Yeah it does. I'm really not an RTS fan, but I'd play it.Spartan Bannana said:
Anyway, I like the previously mentioned idea of Survivors not being a faction, but instead a sort of resource to replenish numbers.
A Zombie RTS - Some Ideas
- Thread starter MindBullets
- Start date
Anyway, I like the previously mentioned idea of Survivors not being a faction, but instead a sort of resource to replenish numbers.
You could just zerg the Zombies out and give them massive mutated zombies as their "vehicle" units. The fact that they don't get transport vehicles would simply be a negative for playing as them in exchange for having swarms of units.Iron Mal said:
This sounds awesome. Present the idea to someone immediately, I want to play this game A.S.A.P.!
I think the Military should be the most 'defensive' as really their only objective is containment, however why they dont just carpet bomb the whole city?
Zombie spawn from graveyards. Each zombie team starts with one graveyard that periodically spawns more zombies.
Miltiary units spawn from airdrops or whatever, so Military needs a Comms Centre
Survivors spawn from secret tunnels. They start with a secret tunnel.
Randomly NPC characters appear on the map that are VIPs (mayor, scientist, MIA sniper, Engineer, whatever)
Each team has a motivation to capture that person and add their skills to their team (For the military it explains why they aren't carpet bombing the place as well)
Zombies are zerg
Army is Terrans
Survivors are protoss
SURVIVORS
Real focus on individual characters. Low unit pop but no or low doubling up (i.e you can only have one of most units)
I think the survivors should be rarer, but have heaps of special skills as they know the terrain better. They may not have all the hardware of the army but they have the 'Bruce Campbell' factor of just being fucking heroes. A survivor player has to be good at micromanaging units who have lots of skills but aren't necessarily that tough.
So An individual survivor unit 'Jimmy the gas station attendant' Has a special flamethrower ability that can toast like 15 zombies easily but its on a timer. He might have other powers like 'skate or die' where he hops on his deck and skates off super fast.
Most units will be individuals or small groups (The Dirty three... a group of Mariachi's/gunslingers influenced by the film Desperado)
ARMY
Focus on modern military, track wheeled robot scouts, full spec soldiers, tactical attack choppers, laser guidance, cover, long range assaults, protocol etc.
Army has more long range firepower then the Zombies but their units are weaker. An army player values his squads and their synergy. To achieve maximum effectiveness the player has to employee complex tactics
For example a missile strike relies on several factors. The player upgrades his radar facility to enable missile strikes. Each attack takes 30 seconds to mobilize a chopper into the battle area. The chopper will then do a fly over that lasts 5-10 seconds. Army player has to enable laser targeting from one of his ground units on the target. Also if he enables two laser sights from an angle of 90 degrees or greater the damage of the attack is increased by x%
If the player fails to employee laser sighting on the target then the chopper aborts the mission and the timer is reset.
In this way the Army player uses the abilities of his ground squads to support off map and special abilities. A military player plays like a modern military outfit
Military is also bound by some rules of Engagement. Some units may no leave cover if there is too many zombies present, and if a small force of military is vastly outnumbered by scary zombies they may panic and flee to random parts of the map or cower in a corner somewhere.
Also Military cannot engage Survivors without being engaged by them first. This is set to a timer as well. Several units will have close range taser or tear gas attacks that are not bound by these rules and allow the Military player to indirectly influence the game even if the survivor does not engage
ZOMBIE
Zombies players will be rewarded for moving units in mixed packs. In this way it promotes the 'horde of undead' approach that we all want to see. Units might include meatshields, brain eaters, screamers (that increase the fear level), Heavies (good for moving debris to create road blocks, Hurlers, thrall, Nimblers (fast, weak stun units that can jump from building to building scale walls etc).
Zombies have a keen sense of smell, so unit indicators may appear outside of LOS, however these may not specifically stat what units, just that there are units in that vicinity.
Also I think Darkness, mist, fog and rain should all play a big part in the game. Zombie units, as they are primarily low tech, will be the least affected by this.
I could go on....
Zombie spawn from graveyards. Each zombie team starts with one graveyard that periodically spawns more zombies.
Miltiary units spawn from airdrops or whatever, so Military needs a Comms Centre
Survivors spawn from secret tunnels. They start with a secret tunnel.
Randomly NPC characters appear on the map that are VIPs (mayor, scientist, MIA sniper, Engineer, whatever)
Each team has a motivation to capture that person and add their skills to their team (For the military it explains why they aren't carpet bombing the place as well)
Zombies are zerg
Army is Terrans
Survivors are protoss
SURVIVORS
Real focus on individual characters. Low unit pop but no or low doubling up (i.e you can only have one of most units)
I think the survivors should be rarer, but have heaps of special skills as they know the terrain better. They may not have all the hardware of the army but they have the 'Bruce Campbell' factor of just being fucking heroes. A survivor player has to be good at micromanaging units who have lots of skills but aren't necessarily that tough.
So An individual survivor unit 'Jimmy the gas station attendant' Has a special flamethrower ability that can toast like 15 zombies easily but its on a timer. He might have other powers like 'skate or die' where he hops on his deck and skates off super fast.
Most units will be individuals or small groups (The Dirty three... a group of Mariachi's/gunslingers influenced by the film Desperado)
ARMY
Focus on modern military, track wheeled robot scouts, full spec soldiers, tactical attack choppers, laser guidance, cover, long range assaults, protocol etc.
Army has more long range firepower then the Zombies but their units are weaker. An army player values his squads and their synergy. To achieve maximum effectiveness the player has to employee complex tactics
For example a missile strike relies on several factors. The player upgrades his radar facility to enable missile strikes. Each attack takes 30 seconds to mobilize a chopper into the battle area. The chopper will then do a fly over that lasts 5-10 seconds. Army player has to enable laser targeting from one of his ground units on the target. Also if he enables two laser sights from an angle of 90 degrees or greater the damage of the attack is increased by x%
If the player fails to employee laser sighting on the target then the chopper aborts the mission and the timer is reset.
In this way the Army player uses the abilities of his ground squads to support off map and special abilities. A military player plays like a modern military outfit
Military is also bound by some rules of Engagement. Some units may no leave cover if there is too many zombies present, and if a small force of military is vastly outnumbered by scary zombies they may panic and flee to random parts of the map or cower in a corner somewhere.
Also Military cannot engage Survivors without being engaged by them first. This is set to a timer as well. Several units will have close range taser or tear gas attacks that are not bound by these rules and allow the Military player to indirectly influence the game even if the survivor does not engage
ZOMBIE
Zombies players will be rewarded for moving units in mixed packs. In this way it promotes the 'horde of undead' approach that we all want to see. Units might include meatshields, brain eaters, screamers (that increase the fear level), Heavies (good for moving debris to create road blocks, Hurlers, thrall, Nimblers (fast, weak stun units that can jump from building to building scale walls etc).
Zombies have a keen sense of smell, so unit indicators may appear outside of LOS, however these may not specifically stat what units, just that there are units in that vicinity.
Also I think Darkness, mist, fog and rain should all play a big part in the game. Zombie units, as they are primarily low tech, will be the least affected by this.
I could go on....
Heres a idea.. Fast zombies are the basic unit for zombies. While slower more powerful zombies are the next step up, they could rip a building apart and if killed get back up withen 20 seconds unless their disposed of by a unit, and the more units in the squad the faster they are disposed off, but! If a surivor/army headshots them zombie then they die for real.
Building ideas: Pet shops, which give various pets for the zombies. Hospitals, can be used by both. The surivors can get medicine from looting it, or get it up and running if oil is supplied.. Zombies can get ubered from here so that they move faster, more resistant and the like. Basicaly there upgrade building.
Building ideas: Pet shops, which give various pets for the zombies. Hospitals, can be used by both. The surivors can get medicine from looting it, or get it up and running if oil is supplied.. Zombies can get ubered from here so that they move faster, more resistant and the like. Basicaly there upgrade building.
I made a zombie map for Warcraft 3 (original, huh?) that had you trapped in a small, square set of city blocks that was well populated with civilians, and over time one or two became infected, causing them to gradually lose hitpoints. On death, they became a zombie with 33% chance to infect their target with each attack. It worked really well when I added abilities to them that when they spotted a target - player or civilian - they could 'call out' to other nearby zombies, resulting in spontaneous swarms converging on the target's location from all sides. That AI aspect would be a nice addition, resulting in less zombie player micro management to maintain the horde's effectiveness. The infection system, however, meant that with a coordinated team of players the infection could be contained efficiently and eliminated, so frequently random members of the surviving population had to become infected - think airborne, low infection rate spores or some such.
The point there is, unless the zombies have an alternative method of gaining new members, they might find it very hard to survive in the face of massed machine guns or whatever. If the survivors gain people based on the area control, so should the zombies. If there's people still theoretically holed up in there, the zombies are likely to find them, though perhaps less likely than the survivors are.
The point there is, unless the zombies have an alternative method of gaining new members, they might find it very hard to survive in the face of massed machine guns or whatever. If the survivors gain people based on the area control, so should the zombies. If there's people still theoretically holed up in there, the zombies are likely to find them, though perhaps less likely than the survivors are.
The general "idea" of a "zombie RTS" could be factored into the upcoming HALO wars game quite effectively with the flood. Though the flood would allow for a more standard RTS experience with their ability to have spore colonies. Allowing you to have a high charity Esque production plant and having advanced units stemming from captured or killed units, and special units steaming from a Gravemind who would allow the flood to initiate the final stages of development. Granted the developer may have to take a few liberties with the flood to ensure balance and variety but it sounds like something that's more plausible, considering it would already have a fan base.
The good people at lionhead have released very little on halo wars, and while the flood may be in the game they haven't said if their playable, and because of the balance issues may come off as a more zerg like race other than a zombie infection.
but your idea is much better.
The good people at lionhead have released very little on halo wars, and while the flood may be in the game they haven't said if their playable, and because of the balance issues may come off as a more zerg like race other than a zombie infection.
but your idea is much better.
These ideas certainly show that a "zombie apocalypse" themed RTS game would be fun in concept at very least.
Personally, I would hope there would be a bit of a RPG to it, especially for the Survivors. Have them start off weak but the longer they survive the more bad ass heroes they become. Have the army start off strong but have really slow level progression. And no levels for the zombies but rather "evolves" that develop the boss infected.
My thoughts on zombies converting buildings would be that it would turn it into a trap, the place would look 'normal' to others, so that when they go to capture and garrison the end up being ambushed by whatever level of swarm the building would support.
Also, have the Survivors be big on having innovative, improvised weapons and such from being master scavengers/looters/DIY hobbyists.
Personally, I would hope there would be a bit of a RPG to it, especially for the Survivors. Have them start off weak but the longer they survive the more bad ass heroes they become. Have the army start off strong but have really slow level progression. And no levels for the zombies but rather "evolves" that develop the boss infected.
My thoughts on zombies converting buildings would be that it would turn it into a trap, the place would look 'normal' to others, so that when they go to capture and garrison the end up being ambushed by whatever level of swarm the building would support.
Also, have the Survivors be big on having innovative, improvised weapons and such from being master scavengers/looters/DIY hobbyists.
If you're looking as to how an infection would work in game, if you haven't read it yet, I recommend World War Z by Max Brooks. An excellent read and it may help give you some inspiration for other ideas.
I think the three classes should be broken up into tribes-this would deepen the gameplay, as it would mean that different tribes would have to compete for food and territory.
They've said the Flood are there, but that they're definitely not playable.hippo24 said:The general "idea" of a "zombie RTS" could be factored into the upcoming HALO wars game quite effectively with the flood. Though the flood would allow for a more standard RTS experience with their ability to have spore colonies. Allowing you to have a high charity Esque production plant and having advanced units stemming from captured or killed units, and special units steaming from a Gravemind who would allow the flood to initiate the final stages of development. Granted the developer may have to take a few liberties with the flood to ensure balance and variety but it sounds like something that's more plausible, considering it would already have a fan base.
The good people at lionhead have released very little on halo wars, and while the flood may be in the game they haven't said if their playable, and because of the balance issues may come off as a more zerg like race other than a zombie infection.
but your idea is much better.
