Suggestion:20101002 Zombie Moan

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20101002 Zombie Moan

 Swiers 05:23, 2 October 2010 (BST)

Suggestion type
improvement to in game information

Suggestion scope
zombies in particular circumstances & anybody who can see them

Suggestion description
The recent update added a feature where by zombies have a persistent indicator as to locations that are of special interest to them (the location they can track a survivor to with "Scent Trail", or from which they most recently heard a groan / bellow.) The suggestion aims to allow zombies to communicate that information to others, in a limited and passive way.

A current feature of this update is that, when standing outside a building in the location indicated by this new feature, they see a message saying "You feel drawn to enter." For purposes of this suggestions, I'll refer to this as the zombie's target building.

What this suggestion would do is indicate to anybody in a location (outside the target building) how many zombies in that location had that building as their target building. The indication would be via them "moaning", which is simply a modifier to the description of the (number of) zombies present. For example, if three zombies were outside a building, you might read that "There is a mob of three zombies here. One of them is moaning." Reading this would tell you that one of the three zombies had either recently heard groans coming from that building, or has a scent trail to a survivor inside the building.

The main benefit of this suggestion would be that Ferals would have some extra information to work with- namely, they could guess that a lone zombie moaning outside a barricaded building probably has a scent trail to a survivor inside. A survivor who walks around outside and sees the same thing would have the same information. A secondary bonus would be to effectively extend the range of groans (especially the "quiet" ones common with fewer survivors around) and allow zombies who sleep inside to benefit from groans; if you see that more than a couple zombies are moaning, chances are they heard groans coming from that location that you did not hear because you were inside / to far away.

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/Change - I like the idea, but I'd prefer if it was a skill under the Memories of Life tree, and not (if I understand it correctly) free. It's basically an automatic zero-range feeding groan that can be transmitted to anyone who's passing in front of a building by just standing there. --Aeon17x 07:11, 2 October 2010 (BST)
2. Keep/Change - Make it unavailable to survivors. They pass by in a rush (they may just be swaying, but they still aren't harmless), and don't bother to note how many are making noise (it all sounds the same to the untrained ear), whereas zombies have the feeling of safety required to use their instinctual perception of various zombie sounds. --VVV ^RPMBG 07:54, 2 October 2010 (BST)
3. Keep/Change Maybe a bit of tweaking, such as a cheap skill, or only in certain conditions. Only being able to be seen by zombies, but aside from that I like this. Gat 07:59, 2 October 2010 (BST)
4. Keep - I love it. This would be a very welcome buff to feral gameplay, which could definitely use some love. It does a great job at providing benefit to the ferals without making the hordes more deadly. —Aichon— 09:01, 2 October 2010 (BST)
5. Keep - Aye, why not. 13:34, 2 October 2010 (BST)
6. Keep - I stand by my statements on DS.--Yonnua Koponen ^{Talk ! Contribs} 14:05, 2 October 2010 (BST)
7. Sure. Why not? --•▬ ▬••▬ • •••• •▬ ▬•▬• ▬•▬ ^{#nerftemplatedsigs} 02:03, 3 October 2010 (BST)
8. Keep - Good buff concept for zeds -- LEMON #1 02:23, 3 October 2010 (BST)
9. Keep/Change – Zombie buffs for zombies only! Otherwise, good suggestion. ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾᚨᚾᛏ 13:37, 4 October 2010 (BST)
10. Keep - A slight buff that will especially help ferals, but not too often. -- Spiderzed▋ 15:09, 4 October 2010 (BST)
11. Keep - So the only info you get is how many zombies are drawn to this building? Good. --~m ^T! 02:56, 5 October 2010 (BST)

    Yes, the only new info you get is how many of the zombies standing around with you are drawn to your current location.  Swiers 03:59, 8 October 2010 (BST)

12. Participatory emergent behavior makes the game more fun for zombies. Maximally enable such enjoyment.  Swiers 03:59, 8 October 2010 (BST)
13. keepyAnd more realistic. pack hunting is very common for zombies. plus we need more nukes!!----sexualharrison ¯\()/¯ 05:42, 8 October 2010 (BST)
14. Keep/Change - I don't see why not, but if we're honestly using this to help ferals, make it broadcast-able by anyone, but only receivable by ferals and group members out of groan range from their horde. IC reasoning I suppose being...those in a group are too busy listening to their kin? --• LtZurSee slapped your nose with a newspaper for a heal from CORAM (0 seconds ago) 15:27, 8 October 2010 (BST)

    "Out of groan range from their horde" isn't really a concept the game currently supports- without any survivors around, "groan range" is zero! Assuming you mean potential groan range, it would take a LOT of server power to determine if you have any fellow group members within 10 blocks (bellow range) of your current location- I think the required query processing would be comparable to using scent death. Anyhow, how do you tell the difference between a "horde member" and a survivor with a lot of dead friends? You could just say it doesn't work for anybody who is a member of a (large?) group instead of doing all that work, but (either way) the net effect would just be to get people who want the benfit to leave their group field blank, while continuing to meta-game with their choosen group.
    As it stands, it should be reasonable to implement (technically not a concern for voting, but worth discussing) and provides ferals with some extra info. Horde members (and even survivors) get the same info, but its not (as much of) a boost their play style.  Swiers 16:10, 10 October 2010 (BST)

15. Keep - As above.--Sargent Havok 10:47, 14 October 2010 (BST)
16. Keep - Nice little buff fits in with what we think we know about zombies as well.--ZIPO/Talk/◆◆◆/CAPD 12:49, 14 October 2010 (BST)

Kill Votes

1. Kill - Its too powerful, because it means if one zombie has a scent trail, they all see it -Dezonus- ^(talk) 07:49, 2 October 2010 (BST)

   Sort of. It only kicks in if the zombie with the scent trail is standing outside the building the target is in, and can only be seen by other people in that location. So "they all see it" may be a bit of an overstatement.  Swiers 03:59, 8 October 2010 (BST)

2. Kill - It would help new players but, at the same time I agree with Dezonus. Too much info for too little work. (I'll change to keep if there's some nerfing.) --keepster33 02:02, 7 October 2010 (BST)

Spam/Dupe Votes

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