Suggestion:20070802 Here have a rat

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	This suggestion has finished voting and has been moved to Peer Reviewed.

20070802 Here have a rat

JohnRubin 11:51, 2 August 2007 (BST)

Suggestion type
Item

Suggestion scope
Survivors, searching, items

Suggestion description
Here, have a rat! Is it time these words get some meaning in the game?

Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to present a whole new and smashingly exciting item. Yes, a rat. Surely a city swarming with zombies should have plenty of them. Death, decay, piles of garbage, piles of corpses. What would rats love more than that?

Rats can be found by searching inside any building or in the streets. A rat can discarded. Or eaten. Consuming a rat would restore 1 HP. Just like a bottle of beer or wine. (Though the taste might be slightly different.)

Now the funny thing about rats (aside from eating one) is that your chances to find one are higher in circumstances when a FAK is hard to come by. It is easier to find a rat in a building that has no lights and is ransacked. When the building is in order and powered you will have a searching penalty (sort of).

That will allow survivors to restore at least a fraction of their health when they are in a difficult situation. (Think hordes of zombies around, no generators, hospitals ransacked. You know.)

A rat is not meant to replace a FAK and it never will. It will act as a poor substitute when you have no other choice. (I mean you would not eat a rat unless you have no choice, would you?)

And it surely will add more fun to the game. It might for one explain how survivors sustain themselves.

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"You drop your rat. It squeaks and runs away."

From technical point of view a rat is just another item. It can be found by searching, it can be dropped or consumed. It takes 1 slot in your inventory and has 2% encumbrance.

"You search and find a rat."

Rats are most common in the streets (that is outside the buildings), junkyards (not powered), and empty blocks (wastelands, streets, car parks, etc.). Your chance to find a rat there is, say, 20%.

Ransacked and not powered buildings provide slightly smaller chance to find a rat - say, 15%. Searching buildings in good condition is only successful (if the term can be applied to finding a rat) in, say, 5% of cases. Powered buildings give 1% probability to find a rat.

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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. Author Keep - Actually, I mean it. No kidding. --JohnRubin 12:40, 2 August 2007 (BST)
2. Keep - I can see people eating rats in the zombie apocalypse. Mmmmm, flavour The preceding signed comment was added by boxy (talk • contribs) at 13:45 2 August 2007 (BST)
3. Keep I realy like this. It may be humerous, yes but it is realy not that out of context of the game. Rats for everybody!--Seventythree 13:50, 2 August 2007 (BST)
4. Keep - I'd like a pet rat (ingame)... -Gateking 14:31, 2 August 2007 (BST)
5. Keep - Seems appropriate. I would ask that there is a small chance of getting infected though when you eat one. I mean, all meat can be poisonous if not cooked. Also, if this idea doesn't make it, then put it under humorous. =) --Heavy DDR 14:56, 2 August 2007 (BST)
6. Keep -- But only if you can get an infection from it. --Midianian 15:00, 2 August 2007 (BST)
7. Keep - :)-- dǝǝɥs oʇ ɯɐds: sʎɐʍ1ɐ! 15:14, 2 August 2007 (BST)
8. Keep - If this goes through, my next suggestion will be a leash. Aside from the humor of this, I believe this to be more then reasonable, at some point food, any food will be eaten. Though I doubt Bobby Flay will show up for a throw down, on this one...--John Blast 15:16, 2 August 2007 (BST)
9. Keep guess I would have to say yes if you think about it, it makes sense what else would you eat around here not like there is a grocery store --Evl kitty 15:40, 2 August 2007 (BST)
10. Keep - It's funny but could work. --DrBowman 16:36, 2 August 2007 (BST)
11. Keep - Only if zombies can eat them too. Rat --Sonny Corleone ^{RRF CoL DORIS CRF pr0n} 16:50, 2 August 2007 (BST)
12. Oh I think I smell a rat! *teh guitar* Kalir FTW! _{Z/S UD Potato Words} 17:10, 2 August 2007 (BST)
13. Keep Humans have to eat something. There's stuff to drink, but nothing to eat, and if hungry enough a human could/would eat anytyhing.--Elliottmess 17:32, 2 August 2007 (BST)
14. keep - Seems funny, but good. But what about cats and dogs? -Doc Crook 17:48, 2 August 2007 (BST)
15. Brilliant - A fething ingenious idea. You spam voters are just jealous you didn't think of this.--Lachryma^☭ 18:43, 2 August 2007 (BST)
16. Keep - Yeah, I think it's a little atmosphere, a little bit of healing mojo and hey, pet rat! (Though I do think that Swiers suggestion also has some good merit to it as well) --Queen Mum 18:58, 2 August 2007 (BST)
17. Keep - And maybe zombies could find them when smashing barricades, like you find hedgehogs in a bonfire. --  T   19:10, 2 August 2007 (BST)
18. Keep/Change Give it 3HP with a 2% infection, and I like it! Go nasty, infected rats!--Wooty 19:23, 2 August 2007 (BST)
19. Keep - This is hilarious and would be great for the game. Animi 22:11, 2 August 2007 (BST)
20. Keep - If only because I'm a good sport. --User:Axe27/Sig 19:25, 2 August 2007 (BST)
21. keep but... - Add in a food poisoning rather than a full infection (say lose 5HP) and its all good. Also like the idea of zombies catchin em while pounding cades (perhaps swap 50% of '"creaks" for rats!) As for complaints about humour???? its a game for gods sake, try playing it for fun instead of training for the real apocalypse ;) --Honestmistake 19:49, 2 August 2007 (BST)
22. Keep- I like this. Gritty and in genre enough to fit right into the game.--Grigori 00:55, 3 August 2007 (BST) EDIT: Maybe let zeds find them, too, when doing some other action at maybe 10%. Most zombie movies feature zeds munching on animals, anyways.--Grigori 00:57, 3 August 2007 (BST)
23. Keep- For the Feral humans! --_Ducis ^Dux_Sloth^Talk 00:56, 3 August 2007 (BST)
24. Keep - For Mother Nature prevail! --Kokka
25. Keep/Humorous Whahahahaha!!! --Secruss 01:41, 3 August 2007 (BST)
26. Keep - Rat flavoured rice?! Yes please!! --Ryiis 03:18, 3 August 2007 (BST)
27. Keep/Change I agree with the previous posts, eating a rat should have a chance of infection. --Howard Bentley 04:37, 3 August 2007 (BST)
28. Keep/Change Can we name our rats? Please? --Thelightguy 04:42, 3 August 2007 (BST)

    Keep/ChangeMaybe you could get infections from eating them. Unsigned vote struck 'arm. 07:58, 3 August 2007 (BST)

29. Keeeeep - I didn't laugh, so therefore its not humorous. Very serious topic, rats are. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 03:09, 4 August 2007 (BST)
30. Keep - This is one sexy suggestion. --Cap'n Silly ^T/W/P/C 14:09, 4 August 2007 (BST)
31. Keep - Agreeing with Sonny and Swiers. Those are good changes, and should be included in this. --Druuuuu 17:43, 4 August 2007 (BST)
32. Ew - Great Flavor at best, Bad Humor at worst. BoboTalkClown 03:58, 9 August 2007 (BST)
33. Basil! - FLAVOUR!!! "You find a rat, and discard it as dirty." Anotherpongo 10:20, 9 August 2007 (BST)
34. Keep/Change - Love it. But others have a point with the idea of zeds being able to find them as well, and them having a chance of infecting you. Either by having been eaten, or by bite (either when you find it, or when/if you discard it). Love it, though. --♥Hana^{T•Z•S•W!•C} 10:44, 9 August 2007 (BST)
35. Keep -- Im hungry! --Your friendly neighbourhood psychopathc, Lord Evans 19:12, 10 August 2007 (BST)
36. Keep - As long as nobody suggests tying them to pipes and making rat-flails... --Pestilent Bob 19:32, 12 August 2007 (BST)
37. Keep - Has anyone else seen the movie RATS by Dario Argento (the famous Italian zombie film director)? It's a remake of Dawn of the Dead with a swarm of carnivorous rats instead of zombies. Hilarious! Seriously, though, I like this idea just the way it is. All the suggested changes seem to complicate things too much. --Steakfish 02:29, 13 August 2007 (BST)
38. Keep - For lulz. It's good flavor. People complaining about how it would be a buff to survivor healing really need to think things through. It would take at least 20 AP to heal as much as a single FAK, and that's assuming you find a rat with every search (which would never happen) Srekto 19:47, 13 August 2007 (BST)
39. Keep -Sweet. If this and throwing gets implemented, I'd love to throw rats at people. --Toastrlord^{T TSA} 01:54, 16 August 2007 (BST)
40. Keep/Change -...Though I wish you could also shoot rats and gain XP. "You shoot a rat. It squeaks and its head is blown off. You gain 1 XP." I also agree with Swiers' change. Infection is common when due to rat. Otherwise, the suggestion is excellent!--  P02 Samuel  Talk to me! Stop that asshole!PoleCats 13:54, 17 August 2007 (BST)

Kill Votes

1. Change - Give rats a small (1% or so) chance to cause infection when found. So when you find a rat, the server checks if its that 1 time in 100, and if so says "You find a rat. The rat bites you, and its bite was infected! <insert infection text here>" The bite itself causes no damage. This should also happen when you eat a rat, with a message about how it tasted OK (for rat), but now you feel sick. In all, that gives about a 1 in 50 chance that finding and eating a rat causes infection. I think anybody who recovers from near death (gains 50 HP) by eating rats probably WOULD be ill... _Δ^Δ_{Δ  Swiers}  17:59, 2 August 2007 (BST)
2. Change - As above. --Specialist290 ♠♥♣♦ 19:03, 2 August 2007 (BST)
3. Kill - This is a straight forward boost to survivors disguised as humorous flavour. Swiers' change would make it more interesting and counter the boost - survivors would have a chance of getting an infection even without zombies present, and acts another incentive to keep TRPs powered (though a negative incentive). 'arm. 22:25, 2 August 2007 (BST)
4. Change As Swiers. -- SgtBop 07:34, 3 August 2007 (BST)
5. Kill - Rats don't exist in purgatory which as everyone knows Urban Dead really is.--Insomniac By Choice 10:06, 3 August 2007 (BST)
6. Kill I recognize that realism has a limited place at best in this game, to make finding a rat a pure survivor buff is silly. I expect rat trapping and cooking are an unspoken part of every survivor's skill set in Malton.--Jiangyingzi 14:39, 7 August 2007 (BST)
7. Kill 1. Whats the chance of finding(catching) one in real-life? 2. Also, UD was made for survivors against zombies. It's totally off-topic! KILL! --Evildemon989 ^{Talk · Help · W! · P! · SU! · TJ! · Hai!} 01:28, 9 August 2007 (BST)

   1.If the whole city of Philadelphia does not dispose of its garbage for a couple of weeks, you will be surprised how high your chances to find a rat will be. :) 2. Sure, I don't know why the hell Kevan bothered with Christmas trees, clothes, museum loot, newspapers, beer, etc. IMO flare guns, radio transmitters, and spray cans are pretty useless too. Did I mention golf clubs? :) --JohnRubin 09:08, 9 August 2007 (BST)

   1.Yes, finding a rat would be easy, but what are the odds of catching one? 2.Well, christmas trees,and museum loot were kinda pointless, but all of that other stuff you might use in real life. Rats, you might catch with a rat trap, but do you eat them when you trap them? exactly. :P --Evildemon989 ^{Talk · Help · W! · P! · SU! · TJ! · Hai!} 20:40, 9 August 2007 (BST)

8. Kill/Change - Catching and eating rats is very real in some very poor parts of the world and I would assume by this time malton looks something like that BUT I think you should do what Swiers except instead of infection do a strait 5HP of damage (1 unskilled FAK) AND give the zombies the same chance to find rats when bashing on 'cades and after "finding" one they have a button to push to eat it (it goes away if they do another action instead) where they have the same effect as survivors. As it is though I'd have to say kill. --Dipcup 01:13, 11 August 2007 (BST)
9. Change - That infection thing everyone else mentions. -- Pavluk
10. Change - Surely any dead rat is also a Zed rat?. -- The Lamb 02:08, 13 August 2007 (BST)

Spam/Dupe Votes

1. Spam - There's a Humorous section for stuff like this. --The Hierophant 12:30, 2 August 2007 (BST)
2. Humorous - It's humor at best and useless at worst.--Karek^maps?! 13:36, 2 August 2007 (BST)
3. Humorous Spam lolz - Funniest thing ever heard :D Bet Lachyrma will like it :D --JudeMaverick ^{Talk +1 Jobs} 13:40, 2 August 2007 (BST)
4. ... - I am at a loss for words. Please move this >_> --Vault 15:11, 2 August 2007 (BST)
5. Humorous - The tone this suggestion is written in is humorous, even if the suggestion is serious. --Saluton 17:10, 2 August 2007 (BST)
6. I hate to say it to all those Ghetto Cow members, but those above me are right. This belongs in humorous. --•▬ ▬••▬ • •••• •▬ ▬•▬• ▬•▬ ^{#nerftemplatedsigs} 14:36, 4 August 2007 (BST)
7. Would you like some RATatouille with that SPAM? - I so really, really, REALLY hate to spam this suggestion... but as everyone's said, it's a) humour (yet also realistic, actually...) b) a straight up survivor boost. Moreover, if I can keep 'em as pets and maybe even find a super-intelligent Willard rat so I can have a horde to take out my enemies... well what really is the point?? --WanYao 23:06, 8 August 2007 (BST)