Hello. I need the communities help with making the most realistic and balanced infection game anyone has ever seen in a while. I am making three versions for three infection levl types (explained later). So far I only have some basic movement settings down. I will be making a template later with the settings based on suggestions. Here are the movement settings. Humans The human body is very versatile and can withstand large amounts of pressure. However, the human body is also very frail and easily broken. These movement settings reflect the human body of an average person most likely to survive an infection, alone or not. Base Speed: 90% Jump Height: 75% Gravity: 150% All humans get a short sprint. Alpha zombies: A slight variation of the common infected, these zombies have slower movement speed than their recent pals, but they run fast enough to catch a human, and they have more power due to their mutations. Base Speed: 100% Jump Height: 110% Gravity: 75% Alphas do not spawn with special abilities. Common infected These are your average, run of the mill zombies. While normally they would be on the same level as humans, they cannot feel any pain or rather anything but anger and hunger. This lack of feeling enables them to run faster, jump higher, and fall farther than the average human, without stopping. However, if you shoot them in the head, it will do the same thing as shooting a human in the head. It will kill them. Base Speed: 110% Jump Height: 110% Gravity: 75% Infected start with unlimited sprint. These are the level types. Holdout Advantage: Neither Object: Survive until overrun or rescued. Map Attributes: Wide open holdout point. No choke-points, many paths for infected. Limited ammo but more ammo is found around the holdout zone. Objective Advantage: Zombies Object: Complete a task(s) in order to get to a safe zone Map Attributes: Switch mechanism to open safe zone. Pathway to the switch. Many areas for zombies to ambush humans. Choices that split up the humans. Linear Advantage: Humans Object: Run through a level to a designated safe area. Map attributes: Scattered Ammo. Zombie vantage points. Choke-points. Almost guaranteed human safety at the end. Here are the three campaigns I am making. They take place in different states of the United States of America for the most part. (Sorry foreigners) Let me know if any of it makes sense or if you think of a more realistic setting. Blood Rain Setting: Michigan # of levels: 5 2 Holdout 3 linear Rescue Vehicle: Commercial Airline Gore Rail Setting: Minnesota # of levels: 4 1 holdout 1 Objective 2 Linear Rescue Vehicle: Train Dead Sea Setting: Texas # of levels: 7 2 Holdout 1 objective 4 linear Rescue Vehicle: Naval Battleship (Turns out, the USN are the good guys) Please remember to leave suggestions concerning gametype settings and map settings. I want to make a game that the community would have fun with. I will be making a template once suggestions and my own ideas start popping up. If you need any assistance, consult the zombie survival guide for more info.
I do have 2 suggestions: 1. If you haven't already, give humans LIMITED ammo, magic ammo belts don't exist in realism and limited ammo also makes power weapons that much more precious. 2. Zombies shouldn't be able to kill a human in one hit, they should have to hit a human 3-5 times before the human goes down, that way humans can start with no shields and slowly lose health left 4 dead style. Health packs can also be scattered around the maps.
I've already made a gametype pretty much exactly like this, with a five map campaign. But, the more infection the better (to be honest, I'm sick of everyone fawning over competitive maps). If you haven't already, take a look at my infection guide which covers both objective and journey maps, plus it has a full section on realism. It's the fourth link in my signature. And as a side note, I don't think I've seen a single other objective map besides my own, so I'm really excited to see what you do with it.
I advise against this. It's deeply annoying for the zombies. Because zombies usually have low health and are easy to kill, and spawn far away from the humans, the gameplay for the zombies ends up being reduced to this: spawn, run run run run run run, find the humans, slash one guy once or twice without killing him, and die. Repeat indefinitely. Be very cautious of tailoring your infection games solely to the human experience. When I play games where being a zombie is boring and you get killed ten times as much as you kill someone, I don't usually want to play it again.
The zombies would have high health also, infection games generally require teamwork for the zombies, thats the point. They're supposed to "overun" the humans, bear in mind the humans would also have limited ammo and as they have to run through the map, the zombies would easily be able to set up ambush points arround every corner. If the map is balanced with the zombies also in mind, this shouldn't be a problem. While I'm posting I thought I would also mention that it might be a good idea to get rid of human motion trackers, again to make it fair for the zombies. You could also remove waypoints for humans so they could easily get lost. But then the zombies won't know where the humans are.
The multiple hits for humans is a necessity in games like this, perhaps with the exception of holdouts. Without the benefit of increased damage resistance, any survivor forces will be nearly immediately neutralized. This provides for a gameplay far too tilted towards the infected. Provided that an infected assassination is an instant kill, this is completely fair. An experienced infected will play the game patiently, waiting for the proper moment to strike to get the assassination (which, provided proper map design, should be no longer than ten seconds with the exception of the holdout). Under unideal circumstances, this player can still use the element of surprise to get one or two hits on humans. However, unskilled players will rush head-on and get gunned down. In infection games (at least journey and objective style), the infected shouldn't always win. It's a poor conception help by many members of this community. Sure, humans shouldn't be tanks, but don't make them so weak that their realistic survival in the first place doesn't make any logical sense.
I'm not saying the infected should always win or anything like that. I'm just saying that balance is important - not just balance of outcome, but balance of enjoyment - and too many times when I've played games where it took 4-5 slashes to kill a human, the game was excessively not-fun for the zombies. This can only really be countered by giving the infected a huge number of avenues of attack, but even then humans will still find places to back into a corner or up against a wall, and just look for that all-important headshot.
Maps for this kind of infection require more thought into abush sites, they require side alleyways, teleporters and rofftops which the zombies will get to first to get the drop on the survivors. This is a realism game and insta-kill zombies doesn't really seem appropriate. If the map design is good balance won't be an issue.