Some advice to new players..

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Feedback, bugs, and suggestions: major updates aren't the end of the world

You may encounter a bug, or something you don't like. What's the best way to handle this?
Complaining on a server? No, the devs don't monitor every server's chat.

Instead, you can post a detailed bug report on these forums for any bugs you encounter, the same with suggestions and any thoughts you may have. Feedback is always a helpful contributor to game development.

It's quite obvious that saying "x feature sucks" without further elaborating on it will not change anything. People aren't mind readers, they have to know why it causes you displeasure. Better yet, saying how it can be improved.

Steam Forum section for reporting bugs and issues:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/17500/discussions/1/

Steam Forum section for ideas and suggestions:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/17500/discussions/5/

Non-Steam Forum for bugs and issues:
https://forum.zombiepanicsource.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=49

Non-Steam Forum for ideas and suggestions:
https://forum.zombiepanicsource.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=50

Is survivor difficult?

ZP:S is extremely punishing for players who prefer to not be cooperative and play on their own. This is a cooperative title, therefore it requires teamwork and coordination. When survivors work together, they tend to win.

Think of it like this:
The more survivors you have together, the quicker zombies die, the more angles you can cover, and you can complete objectives quicker.

The less survivors you have together, the easier each survivor dies, creating more zombies, the harder it is to cover all angles, and it takes longer to complete objectives.

ZP:S also encourages sharing your resources with others who need it. If ammo and weapons were shared equally that means they can kill more zombies for you, resulting in less deaths from being out of ammo.

Don't know where to go? Follow your team! Low on ammo or need a weapon? Use the voice commands. It will tell your team both in chat and on the Game Instructor that you need those.

Is zombie difficult?

You should play on a vanilla server before making a review that playing zombie is too hard. The review average of this game gets skewed by players leaving negative reviews about custom content (cabin outbreak, church siege, lila billy) that the developers have no control over.

I notice that a lot of negative reviews say zombie is difficult or impossible to win as and the survivors are overpowered, but you really have to take into consideration the map you're playing on and who your teammates are.

If you don't know something about a map, then spectating a round is very helpful. You can study the map and what the players are doing. You should ask of course if you don't know something about the game. No one's going to bash you.

Down to the basics, zombie is:

• Selecting ambush spots to get easy kills
  
• Killing stray survivors and small groups rather than large groups
  
• Dodging melee and bullets
  
• Following your teammates

On an unbalanced map, this turns into:

• Walking long distances while getting sniped.
  
• Getting spawnkilled constantly by the entire group of survivors. Linear design promotes survivors to all be grouped together.
  
• Zerg-rushing to get inside a building, usually results in having to die over 10 times.

Let's compare a zombie-sided map, zps_blackout vs. Cabin Outbreak
zps_blackout:

• close quarters
  
• many paths players can choose from
  
• guns are scattered and not in a high amount
  
• zombie spawns have sufficient cover and positioning

zpo_cabin_outbreak:

• the map is wide open
  
• zombies have very limited paths to choose from
  
• guns are available in large volumes as soon as a survivor spawns
  
• zombies spawn out in the open with no cover

You can see the obvious difference in balance.

Notes on a "toxic" community

Also, I see a lot of complaints about a toxic community. Again, it depends on the server you play on. For the most part, the community is relatively chill on vanilla servers. I see a tendency for toxicity on survivor-sided maps. However, it is inevitable that you will encounter a bad apple at some point, but that’s to be expected in a multiplayer game.

How can I handle unruly players?
If the server supports it, you can call a vote mute, vote kick, vote ban, or vote gag. These are handy when admins aren't available.

There are multiple ways to handle someone being annoying on the voice comms:

• In console: voice_enable 0 (this will disable all voice chat)
  
• In the pause menu: click on the player list then click on their name to mute them.
  
• Through voting via console: callvote gag "playername here"

You can also do the same format for other voting commands:

• callvote ban "playername"
  
• callvote kick "playername"
  
• callvote mute "playername"

This is a ten-year-old Source game that is entirely multiplayer.

This is a ten-year-old game. It will not have breathtaking graphics. It's a Source game, not an Unreal Engine 4 game. Don't forget that the team is nonprofit and cannot afford/obtain a license to access the engine. This game was picked up after the original developer team left it behind. The developers do this in their spare time, all nonprofit. There's still a lot of bugs/balance issues that are being worked on.

It's unfair to compare this game to zombie games that are completely different in mechanics and gameplay. I.e. Left 4 Dead. Different games will have different audiences they appeal to. For instance, No More Room in Hell will appeal to players who like PVE against AI zombies. ZPS is PVP, and is entirely multiplayer, depending on the players who play it.

Contagion is not a sequel to ZP:S. The team that works on ZP:S is separate from Contagion's team.

Please keep the discussion civil. Don't post something like "cabin is garbage". That's not the place for this.

What do you think about the overall mindset of new players? How would you help them to get acquainted with the game more instead of forming an ignorant assumption?

[Tabajara]

Very helpful and informative! Pinned.

[Dio]

I saw many new players lately. Many of those had no idea how to play a game like zps, others said zps is ♥♥♥♥ because of 10 minutes of zombie gameplay, and others were interested in actually learning something before judging the game.

I often say "Press F1 or F2" - seems like it's really confusing for new players how to join a team while being in a lobby. Also, they are interested in how to play the game: they usually ask how to drop weapons/ammo, how to pick up items etc.

So, basically, there's an interest in playing zps, so we should encourage them by helping them with everything they need to know.

Even if they don't ask, you should indicate towards them what to do and help them with whatever they have to know.

At least, we, veteran players, might save zps if we're doing it right.

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Yeah, I noticed that many of the players complain about zombie, but not about survivor. The only complaints with survivors was when they played as a zombie. Playing as a survivor is easy since you can just follow everyone if you don't know where to go. As a zombie, you have to know where to go, otherwise the round won't turn out well and this where I can see most of the frustration, especially on maps that are very unfriendly towards new players such as zpo_subway.

[76561198089096318]

Most of them pretty much don't like reading guides, which can contain ridiculously good info.
Tutorial would solve that problem.
(Devs have time till Fall, they SHOULD implement a simple one to show {new} features and how-to's)

Playing zombie is somewhat hard for a new player until you start to take it on competitive path.
It's pretty easy for a Nosgoth player (or any player with experience in MOBA's) to determine best spots/weapons/sets for a game like that. And it's pretty easy to bias the game to your tactic, you just need to accomodate to meta (which, imho, you should know as a player that plays for fun).
And it's pretty hard for a casual player to determine what's good or bad, often making a bad decision(-s) which leads to almost wash-out of his/her team.

Also, knowing the flaws game has increases your overall intelligence, thou I'd like you to not use it's advantage if you're not another troll like me. Just know how to counter some stuff and why it works, even if it's some shi bug.

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Yes, a tutorial level has been suggested and will likely be implemented in the future. This would be great to have. Zombie is largely based on common sense. You don't rush large groups of armed survivors as a single zombie, you don't walk in straight lines towards survivors, etc.

I see most of the frustration at:
A. not being able to kill a survivor
B. not knowing where to go

New players tend to think they're an invincible powerhouse that can rush survivors and kill them all, but zombies are very squishy. When expectations are not met, then assumptions are formed. Expectations from other games are carried over to this game, such as the desire for aim-down-sights or playing as a survivor only.

[76561198089096318]

Originally posted by paxzypa:

1) I see most of the frustration at:
A. not being able to kill a survivor
B. not knowing where to go

2) New players tend to think they're an invincible powerhouse that can rush survivors and kill them all, but zombies are very squishy.
3) When expectations are not met, then assumptions are formed. Expectations from other games are carried over to this game, such as the desire for aim-down-sights or playing as a survivor only.

Maybe this should be in FAQ:
1) a - zombies penalize on hits too because there's always low amount of medpacks on map. It's rage inducing when YOU CAN'T HIT SURVIVOR AT ALL!!!11! Also rage inducing when one zombie hits 146% of time and you can only miss as survivor/zed.
b - this game needs "Loading" images that show up the map's structure. Not necessarily detailed, just to know where to go/what to do

2) Zombies play by the ambushido rush. Anyone who does it from big distance is just another dumb zombie that deserves to die (should be tip?)

3) New feature means new game. ?

[Essyri]

Admittedly the general idea seem to have become that Survivors are the protagonists and if you die as one it's basically counted as a "game over" to the individual player, that becoming zombie is a punishment for failing as survivor as opposed to just being a core game mechanic? Where did this mindset even come from?

There was an official survival guide, they truly should have made a zombie guide alongside with it. It is as if they assumed that playing zombie would just come naturally when it is in reality a bit more difficult in comparison.

If I had a chance to tell a frustrated individual what they ought to do, they should most importantly:
1: Review the control page in options, saves time and energy and you don't have to ask people in game how to do very basic things.
2: Telling the difference between custom and official maps for the best possible experience.
3: Have patience and an open mind.

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But I will say, while zombie is nowhere near as impossible to play as these people would claim, I must concur from a design perspective that it is not the most optimal experience, it could be done better.

Survivors

As of right now Survivors have access to a wide variety of ways to kill zombies, melee, different firearms and explosives. They have the choice whether to bunker down or to move around on their own and hunt zombies but most importantly what makes Survivor so interesting is the TENSION of anticipating zombies attacking you at anytime, anywhere. This tension for survivors is experienced by simply moving around the map.

So whenever you're not having an exciting firefight warding off zombies you will still be occupied with never fully knowing when you're going to get attacked.

Zombies

And then we have the Zombies, their game is to; Look for survivors -> Get close to survivors -> Kill survivors. Players seem to have an issue with the first two of these, why?

First issue: Because unless you know exactly where to go, searching for survivors is at first glance not a very exciting process when you're playing a melee oriented class against an army of glass cannons. Survivors have the tension of anticipating zombie attacks, zombies do not have the tension of anticipating survivors attacking them. As long as they're walking around they're not particularly having a great time, there's nothing to really occupy you apart from swinging your own hands, just wandering around until you stumble across survivors by accident.

Second issue: Survivors will win every single time as long as there's a decent distance between you two, most of the time you will be entirely on your own. You get gunned down, respawn and now you have to walk all the way back to the same place with usually nothing happening inbetween.
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While I would argue that, "Hey, you're getting to go at him again and again and again, maybe trying new ways to attack the survivors, maybe take a new path and see if that works this time.", I would have to at least have understanding that getting gunned down over and over has a big impact on morale, it isn't exactly the most fun experience even if you tolerate it.

Have you heard in most zombie movies that zombies are so devestating because single zombies are weak but their strength is in numbers? Most of the time taking on survivors is seemed to be impossible because it feels like you're doing it on your own. Zombies work the best when bunched together yet.. Zps seems to unintentionally encourage zombies to be spread out which is the leading cause to why stealth and ambush strategies have basically become the norm.

When I see another survivor I will very often stick to him because it's double the firepower and twice as many blindspots are covered. When I see other zombies I immediately, and I'm not joking, go the complete opposite direction. The reason is because it feels that it's more beneficial if zombies spread out and have general map control, survivors are easier to find if zombies are present in more locations.

Zombies just cannot organize themselves as it currently stands, they are a big collective group yet most usually behave like single covert-op individuals. You just feel like one squishy soldier. You never truly know where the rest of your team is. You can look at the scoreboard and see that only a quarter of players are still alive as survivors but infront of you it's just.. you and your claws.

That's why I agree that while zombies are fine and fair, they do not provide the most exciting of gameplay for the common players.

I've proposed long before the idea of really emphasising the equal need for zombies to stick together and organize hordes to alleviate this stealth and ambush meta playstyle, not that there's anything wrong with hiding around corners it is an absolute great part of choosing how you want to take on survivors.

A)
Let zombies see the silhouettes of their teammates through walls, for the whole map or just a certain distance. If you're a horde of the undead, being able to actually see every zombie player could certainly help to gain a better sense of a "threatening presence". You can immediately head towards where there is teammates right when you spawn, you can easier time simultaneous attacks from two angles on camping survivors.

Example concept: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0m7ucyzizrjcp0y/example1.jpg?dl=0

B)
When loud noises happen, specifically explosives or gunfire and it's within hearing range, you would be able to see a very brief freeze frame of the survivors aura for about a second. Only a freeze frame, you wouldn't see the survivor moving. Maybe even the survivors are revealed for the zombie team if someone has them in their line of sight?

Example concept: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1sfbevdj50x6bca/example2.jpg?dl=0
Edited, wrong link.

If zombies get to have these changes made I highly believe it will make playing them seem less dull because you have a sense of immediately getting back into the action alongside with teammates, even if it involves having to walk a long distance.

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Forgive the wall of text, I got carried away.

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Originally posted by Dalyon:

-snip-

Yes, new players do get frustrated quite easily since they don't know where to go and due to their lack of experience, get killed over and over effortlessly.

I really like your suggestions. Being able to see teammates would really help with seeing if they died in the room next to you and whatnot. I believe this game relies on auditory cues rather than visual however.

A lot of the survival maps make it impossible for a normal zombie to win without utillizing hiding spots.

Let's take Asylum for instance. If all survivors camp outside and you're a normal zombie along with a very low amount of teammates, then it's pretty much impossible to win. Survival maps have these overpowered meta spots. You can watch all entrances/angles from one spot, have plenty of distance from the zombies, and clear visibility to shoot them.

I don't like how survival maps force zombies into this "it's game over once survivors camp outside."

Despite how basic playing zombie seems, it definitely has a lot steeper learning curve for players.

Almost every round I play goes like this:
1. pick a viable hiding spot that intersects a common path survivors are guaranteed to take.
2. kill a few people
3. survivors have found guns and are at camp spots by this point
4. kill off lone survivors
5. rush camp spots over and over

As a survivor, I often feel I'm the hunter rather than the hunted.

[Dio]

Dalyon, the only problem I see is how many new players are/will playing/play the game or how many veterans are still playing the game knowing everything in zps?

How can you balance this if you don't take in consider how easy will be for some players to be a zombie?

[Essyri]

Originally posted by paxzypa:

Let's take Asylum for instance. If all survivors camp outside and you're a normal zombie along with a very low amount of teammates, then it's pretty much impossible to win. Survival maps have these overpowered meta spots. You can watch all entrances/angles from one spot, have plenty of distance from the zombies, and clear visibility to shoot them.

I don't like how survival maps force zombies into this "it's game over once survivors camp outside."

Absolutely, certain maps have these kind of bottleneck flaws, it's why we saw a ladder up to the balcony on Cinema to help alleviate really strong positions. I'm all for wanting to give zombies a chance at flanking at every opportunity but this would be a responsibility for the mappers to handle.

Originally posted by paxzypa:

Almost every round I play goes like this:
1. pick a viable hiding spot that intersects a common path survivors are guaranteed to take.
2. kill a few people
3. survivors have found guns and are at camp spots by this point
4. kill off lone survivors
5. rush camp spots over and over

Sounds pretty spot on, but is it an issue though? In my opinion it looks like that's how a round should typically look on average. How would you imagine it should look differently?

Sometimes we do experience rounds where a good carrier takes down a third of the whole team in the first two minutes which dominos into the whole survivor team getting steamrolled, and sometimes the one terrible player gets picked Carrier and survivors will just sit around rolling their thumbs for about ten minutes.

[Essyri]

Originally posted by Rakeem:

Dalyon, the only problem I see is hop many new players are/will playing/play the game or how many veterans are still playing the game knowing everything in zps?

How can you balance this if you don't take in consider how easy will be for some players to be a zombie?

I'm.. sorry I didn't quite understand the wording here. But naturally I do very, very well understand the big issue with game balance because you have a low-skill and high-skill spectrum of any game and whenever you try to make it harder for the high end, the beginners will likely suffer and get scared away.

But with a change like being able to see your own zombie teammates through walls is something I believe will only benefit everyone, from beginner to veteran. Beginners need to get a sense of where to go to get back into the action, veterans need it to easier coordinate grouped attacks on locked down areas.

[Dio]

"veterans need it to easier coordinate grouped attacks on locked down areas."

This is what I meant: will be too easy for veterans to play as zombie, keeping in mind that veterans do still know every map and how to play on every map.

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Originally posted by Dalyon:

Sounds pretty spot on, but is it an issue though? In my opinion it looks like that's how a round should typically look on average. How would you imagine it should look differently?

Sometimes we do experience rounds where a good carrier takes down a third of the whole team in the first two minutes which dominos into the whole survivor team getting steamrolled, and sometimes the one terrible player gets picked Carrier and survivors will just sit around rolling their thumbs for about ten minutes.

Oh, no, it's not an issue for me. I was merely stating that.

The main issue for zombie is that the game is tailored towards players that have to be knowledgeable in a map. There aren't any directions for where new players should go. Now, the tricky part is how we can improve this learning for new players while not harming the overall balance as you two have mentioned.

Objective maps are very simple for new zombies since they're so linear.
Survival maps are not since many of them are maze-like, especially Subway.

I don't think being able to see teammates would be a bad thing. I already rely on communication and sound to coordinate grouped attacks. People instinctively herd up in an area even without any communication.

Going back to what I mentioned:
survivors already have a team they can follow around
zombies don't have a team to follow around in the beginning

[Essyri]

Originally posted by Rakeem:

"veterans need it to easier coordinate grouped attacks on locked down areas."

This is what I meant: will be too easy for veterans to play as zombie, keeping in mind that veterans do still know every map and how to play on every map.

..True, yes, but it is not exactly a proposal of upping the claw damage or faster move speed. We're talking purely information made convenient. I am not ready to believe that giving on-screen information like this to the player would make the zombie team too strong.

Veterans can still be able to coordinate using text or voice chat if they really want to and still achieve the same goal. You see people call out "Lobby" "Big hall" "Outside" "Basement", so what difference would it make? And besides, if I may say so, I think the zombie team -should- be the dangerous faction. If survivors say they feel like the hunters then this addition might be just what the game needs.

The point is just to create a change that helps create unification for the zombies. Survivors are the individuals, zombies are the collective threat.

[Essyri]

Originally posted by paxzypa:

Oh, no, it's not an issue for me. I was merely stating that.

The main issue for zombie is that the game is tailored towards players that have to be knowledgeable in a map. There aren't any directions for where new players should go. Now, the tricky part is how we can improve this learning for new players while not harming the overall balance as you two have mentioned.

Well, a player will eventually learn a map after enough exposure and will start playing it as efficiently as possible like the rest of us, that's just an inevitable part of playing but sure, I agree, it's typically down to how the map itself is designed but there's not much you can do about playing a map for the first time.

Yes, I see now, from a starting zombie perspective? Indeed. As well as how crucial the first minute is for the starting zombie that will determine success or failiure in the long run.