Suggestions/UndecidedJuly2006

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This page is for suggestions that have 50% or more Keep votes vs Total Votes, but not more than 66% Keep votes, which would qualify them for Peer Reviewed page. These are good, but not quite good enough Suggestions that could (and probably should) be reworked, refined, and resubmitted by a willing, knowledgeable party. Before doing so, please perform the proper research; reading the votes and the associated Talk pages, and adjust your new submission. State on the submission that you are not duplicating, but have revised and are resubmitting for approval.

This is not the place to put new Suggestions. The Suggestions Page is the queue for new Suggestions to be voted on and suggested. Any Suggestions that have not been voted on will be removed from this page.

Notes for Editors

Those who are placing Suggestions on this page should do so under the following procedure:

  1. Take the entire template and paste it into this section.
  2. Remove the entire suggest_votes field.
  3. Add the field suggest_moved, and then timestamp it with ~~~~~.
  4. replace "suggestion" with "psuggestions".
  5. Please note under the suggestion, briefly, what the controversy was about. It would be good for people to know when revising suggestions and deciding whether to submit a new version of one of these. Because these are necessarily subjective, please sign these sections.

So, the new template should look like:

===Suggestion Name===
 {{psuggestion|
suggest_time=Old Timestamp|
suggest_type=Original type|
suggest_scope=Original scope|
suggest_description=Original description|
suggest_moved=~~~~~ |
suggest_notes=Notes about the discussion about the skill. |
}}
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Jul 1st, 2006

Flashlights and Batteries v2

Timestamp: 02:41, 1 July 2006 (BST)
Type: New Items
Scope: Survivors
Description: Here's my (revised) attempt at a workable version of the flashlight suggestion.

Summary: Flashlights can be found and used to help searching in dark, unpowered buildings. They do not help the already-high search odds in powered locations, as there is already plenty of light. Flashlights require batteries, which expire after a while.

Mechanics: - Flashlights would be a fairly rare item with find rates like the portable generator: Factories (3%), Fire Stations (2%), Power Stations (2%), Mall Hardware Stores(1%/2%). Batteries would be a bit more common, being found in Power Stations (8%), Mall Hardware Stores (4%/8%), and Junkyards (4%). Flashlights would not be found with batteries already inside.

For a flashlight to be useful, it must first be loaded with a new battery. Clicking on the battery inventory button powers the flashlight and removes the battery from inventory (1 AP). The flashlight item will show an asterisk to indicate it's powered.

When searching in an unpowered building with a powered flashlight in hand, search odds go up by half the powered building search bonus. (I.e., if a generator would have gotten you +5%, the flashlight will get you +2.5%.) After 15 searches in an unpowered building, the flashlight's battery dies (the asterisk disappears) and search rates return to normal. Survivors will probably want to keep two or three batteries on hand for those times when they need to get a full day's worth of searching out of a dark building.

Searches in powered buildings would not count against the battery's lifespan. The flashlight is assumed to be switched off while in the lit location.

Flashlights can be seen from outside, which makes them a bit dangerous to use. Unlike the "lights on" building status, which may or may not indicate humans are at home, the moving lights produced by flashlight searches leave no doubt that someone is actively searching inside. If you are outside the unpowered building while a flashlight is being used inside, you will see messages like the following:

You see a moving light inside... and again... and again (5 minutes ago).

To limit the spam a bit for the zombies mulling about outside, the flashlight would only have a 35% chance of producing such a message. This means at least every third search will be seen outside, which seems pretty reasonable when you consider it's common to perform 10 or more searches in a row.

Searching definitely doesn't need a boost, which is why I'm not suggesting the rates go any higher than the current powered search rates (and rates with the flashlight are only partly boosted). However, I like giving survivors more things to juggle in their inventory, as it forces them to decide what's really essential for their gameplay style. And tempting survivors to "signal" their whereabouts to the zombies strikes me as an interesting twist on search mechanics.

Notes: 8/16 Keep/Total. See original votes for feedback.
Left Queue: 07:36, 15 July 2006 (BST)

Jul 5th, 2006

Observe Spraypainting

Timestamp: 10:39, 05 July 2006 (BST)
Type: Improvement
Scope: All
Description: The game posts a message when someone (and tells you who they are) broadcasts in the same location as you, however, it does not tell you who has spraypainted a message in the same location as you. So basically, what this suggestion is, is that when you are sitting inside a building and someone spraypaints something you get a message e.g.:

Since your last turn: Spraypainter spraypainted a message on the wall.

This would allow people to see when others have spraypainted over 'official' graffiti and who is guilty. Although this may seem a little harsh on those who wish to disrupt the running of certain organisations, I feel that in realistic terms, this should be implimented as you would be able to see people spraypainting in real life

Notes: 22/39 Keep/Total. See original votes for feedback.
Left Queue: 09:29, 19 July 2006 (BST)

Jul 6th, 2006

Laptops V2.0

Timestamp: 19:47, 6 July 2006 (BST)
Type: New Item.
Scope: Survivors.
Description: After a year of quarantine, the military has decided to ease the quarantine with the access of WiFi for all survivors. Now all powered phone masts also emit WiFi access, this allows the previously worthless Laptop to be used. The search rates for the Laptop are; 4% Mall Tech Stores, 3% Clubs and 2% Schools. The Laptop, if you have NecroNet Access, would be able to access the NecroNet, however, the military still does not allow E-mails. Unfortunatly, even in this day and age of technological marvels the Laptop is still quite cumbersome, it would take up about 5 blocks of space and would only be useful inside a powered building (After all, the batteries would run out, and Kevan wouldn't like coding how to manage battery life.) This hopefully would ease the pressure off the current Mall/NT-centric gameplay that is going on, you would still need to go to a NT building for revive syringes, you just wouldn't need to go there for NecroNet as much.
Notes: 13/20 Keep/Total. See original votes for feedback.
Left Queue: 06:28, 20 July 2006 (BST)

Jul 8th, 2006

Consumption

Timestamp: 01:39, 8 July 2006 (BST)
Type: Skill
Scope: Zombies
Description: I feel the bite skill could use more utility since it is currently useless if the survivor is already infected and the zombie is at full health. This is an idea to promote the healing properties of the bite attack.

Consumption would be a subskill of Digestion allowing the zombie to store up food it doesn't need and digest it later. The amount of food they have consumed would be accesible via a new interface button: [Digest(X)]. X would increase by 1 with each bite when the zombie is at full health, rising to a maximum of 6. Each number represents 4hp. When the player clicks on "Digest" (costing 1AP) X drops by one and the player begins to digest the food.

To prevent this from giving zombies an additional 24hp to easily access in battle they do not regain the health immediately but instead get it exactly half an hour after clicking Digest. They can use up one or click multiple times for more healing. While zombies can regain health easily by dying the ability to heal yourself in a non-combat situation would be useful for toughening yourself up for the next time you break into a safehouse. If you get hit a few times by a survivor or zombie leveling up being at 38hp perpetually makes you significantly easier to slay and dump.

This skill cements the role of biting as a healing ability, and makes it useful to bite someone more than once. Also it gives zombies a form of resource management that's perfectly logical. I believe it is a useful skill that is prevented from being overpowering thanks to its time delay.

Notes: 7/12 Keep/Total. See original votes for feedback.
Left Queue: 04:23, 22 July 2006 (BST)

Jul 11th, 2006

Chunks!

Timestamp: 05:10, 11 July 2006 (BST)
Type: Item use
Scope: Scientists
Description: Summary: Scientists can speed syringe manufacture by tossing in zombie tissue extracted with the knife.

Mechanics: When fighting a dying (12 HP or less) zombie with the knife, a survivor has a 65% chance with each successful hit to collect a chunk of flesh from the zed. Once collected, this shows as "chunk of flesh" in inventory. Each chunk of flesh takes up 1 inventory space, and can be dropped as normal. Clicking on the object does nothing.

However, when the player goes to Manufacture Syringe in a powered NecroTech building, 1 chunk of flesh will be automatically "used up" in the process and added to the revivification formula. As the dna and tissue in the chunk replace some of the resources needed to produce the fluid, the AP cost of the manufacture is reduced by 7 AP, making it 13 AP total (yeah, unlucky number; oh well).

As collecting a chunk of flesh takes on average 4 AP, the AP savings will be about 3 for each chunk collected. That seems like a solid but not overpowered incentive for scientists to get outside and start swinging steel. (Consider that syringe searching would still be more efficient than manufacture.) Of course, they'll want to use primarily other weapons to weaken the target and then go in for the kill with the cutlery, and that's intentional. Weaken the zombie, then collect a few chunks to take back to the lab. Good gory fun.

  • Clarification: The revive AP cost is completely unaffected, and would still be 10 AP. Only the manufacture cost is reduced, and even then not so much as to make it as efficient as searching for syringes.
Notes: 16/32 Keep/Total. See original votes for feedback.
Left Queue: 10:40, 25 July 2006 (BST)

Jul 14th, 2006

Lie In Wait...

Timestamp: 17:20, 14 July 2006 (BST)
Type: New Zombie skill
Scope: Zombies & Survivors
Description: Feign Death is a new 100xp non-crossover zombie skill under Memories of Life. Your zombie has learned that harmanz are less likely to be hostile towards dead bodies, and he/she has figured out how to imitate (not well, mind you!) the behavior & appearance of a corpse.

ZOMG SOOO OVERPOWERED SPAMITY SPAM!!!!!! says you. But wait!

The first catch is, you can only Feign Death in environments with suitable debris or cover: outdoors or in ransacked buildings only.

In these environments, a new button comes up, "Feign Death" which is a 3 AP action. When you click it, your zombie immediately lies down, gains the Feigning Death status tag, and from now on appears to be a corpse.

STILL CRAAAZILY OVERPOWERED!!!! says you. But wait!

The second catch is that the subterfuge is... really not that good. In fact it's quite poor. To be honest, zombies are not that great at psychology.

The trick immediately goes away (i.e. you lose the Feigning Death status tag and become a normal zombie again) when any survivor enters your location. Humans may be witless rabbits but they do know that dead bodies aren't supposed to drool...

The trick also immediately goes away when you perform any action. In both cases there is no standing up cost as you are not really dead.





Why Is This Suggestion An Amazingly Good Idea? It's mostly a way for very organized groups of zombies (strike sqads etc.) to try to sneak into and infiltrate harman areas before all standing up and yelling "BARHAH!" or "BANANANANA!" or something similarly intimidating. The point is, while lying in wait, the square the zombie is in will appear to be empty to players in neighboring squares... They can quite easily dispel the illusion by visiting your square and exposing you (no AP cost, even), but that requires humans to actually step outdoors once in a while...

Thus the suggestion is mainly intended to give advanced metagaming zombies a new tactic, and to encourage humans to actually gather intel instead of staying inside all the time.

Notes: 19/30 Keep/Total. See original votes for feedback.
Left Queue: 13:46, 28 July 2006 (BST)

Jul 15th, 2006

Necrotech Subject

Timestamp: 14:23, 15 July 2006 (BST)
Type: Skill
Scope: Zombies
Description: After months of strange figures stabbing them with syringes and needles and blinking mechanical devices, zombies are beginning to notice where these scientific torturers are coming from, and grow to hate them and their electronic accomplices.

Necrotech Subject comes under the MoL skill tree (Your brain needs to have woken up a bit to work out what's going on). Zombies with this skill have begun to recognise the sources of these labcoated foes, and can identify NecroTech offices from the street. Their hatred of the strange implements they weild has manifested itself as a 10% bonus to destroying electrical equipment (generators, radios, and other as yet unimplemented powered devices).

This would make it easier for career or brainrotted zombies to aquire the important parts of Necrotech Employment without being forced to cross over. AFAIK the current chance to smash a genny is half your melee skill, so the additional 10% bonus to smashing electronics would bring the maximum chance from 25% to 35%, so from 1 in 4 to 1 in 3. This bonus would not carry over if you are revived, but the NT identifier would.

Notes: 9/15 Keep/Total. See original votes for feedback.
Left Queue: 10:25, 29 July 2006 (BST)

Jul 16th, 2006

Looting

Timestamp: 06:48, 16 July 2006 (BST)
Type: Skill
Scope: Survivors, Civilian
Description: At first you were safe in the malls, huddled with your companions for safety. But the malls fell, and your allies perished. At last you were alone, wandering through abandoned suburbs. Fending for yourself, doing what you needed to survive.

Subskill of Shopping. A survivor with the Civilian skill Looting is hardened, used to being isolated, and self-sufficient. When in a building that is entirely unoccupied, by either zombies or other survivors, they gain a 10% boost to their search rates. This does not stack with the bonus generators provide or with Bargain Hunting. This skill is useful for the lingering survivors in suburbs that have been wiped out, and for those migrating through desolate areas.

Notes: 13/20 Keep/Total. See original votes for feedback.
Left Queue: 10:34, 30 July 2006 (BST)

Jul 19th, 2006

Another Scent Life

Timestamp: 13:13, 19 July 2006 (BST)
Type: Skill for X-RAY VISHUN!
Scope: Zombies
Description: This skill would be a second-tier Scent Blood skill, adding a button (or drop-down option) to the zombies interface which, when pressed, gves the zombie a rough idea of the number of humans in the vicinity.

The number of survivors inside buildings in the 3x3 area surrounding the zombie (i.e. the map block) would be counted, and the zombie would receive the following messages based on the result:

0 - 10: You smell nothing edible. 11 - 20: A faint hint of meat reaches your nose. 21 - 40: You smell meat. 41 - 80: You smell much meat. 81 - 160: An overwhelming smell of meat surrounds you on all sides. 160+ : Meat! Meat everywhere! GLORIOUS MEATS!

(I ran out of inspiration. Please do not base your vote on the above flavour messages :( The numbers are canon, though)

Survivors in the building a zombie is directly outside would count as double, and survivors visible to the zombie would make the skill unusable due to their smelly proximity. Using this inside an empty building returns nothing useful.

Extended explanations below.

0-10 returns no results, meaning that it is possible to hide quite well in sparsely populated areas. The inclusion of all the surrounding buildings, however, means that PKing people who would bring your safehouse above "threshold" is pointless, unless you plan on keeping every building surrounding it clear aswell. It also makes it much harder for zombies to pinpoint exactly which buildings are most populated, while still letting a zombie know that there are people nearby, and persistance in the area will eventually pay off.

The survivors in the central building would count as double for the count. This is for a) realism, as nearby humans would have more of an impact than ones further away, and b) to make it more difficult to "map" the survivor's locations (In theory, a zombie could "map" a small area by scenting, moving, and scenting again. A horde could station a zombie at each position in a 3X3 area and all scent simultaniously. Doubling the value of the central building means that it would be difficult to tell if an increase/decrease between two locations was caused by the difference between the surrounding buildings, or the difference between the building you previously stood on and the one you are now standing on).

Note: The items in the brackets above are possible ways to EXPLOIT this skill, not an explanation of its use --Gene Splicer 01:35, 20 July 2006 (BST)

If there is ever a standing survivor within the zombie's field of view, the message is replaced with "The nearby meat overwhelms your senses". This circumvents the "If nearby survivors are worth double, what about outside ones?" issue, and adds a nice bit of flavour. Using it inside an empty building returns "You smell nothing but damp and old blood". This is for simplistic realism.

While this would not allow zombies to tell the exact status of a building, it gives them an excellent idea of the population of their immediate area. The one big issue is that armouries and other freestanding buildings, or buildings with a great deal of nearby streets, would be much easier to "map" than others. On the other hand, this could be looked upon as adding new tactical element in choosing a desirable safehouse.

  • holds up lead sheet against the X-Ray Visioners* please don't hurt me

Note: It would cost 1ap to press the button. I assumed this was a given --Gene Splicer 00:51, 20 July 2006 (BST)

Notes: 11/17 Keep/Total. See original votes for feedback.
Left Queue: 09:24, 9 August 2006 (BST)

Jul 22nd, 2006

Looting (revised revised revised yet again)

Timestamp: 10:49, 22 July 2006 (BST)
Type: Skill
Scope: Survivors
Description: This skill is designed to encourage survivors to spread out and take greater risks, rather than clump together. Looting would be a subskill of Shopping. When there is little competition for resources the player is better able to find item. In any building devoid of other survivors that is not ransacked the player gains a random 15% bonus that works a bit like tangling grasp. Upon a successful search they'd get a message "You discover the building is stocked with supplies. You begin to loot it." Every time you fail a search there is a 30% chance you'll lose the bonus and receive the message "You can't easily find anything else. You stop looting." This bonus does not stack with powered searches. You can either gain the benefits of having numerous allies and powered searches but be an obvious target, or go off by yourself and hide and search in solitude and darkness.

This skill provides strategic choices for survivors. Do they want to join a huge crowd of humans and let their position be known by zombies? Or do they want to go by themselves, or with a small crowd, into a desolate neighborhood and hide. It doesn't make survivors in any populated region more powerful since resouce buildings there are populated, but makes going alone and adventuring less suicidal.

Notes: 11/17 Keep/Total. See original votes for feedback.
Left Queue: 10:41, 10 August 2006 (BST)