Sandbox Phone is on hold too.

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Phone is on hold too.


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Phone is on hold too.

This is the second version of my prowler minigame, Phone is on hold. Nearly every aspect of the original has been improved while managing to retain the simple, mindless fun of the game. Prepare for Phone is on hold too.

Concept​

There are two zombies who must use their prowlers to splatter all of the humans in three minutes. There are many blocks in the arena that inhibit their movement, but as the game progresses, the blocks slowly disappear, making it easier for the prowlers to move about and splatter the humans.

Gametype​

Spoiler

Infection

Scoring

Zombie Traits

Human Traits

Last Man Traits

Map​

The arena is a large circle, which makes it impossible for the humans to become trapped in corners. It is completely enclosed save for the circular hole in the center of the roof, which is for the prowlers to drop into the arena.

All of the action, however, takes place under that roof. You might be wondering just what the arena looks like under there.





The twenty block smalls take up the majority of the arena. And as mentioned earlier, they slowly disappear as the game progresses. This is because they are set to never respawn. When a prowler moves one, its respawn timer is triggered, and in thirty seconds, the block disappears, never to respawn.

This animated GIF demonstrates the blocks disappearing as an average round progresses. The screen shots are taken at thirty second intervals.

Zombies​

As I said before, there are two zombies each round. They are chosen randomly and must use their prowlers to splatter the humans.


Cut-out side view of the zombie spawn set up in reference to the arena. He gets in the
prowler and drops into the map through the hole in the ceiling.

The following images show the zombie spawn and entrance into the arena in an actual game:


The prowler spawn is inescapable. The zombie must enter the arena.


He spawns next to the prowler for easy access.


The zombies then proceed to drop into the arena. It is possible for one of the prowlers to
flip when both zombies enter the arena at the same time though.


The low roof gives the zombies an odd camera angle once they are in the arena itself. The
roof must be low to keep the blocks right side up.



In the original, the humans had waypoints above their heads, but the zombies could only see the humans in front of them. We gave them an enhanced 25 meter radar instead. It doesn't make the game harder for them though; it just allows them to see where the humans are in all directions. The last man still has a waypoint, however.

Earlier in the thread I mentioned that the blocks were to inhibit, and slowly free up the prowlers' movement throughout the arena. The blocks do not prevent the zombies from moving though, they just make it harder for the zombies to splatter the humans when there is a block between them. They also send the prowlers off to the side when they hit a block at an angle, further protecting the humans that may be behind it.

If you don't believe me, take a look at this prowler moving multiple blocks at the same time.



I also said that the blocks make it harder for zombies to splatter the humans behind them. In rare instances, however, humans still get splattered:




The zombies can leave their prowlers and walks around the arena on foot. This is not advised for several reasons. Zombies do no damage; they cannot kill humans in any way other than by splattering them with a prowler or by assassination (quite obviously). Humans can easily evade any walking zombie, however, considering the zombies move at 50% speed to the humans' 75% speed. Because of this, the humans can actually assassinate any zombie walking around. So stay in your prowler!

Download​

Phone is on hold too.

 

Part 2

Teleporters​

Spoiler

As I tested Phone is on hold too., I couldn't figure out what the problem was. Despite all of the improvements, the game just wasn't as fun as the original was. People said it just wasn't fun to play multiple times. I tested many different weapons and equipment, including flame throwers, grav hammers, brute shots, trip mines, and grav lifts, as well as man cannons and timed spawning kill balls, but no matter what I did, the game was just missing some key factor to make it fun. I was considering giving up on the second version, but something made me change my mind and finish the project. Someone suggested I add teleporters to the map.

The teleporters in the original were just to make it harder for humans to be trapped in the corners of the rectangular arena, and I had never considered including them in the new version because I had fixed the problem of players being trapped by taking out the corners. But I had no other options or ideas left.

The minute there were teleporters in the game, even sloppily placed and above the ground, something crazy happened. The game was fun again! So after just one test, I teletapped them under the map. The problem of the game not being fun was solved.

There are four sender nodes on the outer ring of the map. They are teletapped under and are directly in front of the columns. Just walk into a column and you'll be randomly teleported to one of four receiver nodes in the center of the map.


Since there are four receiver nodes, it is almost impossible to block the teleporters.

The teleporter system in action:



Players often dodge prowlers by standing next to one of the four sender nodes and taking the teleporter to the center of the map just as they're about to be splattered, where they are usually safe. Since, the last man is alone and the arena is usually empty by the time there is a last man, taking the teleporters to where there is no cover is often a death sentence.


While it is almost impossible to block all four of the receiver nodes, it is possible to block
the sender nodes. Just put a block on them.

Incendiary Grenades​

Through all of my testing, only one piece of equipment managed to be fair to both the humans and the zombies without being annoying (flares): the firebomb grenade. It does not kill the zombie it hits, considering the zombies are invulnerable and the humans do 0% damage. No, it doesn't kill them, it blinds them.

When the humans had waypoints, the zombies were only half-blinded. While they couldn't see the humans or any of the blocks, they could see the humans' waypoints. This is the other reason the waypoints were removed in favor of giving the zombies radar. It makes the blinding much more effective.

There are four firebomb grenades, each located on the outer edge of the arena halfway between any two sender nodes. They blind any zombie they hit for about three seconds and never respawn.


Earlier in the post you saw how a zombie sees in game. This is how an activated firebomb
grenade looks to a prowler in game. The zombie is blinded completely by it.

Watch out! Incendiary grenades also work on the person who throws them (friendly fire is not on). They usually take away that person's shields (unless the person is already shieldless), which is bad because shields do not recharge. Once you've lost them, you're out until you die. Then you're dead.

Humans​

The humans spawn along the outer edge of the map. This screen shot also shows how the
firebomb grenades and teleporters are situated around the map.

As I've said before, the humans no longer have waypoints over their heads, their shields no longer recharge, and they move at 75% speed. This is not to prevent them from dodging prowlers, however, it is to make it possible for the prowlers to hit them.


The side-step.

The last man standing has several traits that are different from those of regular humans. The most noticeable change to other players is that he turns orange and gets a waypoint. His shield recharge rate becomes 50%, which means that when a human becomes last man, his shields start recharging, but they probably won't recharge after that. He also gains a 25 meter radar compared to the regular humans' 10 meter radar, which makes it easier for him to tell exactly where the prowlers around him are.


By the time there is a last man, the arena is usually empty.

Humans can also stand on the sides of a prowler. They can quickly traverse the map this way, but they are very exposed if the prowlers are working together. It's almost like boarding one of the wraiths in Cat n' Mouse because the other zombie can easily kill you if you do.




Well, that's all of the important information, but I couldn't just leave you with that. I also have some random action shots for your viewing pleasure.

Spoiler

He never saw it coming.


And he thought those blocks would protect him.


I'm hiding.

And yes, the game can support a 16 player party.

Spoiler

If you had any doubts.


Since there were 16 people, and the map can support up to four zombies, I decided to
make it three initial zombies for extra fast and fun rounds.


"OMG RuN!!!!!!!"


Too little too late.


Trapped.

Download​

Phone is on hold too.

Acknowledgements​

I'd like to thank all of my testers, the weapons testers, the testers in the screen shots, the people who gave suggestions that didn't make into the final version, the people who's suggestions made the cut, whoever suggested that I put teleporters in the map again, and Death Toll77 for pushing the map (you know what I mean).

Thank you and enjoy.

 

Yeah. It's too bad about Minigame-Tastic. Maybe you could start a new group. Even if we got all of these cool discussions and such, it still wouldn't feel the same as a new group that the creator of actually moderated and such.

It would be cool if a minigame got featured. Skyline really brought hope back to the minigame world as far as features go, but I'm more of an unknown to a lot of the colors, so it seems unlikely. At least except for Death Toll77.

 

No I did not budget glitch the map. I would not suggest swapping out the prowlers for any other vehicles though. I could understand you wanting to use a different vehicle because you don't like prowlers, and I would be fine with it if that were the only factor, but I didn't just use prowlers because I like them and felt the were underused as vehicles. They are the only vehicles that can effectively move the blocks. You could test it with a few other vehicles, such as hogs, ghosts, or choppers, but none of them moved the blocks well enough for the game to play well for me at least.

No, there are no killballs on the map. If a prowler is AFC, then the game will just go by without him. Too bad for the other prowler.

 

This is getting very annoying. I only use one Photobucket account. I'm careful not to exceed my bandwidth, or even come close to it. There is nothing I can do to prevent other people from viewing my maps, and thus, my pictures.

 

My pictures are back up. Sorry about that.

I removed all pictures from my signatures on these forums to hopefully keep that from happening anymore.