Suggestion:20070917 Zombie recognition of flares

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

20070917 Zombie recognition of flares

AndToGo 05:40, 17 September 2007 (BST)

Suggestion type
Balance change (items and skills)

Suggestion scope
The use of flare guns

Suggestion description
As it stands, flares do the exact opposite of their intended purpose: they lure zombies to a group of survivors desperate enough to use such dangerous means to request help, and they keep (most) survivors away from that area because they know zombies will be swarming that area soon. But why should a zombie know what a flare represents? What I'm suggesting is that zombies without the Memories of Life skill get the message "You see a peculiar light in the sky for a minute." when they see a flare instead of the usual message detailing where it was fired from. This would give flare guns a purpose by slightly decreasing the number of zombies that will be overrunning an area once a flare is fired and will also give more benefits to the Memories of Life skill, adding depth.

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 - I like it, no zombie would know what a flare was from the outset, this isn't a pivotal change which will help the current malaise of Urban Dead but it is a valid one --Clemofski 08:56, 17th September 2007 (GMT)
2. Keep - Makes sense. Not a bad idea. Zombies are not just gangs of hostile humans - they are supposed to be mentally "less there". --Pgunn 07:01, 17 September 2007 (BST)
3. Keep - i like how it's adding depth --~~~~ [talk] 07:42, 17 September 2007 (BST)
4. Keep - Seems logical. --Sonofagun18 09:22, 17 September 2007 (BST)
5. Keep - Could be good to have. --Abi79 ^AB 10:43, 17 September 2007 (BST)
6. Keep - Survivors can't hear Feeding Groans so (low level) zombies shouldn't see flares. --Midianian|T|T:S|C:RCS| 13:40, 17 September 2007 (BST)
7. Keep - Would help make flares more useful. --Toejam 14:14, 17 September 2007
8. Keep What Midianian said--Johnny Reb 16:08, 17 September 2007 (BST)
9. Keep - This is a flavor addition. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 21:38, 17 September 2007 (BST)
10. Keep - sounds all good to me, seeing as they are not even given as much attention to anymore anyway and could actually be a distress signal--Zach016 23:14, 20 September 2007 (BST)
11. Keep - same as Pgunn --Reflow 23:25, 28 September 2007 (BST)
12. Keep - also same as Pgunn. --MrCoolantSpray 19:00, 29 September 2007 (BST)

Kill Votes

1. Pointless, really. EVERYBODY ignores flares unless your are a coordinated group that actually uses them. And since the flare gun has a range of 18 squares, most zombies don't bother unless close enough (like within 6 squares or so).--Pesatyel 06:22, 17 September 2007 (BST)
2. Kill - Not pointless at all -- just misguided, IMO. Thing is, like so many suggestions, this attempts to use a game mechanic to fix what is really a problem of harman organisation... It's not the game engine's fault that harmanz shoot flares off like Peter cried wolf... --WanYao 07:19, 17 September 2007 (BST)
3. Kill - I use them as a distraction, and this would mean my distraction (which works better in tandem with a powered genny in a random VSB) is less efficient.-- dǝǝɥs oʇ ɯɐds: sʎɐʍ1ɐ! 09:12, 17 September 2007 (BST)
4. Kill - What's the point?--Seventythree 11:47, 17 September 2007 (BST)
5. Kill - as SA -- Pavluk ^{A! E!} 12:04, 17 September 2007 (BST)
6. Kill People mainly fire flares to try their luck shooting at zombie.I never respond to flares--Timo 1 13:25, 17 September 2007 (BST)
7. Kill No Sockem 20:19, 17 September 2007 (BST)

   Removed per voting rules. Please reasonably justify your vote or abstain. AndToGo 02:13, 1 October 2007 (BST)

8. Kill I like my decoys. --Howard Bentley 20:46, 17 September 2007 (BST)
9. Who pays attention to flares anyway? Why is this needed?--Vow 20:52, 17 September 2007 (BST)
10. Kill There's a downside to flares, and a downside to feeding groans. Deal with it.--Wooty 21:19, 17 September 2007 (BST)
11. Point-less - It's a good idea in theory, but a waste of time. BoboTalkClown 21:23, 17 September 2007 (BST)

    Re- How, exactly, would it be a waste of time? It takes up no extra time for the player and would be easy to code (which I know as a fact from working with PHP.)

12. Kill - Not flavorfull enough to get an "it's just for flavor" keep vote. Not usefull enough to get a "normal" keep vote. --Steakfish 01:21, 18 September 2007 (BST)
13. Kill - Needlessly nerfs newbies and pointless overwise. -- John Rubin^{T! ZG} 10:09, 19 September 2007 (BST)
14. Kill/Change - Survivors would still be repelled by the flares since most zombies have MoL and would still be going for it. And for the same reason, it would only reduce the amount of zombies attracted by a small amount. A better idea would be if zombies didn't recognize where flares were shot from at all (with the possible exception of if the zombie were within a few blocks of it). Because, really, why would a zombie (smart or not) pay attention to a flare in the first place? They care about eating brains. Strategy has a direct link to that. Spotting flares does not. So it would make flavor sense for them to not really care about them. --Reaper with no name ^TJ! 20:55, 4 October 2007 (BST)

Spam/Dupe Votes

1. UD Zombies are supposed to be smarter than normal in-gerne zombies. How else can they organize into hordes and attack at pre-determined times? Also, nerfs new zeds and prevent decoy flares.--ShadowScope 19:55, 17 September 2007 (BST)
   • Re- Each point you raised has a flaw. Details on talk page to avoid lengthy reply. AndToGo 03:58, 18 September 2007 (BST)
2. Spam - Suggestions made to fix or remove an issue made by players and not the game should not be suggested in the first place. --Karek^maps?! 13:15, 18 September 2007 (BST)
3. Above. --•▬ ▬••▬ • •••• •▬ ▬•▬• ▬•▬ ^{#nerftemplatedsigs} 22:50, 20 September 2007 (BST)