Talk:Suggestions/26th-Feb-2007

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Brain Fever II

Timestamp: S.Wiers X:00 23:50, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
Type: Skill
Scope: Zombies with Brain Rot
Description: Sub-Skill to Brain Rot. 100 EPs

Zombies with this skill literally team with bacteria and viruses that, in the living, cause a high fever accompanied by weakness, hallucinations, and amnesia. Survivors infected by this zombie (which requires using the "infectious bite" skill as normal) lose HP as normal, but have additional problems.

Among these might be the following. Not all of these need apply- Kevan could toss them in as he coded them up, or even vary them randomly or over time (which could represent the strains of Brain Fever changing over time):

  • Remember the "fog" effect from 31/10/07? That effect would be applied when you have a "brain fever" infection. Instead of "fog" the hidden block text(s) might say something random to suggest hallucinations, like "fairy castle" or "gates of hell".
  • If the character attempted to move, there is a 10% chance that the direction moved would be altered by one block clockwise or counter clockwise at random. When this "mistake" happened, the victim would receive a notification stating "You have become disoriented and confused- perhaps you should try to get your bearings straight?"
  • You wouldn't see who was present in a location, or be able to tell most survivors from zombies. Instead, you would just see "N hazy figures", this representing the total number of survivors and zombies present, and a list showing contacts who are present (alive or dead, zombie, survivor, or corpse) saying "you recognize the following figures". Attacks and other options that normally allowed you to single out a target would instead revert to affecting the most inactive character (survivor or zombie). You would still be able to target yourself (say with a FAK- and well you'd better!) or any contacts.
  • The Shopping skill would still (sort of) function, but there is a 75% chance that store you ended up searching would be randomly selected, rather than being the one you wanted.
  • GPS units would display random output, which need not even be numeric. (DO,OM)
  • There would be some sort of text filter on the character’s speech, radio broadcasts, and outgoing / incoming cell phone messages. This need not be as severe as “death rattle”, but should be a serious impediment to meaningful communication of anything other than “My god am I ever sick- FAK me NOW!!!”
  • If the infected character tried to tune a radio or radio transmitter, the frequency would be randomly selected.
  • If the infected character tried to send a cell phone message, the recipient would be randomly selected from among their mutual contacts.
  • Other creative nastiness???

Discussion

Keep in mind that i don't really intend for ALL of the above effects to apply at the same time. I suppose a finished suggestion for voting would require listing which ones apply how often, but that's just to hard to determine... any ideas on how to handle that? S.Wiers X:00x-mas tree dead pool 15:11, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

I quite like this. How about one 'major' effect on at random from several possible options, and several 'minor' effects that are constantly on. The GPS, speech, radio and text message effects certainly fit the bill for 'minors'. The fog, random movements (though I think it should be a higher percentage - 15-20%?), hazy figures and shopping would make good 'major' effects. --Ashadoa 16:03, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
A decent notion, though I'd hesitate to call the shopping or the fog really major effects- the fog was pretty easy to deal with, and who goes shopping while infected? Maybe combined together they would count as one major effect. makes sense, one affects you only inside malls, one affects you only outside them. --S.Wiers X:00x-mas tree dead pool 16:21, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
Well, I thought about how easy the fog is to get around simply by going on any of the many maps available, but as they are not actually included in the game itself technically they make the game quite difficult. If you use no metagaming tools whatsoever, playing UD 'purely', then the fog is a major hinderance. But as it is easy to get round I suppose that technicality is a bit silly. As for the shopping - searching for FAKS in drug stores? I for one use malls for my FAKS more often than I use hospitals. Certainly I can see it isn't that big a deal. As you say, a combination of the two might make another 'major' effect.--Ashadoa 21:01, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
I like this just as I liked the first brain fever, though I'm going to say that if certain few of the conditions are chosen together, it would be almost impossible for the affected player to recover without outside help... Though that really depends on the Fog. I wasn't there when it occurred... could someone tell me what it was like? Also, the speech hinderance really won't matter. If a survivor is talking somewhat like a zed, other survivors will know that you're probably affected. Also, can a person really walk through a door in that condition? And with all the infections in the game and coming up in the suggestions area, I'm kind of wondering - what in the world is the human immune system doing?--Storyteller 20:05, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
The fog basicly just made it impossible to see outside of the block you were actually in. I think you could see whether there were lights (a powered building) in adjacent squares, but not the location names (thous as mentioned above, the fact that the game screen is 2 steps away from a linked map makes that a non-issue) and you also couldn't see people / zombies outside your own square. --S.Wiers X:00x-mas tree dead pool 04:42, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

I can already tell you people aren't going to like "random movement". I actually think the fog idea would be better. What about, instead, random squares (or, just all but the center) on your map are greyed out to represent hazy/blurred vision from the infection.--Pesatyel 09:20, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Fog essentially IS "all but the center on your map are greyed out to represent hazy/blurred vision". The random movment would never put you more than 1 square from your intended destination, so its not really that bad. Well, unless you were inside a building, and it cause you to move outside, instead of using Free Running to get to another building... S.Wiers X:00x-mas tree dead pool 13:06, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
D'oh! Yeah, that's what I meant, but on a "personal" level. As for the movement what if you got a "bad RNG" and wander off somewhere uncontrollable?--Pesatyel 03:31, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

I like this - But the fog as a one day occurrence could be a little more severe, but as on a more wide scale like this, it should probably be toned down -- ESPECIALLY for the newbies. The map is available for meta-gamers, but it shouldn't be a requirement. I'd suggest instead of replicating the fog, take away all specific building descriptions except the square you are on and replace them with "A building" or "A street". All except for hospitals and malls -- These should appear as "A hospital" or "A mall". This would allow infected newbie survivors to still maintain some bearing without meta-gaming. Also, as for the shopping skill, make it random on all shops except for drugstores. All in all, I think the confusion factor is fun, but it shouldn't be impossible to get healed without meta-gaming. --Matt Scott 9 14:33, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

The recent update gave me a new idea. Would it be to "over the top" if Brain Fever affected a survivors encumbrance? Say, by limiting them to HPx2 encumbrance, instead of 100%? This would encourage them to get another survivor to heal them, rather than searching up their own FAK (which might require dropping some stuff). Obviously I shouldn't also add in effects from above that might make it impossible to find a person / location where you could get help. S.Wiers X:00x-mas tree dead pool 13:28, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't know. I suspect too many survivors feel the new emcumbrances are hard enough as it is.--SporeSore 13:28, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Brain Fever

Timestamp: S.Wiers X:00 23:50, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
Type: Skill
Scope: Zombies with Brain Rot
Description: Sub-Skill to Brain Rot. 100 EPs

Zombies with this skill literally team with bacteria and viruses that, in the living, cause a high fever accompanied by weakness, hallucinations, and amnesia. Survivors infected by this zombie (which requires using the "infectious bite" skill as normal) lose HP as normal, but have an additional problem.

For every HP they loose, there is a chance they will also drop an item of equipment, out of exhaustion, confusion, or (in the case of a flak jacket) in an effort to cool down. The potential loss would be determined as follows:

  1. Each time the survivor looses an HP to the infection, a random number from 1 to 100 is selected. (this number perhaps could be adjusted upwards to lessen the severity of the effect.)
  2. Starting at the top of the survivors inventory list (a string of letters and numbers representing their inventory, typically with a maximum length of 51 characters) the server would count that far into the list
  3. If the count runs past the end of the list, there is no effect
  4. If the count ends up "on top of" a character representing an item, the server would delete the item (if any) that was represented by the affected character(s), and sending a message saying "due to your fevered infection, you have dropped your XYZ" along with the report of HP loss.

Discussion

Good god no, this would literally murder a huge number of noobs! getting up with no faks and you lose most of your stuff, somehow doesn't seem fair! Also when you first stand up don't you lose a HP from the infection? If so it could also lose you your emergency FAK!--Honestmistake 00:00, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

So carry TWO emergency FAKs. Actually, This was mostly aimed at making the INITIAL infection uglier; I could see this being a short lived infection that requires living flesh to survive, and so goes away whenever you die (and hance is no danger to the newly revived). --S.Wiers X:00 01:20, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

I like this idea, but perhaps it occurs too often if someone has a lot of items. With a full inventory, there is over 50% chance to drop an item. Maybe lower the chance a bit? Also, it wouldn't kill noobs. How many items could a noob possibly hold? 10? That's like 1 item deletion per 10 damage. Not a very high chance. Storyteller 00:02, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

i think it gives a 1% chance of dropping an item as soon as you stand up, ok so if you have a FAK this will very likely not affect you... If you do not it will probably take you at least 10 AP to find safety and all those % chances to drop stuff mount up especially annoying/dangerous if you drop both your loaded guns or worse your hard sought scanner and syringe!--Honestmistake 00:11, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
Indeed, the percent chance of dropping an item would be directly equal to how many inventory slots it occupies, though you obviously drop only one item at a time. So yeah, spending 10 AP moving while infected this way would loose you some good stuff- radios would be particulary prone to being dropped, but you'd only have a 10% chance to drop a DNA scanner after spending 10AP while infected. Not really logical, but it keeps the implementation code small, simple, and fast running by basing the effect off very basic inventory string manipulations. --S.Wiers X:00 01:41, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
Well I like the idea, especially since radios and firearms are the most probable to get "lost" but as it is I dont think it would pass, prolifers will KOS this. maybe make some items "undropable" (if that's even a word)--♠ Che ♠-T GC X 08:27, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
After a bit of thought about the string operations to be used, it seems the best way to implement it would in fact result is equal chance for any given item being lost. I'm not sure which items should be "undropable" - nor would it really make sense. Even if you tied your DNA scanner around your neck on a chain, you might break the thing. I think its best just kept simple- anything can be dropped. Its not like any of the crucial survivor "career" items (DNA scanner, syringe, gun, FAK, fire ax) are really all that hard to find. --S.Wiers X:00 15:50, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

I have always supported the idea of items breaking or being lost on death but this just seems arbitrary and unfair... I just don't like the way it works!--Honestmistake 17:18, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure I get your meaning. How is it more unfair than an item breaking or being lost upon death? If anything, this is more fair, because it is almost entirely preventable. It also balances out that Brain Rot has become almost entirely pointless due to other game changes since its introduction. Giving Brain Rot a decent (and flavorful) anti-survivor sub-skill would once again make it worthwhile skill for dedicated zombie characters. --S.Wiers X:00 17:26, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
i would much prefer an effect that mimics wear and tear on frequently used but currently indestructible items rather than a zombie skill that make you forget where you put stuff! Regardless of how many FAKS i have my survivor always heals the wounded unless i have good reason not too, as such i often have no FAKs! This could potentially punish me for humanitarianism and i am sure i am not the only one to play this way. more important it just feels wrong to me, defies logic i know but meh!--Honestmistake 21:17, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
Fair enough, just wanted to see if it was a fixable thing or just a gut emotional reaction. I think there SHOULD be a potential punishment for humanitarianism, for two reasons; firstly, if its not a (potential) sacrifice, its not really all that noble to be a humanitarian. Second, if there's not a potential sacrifice, its a no-brainer strategy. --S.Wiers X:00 00:33, 28 February 2007 (UTC)
there is a punishment for humanitarianism, its called getting eaten and then dying again because you are infected and locked out and used you last FAK on someone else! This just adds insult to injury... --Honestmistake 14:09, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

No way. Leave my inventory alone. Like headshot when it took XP, this skill has only one purpose... to annoy your victim so much that they go away. --Cman yall 23:56, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

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