Suggestion:20070517 Scents of Direction

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Contents 1 20070517 Scents of Direction 1.1 Voting Section

[edit] 20070517 Scents of Direction

Seb_Wiers VeM 02:42, 17 May 2007 (BST)

Suggestion type
Skill

Suggestion scope
Zombies

Suggestion description
Concept: a GPS unit for zombies

Flavor / Justification: Areas and buildings in Malton have always had distinctive smells, and this is especially so after two years of unsanitary ripening. By remembering these smells and comparing the smells' relative strengths and directions, zombies know how far they have moved and in what direction. As the sense of smell is strongly tied to memory, zombie's with this ability are unlikely to ever become lost, and easily navigate to their hunting grounds.

Specifics: "Scents of Direction" would be a new zombie skill. It would have no pre-requisite, but it would be required for the purchase of "Scent Trail". Characters who already have "Scent Trail" would not loose that skill, and could purchase "Scents of Direction" (or not) as normal. Characters (zombies and survivors) who have the "Scents of Direction" skill would see their GPS type co-ordinates displayed (next to the building name) along with other scene description text. So instead of seeing "You are standing outside The Blackmore Building", such characters would see "You are standing outside The Blackmore Building (55,47).

Game Impact: Almost none. The info is already there in the source code, or easy to find on a map. The main change is in ease of using that info, and this benefits survivors equally (its a "crosover skill"). The main game impact is that this would break up the "scent tree" so that zombies who wanted "Scent Trail" (a powerful skill) would not automatically get easy access to "Scent Blood" (another powerful skill), and vice versa.

[edit] Voting Section

Voting Rules

Votes must be numbered, signed, and timestamped. # justification ~~~~ Votes that do not conform to the above may be struck by any user.

The only valid voting sections are Keep, Kill, Spam and Dupe. If you wish to abstain from voting, do not vote.

Keep Votes

1. Keep - Author vote. Please forgive the horrible pun. --Seb_Wiers VeM 02:44, 17 May 2007 (BST)
2. Keep - I actually liked the pun. One question though... you said this was a crossover skill? Does that mean that survivors wouldn't need GPS units anymore? I'm not sure I like that idea. --Uncle Bill 02:48, 17 May 2007 (BST)

   Correct, survivors wouldn't need GPS if they bought the skill as a zombie. Call it a 4% encumbrance buff to balance out the new zombie skill. I'd considered making it NOT cross over, so that survivors would use GPS, and zombies use their noses, but some other scent skills also cross over, at least partly, and this one logically would. If GPS units were given another function (such as "set home base") then survivors might still want them. And of course, they still help all those folks who have not yet / can not / will not buy the zombie skill. --Seb_Wiers VeM 03:03, 17 May 2007 (BST)

3. Keep Allthough I wouldn't make it a cross-over skill. Perhaps zombies have keener senses, as allready implied in the other scent-skills. -BzAli 09:21, 17 May 2007 (BST)
4. Keep - Why not? I find the GPS really useless anyway. Why not just make it a passive skill. Plus I like the idea Swiers raises about allowing survivors to set their GPS units to a home location, similar to the 'home' Firefox extension that was around a while ago. --_Ducis ^Dux_Sloth^Talk 10:56, 17 May 2007 (BST)
5. Keep - well, it nerfs low level zombies, as they need more XP to have powerfull skills, but still i find it good --Duke Garland_T^{LCD SSZ} 11:06, 17 May 2007 (BST)
6. Keep - I like it generally, but I probably would prefer it not to be a crossover skill. --Rgon 19:05, 17 May 2007 (BST)
7. Keep --Bluish wolf 22:45, 18 May 2007 (BST)
8. Keep I like it. It is very minor, but still worthwhile.--Jakey07 16:57, 21 May 2007 (BST)
9. Keep -- Yay! --Lord Evans 19:03, 21 May 2007 (BST)
10. Gorram Strong Keep - First off, this skill just makes sense. Second, bad puns FTW! --Sgt. John Taggart^{UNIT 11/5 WCDZ TJ!} 19:37, 21 May 2007 (BST)
11. Keep - Not too happy with it being a crossover. Besides that, I like it. --Heavy DDR 23:14, 21 May 2007 (BST)
12. Keep -- This should go under "Memories of Life" on the skill tree, not "Scent Fear," and it shouldn't crossover. Shame on you for the pun, too. ;) -- Firemanrik 02:20, 24 May 2007 (BST)

    It doesn't go under "Scent Fear". It doesn't go under anything; its a "root" skill that "Scent Trail" would depend on. ("Scent Trail" allows knowing where your victims has moved to without following them, and hence logically would benefit from / be developed after an ability like this.) --Seb_Wiers VeM 02:38, 24 May 2007 (BST)

    I see what you're saying, however it seems a bit more likely to me that this would be more deeply connected to a pre-death familiarity with the city, hence tying it to "Memories of Life." But that's neither here nor there as it's the skill that's important, not it's location on the Skills Tree. Are you proposing "Scent Trail" should be moved out of the "Scent Fear" tree entirely, or just having it dependent on 2 root skills? -- Firemanrik 21:36, 24 May 2007 (BST)

Kill Votes

1. Kill/Change - Change to just a zombie skill and I'll change my vote to keep. --Sonofagun18 06:26, 17 May 2007 (BST)
2. Kill/Change I agree. Don't make scent trail harder to get. I'd vote keep if this was just an additional skill. --Jon Pyre 11:37, 17 May 2007 (BST)

   Scent trail already has a pre-requisite skill ("Scent Fear")- this just gives it a different pre-req. What that does is it makes it harder to get both the "Scent Trail" and the "Scent Blood" skill. They have very different functions, so should not have the same pre-requisite. --Seb_Wiers VeM 12:31, 17 May 2007 (BST)

3. Kill/Change - It should be a crossover skill. --The Hierophant 17:42, 20 May 2007 (BST)

   Do you mean "It should not be a crossover skill? --Seb_Wiers VeM 18:01, 20 May 2007 (BST)

4. KILL! It makes no sense that the zombies know where they are. Many humans don't even have a sense of direction! But you do have something going with this. Why not have a completely different direction skill? Think about it, Zombies are more animalistic... Have you ever read about how ants find their direction? They can zig zag in every way possible, but somehow they are always able to tell what direction is home. So maybe, have it so Zombies can find a direction to home (maybe where they were killed?). Not how far there, not current location, just "You sense a place of great trama to the NW" or something StarDolphin 17:28, 21 May 2007 (BST)

Spam/Dupe Votes

1. Spam - As I read the suggestion I wonder if this "zombie boost" overweights the disadvatages of having to spend 100 XP and the difficult accessibility to other skills (namely, scent trail). Also, you're making GPSs useless: as far as I can remember, there are no skills (and shouldn't be) that totally replace the benefits an item could grant you, and viceversa. --Matthew Fahrenheit ^YRC☺T☺+1 04:21, 17 May 2007 (BST)
2. Above. --Axe Bullet killed Axe Hack!!! 12:43, 17 May 2007 (BST)
3. Doesn't GPS units cross-over and works for zombies as well? As above.--ShadowScope 18:21, 17 May 2007 (BST)

   Pick ups a GPS as a survivor and then get killed; you'll notice you don't see ANY of your inventory items, which means you no longer see your GPS and its co-ordinate indicator. --Seb_Wiers VeM 02:38, 18 May 2007 (BST)

   Huh. Still, as above. Actually, it might be better to make GPS Units cross-over for zombies (like flak jackets), but, well, that may already be a dupe.--ShadowScope 03:22, 18 May 2007 (BST)