Zombie Hunter skills

Zombie Hunter skills can only be purchased by humans who are already at level 10 or higher before they buy the skill. They cost 100 XP for all classes. There is only one zombie hunter skill as of now.

[edit] List of Zombie Hunter skills

• Headshot - If you kill a zombie, it now takes 5 more AP for it to stand up than if it was killed by a non-Zombie Hunter survivor. It does not lose any XP.

Current Headshot Message for zombie: You took a Headshot from <name of killer> the Zombie Hunter! You will need to spend an extra 5 AP to stand up. (month-day hour:minute GMT)

Only Zombies can be Headshot. Survivors who are PKed by another survivor with this skill are not affected by Headshot.

In Monroeville, it kills the zombie permanently and the following message is displayed:
You were killed by a zombie hunter, who knew to aim for the head - in Monroeville, a headshot will take a zombie down permanently. Your body may eventually be shipped to Malton for research, when Monroeville has been cleared.

Formerly:

• If you kill a zombie, it loses 10 XP for each level it had beyond the first. It retains its skills. (29th September 2005)
• Headshots now only knock off 10 XP for each level of the zombie, rather than reducing them to zero every time - higher-level zombies have a greater proportion of active grey cells, and more to lose when the bullets go in. (16th September 2005)
• Headshot - If you kill a zombie, its XP are reduced to zero. It retains its skills. (27th July 2005)

—Source: News from 2005

Headshot was originally added to the game by Kevan in order to combat the exceptionally fast progression of zombies up their skill tree. By removing XP from the zombie affected, the idea was to slow the zombies down and balance the game for the survivors.

When Headshot dealt XP damage, some players felt that the skill was a form of griefing; being affected by Headshot made the game difficult and frustrating for zombies, while giving no direct benefit to the person using the skill beyond inflicting XP loss on the zombie and therefore slowing down its levelling progress.

Some of the players who went On Strike considered that the change to Headshot did not go far enough, or even made the game worse. This feeling has largely gone away; it is in fact now considered strategically ineffectual in and of itself to kill a zombie, even if using Headshot.

[edit] Basis for Headshot

It has been claimed by some on this wiki that the new Headshot penalty was a result of a suggestion here on the wiki. The closest suggestion was that on the 10th November under the heading Headshots remove AP, not XP. The suggestion is as follows:

• Headshots remove AP, not XP
• Timestamp: 16:38, 10 Nov 2005 (GMT)
• Type: Zombie Hunter Skill Alteration.
• Scope: All zombie hunter characters
• Description: XP comes so slowly in this game that losing it is extremely aggravating. It's also contrary to almost every other RPG out there. While zombie hunters should be able to slow zombies down, stealing AP would accomplish this much more effectively. As an experienced zombie, I would much rather lose my AP for the day than lose a week's worth of XP.
• Scope: All zombie hunter characters

A comment by Squashua about that suggestion states:

Kill - A more elegant (and acceptable) implementation of this would be to add a +5 to +10 AP penalty to standing up, simulating a longer healing time. --Squashua 19:40, 14 Nov 2005 (GMT)

It is currently unknown if this suggestion was the basis Kevan used for the change in Headshot.

The suggestion received 14 Keep votes vs. 10 Kill votes and based on the Suggestions Rules was placed into the Undecided Suggestions category as it did not receive 2/3rds of the total vote.