Suggestion:20070619 Zombie Skills categories : Body and Brain

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20070619 Zombie Skills categories : Body and Brain

. 02:04, 19 June 2007 (BST)

Suggestion type
skill tree revision

Suggestion scope
zombie skills

Suggestion description
Newly dead zombies have a rather hard time buying crucial skills, while high level zombies (or survivors with xp to spare) can buy all the zombie skills easily. As a result, it is very hard for a newly created survivor character to take up play as a zombie, even a low level one, while its very easy for an experienced survivor to become a powerful zombie. This makes little sense, and this suggestion aims to make things a bit easier on new players who find themselves dead and may decide to / have to stay that way, without making things easier for high level characters.

I suggest that zombie skills be divided into two "classes"- Body skills, and Brain skills.
Body skills would be considered "in class" for zombies, and would cost 75 xp each, making things easier on the newly deceased who need skills such as Vigor Mortis. They represent pure physiological ability and require little co-ordination and / or only the crudest instinctive behavior.
Brain skills are those that require more co-ordinated control of ones corpse, or a bit of learned behavior. They would be "out of class" and would cost 150 xp, as befits the fact that zombies don't learn quickly.

Skills would be divided as follows:

Body Skills (75xp):xxxxxxxxxx Vigour Mortis Neck Lurch Death Grip Rending Flesh Lurching Gait Scent Fear Digestion Infectious Bite Brain Rot

Brain Skills (150xp): Scent Trail Scent Death Tangling Grasp Feeding Drag Memories of Life Death Rattle Feeding Groan Ransack Flailing Gesture Ankle Grab

In total, it takes very slightly more xp to "max out" on zombie skills, but the skills which newbie zombie players need to even be able to play effectively are now cheaper. Note that some of the brain skills have body skills as pre-requisites. Human skills never have "child" skills that are in a different class, but the "class" mechanic in this case works a bit differently.

Voting Section

Voting Rules

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

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

Keep Votes

1. Keep Great idea, I'm a pure survivor but I'd like to see more new zombie players stick around for realism.. this is an apocolypse, not a walk in the park. And I'd like to offer a suggestion, when survivors die, they should become a zombie of a corresponding class (military->brawny, scientist->smart, civilian->average) Broken dreams^{Talk WT} 04:58, 1 July 2007 (BST)
2. Keep with change Give new zombies the choice between this and each skill costing 100XP. Possibly even the reverse (brain skills costing 75XP and body costing 150XP). --Magentaine 02:36, 19 June 2007 (BST)
3. Keep - This is a cool idea. You could also use this to make different zombie starting classes. A "brainy" zombie would have cheaper brain skills while a "brawny" zombie would have cheaper physical skills. A character starting as a human but becoming a zombie would remain unchanged (100 xp). But I also like this idea as written. --Uncle Bill 03:18, 19 June 2007 (BST)
4. Keep For Great Justice- Best suggestion I have seen in a long time. Especially considering some survivor characters have xp trees like this already.--karek 03:34, 19 June 2007 (BST)
5. Keep with change - Good concept. I like the idea of splitting into classes so you get the Brawny zombie, the Smart zombie, and the Standard zombie, though. --Mold 03:43, 19 June 2007 (BST)
6. Keep Good. Yes. Like I. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 04:39, 19 June 2007 (BST)
7. Keep - Excellent. --The Hierophant 04:44, 19 June 2007 (BST)
8. Keep - Best skills-based suggestion in a long while. Well done. --_Ducis ^Dux_Sloth^Talk 05:56, 19 June 2007 (BST)
9. Keep -...Wow. Thats about all I can say.-- dǝǝɥs oʇ ɯɐds: sʎɐʍ1ɐ! 06:14, 19 June 2007 (BST)
10. Keep -This is realy well thought out actualy. Gives a big bonus to those who wish to play a 'pure Zombie' character.--Seventythree 07:43, 19 June 2007 (BST)
11. Keep - I'm suprised no one thought of this earlier. Good work.--Priz 12:02, 19 June 2007 (BST)
12. Keep - Gotta hand it to you, very well done. --Sonofagun18 12:03, 19 June 2007 (BST)
13. Keep - Author vote. Honestly, I just saw that the game gained 8000 members in 36 hours, almost all of them created without the "vigor mortis" skill and thought how bored they will get when they die. I'd encourage Kevan to RUSH this one into implementation. 12:52, 19 June 2007 (BST)

    NOTE- I've added some comments about the "multiple zombie classes" idea on the talk page.

14. Keep - as swiers.-- Vista  +1  12:56, 19 June 2007 (BST)
15. Keep with change - Ankle Grab should be a body skill, if not for flavor just for the sake of balance. --Matthew Fahrenheit ^YRC☺T☺+1 13:08, 19 June 2007 (BST)

    That was a hard choice for me. I think it belongs in Brain, because it was added rather late in the game's history, and does indicate a bit of co-ordination / planning. Also, I don;t think every survivor in the game should be able to grab Ankle Grab for 150 points total; they almost NEVER get headshot. Its not like the extra 25 XP for the combo is gonna hurt anybody, and it may act as a slight headshot boost to counter the boost to newbie zombie progression. 13:14, 19 June 2007 (BST)

    I think it belongs to Body Skills, as I said, for balance reasons if not just of flavor ones. Why did I say that? Because when you belong to some class, it's always more tempting to buy your own skills than those that cost you double the amount, and that way newbies that know little about the game will delay to adquire Ankle Grab. That skill is as important to zombies as Free Running is to survivors, and ultimately such a delay will play against them. I'm not talking about "how eventually that would benefit survivors" but how being headshot over and over again and having a cure for that so far out of reach will discourage new players. Also, I think we shouldn't have to worry about balancing the "newbie zombie progression", as the game statistics are now... --Matthew Fahrenheit ^YRC☺T☺+1 13:25, 19 June 2007 (BST)

16. Keep - I like it. --Nikitis 16:04, 19 June 2007 (BST)
17. Keep I agree with Matthewfarenheit on Ankle Grab, make it 75. Other than that it's an excellent idea.--DonTickles 16:40, 19 June 2007 (BST)
18. Keep - I like it. --User:Axe27/Sig 19:23, 19 June 2007 (BST)
19. Keep - Very good idea, zombies should have classes too, or something similar to that... --CrazyArcher 22:24, 19 June 2007 (BST)
20. Keep - I was thinking of suggesting something like this, but i never got around to doing it. :*( Oh well.... i would like to see it implemented! --Bruce Torbaron 01:01, 20 June 2007 (BST)
21. Keep - I like this a lot. Maybe make this be the "zombie" class, as it were. Finally gives a way for zombies to get an advantage without discouraging crossing over --Gene Splicer 01:04, 20 June 2007 (BST)
22. Keep - What they say. ~m ^T! 02:25, 20 June 2007 (BST)
23. Change *Likes* Could we have a seperate tree with 100xp skills? Otherwise great! --Secruss 05:56, 21 June 2007 (BST)
24. Keep I like where this is going. But I think think "Tangling Grasp," "Feeding Drag", and "Ankle Grab" should be in a 100 XP intermediate class. Other than that, it's good. And just to clarify things, this isn't replacing the corpse class - ie. those who start out as zombies, right? -- Mordac the Refuser 18:15, 24 June 2007 (BST)

    It would apply to all characters buying zombie skills, regardless of what class they start as. So yes, it "replaces" the corpse class. ... 19:02, 24 June 2007 (BST)

25. Keep - This would be a big step toward balancing humans and zombies.--Globule13 21:52, 24 June 2007 (BST)
26. Keep I don't know if those categories are the best (and I think 'physical' sounds better than 'body'). But I'm here to tell you how much being a new zombie player hurts. My first two levels came slowwwww.... I just wish this suggestion existed when I got killed. Grant 11:21, 27 June 2007 (BST)

    Yep, its very hard to buy Vigor Mortis if you die with 0 xp. 20% attack for 2 damage, and generally you have only zombies as targets so earn 1 xp per hit. That works out to 10 xp per day... .^.. 13:24, 27 June 2007 (BST)

27. Keep This is a fine idea. Hope Kevan agrees, because I think this one will be reaching his desk.--Jiangyingzi 22:41, 29 June 2007 (BST)
28. Keep - Excellent idea. - BzAli 22:14, 1 July 2007 (BST)

Kill Votes

1. no I like 100Xp for zombie skills better because zombies are former civilians therefore they must pay the 100Xp price for them and who really cares about noob zombies its not hard being a zombie nor is it hard leveling up as a zombie. But the body and the Brain thing its a good idea.--Johnny Reb 14:39, 19 June 2007 (BST)

   Hmm, have you ever tried playing a feral zombie from level 1? I would say that obviously you haven't. Playing a firefighter from level 1 is 10 times easier. I smell troll, I'll stop feeding now.--DonTickles 16:40, 19 June 2007 (BST)

   yes I sure have I just shamble around looking for doomed surivors outside or look for open buildings to smash and if I get shot I stand back up. As for lvl 1 zombies just smash barricades till get you XP its that easy --Johnny Reb 02:38, 20 June 2007 (BST)

   If you are a level 1 zombie who does not have vigor mortis (IE, any newly created survivor who dies) it takes 25 days of non-stop cade smashing to earn the 100 xp you need for Vigor, and then another 12 for your next skill. Do the math, I'll wait. So yeah, right, its easy, just like building a log out of toothpicks and glue is "easy". 03:13, 20 June 2007 (BST)

2. Change - Have classes "Fighter Zombie" (Body 75XP, Brain 150XP, starts w/ Vigour Mortis), "Thinker Zombie" (Body 150XP, Brain 75XP, starts w/ Scent Fear) and "Spawn Zombie" (Body 100XP, Brain 100XP, starts w/ Vigour Mortis). This will then give the player some choice. --Anotherpongo 19:05, 19 June 2007 (BST)
3. Sorry, hamburger I really want to like this idea, but for most zombies that focus all on gameplay, this would just help them get a beefy killer faster. I like Pongo's idea though (don't I know you from Uncyclopedia?) Kalir FTW! _{Z/S UD Potato Words} 07:18, 20 June 2007 (BST)

   Re getting a beefy killer faster; what about all the people (a majority of the last 10,000 to join the game) who select miiitary class characters so they can get all the combat skills (plus free running) at a discount, becoming gunny killers faster? Zombies are supposed to be killers, so why do humans get the cheaper skills? ..12:28, 20 June 2007 (BST)~

   Those military folks don't help the overall survivor cause nearly as much as folks who start as scientists and start reviving fast, IMHO. Killing zombies is only a small portion of what survivors do, while killing survivors is just about all that zombies do, so there's no real basis for survivor-zombie combat parity.--The bluefish 00:23, 28 June 2007 (BST)

4. Kill - It's supposed to be hard for a start. I don't think young zombies have it much harder than newb survivors -- boxy ^{T L ZS Nuts2U DA} 09:30, 25 June 2007 (BST)
5. Change - I like the idea in principle, but would like to see an element of choice, as Anotherpongo suggested. In my view, for a base zombie, all zombie skills are "in class." Adding new classes as "mutant strains" would make me happier, even though I realize that would not benefit characters who began their careers as survivors, and that's part of the intent of this suggestion. Some strategy guides already suggest starting as a survivor, though, and this would increase the incentive. I view anything that decreases the incentive to start as the class which you want to play to be a problem with balance, not an asset.--The bluefish 00:23, 28 June 2007 (BST)
6. Kill - As with everything in the game, Keep It Simple Stupid! We don't need more complexity with things we already have established. Vault 16:15, 29 June 2007 (BST)

   Skill classes are already established for survivor skills and cause no undue complexity, despite the fact that there are THREE survivor classes, as opposed to the ONE zombie class proposed here. _. ^. _{. swiers} 00:43, 30 June 2007 (BST)

7. Kill I happen to be a zombie and I find myself in no lack of tasty brainz to eat Padfu-Zomfu 05:40, 4 July 2007 (BST)

Spam/Dupe Votes