Blood Horde Progression - Rework

[Bubbeenator]

I had an idea that does not punish new players and still rewards experienced players and groups.

 

As it is now, the Blood Horde is pre-programmed and whether you are playing single player or with a group of friends does not really matter as much as the specific Day 7,14,etc it is.

 

This is supposed to be fun, but it tends to result in new players being destroyed early and often, while experienced and multi-players complain that it is too easy until they grind to a much later time point.

 

First off, understand this premise; when an organization has issues with you, they first send their lackies and if you best those guys, the org sends bigger thugs until eventually you get a visit from The Professional or Seal Team 6 (in other words, the best of the best are sent last).

 

Imagine if the first round of Horde Night consisted of a couple of groups of shambling zombies with no special attacks. As you kill them, replacements come in.

Each new group has 1 special zombie who unlocks the next difficulty level of zombies. If you kill that special (more powerful than the lackies) zombie, he/she yells and the next, more difficult special zombie is called in along with his/her stronger guards.

 

A new player can hide in their base or run around in circles to survive the night, but they will not get the reward that comes from killing special zombies (some special item needed to damage zombie bosses, resist special attacks, or increase skills to their max level, for example).

 

An experienced player or a group can take out a few of the special zombies, collect their special loot and be better prepared for the next horde night.

 

Since single players will not be able to slaughter special zombies at the same rate as a group, the special zombies should also be at certain POIs/dungeons so that they can be hunted outside of horde night. The difference being that on horde night, you get to decide how/where the fight is, unlike when you are attacking a dungeon full of traps and perhaps in an irradiated area.

 

This system rewards everyone for taking risks and fighting the special zombies, while not specifically punishing everyone equally for not being equally equipped/experienced on a specific horde night.

 

Players who want to build the coolest base can still do that. However, if they put lots of traps around, they risk killing the special zombies on horde night and progressing the horde difficulty and risking the destruction of their base.

 

Players who want to go after the Behemoth will want to progress the horde night difficulty in hopes of getting loot that will make it easier to take out a Behemoth (basically acquiring Raid level gear).

 

In order for this to work best, each special zombie should always have a different AI requiring players to react differently to them and not just expect the typical conga line. Special zombies should do something outside of the ordinary, such as the spider jump/climb, an enhanced digger, the cop explosions, the footballer charge, or the screamer who summons more lackies. Basically, what is already in the game, only now it has more significance and less randomness.

 

Feel free to add your own ideas an experiences.