Suggestion:20120722 Beckon

20120722 Beckon

A Big F'ing Dog 07:15, 22 July 2012 (BST)

Suggestion type
Skill upgrade

Suggestion scope
Zombies

Suggestion description
This is an idea for a communication ability that would allow zombies to covertly contact allies, and use scent trail to follow friends as well as enemies.

I suggest upgrading Flailing Gesture to also gives zombies a Beckon attack. This attack would cost 1 AP, deal 0 damage, and have an 100% chance of success, acting like the zombie version of a newspaper attack.

It would look like this to the target:

A zombie stared at you.

Survivors and zombies targeted by the Beckon would receive a link to the "attacking" zombie's profile, and recognize them if already in their contacts.

If a targeted zombie has Scent Trail then they would be able to follow the zombie that beckoned at them. This would make Beckon a pretty handy way for allied zombies to stick together without talking to each other. You could beckon at each one of your contacts in a room so they know where to meet you.

Unlike zombie speech, flailing gestures, groans, and bellows it's important to note that Beckon is entirely confidential. Only the person you targeted gets the message. This allows zombies to secretly lead their friends elsewhere, without forcing them to alert other zombies they do not know.

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 A handy way for small groups of zombies to stick together without metagaming. Perfect for a tiny band of strangers remaining together after their first victory. In discussion a valid point was raised that this doesn't really help with leading large groups because the AP cost would be prohibitive to beckon at all 90 zombies in a horde. It might be worth coming up with another skill suggestion for the purpose of leading large groups. But I think Beckon is fine as a covert messaging system for pairs of zombies and small groups, without also covering that more powerful function as a horde leader ability. --A Big F'ing Dog 07:19, 22 July 2012 (BST)

Kill Votes

1. Kill - My issue wasn't that the AP cost was too high in certain circumstances (it is, but that's a symptom of the bigger issue). My primary gripe is that the current incarnation of this suggestion is clumsy and kludgy in that it dumps a task that should be everyone's job — following the leader — on one person's shoulders, concentrating the work, rather than distributing it (i.e. the AP cost isn't the issue, it's how you distribute the cost that's the issue). The result is that the leader is obligated to burn AP every day on this skill, meaning that they effectively have less AP with which to actually play the game and have fun. That just isn't cool. Even if you only have five people in your group, that's like getting an extra Headshot every single day. Rather than increasing fun, you'd be decreasing it for them.
   
   Also, unlike the other zombie skills, which are potentially useful to any zombie when they find themselves in a certain in-game situation, this particular skill will never be useful to the vast majority of zombies for out-of-game reasons, since the vast majority of zombies will never find themselves in the position of leading a group. I feel that it's bad design to shoehorn in a skill that has no applicability for the vast majority of players.
   
   Besides all of that, there's also the lore issue, which was never resolved. While I'm willing to accept that certain zombies may be leader zombies, what sense does it make to have a "covert messaging system" in a horde of shambling, grunting creatures? Zombies could definitely use something that accomplishes your goals with this suggestion, but this suggestion is not the way to do it. —Aichon— 15:44, 22 July 2012 (BST)
2. Aichon nailed it. --•▬ ▬••▬ • •••• •▬ ▬•▬• ▬•▬ ^{#nerftemplatedsigs} 15:52, 22 July 2012 (BST)

Spam/Dupe Votes

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Voting Rules

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Invalid Votes Server Load and Programming Complexity are NOT very good Kill reasons. You are voting on the merit of the suggestion and whether or not you think it belongs in the game. Server load/complexity issues are up to Kevan to decide. X should be implemented first is not a valid reason for a vote. You are voting on the merit of THIS suggestion, not how it compares to others. Votes that do not have reasoning behind them are invalid. You MUST justify your vote.

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VOTING EXAMPLES Keep Votes Keep - I am the author and I am allowed to vote once on my own suggestions. --MrSuggester 05:01, 11 Nov 2005 (GMT) Keep - Best. Suggestion. Evar. --Bob_Zombie 04:01, 11 Nov 2005 (GMT) Keep - Good sugestion. no signature --FakeSuggester 07:39, 15 Nov 2005 (GMT) Kill Votes Kill - This is a terrible idea, but you can totally fix it up. --NegativeGal 06:01, 12 Nov 2005 (GMT) Re - Please be more specific about how to fix it on the discussion page. --MrSuggester 14:01, 12 Nov 2005 (GMT) Re - Sure, I have detailed my proposed fixes here. --NegativeGal 23:38, 12 Nov 2005 (GMT) Kill - You will eat my poopie and love it! --PooEater 11:12, 13 Nov 2005 (GMT) Note - Inane vote removed. Defend in discussion. --DaModerator 11:13, 13 Nov 2005 (GMT) Spam/Dupe Votes Spam - Kung Fu CB Mama on Wheels is an inappropriate Survivor Class. --NoFunAtAll 09:01, 12 Nov 2005 (GMT) Dupe - Duplicate Suggestion --AnotherSuggester 05:01, 14 Nov 2005 (GMT)