PR Skill Change: Zombie

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This page is for the storage of Suggestions that have passed Peer Review and have been considered Good and Worthy Suggestions. To qualify for this page, the Suggestion must fit the following criteria:

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Skill Change: Zombie

Brain Rot

Brain Rot Gives +5% Attack

Timestamp: 01:54, 28 Dec 2005 (GMT)
Type: Skill modification
Scope: Zombies
Description: No, this isn't one of those "Make being revived optional" suggestions. I'm merely suggesting that getting brainrot could give an extra 5% to hit to all zombie attacks. It encourages players to permanently play as zombies and as a bonus gives career zombies a bit of a boost.
Notes: 37/49 Keep/Total. Most people liked it. Some people claimed that Zombies didn't need a buff where as others said it should be a skill under brain rot instead of directly affecting it.
  • Was "Brain Rot Modification".
Left Queue: 06:29, 13 May 2006 (BST)

Brain Rot Purchase Warning

Timestamp: 16:38, 4 Dec 2005 (GMT)
Type: Interface
Scope: people purchasing Brain Rot skill (or any other skill that blocks off part of the skill tree)
Description: I just accidentially purchased Brain Rot on my human character while picking up a few zombie skills with my 700 saved up XP. Whoops! Would be nice if there was a confirmation step for such irreversible skills. A simple JavaScript confirm() box, for example.
Notes: 25/28 Keep/Total.
  • This would remove all the whiners that bitch about their lost flak jackets.
  • Just like the warning about jumping from a building. That actually saved me once from an accidental click.
  • Was "Warning when purchasing Brain Rot".
Left Queue: 13:58, 19 Dec 2005 (GMT)

Rotted Since

Timestamp: 22:13, 24 June 2006 (BST)
Type: Profile addition
Scope: Zombies
Description: Taking Brain Rot is a pretty big event in a zombie's career. It's the point of no return, and signals that you are wholly committed to the zombie way. As such, I think the event should be recorded for posterity.

Currently profiles contain dates for "Joined" and "First died." I'd like to see the addition of a third date, "Rotted since," which would display the date the player purchased Brain Rot (if applicable).

Notes: 18/18 Keep/Total. Well accepted as is.
Left Queue: 07:44, 8 July 2006 (BST)

Death Rattle

Add "i" To Zedalphabet

Timestamp: 03:48, 7 July 2006 (BST)
Type: Skill change
Scope: Zombies & survivors with zombie friends
Description: Simple and minor. Zombies who wish to fully express themselves are already using ! as an i substitute (as in z!ng!ng, singing; bra!nz, brains).

This suggestion would clean that up by adding i to the list of letters allowed in Death Rattle.

However, the following groundrules would be established for the use of i to make sure the Zombie vocabulary does not expand too much:

1. i will always be followed by h (the program will insert an h if absent).

2. The construction ai is excepted from the above rule.

3. The constructions ia and ii are illegal, and the program will replace them with a.

In effect, Zombies will be able to form two new vowel sounds:

1. the short i, ih (as in bihg manbagz)

2. the diphthong ai (as in harman brrrainz)

Sounds outside of this range (such as the long i in diver and the ia construction in liar) are impossible to reproduce using i under the suggested rules.

Remember, zombies can already make any number of uncharacteristic "i" sounds using "!". One zombie can even tell another that he "abm!arz" (admires) him, definitely not a canon Zombie word.

This suggestion is intended to give zombies access to a "prettier" i as long as they use it within the reasonable bounds of Zombie linguistics. This suggestion would be useful for zombies who like to remain in-character and not break the fourth wall of the game by using Death Rattle exploits.

To sum up: "ih" and "ai" are accepted undead sounds in zombie movies, therefore they should be in the game.

Notes: 16/20 Keep/Total. Well accepted as is.
  • Was "Add I To Zedphalbet".
Left Queue: 06:46, 21 July 2006 (BST)

Zombies Understand Each Other

Timestamp: 16:40, 16 Dec 2005 (GMT)
Type: improvement
Scope: Zombies
Description: Basically this change would result in zombies, who have the death rattle skill, being able to communicate clearly with other zombies (Even those without Death Rattle). If the character that hears it is a zombie, they can hear whatever the zombie typed in his speak box. Humans hear it to, but after being fed through the Death rattle filter that seems to be in place (So zombies can still say "Grab mah hangan zambah banana bagz harman! HAR HAR HAR!! if they so chose, and it would appear like that to all present.) This would allow zombies to recruit in game without using human alts, and allow zombie players to pass on message board locations and the like to others. It would add depth to the game, and simulate the collective conciousness that appears present in zombie movies.
Notes: 29/35 Keep/Total. Generaly well accepted, most people voting kill were doing so because they belived that Zombies should require another skill to be able to communicate clearly.
  • Was "Zombie in game communication".
Left Queue: 10:40, 6 May 2006 (BST)

Feeding Groan

Groan Explanation For Newbs

Timestamp: 02:41, 10 July 2006 (BST)
Type: Skill Change.
Scope: New Zombies.
Description: Its tough being a newbie zombie. Forced to ZK and not understanding most Groans. My idea is to change Feeding groan messages for new zombies. The first five groan messages the zombie gets would be "You hear a Distant Groaning so and so away, This signifies a strong survivor presence, which is a source of good XP." The message could be something to that effect. All I'm saying is most Noobs don't know the difference between a Groan and a PKer.
Notes: 24/27 Keep/Total. Well accepted as is. However some people though it should be shown elsewhere such as the FAQ.
  • Was "Feeding Groan Change".
Left Queue: 08:38, 24 July 2006 (BST)

Groan Heard Inside Ransacked

Timestamp: Jon Pyre 00:41, 20 October 2006 (BST)
Type: Improvement
Scope: Zombies
Description: Feeding Groan could originally be heard indoors until it was pointed it this counterproductively alerted survivors to break-ins. Now it can only be heard outside. I suggest changing this so you can hear groans from inside buildings when they are ransacked. Reason that the windows are smashed open, or other fixtures damaged in ways that let sound pass inside. Right now if a zombie wants to hold a ransacked building they have to forsake being able to hear feeding groans. Because of this few zombies are willing to stay indoors and will vacate a building without a fight. This change would let zombies hold territory and actually level up at the same time.
Notes: 27/32 Keep/Total. Well accepted as is.
  • Was "Ransack Improvement".
Left Queue: 01:13, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Groan Louder If 20+ Survivors

Timestamp: 20:30, 10 June 2006 (BST)
Type: Skill adjustment
Scope: Zombies with Feeding Groan
Description: If a zombie is faced with more than 20 survivors and uses the Feeding Groan skill, the emitted Groan is louder. As a normal feeding groan is displayed as "You heard a low groaning from somewhere", a frenzied groan would be shown as "You heard frenzied groaning from somewhere" or with some other text, still so, that it would be clearly different from the usual groaning messages. The groan would be heard in a six block radius as usual.
Notes: 19/20 Keep/Total. Well accepted as is.
  • Was "Frenzied Groan".
Left Queue: 02:52, 30 June 2006 (BST)

Only Show Last 24hrs Groans

Timestamp: 12:26, 17 April 2006 (BST)
Type: improvement
Scope: Zombies (mainly)
Description: I think that when a zombie logs in they should only see the last days worth of feeding groans. This is to reduce the ridiculously large amount of spam you get when you log in. One day is easily sufficient because nothing older then that is going to be any use in finding safehouses and, in practice, it usually has to be minutes ago in order to be of any use. It also makes sense: if dead bodies can't hear, possibly useful, talking, then why should they have to read several pages of spam!

Sum up: Zombie only hear the last days worth of feeding groans.

Notes: 21/23 Keep/Total. Well accepted as is, however the people who killed did so as some people may want to follow in the wake of destruction from a hoard of Zombies.
  • Was "Only show last days worth of feeding groans".
Left Queue: 06:18, 21 June 2006 (BST)

Timestamp Multiple Groans

Timestamp: 07:26, 24 Jan 2006 (GMT)
Type: improvement
Scope: zombies
Description: I apologize for repeating this idea, but I forgot to add a revised tag to this when I edited it a few days ago. Hopefully people will take a look at this and some of the changes I've made.

I have a zombie character who is taking part in the Mall Tour. When I log in after 24 hours, I discover about 60-70 feeding groans spamming the page. This is a little bit annoying to look at for everyone, and can make it tedious to look through all of the messages to find out if anything important happened to your zombie.

So...I would suggest that feeding groans from the same location be combined, with the number of groans in parentheses and the timestamp of the most recent one displayed (with the timestamps of the previous groans displayed below so a player can decide if a recent groan is worth spending the AP to investigate it) i.e.

You heard a groan from 2 blocks south and 1 block west (4 times) 1-20 18:36 GMT

1-19 18:24 GMT, 1-19 18:26 GMT, 1-19 18:32 GMT, 1-20 18:36 GMT

I think this would work out well for the game, it cleans up our screens, avoids some boring work, yet still gives the information that's become very valueable to lower level zombies. If most of you disagree, it would at least make a nice addition to the Firefox extensions.

(I have to give most of the credit to Scary Uncle and Smoked for this, they took an idea of mine and made it something that works)

Notes: 23/23 Keep/Total. Well accepted as is.
  • Was "Taking Spam out of Feeding Groan (revised)".
Left Queue: 07:25, 26 May 2006 (BST)

Flailing Gestures

Flailing Gestures With Speech

Timestamp: Canuhearmenow Hunt! 01:54, 14 October 2006 (BST)
Type: Skill addition.
Scope: better communication.
Description: This is simple. A zombie with flailing gestures and Death Rattle should be able to say something to go with them pointing in a direction, achieved by a dialogue box with the flailing gestures move. For example, "A zombie gestures to the North-West and says Harmanz Rnside!" Would be a simple addition, it costs 2 AP to do this (For the Flailing Gesture and the Speech) and costs 1 IP hit, not to mention it's less of an eyesore.
Notes: 21/21 Keep/Total. Well accepted as is.
  • Was "Flailing gestures change (Changed)".
Left Queue: 00:36, 29 October 2006 (BST)

Point To Crowds

Timestamp: Jon Pyre 06:56, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
Type: Improvement
Scope: Zombies
Description: There are a few additional things I would like to be able to point to as a zombie: zombies, as a whole, and survivors, as a whole. You can point to individuals but not to everyone present collectively: "A zombie points to the humans". They'd be nice options to have.
Notes: 18/18 Keep/Total. You nano-mouse.
  • Was "Point To Crowds With Flailing Gesture".
Left Queue: 10:38, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Infectious Bite

Infection Related XP Gains

Timestamp: MrAushvitz Canadianflag-sm.jpg 19:03, 7 September 2006 (BST)
Type: XP gain for survivors/zombies
Scope: XP grants reflect a desire to spread/stop infection
Description: Infection Related XP Gains
  • +1 XP award granted: if your FAK use cured infection. Either for yourself, another survivor, or even on a zombie!
  • +2 XP award granted: to zombies who cause infection in any non-infected survivor. ("Spread The Love!")

It's all pretty basic, I'd just like to see an XP grant awarded to survivors who who do what they can to curtail the spread of infection. A reasonable medical assistance bonus. But on the flipside, I'd also like to see an award to zombies who took the time to purchace infectious bite, and do all they can to give it to each survivor... one at a time. (Making them waste more AP for medical reasons, less AP for barricading...) It can make just making it into a safehouse and you only have 5 AP left.. not so bad for your zombie XP wise if he places a few bites all around.

Infectious bite is so easy to treat (if you didn't forget to keep that one FAK!) I'd just like to see a reasonable XP reward around to reflect it's "danger", besides, your survivor won't feel so bad getting infected if it gets them a bit more experience every now and again.

And again, spreading infection is what zombies do.. so the XP grant is an obvious one.

Notes: 25/28 Keep/Total. Well accepted as is.
Left Queue: 22:01, 10 October 2006 (BST)

Memories Of Life

Open Door From Within

Timestamp: 19:07, 9 March 2006 (GMT)
Type: Skill change
Scope: Zombies with Memories of Life
Description: The point of this skill change would be to allow zombies who are already inside the building, to open closed doors when the barricades are down. As it stands zombies can only open the door when they enter an unbarricaded building and it stays open until someone closes it. The problem is that to get the doors open again, a zombie has to leave and then reenter the building. A small change to the Memories of Life skill would give the open to Open the Doors, in place of Close the Doors when the doors have been shut and the barricades have been removed. Opening the doors from the inside of the building would cost 1 AP.

Short Version: Zombies inside a building can open the doors after the barricades are down without having to leave/reenter. Costs 1 AP.

Notes: Passed unanimously with 17 Keeps.
  • Was "Open from Within Mk. 2".
Left Queue: 21:21, 23 March 2006 (GMT)

Remove Doors, Provide Crossover Skills

Timestamp: 13:13, 14 June 2006 (BST)
Type: Skill Change
Scope: Zombies
Description: Closed doors and memories of life are a throwback to the old days of Malton when there were no barricades in the game, at all. At that point in the game, it made sense. Not anymore. Assume that the server is reset, a level 1 zombie will not be able to level up at all without ZKing. Doesnt that indicate something fundamentally wrong? Not having memories of life is like a 100% effective barricade against low level undead. If anything, getting the message "The building's doors are closed. You do not know how to open doors." from a building he heard a groan from / broke the barricades to, is very disheartening. Something needs to change.

1) Get rid of doors. Apart from simplifying the game (and lessening the code), it'll help newbie zombies a lot, the ones in fact, who need the most help. Now, we cant just have a useless skill, so that brings us to

2) Memories of Life now lets zombies use Diagnosis, NT Employment and Hand to Hand combat for Blunt weapons.

As of this moment, zombies can use Diagnosis and NT Employment anyway. Letting MoL activate these skills makes sense flavour wise. Now, zombies can already carry and use blunt weapons, except at pathetic hit rates. By opening this avenue, we can have an alternate way for freshly killed survivors to level up and gain XP from (As opposed to taking the Vigour Mortis route).

Notes: 38/42 Keep/Total. Well accepted as is.
  • Was "Changes to Memories of Life".
Left Queue: 03:14, 30 June 2006 (BST)

Scent Blood

Scent Map / Radar

Timestamp: 06:48, 4 June 2006 (BST)
Type: Improvement
Scope: Scent Blood
Description: Scent blood is currently mostly redundant with Diagnosis and zombies could use an information upgrade to compensate for the new radio skill. Here's an idea to fix both problems:

The skill Scent Blood in addition to its current benefits would also allow zombies to "Catch Scent" of the immediate area around them. This would be a new button that would appear when outdoors they cost press for for 1AP. They'd catch scent of two things while sniffing: the rotting scent of fellow zombies and the fresh blood of recently killed survivors. It'd do so by bring up a 5x5 map similar to Necronet centered on the zombie's position. There'd be a few differences though since this isn't an actual map but a representation of the zombie's sense of smell. The details are as follows (please read this part closely as this is the crux of the suggestion):

  • Unlike the necronet map squares would not be colored based on the land type. Color would instead be based on the smell of rotting flesh given off by standing zombies. If no zombies are present in that square the square color is grey. 1-5 zombies are represented by pale green. 5-15 are represented by ordinary green. 15-30 zombies are represented by dark green. More than 30 zombies are represented by a black square.
  • Zombies are more sensitive to the scent of fresh blood and thus can precisely pinpoint the number of fallen survivors in a location. On the 5x5 chart the number of bodies that have been killed but not yet stood as zombies that are outside would be marked on each square in red text. This includes those that were dumped from indoors.

What would this ability do for zombies? It would allow them to find and track hordes easily. It would also help them select targets by showing where fellow zombies have successfully struck in the recent past. Where Feeding Groan serves as a "Come and get it" kind of dinner bell for zombies catching scent would help them choose where to go in the absense of groans or when moving into a new area before they've heard groans yet. Seeing killed survivors in the immediate area would also act as a morale boost for zombies. A zombie player may get disheartened if they haven't killed a survivor in a long time but seeing that the overall zombie attack on the suburb is leaving plenty of dead survivors piled up would serve as a scorecard bound to raise undead spirits. This suggestion at the same time is not overpowering since it does not allow give zombies X-Ray equivalent powers to see through buildings. It doesn't give away the presence of survivors until zombies have already found them and killed some.

Notes: 15/19 Keep/Total. Well accepted as is.
  • Was "Scent Blood Upgrade To Improve Zombie Coordination".
Left Queue: 02:07, 30 June 2006 (BST)

Scent Death

Concentration of Zombies

Timestamp: Jon Pyre 08:18, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
Type: Improvement
Scope: Scent Death
Description: I suggest improving Scent Death to give a rough estimate of the number of zombies and how concentrated they are in a 9x9 area centered on the player. This would include zombies both indoors and outdoors, standing or dead (not reviving). Half of the added message would give this information:
  • 0: "You sense no other zombies."
  • 1-15: "You sense few zombies"
  • 16-30: "You sense a couple zombies"
  • 31-60: "You sense several zombies"
  • 60-99: "You sense many zombies"
  • 100-150: "You sense a large number of zombies"
  • 151-225: "You sense a huge zombie presence"
  • 225-500: "You sense hundreds of zombies"
  • 501-999: "You sense many hundreds of zombies"
  • 1000+: "The area is swarming with zombies"

The second half would give a rough estimate of their average concentration, counting those indoors and outdoors as in the same location for purposes of the calculation:

  • "They are spread apart thinly"
  • "They are in numerous small hordes"
  • "They are in several large hordes"
  • "They are in a few giant hordes"
  • "They are mostly in one location"

This should prove useful to zombies in knowing more or less what the condition of their side in the area is.

Notes: 16/20 Keep/Total. (80%) Well accepted as is.
  • Was "Scent Death: Add Pop and Concentration Estimates".
  • Suggested swapping 'a few' and 'a couple'.
Left Queue: 19:42, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Scent Death Options

Timestamp: 05:22, 9 June 2006 (BST)
Type: Skill, Improvement
Scope: Zombies
Description: Here's a nifty idea to make Scent Death much more helpful: allow players to try smelling for different things! Right now Scent Death doesn't allow for any player input or strategy, it just turns up either the local revive point or a single big siege. What I propose is putting a drop-down menu next to the Scent Death button with a few options. They would be as follows:
  • Decay - Decay is the default and operates as Scent Death does now, counting zombies and corpses.
  • Undead - Turns up the largest nearby group of standing zombies.
  • Rot - Turns up the largest nearby group of zombies/undead corpses with Brain Rot.
  • Horde - Turns up the largest nearby gathering of zombies/undead corpses in your group (this option only appears if you have a group listed.)
  • Ruin - The zombie smells for damaged buildings (dust, rotted wood, etc.). Turns up the largest nearby group of standing zombies inside a ransacked building.

These five options would suit different playing styles, and provide more utility from Scent Death. The horde option in particular would be extremely handy and would replace a lot of what metagaming does now, and what speech/radio does for survivors. This would also make Scent Death far more crucial, giving it good reason to be at the start of the zombie scent skill tree.

Notes: 29/31 Keep/Total. Well accepted as is.
  • Was "Zombie Player Options When Using Scent Death".
Left Queue: 02:36, 30 June 2006 (BST)

Revived Contacts Smell Strange

Timestamp: 17:20, 4 July 2006
Type: Minor improvement
Scope: Players with Scent Death
Description: Pretty simple change. Just a change to Scent Death to allow it to specify the state of contacts' bodies. Currently, the skill shows the number of zombies which have been revived, and it has always been possible to distinguish the bodies of contacts on the ground. It seems logical that the bodies of contacts should state whether or not they have already been revived (ie. smell strange). This would be a largely cosmetic change, but may carry some functionality, particularly for survivor groups.
Notes: 15/16 Keep/Total. Well accepted as is.
  • Was "Scent Death modification".
Left Queue: 08:10, 18 July 2006 (BST)

Scent Drop-Down Menu

Timestamp: 14:33, 14 July 2006 (BST)
Type: Skill Improvement
Scope: Zombies
Description: That the "Scent Death" button to be changed to a "Scent" button with a dropdown menu. This would make it considerably easier to add new "Scent" options to the game, as each skill would just add a new option to the dropdown instead of cluttering the screen with superfluous buttons. The Scent button would become available as soon as you gained a skill that required it.
  • Note: I originally bundled this with a scent skill, but have withdrawn it for reworking. Felt I should put this up on its own so that people could vote on it without having to vote on the accompanied skill(s) --Gene Splicer 17:25, 14 July 2006 (BST)
Notes: 19/20 Keep/Total. Well accepted as is.
  • Was "Scent Death Interface Alteration".
Left Queue: 13:58, 28 July 2006 (BST)

Scent Trail

Scent Trail Contacts

Timestamp: 21:12, 29 August 2006 (BST)
Type: Innovation?
Scope: Zombies with contacts
Description: If you're a survivor, you have the fun of being able to use your phone to talk to anyone on your contact list for a scant 2 AP. What do you get if you add people and play as a zombie? You can tell who they are in a horde or corpse pile. Whee.

With this, though, I hope to add a bit more of a reason for zombies to use said feature. For 5 AP you can use scent trail with your contacts to find out their location in relation to your position. You can only use this from about a suburb away for exact location, and the AP cost is fairly (though not excessively) high, so as to prevent people from turning it into a deathproof version of Scent Trail's current ability. That way, you can have your friends join you in a shambling horde, but you can't use it so much for revenge. Survivors can't be detected by this ability unless they are wounded (25 HP).

I would have this as a separate skill, but there's not much therein to merit spending 100 XP without significantly decreasing the AP cost or increasing the distance, and then what's the point of the original Scent Trail skill?

This is a revised version, factoring in griefing uses and concerns by survivors regarding posthumous use.

Notes: 8/11 Keep/Total. Suggested it should be mutual contacts only, and some worry over the amount of contacts some people have.
  • Was "Scent Trail Contacts (2nd Revision?)".
Left Queue: 20:26, 10 October 2006 (BST)

Scent Trail for Zombie Attacks

Timestamp: Matt Scott 9 18:53, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
Type: Skill change
Scope: Zombie skill enhancement
Description: The description for Scent Trail currently reads, "Zombie is able to sense the new positions of survivors it's had recent contact with." But this is only partly true, since it currently only applies to survivor-initiated contact.

I suggest that in addition Scent Trail should also be triggered when the zombie successfully attacks a survivor (they would after all certainly have gained the human's scent). This would allow zombies to track a wounded survivor if it tries to make a getaway, or if the zombie runs out of AP and has to log back in later (that is, if it hasn't been headshot yet).

The current rules for Scent Trail would still apply. The scent expires when the zombie is killed, successfully revived, or if the targeted survivor is killed, or if they are more than 10 blocks away. Only one scent could be active at a time, which means each new scent would replace any existing scents. And the current description wouldn't even have to change.

Notes: 13/14 Keep/Total.
  • Was "Scent Trail for Zombie Attacks too"
Left Queue: 13:00, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Tangling Grasp

Broken Grasp

Timestamp: 14:45, 9 Feb 2006 (GMT)
Type: Feedback Improvement
Scope: Zombies
Description: At current, the Tangling Grasp skill is difficult to use in any sort of situation involving attacks of more than one zombie; in other words, pretty much the entire game. I’d like to see additional text and information given about Tangling Grasp to the zombie player that has it and any characters that break other zombie’s holds.
  • When you are holding a human, display some sort of confirmation of the hold on the zombie’s screen; a simple “You are currently holding RandomSurvivor with your claws.�? will suffice.
  • A message if another zombie attacks your current target and breaks your grip, with the zombie’s name. “RandomZombie attacks RandomSurvivor and causes you to lose your grip !�?
  • A message to the zombie who attacks a target if he has broken another zombie’s hold. “You maul RandomSurvivor for 3 damage. You break OtherZombie’s hold on him. You grab hold of RandomSurvivor.�?
Notes: 14/14 Keep/Total. Well accepted as is.
  • Was "Additional Text for Tangling Grasp".
Left Queue: 11:51, 1 June 2006 (BST)

Frightening Touch

Timestamp: 01:59, 23 May 2006 (BST)
Type: New zombie action
Scope: Dead zombies with Tangling Grasp skill
Description: As most of us have seen on zombie movies, or even zombie games, these nasty creatures tend to awake of their corpse-like state in the less pleasant moments, grabbing on the legs of shocked passing by survivors and eating the contents. So, to translate this into game, without suggesting something like "WTF NINJA ZOMBIES!!", any dead zombie (by dead zombie i mean dead body, but not revivifying corpses) that have already purchased the "Tangling Grasp" skill can, by a dropbox next to the "stand up" button, automatically grab hold of any survivor on the same square with 100% success rate and no extra AP cost than the normal "stand up" cost (10 normally, 1 with Anke grab, and adding 5 if headshot). When you grab the survivor, its the same as if you grabbed hold of him by clawing it, no special attributes, and the survivor gets a notification like this: "As you stand between the corpses, your heart stops as one of them grasps on your leg! A zombie grabs hold of you" (with the "a zombie" words linked to the zombie profile as usual).

At first i thought about this ability triggering with the normal "stand up" button, grabbing the top survivor of the stack, but as i thought of it more, zombies that only want a revive wont want to grab hold of scientist menacingly, as that wuold reduce their chances of a friendly response (altough i must confess the image of a zombie grabbing the scientist from his coat and desperately requesting "Mrh? Mrh?" made me laugh at first). So, in resume, if this gets implemented any dead body (again: not revivifying corpses) with the Tangling Grasp skill will have, next to his "stand up" button, another button (possibly "Grab") with a dropbox.

This ability adds flavour to the game, makes playing a zombie more fun, does NOT unbalance the game at all (the zombie only grabs hold of a survivor, doesnt damage him for free or anything, and tell me for real: how often do you log in with your zombie to find it dead with a survivor in the same square?), and my goldfish like it. Anything else?

Notes: 39/42 Keep/Total. Well accepted as is, some people however thought this wouldn't occur enough to be worth while implementing.
Left Queue: 08:47, 29 June 2006 (BST)

Vigour Mortis

Remove Vigour Mortis

Timestamp: 02:04, 4 Jan 2006 (GMT)
Type: Stat/skill alteration
Scope: Zombies
Description: It is my opinion that vigour mortis should not be in this game, and that all zombies should have the vigour mortis attack rates as a default. A full explanation of my reasons, as well as a discussion, can be found in this topic: http://zombies.desensitised.net/board/index.php?topic=4710.0, but basically the game was not made to be played without the skill. VM is the only skill zombies are allowed to start with, and zombies without vigour mortis are so pathetic that they'd be better off trying to get XP as a human exclusively by dumping bodies (and would accomplish more there too). Even a level 0 human can effectively heal people and gain XP at a reasonable rate, yet a level zero zombie, which is any survivor who is killed, can do nothing BUT go to a revive point. Thus, since all real zombies have the VM attack rate anyways, the only purpose it serves is to make it impossible for slain survivors to play dead unless they happened to be holding onto 100 XP they didn't want to save. This is part of why there's so few zombies and the main reason for revive points. Additionally, it forces Kevan to not let zombies start with another skill when making a character, since all classes only start with one skill, which makes zombies weaker and harder to level. New players should have a rough time getting powerful at first, but this makes it way rougher than it needs to be for one side and discourages people, especially dead survivors, from playing zombies.

I propose that Kevan remove the Vigour Mortis skill and give all zombies the attack rates of a zombie with VM as their base attack rate. He should instead either make some zombie classes in earnest or start zombies off with 100 XP to spend however they want (note--that choice wouldn't be unfair since at best it would balance out the advantage of humans starting out with a useful item or two that they would have spent part of their first day searching for). Any player who possesses Vigour Mortis at the time of the update will be refunded 100 XP, whether they're currently breathing or lurching, since that is what they had to have either spent it on or what they have to pay to get the skill they should have started with instead. Notice that the range of zombie attacks would be exactly the same as now, with the same rate for starters and the same rate for maxed as right now, but there would just be nobody stuck below the threshold of a decent attack in a class that has attacking as its only action. Edit: Seeing those votes, I feel compelled to point out that this does NOT punish anyone. At all. Anyone who bought the skill is getting a full refund of 100 XP, even if they're now a human, because that's exactly what they paid for it. You could say its helping them slightly since that refund is the equivalent of gaining another level overnight, although I suddenly fear stating it that way will make someone misread it and think this is a huge buff when its actually a recompense. I also must point out that the main effect of vigour mortis is that you CANNOT play a zombie unless you buy it. Even if you had every noncombat zombie skill in the game you'd still be almost worthless. And a revived zombie can in fact play as a human quite easily, he can probably level through healing faster than a doctor. Plus, the mere fact that they can jump out a window says Kevan didn't intend for them to feel obliged to play humans, while the fact that you can't revive yourself says the opposite of dead survivors.

ReEdit: I don't like having to make two edits, but READ THE SUGGESTION BEFORE YOU VOTE. At least half those kill votes are based off an assumption that I said in both the origional and the edit wasn't true, such as that this will hurt people who already have it, hurt newbie zombies or leave them without a starting skill. I don't want to do through and post ten RE comments, so just think of this as the universal RE: reread the suggestion, specifically the second paragraph and first edit.

Notes: 37/52 Keep/Total, almost all agreed that the starting to hit percentage of zombies needs a boost, but a substancial amount of the voters gave preference to the Zombie Hand Attack Accuracy Revision above because that doesn't remove a skill.
Left Queue: 11:28, 19 Jan 2006 (GMT)