Ideas: Enemies

[NoxSicarius]

Could use some more variability to the game. Some easy additions would probably be just new enemies. Mods do a good job of adding a good bit of them, but the base game could easily see some extra engagement with just adding something like babies, kids, teens. It's kind of disappointing to walk into a daycare and just see the regular ones. Kind of odd that only adults are around the entire world.

Enemy models to add:
babies using same code as the half body white things, maybe add a creepy cry
kids using the regular zombie code except maybe add a creepy laugh
teens, just a new model using regular zombie code

More involved work:
maybe consider a few mutant models derived from the regular with a small chance to replace them in the spawns. Like the radiation versions, but something different. Anything you can come up with in general like on fire (burns player when close), diseased (higher infection rate), just something that can add more variability. A number of mods do this like adding demons so it can't be too extensive of work. hardest part is probably the models

[MoistGamer]

They are not adding bebes to the game and the bebe converation has been had too many times. Why no bebes? Because, its a stance they take on the matter and that's that I reckon. Even as a teen playing Max Payne 64 I found the display of a deceased infant distasteful. Pixelated or otherwise. I must agree with TFP in this regard.

Plenty of other stuff they can do to re-introduce some fright into this game without the bebes. I'm all for more mutated types and other variables like you mentioned.

[NHLreturns]

people are too woke these days, good luck with that idea man

you gotta add monsters, that'll be okay so people don't have their feelings hurt

[Tahnval]

Bigger zombies ate the smaller zombies.

Few games include children and especially not as enemies. It's not worth the bad publicity, no matter how unrealistic it is to have an entire world with only adults.

More types of zombies is another performance issue. It would also involve more work for balance, which would involve more work in the future when more things are changed again and thus balance changes again.

Random example from a mod I'm currently playing - Preppocalypse. Morning on day 1, just outside the first trader, I encountered one of the new types of zombies in that mod. Much tougher than a radiated zombie in the base game. Does much more damage than a radiated zombie in the base game. Has an always on radiation AoE attack.

[NoxSicarius]

Odd to think about some kind of fallout from adding something to a game with decayed and half missing dead people eating the living player who also blows off their legs and heads. Besides, it usually makes people want to play something more these days when people talk bad about it.

Balancing isn't that hard. I've balanced games and if board games can do it, a constantly updateable video game can. The most common way is to construct a formula to deal with the levels. I usually used a percentile multiplier based on the progress of a player. Just like the game already does with biome/level/day/poi level. You could make mutated versions spawn only at a level of 60+ or whatever they want and their damage can easily be scaled if they have a standardized formula like they should.

[algame]

Dead Space had demon zombie babies, don't remember that being such a big deal, y'all need to calm down...

[Underscorecow]

Deadspace is a hand crafted horror game that puts the player in tense situations / scenarios and is meant to be dreadful and serious.

7 Days To Die while having dreadful undertones in the sound track and ambiance, especially at night, is not meant to fully embody that atmosphere 24/7. Otherwise traders would be much less uplifting or comically rude.

7 Days To Die wants you to care more about the long term horrors of having to deal with a horde every 7 Hours, and while many POIs are crafted for eventful action, nothing in the game is meant to be dark outside of the concept of zombies being used for the gameplay loop of a horde crafting survival game.


If we are going to have more enemies they should provide something mechanically unique to the table either on horde night or when out scavenging.


We could look to cataclysm dark days ahead for ideas, blind zombies that have heightened hearing, intelligent zombies that stalk you and try to flank you, maybe even a zombie "merger" that cuts down on the zombie count by merging with other zombies to gain their stats and add it to a mess conjoined zombies trying to get you acting as a single entity.

[xycotta]

We need zombies that perform:

1) ambushes(such as hide in the tops of trees)
2 ) can scale walls and hang from ceilings
3) burrow tunnels


There needs to be a rarer tier of smarter zombies (can easily be argued they are humans that were partially resistant to the virus) that have less chance of infecting you but are able to avoid traps but can wield basic weapons.

Then we can get into more mutated zombies and wildlife.

[william_es]

Originally posted by xycotta:

We need zombies that perform:

2 ) can scale walls and hang from ceilings

Older versions of the game had zombies that climbed walls. They were removed. They couldn't climb past overhangs, so a ring of blocks around your second floor made your base proof against those. After you figured that out, they were a trivial threat. The model still exists in the game. The zombies with the black t-shirt and really long arms used to be the wall crawlers.

Originally posted by xycotta:

3) burrow tunnels

Also was in older versions of the game. Zombie could dig under your base like giant moles. They'd run around continuously undermining your base until it LITERALLY fell into a sinkhole and was completely destroyed. Once the undermining started there was no fix for it.

[Sunderbraze]

Originally posted by algame:

Dead Space had demon zombie babies, don't remember that being such a big deal, y'all need to calm down...

Sons of the Forest has mutant (pretty much zombie) infants as well, and they're some of the most irritating enemies to deal with, specifically *because* of their tiny size.

Not that Endnight are particularly laudable as bastions of good game design, they have a completely different set of problems from TFP, but at least taking dumb moral stances doesn't appear to be one of them.

[NHLreturns]

Originally posted by Underscorecow:

intelligent zombies that stalk you and try to flank you

i just thought that was funny... like that cartoon scene in shows that show the humans making a game plan and just cuts to the zombies making the game plan too for the 7th or whatever lmao

its like the urkahai in lord of the rings or something

although its cool ideas the concept of just add more variations of mutants and monsters would kinda make the game less of a zombie but more of a true epic "fallout" game or whatever, where the creators have unlimited freedom to design, hirojima style

[Teratus]

Viral infections take time to incubate.

Transforming into a zombie wouldn't be a quick process, so that's one reason why many zombies are usually seen with bite marks and severe wounds.

Before they turned they were partially eaten so it makes sense that anyone who was a victim of a large group of zombies would likely be either completely consumed or their corpse would left in such a state that there wouldn't be anything really left for the virus to reanimate.

As for kids and babies.. well it makes sense for their smaller bodies to suffer significantly more damage from zombies so.. they're significantly more likely to be completely consumed or damaged beyond the means of reanimation.

So there is a logical sense to it though ultimately there would still probably be a lot of younger zombies out there from a statistics standpoint.

But I get why the Devs don't want to add that sort of thing to the game.
Though personally I do find it kinda funny that they would made a game like this.. but feel like kid zombies is crossing a line.

Personally i'm not phased by that sort of thing, all I see is a flesh hungry monster that wants to eat me.. so be it a super tall biker zombie or a kid zombie it's no different.

Dark themes in games are all good with me so far as telling not showing goes you can go as dark as you want.
But I do draw a line when it comes to showing some specific things.

[Pain Weasel]

If there is one thing I'd like to see added to the game, it would be zombies or a type of zombie that can grab you. Enough of the slapping, zombies should grab, bite and drag you down if you can't shake them off.

[The_Pastmaster]

Originally posted by Teratus:

But I get why the Devs don't want to add that sort of thing to the game.
Though personally I do find it kinda funny that they would made a game like this.. but feel like kid zombies is crossing a line.

Plus the game would be banned in multiple countries if they did. It's why Oblivion and Fallout 3 had immortal children.

[Teratus]

Originally posted by The_Pastmaster:

Plus the game would be banned in multiple countries if they did. It's why Oblivion and Fallout 3 had immortal children.

Aye, another factor that is frankly pretty ridiculous..
Wouldn't be surprised if those countries allow worse in other forms of media.
Religious books for example often depict some pretty dark stuff, far worse than child zombies.

[zeus]

Add zombie experiments to labs, hospitals, military POI's and so on. Zombie experiments act like normal Zs but have healing capabilities, they revive at random and come after you again seeking to be put down a second or more times.

More zombified animals, like cats and rats... Make them chase after you. Rats being smaller and harder to hit, they can move through small spaces, crawl on walls and so on, finding completely new ways of getting close to you inside POIs. Cats could be the annoying ones that chase after you nonstop, climbing anything and everything to get to you. Could use more animals, zombified or not, crocodiles in water for example, i was thinking this a few days ago.

Last case scenario, add iconic monsters to the game as random events for everyone to chase after. As if it was a bounty.

Games needs human enemies with their own settlements and having choices to side with one group or another.

Teenager zombies would be a nice addition i think, having them act as extremely agile but weak physically. Since snowflakes don't want infants as Zs, teenagers would be the go to alternative. Teenagers could act as aggressive and dodge attacks at random, while having a scream that spawns additional Zs once.

In all honesty though, they need to change the biomes... i like how they add variety on the enemies but biomes in general seem very lacking. Could use a swamp biome, a mountain biome, island biome and so on.

Along with all of this, fishing should be a skill too. It would justify all those bodies of water that we might see at random, thus far the only reason for water to exist in the game, is to force you to find a bridge to get across or swim across 2 pieces of land, which add literally nothing to the game honestly. I've seen maps with small islands surrounded by water, which is nice to see...