Design of NEW ZOMBIE CLASSES

[Chef C Green]

A couple admins and regulars have been discussing over the past month or so, the incorporation of one or more new zombie classes. Classes like predator, infected, deformed, and poison have all been huge benefits to balancing the game, and also giving players a reason to WANT to be zombie (cus lets face it, otherwise it's rather boring v.v).

Ideas that have come up include:

-Regenerating Zombie: Low health (2-3k), with speeds, knockback, jump similar to predator class. Increasing the jump aspect though to that of infected would be nice though. Reason: Regeneration would allow for going FULL OUT on a cade without worrying "Well I can sacrifice myself on this one, but won't be able to go for another cade". By allowing for fast Regen, we could give zombies another advantage for spots like crouch spots and tubes where having the health AND speed would prove beneficial. Deformed is generally too slow to reach these DEEP crouch spots (monitor on Miniature room and tunnel on Snoopie). This would encourage circulating zombies (ex: Lead a train, get down to low hp, ztele, and get back at the end of the line to keep pushing forward).

-Armor Zombie: Medium Health (5-6k), speed similar to infected, low jump, knockback similar to predator xp class. If there is a way (and I think there's something similar to this on WCS servers), decreasing the chance of a bullet impacting as if it were glancing off the zombies "armor". I think this would help again with crouch spots, but also in escape maps with having speed, but also the CHANCE of either being knocked back (fast zombie) or breaking through humans (deformed if it ever gets close enough). I don't know what increasing the armor on zombies does exactly but this may work too? But we're not looking for another deformed class, more of a "gambling" class that takes a chance.

-Power Zombie: Low Hp (2-3k), low knockback (slightly more than deformed), jump low, speed low. Think of a weightlifter on steroids that just got turned while doing his workout at the gym. This is the zombie for all those who feel they need a little more power to get the job done. Cades that are well constructed can be torn apart, but most require several proficient zombies that coordinate well to do so. This is not always the most effective as zombies A) can't get to the spot in sufficient time to break it, and B) not everyone is "proficient". Looking for increased pushing power to help flip bookshelves over (not alone, but with little help required). The low HP would balance this one out well, causing caders to be vigilant and on guard rather than fapping and laughing at the zombie clusterfucks.

These are just some things I thought were rather valid, and of course the jump, knockback etc. could be changed to whatever the higher-level admins think would work best. By putting in some new zombie classes though, we're encouraging more players to want to be zombie, as well as (hopefully) eliminating some of the unbalance that seems to be occurring (ex: CT's camping crouch spots with powerful paras that require little to no teamwork, balancing cades like those on little town that are just not breakable (lets be honest, you can't break them unless a CT messes up)).
-Chef

P.S. Please post some WELL THOUGHT ideas on other zombie classes that you feel would BENEFIT BALANCED PLAY.

[jaeeh]

I was thinking about a ranged zombie something similar to the smoker but with no or very very little damage,
I don't know if its feasible but something along those lines? - low hp (2k-3k), normal jump, decent knock back, maybe some sort of ranged damage that is limited in range or the ability to blind humans? I don't know just throwing a few ideas, but I did want to see a new zombie class coming up.
I do like the armor zombie idea and the power zombie - a zombie that could break cades now that would be a challenge to all the caders!
& agree with the fact that newer zombie classes will bring more to our server.

[T3h tyrant]

I was thinking about a ranged zombie something similar to the smoker but with no or very very little damage,
I don't know if its feasible but something along those lines? - low hp (2k-3k), normal jump, decent knock back, maybe some sort of ranged damage that is limited in range or the ability to blind humans? I don't know just throwing a few ideas, but I did want to see a new zombie class coming up.
I do like the armor zombie idea and the power zombie - a zombie that could break cades now that would be a challenge to all the caders!
& agree with the fact that newer zombie classes will bring more to our server.

what? long ranged attack? no lol that wouldn't work out at all i could see that being over power and also over used but thats just my opinion.. who knows maybe this idea could be the best zmod idea ever haha

[DJ_MikeyRevile]

If we add a new zombie we should add a flying one!!!!!

I like the idea to add small abilities like the blind, as for ranged zombie, his ranged attack can't result in a human being tagged, rather maybe lob ground aoes that do a very small tick of damage?

[Rosie]

Of all of them, I think the power Zombie would be the most useful. Or any Zombie that could push instead of pull by itself would be good. It is very hard to get someone to stand in front of a cade so you can get on their head to push it over.

[Chef C Green]

maybe some sort of ranged damage that is limited in range or the ability to blind humans?

Agreeing with what Mikey said, the ranged damage would prove overpowering because unlike WCS servers, humans have a fixed amount of hp and if you can do any damage, humans will surely lose. Effects would be a great additive though IMO (blind as you mentioned specifically). Blinding one player for X duration is somewhat WCS-like, but could just be something like an Acid that blinds humans when it hits their eyes. Overall though, this would mean teamwork is MANDATORY to stay alive or you'll be running around your own cade like a chicken with it's head cut off. In addition, this zombie should not be able to push / pull well (if it were, we'd have a mass of "blinding" zombies that could effectively do everything themselves). We want to encourage teamwork, so making this particular type of zombie would require some strict balancing given it's blinding advantage (potentially).

Also, the flying zombie was something that came up in discussion, but how would we really work this out physics wise...? Can't give them no-clip, and turning gravity very low for them would be similar to poison zombie? Would be happy to hear some added suggestions to this idea though if anyone can work out some of these quirks!

[acolyte_to_jippity]

Agreeing with what Mikey said, the ranged damage would prove overpowering because unlike WCS servers, humans have a fixed amount of hp and if you can do any damage, humans will surely lose. Effects would be a great additive though IMO (blind as you mentioned specifically). Blinding one player for X duration is somewhat WCS-like, but could just be something like an Acid that blinds humans when it hits their eyes. Overall though, this would mean teamwork is MANDATORY to stay alive or you'll be running around your own cade like a chicken with it's head cut off. In addition, this zombie should not be able to push / pull well (if it were, we'd have a mass of "blinding" zombies that could effectively do everything themselves). We want to encourage teamwork, so making this particular type of zombie would require some strict balancing given it's blinding advantage (potentially).

Also, the flying zombie was something that came up in discussion, but how would we really work this out physics wise...? Can't give them no-clip, and turning gravity very low for them would be similar to poison zombie? Would be happy to hear some added suggestions to this idea though if anyone can work out some of these quirks!

the ranged...well...i could see it. as long as certain considerations were met. namely, they had only 500 hp, and did not respawn.

flying, fuck no.

'power'? no. not worth it, offer no real benefits.

honestly, there's no real niche that is unfilled in zm. the classes we have are fine.

[DJ_MikeyRevile]

What about the acolyte zombie, 1 hp, slow speed, huge knock back, and dangles in mid air like a pinyata

---------- Post added at 01:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:22 PM ----------

Better yet, what about a kamikaze zombie that blows him self up! Or even better better yet, when you are tagged with a readied made in your hand you hold it as a zombie creating the kamikaze zombie, this way you don't need to be that specific zombie threw the race menu.

[Chef C Green]

honestly, there's no real niche that is unfilled in zm. the classes we have are fine.

While I do think the zombie classes at the moment do cover the typical cades (and granted most maps are rather balanced), I still think there are still certain spots that are not REASONABLY winnable for zombies. Examples include: Cading the front room in zm_citylife_v2, Crouch spot under monitor on zm_miniature_room, Crouch tunnel on zm_snoopie, reaching humans before map is nuked on ze_paradise, etc. The point I'm trying to make is there are maps or parts of maps that are not balanced, so no I don't think every "niche" has been filled in that respect. There is always an area to improve upon, and I feel we should at least postulate some ideas for bettering the server further to make it more challenging for humans. As most of the regulars know, if you evade cadebreakers, noobs, and get a cade you know is good fashioned before zombies spawn; realistically we don't worry about it breaking, we worry about getting the kills in time... I'm tired of KNOWING I'll survive in those instances, I want a challenge...

EDIT: Oh and add the cade with the bookshelf, two vendys, and 3 couches on Zm_Desperadoz (a prime example of where this cade isn't going ANYWHERE when constructed...)

[anex]

How about a zombie that gets additional health for every human it tags. You could add that with the steroids zombie making it a formidable train zombie if said player plays the class right.