Zombie Apocalypse

[AireTamStorm]

I do like and understand your idea, problem with a game that requires two active teams are

1. Might be hard to find enough players, if there is one team and rest are computer you can play on your own (John Rambo is my hero).

2. One team might be more fun to play = hard to find anyone that wants to play the other and if you convince someone then gameplay for them wont be as fun, but more a suffering.

3. Balance, every action has to have an equal reaction for the other team (not needed in the same degree when dealing with bots)

The two "classes" are definitely not equal. They have different specialties that allow people to mix up their gameplay how they feel like. The Dead play is geared toward team play, and and The Living is geared more towards individual operation. For the lack of teams we could potentially:

-Group all Dead with two other NPC dead, that simply attack anything nearby. So your Dead character would really be two or three Zombies that all do the cuddly, munch-brains flail limbs sorta thing.

And for action-reaction:

-The Living would have something along the lines of a Radio to tell them (via NPC announcer) that the Dead are grouping up somewhere on the map, when casualties occur, and where to find weapons.

-The Dead's "Radio" would be Bloodsense, but unlike the Radio it would only be able to find injured (people not at 100% health). The more people with low health all crammed into an area, the larger the radius your Bloodsense can cover, and the faster you go into Frenzy.

Think about it. The Living aren't all gonna hole up in the mall, use all its resources while doing nothing. People with high health will want to run around collecting weapons and tools. Only the injured will barricade themselves into a room to get time to heal. So if you're injured, you'd better hole up, have weapons and an escape route ready. You're in a building and nearby zombies can sense you. There will be a crowd upon you pretty quickly if you're not careful.

Lone zombies aren't doing nothing while theres no Living in the area either. They're busy eating bodies on the ground and becoming stronger. If you are out in the open all the time you'll likely get attacked from afar (rifle fire) while alone.You and one other The Dead player = 6 Zombies. 6 will waddle across a field while taking sniper fire much better than 3 will. The key is to partner with another player, and then if you run into another set of players, partner with them, doubling your numbers. 12 Zombies hitting a mall entrance barricade is bound to shake the cage.

 

[plopperz]

I could also do it. But I think Dutch_Cap would be best.

 

[ashadocat]

I agree dutch_cap would be good but I don't like it when teams programmers are command. I find that they influence it to a particular style of code and others have no chance to argue it. I also find that it subtracts from there programming time if they have
manage anything.

 

[plopperz]

Well, if you want me to, I'll do it, I've taken some leadership courses, and I have a pretty good understanding of what people can and want to do. It's up to you, if you want to you can.

 

[ashadocat]

I'm willing but it's the communities choice.

 

[C B Felterbush]

Though I would love to spearhead this project I have a tremendous amount on my plate right now.

I need to know how story driven this is going to be. Are you looking for a basic run on plot so it could in theory never end, or something where the is a solid story with climax and end?

I think this style of game would benefit from a few different side stories and a major revolving issue, where towards the higher levels and end of the game you can start to see more and more of the real issue. But give players complete freedom of choice as to whether of not do anything story related.

Any way throw me some ideas and I will work up some scribble to look at and kick around. -CB

 

[JakeK]

I am going to chuck in my opinion. I didn't read the whole thread but anyway;

I am against the MMO & RPG idea. MMO is just too big for such a game and with the amount of people possibly buying a Pandora it wouldn't be worth it. People are scattered all over the world and it just wouldn't work. A RPG Zombie game recks what the whole Zombie Apocalypse idea is all about. It is about getting stuck in the situations which cause panic, fear and excitement. An RPG style would absolutely ruin this game.

Now to how I think it should be done. GTA style, free-roam (of course not go-anywhere-without-loading free-roam). Keep the graphics simple, that early example of the Zombie game looked horrible. Small graphics that are crisp is how I'd like too see it.

Have a base in which you can upgrade by salvaging materials by roaming into the infested surroundings.

Different types of zombies, your typical slow moving zombie, faster ones which cause more panic and maybe some bigger mutated zombie.

Vehicles that are also upgradable.

NPC's that help and follow you.

I always love a story, and constant side-quest kinda stuff can become mundane very fast so I agree with what Felterbush said but still maintain the freedom.

If you'd like maybe I could try and think of some sort of missions and post my ideas.

The whole Zombie Apocalypse idea is fantastic and I have always wanted something like this. My main concern is that you guys focus too much on the graphics and try to make it look all snazzy. Just keep the graphics sharp, detailed and simple (small stuff such looking from the sky ). Focus more on the genre. I like that web 2.0 pixel art thing.

My opinion

If you guys were to make the game just the way I liked it or close to it (I'm not saying you should because of this, this is your game idea) I would very quickly donate money to the whole project because it is a very full on project.

 

[___]

how about hiroe and PlopperZ are taking command of the project together? It's always nice to have a programmer in lead as they know what is possible from a coders perspective. I would like to take part aswell eventhough I am not a programmer. If you have a job for me, like website maintenance or something similar, I'd gladly do that. I would also like to contribute later on by making level graphics of some sort (textures, loading screens, sprites). I don't have experience in 3d modelling though.

@JakeK: I don't get why you don't like the rpg idea. It would stay a shooter! Don't think we're talking turn based combat here! It's just that I think one's character should be able to aquire more abilities over time if we're aiming for an mmo.

 

[JakeK]

The idea will suck as an MMO. The Pandora won't have enough people to utilize the MMO genre properly. The first commercial batch is 3000 and if there is demand for more there will be more, but this just shows us how small the community is expected to be. With an MMO you have to factor in many things. For one you need a large player base to really make use of MMO, you would have too only allow for the MMO feature to be used within one country because of the way internet is. Then of course you have to consider the quality of internet and how far it can reach. Not everyone will have access to internet when they want to play this game. The problem becomes worse because it is on a handheld that will be rare. MMO just doesn't fit this game on this handheld, hell this idea would be greatly welcomed amongst PC gamers.

RPG strips out pure skill in a game. Why should I have too fight 30 zombies in order to be able to shoot my pistol straight? These types of games don't lend themself to an RPG style, how well you do should be decided by how smart you are when it comes to organisation and situational awareness, not by the level of your accuracy or armour.

 

[plopperz]

I've played many MMO's with <50 people. I like that better than having a giant crowded game where it is hard to find anyone and slows down your computer. We could make it seem like there are more people by having a somewhat smaller map. It'd be nice to have a community MMO where we can talk about things that we do on the forum and kill each other at the same time

Again, I agree with you, NO RPG ELEMENTS!!!

 

[JakeK]

But distance can hamper an MMO (because of the amount of people/Pandora's), while you would like the idea of getting together with people from the forum etc it isn't entirely possible. This game would be completely useless to me because I don't have the neccesary tools to play the game. I either need a connection to a PC with internet, invest in a broadbrand-on-the-go device (which doesn't mean I can still access internet as I need to be in a area to recieve it) or in a hotsopt whcih are few and far between in Australia.

I'd still really like the whole upgrade-vehicle/base idea-GTA style.

Oh and not FPS style, while it may seem great it will not look great. Top down view doesn't have this limit.

 

[___]

okay, still I think you guys miss the point of having rpg elements in a game like this. I don't know why you would get the idea that having a skillsystem will make it a non-skill game. You still have to shoot and aim yourself, but maybe the damage done by the weapon used could be a wee bit higher if you become an expert on that particular skill. For example: A priest character would never shoot as good with an automatic rifle as some kind of a soldier/militia/obligatory-hard-ass-type character but if you work hard enough and use the weapon often, maybe it will inflict more damage and the radius in which bullets spray could be reduced by gaining accuracy bonus. Still, you would be shooting and aiming and using the weapon real-time, gta-style. I just don't get what the heck you are on about on that!

I can see your point about the game being an mmo though. I have mentioned that problem before aswell. I think if it was to be made an mmo type game, it should be made available not only on pandora as that would increase the user base a lot. Imagine being able to play on your linux or windows machine with people who are playing on their pandora. Wouldn't be much of a hassle either... but maybe it's better in a limited online multiplayer mode. I don't know but we certainly need to pick one of the two.

So again: If we are talking MMO, we are NOT talking MMORPG! That has never been the plan at all. Nobody is expecting players to go and kill creeps for experience or crap like that: just fire it up, log in with your character and fire away! Yeah...

 

[JakeK]

I can understand certain aspects of an RPG style like as you mentioned accuracy, but it ticks me off that damage can be increased as you use a weapon more.

Why does this game have to be an MMO? I know it'd be nice to use the multiplayer capability but I don't think it would be worth the effort because of the reasons I mentioned above. IMO you would be better of just making a single player game.

Ever since my brother and I saw I Am Legend we have always thought about stuff like building your own base, upgrading your car, roaming throughout the city for materials and not only performing a main story line but side quests that could aide in helping the main story or just for fun. Sounds like a big deal >.<.

And I think you should steer away from a FPS using the Quake engine or whatever. IMO stick with a clear sharp graphics rather than blocky 2d/3d characters.

 

[sindbad]

How about something like Tremulous?

 

[cb88]

well in light it I am legend..... how about this every player starts in a randomly generated city

after playing the game and getting the needed supplies first hand crank radio transceiver then a say a plane helicopter or truck...etc you can listen in on the radio for others that need help

then you could battle your way to the neighboring city and help kill all the zombies in that area creating a "no zombie zone" from that could become the base for further attacks in other players cities or randomly generated cities (could be custom built as well)

I've never had much of a chance to play an MMO but of course that would all change at a wifi hotspot .

JakeK I get where you are coming from with the block #d caracters and all BUT the pandora should render 3D quite crisply at 800x480 in native mode Edit just noticed that you live in Australia no hotspots X.x

why write a 2D game for such a powerful platform if there are allready plenty emulated 2D games out there? especially with the addition of PSX emulation?

i was just thinking wouldn't it be possible to have both a 2D and 3D engine? the slope of the ground could be rendered as gradients in the 2D version. Game interaction is basically just telemetry anyway or perhaps the game could switch to 3D mode when ambushed by zombies?

 

[JakeK]

I am concerned that because of the amount of NPCs that will be on the screen at once in certain situations (it is a zombie game afterall ) that the graphics will be sacrificed to cater for the large amount of NPC's. While a top-down view may not after the kind of immersion that a FP perspective would, top down view could allow for high detail in the player and surrounding terrain/buildings/NPCs. Utilize the large screen and allow for a large area to be shown at one time. This could use up the Pandora's capabilities. This could also mean that more emphasis could be placed on the little things like upgradability and the environment and not on model details.

Maybe the online compomnent could consist of being able to travel to other people's cities (as mentioned in the post above) and join them in doing certain quests or ones only available to be done when others have joined your city such as raiding a large abandoned warehouse where a zombie nest is located for a special material or a bundle of them that is divided amongst all the players.

I have soooo many ideas ><

 

[Prometheus]

Maybe the online compomnent could consist of being able to travel to other people's cities (as mentioned in the post above) and join them in doing certain quests or ones only available to be done when others have joined your city such as raiding a large abandoned warehouse where a zombie nest is located for a special material or a bundle of them that is divided amongst all the players.

Ha. Sort of like Animal Crossing, but with zombies.

 

[ashadocat]

I don't think we have the manpower or the expertise to make a 3d first person mmo. I suggest a simple, story driven single player campaign with the option of having your friends play with you and a server mode where you and your friends try to complete objective based maps. what do you think?

 

[javaJake]

Hiroe, I've been thinking that for a while, but I haven't said anything yet, especially since I'd be biased towards FIFE due to my lack of 3D skills.

But, I think Quake won't fit our needs, mainly because our game is so different. There's more to pointing and shooting, and Quake does nothing but. There's lots of object interaction, chatting, dialogs, etc., that I don't think Quake would provide.

 

[ashadocat]

There is a tremendous amount of things you can do with the quake engine. I know that tremulous has dialog windows that affect your inventory and the ability to build structures. it's also open source so we can steel from them.