I'v thought about making a game quite similar to braindead in the past and also thought it would be great if the bitten players turned into zombies. However I couldn't think of a logical way to make sure these players that are now zombies act like zombies.

Basically what would stop them from attacking the AI zombies? Or if they are unable to currently attack other zombies what about blocking them or finding other means to give the still living players a advantage.

The only reasonable thing I could come up with is a "need to eat" where if the zombie player does not kill a player or feed on a fresh corpse it will die. However this would go extemely bad for a player who died a long ways from the other players and never giving him a chance as a zombie. Unless of course you programmed AI civilan survivors to feed on as well... but that could just be used as a temp way to help the humans.

So how do you guys plan to deal with this?

And what about the fact that people know exactly when they're going to turn into a zombie? If you ask me, I won't be able to resist the temptation to get closer to my human player mates when the transformation meter goes down.
I thought that a good solution to this would be that there would be a little transformation animation or something so that people don't turn into zombies in a blink of an eye. BUT this will offer a too great advance to non-zombie players because they can start shooting the transforming player. I think that the best solution is that the zombies have the advance. Just wanted to bring this question up.

There is a XP system which gives in-game rewards to players that play "constructive" (frag enemies). I don't know if there is a XP penalty for teamkilling, though.
Blocking passages as a zombie won't be really effective, because they most likely spawn at several locations. Also note that on public there's almost always a player who will simply frag for score even if you try to help him by disrupting his enemies.
The most simple solution is still (and will always be) an admin.

I really like the idea by xp penalty or even lvl penalty when teamkilling.

QUOTE (lillbrorsan @ Oct 31 2004, 10:07 AM)

I really like the idea by xp penalty or even lvl penalty when teamkilling.

I'd prefer friendly fire to be "off" by default... (but if it's "on" a xp penalty would do well )

Well you make a good point with the XP thing. However it seems to me that alot of possible flaw questions have been left unanswered or not even asked.

Even if people do not abuse the being a zombie by blocking others. Could they attack and hurt others? (or atleast the AI) Because if the zombies are more of a AI and not a Bot that counts as a player you may find some player zombies getting mad and chopping your enemys down like trees.

Also what about the human players with the marines? Could they kill the marines in a area where they are greatly needed and ruin the game by causing the tastey errmm i mean horrific deaths by the zombies? I assume the marines serve a purpose and are proably in heavy zombie populated areas (if thier not then theres not much point in having them around)

As well as normal player blocking which caused a large problem in the older versions of sven coop. would it be possible for a player to block the rest of the players from where they need to go. and if the zombies do respawn as said before would that eventully kill your team?

Im a bit short in time so I just answer a small question
There will be many ways to get to a point so blocking won't be such a big problem. beside that there are not so many small passages where a single player could block the team.

QUOTE

I'd prefer friendly fire to be "off" by default

It is.

About attacking the AI: I assume that it'll be handled like in Half-Life. If you cause too much damage to a friendly NPC, than it (and it's faction) will turn hostile on you. Also I don't think that marines are so important to player survival, they might even cause some nasty colleteral damage. Zombies on the other hand are most likely going to come in endless supplies, so a single rampage player zombie will have a hard time keeping them from reaching the survivors. So basically you chop one down and the next one is already demanding someones brain.

So there is a meter for when a player will change? I find it very unlikely that a player would know exactly when he would change. If there was no visible meter than it would make it better for the humans. In other words the soon to be changer wouldn't be riding some one's butt hard waiting for a bite.

Also ff being off is good and bad. Humans will just spray every thign that moves or spray a zombie on a human with no regards to the human. Real life doesn't work that way. As a team you try to help each other nto just spray in his or her direction. But if ff is not off then punks may very well tk just for fun.

In either case I think having a meter showing transformation is the main problem, even if there is a short animation for changing I still don't want a cheap person humping me for a mile.

Another thing with FF is It really should be on. I dunno about you guys but if zombies were attacking and biting was the cause of infection I would kill anyone I see who is bitten. Wether they lost thier mind yet or not. I wouldn't spare a best friend... hell not even my own mother in such a case.

So don't expect any different behavior from me in this game.

QUOTE (NuclearShadow @ Nov 1 2004, 11:01 AM)

[...] I would  kill anyone I see who is bitten.  Wether they lost thier mind yet or not.  I wouldn't spare a best friend... hell not even my own mother in such a case. [...]

Hmm... just for the record: I guess when you get killed by friends (or whom else) while you are infected you'll respawn as zombie, right? And what about when you die by friends when you're not infected (because at Zombie Panic you'll respawn as zombie even if you commit suicide - although it's ok there)?

And well, dunno if anyone of you plays "The Trenches" but it's unplayable when FF is on - 'cause either there are dumbasses who like to lurk around in their own base killing every teammate they see - or you get shot in the back by a teammate when you're behind enemy lines...

So I dunno if it will be much fun if you fight with many zombies and then just one guy shots everything from behind including you and you have to respawn as zombie (although I dunno for sure) for nothing.

With friends it might be more interesting to turn FF on - but for public servers it should be off by default and just turned on if an admin is present...