Zombie MMO's: Yes or No?
- Thread starter Weasellord21
- Start date
Well the idea we have is six player character races. Human, Ghoul, Werewolf,Vampire, Mutate, and Ghost.
The world is based on pseudo-science and semi-myth, so bear with me.
Mutates are the result of chemical and nuclear fallout from the attempts of containing the zombies.
Vampires are force out of hiding by their rapidly dwindling food supply and need to protect humans like cattle from coyotes.
Werewolves when infected with The Virus can't return to humanoid form and go crazy with blood-lust, making the Wilds a dangerous place for a NOT infected were, so they try to help the survivorships.
Ghouls are a player character race of people innoculated against the virus with The Cure. The Cure, unfortunately, has repercussions if there is no infection present.
Ghosts as player characters are very limited in what they can do (no equipment, no weapons, no money)
A 24 hour clock with in-game time passing at a normal rate set by the real world time-zones. A weather system that mimics real world weather in the area (using Weather channel.com to predict weather, program it in for the week, let it rain/snow/storm) Wouldn't it be crazy to look at Manhattan Island on your screen in the middle of a summer thunderstorm at night, then look out your window to see Manhattan Island at night while it's raining? This would be an attempt at near total immersion.
The ability to go out and hunt for survivors, weapons, supplies, and build your own survivorships in the world.
But you're fighting more than Generic Zombies. You've got to deal with Anarchist Vampires who want to end the world, roving bands of raiders (human and otherwise) werewolves, angry spirits, mutate warlords, and other enemies on a constant time-clock!
If you get infected as a human, mutate, or werewolf you've got a real-time clock to get to a Survivorship to recieve the Cure or you'll die, becoming a zombie. Vampires and Ghouls must consume a certain amount of blood or human flesh in a 3 day period or suffer withdrawal and eventual death. Ghosts can only be away from their haunts for a certain amount of time before they are -ripped- back to the survivorship where their haunted item is stored.
Now what do you think?
-Rachel-
The world is based on pseudo-science and semi-myth, so bear with me.
Mutates are the result of chemical and nuclear fallout from the attempts of containing the zombies.
Vampires are force out of hiding by their rapidly dwindling food supply and need to protect humans like cattle from coyotes.
Werewolves when infected with The Virus can't return to humanoid form and go crazy with blood-lust, making the Wilds a dangerous place for a NOT infected were, so they try to help the survivorships.
Ghouls are a player character race of people innoculated against the virus with The Cure. The Cure, unfortunately, has repercussions if there is no infection present.
Ghosts as player characters are very limited in what they can do (no equipment, no weapons, no money)
A 24 hour clock with in-game time passing at a normal rate set by the real world time-zones. A weather system that mimics real world weather in the area (using Weather channel.com to predict weather, program it in for the week, let it rain/snow/storm) Wouldn't it be crazy to look at Manhattan Island on your screen in the middle of a summer thunderstorm at night, then look out your window to see Manhattan Island at night while it's raining? This would be an attempt at near total immersion.
The ability to go out and hunt for survivors, weapons, supplies, and build your own survivorships in the world.
But you're fighting more than Generic Zombies. You've got to deal with Anarchist Vampires who want to end the world, roving bands of raiders (human and otherwise) werewolves, angry spirits, mutate warlords, and other enemies on a constant time-clock!
If you get infected as a human, mutate, or werewolf you've got a real-time clock to get to a Survivorship to recieve the Cure or you'll die, becoming a zombie. Vampires and Ghouls must consume a certain amount of blood or human flesh in a 3 day period or suffer withdrawal and eventual death. Ghosts can only be away from their haunts for a certain amount of time before they are -ripped- back to the survivorship where their haunted item is stored.
Now what do you think?
-Rachel-
I would like to see an RPG online or not styled like the game The Last Stand (armorgames.com).
Its a pretty fun zombie game.
I just like the idea of the day being relatively safe, giving you time to search for supplies/ survivors, rebuild your barricade etc. And the night being an almost non-stop barrage of the undead.
Its a pretty fun zombie game.
I just like the idea of the day being relatively safe, giving you time to search for supplies/ survivors, rebuild your barricade etc. And the night being an almost non-stop barrage of the undead.
Actually the plan is to have zombies active by day and by night. With a 24 hour time-clock set to localized time zones players may wind up ALWAYS playing at night in-game because it's night-time OUT of game.
So having the Day be mostly barren would be a pretty bad idea for Black Earth.
Fortunately there is more to do than 'find zombie, shoot zombie, gain level' with the addition of player 'housing' in the form of survivorships.
If you and some friends form a survivorship you'll have to man it. This can be done by runing various 'rescue' missions to recover lost humans or by making skill checks against NPC members of OTHER survivorships. By this method you can steal people away from other players or even NPC run Survivorships.
The various Survivorships would be terrain-based and customizable. One might include walling off a small collection of houses in a suburb. In the Canadian Wilderness you wind up making a literal fort, cutting down trees and lashing them together into defenses. In a desert environment your best bet might be cyclone fence with barbed wire.
In addition you must supply your Survivorship, with more people requiring more food and ammunitions. And protect yourself from raiders as well as zombies.
At least... This is the plan in my design document.
-Rachel-
So having the Day be mostly barren would be a pretty bad idea for Black Earth.
Fortunately there is more to do than 'find zombie, shoot zombie, gain level' with the addition of player 'housing' in the form of survivorships.
If you and some friends form a survivorship you'll have to man it. This can be done by runing various 'rescue' missions to recover lost humans or by making skill checks against NPC members of OTHER survivorships. By this method you can steal people away from other players or even NPC run Survivorships.
The various Survivorships would be terrain-based and customizable. One might include walling off a small collection of houses in a suburb. In the Canadian Wilderness you wind up making a literal fort, cutting down trees and lashing them together into defenses. In a desert environment your best bet might be cyclone fence with barbed wire.
In addition you must supply your Survivorship, with more people requiring more food and ammunitions. And protect yourself from raiders as well as zombies.
At least... This is the plan in my design document.
-Rachel-
You can't recreate the enviroment of a zombie apocalypse when you have thousands of other dipshits running around.
That and as much as I despise PvP, its a vital aspect of MMO's and excluding it would be a doomed voyage into failure town. If you gave people the option to play zombies you'd really be fucked because the atomosphere would be totally ruined.
Left 4 Dead is atmospheric in single player or multiplayer campaign mode, but in versus its a giggling mad romp that you can't take seriously.
That and as much as I despise PvP, its a vital aspect of MMO's and excluding it would be a doomed voyage into failure town. If you gave people the option to play zombies you'd really be fucked because the atomosphere would be totally ruined.
Left 4 Dead is atmospheric in single player or multiplayer campaign mode, but in versus its a giggling mad romp that you can't take seriously.
Could be fun, something with players being the survivors of a zombie apocalypse with towns etc. with everything like a regular MMO just with monsters replaced with zombies. They would need to work on making guns fun though. Also it would have to have strong horror elements, it's the best thing for a zombie MMO.
I think your basically thinking of the zombie survival guide game from another thread but in mmo form which would be awesome
I disagree. PVP is not a requirement or a vital aspect of MMOs. It's an oft requested one, but hardly vital.
However there are options for PvP in Black Earth. As I've outlined there are survivorships and there are raiders. By flagging yourself for PvP you invite player character raiders to attack you. Resources are low, food and ammunition are commodities. Heck! Bullets are the game's currency since real world money is useless.
PvP isn't Human Vs. Zombie. Zombie are mindless shambling undead. PvP is players using a player character race to fight other player characters. Werewolves, vampires, humans, ghosts, ghouls, mutates. These are the PvP races.
With PvP of this nature you wind up with a certain sense of paranoia. 'Is this player going to raid my precious foodstocks or offer up a trade? Should I just shoot him and take what he brought as a peace offering?
-Rachel-
However there are options for PvP in Black Earth. As I've outlined there are survivorships and there are raiders. By flagging yourself for PvP you invite player character raiders to attack you. Resources are low, food and ammunition are commodities. Heck! Bullets are the game's currency since real world money is useless.
PvP isn't Human Vs. Zombie. Zombie are mindless shambling undead. PvP is players using a player character race to fight other player characters. Werewolves, vampires, humans, ghosts, ghouls, mutates. These are the PvP races.
With PvP of this nature you wind up with a certain sense of paranoia. 'Is this player going to raid my precious foodstocks or offer up a trade? Should I just shoot him and take what he brought as a peace offering?
-Rachel-
There isn't enough diversity in a simple Zombie for a MMO. You may argue that you can have different types of Zombies, but that depends on what you mean by the word "Zombie", because really it should be a re-animated dead person. So other than gender and possibly whether the person was a body builder, there wouldn't be much else other than just plain Zombies, unless you include animals.
However, if you took the Zombie-spin-off aproach and said the "people are infected" then I guess you could have many types of "Zombie" as you could just claim the people mutate. But when it boils down to it - different types of infected "Zombies" will just lead to a fantasy style warrior(tank), mage(dps), priest(healer) basis, and honestly I'd rather have a fantasy MMO where I could be different races at the same time as different classes rather than just varying classes of Zombie.
Besides if you want to play an MMO with more variation than just varying classes of Zombies, go play WoW and be an Undead, then you can kill and feast on as many humans/dwarves/night elves/gnomes/draenei as you wish.
EDIT: Note: I was thinking of a MMORPG, if you are not thinking along the same lines you may ignore my post.
However, if you took the Zombie-spin-off aproach and said the "people are infected" then I guess you could have many types of "Zombie" as you could just claim the people mutate. But when it boils down to it - different types of infected "Zombies" will just lead to a fantasy style warrior(tank), mage(dps), priest(healer) basis, and honestly I'd rather have a fantasy MMO where I could be different races at the same time as different classes rather than just varying classes of Zombie.
Besides if you want to play an MMO with more variation than just varying classes of Zombies, go play WoW and be an Undead, then you can kill and feast on as many humans/dwarves/night elves/gnomes/draenei as you wish.
EDIT: Note: I was thinking of a MMORPG, if you are not thinking along the same lines you may ignore my post.
I would probably give a zombie MMOG a try. The PvP could take the form of people fighting for food or something, but I think the best experience would be in the questing. Getting together with a group to raid an infested supermarket? Hell yeah.
It sounds like it would work best as an MMOFPS, which there are not enough of on the market. Although I imagine lag would be an issue.
It sounds like it would work best as an MMOFPS, which there are not enough of on the market. Although I imagine lag would be an issue.
Zombies
Rotter: Standard Zombie. Slow, Shambling. Takes 2-3 shots from a pistol to put down. Ineffectual unless in crowds or tight spaces
Crawler: Similar to the Rotter, this Zombie type is slow and innefectual outside of tight spaces. However it gains a defense bonus against ranged attacks because of it's prone position
Spitter: Similar to the Rotter, with a Ranged Attack of Vomit. The Vomit attack deals some damage and slows the victim.
Red Herring: Possibly the Healthiest of Zombies, Red Herrings show no sign of infection whatsoever, are capable of speech, and devious. They lure targets into melee range before revealing themselves.
Brute: Powerful, dangerous, tough. Usually Bodybuilders, Police Officers, and Military men in life.
Berzerk: Faster than your average Rotter and tougher, too, Berzerks carry simple clubs from their environment to beat their meals to death with.
Boogeymen: Strangely pale, Boogeymen are zombies that attack almost exclusively at night. Fast, smart, and deadly, they're not terribly resilient. You just have to see it before it rushes.
Slaughterkin: Zombie Children only come in one variety, due to their almost uniform musculature. Faster than most Rotters, they also tend to be weaker.
Glutton: The Giants of the Zombie World, Gluttons are massive (400+lbs) zombies with a propensity of eating anything within reach. Including other zombies. On death they have a 50% chance to have a Rotter, Crawler, or infected Rat tear free.
The Virus infects different human beings in different ways. The reason for this is the chemical makeup of a given person's mind will be different than another's. So various chemicals, even after death, will be more or less prevalent. Berzerks for example often have a history, in life, of aggression, anger, and short fuses. Gluttons were often morbidly obese during life, and in death still feel the nead to feed far more strongly than other zombies. Red Herrings were, in life, often manipulative of the people around them. Noone is quite sure why all children exhibit identical traits, or why Spitters even form. There are still many mysteries to be solved on that front.
It should be noted that Zombies, whatever their stripe, tend to remain Dormant for long periods of time with short periods of hunting activity to conserve their energy between meals. Zombies left Dormant for a long enough time could, conceivably, metabolize it's own muscular tissue to form a Crawler, or even destroy itself if left to starve for a long enough period of time. However even while Dormant zombies are extremely dangerous, as they have no need for sleep their senses are left on high alert, warning them of potential prey often from hundreds of yards away. Particularly intelligent Zombies (Boogeymen, Red Herrings) are known to set traps for prey by seeking a hiding place to lay dormant, rather than collapsing in place as many rotters do.
Infected Animals
Rats: Small, Hard to hit, Fast. Three traits common to all Rodents before Outbreak. Now they are the bane of all suvivorships. There is no such thing as a single Rat.
Rat Kings: When a group of Rats in a sewer get covered in slime and filth their tails can become tangled in a massive filthy knot. Typically they starve. Infected rats don't. On death a Rat King spawn 1-4 Rats.
Cats: Housecats and Feral small cats both exhibit the same traits when infected. Pack mentality and a focus on quick, stealthy attacks. Especially common in the ruins of large cities.
Big Cats: Conversely Big Cats (Cougars, Tigers, Lions) tend to be solitary hunters, even if they were pride animals while alive. Though they favor similar ambush tactics.
Worgs: Both Wolves and domesticated dogs have a strange tendency to lose all of their fur after becoming infected. This makes them easy to spot at a distance.
Bears: Durable, Fast, and extremely dangerous in close quarters. Bears often have problems following targets through turns and prefer straight-runs to rush targets.
The Virus, while adaptive, has been unsuccesful at infecting reptiles, avians, fish, or insects. These animals simply ignore the virus but do not act as carries, since the virus is transmitted through saliva to blood contact but must compromise the host's blood cells before reproducing. Thus only mammals are able to be infected. Strangely, Non-predatory animals (Deer, Goats, Sheep, Cattle, Horses) are capable of being carriers but show none of the other classic signs of infection (increased aggression, hunger). It's believed that only predatory or at least omnivorous mammals can be infected to the point of becoming a zombie.
It should be noted that Zombie Animals also have a Dormant state. However studies have shown that small animals (rats, cats, dogs) cannot maintain the dormancy for long periods of time and must consume some flesh, even their own or that of another zombie, to sustain their existence.
This is the current extent of our Infected library. IN addition you'll have to deal with a variety of human and mutant raiders, ghouls, ghosts, Werewolves and Vampires, and other unmentionables we're still working on.
-Rachel-
Rotter: Standard Zombie. Slow, Shambling. Takes 2-3 shots from a pistol to put down. Ineffectual unless in crowds or tight spaces
Crawler: Similar to the Rotter, this Zombie type is slow and innefectual outside of tight spaces. However it gains a defense bonus against ranged attacks because of it's prone position
Spitter: Similar to the Rotter, with a Ranged Attack of Vomit. The Vomit attack deals some damage and slows the victim.
Red Herring: Possibly the Healthiest of Zombies, Red Herrings show no sign of infection whatsoever, are capable of speech, and devious. They lure targets into melee range before revealing themselves.
Brute: Powerful, dangerous, tough. Usually Bodybuilders, Police Officers, and Military men in life.
Berzerk: Faster than your average Rotter and tougher, too, Berzerks carry simple clubs from their environment to beat their meals to death with.
Boogeymen: Strangely pale, Boogeymen are zombies that attack almost exclusively at night. Fast, smart, and deadly, they're not terribly resilient. You just have to see it before it rushes.
Slaughterkin: Zombie Children only come in one variety, due to their almost uniform musculature. Faster than most Rotters, they also tend to be weaker.
Glutton: The Giants of the Zombie World, Gluttons are massive (400+lbs) zombies with a propensity of eating anything within reach. Including other zombies. On death they have a 50% chance to have a Rotter, Crawler, or infected Rat tear free.
The Virus infects different human beings in different ways. The reason for this is the chemical makeup of a given person's mind will be different than another's. So various chemicals, even after death, will be more or less prevalent. Berzerks for example often have a history, in life, of aggression, anger, and short fuses. Gluttons were often morbidly obese during life, and in death still feel the nead to feed far more strongly than other zombies. Red Herrings were, in life, often manipulative of the people around them. Noone is quite sure why all children exhibit identical traits, or why Spitters even form. There are still many mysteries to be solved on that front.
It should be noted that Zombies, whatever their stripe, tend to remain Dormant for long periods of time with short periods of hunting activity to conserve their energy between meals. Zombies left Dormant for a long enough time could, conceivably, metabolize it's own muscular tissue to form a Crawler, or even destroy itself if left to starve for a long enough period of time. However even while Dormant zombies are extremely dangerous, as they have no need for sleep their senses are left on high alert, warning them of potential prey often from hundreds of yards away. Particularly intelligent Zombies (Boogeymen, Red Herrings) are known to set traps for prey by seeking a hiding place to lay dormant, rather than collapsing in place as many rotters do.
Infected Animals
Rats: Small, Hard to hit, Fast. Three traits common to all Rodents before Outbreak. Now they are the bane of all suvivorships. There is no such thing as a single Rat.
Rat Kings: When a group of Rats in a sewer get covered in slime and filth their tails can become tangled in a massive filthy knot. Typically they starve. Infected rats don't. On death a Rat King spawn 1-4 Rats.
Cats: Housecats and Feral small cats both exhibit the same traits when infected. Pack mentality and a focus on quick, stealthy attacks. Especially common in the ruins of large cities.
Big Cats: Conversely Big Cats (Cougars, Tigers, Lions) tend to be solitary hunters, even if they were pride animals while alive. Though they favor similar ambush tactics.
Worgs: Both Wolves and domesticated dogs have a strange tendency to lose all of their fur after becoming infected. This makes them easy to spot at a distance.
Bears: Durable, Fast, and extremely dangerous in close quarters. Bears often have problems following targets through turns and prefer straight-runs to rush targets.
The Virus, while adaptive, has been unsuccesful at infecting reptiles, avians, fish, or insects. These animals simply ignore the virus but do not act as carries, since the virus is transmitted through saliva to blood contact but must compromise the host's blood cells before reproducing. Thus only mammals are able to be infected. Strangely, Non-predatory animals (Deer, Goats, Sheep, Cattle, Horses) are capable of being carriers but show none of the other classic signs of infection (increased aggression, hunger). It's believed that only predatory or at least omnivorous mammals can be infected to the point of becoming a zombie.
It should be noted that Zombie Animals also have a Dormant state. However studies have shown that small animals (rats, cats, dogs) cannot maintain the dormancy for long periods of time and must consume some flesh, even their own or that of another zombie, to sustain their existence.
This is the current extent of our Infected library. IN addition you'll have to deal with a variety of human and mutant raiders, ghouls, ghosts, Werewolves and Vampires, and other unmentionables we're still working on.
-Rachel-
I'd totally try out a Zombie MMO.
You could actually make the missions make sense, like:
Mission 1: your mission is to clear a road to the next town. You have to guard the workers and kill all zombies.
Mission 2: when you get to the next town you search for survivors and supplies, guard them on the way back to the vehicle
Mission 3: get back to your home base and protect it from the Zombie hoard that is now chasing you back.
I guess it would basically be L4D with experience points, a Persistent world, customizable weapons, more weapons, Hopefully player made cities (build and defend), possibly trade between cities, etc
Add in a few more special zombies like there are in L4D and you would have an EXCELLENT PvE Zombie MMO.
You could actually make the missions make sense, like:
Mission 1: your mission is to clear a road to the next town. You have to guard the workers and kill all zombies.
Mission 2: when you get to the next town you search for survivors and supplies, guard them on the way back to the vehicle
Mission 3: get back to your home base and protect it from the Zombie hoard that is now chasing you back.
I guess it would basically be L4D with experience points, a Persistent world, customizable weapons, more weapons, Hopefully player made cities (build and defend), possibly trade between cities, etc
Add in a few more special zombies like there are in L4D and you would have an EXCELLENT PvE Zombie MMO.
There are already a couple:
There's Urban Dead [http://www.urbandead.com/], a free text-based zombie MMO. I played it for a while but have since stopped.
Also, when I Am Legend came out, Second Life hosted a zombie survival MMO; I'm not sure if it's still up or not, though, nor would I want to know why anyone would actually play Second Life.
There's Urban Dead [http://www.urbandead.com/], a free text-based zombie MMO. I played it for a while but have since stopped.
Also, when I Am Legend came out, Second Life hosted a zombie survival MMO; I'm not sure if it's still up or not, though, nor would I want to know why anyone would actually play Second Life.