Suggestion:20090319 Bellow

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

20090319 Bellow

 Swiers 18:14, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Suggestion type
skill

Suggestion scope
zombies

Suggestion description
Skill would require having Feeding Groan to purchase, and is available to zombies for 100 XP. When in locations with more than 20 survivors present, zombies with this skill would see a button saying "Bellow (10 AP)" next to the normal "groan" button. A bellow works much like a feeding groan, with the following differences:

• Letting loose a bellow costs 10 AP. This (like all multi-AP actions) can result in "going into negative APs". Just in case that wasn't obvious.
• A bellow can be heard normally for 10 blocks, instead of the 6 that a feeding groan would be. Bellows can draw "ferals" from a much wider range- handy when enough food is found that a strike team can't finish it all.
• Bellows can be detected from as far as 15 blocks away, but if the distance is more than 10 blocks, you do not get the precise location- instead, you are told which suburb the bellow originated from. This is to add "atmosphere" to the game, and to allow players who never metagame to get an idea of which suburbs nearby have the most pitched conflicts going on.
• Those hearing the bellow get a message describing the sound as a bellow (as well as where the sound came from), so that listeners know the two apart. This means listening know there is a LARGE food source, even if it is close enough by that a feeding groan would cover the distance.
• If for some reason the circumstances do not allow for bellowing any more, pressing the "Bellow (10 AP)" button has the same effect as pressing "Groan". What you see in your browser window may not reflect the current circumstances; you may have opened the window and then left to get a snack, and then in the meantime the survivor population dropped below 20.

Note that the Bellow covers a total area of 31x31 (961) blocks; a feeding groan in the same circumstances covers 13x13 (169) blocks. That means roughly 5.7 times as many people would receive a Bellow message as a feeding groan in the same case (though only 2.6 times as many would know the exact source). Given it would be used much less often, I don't think its going to cause undue server load or "spam".

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 Swiers has made a suggestion. As usual I approve of it. --Rosslessness^{Want a Location Image?} 18:19, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
2. Author's vote.  Swiers 18:47, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
3. Keep - I dig. --Paddy Dignam^{IS DEAD} 19:00, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
4. Keep- can't see anything wrong with it. Nemesis645 19:51, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
5. Keep- Very very cool suggestion. --Johnny Bass 19:53, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
6. Keep - This seems like the sort of thing zombies should be able to do. -CaptainVideo 19:54, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
7. Keep- As Rosslessness. I don't think I've ever voted against a Swiers idea.--Zombie Lord 19:58, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
8. Keep - Sounds like a good idea. I'm all for more precise communication among zombies, but the AP cost might be a bit high. --Lunar Aphelion 17:04, 19 March 2009 (EST)
9. Keep - I'm on board. Wrangle those ferals! ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 21:05, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
10. Keep - Sounds good, no pun intended. I assume to prevent spam multiple bellows from the same location, whether from one zombie or not will be displayed as "...and again (timestamp)...and again (timestamp)..." --A Big F'ing Dog 21:07, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
11. Keep - Good for ferals, awesome. --Fiffy 21:20, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
12. Keep - Was tempted to vote kill just because I personally prefer to not have this skill but who said I have to use it? Rogueboy 22:10, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
13. Question - How will this stack? Will there be a separate line of text for each bellow you hear? From the same person? From Different people? Different places? --Haliman - Talk 22:13, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

    The stacking (as with other unmentioned details) would be the same as for feeding groan. Not sure just how that works, but I know different locations do NOT stack, while different people DO, assuming they are all in / not in your group. In other words, event descriptions (for groan and most other things) that would be identical excepting for time DO get collapsed using the "...and again" text.  Swiers 23:02, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

14. Keep - Sounds like it will help the non-metagamer. I like, especially if it's for zombies. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 22:31, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

    Why especially for zombies? --Thadeous Oakley 19:59, 20 March 2009 (UTC) Non author re: -- boxy ^{talk • teh rulz} 12:57 2 April 2009 (BST)

    Because they rely on it too much. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 19:34, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

15. Keep - If i was a zombie this would be a great idea, helout the newbies. --^TCAPD(╯°□°)╯ ┻━┻ 23:06, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
16. Super-Groan? I like. Is 20 high enough, though? I'd almost be tempted to require 50… or scale the radius per 10 harmanz, perhaps? ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾᚨᚾᛏ 23:13, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

    Thought: Maybe you could save that for an even louder yell, like "Cry of Death" or something, which could be heard all the way from Monroeville. -CaptainVideo 05:28, 20 March 2009 (UTC) Non author re: -- boxy ^{talk • teh rulz} 12:57 2 April 2009 (BST)

17. Keep - As Gnome--OrangeGaf ^Talk! 23:19, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
18. keep - sounds good--Sgt Gonnella 00:29, 20 March 2009 (UTC)
19. Keep, Question - Will zombies hearing bellows from over 10 blocks away also be able to know what direction the suburb of origin is in? --Idly Hummingbird 07:15, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

    Assuming they check a map, yes. A general direction indicator might be nice (as many new players never check even the wiki map) but I'd leave that totally up to Kevan.  Swiers 15:13, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

20. Keep - As Ross. Linkthewindow  Talk  07:17, 20 March 2009 (UTC)
21. Keep - It's got my vote. --D.E.ATalk 08:27, 20 March 3009 (UTC)
22. keep though i do think 5AP would be sufficiently high a cost. --Honestmistake 14:20, 20 March 2009 (UTC)
23. Keep - Cool suggestion, bro; it will help out my (and other peoples') newbie zombie(s). --ZsL 17:02, 20 March 2009 (UTC)
24. Keep - Its one of those skills that might allow more zombie players.--Thadeous Oakley 19:59, 20 March 2009 (UTC)
25. Keep/Change - The wildly excessive AP cost almost got a Kill vote here, but the core idea is strong. Five AP cost would be right. --Papa Moloch 06:54, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

    I pitched the cost to be on par with destroying a generator or radio- expensive enough that you actually have to consider whether its worth it or not. For 5 AP, any zombie who could, would.  Swiers 14:22, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

26. Keep - As a New Zealander, I can't help but agree with anything that is, in essence, a big sign saying 'Free Food'. --Blake Firedancer ^{T E RNL? P.I.S.I.T.} 07:07, 21 March 2009 (UTC)
27. Keep - Good. But reduce AP a bit. --Mail2345 20:17, 27 March 2009 (UTC)
28. Keep - And boo to those saying 10AP is too much. Have you ever repaired a building and gone into -70AP? It's nice to give zombies something to waste AP on also. --Giles Sednik ^CAPDSWA 19:04, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
29. Keep - This has Barhah. -- Grogh 21:51, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
30. Keep - Sounds good, allows for more organisation wih ferals but at a reasonable cost. ChainReaction01 00:52, 31 March 2009 (BST)
31. Keep - I'm not a big meta-gamer, and I was a bit put off by the cost of this... however, on thinking more on it, it's greatest benefit would be for feralish zombies in safe 'burbs. It takes a lot of effort, over many days to gather together a spontaneous, non-meta-gaming horde via feeding groans. But there are often greater than 20 harmanz inside lit TRPs, and a bellow increases the range considerably. Just make it so that you can differentiate between bellows from your fellow group members and random other zombies (just like feeding groan), so that non-metagaming zombie groups can communicate easier -- boxy ^{talk • teh rulz} 12:57 2 April 2009 (BST)

    Keep - Because Swiers suggested it and because it is a logical suggestion.  Billy Club Thorton  T!  RR  23:29, 4 April 2009 (BST) Late vote struck. --Midianian^{¦T¦DS¦SP¦} 22:55, 6 April 2009 (BST)

Kill Votes

1. Kill - I like it but I just can't agree with it... --Kamikazie-Bunny 08:32, 20 March 2009 (UTC)
2. Kill - I feel feeding groan is sufficient as it stands. The Mad Axeman 10:15, 20 March 2009 (UTC)
3. Kill - Sorry but I wouldnt go to a groan (or even a bellow) from over 10 blocks away.--Angusburger 21:11, 22 March 2009 (UTC)
4. Kill - The organised horde isn't going to care about the high AP cost, the random feral who's got lucky on the cades will be crippling themselves the next day for this. We shouldn't be suggesting things so AP intensive that only the meta can take advantage of them. -- . . <== DDR Approved Editor 05:07, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Spam/Dupe Votes