Developing Suggestions

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Developing Suggestions

This section is for general discussion of suggestions for the game Urban Dead.

It also includes the capacity to pitch suggestions for conversation and feedback.

Further Discussion

• Discussion concerning this page takes place here.
• Discussion concerning the suggestions system in general, including policies about it, takes place here.

Resources

• The Frequently Suggested List
• Suggestions Dos and Do Nots

How To Make a Discussion

Adding a New Discussion

To add a general discussion topic, please add a Tier 3 Header (===Example===) below, with your idea or proposal.

Adding a New Suggestion

• To add a new suggestion proposal, copy the code in the box below.
• Click here to begin editing. This is the same as clicking the [edit] link to the right of the Suggestions header.

• Paste the copied text above the other suggestions, right under the heading.
• Substitute the text in RED CAPITALS with the details of your suggestion.
• The process is illustrated in this image.

{{subst:DevelopingSuggestion
|time=~~~~
|name=SUGGESTION NAME
|type=TYPE HERE
|scope=SCOPE HERE
|description=DESCRIPTION HERE
}}

• Name - Give the suggestion a short but descriptive name.
• Type is the nature of the suggestion, such as a new class, skill change, balance change.
• Scope is who or what the suggestion affects. Typically survivors or zombies (or both), but occasionally Malton, the game interface or something else.
• Description should be a full explanation of your suggestion. Include information like flavor text, search odds, hit percentages, etc, as appropriate. Unless you are as yet unsure of the exact details behind the suggestion, try not to leave out anything important. Check your spelling and grammar.

Cycling Suggestions

• Suggestions with no new discussion in the past month may be cycled without notice.

Please add new discussions and suggestions to the top of the list

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Suggestions

Max Axe

Timestamp: Ronarprfct 17:19, 17 May 2011 (BST)

Type: Skill

Scope: Survivors above a certain level

Description: I suggest the adding of a new skill to the military skills-I like the name Max Axe, but whatever-with Axe proficiency and hand-to-hand as prerequisites-perhaps also some minimum level prerequisite. This skill would boost the accuracy of the axe by 10% so that it would be 50%. I don't think this is unreasonable at all. It would then make a human with an axe equal in damage per AP to a zombie without the effect of tangling grasp but with Vigour Mortis, Death Grip, and Rend flesh. I think it is only fair that the damage we can deal with our axe be equal to the damage they can deal with their claws. They would still be able to do more damage with tangling grasp, but I've personally never seen tangling grasp work all that well for me when playing as a zombie. If you look at the XP leaderboard, most of the leaders are characters who play as zombies because of the greater damage of their hand attacks. I don't think this would unbalance the game-one axe wielder still couldn't kill as many zombies in a session as a gun toter. It would just make things fair for those who like or are forced to use melee. Also, it isn't unrealistic to think that an axe could do at least as much damage to a zombie as the zombie's claws could do to a human. If anyone feels this would make the knife useless, you could add a new knife skill that would take it to 60%, thus making the knife do as much damage per AP as the axe now does.

Discussion (Max Axe)

the axe has lower damage per AP than a maxed zombie for the simple reason of balance.... remember that the zombie has to get to you before he can start clawing and biting and you have barricades to prevent this. for every AP most zombies spend attacking a survivor they will probably spend at least 10 (lots more for ferals) on trying to get to them. --Honestmistake 17:37, 17 May 2011 (BST)

This would also make the knife nearly worthless. It has its niche compared to the axe by having the higher to-hit % and by costing less encumbrance. By making axes as likely to hit, the knife would be reduced to a poor man's axe that only has encumbrance as redeeming feature. --Oh, and vote on Project Funny, by the way. -- Spiderzed█ 17:45, 17 May 2011 (BST)

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New City

New City (To be named)

Timestamp: Peter Mason 18:11, 15 May 2011 (BST)

Type: New City

Scope: Urban Dead players

Description: I think that many people are getting bored with Urban Dead as it is. Monroeville is dead and Borehamwood is on its way. Kevan should make a new city. This could either be a city where you can't be revived like Moroeville, or a new map almost exactly like Malton. There would be the same building types and there would be revives. It would be like Urban Dead had started all over again. And the old cities would still be there! Malton is pretty much dead because 90% of it is zombie ridden and pretty much unchangeable. Is anybody else with me on this? It's been a while since a new city was added. Please vote yes if YOU want a new city! Maybe Kevan will see and make a new city.

Discussion (New City (To be named))

Malton isn't dead..It's just turning into a real zombie apocalypse.. On the note of a new city I'd be supportive of a temporary either real-time city or one that has considerably more AP per day than current UD. It could be reset brand new every 2 weeks or however long and wouldn't even have to be as large as Malton, in fact smaller would be better. Maybe only a limited number of people could sign up then it would lock out like he did for the other 2 cites.       04:16, 16 May 2011 (BST)

HELP ZOMBIES ARE IN MY ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE GAME! WHAT SHALL I DO? QUIT AND MAKE A NEW GAME --Karloth Vois ^¯\(°_o)/¯ 10:16, 16 May 2011 (BST)

Well I think my suggestion is better than what the guy above this guy above me is saying. We get to keep Malton and make a new city. The person two comments above me agrees with my thought of making a temporary no revive city. Monroeville is over, so it's time for a new one! Constructive comments only please!--Peter Mason 12:46, 16 May 2011 (BST)

Just to note I meant keep Malton and have an extra city or two to play in as its not going to die we always bounce back..       13:29, 16 May 2011 (BST)

Zombie apocalypse. If you don't like it you need to find something else to do. --|||||||||||||||||||||||| 21:34, 16 May 2011 (BST)

You know, I might not want a new Malton either. I'm just spit balling here! I'm thinking that now that because Monroeville is over people migh want another challenge city. It's not quitting because I really want survivor to bounce back in Malton. The old cities would still be there. Were you this worried when Monroeville came out. You didn't worry that Malton would be over. Why should you now. I'm trying to ind a compromise and suggest an idea that everyone coul like. Don't just trash ideas if you don't like the way they have been put online. Try to help! Make it better. Isn't that what the discussion section is all about?--Peter Mason 22:59, 16 May 2011 (BST)

Unfortunately I stumbled across UD after the quarantines so I never had a chance to visit Monroeville or Borehamwood. I certainly wouldn't mind having the chance to play a new city with a few differing rules in place. ~~ Chief Seagull ~~ ^talk 14:14, 17 May 2011 (BST)

New cities are full of win, the first scramble between sides is great fun. Previous new cities didn't get the balance quite right but were fun none the less. --Honestmistake 17:41, 17 May 2011 (BST)

Balance Idea I've got.

No name for it yet, but it might help balance the number of survivors-zombies.

Timestamp: Danny Williams 16:40, 14 May 2011 (EST)

Type:Balance

Scope: Every character on UD.

Description: As of writing the  % of standing surviors is 14% against The Dead's 'deal with it' attempt to break the game. I was thinking off possible ways to deal with these supergroups that are just trying to ruin the game for other people in a fair and balanced way. This is what I've come up with. Every character will get a +1 max HP for every 1% their race is down (this would only include standing characters). However if one race has a higher% they receive no bonus or handicap. EG zombies out number survivors 55%-45% so a new level one Zombie would have a max health of 55 HP instead of 50. Over the next few days the balance is changed with standing zombies equalling 60% of total standing chars, so all zombies would lose their max HP bonus, and survivors would get a plus 10 bonus. As of writing surviors would get a massive 36 extra max HP, but as the game begins to balance again that advantage would fade untill an even 50/50 split is restored. I have no idea about you would explain this change in story terms, but this litrally came to my head about 10 mins ago and I really wanted some feedback before making it more specific.

Discussion

Terrible idea. Have you not searched any buildings? If you haven't then try it and you'll see balancing measures in place. Besides this is a zombie game and survivors shouldn't be winning it.       20:09, 14 May 2011 (BST)

How would this ever be beneficial for zombies? --Karek^{maps 2.0?!} 20:13, 14 May 2011 (BST)

To Mazu, I've heard nothing before of increased search rates (I'll asumme that's what your getting at, I'd appreciate any material you can give me to read on this. 1. If it's a zombie game why can we play as survivors? Surely if the game was made solely for zombies there'd be no point playing as a survivor? 2. Where have I said survivors should be winning this game? Personally I believe that nether side should have a clear advantage against the other, a sort of yingyang to suit every player. To Karek, it's not beneficial to ether side, although as far as I know, throughout most of UDs history survivors have had the larger % of active players, so you could argue that this boosts zombies more then survivors. Danny Williams 21:50 14 may 2011 (EST)

Syringes ignore HP, claws don't. --Karek^{maps 2.0?!} 01:23, 15 May 2011 (BST)

“	Yes, this is just a simple built-in balancing mechanic, triggered by the overall state of the game - at the other end of the scale, search rates drop when survivors greatly outnumber the undead. If you want a thematic reason for it, the pickings are richer for an individual survivor when there are fewer of them around to do the looting, and when the suburbs are getting too comfortably repopulated by the living, it's harder for them to find something that's been overlooked by everyone else.	”
—Kevan, via email

ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾᚨᚾᛏ 23:52, 14 May 2011 (BST)

HELP THERE ARE ZOMBIES IN MY ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE GAME FOR ONCE QUICK TO THE WIKI TO SUGGEST SOME BULLSHIT FIX TO RETURN IT TO SURVIVORS AND REVIVIFYING SURVIVORS HURR --Karloth Vois ^¯\(°_o)/¯ 10:18, 16 May 2011 (BST)

You should have put more than ten minutes' thought into this. Then maybe you'd realize how stupid it is and not have posted at all. --|||||||||||||||||||||||| 21:36, 16 May 2011 (BST)

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Prognosis

Timestamp: Cyrus Hanley 15:40, 14 May 2011 (BST)

Type: Survivor Skill

Scope: Survivors

Description: A sub-skill of Diagnosis. Survivors with the Prognosis skill will be able to distinguish infected survivors from uninfected survivors, much like zombies with the Scent Blood skill.

Discussion (Prognosis)

Only if Prognosis has a button with a drop-down menu listing every Survivor in a building with you, and it costs 1 AP to check one of them.--

| T | BALLS! | 15:43 14 May 2011(UTC)

Why? Cyrus Hanley 15:45, 14 May 2011 (BST)

Massive dupe, even with the exactly same name and already one that was kept at 28 of 29 votes back in the days before the current suggestion system. Another item-based infection detection suggestion has been rejected, while skill-based infection detection still crops up every now and then. --Oh, and vote on Project Funny, by the way. -- Spiderzed█ 15:55, 14 May 2011 (BST)

YNTGOM.--

| T | BALLS! | 16:01 14 May 2011(UTC)

? Cyrus Hanley 16:05, 14 May 2011 (BST)

What we tell you here is that precisely this suggestion already exists (a "dupe" as we call it, short for "duplicate"). If you would enter your suggestion, it would be removed, since it has already been suggested and has already been under community vote. --Oh, and vote on Project Funny, by the way. -- Spiderzed█ 02:01, 15 May 2011 (BST)

I knew that, what I didn't know was what "YNTGOM" means. Cyrus Hanley 04:09, 15 May 2011 (BST)

You Need To Google Our Message. ~ _{00:12, 16 May 2011 (UTC)}

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Ammo Selection

Timestamp: Bental 04:49, 8 May 2011 (BST)

Type: Improvement

Scope: Survivors

Description: How many times have you, as a survivor, gone to blast away at a zombie, finished, and realized that when you want to reload, but for fear of wasting bullets, you can't because all of your pistols are half empty/full. Is there a way Urban Dead could automatically select the Pistol with the lowest ammo to use first? This wouldn't really give the survivors an advantage, but it would certainly make things easier as far as ammo conservation goes. It wouldn't matter for a shotgun, obviously as they only reload one shell at a time anyway.

Discussion (Ammo Selection)

That's how it works already.--

| T | BALLS! | 04:56 8 May 2011(UTC)

Is it? I always thought it worked from the 1st pistol in your inventory and didn't matter how much ammo was in each. --Honestmistake 11:35, 8 May 2011 (BST)

Yeah it is. I can't remember, but I think it always has been, although it could have been an update.--Yonnua Koponen ^{T G P} ^^^ 11:38, 8 May 2011 (BST)

Well it has been a while since i was in the land of the mouth breathers :) --Honestmistake 11:40, 8 May 2011 (BST)

Ever since I've played UD, it has been that way. And before someone asks about that, it's the same with shotguns - it picks first those that have one shell in it before it wanders to completely empty shotguns. -- Spiderzed█ 14:40, 8 May 2011 (BST)

I'm pretty sure that is NOT how it works. I can remember many times re-loading a pistol and shooting it, only to end up with pistols holding 5 bullets and 1 bullet, rather than 6 and 0.  Swiers 14:49, 8 May 2011 (BST)

For _shooting_, it picks indeed first the first gun in your inventory regardless of ammo level. The suggester asked about _reloading_, which works the way described above. -- Spiderzed█ 14:56, 8 May 2011 (BST)

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Combinable Items

Timestamp: 18:02, 4 May 2011 (GMT)

Type: New Skill

Scope: Survivors

Description: Survivors with this skill being a civilian skill will be able in a powerded building probley a factory as it makes most sense to be there should be able to combine items i would love to see if they added cloths and lighters to be able to put the 2 together and make a molotov coctail , the survivors are outnumbered and need to have ways of making things that can help them more. I just think it would be awesome to combine items i see other people post stuff about molotov cocktails but it could be any item really, what do you lot think.

Discussion (Combinable Items)

I like how the above author did not even bother to read about a page farther down and see an almost identical suggestion. -- LABIA on the INTERNET ^{Dunell Hills Corpseman} #24 - |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ^TMG 12:06, 6 May 2011 (BST)

to answer this it was just a random idea of 1 combinable item there could be many —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Karog (talk • contribs) at an unknown time.

Some suggestions like this were suggested (see Survivor Ingenuity) in various ways. One thing to look at is the Suggestions Dos and Do Nots, for guidelines. As for this suggestion, it falls under the second bullet point here. --Akule ^{Maker of fine, hand-crafted UDWiki sass since 2006 -- Akule School's back in session™} 22:31, 10 May 2011 (BST)

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More Talking

Timestamp:  Swiers 16:56, 4 May 2011 (BST)

Type: improvement

Scope: everybody

Description: instead of a flat 1 AP cost to say something, talking would only consume an AP a certain percentage of the time (say, 25%), randomly determined each time you talked. This would encourage role play use of talking, while still discouraging people from talking much in tense tactical situations, since they can't be sure it won't consume AP they need for other things.

Discussion (More Talking)

Makes sense because in relaxed situations, you realistically are more free to talk.  Swiers 16:57, 4 May 2011 (BST)

I like reducing the cost of speaking, while still attaching a cost to it to prevent flooding. What about gestureing or broadcasting? And what about spraypainting or defiling graffiti? -- Spiderzed█ 18:10, 4 May 2011 (BST)

The other modes all reach more people or persist longer than speech and, IMO, would defy the point of this suggestion. It should definitely cover both zambah- an harman-gab, though. ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾᚨᚾᛏ 04:36, 5 May 2011 (BST)

Abzaragrah - zambah zbaagh !z zbaagh!  Swiers 04:25, 6 May 2011 (BST)

So, speaking (both zombie and survivor) and gestureing would be what is affected by that? Me like. Particularly since I see the issues with cheaper graffiti/defiling/broadcasting Rev mentions. -- Spiderzed█ 13:11, 6 May 2011 (BST)

I hadn't considered gesturing, but yeah, why not- its basically a form of speech. IMO survivors should be able to gesture too- probably the only reason they can't is it would be largely redundant with (non-zambargh) speech.  Swiers 19:47, 6 May 2011 (BST)

I all for more talking. You could do something such if there's a zombie present inside the building or in the square with you that forces it to take 1 ap per speech but I'd hate to over complicate the simplicity..       03:00, 5 May 2011 (BST)

Yeah, by keeping it to a simple random number you avoid introducing a new database call (which would be needed to detect the presence of a zombie in the location with the speaker). I'm guessing grabbing a random number is faster and easier to code, although I suppose speech processing already requires checking if the speaker is alive, prone, or walking dead.  Swiers 19:47, 6 May 2011 (BST)

I reckon it could be done without an extra database call: it'll already have to check to see if there are any zombies when it loads the page so it can just check the variable whenever someone talks.--The General ^{T Sys U! P! F!} 22:39, 6 May 2011 (BST)

Don't discriminate zombies. There are few enough survivors to talk to zombies as it is. Even if it just trenchie trash talk like "SUCK MAH SHOTGUN FUCKING ZED", it is more fun to hear than 20 "RandomTrenchie117 shot you with a pistol for 4 damage... and again... and again..." messages. -- Spiderzed█ 23:06, 6 May 2011 (BST)

I'm not: I thought the point up for debate was the practicality of making it only cost AP to talk when zombies are around and was saying that it wouldn't cause any additional server load. Am I misunderstanding?--The General ^{T Sys U! P! F!} 23:17, 6 May 2011 (BST)

“	December 21, 2005: With nearly a thousand in attendance, Whetcombe is so crowded that it is hard to do anything. Stanstock organizers ask participants to spread out to soundstages and refreshment stands in adjoining streets. To reduce server load, Kevan limits conversation broadcasts to the fifty nearest.	”
—Stanstock

I'm wondering if the fact that speech was already limited for server load purposes gives this suggestion really any chance of a future. Speaking is good but seems unlikely.--Karek^{maps 2.0?!} 20:03, 6 May 2011 (BST)

Of course, that was end of 2005 in the heyday of UD. With today's player numbers and the overproportionally growing server load for speech actions (the more people there are in the same place, the more people load the speaker speech), things might be different. -- Spiderzed█ 20:35, 6 May 2011 (BST)

You'd think thered be a way to streamline speech and make it have nearly no server load.. Make it so to have free speech you gata be with less than 20 people under the guise of having to "yell" over everyone if there's too many people around :P       02:35, 7 May 2011 (BST)

Not entirely. The way it works is that: Every time someone loads a page the game will query the database to retrieve any speech that's happened at your location since last time you logged in, obviously with larger queries causing more server load. This happens every time someone takes an action so the load is effectively multiplied by the number of people active. So, if there are 1000s of people active in a location and they're all using their AP to talk then the server is having to make thousands of large database queries to retrieve text and likely also having to make thousands of queries to store new speech in the database (possibly 1000s of queries per line of speech).

The only way to solve it is to limit the number of queries that can be made by (as Kevan did) by methods such as limit the amount of characters who the message is sent to (thus limiting queries). So, yeah, limiting 0AP speech based on the number of people present would be a reasonable solution.--The General ^{T Sys U! P! F!} 10:26, 7 May 2011 (BST)

You know though, all that aside I'd still vote for this. There are certainly ways Kevan can limit it but, ultimately that's up to him. Speech shouldn't be a trade off with useful actions like attacking, it should definitely be easier. --Karek^{maps 2.0?!} 02:10, 15 May 2011 (BST)

So would I, actually. Votes are supposed to be based on the merits of the suggestion and not on potential server load (because only Kevan is really in a position to make a judgement on that), and I like the suggestion.--The General ^{T Sys U! P! F!} 11:59, 15 May 2011 (BST)

Then lets get her put up for vote with some of the modifications proposed :P       13:27, 15 May 2011 (BST)

Who decides to put it up for a vote because they really should.--Peter Mason 00:03, 16 May 2011 (BST)

If I remember correctly the creator of the suggestion just throws it onto the real page. I doubt if there's any formal procedure..       04:09, 16 May 2011 (BST)

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Urban Dead Mobile Friendly

Timestamp: Redguy 21:29, 3 May 2011 (BST)

Type: Improvement

Scope: Game Interface

Description: I made a prototype of a mobile html/css/js for the game. You can test it out here: Urban Dead Mobile. Use your smartphone browser or make the desktop browser window smaller on the x-axis to see the mobile version. This is just an idea and should be fairly easy for Kevan to implement if everybody likes ;)

Discussion (Urban Dead Mobile Friendly)

Wooo. Make it so! ~ _{22:00, 3 May 2011 (UTC)}
noice --    bitch  22:31, 3 May 2011 (utc)
I like it. Although my phone (Iphone 3G) doesn't display ruins/lit buildings or the full building name correctly. If I remember right, I'd test it but all my accounts are Ap'd and my phones browser has frozen up.. Just something to make sure works in case you had a droid or other smart phone.       03:19, 4 May 2011 (BST)
@Mazu: If you check out the game at urbandead.com on your iPhone you should get the same display bugs as in my prototype. I did not change the click behavior of the map or it's look in the css. Kevan uses input buttons to display buildings, I thought about changing the buttons to link elements that submit the form but I think that is something for Kevan to decide (I changed as little as possible). You should also consider that if this get's through the suggestions, Kevan is the person to make the final fixes and push it into development ;) --Redguy 11:16, 4 May 2011 (BST)

True, If/when Kevan makes an app for it or something all the display bugs would be fixed. I was just bringing it to your attention if you/kevan didn't know.       12:13, 4 May 2011 (BST)

You could just use Opera Minimobile web browser. It does some of the processing server side and compresses the data before sending it to your phone (faster loading and less data plan use.)-- LABIA on the INTERNET ^{Dunell Hills Corpseman} #24 - |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ^TMG 13:29, 4 May 2011 (BST)

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Suggestions up for voting

The following are suggestions that were developed here but have since gone to voting. The discussions that were taking place here have been moved to the pages linked below.

No suggestions from here are currently up for voting.