Just Survive (My idea for a zombie game)

[quote=JEFFY40HANDS]Main Idea: MMOSG (Massively Multiplayer Online Survival Game) The main idea of the game is that it's a Zombie Survival game. On a massively multiplayer scale. Essentially the main content revolves around you, a person during a zombie apocolypse. As this person you have two options when you begin. 1. Stay a human and fight for survival against zombies with other humans. In a few different ways. 2. Become a zombie and attempt to infect the rest of the world. Overall it will involve some class choices for both sides, and factions for the humans, while the Zombie side will revolve around a hirearchy system of sorts. But we can get into that in a bit. Basically take WoW's scale/Customization, Dead Rising's creativity, L4Ds sense of urgency and gameplay, and mash it all together with CoD+Battlefields perks (kind of). Now I'll break down both human and zombies in terms of what each side offers. Humans: Factions- After the apocolypse begins groups of people start living together in outposts. These outposts developed and became larger and larger. Within each outpost is a sphere of influence which dictates certain aspects of your character. These spheres of influence are the factions. You have Militant, Maurauder, Survivalists (basic names for now). Each faction will have a set of perks or benefits unique to them. Action/Passive/Global Perks: As I said, each faction will have perks specific to them. Depending on which faction you choose, you then get to choose 1 action perk and 1 or 2 passive perks. Action perks are perks which affect your overall capability in combat. While passive perks are things that impact your social interactions, like trading, scavenging, etc. Global perks affect your accesses to weapons/armors/equipment. Militant Faction- Created by military remnants left over after the first attempt to retake the country from the Zombies (Which ultimately failed). They work to try and create an organized and well armed group capable of once and for all destroying the zombie threat. They are well trained with an assortment of high end weapons and vehicles at their disposal. Militant Action Perk Choices- 1.Basic Firearms Training: Militant faction players gain a bonus to their ranged weapons. They are more accurate, reload better under pressure, and are less likely to jam. 2. CQB (Close Quarters Battle): Militant faction players are more capable in close quarters, able to dispatch enemies better with their melee weapons. 3. Adreniline: Militant faction players can utilize adreniline allowing them to act faster under pressure. Increasing their strength and pain resistence for a short time. Militant Passive Perk Choices- 1. Combat Effecient: Gain more experience per quest or kill. 2. Survival Master: Find more scavenged items in the world. (found in boxes etc. Not from the dead.) 3. Tactical Savey: Earn a bonus during an oupost siege or defence. Global Perks- 1. Military Grade: Militant faction players have access to Military weapons/armors/equipment. But are unable to use non military tech. (Subject to change) 2. World Police: The Militant Faction is neutral to Survivalists but hostile to Marauders. Militant players gain bonus experience when facing Marauders. Marauders Faction: The Marauders formed soon after the beginning of the apocolypse. A group of like minded individuals in it to survive by any means necissary. This often means raiding outposts, and or attacking scavanging parties too far from their base. They will kill a human just as soon as a zombie if it means they get to live an extra day because of it. Their faction has grown considerably larger, being nomadic by nature they have access to multitudes of vehicles and are some of the best scavangers around. Maurader Action Perk Choices- 1. Berzerker: Those of the Marauder faction gain the ability to dual wield melee weapons. Their melee weapons deal more damage, and have a chance to stagger enemies. 2. Night Stalker: Those of the Marauder Faction gain improved night vision and make less noise while running. Sneak attacks deal triple their normal damage. 3. Pack Mentality: Those of the Marauder faction gain a bonus to damage while working with others of their same faction when in combat. Marauder Passive Perk Choices- 1. Lone Wolf: Marauder gains a bonus carry capacity as well as are more likely to find more loot on dead bodies they search. 2. Intimidation Factor: Marauder gets better trading prices when speaking to neutral NPCs. 3. Well Traveled: Marauder has access to faster and safer routes between Marauder camps/neutral cities. Marauder Global Perks- 1. Creative Killers: The Marauder faction has access to created armor and weapons. They are able to use some Military weapons and some Survivalist equipment in addition to their own (weapons/equipment). 2. Poor Relations: The Marauder faction is hostile with everyone except Trade Cities (neutral cities). They gain bonus loot and experience for killing those of the rival factions. Survivalist Faction- The Survivalist group is the largest and most prosperous of the three factions. Formed by groups of wayward travelers who believed that to survive they needed to work together. Rather than pillage and loot like the Marauders, they've built successful strongholds near key resources to keep them safe as well as increase the amount of trade within their cities. Survivalist Action Perk Choices- 1. Silent but Deadly: The Survivor gains bonus damage when using silenced weapons. 2. Crippling Poison: The Survivor can apply poison to their weapons giving them a chance to slow enemies. The poison has no affect on Zombies. 3. Adaptition: The Survivor will will take the form of a nearby faction or zombie for a short duration allowing them temporary avoidance when deemed hostile. Survivalist Passive Perk Choices- 1. Pack Rat: The Survivalist can carry more crafted items. 2. Ranger: Survivalist can track nearby humans, creatures, or zombies. 3. Persuassive Survival: The Survivalist gains a discount at all Militant/Survivalist/Neutral traders. Survivalist Global Perk Choices- 1. Survival of the most Adaptable: Survivalists can use some Military armor and some Marauder weapons in addition to their own (weapons/equipment). 2. Faction Friendly Fellows: Survivalists are neutral with the Militant faction but hostile towards Marauders. However their tendencies change when it favors them. They gain a bonus to experience against Zombies. Within each human faction there are some classes to choose from, these classes are similar to TF2. -Scavanger: Fast mobile capable of wielding 1 firearm or ranged weapon and one melee weapon. Smallest carrying capacity, lowest health, but most agile. Can wear light armor and carry smally weapons. These are the ones who get in and out of areas quickly meant to scout ahead and divine the best route to take through an area. -Fighter: Medium speed capable of carrying 2 ranged weapons in additon to their melee weapon(s). Second smallest carrying capacity, but capable of wearing medium grade armor and weapons. -Mule: Slower than most, but capable of immense carrying capacity. They can wear heavy armor and use heavy weapons. They are those dedicated to supporting their team by giving out extra ammo, holding on to additonal scavanged items etc. -Medic: The ones who keep you on your feet and prevent you from becoming a zombie. Capable of supplying their team with battle boosts like energy drinks, additional food, and stim packs to keep a friendly from the edge of death. Carry 1 ranged weapon and one melee weapon. They can wear up to medium armor and have the second largest carrying capacity. -Engineer: The men and women who make sure your weapon is in working order. Also supply their team with additional equipment like crafted turrets, grenades (etc). While not being the strongest or weakest, these guys can turn the tide of battle, if they remembered to build some extra items for you guys. They have the middle of the road carrying capacity and can only wear light armor while being able to wield up to medium weapons. This is just the basic outline...It's nothing too special, but this is just the human side of things. I still have the zombie side to determine. I just wanted to make something up that has simple mechanics but a deeper set of things working behind the scenes. Plenty of PvP and PvE mixed together. No "leveling" persay, just the ability to access some better items once you get there. I'll have more to say in a bit when I figure more out.[/quote]

[quote=iBradlee]God, how long I've wished for a game like this. Would be so fucking epic. And, to my surprise, there is a Zombie Survival MMO type of game coming out. Last time I checked on it, it was still an untitled project, and I THINK (Correct me if I'm wrong here) it actually got backed by a big name company about a year after I originally heard about it. I want to say Microsoft, but I'm not entirely sure. The game sounds like it'll be fucking fantastic, though. It's not just about killing zombies, it's about survival, in an ever-changing Open World MMO setting. You need food, you need water, you need ammo, you need a safe haven. ZOMG Do want. I've been waiting FOREVER for a game like the one you described. If only you could take YOUR ideas, and put them in the Zombie Survival game I mentioned above. OMFG. I would pay endless amounts of money for that.[/quote]

[quote=Darcurse]Way to go. Maybe a bit offtopic, but I thought about ways to create innovativ mmorpgs myself already. (Yeah yeah... I was bored and I rly needed the money) Those "Survival after Apocalypse"- things would be rly great after all. IMO some gaming company should take Fallout and stretch it onto mmo level. -Roam through a post-apocalyptic wild alone or with some companions -Fight gangs of survivors/mutated creatures/nuclear stirred up nature -Always in need of ammunition/food/medicine And the ultimate goal is to raid dungeons/gang hideouts to obtain intact pre-war equipment, and establish a base by reinforcing buildings/structures that survived the holocaust or travel around, while hordes of scavenger armies/undeads/mutants/giant crabs with steel-claws raiding the whole wasteland in different regular events!!! Just imagine, you and your friends are preparing equipment to search for some craft material in a giant spider-infested mining complex, just to be informed by another allied base, that "something"s rolling through the desert destroying anything in its wake and heading your way... Omfg ... I'm a genius ó.ò Rdy to take bids![/quote]

[quote=Acid Reigns]sounds nice, but not many would like being a zombie compared to a human, and therefore once infected, many would just start a new character. I think per character, you should basically have two characters (one human, and one undead) Every time you're killed as a human, you turn undead, and can infect others, BUT if you infect enough people, you can change back into a human. (Very unrealistic, but would increase playability IMO) However if the person didn't want to turn back to human, because they liked being a zombie, then they could stay undead The number you have to infect could increase every time you die, so people would still really try and survive. Also, if you could build your own bases somehow, that would add a lot of fun to the game for groups of friends playing together. I agree that leveling up shouldn't be in, for the humans, their increase in power would come from buying/looting things. Your weapons, and fortifications should be what determines your ability to survive, not having a bunch of armor, and health, and being able to tank 20 weak zombies. However, I do think that the undead version of your character should have a level, and should get faster, tougher, and more deadly depending on how many humans you've infected in your lifetime career. This would also give the undead an incentive to keep playing, as just having the satisfaction of infecting a human can get boring after a while. There would be different versions of undead you could play as depending on your level, rather than just becoming stronger. I think this would be fun, because there would be such a huge difference between the undead, and humans, that both sides would be very unique and interesting. The only problem I can think of with this idea, is that in order to turn out the way you plan, it would need a LOT of players. If you got a few people together, to throw some ideas around, and discuss things, I'm sure you could come up with something really interesting though :P[/quote]

[quote=JEFFY40HANDS]Well I haven't delved much past the human portion of my idea yet. There is a reason people would choose the zombie side too. But it would work differently than the human side and involve a hierarchy system in which players work through their ranks. No factions, simply a variety of classes and then perks etc. It's hard to describe without more time to explain. I'll be getting to that today at some point. As a preview for the classes though: Horde/Walkers-Take control of a large heard of roaming walking zombies. 15-25 in a pack. These are the cannon fodder of the Zombie apocalypse. Just when you think you've got them all, it's too late to realize you missed one. Rely on sound and smell to track their victims. Runners/Fast movers-Take control of one runner. Fast moving agile chaser. Capable of tackling and pouncing on humans. Good vision/night vision (Yes a hunter from L4D but they sprint now too :D) Drudger/Tank- Large powerful zombie capable of stunning nearby humans with earth shaking ground pounds. Low vision radius. Sludger/Spitter- Small weaker zombies that use range to their advantage attacking with nauseating and debilitating bile. Large vision radius, low resolution (blurry images) (chance to Blind and slows) Screecher/Caller- Another weaker zombie but very powerful. One of the 2 zombie classes that can see well. Uses piercing howls not only to target humans for other zombies, but to stun them. More to come. Basically some rip offs of L4D. But their ideas were too good to pass up. And there would be some sort of way to remove the infection. Hence the reason a medic would be loved in a party of people. Basic overview of PvP: Humans defend their outposts against zombie onslaughts. And do WoW style "raids" on zombie infested areas to scavenge for supplies. Zombies assault human installations and roam through areas looking for humans to eat. It's hard to conceptualize a way to make open world feel localized enough for people to "run into each other" so there will be multiple timed "instances" where humans can opt in to search an areas and zombies can opt in to "defend" an area. There would be of course open world areas to explore and search. Most of the good stuff will be in "zombie" controlled areas. The idea of rival factions is to make there be a strong PvP element that's always accessible, fighting over resources, LARGE scavenge holds, like old military ammo dumps, gas stations, food warehouses ETC. The main idea is to survive, so there will be a need to gather food, water, ammo etc. Groups of people (clans/guilds) that form will gain access to there own smaller camps. Each larger city owned by a faction gains benefits when they control the resources, those benefits trickle down to guild camps BUT the camps also need to go out and scavenge. Etc etc. More to disclose later when I have time to write it up ^_^.[/quote]

[quote=Acid Reigns]Yes, I agree the zombie system work similar to that, but I don`t think the zombies should be too powerful with abilities and such, or the humans would have too much trouble surviving. If you`re comparing it to L4D, you have to remember that situations aren`t going to be set up as perfectly as they are in that game. Half the time a large horde of zombies, or a tank or something approaches, there just happens to be a huge pile of ammo, fortifications, and a turret there to help you out. However, this game won`t be like that, you won`t always have something like that to rely on, and I don`t especially wanna be walking from my fortified base to a nearby location to search for supplies, and have a massive horde, and two tanks jump me, I wouldn`t have a chance... Another issue with L4D is that the common infected are waay too weak. 1-2 bullets, or a few melee attacks and they were dead, easier disposed of than humans. A zombie should physically outmatch a person 1v1, but the person should be able to rely on intelligence, and skill to survive imo. The toughest issue I think would be getting the gameplay JUST right. You`d need a lot of freedom as humans (boarding windows, barricading, homemade weaponry, etc) And it would have to actually matter (the zombies shouldn`t be able to just insta break your defences), yet you shouldn`t be able to set up a system where you`re unkilllable. However, that may not even be a big deal, as the biggest threat of zombies should be that you cannot get past them. Say you had a hunger stat, then zombies getting in your base may not be a threat, but you still couldn't leave, and would eventually starve if you didn't have a plan, or the ability to fight your way out. I think a cool feature to have would be that if a zombie logs out, then an NPC would replace them to keep pressure on the humans. There wouldn't always need to be a huge amount of players logged in to keep it fun.[/quote]

[quote=JEFFY40HANDS]There would be a large number of NPCs for the zombie side. It would be unbalanced to have equal number of humans and zombies on a server. The idea is that the humans have carved a niche out for themselves in ~8 or so large outposts. Zombies however control the other 65-70% of the map. The idea for classes/abilities for the zombies is to create incentive to play them. Ideally they are stronger simply because they feel no pain. The additional abilities are how they attack, otherwise they'd be useless. Someone who plays as a horde of walkers might eventually get the ability to command upwards of 50 or so rather than just 10 or 20. The advantage to the zombies are there numbers, there are only 2 or 3 ranged zombies while the rest are melee based. A standard PvP assault and defend match might give the zombies 500 (number can be tweaked) lives to spend and the humans 3000 rounds and assorted equipment to use. For the zombies to over run the outpost and "win" the match they need to bust through the defensive lines and reach some sort of objective. It's something that still needs to be fleshed out. It's hard to create a zombie "race" without involving the idea of a "BIG BRAIN ZOMBIE" that issues orders as the zombies act like a hive mind of sorts.[/quote]

[quote=Rudmed]So what about the human pvp? I mean yes you fortify to defend zombies, but lets say that some maruders want to attack a military base that is under siege by zombies how would that work? Also aren't Maruders almost always screwed because they are forced to go out of their outposts because that is just how they work? Clearly you can't just walk out by yourself, no instead you have to push out with a group who you have to find with simlair interest.[/quote]

[quote=JEFFY40HANDS]It won't work exactly like that Rud. The human PvP as I mentioned will be fighting over resources, not necissarily land or facetion controlled outposts. As bad as the marauders are supposed to be, their goal is to survive just like eveyone else, they just go about it differently. It wouldn't behoove the Marauders to attack during a zombie assault, they would wait until after, when their prey is weakest. Everyone is trying to survive, when it comes down to it, the Marauders know they need the Militant and Survivalist factions to survive so they can leech off of them and pillage etc. They do scavenge on their own of course. That's a main component of the game, but they (Marauders) lack the quantity of resources that the other 2 factions have, as well they lack the resources to protect as much resources too. SO they raid, scavenge, and fight for everything they earn. There would be PvP raids and PvE raids which would help determine the number of resources available to each faction controlled city. An example: The Survivalist city "New Detroit" has 50,000/100,000 needed resources to continue distributing X amount of Ammo/Scrap/Etc to their merchants. The Survivalist Clan "Mobalites" decides to send out 4, 5 man parties to complete 4 different "raids" on nearby markets. These markets are infested with zombies. Each successful raid rewards them with anywhere between 1-5000 resources which is then given to their host city in exchange for additional rewards. Each clan can function on their own, but choose to aid their host city in order to recieve benefits. Need some scrap for your engineer to build special ammo? Well if your city is running low on resources, you might not have access to as much as you would need, and perhaps there's an abnormally large amount of marauder activity outside the city walls. You could risk scavenging the open areas, or simply do your alloted raid quota. Something along those lines.[/quote]

[quote=Fox Rage]I'd play it.[/quote]