Water as a zombie obstacle.

[F9minus9]

First off, props to TFP on a great game.

I'm curious though if any thought has been given towards moving water and zombie properties while in the water. Obviously they don't drown, but I feel like water or island based forts/bunkers should get some bonuses from the water surrounding it. Something like zombies in moving water get carried with the current so they can't repeatedly attack the same spot or get carried down stream into a player built water fall or spike trap. They could also do less damage while submerged. I really feel like moving water could help build much more intricate traps and base designs, as of right now it feels like water is actually detrimental to base design in the sense it doesn't give you added protection and you can't see who's attacking you as easily from under the water.

[avadream]

streaming water that can displace zombies would be great !
-current, that protects weakspots
-current as a trap
-even current as immersion factor

great idea !

[ArtemFC]

I agree that Rivers should be able to wash them down river for a spell, while lakes & ponds not so much since they don't have the force of a river. Zombies in general HATE WATER... I have seen only 1 Zombie movie where they crossed a River. It happened because they were morphing into more 'intelligent' Zombies.

[F9minus9]

Cool thanks for your feed back guys, hopefully they address this eventually. I know It's probably not on the top list of priorities. However, I think things like environmental damage and possibly weather in the future would add a lot of dynamics to the game play. Which is my honestly my only complained about the game to this point lack of Traps!

[r.comer13]

Originally posted by c4ifford:

Cool thanks for your feed back guys, hopefully they address this eventually. I know It's probably not on the top list of priorities. However, I think things like environmental damage and possibly weather in the future would add a lot of dynamics to the game play. Which is my honestly my only complained about the game to this point lack of Traps!

I think weather may be planned (not sure :P read so many posts it might just have been someone's suggestion). Depending on how they do it - "running" water (ie, stream currents) may be introduced with (or sometime after) they put electricity and generators in the game. I'm not sure if they plan on just using fuel generators or if there will be other means (hydro, wind, solar) of generating a source of power so water may remain static. Given their general aim of introducing a certain amount of realism to the game, water currents (and waterfalls I'd like to see, even if only for the visual effect) probably will come up - but would only be a "high priority" item if they plan on including a water wheel (or some other form of generating hydro-power)...since I think they're aiming for vehicles in A11 and electricity in either A11 or 12 (though that might also be something I just read without any actual confirmation from the devs).

[F9minus9]

Yea Hydro power was something I hadn't really thought of but would certainly be interesting.

[r.comer13]

Originally posted by c4ifford:

Yea Hydro power was something I hadn't really thought of but would certainly be interesting.

It (and the other renewable energy sources for electricity generation) have come up a lot on the main forum (on their website) and a few subnotes of other threads here :P so I've seen it a lot. And the concept of running water came up in one of those discussions too (since I think I was the one to suggest a water wheel in that one) as a means of powering a generator and/or charging a battery.

Electricity IS coming (just found a post from mad mole on the official forum, which I posted a thread about here with a copy of what he said) but not specifics about when or how it'll be handled yet.

[Groovdog]

Hydro and more applicable usages of water would be cool. Reasons to create canals to channel, use, etc water. Now if we could get clean water sources as well it would add twists. Enough zombie deaths in it and it becomes contaminated? I think back to the lake at top of State of Decay map with all the dead bodies :)

[AgentSmith]

So basically everyone would move from giant impenetrable walls to water slides instead lol. Moving water would be a great addition for a number of reasons. If it were implemented we could use the waterways to travel rather than cars. The problem being that it would be a one way trip but still probably worth it if we can dig our own canals.

[r.comer13]

Originally posted by SoulChaserJ:

So basically everyone would move from giant impenetrable walls to water slides instead lol. Moving water would be a great addition for a number of reasons. If it were implemented we could use the waterways to travel rather than cars. The problem being that it would be a one way trip but still probably worth it if we can dig our own canals.

Well, if they include wind currents (and speed) as well as water currents, then we could use sails to travel against the water flow (albeit so long as wind speed and direction exceeded the water's flow speed - would require variables to wind speed/direction as well as varied current speeds which is all really more complex than a game like this needs) - oars are also a possibility (still slow when traveling against a strong current and TOO strong a current you'd barely be able to hold your position - forward thrust from oars </= to current speed). More likely an outboard motor would be the answer to travelling against water flow, with all of the drawbacks of noise and fuel usage.

[F9minus9]

Originally posted by SoulChaserJ:

So basically everyone would move from giant impenetrable walls to water slides instead lol. Moving water would be a great addition for a number of reasons. If it were implemented we could use the waterways to travel rather than cars. The problem being that it would be a one way trip but still probably worth it if we can dig our own canals.

If you remember alpha 6 or 7 (can't remember) water was impenetrable, so most people built under a lake or put water on the sides of bases. However, that's not what I'm referring to. Water should be a defense not a end all solution for base defense.

[SmellyTerror]

Be easy enough (?) to at least reduce the damage of each attack if the Z is in water...? At least a moat would mean less repairing needed...

PS: I still build my farms on top of stone pillars sunk into a lake or riverbed - just because it looks cool.

[F9minus9]

Honestly that's probably the easiest way to do it, just reduce damage until they can get an environmental system in place.

Originally posted by SmellyTerror:

Be easy enough (?) to at least reduce the damage of each attack if the Z is in water...? At least a moat would mean less repairing needed...

PS: I still build my farms on top of stone pillars sunk into a lake or riverbed - just because it looks cool.

[AgentSmith]

Originally posted by c4ifford:

Originally posted by SoulChaserJ:

So basically everyone would move from giant impenetrable walls to water slides instead lol. Moving water would be a great addition for a number of reasons. If it were implemented we could use the waterways to travel rather than cars. The problem being that it would be a one way trip but still probably worth it if we can dig our own canals.

If you remember alpha 6 or 7 (can't remember) water was impenetrable, so most people built under a lake or put water on the sides of bases. However, that's not what I'm referring to. Water should be a defense not a end all solution for base defense.

In Alpha 6/7 we only had the few lakes in the game and they were only 1/2 block deep anyway. You could dig through them by placing a 3x3 square of any block type and then breaking the middle block. That would allow you to dig under the lake and effectively create an impenetrable base.

[F9minus9]

Yea that's exactly what I was referring to, and to be clear this is not the way it should be again. My only point was that water only really provides cons to defending a base, it should also have some pros =)

Originally posted by SoulChaserJ:

Originally posted by c4ifford:

If you remember alpha 6 or 7 (can't remember) water was impenetrable, so most people built under a lake or put water on the sides of bases. However, that's not what I'm referring to. Water should be a defense not a end all solution for base defense.

In Alpha 6/7 we only had the few lakes in the game and they were only 1/2 block deep anyway. You could dig through them by placing a 3x3 square of any block type and then breaking the middle block. That would allow you to dig under the lake and effectively create an impenetrable base.

[AgentSmith]

Originally posted by c4ifford:

Yea that's exactly what I was referring to, and to be clear this is not the way it should be again. My only point was that water only really provides cons to defending a base, it should also have some pros =)

Right now you can use water as effective base defense. It will just take a while and a lot of effort to create the right scenario. So if you dug a 3(wide) x 5(deep) trench and filled it with water (which would take a long time) and lined the bottom with spikes, zombies would enter the water, sink, and die on the spikes as they attempt to dig out. The only zombie type that could bypass this would be the spider.