Problem: Player zombies, after 'turning' may misbehave and act foolishly, or simply choose not to attack humans and to assist them against the zombies (by blocking them perhaps).

Partial fix suggestion: At the end of the two minute wait, the player falls to the ground, or is locked in position standing, and presented with a menu with two options, to become a zombie or to go into spectator mode and wait til the round is over to respawn as a human. This doesn't provide a motive for the player to attack his/her old friends, but it doesn't force them to become a zombie against their will if they do not wish to (which will cause them to mess around).

It would by no means fix the problem, but it would go a way to giving players freedom of choice in the matter of infection... after all, the victim may die of his wounds and experience braindeath before the infection takes hold of his mind and body, in theory.

As for a motive, losing health as time goes by sounds like it would cause players to rush excessively and feel stressed... not something you want in someone who is being a zombie...

How about you give the motive to the players, instead? The problem is removed if the surviving players are given a motive to shoot the zombie player.. this could be 5x the normal points for killing him, or for something more attractive perhaps the zombie player would only drop his weapons and ammo upon his 'second death'(as a zombie), so the players would have to kill him to take his equipment? (this would make anti-player zombies prime targets, instead of things to be left alive).

If he becomes a zombie alone, after 'abanding his team to avoid putting them at risk' or 'panicking and running away' (to use zombie movie cliches), then he can do whatever the hell he wants without interfering with the gameplay for the others, and do exactly what a zombie would do in that situation... pick up the scent of blood and slowly shamble toward the player again and get shot so they can loot his gear, or wander around aimlessly messing around, meaning nothing to anyone and causing no problems.

Thoughts, Ironoak?

- Jakkar.

I like the idea of them dropping their weapons only after they die as a zombie... that would really work.

*nods* i think so... few things mean more to the average player than another gun.

What is more use to them... another zombie who chooses not to attack them, who they could easily kill with just a few of their valuable rounds, or all the equipment that player has picked up during the round..? 99% of people simply wouldn't even see it as a choice...

Okay, forget my initial suggestions:

Ironoak, please consider the idea that both BoondockSaint and I agree upon, that players should only drop their weapons when they are killed as a zombie.

The fact they are holding ammunition and equipment would make the surviving team members *want* to kill them. The help the player zombie could give his team simply wouldn't be worth as much as the extra equipment they could earn for killing him. No-one would want him alive, if they could loot his gun for killing him.

You'd simply need to lock those weapons, disable them... so that he couldn't pull them out, and is only able to use zombie attacks.

I speak with some pretty good evidence on this, i've been playing Zombie Panic for the last two days, and there is nothing the average player will not do for just one extra little bullet.

- Jakkar.

Haha so true, I've seen many people screw every other player on the human team just go get a few extra shells, or another pistol clip .

That's the nature of the normal human... Also the reason why I host my own servers for almost all games, so that I can remove such people and keep a solid core of people who will both be in character to maintain the atmosphere and work as a team ( i.e. DO AS I SAY! >=D )...

I'm almost certain it won't be nearly so bad in BB though... the atmosphere of a co-operative game is vastly different to that of a competetive game... that's what makes Svencoop so damn fun... There's no stress, no abuse, no whining, no anger, it's just entertainment, humans versus the computer.

All the same, i anticipate having to crack a few people in the head with the butt of my shotgun to stop 'em nickin' mah shells

The problem with player zombies is that they will act to human and be scared to attack ect ect, and as we all know, zombies couldnt care less if they get there brains blown out.

edit: jakkar,what sven servers do you usualy play on?and I take it you play the re maps?

I make the effort to act like my character in most games, for the sake of atmosphere.. but some people will just abuse that and own you then scream 'LOLLERSKATES U R TEH N00B LOL?!111'...

Anyway, someone on a high adrenaline rush, succumbing while standing to a zombie infection might retain some extra intelligence and abilities for a while, so I can imagine a fresh infection might have the intelligence to run away from danger before they sink into the braindead vegetable state of older zombies. As long as players have a good motive to kill their old parnters once they are turned, the problem is pretty much gone.

What's left of it is simply human nature.. the only way to fix that is to play exlusively with people you know and trust, which is always the best way to enjoy games in any case.

Edit: Flyboy, you refer to Svencoop? I don't really play it at the moment, but have followed it and played it excessively for many years. The RE: Awakening maps are wonderful, but get boring when you don't have any sensible team mates... I play any old map in Sven.. atleast 60% have zombies so it's all good xD

Urgh that reminded me of Gonomes.. those things just scare the hell out of me. Almost as scary as Icthysaurs.

Well i atleast dont think that you have to have a motive for killing Zombies!, what could be more fun?
I still believe in the idea of hunger. Isnt it supposed to feel as if the enemy is really after you, stressing? You dont really have to lose 10hp/sec... but about maybe 1hp/sec and then there could be some bodies or something lying around waiting to be eaten...
And the idea about zombies dropping the items of their former selves sound great! But hush now, they will maybe want to implement further functions to the beta thus delaying it...

Has anyone thought of the option for a suicide button, you know, hit a key and you put a gun to your own head, because you never know if you're going to have time to run into someone and have them kill you. I know it'd probably be easier to just type /kill in the console but this might add an interesting dynamic to the gameplay.

A suicide button with accompanying 'gun-in-the-mouth' animation has occured to me, but I keep all the more advanced suggestions in my head, and just voice those that I think would be both very effective for the gameplay and not too hard to implement.

Anyone pressed K in postal2?
I REGRET NOTHING!!
*pulls the pin and puts the grenade into his mouth*

QUOTE (Greyfox @ Nov 4 2004, 11:00 AM)

Anyone pressed K in postal2? I REGRET NOTHING!! *pulls the pin and puts the grenade into his mouth*

nice idea to put nade in mouth, because then the zombie doesnt get a point for killing but then he that blowed his head off will become zombie

EDIT: Greyfox where did you get that funny stormtrooper from? rofl

In the original postal he shot himself in the chin and removed his head in a spray of blood

No need for anything so dramatic, i think perhaps you should cut your throat with a penknife or something to explain why everyone would do the same thing (everyone could have a penknife with them as a basic pocket tool, in theory, eliminating the need to make a suicide animation for every single weapon)

Anyway, i'd rather the suicide button was ignored for now in favour of more important items, we can always just bind a convenient key to 'kill'.. prioritise your stuff, and don't make the teams heads explode with a mountain of suggestions.