Developing Suggestions

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Developing Suggestions

This section is for general discussion of suggestions for the game Urban Dead.

It also includes the capacity to pitch suggestions for conversation and feedback.

Further Discussion

  • Discussion concerning this page takes place here.
  • Discussion concerning the suggestions system in general, including policies about it, takes place here.

Resources

How To Make a Discussion

Adding a New Discussion

To add a general discussion topic, please add a Tier 3 Header (===Example===) below, with your idea or proposal.


Adding a New Suggestion

  • Paste the copied text above the other suggestions, right under the heading.
  • Substitute the text in RED CAPITALS with the details of your suggestion.
  • The process is illustrated in this image.
{{subst:DevelopingSuggestion
|time=~~~~
|name=SUGGESTION NAME
|type=TYPE HERE
|scope=SCOPE HERE
|description=DESCRIPTION HERE
}}
  • Name - Give the suggestion a short but descriptive name.
  • Type is the nature of the suggestion, such as a new class, skill change, balance change.
  • Scope is who or what the suggestion affects. Typically survivors or zombies (or both), but occasionally Malton, the game interface or something else.
  • Description should be a full explanation of your suggestion. Include information like flavor text, search odds, hit percentages, etc, as appropriate. Unless you are as yet unsure of the exact details behind the suggestion, try not to leave out anything important. Check your spelling and grammar.

Cycling Suggestions

  • Suggestions with no new discussion in the past month may be cycled without notice.


Please add new discussions and suggestions to the top of the list


Suggestions

Rubble

Timestamp: Phil Nekro (talk) 23:00, 27 September 2016 (UTC)
Type: Adjustment
Scope: Ruined Buildings
Description: This change is partially predicated on the idea that Urban Dead's best days are behind it and that Kevan is not going to release an Android or iOS app in the future to bring in a new wave of users.

I've been playing the game off and on since 2005, and the apocalypse vibe is truly setting in. There are about as many people [actively playing now http://www.urbandead.com/stats.html] all over the city as there were at the First Siege of Caiger Mall alone. That's not necessarily a problem, but one of the effects of the suburbs being mostly empty is that the barricade system especially survivors when the population is low-density. As a solo survivor it's much easier to barricade a few buildings and free run from one to the next than it is as a solo zombie to break down even a Very Strongly Barricaded building and get inside with enough AP to accomplish anything. If you're not part of a coordinated group, I don't see how it's fun at all to be a zombie right now, much less a brand new zombie with low attack accuracy and no lurching gait, and I think that's reflected in the stats.

Therefore I think it would be helpful to have a deeper stage of Ruin that is more like Rubble: the roof has completely caved in, the interior stairwell is inaccessible, there are huge holes in the walls, etc. Essentially, take the descriptions from the Decay feature but make it something that can be done intentionally and with the added effect that the building becomes like a street square until it gets repaired, meaning it can't be used for free-running out of either.

Now, on the mechanics, I think a few considerations still need to be worked out because scale is important. If zombies could spend 10 AP doing this, it would definitely make mall sieges more like actual sieges because you could deny adjacent entryways to heavily barricaded areas just by ruining them. For any organized group, it seems like this would be incredibly overpowered.

Instead, the best balance I can think of is that after some number of days of being ruined (three sounds good to me), 10 AP can be used to reduce a building to 'Rubble' where it functions as a street square until repaired.

I also think this could be explained easily in-game as an effect of the continued decay of buildings in the city, so they're now weak enough that zombies can partially collapse them, and would be a replacement to the current Decay effect which takes more AP to repair the longer it's been in that state.

The positive effect is that zombies would be able to mark off territory more effectively and limit where survivors could easily hide. Places like Ridleybank would be immediately obvious as inhospitable except from a concerted effort by survivors to go in together, but it would help out zombies in safer neighborhoods too because it would throw a wrench into a lot of barricade plans.

For balance on the other side, I have two issues I haven't worked out because I play survivor more rarely.

The first is how much AP it should take to repair this, because I don't really know what would be a fair number to both sides and in most situations of varying population density.

The second is whether it would make sense for survivors still to be able to hide themselves in the rubble so that they can't be seen unless someone is in the same square as them. If it was completely like a street, I think that would be going too far. But the second biggest AP help to zombies would be being able to stand 'in' a Rubble building and still see the outside of the surrounding blocks without having to spend an AP going in and out.

As a coding issue, I have no idea how difficult it would be, but if the ability to 'hide' from people not in the same square as you were not included, it seems like all it would take is re-purposing some of the flavor text and temporarily changing a building into a street.

Summary: New zombie skill called 'Rubble'; replaces Ruin decay with a AP-costing action; Rubble buildings function like streets until repaired.

Discussion (Rubble)

The main difficulty I think is that a number of people use Big Game Ruin Hunting as their main play mechanic/motivation; removing/significantly altering the one-a-day ruin cost would really mess those people up. Bob Moncrief EBDW! 23:53, 27 September 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, but by 'a number' you're essentially saying maybe 20-30, if that, right? If there other bad effects I haven't considered, that's an issue but I don't think a couple dozen long time users are enough to veto something that would positively effect hundreds. Survivors lose permanent free-running entrance portals and zombies get a way to better invest AP, so as balance, there's a cap to how much AP that costs to undo. As a zombie, I'd have absolutely no problem with leaving it so Big Game Ruin Hunting could still work, but I imagine that would be considered unfair even though there are more zombie hunters than zombie hunters right now.--Phil Nekro (talk) 00:23, 28 September 2016 (UTC)

Urban Dead Go!

Timestamp: A ZOMBIE ANT 12:25, 21 July 2016 (UTC)
Type: Engine adjustment
Scope: Everyone
Description: A new app for your smartphone, Urban Dead Go! Or just UDG! for short, will implement Augmented Reality to turn your town into the new Malton. Fight across the world for survival against the undead scourge.

Urban Dead will thrive on this new platform, where looking through your camera phone will open your eyes to the real world before you: those playing the game as survivors will appear dishevelled and alive, those playing as zombies will look dishevelled and grey. Those around you that aren't playing the game will appear on your phone as office desks and vending machines that you must rummage through to get items.

Combat will be faithful to the game, that is, sticky and illogical. Whereas you attacking in UD by clicking, you will attack in UDG! by... clicking. You hold your phone out, aim it at your foe so he appears on your screen, and at melee range, tap the screen.. Just imagine 10 "zombies" surrounding a "survivor", aiming their phones at him while tapping away while the survivor squeals in virtual pain!

Using real buildings promotes trespassing, so UDG! will use virtual buildings as displayed on augmented reality. Just think of being in the middle of Central Park with a hundred other shaking, poor and twitchy survivors, all huddled in an imaginary area crying while surrounded by hundreds of groaning zombies, swiping with their phones at the "doors" in what will appear to an outsider to be a flashmob of mimes. This kind of activity will surely catch on in the hundreds of millions.

This future implementation lends perfectly to my last Developing Suggestion, the Micropayment suggestion, as well as all the interesting additions to that suggestion the UD community kindly promoted in a great effort to bring UD to a new glory. Let's be real, these two suggestions combined will no doubt make absolute bank for Kevan.

Please provide all your thoughts on how this game could work in the real world, I will compile them all for my elevator pitch to Mr Davis himself. Thank you all for your time and I look forward to working with you.

Discussion (Urban Dead Go!)

100% endorse. Bob Moncrief EBDW! 13:44, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

What would the role of flares be in such a game? Would they attract NPCs that could be used to gather XP, or would they function as they do now, doing virtually nothing at all, other than being used for over-the-top kills by PKers? Also, I'd need to hear some ideas about how free running would be handled before I'd be able to lend this idea my full support. Aichon 14:53, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

All I know is, we might need to get rid of the 'jumping from buildings' mechanic... A ZOMBIE ANT 21:50, 21 July 2016 (UTC)
After some thought, I've come up with an idea. In the above hypothetical at Central Park, if you attempt to go into the building with free running, you will be able to. However, if at EHB or without free running, obviously while you can physically go in there, your virtual self cannot. they will stay standing outside the building, idle until you walk back into them and assume control again. This will be explained by the flavour text "You attempt to freerun into the building, but [without the necessary skill/the building is too heavily barricaded and] you fall and become unconscious, having an out-of-body experience." Obviously during this time your avatar can be attacked by other players.
Needless to say, during this time that you are in the building but your avatar is outside, other players will see your real self as a fridge or shopping trolley to be rummaged through for items. A ZOMBIE ANT 23:26, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

Best suggestion ever 10/10..... Why aren't we funding this??!! Such good idea,much need implementation!!--PayneTrain(FU) 18:13, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

I would unironically love an App version of Urban Dead that took place in Malton, even if it had to have microtransactions that let people buy more AP to make it worth the effort financially to do.--Phil Nekro (talk) 23:00, 27 September 2016 (UTC)

Suggestions up for voting

The following are suggestions that were developed here but have since gone to voting. The discussions that were taking place here have been moved to the pages linked below.