Zombie MMORPG
Y’know what I’d love to see? A zombie MMORPG. Maybe MMORPG is the wrong acronym for it though, maybe it’s more of a virtual world and not a game. You see, in this MMO the object wouldn’t be raiding or roleplaying (well that might fit in at a player’s discretion), the object of the game would be survival. And there would be permadeath.
Imagine a large virtual world, perhaps only a single server ala EVE Online, that’s set in a fictional United States of America, modern time. It’s completely overrun with zombies (dozens of different types of them) and in a severe state of dilapidation and the players are the only inhabitants left on the planet, forming together into small groups or large gangs in order to stake claim to territories and eek out a semblance of normal life.
There would be no levels in this zombie MMO, instead players would earn experience simply by surviving. You’d be able to tell how much of a veteran someone is by how many days they’d survived. There would also be no classes, instead everything is skilled based and learnt from studying books, videos etc found in the world or passed on by another player. Players could learn medical skills to help heal others, mechanical skills to repair cars and electrical generators or combat skills like to marksmanship to make them better at killing those pesky zombies.
A zombie MMO would require a lot of freedom of action. Every vehicle should be driveable (so long as it’s in a state of good repair, has fuel and you have the appropriate skills), every house enterable, every animal, person or thing killable. There would be no auction house or global chat, instead players would need to rely on bartering or in-game phones or walkie-talkies. Oh yes, plus there would be permadeath.
There would need to be some way of letting you transfer some of your skills onto your “family members” (new characters) but ultimately everyone only has one life. There would be no resurrection spells or spawn points, instead if you die, you die. I think this is absolutely necessary in order to create a real feel of survival and fear. Being killed by a zombie has real impact. Being killed by another person maliciously, even more so.
The most interesting thing about this game would be seeing how events unfold. Would players unite together towards the common threat of zombies or would they bicker and fight between themselves in gangs over territory? Would they create states of laws and order or would they succumb to the anarchy? I’d love to known.
So what do you think? Could a game like this work? Would you play it ?
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great concept, would be fun, unfortunately, if a pvp element is introduced, too many smaktard 13 yr olds who you denied molitov concoction training to, will execute you on the spot, nobody would get further than a couple of xp points, I fear the zombies would feel left out as we are trying to avenge our previous toons!
though if there was self restraint, then it would be great – I believe class system would have to exist, so there would be a doctor to teach rudimentary first aid, an engineer to teach and pass on skills etc.
also the eve-online style zoning would be good too, so there is a safe area for nubs, and if you choose you can venture further in..that would create the fear aspect for the game. like losing your very expensive EVE ship by gate campers!
Yeah, it would be very interesting indeed. Death would have to be something that is dreaded but accepted, kinda like in EVE, so there would have to some sort of way of transferring over partial skills to new characters or something to make it so you don’t lose everything.
What’s funny is that my friend and I were talking about this at work today.
The problem I think though is that you could simply evade the zombies indefinitely. Zombie movies really only work by not giving the participants freedom of movement but taking it away; you are stuck in a mall, or a store, or they are so numerous that you can’t travel safely at all. But take that away and it’s pretty easy to evade them, especially if players can resist them to some degree.
I think though it’s an idea some company hast to just try though, and I’d play it even with permadeath.
The zombies could range in type from the slow, shambling ones to the ultra-fast and terrifying “28 Days Later” ones to mix it up and make evading them harder.
Yeah, but my friend and I argue over it, I don’t really consider those types zombies but more like ghouls. It’s a different sort of dread and fear experience. We really get bored at work and it pops up a lot on conversation. Zombies are like talking about sports for us.
I always thought that restricting it to a single highrise building or complex would be tense as heck, especially if you show early on that the zombies can climb floors and that no room is ever really safe except the newbie area at the top. Plus you have a justification for playing heck with the lighting and plunging a room into blackness.
The idea is fun and intriguing!
BTW, the rumored FALLOUT-MMORPG could be a bit along these lines.
But how to incorporate permadeath and pvp in a meaningful way.
I think player chars and items getting old and decaying is necessary for future MMOs to stop the neverending vertical power progression of our chars.
But permadeath + pvp in the purest form would not only scare carebears away, it could as well make the whole game unplayable beyond the starter areas.
It would tough to balance, no doubt. I was thinking that people would need to accept death at some point, like it’s part of the game, almost like everyone would be on their 4th or 5th character. Some skills would need to transferable onto new characters and they would have to be pretty fast.
I love me some zombies…. How about when you die you become a zombie and your abilities and skills are based on what they were in ‘life’ (maybe super-fast 28days later zombies or classic Romero shambling z’s). You could get bonuses for eating live players (or in-game npc animals). There would be limits to what you could do so the humans have at least a tiny chance.
It’d be difficult to balance it though – you’d probably end up with only a few humans and most people zombies… actually that sounds awesome
Well crap – I was going to suggest exactly this. =)
The extra caveat, is once you die as a zombie it’s all over and you need to restart a new human.
So the game would oscillate between players being human, and then being a zombie. If you wanted to be a powerful zombie you would first have to become a powerful human…. which would prevent people from being silly and just suiciding asap to become zombies.
The whole osillating scenrio that Andrew discussed has me very interested.
Or once you die your old character exists on as an npc zombie – so theres a chance you could be killed in the future by your old character!!
That. Idea. Is. Awesome!
This feels like many roguelikes where when you die your ghost forever roams the level of the game that you died on, and WILL attack new versions of yourself.
I think Ill stick with Left 4 Dead 2 and avoid the MMO mechanics altogether. At this point I am just happy to kill things with buddies. Or Borderlands.
Gordon, I need you to listen to me carefully. I think you should quit your job, start a small gaming firm, hire me as writer, and make this game a reality. I would play a game like this in a heartbeat.
On top of that, I’d love just a “horror” MMO like we’ve mentioned before. Even if it’s a survival horror one, I’d jump at the chance.
OK, you’re ON!
Seriously, if I ever won the Euro-Lottery I would definitely setup an indie MMO company 
I believe this game idea would be very injoyable to people interested in zombie games of any sort. I really think you should make it.
On the idea of permadeath, that wouldn’t be a good i dea you should just make a “raily point” or “safe place” for the players to respond to.
I really hope u decided to make it.
Ok who told Dana Massey?…
http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/feature/3396/Dana-Massey-Asks-Why-Not-Why-Not-A-Survival-MMO.html
Nice find. Silly Dana.
Gordon, I’m decidedly not a fan of zombies, at least from a thematic standpoint, but this really does sound like a solid conceptual framework to build a good game around. I was going to pop in and suggest the “you become a zombie” mechanic, but others beat me to it.
The biggest question in my mind is “would it sell because it’s so different from what’s out there”… but purely as a game design proposal, it’s a great one.
I’ve got a very interesting blog post rattling around my brain on this subject. Hopefully will get a chance to expel it today
Wow, he must read my blog
His entry was published after mine 
Who is he anyway?
Well, I blogged about a zombie MMO over two years ago. Haven’t made much progress though… lots of design docs but nothing really created.
I started something like this a year ago, first in 2d to get the concept up and running.
But because of my day job I didn’t have enough time to finish it
[...] had a blast writing about my idea for a Zombie MMORPG the other day and the response from readers was fantastic (thanks to everyone for their comments). [...]
Actually, there’s a text-like game that did something like this. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name anymore. It used a turns-per-day type mechanic like some web-based games. But, you could play as a human, and if zombies got you then you would play one of those. You could perform different actions which took up your turns alloted per day. It was discussed quite a bit a while ago.
Sorry I can’t be more help. Stupid memory.
Sounds pretty sweet. I’m not surprised this sort of thing has existed before – the idea of surviving in an online world full of Zombies is very appealing
urbandead.com
The failing of the game is that you can be killed while offline, and being a zombie sucks if you don’t want to be one, getting revived back to human again takes forever. So essentially, if you don’t want to be a zombie, when you die, the game is boring and nearly unplayable until you get revived, which can take days, weeks, or even months.
[...] Zombies. Gordon designs them! [...]
I don’t see this working with the permadeath. One of the strengths of MMOs is that there’s a lock-in and a feeling of commitment. If my WoW characters vanished, I’d be hard-pressed to keep playing. If it’s a situation where I’m consistently starting over in some capacity every week or two, it’s going to be a lot easier to quit the game.
It also makes establishing guilds/clans/enclaves or even friends harder. If my character changes every week, my friends are going to have a hard time keeping up unless the characters are named ZachA, ZachB, and ZachC.
Permadeath is such a idealist concept. Sure it makes for supposedly great “immersion” but it’s hard to keep a player immersed in your game when they just cancelled their account because some 12 year old or lag spike or random string of bad luck caused them to lose their character they spent months or years on. Perma-death will never work in a RPG, any game where you spend hours progressing a character only to lose it all due to any number of reasons often outside of your control will never be fiscally viable.
Yeah, that’s all very true. I feel like something as unique as this sort of survival Zombie game needs something incredibly drastic though to induce fear. The problem is that without fear, there’s no risk. I dunno if survival would work any other way?
But you can’t compare your character to something like WoW, first of all your zombie would keep most of your gained experience, and in most cases you wont be able to “spent months on a character”
Most important thing is to keep the gameplay as much fun for both human and zombie.
I’m going to point something out. There is, in fact, something like this in the works. It’s alpha, but heck, I’ll wait.
http://www.zdaygame.com
Whoa, sweet, thanks for the link. No idea this existed
Oh, and don’t worry, it’ll be free, and almost any computer can run it. It’s using the Torque engine.
Somebody is actually working on this?
Can I sign up for some mailing list?
Just read your above comment, sweet
Oh my gawd. I was wandering through search engines trying to find a survival MMO and look what I found. I just want to comment on the fact that most of the ideas that I’ve seen are great ideas and I personally want to be on the mailing list if not the dev team of any survival MMO anyone has up there sleeve.
If I ever started my own MMO development company, I’d be more than happy to sign up to a mailing list
By the way, I was still looking after I commented on your ideas and I went to that Zday link and it looks somewhat promising even though it is on a torque engine. The game physics look decent but the thing that bothers me is that the game offers no way to buy things in game. Like it has no “outpost” of survivors you can trade goods with which is a must in any MMO. I still feel as if I will try it when it comes out but I would love to create my own survival MMO.
There’ll be trade, and perhaps even safe areas, but big outposty-style setups don’t really go for the survival element of the game. And even those areas will change,
I feel as If I have to comment yet again the Ideas of permasdeath won’t work but the idea of you losing all the items you had on you at the time of death is a great idea. Let’s just say for a moment that there was an in game “bank” where you could deposit your items and in game currency, if you die you lose all the items and money that you have in your inventory which would include your weapons and ammo. So there would always be that foreboding of death that would make you try harder to stay alive. i don’t know fellas it’s just an idea.
The game could have an in game ranking system stating who has died the least ammount ranging from I don’t know ie, New Survivor to Zombie Slayer. Classes must always play a role in any RPG even if it is a zombie genocide post apocalyptic MMO. The classes could start the game with different weapons and skill boosts like ie, Fireman starts with a fire ax and +5 strength and +5 endurance or soldier starts with AR-15 and combat knife but has a -10% experience per gain.
Just some ides I have bouncing around up there but I’ve been thinking about this for a long time now.
Yes, and there could bean option to play as a zombie.
The option to play as a zombie would have to be a no go. How many people do you really think want to spend there time as a mindless undead? I personally don’t I would much rather be killing the living impaired than killing the living.
Well, it’s probably a very subjective thing. I can imagine some people hating playing as a zombie and some people absolutely loving it. Maybe there could just be a way to bypass the zombie phrase and just start another human.
Since this last comment me and a few friends have decided to have a “stab” at it. We are going to start the plans for a zombie mmo so all of you out there, your wishes may come true and I promise to post a link to the forums that we are going to start.
I was searching around for survival horrors and I came upon this blog, the ideas here are amazing and if Jon does make a game I would love to test it out.
Me too!
I am a professional illustrator and graphic designer and I have been thinking about the idea of a game like this for a while now. I’m stumbling into the conversation late, but am interested nevertheless.
I would donate my time to a project like this in the hopes that it would be produced. I only ask that we adhere to some good deadlines and that you would listen to a couple of ideas I have regarding a game like this. email to mindbomb @ hotmail.com if you’re interested.
[...] Oh that’s easy! ZOMBIES! [...]
what would be awsome if they made a straight PvP zombie game….just like Deco Online…(ill give u the site after words)
certain towns being safe zones yes.having NPCs around for certain needs…armor…weapons…alot of stuff…but what would make it even more interesting is that the zombies would be somewhat like the humans…they cant hold guns of corse….but..their power or what ever will be increased becaused of their close range combat….the humans would be gunners of course…or other type of weapon weilders…but they wont have the same amount of power as the zombies…zombies can run and all that just like the humans….but no weapons…just their fists or what ever…but weapon wise on zombies….put som…i dont know…brass knuckles or something thatll cause more damage…right now im just winging this out….but i read the whole intire comments from u all….and im actully loving these ideas…ive been a MMORPG gammer for a long time…and ive been hoping for a game like this to come out…i cant see why they didnt do it before…but anyway…too much talk…ill send the link on this MMORPG game that i think would be awsome with a zombie game……
http://www.joymax.com/deco/
oh and btw….if u guys want more MMORPG game that are good to play..my email is therawralesana @hotmail.com
Regardless, We need a Zombie MMO That does it right. NEED it. I’m hoping that Zday does something right, but it’s it Closed-Beta, and looks like it might be for a while. It seems EVERYBODY on the internet has at least had the thought, but NOBODY on the internet had the motive.
I’m reading the latest Walking Dead graphic novel and it just makes me wish I could make a Triple-A Zombie MMORPG so much! I think the premise is perfect and it would really allow the genre to expand and try out some new mechanics.
lolz.i know…and i dont think zday will be all that great….from the teaser’s it looks like its only going to be one side…and no item buyers or something like that…im just trying to find something thats a ful blown straight MMORPG game like perfect world or deco…and if i could make a straigh MMORPG zombie game….i would..lolz.but im too broke to even come close hahaha
im just hoping for something awsome like that…PvP matches,wondering around discovering places and more….ugh….wish it was real x3
Those teasers are older than the game itself. It’s an FPS Now, for instance. And the graphics..
Don’t suck? xD
We need a Zombie MMO Where SURVIVAL is the objective, not ‘kill every zombie you see. TWICE.’ bullcrap.
Well, for the PvP problem, which would undoubtly become a problem once this game is released to trenchies and 13 yr olds, I have a simple yet usually overlooked solution.
Unless they’re in a pvp zone, if a trenchie/13yrold pks another player, he gets some type of banpoint/loss of hp/some handicap. That’ll teach them xD.
or, we can add a GTA star over his/her head, so other people know to team up against him and blow the back of his head out should he ever make a suspicious move.
I think the PvP aspect would need a lot of testing. We’d want to make sure the game is accessible enough for new players and not a complete turn off. That’s the problem with EVE Online for instance – it’s so hard to learn, people quit before they get into it.
game forum will be up in about a month guys so keeps your pants on
Looking forward to it!
same here!
right instead of having just all pvp and mmo together make it on the start screen you can choos whether to play mmo or pvp so if you die in pvp you dont loose your character on the main game but to even things out put some npc gangs into the main game like the fallout 3 raiders
Would a dynamic system of makeshift outposts work? For instance, base A may be here for 3 days, but the Admins of the game have it raided by zombies, thus it is no more.
Kinda faulty, but it’s an idea.
I like it. I think there would definitely need to be way to claim areas and thus encourage player rivalry and gang warfare
Well, it would just add an element of randomness. You are trying to survive after all, and if you knew that you could find a safe place or NPC in the same area everytime, that would kinda ruin it. Personally, I think it’d be funny if someone was running from zombie to get to the safe area only to find that it doesn’t exist…
I’d want to encourage EVE-like warfare and control over areas. I think the zombie premise is really about seeing how players would survive in the world. Would they work together or be malacious and fight each other for control of the good locations?
In regards to the permadeath and human/zombie oscillation ideas:
If the storyline is set at some point in the future with more advanced technology (e.g. the bio-engineered virus that causes the zombie outbreak), then you could have some sort of a cloning machine for the humans. At any point in the game, a person could go find a cloning machine and input their DNA. When they die, they could clone themselves again with the exact abilities they had at the time of the DNA input (like the save points in a regular RPG). They would lose any items they had in their inventory, of course (unless they manage to quickly find their corpse and recover their items).
Another thing you could do with the cloning machines is different qualities of cloning machines (I.E. ranging from a cheap one that costs a few dollars, to a very expensive one that costs a few hundred dollars). If you decide to cheap out then the machine might malfunction and your DNA will be corrupted. Thus you would lose some of your abilities, your character’s appearance would change, or you would be zombified.
Finally, to better reincorporate zombies into the solution, the machines could operate on a time frame. E.G. You pay $10 on a regular cloning machine for it to preserve your DNA for an hour of gameplay, and if that hour finishes and you are killed then you will become a zombie. That way, there is still the possibility of permadeath. Plus, it will act as a gameplay device that will keep your players more hooked for longer (“Oh no, I’ve been playing for an hour and my cloning machine time is up! I need to earn some more money to buy another hour! And I better be careful and slow, I don’t want to be zombified!”).
Hope my contribution helps! I’m a fan of zombies too.
Thanks for the awesome feedback
I quite like the cloning idea although it may make permadeath too meaningless. I’d want to find a happy medium between starting over completely and being able to pass on some of your skills and abilities to a new character. Death should sting like hell but shouldn’t make people quit. A tough thing to balance I’m sure
well I have been thinking about games like this for a while and I was thinking that you could build and upgrade your own safehouse. It could store weapons or act as a trade outpost or it could just be a place to catch your breath at. You would first have to clear out the building or area or floor or whatever and then you would have to use things from the environment(like they were Items) to barricade your area(the barricades would be destructible) and then you could use stuff from the environment to upgrade it however you wanted. You could could even have mounted weapons. It could also act as the headquarters of a clan,guild,group etc.and maybe other players could try to get in ,too. to either claim it as theirs or just to steal from it.
The only problems I can see with these ideas are what happens if you don’t get on for a long time? You must also consider having a safe-house will take some of the survive out of survival-horror. I really think the world should be random and ever-changing. We don’t want it to become something like WoW or GW with grinding and farming. If I knew that everytime I went this way, I would get a cool item, then everyone would do it, again ruining the element of horror.
I think when you log out, you log out and your character is removed from the world. The idea of keeping them online or forcing a player to reach a safehouse (although kinda appealing to me) is probably too extreme
Yeah I see what you mean but maybe a safe house could still be a place to rest and regenerate. Also I was thinking that at random points your safe house could be attacked.
just like in any game ever made(well the good ones) there are some draw backs and i promised i would keep you all posted the game was been postponed. We are making every attempt to get the process back up but for now project zombie is on hold.
Aww, sorry to hear that. Good luck with it!
Well I’ll be… I gotta love how ideas are never really your own within the realm of the collective consciousness. This has been an idea rattling around my mind for a while now! And I have to say that I completely agree with you Gordon on the perma-death issue… and my idea definitely took into account the human/zombie oscillating idea as well. I figured the game could go something like this…
Everyone begins by creating a character…mainly just for aesthetic purposes…meaning you’re basically just creating a LOOK… upon creation you’re thrown into some type of “safe zone”… this could be a small town of sorts that has been boarded up and cleared of zombies… NPCs could be stationed in a safe zone (or zones) like this… and within these zones you should be able to train your character by spending money that you find within the world… each NPC would have their own skill sets that you can pick and choose from! And possibly, Player Characters, once they’d reached a certain level in a skill, could train other characters for a price of their choosing… and to make it so others would need to come to players, as opposed to going to NPCs in safe zones, the safe zones would be quite scarce within the huge world!
Moving along, upon entering the initial safe zone, your character starts with 0 money, but is trained by the initial NPCs in some type of basic survival skill(s) and given some sort of rudimentary weapon (i.e. a bat, or crowbar, etc etc etc) There would be NPCs within this safe zone that have better skills to train in, but you’d have to go out and find money before you could gain their skills! This is where the fun begins…
Once you step into the open world where not only NPC zombies exist, but also Player Character zombies exist, your main objective is purely survival. There are no missions! Rather, there is just an open world to explore with money and loot to be found all over the place! (vehicles could be added into this also)… So lets say you get out there and you actually survive… you find a new pistol and some money… after this, you make your way back to the safe zone… within the safe zone would be a personal locker of some sort… This locker is where you can keep anything and everything that you find, from weapons to ammo to equipment to money… whatever you find can be stored! (up to a certain amount of space… which could be upgradable!)
Now, as for how perma-death could be balanced… the personal locker is the key! Not only will you have to be thinking about the character you are playing at any given moment, but you will also have to be thinking about future characters if you die! Thus, instead of just using all your ammo, and equipment and money right when you get it… You might want to think about saving some in your locker (just in case)… Thus, when you die out in the world, which would later result in you starting a new character, if you had saved yourself some inventory and money, you won’t be starting anew! In fact, if you’d saved a good amount of money, you could get yourself trained right away….
What this would do, as I see it, would create a game where in the beginning stages you will have a lot of people just going out into the world and trying to amass as much loot and money as they can, and then storing it (especially money)… if they die, they just start again with their new character, maybe use some stored weapons right off the bat, but forgo using the money in order to continue stockpiling it… That way, in time, you could get to a point where you have enough money to get a character trained up to a good degree…
Now, what would having a trained character do for you? Well, what if you had skills like “Searching” skills which helped you sniff out more loot and money? Then, with this higher trained character, you would be finding more money to begin with, and given you possibly trained up in some defensive skills (or what not), you are able to actually survive easier… These are all rough ideas, but I think you get the picture… (hopefully)…
So what happens if you die? Well, in short, you don’t die right away… you become a zombie! And this is where the PvP aspect comes into play! Now, you’re one of the walking dead, and you’re primary goal is to kill humans… AKA: Other Players! But some might ask, what sort of perks are there to being a zombie and killing the other players? Well, what if you made it so that every human you killed, you started gaining some type of zombie level, or possibly zombie points… which would lead to the possibility of becoming stronger and stronger… even to the point where you could become a superior zombie class that could wield weapons! Maybe not ALL the weapons that the humans can wield, but basic weapons! (i.e. bats, crowbars, maybe even pistols, etc)… I guess you could say that each human you kill (and eat) gains you some “power.” And the stronger you get the quicker and more deadly you become!
But then, one might ask, but what would be the perk to trying to get to these upper zombie levels, as opposed to just letting a human kill you so you can start over as a new human character? Well, my idea would be that if you reached these upper zombie levels (possibly at the very top level), you could also begin picking up money as well as the basic zombie-allowed weapons that are scattered around the world (or on corpses)… and the money you pick up as a zombie is automatically saved to your personal locker… This would probably be the only truly un-realistic part of the game, as you wouldn’t be going to the locker to put the money in it, as the lockers are in human safe-zones… but it adds a level of balancing to the game and would make people feel like there is something to be gained by playing as both humans AND zombies! Granted, getting to this superior zombie level would take some skill, as at first you’re zombie will be easier to kill, but this could even be balanced out by what someone said earlier… where the higher skill level you are as a human, when you get bitten you start at a higher zombie level right off the bat! (not the top level, but also not the bottom level!)
Finally, the last aspect would be dying… once you die as a zombie (from a human character killing you), this is were perma-death comes into play! Your character is gone! Now, this doesn’t mean you can’t just turn around and create the exact same character again (in fact, you should be able to save you character “mold” so to speak)… but, as I said in the beginning, the characters to begin with are just aesthetic… So it will come down to what you have saved for yourself in your locker! If you have $$$$$ and weapons already saved, then you’ll be good to go… You can train up real quick, and grab your weapons and get back out there! Oh, but one last note about dying… ANYTHING on your character upon dying (weapons, ammo, money, etc) are dropped right where you die (as either a human or zombie), and there is a full-loot system… so others finding your body (whether they are human or a super-level zombie) can grab your stuff!
Finally, the last aspect of this game, to keep people further engaged, would come from answering the following question… What is the point to surviving as long as possible? And there are a few answers to this! 1) You have a better chance to collect more loot and get it saved. 2) You have a better chance to train your character, or as a zombie becoming even stronger. And 3) You could even implement, as I think someone said above, some type of Notoriety-System, where the longer you survive the more popular you become! And this could even lead into perks being given to the player that actually takes you down! (but the details of such a system would have to be hashed out as the game is being created)
So there you have it… this has been an ongoing idea within my mind that I only wish I had the programming skill to get it started! But, I must say, if ANYONE is truly getting something started, I would be more than willing to join your Dev-Team… hands down! My addition to the team would be both in the realm of ideas, writing, and possibly marketing!
Anyone can reach me at:: CosmicChameleon (at) Gmail . c0m!
Also, would love to know anyone’s opinions of this idea I have freely thrown out there…
your idea is an intresting one id play it how ever the perma death thing wouldent work i dont think because if you think about it liek others said you wouldent get anywhere and when you have immature players like young kids they dont make it easy ether lol but you may be able to work something liek a infection level or something if you dont get it takeing care of by finding a vaccine or something you become a zombie and you would have to roam the world as that unless you re start of course the role playing aspect could be amazing though you could do alot with that.
oh yeah i almost forgot id stick with the classic romero zombies or the famous playstation RE2 and RE3 zombies for this one the 28 days later and the other modern zombies just dont give it the same exitement i dont think lol also as they said above i think having a class gives it that rpg experience because out in t hat world you go in search o f those ppl if you need them would make it fun i no if i was alone in RL and that happiend id diffently go in search of those kinda ppl like drs and such lol
I think we could have a mix of zombies ranging from every type have seen. It would keep things interesting and add more variety to the game
i like chameleon’s idea of the game….but mm04 is right though…since the humans can run shoot what ever….gotta give the zombies almost the same thing..zombies can run and weild weapons…like what chameleon said…crowbars,knives what ever….the PvP system would work a little better if they both were serperated into nations…like the game i suggested eariler….2 nations colloding into a big time war or what ever u want…but both nations have their own maps to train in until a certain lvl where the PvP maps come on…..certain areas where one nation train in to get a higher lvl,the other nation can come in and kill u if they can..like from lvl 1 – idk…30 or 40 they can go into these maps and train and kill the other nation (zombies)
now im just basing this off of what ive been playing recanlty.and so far the game ive been playing has been getting alot of attention lately…to the point where theres so many ppl that u start to lag.
but instead of copywriting their idea’s kinda make it ur own…chenge it up
in the game ive been playing they have portals and stuff….make this game where u have no portal’s (winging idea’s right now)
or as the zombie mobs where u trains at or monsters that are like zombies….make them run and attack like in Left 4 Dead
1# being a human: while ur a human u get a veritay of weapons (bad speller)
lvl 1 u get a noob weapon..like something small…low damage…where u can atleast take out some mobs and get exp’
u get so much exp’ u lvl of course.
2# Money and items: each monster u kill u can get something radomly…like…u kill 3 monsters and 2 of them give something like…ammo…money…something that they would normal have….each mob has a certain kinda of weapon or item u can get thats semi rare and powerful..money wise….each mob u kill “could” drop some money.
3# being a zombie: like what chameleon said they have a veritay of skill they can learn…like at lvl 5 or 10 they can learn to run faster or some type of killing skill
and more…for the human is the same…just like what chameleon said…learn certain skill u need money for….but…im thinking u gotta be a certain lvl to learn these skills to use them….then u need some kind of weapon to be able to use the skill….in which case keeps the players wanting to serch for this weapon to try this new skill they just got.
armor and such…u need to learn the skills to wear all the armor….or have some type of stats to be able to wear them….it goes the same way with the weapons…having to be a certain lvl to use that weapon or ur stats being up to a point to use it
the PvP system ive explained kinda went with the game i was playing but its a suggestion to use something like that…..i put a link to the game im playing in my first post.
but the PvP system will be 2 nations (humans and zombies) getting ready for a big time war between each other in one type of map
like in the game im playing u have to take all three crystals to be able to win the event
if it was something liek this it would be a bit funner…like in the game (i know im obsessing over this game lolz) what ever nation wins this event u get fame points.
the fame points could be what ever would suit humans and zombies…in this game u get a certain amount of fame u get a differnt color..thus u ca wear differnt kinds of armor and weapons
if it was something like that it would kinda interesting lolz…right now im throwing ideas from this game ive been playing….and so far its awsome x3
but its there if u guys wanna change it or something….ive just sharing experince ive been having…since u guys are trying to make a PvP zombie game mise well put in some exp in some PvP games that are awsome x3
have fun guys and good luck on this game
and im hoping it comes out soon
Zombies with guns? That’s just plain terrifying
Well even though im very late to this whole conversation i might as well put my 2 cents in.
For the permadeath thing. If theres levels and stats. You could simply have it so that if you die you lose maybe 25% off your stats/level (and still lose all items on your person) This way players would be set back but not so much that they dont want to start over while still giving players a reason to keep going long term. Also for playing as a zombie. Possibly have it so that when you die you will be a zombie for a designated time frame. Nothing too long. But as a goal to being a zombie and acctually doing zombie things would be that attacking humans decreases your timer before Re-spawning at the “Safty zone” also if you do so good as a zombie then you can reduce the amount your human stats go down by. Player zombies should run slighty faster then humans and be have decent defences. So that if a player zombie is chasing a human the human cant just run backwards until the zombie dies. Or another idea maybe take a zombie class thing from Left 4 Dead and have unique kinds of zombies with diffrent abilitys. Such as a sneak zombie. Ranged zombie . Slow fat strong zombie etc…etc…etc…
Now moving onto the “PVP” Well first off i have to say that there should be no Human VS. Human pvp in an open enviroment. Maybe have human vs. human if a clan/guild/gang go to war with echother. but players being able to be killed freely at random times would be a major fault to the game.
And if there ever is a website/forum someone email me Gunnerjbo@ hotmail.com
Lol reread this and made alot of grammatical errors
I don’t think permadeath would have any meaning if you only lost some stats. I’m thinking it would have to result in that character becoming unplayable and maybe some of their skills transferring over to a new one. Harsh, I know, but I’d be keen to protoype it.
Well with permadeath it should be common sense to have the same username and friendslist be transferred over
Indeed. I was thinking it would use a system like you define a surname which follows every character you create and anyone can contact you using that regardless of what character you play.
You’re a genious man. I love it.
Yes, yes I am
I like the perma-death. Not so hot on lvls per-say, because then it’ll become a grind-fest. Also, I like zombies “lvling up”, but in a PVP situation, the zombies will just harass nooblets.
Here’s a new angle at this:
What if it was set up as a 4-6 month game. You start with everyone being a human in an ordinary world. People could be doctors, policemen, accountants, soldiers, firemen, chefs…ect. Shortly after this “perfect” world starts, the infection spreads. That’s the whole fun of a survival horror, SURVIVING! At this point, tons of people will be killed, and the number of zombies will grow. Well, then we can implement a sort of perma-death.
I don’t know how training new people will work, but maybe they can learn all their stuff in their own private area, then be injected into a random town or village or whatever.
Anyway, if you survive the initial infection, you still have to work with others to try to develop a cure (it could be collecting items from various locations…it adds a sort of meaning to the game) only problem is, rival human gangs want to develop the cure too! (might not be a good idea…)
I don’t know how player-zombies will affect the game at this point…
Well, the game branches here. Either
1.) the humans successfully develop a cure and win
OR
2.) the zombies infect everyone (maybe all they have to do is kill all the scientists…heh heh)
Then, after a week, the game can start from the beginning!
Also, while the game is going on, there can be a stats page for best zombie-killer, longest survivor, and best zombie…people like that kind of stuff.
I really like this because the best part of any survival is the initial disaster (the spread of the infection in this case)…it’s hard to keep a sense of suspense if the world remains static, that just means characters will group up and farm and get better weapons and farm some more…there is no goal once you get the best stuff.
Hmm, very interesting idea! I don’t think anything like that has been attempted before in a MMORPG i.e. a start and a definitive end. No idea if it would work or be popular… wish I had a way of finding out
The idea came off a browser-based game I am currently playing (Travian just FYI). Basically, the game lasts months. You start of building your village, joining alliances, raiding other people’s towns, ect. Just recently, we got into “end game” phase. The goal now is to get a World Wonder to lvl 99 which is very difficult because all the other players are out to get you if you get hold of one of the foundations.
That’s where I got the idea. I think it’d be neat to make a game kinda like it. It isn’t a game you can finish in one sitting, but it isn’t a game in which you waste time grinding. It also puts an emphasis on skill and evens out the playing field when restart happens. Might not be appealing to some, but it makes for a flexible drop-in drop-out feel.
To be fair, even though there’s permadeath, I would play it. However, the game market today does not and never really has favored the hardcore gamer. People would die, get frustrated and leave.
Yeah, it’s why it’s very much an experiment. No idea if something like permadeath would actually work!
I like this last idea about having eras, if we can call it that; defined start and end points.
I’ve been reading through this and brainstorming a lot of ideas myself – a couple of which I’ll share.
Perhaps there should be instanced safe zones; like two or three new safe zone every week, and every player that joins during that week would be put in one of those safe zones and operate with those players in that safe zone they’re placed in. At some point these players will be able to go out and find the players of the other safe zones in their instance, and they can either kill them off, form alliances, or perhaps even assimilate.
On the issue of “safe zones,” I think that they shouldn’t be static, but instead movable. In fact, perhaps moving should be a requirement. My idea is that one can have a safe zone in one area indefinitely, but over time, zombie attacks on said safe zone will intensify. Perhaps when you move safe zones, there should be some sort of gameplay progression involved, like having a few available areas in slightly more difficult zones. This will provide advancement opportunities for the players. Since everyone will be around the same skill level – at least to some extent – so they will all be about ready to move on to harder challenges at the same time, thus making this idea viable. It would keep the game from getting too easy and give the players a sense of purpose to move, and a sense of accomplishment when they reach their new destination.