Storage, Journal, and traps

[jerusha]

Storage - Something like a locker or stash. For when you find stuff you want to keep. I know the potential for misuse is tremendous, so lets say... 50% encumbrance amount. How does that sound? It can be found by anyone, and people with Military training can hide better than others.

A Journal for recording, like a notepad but it takes no energy to do it. You could list people you hate... radio stations, places you like to sleep in...

And traps. I'm sure a few trip wires would liven this game up.


Oh yah, i was thinking that individual classes and subclasses should have either extra bonuses in their selective fields, or a few skills that only THEY can have. Otherwise, everyone turns out the same.

And for zombies.. to make it fair... I don't know how they heal, but lets give them a healing factor that kicks in after say... two hours of being hit.

(Edit) (dont hate the post just because i'm posting another rifle) I'm thinking of an idea like the Winchester, something classic. Its been posted before... say 5 rounds, 7 damage, extremely rare, and ammo is sparse.

And is people are extremely freaked out about overpowering, lets throw in 'needs special skill' and a kit to clean and maintain it. Also carry one.

An idea for someone else to flesh out - a 20 gauge shotgun. More rounds, less damage. Its a bird shottie.

For shotgun - i don't know the stats, but the general idea:
Sawnoff - 50% chance to ruin the shotgun. Needs toolkit or metal saw. Decreases damage at long range, increases accuracy, increases damage at short range. Decreases encumbrance, chance of damaging yourself if not fired correctly.

The reason I'm asking for a 'Winchester' is not for powerful weaponry, i just want some diversity. That's why i cant stand mafia games... everyone has a sports car and an AWM. If we have many weapons by different names with the same stats, so be it.

Zombie vision - can see humans two blocks away, skill.

And most importantly: A refresh button and a countdown timer to when you get your next energy.

[Khallos]

I'm not quite sure how the Storage idea works. Is this like a Hammerspace Bag that lets you carry more stuff for less encumbrance, or is it something you leave somewhere so you can store items and come back to them? Though, to be frank, I'm not to keen on either of those things: Encumbrance is there to stop people running around with an armoury on their back, and if people know that they have a big ole stockpile of stuff waiting somewhere it somewhat detracts from the Survival Horror atmosphere. You're supposed to never quite be sure where your next health pack or ammo clip is coming from. Though i suppose it would make sense for people to stash valuable stuff like that somewhere. hmm.

The Journal thing seems a little unnecessary - as far as I know, everyone's computer comes with Notepad or something similar, and the game already has a contacts list with a colour coding system to note things like that down.

Traps. Uh.. the unfair thing about traps to us zombies is that a survivor can inflict damage on us even if they aren't in the same square as us, logged on or even in the same suburb. Its allready enough of a nightmare for a lone or small group of zombies to break into a building - on an average day it will take all 50 AP to break down an Extremely Heavy Barricade, with one or two AP points left over for actually attacking - without us being blown up as soon as we walk inside. Besides, would traps be triggered by humans, too? They'd need a pretty hefty AP penalty to stop people from just laying 50 of them down as they potter around, if they were gonna work at ALL.

The class thing sounds interesting. Everyone does kind of end up identical as it is.

Health isn't such an issue for zombies, in my experience playing as one. I mean, sure, its annoying when you get killed, but because all you have to do is stand up again and your back in the game (as opposed to survivors having to be revivified) its just a minor nuisance. And, for the record, zombies cant heal at all until they learn the Digestion skill, when they start healing every time they bite someone. So its not too hard to stay perky as a zed.

It would be interesting to see a rifle introduced, so long as there's none of this "Sniping from an adjacent square" nonsense. Though, if the ammo is so hard to find, why would anyone use it?

Oh, and, also...With the shotgun, what do you mean "Short Range" and "Long Range"? There aren't really any ranges in UD, as you can only attack people in the same square as you, so I dunno what you meant there.

Sorry if I seem a little hostile here. They're interesting ideas! They just need a little tweaking.

[jerusha]

Okay, Storage - Something like a stash. But you cant take it with you. Meaning if you get overrun by zombies, your stash is unaccessable. It also takes energy to take stuff from it. However, zombies can trash it if they see it with their Zombie Vision, which lets them see in the dark and gives them a 'search bunus'.

Of course, now i'm on the survivors case.

Traps: A tripwire. Zombie trips. you get a little time to run screaming for the hills.

A Journal would be a nicety. Specifically for to a player like me, who goofs off in school and home and the mall and my friends house... I play from a lot of places. A little notepad in the game would be dandy.

Sawnoff - I assume that to fire the shotgun you dont run right up to him to shoot him. I think that the zombie closes distance as you shoot... so say, first shot is less damage, second shot is more damage.

And now its your turn to look at my updates - like the refresh button. and the 20-gauge.

Now then: Specialized zombies?

Inspiration - HL2. God bless Valve.

Tank zombies.. slow, more hp. Cannot be dragged out a window and must be set on fire to remove a dead body.

Carrier zombie - chance for infection... man i can see the potential for this being abused already. Starter zombie, cannot have previous memories.

Fast Zombie... runs fast, low health, less dammage...

Normal zombie - is what you get to when you die. Memories and goodness.

[Khallos]

Hmm. The stash could be good, I think

The tripwire, though.. Uh.. what exactly does it DO? Remember that UD is essentially a turn based game - how exactly would you be able to get early warning on zombies? Either they're outside the building bashing the barricades down, in which case you notice that the barricades are getting weaker, or they are inside and chewing on your gonads, which would make it a little late for an early warning system

Same goes for shotguns. While it would make sense in a Live action version of Urban Dead, with UD as it is now the distance between zombies and their victims is left ambiguous to let the game work better. SO while it would be cool to have a sawn-off as a flavour firearm, like how we have flavour melee weapons such as Fencing Foils and Pool Cue's, I don't think a ranged mechanic would really work.

The refresh button would be nice built in to the basic game itself. I know that when I started playing UD I would have loved to have that. But i use the Firefox Urban Dead Toolbar Extension now, though, which has a refresh button built in, so its kinda redundant for me I heartily recommend that for Firefox users, by the way.

I'm not sure if the 20 gauge is really necessary, though. Its probably easier just to carry a regular shotgun with lots of shells that does more damage rather than having a watered down version that you reload less frequently.

And, as for the zombie types:
Tank Zombies: Wait, BURNING them? So.. what? Is that character burned forever, deleted from the game? Isn't that a little.. extreme? And does the fire spread?

Carrier Zombies Zombies already have a skill called Infectious Bite. When bitten, a survivor becomes Infected, and will loose HP every time they spend AP

Fast Zombies the Lurching Gait skill already does this, unless you were planning on making zombies able to run FASTER than humans (using 0.5 AP for each movement?)

Again, sorry again if I've wandered away from criticism into yelling ;^^

[Ty]

God, I feel like I'm at a shooting gallery. Alright, line 'em up. Here comes my 20 cents.

-I actually like the storage idea, but would add two things:
1) Other survivors searching the building would have a chance of finding the stash, then given the option to raid it. The survivor who left the items would not find out about this until the next time they check the stash.
2) To simplify things for the zombies, let's just say that when the building gets ransacked, any stashed items are lost.

-The journal is a nice thought (I think Nexus Wars had something like this), but would require a lot of extra storage space on the server, which I doubt it can handle right now. Plus, as Khallos noted, you can already write notes on your own machine. Ultimately, it's probably not worth it.

-Traps: I'm not a fan. Traps dealing hp damage are next to useless. Traps dealing ap damage would be broken and abused. Traps offering an "early warning" wouldn't make sense since survivors can already get messaged whenever the barricades are destroyed.

-Zombie healing: the recent addition of the zombie ability to feed on corpses pretty much fixes this. 4hp recovered for every ap spent on feeding. Sounds good to me.

-Firearms. I could be wrong, but I'm of the impression that Kevan won't be adding any more firearms to the game. That's not set in stone, though.
--the Winchester: it all sounds a bit too involved to me. It's not overpowered, really, but not all that useful. Then making it rare, require a skill, and a kit for cleaning, and it's really just not worth it.
--20-gauge: how is that any different that the 5 shot, 7 damage rifle? It's not a bad idea, but I don't know if there's really any demand for a weapon that bridges the gap between the pistol and shotgun, which is what this basically does.
--The sawn-off: So, basically, it does more damage on the second shot? Interesting thought, but I don't know how useful it would be, since you only get the two shots anyway. In action, the total damage dealt would more or less be equivalent to two shots of an ordinary shotgun. I agree with Khallos; this would be better left as a flavor change.
And how would you saw it off? Maybe require a toolbox to do it?

-Zombie vision. First, needs a new name. Second, I'm not sure. I'm kind of torn on this one. On the one hand, it'd be nice to give zombies another ability. On the other hand, I'm not sure how fair it'd be to survivors. I mean, newbies in the street get devoured in hours already. This would make walking the streets even more deadly.

-Refresh button: What Khallos said. Besides, it's wasteful of your IP hits.

-Countdown timer: Not a bad idea; probably easy enough to implement. I like it.

-Classes: I'm all for it, but they have to be fair and balanced, you know?
--Tank. The extra hp could be overpowering. Zombies already can't be dragged, though. And fire... What?
--Carrier: So, basically, a new zombie class starting with infectious bite. Kind of pointless, since a newbie zombie can't hit a damn thing with its 15% bite.
--Speed: See Khallos' post.

[jerusha]

Tank - There is an option to drag a dead body out and throw it in the street. Kill it first, but to 'lighten the load', you have to remove some extremities and THEN toss it. The flesh will grow back.

Drop the Trap, drop Zombie healing... the reason i put in the zombie things was because on the forums I've heard so many zeds complain that the humans have so many advantages and such. Throw them a bone if you will. Joint legislature.

Things i will push for: Class specialties. For example, Scouts get something special for their main ability. Countdown timer. Tank Zombie. Sawnoff, because its badass (my original idea was with a toolbox). Storage, with the above changes, and with the 'military can hide it better' thing. Maybe a Scout ability?.

Other than that... i don't have many more ideas.

Ohh! Grappling hook! Ability to enter a EHB building, takes one ep per throw and climb, 35% chance for a successful throw.... I donno

[Griggs]

Now, as a vet I know I should be taking all this with a grain of salt, and I should be nitpicking all the ideas based on merit, impact on game, and completeness, but goddamn it if I haven't been waiting for traps and Winchesters for three years.

Grigori approved.

[Ty]

I just realized I should really point this out: there is already a 3rd-party UD diary thing:

www.graham-russell.co.uk/ud/index.php

It's still pretty active, apparently. I just signed up for my Borehamwood character, trying to see how long I can keep him alive.

[Khallos]

Ohh, I forgot about that Diary thing. They like it if you write it in character, though, if memory serves.

I like the grappling hook idea, though. Could help newbies, especially Doctors and NT scientists, get into the buildings they NEED to get into in order to gain xp. Because if they cant get syringes and health packs then they cant level up very well, which makes them the hardest classes to start as.

So it would be good to help out people who don't have Free Running yet or, as I've seen in the past, DO have free running but EVERY SINGLE GODDAMN BUILDING IN THE SUBURB IS KEPT AT EHB JUST BECAUSE SOME IDIOT GROUP HAVE A DEFENCE PLAN WITH A SINGLE ENTRY POINT. *shakes fist*

[Ty]

Yeah, I like the grappling hook. It's a bit out of genre, but definitely something newbies could use.

[jerusha]

An idea for the grappling hook- it can also be used to get from building to building, but with less success. Also, there is a chance it might get caught. You have to go down to get it unstuck.

Pretty interesting weapon to mess with zeds. *Drags zombie close to building, hangs the hook over a poll, and proceeds to poke zombie with stick*