Suggestion: The gems make no sense.

[Big Slim]

Bought the game today and have played a few hours. Nearly uninstalled and refunded, but stuck with it (the initial difficulty is a little rough - might need to be smoothed out for brand new players).

Anyway. Why are the zombies dropping gems? It makes no thematic sense. I get its a critical game mechanic... but why gems? It is quite immersion breaking.

I have a suggestion.

Collect biological/genetic matter instead. Have it represented as DNA helices. Different rarities could be different sizes, hues, colours, shapes etc. As you collect the biological matter, you're sending it to HQ to research upgrades, ie, your current XP system thematically justified.

To explain this, you could have a small drone/backpack that your team leader starts with. It's job is to collect the biological matter and send data to HQ. You could upgrade the drone to have a greater area of collection and be able to process information faster. This would cover pickup radius and XP gain.

Mechanically, this wouldn't change the game at all. But it would make it make more sense. It would also help with immersion in your military themed sci-fi zombie game to not be picking up floating gems.

The helper drone could have some cool gameplay mechanics. It would consolidate the XP mechanics of the game, but could also be its own upgrade path. Maybe arm it? Give it defensive abilities? Heals? Maybe put 1 or 2 slots on it and you can unlock modules to mount on it?

[BigRowdy]

Dude it is a VS type. You know, bullet heaven or wave horde survival type.
I don't know how much effort is put into any of the experience collects in any of them.
I like your idea a lot, but I doubt much effort will be programmed into it. After all, it doesn't make sense to have to run around and collect experience in ANY VS type game. It is just part of the game play.

On the plus side, these devs seem to go above and beyond in this game, so who knows, maybe they will take your idea to heart. That would be cool.

[Big Slim]

Originally posted by BigRowdy:

Dude it is a VS type. You know, bullet heaven or wave horde survival type.
I don't know how much effort is put into any of the experience collects in any of them.
I like your idea a lot, but I doubt much effort will be programmed into it. After all, it doesn't make sense to have to run around and collect experience in ANY VS type game. It is just part of the game play.

On the plus side, these devs seem to go above and beyond in this game, so who knows, maybe they will take your idea to heart. That would be cool.

No no, I understand the mechanics - I'm simply suggesting a visual change. The gems represent experience you pickup from killing zombies. I'm simply suggesting you change the visual representation of that experience from gems to helices and call it "genetic material" or "biological matter" etc.

From there, my idea was simply to build the game's narrative around the idea of your team killing zombies and collecting the "biological matter" to research upgrades.

Essentially, its purely a visual change. The gems seem out of place in a military zombie game.

[null]

Originally posted by Big Slim:

Originally posted by BigRowdy:

Dude it is a VS type. You know, bullet heaven or wave horde survival type.
I don't know how much effort is put into any of the experience collects in any of them.
I like your idea a lot, but I doubt much effort will be programmed into it. After all, it doesn't make sense to have to run around and collect experience in ANY VS type game. It is just part of the game play.

On the plus side, these devs seem to go above and beyond in this game, so who knows, maybe they will take your idea to heart. That would be cool.

No no, I understand the mechanics - I'm simply suggesting a visual change. The gems represent experience you pickup from killing zombies. I'm simply suggesting you change the visual representation of that experience from gems to helices and call it "genetic material" or "biological matter" etc.

From there, my idea was simply to build the game's narrative around the idea of your team killing zombies and collecting the "biological matter" to research upgrades.

Essentially, its purely a visual change. The gems seem out of place in a military zombie game.

I disagree, there is a sense of humor in that game, it is clear to me. Gems are funny to me and easy to identify in a screen full of zombies and explosion.