI in the Wasteland where there are zombies sleeping in open graves and it's a great touch, but I would love to see them actually crawl out of the ground. 

 

You can have some kind of animation with their hands coming out, throw in some dirt particles flying around to mask the seams and replace the patch of ground with dirt, so their aren't random holes everywhere. 

 

Zombies mostly spawn out of site, but there are some times where you'll just see them pop into existence. This could be a way to mitigate that while also representing how zombies behave in real life. 

[Syphon583]

45 minutes ago, Arez said:

This could be a way to mitigate that while also representing how zombies behave in real life.

This made me chuckle.

 

Joking aside, I fully support this idea, but it would have to be done smartly. I don't want zombies popping up out of the ground in places where it didn't make sense, like they've been digging through the ground like moles trying to surprise you. However, if they specifically dug themselves out of the ground in cemeteries, that would be pretty cool. There's already evidence to that idea in those types of POIs. Many of the graves have the appearance of being dug out from below seemingly indicating that the bodies once buried there woke up and dug themselves out.

[Arez]

36 minutes ago, Syphon583 said:

I don't want zombies popping up out of the ground in places where it didn't make sense,

I'm thinking more for POIs and stuff like buried supplies missions where you see them spawn out of nowhere. And also they should only dig out of certain materials like sand, dirt and topsoil. 

[4sheetzngeegles]

@Arez

 

I like the thought in general, but specifically here...In this game...On this engine...and at this point in development,
It might take a bit more resources and time than are willing to be invested, at least at this time. If you think of the
way this environment and gameplay, has been cultivated\progressed\developed, "i'm trying to think of the right word" coupled with
the voxlized ruleset, enforced by this unity build.

 

Performance
If it were a hybrid, meaning poly specific structures, with voxelized terrain that were microvoxel or atoms, it could probably
work, gamewise.

 

Availabilty of resources
I did this once before when i first joined the forum, and GuppyCur invited me to the discord. I created graves that were basically
1 by 2 block sleeper volumes, and they would dig out if you came close enough. The problem was the voxel dimension ruleset. No
matter whether there is a full block or a half or quarter, they all take up the same volume. 1m by 1m. The invisble air part is
still solid. But also this was about 5 alphas ago, the animations were not available, median hardware was incapable of handling
it, and the game dev was only it it's adolescent stage as far as direction, and inclusions or additions.

 

Possibilities Now vs then
There is a game that I have played that does what you speak of, and give a good visual example, "Zombie Army Trilogy". It could
possibly be adapted here. It is as you said just an animation and VFX, of rising from the dirt but with out any destruction, and
with a combination of crawler Zombie Steve now the half body crawler to the one block crawlers to standing position it could
maybe work.

 

HMMM, what if?
It could also work on Horde night, a flat or low level interactive volume that recognizes vertical structures, and is centered on
the player or players, would in theory negate the lost/stuck zombies, blocked by structures, and give a visceral visual of the
horde onslaught. Basically a mobile spawning path for even if you are on the run. The things between this proposition and actuality,
are timing here, and valuation from development standpoint. I realized this after watching one of the last A21 interviews with
Madmole, and Richard.

 

To the future
If it doesn't make it to the Vanilla game, You might be able to propose it to the Modding community. Keep a positive outlook,
because, you can bet one or more have looked at or will look at your post and go Hmmmmm, what if. That's how it starts, here. 👍

 

4Sheetz

[doughphunghus]

The Gnamod overhaul mod has this. The zed is a sleeper and underground and gets triggered when you are very close to it. I think it attacks upward, destroying the single level of blocks/dirt/sand/etc above it and then jumps put of the "grave" to get you. These spots are located all

over the ground in open areas (but not too densely populated). Its not exactly "crawling out of the ground" but its the closest ive seen in this game.

[MichaelL.]

You can do something like this already in prefabs - just takes a bit of work.   Here's a little tutorial I did a while back...    

 

 

 

[MichaelL.]

 

 

[Arez]

4 hours ago, MichaelL. said:

 

 

@%$#, that's basically it! I think I'd be 100% satisfied if this was in the regular game. 

 

If this is that easy to do, with default world building abilities and such, why hasn't this been part of the game?  

 

It's like biscuits and gravy without the gravy.

 

Get it? Grave-y. Sorry, that just popped in there. 

[Arez]

On 10/28/2023 at 8:08 PM, MichaelL. said:

 

 

Hmm. I keep thinking about this. Is there no way that this could be implemented in the game in general...outside of a prefab?

[zztong]

Sleepers are a block. They get placed when their zombie volume gets activated.

 

I think it would be cool if there were sleepers that looked like other objects, from which the sleeper would emerge. A couple of us were talking on Discord today that it would be cool if a zombie could emerge from a closed casket. I think a zombie emerging from dirt would be cool. Right now we build armoires around sleepers, but we could have a armoire from which a sleeper emerged that didn't require surrounding the sleeper. You could maybe have a sleeper get out of a car, or pile out of the military truck.

[Arez]

36 minutes ago, zztong said:

You could maybe have a sleeper get out of a car, or pile out of the military truck.

I love everything you're saying.

37 minutes ago, zztong said:

I think it would be cool if there were sleepers that looked like other objects, from which the sleeper would emerge.

So the sleeper would come out of another sleeper?

[Adam the Waster]

I would love this 

 

Like there could be some cool story telling stuff and hell maybe even a zombie that tunnels underground! (Just move underground to not be attack. Basically swim in the earth)

[zztong]

13 hours ago, Arez said:

So the sleeper would come out of another sleeper?

 

With a normal sleeper, you see them standing there. When they awaken they become active and you see their animations.

 

With a "casket sleeper", I think you'd see a casket. When the sleeper awakened (like normal or if the casket took damage), the game would replace the casket with an open casket and place an active sleeper appropriate for the volume.

 

Backing up a little, when the game decides to populate a zombie volume, it selects which sleepers to place. If some of the possible sleepers are "casket sleepers", then if they get selected the casket would appear closed because it is full of a sleeper. If the "casket sleeper" wasn't selected, the game could choose between an open casket or a closed but empty casket.

[Riamus]

16 hours ago, zztong said:

You could maybe have a sleeper get out of a car, or pile out of the military truck.

Ok, now I want clown zombies so they can pile out of a clown car!