Actually, try using regions to create parts of the city where it's safer than some parts...
Dead frontier uses a grid-like map to create their environment, with different region having stronger monsters (typically far away from the safe house generally).
For this map, you spawn randomly in different areas, so making region based difficulty isn't a great idea...
So maybe...
On map load, a few spots will be selected for "heavy infestation" which are danger zones.
Players and npcs CAN'T spawn in these zones. Maybe some npcs can have an exception in the case of "events" (trapped survivors running out of food for example).
Events should be time-driven. Like if there exist a room filled with survivors running out of food, failing to save them will likely end up with you entering a room full of zombies instead.
Kind of like Resident Evil Outbreak stuff... If you don't reach this area in time to trigger this event, the results are a "bad event", which are guilt trips to make you feel bad about failing.
Maybe use 3 possible different kinds of traits for 1 survivor character...
Zodiac - Based off of the current list of zodiacs. Used for relationship between characters is a possibility.
Personality - Based off of a description of your character. Example: Loner, Hard Worker, Leader, etc.
Livelihood - Basically the "description of how your life was before the event happened". Example: Rich, Poor, etc.
Well as for traits, they should be kept simple, but affects the game in a general sense.
Say:
What if many players chose the "global" traits or traits that boosts guns, but nobody bothered to get anything else? Well the trait should affect the game globally, as in how much enemies can be encountered, the chance of random encounters, etc.
Basically, what can be set is that each % for a random encounter can be listed with a default value:
Some traits can globally affect the percentage of said encounters, buffing or lowering them, making the game different if say all players chose the same traits, it'll buff the percentage and debuff for the similar or same encounters.
Anyways, the lore in this map doesn't matter, what does matter is extensive gameplay that expands the replayability of the game.
Since you did say you want it so players can basically "respawn" as a fresh new civilian on death, it essentially means:
The game doesn't end.
The game runs on a clock, ends when the clock stops and whether survivors escapes or not.
But what if, you can escape as many time as you want and this adds onto your score card?
Say, you can help a group of survivors escape, this nets you points, which can unlock new "ideas" for your characters. Saving groups of characters will net you bonus points, but is harder to do. Saving yourself by successfully escaping, nets you normal points.
Upon escape, you have a choice of continuing the game as another civilian, typically restarting the game.
The differences is that the civilian spawns gets randomized, but with your unlocked points, you can essentially "choose some preference" in the creation of your character.
Say:
Newbies = Start off as a new civilian, no "perks" enabled.
Once you gained enough points, you can use it to buy perks, to equip it onto your next civilian.
Perks basically are "attributes/skills/enhancements" that is suppose to make your survivor unique. Survivors can bring up to 3 unique sets of perks at one time for one civilian, certain perks can not be used with other perks, thus disabling them. Other civilians you meet may be created with a random perk.
The idea is straight out from fallout, but typically, every perks may have a disadvantage. Some may give items, some don't. Some has specific spawns, while others are randomized.
Like:
Athletic - You move faster and can dodge attacks, but you aren't as strong.
Muscular - You are stronger but slower.
Pizza Delivery Boy - You know your way around the area (outer map advantage), you are more vulnerable to damage.
Thief - Your stealthier and can avoid detection more effectively.
Criminal - You lose less sanity in general, but other civilians doesn't trust you.
Negotiator - You prefer to convince rather than violence, you are less effective at combat, but npc civilians trust you more.
Firefighter - You can break down barricades more effectively, and charge into danger. More resistant to fire, but more vulnerable to the infection. May spawn at a Fire Station.
Police Officer - You can use firearms effectively, but vulnerable to infection. May spawn at a Police Station.
Scientist - You are very intelligent and can craft a variety of medications, but you are also vulnerable to damage.
Engineer - You can craft and repair items and build barricades with ease, but you are weaker in combat.
Well they aren't exactly up to par with the lore, so I could simplify them to fit in SC2 lore:
Cybernetic limbs - Being part machine and part man makes you resistant to infections and you are more efficient with actions.
Military Training - Having trained in the ways of combat, you are more effective with firearms and melee weapons.
Just cause you think you make sense, doesn't mean others have to agree to it.
Also, re-read your posts, and think about it from the community's perspective.
Hitting someone with a huge block of text and have occasional swearing, it's insulting to people who have to read through it.
Also, you did say "I'm not directly" which mean you ARE indirectly, which is still insulting him, since your directing it TOWARDS his position.
Your basically saying:
"Your ideas are stupid so you should change it to *this* and *this* and *this*".
The website showcases IDEAS, they don't have to be completed and highly polished works. Seriously.
It can also showcase many other different things that don't relate to SC2... So, yup, your the biased one.
Like they send in elite forces to scout and analyze their foes, and they'll essentially move through a infested area, killing zerg units, but will avoid heavily infested areas. Survivors who come across them unfortunately, will be attacked since the Protoss shows no mercy to possible "infected" while purging a planet.
After a while, a possible "purging" might occur at a location, where they'll send in a purifier and it'll inflict huge damage to heavily infested areas...
But that also means buildings in the vicinity will turn into danger zones and can "possibly" damage all survivors within them if they don't escape.
After the purging starts, better find someplace to hide, the zerg dislikes being disturbed by a large force, so they send air forces to destroy it... And then it gets reinfected again...
This makes the game filled with more environmental situations and gives you a feeling of changes...
Other possible scenarios:
- Band of survivors starts appearing, but these are no normal survivors. Psychopaths appears in the game as possible threats to zombies and humans alike. Kill them though, and you'll loot them of their scavenged goods.
- Giant "queens" appears and starts infesting a area with creep tumors, this spawns more zombies and creeps. They can also spawn after the protoss purging to re-infest.
In Starcraft lore, they technically can use small arms, but little information is on those.
Other than that, rifles, flamethrower, and such are quite plentiful (in military areas that is).
In a urban environment, where soldiers died fighting, maybe there are guns, but most of em are destroyed in the battle.
So maybe, survivors can also craft guns together like this, after finding unbroken parts to assemble them.
Example:
Instead of making items with "barrel, trigger, etc." you can just craft them out of "Gun Part" items that stacks.
Say making a gun requires a # of said gun parts, and maybe experience or skills.
You definitely need a modeler and a animator to do this, otherwise I suggest you study a bit of 3d modeling and animation so you can modify your civilians to do simple poses or animations for using weapons.
Too bad you can't half rig marine skeletons onto a civilian and have them play that animation when firing a gun.
For hazardous environments, I think dangerous plants can be one.
Like you wouldn't need to add many zombies to spawn, just have a area that is "infested" and pose a risk to players who aren't equipped with a suit that can nullify the infection.
The infested area basically have stuff, like eggs, and zerg plants. These can be hostile to the player, like if the player move too sudden or attacked the egg.
Of course, a full fledge zombie spawning from the egg is a bad idea, so make them weaker but deadly "zombies" that has the same effect as a broodling.
They inflict the same damage, but they move faster but dies very fast as soon as they pop out of their eggs/cocoons. Only triggered when your very close or when you attack it, it only lives for 2 seconds.
Zerg Plants basically are environmental triggers that have a slim chance of occurring if you happen to touch or brush by them. It basically entangles or shoot out spores at the player, trying to stop or poison the player.
As for tools, I think your essentially tools can be used to destroy these minor inconveniences, but they can't be used as weapons to kill zombies.
You can basically use a makeshift-flamethrower to kill plants and eggs, etc. You could make certain tools or items very useful... Like pesticide spray can harm small zerg critters that lives in the infested areas, chemical agents that can kill small living organisms such as plants...
As for bosses, they needs to be more important in the storyline, like bosses should be unique and interesting, should match with the game style.
Maybe they can take form of special zombies (not like l4d) that specialized in tracking survivors, basically not linked to the zerg overmind, they are a individual specie.
Speaking of overmind, it would be interesting if you can put a overmind in your map. It makes sense for one to be on a infested planet.
Story is very very important. Especially if you can include "documents" that can be scattered throughout the map. Players can learn about secrets and possibly new clues to beat enemies or finding a way through, with the use of these documents.
When your going to implement the HP system, try to do it in a fun but short way:
Survivors have 100 hp, 0 defense. Able to regenerate "some" health if they are not afflicted with any statuses. Health regeneration is slower if the survivor keeps moving. Survivors can lose "max" health if they get wounded, which is a script that runs and knows that a survivor's max health is always 100, but can have a debuff that lowers max health by a fixed amount.
Typical zombies would have 100 hp, 5 defense. If they attack a player, they should do minor but "bleeding damage". Basically make the zombie's attack do 5 (15 to biological) so they can chip off healths off of barricades, and do good damage on surviviors. Bleeding "debuff" is what these zombies are good at doing, and they have a 15% chance of inflicting bleeding on you, of which it does 1 damage every 5 seconds, for 1 minute, and your health can't regenerate at that time until you use treatments or bandages.
The aspect of killing zombies... Maybe certain weapons will have certain effects and a degree of damage to the zombies. Angle of attacks can be VERY important, as zombies can have a "slow turning" speed to go along with it's AI, meaning a smart player can circle it and smack it on the back of the head. Problem is, there is usually more than one zombies, so it's not safe to think your a pro and you'll sprint and whack every zombies on the back of the head with your crowbar.
Weapons should have a weak default damage, with a high damage to specific value.
Crowbar for example, should be:
12 (44 to structures, 22 to light) With attack speed of 0.6 hit per second.
Flamethrower:
4 (12 to biological, 10 to structures) With attack speed of 0.8 hit per second. Hits 3 times.
The zombies are tough and sturdy, but they have the same health. They regenerate health similarly to roaches.
So if your going to incorporate bosses, make them have the same idea: same health, but higher defense to handle being hit, and regenerates just as well.
Zombies and mutant monsters in movies and games, they are tough because of their regenerative and defensive abilities, not because they have a HUGE vitality. Immortal characters in games and movies is because they nullify your damage with their huge defenses or super high regeneration.
1) Zombies should basically feel like they are slow, but tough. They should be able to withstand most attacks unless you are skilled or cunning. A zombie's speed would be 1/4 the speed of a player, but they make up for it with a slow but powerful grapple and large numbers (in open public places). If a zombie grabs you, they'll try to bite you. Other zombies can't interfere but if you break out of it, you'll still have to deal with the rest of them, thus you get blocked off. Zombies needs to have a "wandering" AI so they'll move about randomly, rather than standing in a crowd and reacting when they noticed players.
2) Survivors can shove zombies away, by running by them. Zombies can only grab you if your standing or moving at a walking speed or less. Survivors should have a "Action" ability, which allows them to do various actions with one button. How you can manage this, is having the name of said action "appear on top of your survivor" when your interacting with something. Example: You are close to a zombie, hitting X (action button) will use up some energy, but you will shove the zombie back, stunning them for a short duration. If you have a melee weapon equipped, X will do a execution attack the closest zombie, costing some points.
3) Weapons in the game should feel scarce, but killing zombies should still be an option, and beating the game without killing anything is also a option.
4) Puzzles should be incorporated into the game as mini-games that pops up as a interface. Say you want to pick-lock, then developing a interface that tests the player's skills is important too. Some puzzles require a item to use, and some requires multiple players.
5) Stealth is a option, and you should enforce that, by rewarding the players with saved ammo, and less damage.
6) Have the game contains mystery on the location of the area. Like secret locations that are only found if you get specific items and beat certain puzzles.
7) Bosses takes on a form of a patterned monster, where they will slowly chase after the player, from room to room, and try to kill them in a slow but immersive manner. At some point, you'll trigger a boss battle where you must kill him to attain a item, but you get a choice on how to do so (the game should allow you to indirectly kill enemies, like trapping them in a machine that kills them).
Actually, try using regions to create parts of the city where it's safer than some parts... Dead frontier uses a grid-like map to create their environment, with different region having stronger monsters (typically far away from the safe house generally).
For this map, you spawn randomly in different areas, so making region based difficulty isn't a great idea...
So maybe...
On map load, a few spots will be selected for "heavy infestation" which are danger zones.
Players and npcs CAN'T spawn in these zones. Maybe some npcs can have an exception in the case of "events" (trapped survivors running out of food for example).
Events should be time-driven. Like if there exist a room filled with survivors running out of food, failing to save them will likely end up with you entering a room full of zombies instead.
Kind of like Resident Evil Outbreak stuff... If you don't reach this area in time to trigger this event, the results are a "bad event", which are guilt trips to make you feel bad about failing.
Maybe use 3 possible different kinds of traits for 1 survivor character...
Zodiac - Based off of the current list of zodiacs. Used for relationship between characters is a possibility.
Personality - Based off of a description of your character. Example: Loner, Hard Worker, Leader, etc.
Livelihood - Basically the "description of how your life was before the event happened". Example: Rich, Poor, etc.
Well as for traits, they should be kept simple, but affects the game in a general sense.
Say:
What if many players chose the "global" traits or traits that boosts guns, but nobody bothered to get anything else? Well the trait should affect the game globally, as in how much enemies can be encountered, the chance of random encounters, etc.
Basically, what can be set is that each % for a random encounter can be listed with a default value:
Encounter 1 = 35%
Encounter 2 = 10%
Encounter 3 = 50%
Encounter 4 = 65%
Some traits can globally affect the percentage of said encounters, buffing or lowering them, making the game different if say all players chose the same traits, it'll buff the percentage and debuff for the similar or same encounters.
People are going offtopic.
Anyways, the lore in this map doesn't matter, what does matter is extensive gameplay that expands the replayability of the game.
Since you did say you want it so players can basically "respawn" as a fresh new civilian on death, it essentially means:
But what if, you can escape as many time as you want and this adds onto your score card?
Say, you can help a group of survivors escape, this nets you points, which can unlock new "ideas" for your characters. Saving groups of characters will net you bonus points, but is harder to do. Saving yourself by successfully escaping, nets you normal points.
Upon escape, you have a choice of continuing the game as another civilian, typically restarting the game.
The differences is that the civilian spawns gets randomized, but with your unlocked points, you can essentially "choose some preference" in the creation of your character.
Say:
Newbies = Start off as a new civilian, no "perks" enabled.
Once you gained enough points, you can use it to buy perks, to equip it onto your next civilian.
Perks basically are "attributes/skills/enhancements" that is suppose to make your survivor unique. Survivors can bring up to 3 unique sets of perks at one time for one civilian, certain perks can not be used with other perks, thus disabling them. Other civilians you meet may be created with a random perk.
The idea is straight out from fallout, but typically, every perks may have a disadvantage. Some may give items, some don't. Some has specific spawns, while others are randomized.
Like:
Athletic - You move faster and can dodge attacks, but you aren't as strong.
Muscular - You are stronger but slower.
Pizza Delivery Boy - You know your way around the area (outer map advantage), you are more vulnerable to damage.
Thief - Your stealthier and can avoid detection more effectively.
Criminal - You lose less sanity in general, but other civilians doesn't trust you.
Negotiator - You prefer to convince rather than violence, you are less effective at combat, but npc civilians trust you more.
Firefighter - You can break down barricades more effectively, and charge into danger. More resistant to fire, but more vulnerable to the infection. May spawn at a Fire Station.
Police Officer - You can use firearms effectively, but vulnerable to infection. May spawn at a Police Station.
Scientist - You are very intelligent and can craft a variety of medications, but you are also vulnerable to damage.
Engineer - You can craft and repair items and build barricades with ease, but you are weaker in combat.
Well they aren't exactly up to par with the lore, so I could simplify them to fit in SC2 lore:
@Carsonjudd: Go
Just cause you think you make sense, doesn't mean others have to agree to it.
Also, re-read your posts, and think about it from the community's perspective.
Hitting someone with a huge block of text and have occasional swearing, it's insulting to people who have to read through it.
Also, you did say "I'm not directly" which mean you ARE indirectly, which is still insulting him, since your directing it TOWARDS his position.
Your basically saying: "Your ideas are stupid so you should change it to *this* and *this* and *this*".
The website showcases IDEAS, they don't have to be completed and highly polished works. Seriously. It can also showcase many other different things that don't relate to SC2... So, yup, your the biased one.
Any chances for "protoss purges" to occur?
Like they send in elite forces to scout and analyze their foes, and they'll essentially move through a infested area, killing zerg units, but will avoid heavily infested areas. Survivors who come across them unfortunately, will be attacked since the Protoss shows no mercy to possible "infected" while purging a planet.
After a while, a possible "purging" might occur at a location, where they'll send in a purifier and it'll inflict huge damage to heavily infested areas...
But that also means buildings in the vicinity will turn into danger zones and can "possibly" damage all survivors within them if they don't escape.
After the purging starts, better find someplace to hide, the zerg dislikes being disturbed by a large force, so they send air forces to destroy it... And then it gets reinfected again...
This makes the game filled with more environmental situations and gives you a feeling of changes...
Other possible scenarios:
- Band of survivors starts appearing, but these are no normal survivors. Psychopaths appears in the game as possible threats to zombies and humans alike. Kill them though, and you'll loot them of their scavenged goods.
- Giant "queens" appears and starts infesting a area with creep tumors, this spawns more zombies and creeps. They can also spawn after the protoss purging to re-infest.
And failed identification will result in them turning into "scrap metal" which can be used in other crafting and possible repairing and barricading?
In Starcraft lore, they technically can use small arms, but little information is on those. Other than that, rifles, flamethrower, and such are quite plentiful (in military areas that is).
In a urban environment, where soldiers died fighting, maybe there are guns, but most of em are destroyed in the battle.
So maybe, survivors can also craft guns together like this, after finding unbroken parts to assemble them.
Example:
Instead of making items with "barrel, trigger, etc." you can just craft them out of "Gun Part" items that stacks. Say making a gun requires a # of said gun parts, and maybe experience or skills.
Then you'll have to craft ammo... Somehow...
You definitely need a modeler and a animator to do this, otherwise I suggest you study a bit of 3d modeling and animation so you can modify your civilians to do simple poses or animations for using weapons.
Too bad you can't half rig marine skeletons onto a civilian and have them play that animation when firing a gun.
For hazardous environments, I think dangerous plants can be one.
Like you wouldn't need to add many zombies to spawn, just have a area that is "infested" and pose a risk to players who aren't equipped with a suit that can nullify the infection.
The infested area basically have stuff, like eggs, and zerg plants. These can be hostile to the player, like if the player move too sudden or attacked the egg.
Of course, a full fledge zombie spawning from the egg is a bad idea, so make them weaker but deadly "zombies" that has the same effect as a broodling.
They inflict the same damage, but they move faster but dies very fast as soon as they pop out of their eggs/cocoons. Only triggered when your very close or when you attack it, it only lives for 2 seconds.
Zerg Plants basically are environmental triggers that have a slim chance of occurring if you happen to touch or brush by them. It basically entangles or shoot out spores at the player, trying to stop or poison the player.
As for tools, I think your essentially tools can be used to destroy these minor inconveniences, but they can't be used as weapons to kill zombies.
You can basically use a makeshift-flamethrower to kill plants and eggs, etc. You could make certain tools or items very useful... Like pesticide spray can harm small zerg critters that lives in the infested areas, chemical agents that can kill small living organisms such as plants...
As for bosses, they needs to be more important in the storyline, like bosses should be unique and interesting, should match with the game style.
Maybe they can take form of special zombies (not like l4d) that specialized in tracking survivors, basically not linked to the zerg overmind, they are a individual specie.
Speaking of overmind, it would be interesting if you can put a overmind in your map. It makes sense for one to be on a infested planet.
Story is very very important. Especially if you can include "documents" that can be scattered throughout the map. Players can learn about secrets and possibly new clues to beat enemies or finding a way through, with the use of these documents.
When your going to implement the HP system, try to do it in a fun but short way:
Survivors have 100 hp, 0 defense. Able to regenerate "some" health if they are not afflicted with any statuses. Health regeneration is slower if the survivor keeps moving. Survivors can lose "max" health if they get wounded, which is a script that runs and knows that a survivor's max health is always 100, but can have a debuff that lowers max health by a fixed amount.
Typical zombies would have 100 hp, 5 defense. If they attack a player, they should do minor but "bleeding damage". Basically make the zombie's attack do 5 (15 to biological) so they can chip off healths off of barricades, and do good damage on surviviors. Bleeding "debuff" is what these zombies are good at doing, and they have a 15% chance of inflicting bleeding on you, of which it does 1 damage every 5 seconds, for 1 minute, and your health can't regenerate at that time until you use treatments or bandages.
The aspect of killing zombies... Maybe certain weapons will have certain effects and a degree of damage to the zombies. Angle of attacks can be VERY important, as zombies can have a "slow turning" speed to go along with it's AI, meaning a smart player can circle it and smack it on the back of the head. Problem is, there is usually more than one zombies, so it's not safe to think your a pro and you'll sprint and whack every zombies on the back of the head with your crowbar.
Weapons should have a weak default damage, with a high damage to specific value.
Crowbar for example, should be:
12 (44 to structures, 22 to light) With attack speed of 0.6 hit per second.
Flamethrower:
4 (12 to biological, 10 to structures) With attack speed of 0.8 hit per second. Hits 3 times.
The zombies are tough and sturdy, but they have the same health. They regenerate health similarly to roaches.
So if your going to incorporate bosses, make them have the same idea: same health, but higher defense to handle being hit, and regenerates just as well.
Zombies and mutant monsters in movies and games, they are tough because of their regenerative and defensive abilities, not because they have a HUGE vitality. Immortal characters in games and movies is because they nullify your damage with their huge defenses or super high regeneration.
Hazardous environments.
Go study Resident Evil Outbreak game styles.
1) Zombies should basically feel like they are slow, but tough. They should be able to withstand most attacks unless you are skilled or cunning. A zombie's speed would be 1/4 the speed of a player, but they make up for it with a slow but powerful grapple and large numbers (in open public places). If a zombie grabs you, they'll try to bite you. Other zombies can't interfere but if you break out of it, you'll still have to deal with the rest of them, thus you get blocked off. Zombies needs to have a "wandering" AI so they'll move about randomly, rather than standing in a crowd and reacting when they noticed players.
2) Survivors can shove zombies away, by running by them. Zombies can only grab you if your standing or moving at a walking speed or less. Survivors should have a "Action" ability, which allows them to do various actions with one button. How you can manage this, is having the name of said action "appear on top of your survivor" when your interacting with something. Example: You are close to a zombie, hitting X (action button) will use up some energy, but you will shove the zombie back, stunning them for a short duration. If you have a melee weapon equipped, X will do a execution attack the closest zombie, costing some points.
3) Weapons in the game should feel scarce, but killing zombies should still be an option, and beating the game without killing anything is also a option.
4) Puzzles should be incorporated into the game as mini-games that pops up as a interface. Say you want to pick-lock, then developing a interface that tests the player's skills is important too. Some puzzles require a item to use, and some requires multiple players.
5) Stealth is a option, and you should enforce that, by rewarding the players with saved ammo, and less damage.
6) Have the game contains mystery on the location of the area. Like secret locations that are only found if you get specific items and beat certain puzzles.
7) Bosses takes on a form of a patterned monster, where they will slowly chase after the player, from room to room, and try to kill them in a slow but immersive manner. At some point, you'll trigger a boss battle where you must kill him to attain a item, but you get a choice on how to do so (the game should allow you to indirectly kill enemies, like trapping them in a machine that kills them).
It's all close to the Resident Evil style btw.