Suggestion Guidelines By Type

Suggestions System Closed

UDWiki's Suggestions section has been closed indefinitely, as per this policy vote. This page remains here as a historical archive. Please direct any general suggestion discussion to Developing Suggestions.

This page aims at being a checklist of things to remember to include in certain suggestion types (for example new weapons) that usually have a lot of small yet important details.

Please also check out the suggestion do's and don't and the frequently suggested page if you haven't already. Those two pages are the two must important read before suggesting, so make reading them the first thing on your checklist.

Generic items

All items should have the following characteristics:

• Effects: What the item does.
• Encumbrance: How much space the item takes in the inventory.
• Where can the item be found and what are it's search odds: For any item that can be found in the mall, specifiy which store.
• Adjustments to other item's search rates for the places mentioned above: Since you make searching more succesful at a location by adding an item there, some cases will require an adjustment of existing item's search odds at that location, to prevent searching to become too efficient. Is it just stacked on top of existing search % or do other percentages have to be lowered to give it a place? Lowering existing percentages to give the new item it's own percentage is highly, highly, highly recommended.
  • Note about ammunition: Characters that search for ammo seach for all ammo that can be found at that location. Thus just adding a new type of ammo, say to the mall's gun store, with no other adjustment, means that they will find the same amount of clips and shotgun shells PLUS your new ammo type (and guns with ammo in them), with the same AP spent. This would make guns much more efficient, as once the ammo is found any gun outdamages anything else. Thus gun balance need to be weighted with the % chance to find ANY type of ammo in an area... even the humble flare gun. For more info on gun balance, check out this guide.

Weapons

Weapons in Urban Dead are a subset of items, and as such should contain all the info mentioned above. In addition to those, weapons have the following characteristics. A complete new weapon suggestion should state all of these characteristics:

• Base damage per hit. That is, the damage the weapon deals in the hands of a character with no related skills.
• Base to hit %. That is, it's chances to hit in the hands of a character with no related skill.
• Upgraded to hit %. What would be the highest % to hit. For example for pistols and shotguns it is currently 65%.
• Which skills upgrade it's to hit (or affects it in any other way). Including new skills. For example the pistol is affected by basic firearms training, pistol training and advanced pistol training.
• Any other special abilities. If any. You don't want to forget these, do you :P
  • You may want to read the suggestion do's and don't before submitting weapon with special abilities, if you haven't already.

If the weapon uses ammunition:
As ammunitions are considered as items in Urban Dead, they should contain the same information as generic items. In addition to those:

• Type of ammo used and how much ammo comes per ammo item found. For example, the shotgun uses shotgun shells that come individually, and the pistol uses bullets that come in clips of 6 bullets
• How does it reload and how many shots can it hold. For example, the shotgun reloads each shell individually, and can hold up to 2. The pistol however loads bullets in clips of 6.

Generic Skills

In addition to what the skill does, the following should be included:

• Prerequisities: What non-skill prerequisites (level 10+, Only Scientists, Must be wearing a green hat, etc) are required to purchase this skill?
  • Note that only one skill currently has non-skill prerequesites (headshot). It may be, in fact, generally better not to use these when possible
• Location in Skill tree: Where does this fall into the existing skill tree? In other words what other skills are required to purchase this one, if any.
• Crossover skill: Does this skill cross over for Humans/Zombies?
• Cost in XP: XP cost, if not standard 100xp. Preferably, specify cost per generic class category (Civilian, Scientist, Military, zombie hunter, zombie, etc)
• How it's activated: Explain how the skill would be activated. Is it automatic/always on like diagnosis or do you have to click a new button like you do with feeding groan.
• Cost in AP: How much AP will the use of skill take. For example, using revivification syringe costs 10 APs.

New Classes

Suggestions for new classes should include the following:

• Starting Items - What items the class starts with.
• Starting Skill - Which skill(s) does the new class start with.
• Class Type - Are they Military, Scientist, Civilian or Zombie.