Suggestion talk:20080425 External Military Actions

Past Discussion From Talk:Suggestions

External Military Actions

Timestamp:	Swiers 17:45, 24 April 2008 (BST)
Type:	improvement
Scope:	flavor, information
Description:	Inspired by the military_air-strikes idea below, I figured I'd give a shot at flavorful ideas for what the military might do. Basically I was thining they might alert survivors (and zombies) as to where large concentrations of hostile zombies are by shooting off flares as they fly by in their choppers. I picked flares because they are already an existing game mechanic, and survivors can "see" them from inside. So, where would these special flares be fired off? Only Kevan knows for sure, but I suggest that they would have maybe a 10-25% chance of being fired whenever zombies kill a certain number of survivors in a single block (inside or outside) withing the space of, say, 30 minutes. If this happened, there would also automatically be an External Military radio broadcast for that suburb, and the "chopper noises" would also be heard, centered on the location in question. The flare message might be the exact same as a normal flare message (requiring survivors to make the connection between the flare, chopper sounds, and broadcast themselves) or it might be described specifically as a "military flare", and not filtered out by the normal "ignore flares" setting.

Discussion (External Military Actions)

I know I have a lot of "maybe this, maybe that" stuff in there. Anybody wanna help me nail it down to some specifics, so I can put it up for voting? Also, is the basic idea sound / useful?  Swiers 17:45, 24 April 2008 (BST)

I really like this, a kind of useful flare gun for survivors or feeding groan for zeds. Whats the range on hearing the helicopters?

Would also be a use for another of those 25.9x channels.

Flying over the question building it looks like a real bloodbath/intense firefight down there. --Rosslessness^{Want a Location Image?} 17:52, 24 April 2008 (BST)

My answer to your questions would be: "No and no". The way survivors would distinguish between flares seems too gimmicky. What you describe seems like a needless survivor buff. Consider: a thoughtful player can already plan his routes and figure out where large there are large zombie concentrations by using the wiki, firefox add-onsm, NecroNet and common sense. At the very least please rethink your suggestion before vomiting it up on the Discussion page.--ZARDOZ 19:25, 24 April 2008 (BST)

Come on! You've just said this is a survivor buff, then encouraged Swiers to do it by using Wiki and firefox add-ons! If you feel this is too much of a survivor buff why don't you remove your plugins and stop meta-gaming then voice your opinion. Just because something can be achieved outside the game doesn't mean it can't be included in the game, some of us like to play the game ingame as opposed to using outside sources to gain an advantage. --Kamikazie-Bunny 19:49, 24 April 2008 (BST)

That's exactly the point: if you want that kind of information reost to metagaming and leave the actual game alone.--ZARDOZ 04:45, 25 April 2008 (BST)

I don't use firefox. I tried, tried to do the addons and got confused. Coding confuses and bewilders me, quite often. --Tselita 19:55, 24 April 2008 (BST)

--ZARDOZ 04:45, 25 April 2008 (BST) edit- image size adjusted to avoid dirupting conversational flow.  Swiers 22:46, 25 April 2008 (BST)

I don't think Zardoz likes this suggestion. Just a guess. I'm good at reading people..... :) --Tselita 04:47, 25 April 2008 (BST)

Actually, I think he was responding to your claims of ineptitude regrading Firefox extensions. There's no "coding" involved with using those.  Swiers 05:07, 25 April 2008 (BST)

Well I am just a girl. Anything more complex than typing and my head gets all in a tizzy. But seriously, I did try to use the addons. I installed firefox and tried to load up the addons and I couldnt figure out what to do. --Tselita 05:16, 25 April 2008 (BST)

What do you say to something like that? - Grant (talk) 21:25, 25 April 2008 (BST)

I really hope people realize I was being sarcastic. :) --Tselita 21:53, 25 April 2008 (BST)

Yeah, what do you say to something like that? Besides the fact that you are only losing points by appearing to blame your technical ineptitude at being a girl and helping promote a negative view of women in tech fields you are complaining about a very basic issue that's one google search away from being resolved.--ZARDOZ 22:54, 25 April 2008 (BST)

Okay serious people... I'm just making a joke because of how many people have expressed shock that I'm female and made comments like 'girlie' and stuff. Would you rather I get angry or joke along about it? I prefer to joke along about it. To be honest, I -do- suck at technical stuff. Nothing to do with being a woman. But for gods sake have a sense of humor will you? Man.... I mean... woah...man. (Wo-man) --Tselita 23:04, 25 April 2008 (BST)

What we would prefer is for you to ignore anyone who's making "comments like 'girlie' and stuff". Period.--ZARDOZ 21:29, 26 April 2008 (BST)

By the way, the comedian Jackie Mason once said in his standup routine, "I can tell jewish jokes because I'm jewish, so it's funny, but if a gentile tells it, not so funny. Eh." (btw, I'm jewish as well - no flaming me) Hope you see where I'm getting here... --Tselita 23:09, 25 April 2008 (BST)

I've seen Jackie Mason perform and you are no Jackie Mason. I hope you see what we're getting at here...--ZARDOZ 21:29, 26 April 2008 (BST)

How about certain qualifiers? Say 75 zombies/dead bodies outside a lit building?

This would then target small scale sieges, but would avoid RPs (RPs don't tend to be outside lit buildings, either in them or in one square over). The helicopter would then fire five flares in quick succession and make a broadcast on the external military channel a short time later. Something along the lines of "Building under siege in Ridleybank" or "Massed horde in Barhahville".

I'd be opposed to giving the exact location out, give the suburb rather than building as this would turn it into a buff more for one side than the other.

The 'helicopters' would have to pass over the suburbs randomly, at random times to maintain tension and flavour. The delay in radio communication serves to stop this being an automatic update. The five flares someone sees might not be a helicopter update, but a survivor trying to spread misinformation, the player (survivor or zombie) would have to wait for confirmation or risk wasting their AP going for a potentially wrong target.

Thoughts? -- . . <== DDR Approved Editor 19:01, 24 April 2008 (BST)

5 flares is too many for misinformation. how would suburb only information help if you can pinpoint exactly where flares are fired from? --Rosslessness^{Want a Location Image?} 19:04, 24 April 2008 (BST)

I was originally going to go with three, but thought that would make disinformation a little too easy, especially with current search rates. This would negatively impact those without radio access, namely low level players on both sides. Five still make disinformation extremely possible, it just requires a more conscious effort.

Suburb only stops it being an automatic rally call for survivors. The flares do pinpoint the location if you're close enough to the building (and therefore the danger of the horde) to see them. If you're not in sight range then you get a rough idea if you are wanting to move in and give aid to either side. -- . . <== DDR Approved Editor 19:14, 24 April 2008 (BST)

That's pretty much exactly the effect I was shooting for; basically, the military doing something to alert people who don't metagame when major conflicts were going on in their area so they can run away / to help. Actually, your description is almost exactly what I had in mind, though I didn't think of using multiple flares. I was NOT advocating any special new radio report, just a standard report that gets made at the same time, so that major conflicts trigger a report for that burb.  Swiers 02:07, 25 April 2008 (BST)

So range is, same as flares, or about 20 blocks ok. How about 4 flares? --Rosslessness^{Want a Location Image?} 19:22, 24 April 2008 (BST)

Yeah, they are identical to normal flares, any colouring etc. would not allow disinformation, an avenue I'm keen to leave in. I don't know the range of flares exactly, but I'm happy with the norm.

4 seems like a fair compromise, I'd be happy with that. -- . . <== DDR Approved Editor 19:42, 24 April 2008 (BST)

doesn't seem like much of a buff, but i can see how it could be considered one. not bad.--Themonkeyman11 01:39, 25 April 2008 (BST)

Sounds pretty cool to me. I'd Keep This. --Nitro378 ^{T JNL} 17:07, 25 April 2008 (BST)

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