A more immersive survival experience

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Pearly
Posts: 4
Registered for: 1 year 7 months

As of this moment, the survival aspect of this zombie apocalypse survival server is in my opinion simply not up to par considering the in-character setting we RP in. I'd like to propose some suggestions that would change that and make for a more challenging but rewarding experience in DSRP.

1. Infections

Right now, infections are not being taken seriously because the infection game mechanic in DSRP is not a serious threat. In a setting like this, someone being bit or scratched would immediately raise concerns from not only the infected, but also those around the infected individual that are aware of the bite. Immediate actions would need to be taken as to whether the infected person would be put down or exiled, or if they should be immediately taken to the nearest doctor available.

That does not happen IG. People who get infected continue to play infected without RPing the consequences. People continue to run straight into zombie infested areas without any concern, keep themselves alive with a healthy dose of fish fingers and milk, and carry on as if nothing happened. Then they go to a doctor in Scarville or Ilyansk to get an easy /cure, often by mods or admins that never RP'd obtaining the antidote in the first place.

I suggest we increase the severity of infections by implementing some or all of the following features:
a. Food and water no longer prevents your HP from dropping when infected. First aid kits do not work on you; you cannot heal. You have a set amount of time while your health bar continues to deplete to figure out what to do. You are essentially a ticking time bomb.
b. As the infection spreads and your HP reaches below a certain threshold, you begin to see physical effects of the virus; at one point, you can no longer sprint or run. Or perhaps your vision gets blurred and your screen begins to shake.
c. Admins/mods should not be able to /cure without an RP reason. Or better yet, they should not be able to /cure at all.
d. Reduce the amount of antidotes available to IC doctors.


To mitigate this, we can also implement some of these features to make infections a *little* less annoying:
a. Allow IC doctors to slow the infection for a bit using medication on hand (painkillers, antibiotics, beta blockers) that would slow the virus, but not completely stop it. This would help encourage more doctor RP and give them something to do that's more involved than a simple quick /cure RP. Essentially, this encourages more in-patient medical RP over boring and quick out-patient stuff.
b. Reduce the probability of infection when being bit by a zombie.
c. This would take a lot more work and scripting, but maybe introduce a sneak game mechanic so people can sneak up on zombies and kill them stealthily?

2. Gunfire

This suggestion is entirely dependent on what people think a 'zombie' should be, but in almost every depiction of a zombie apocalypse in movies, TV and literature... zombies can hear. If you shoot a gun out in the wild, you SHOULD be concerned about attracting zombies to your location. Using stealth to AVOID zombie encounters should be the #1 option; #2 should be disposing of zombies quietly using melee weapons, or a silenced pistol. Pulling out your AK47 to mow down zombies indiscriminately should be a last resort.

That's why I think we should implement a game mechanic that alerts zombies (both NPC and player) AND humans to your location if you fire a weapon that's not silenced. Something like a map marker appearing briefly at your location within a certain radius.

Another proposal would be to spawn NPC zombies in the distance and have them immediately run toward the location. This can be either probability-based (a set % chance to spawn a zombie after firing a gun) or based on how often you fire your weapon... or both!


I really think this (and perhaps other changes) would make for a more engaging and immersive roleplay experience in our setting, and provide more RP. This can also provide opportunities for creative roleplay surrounding the virus and zombies; maybe we see scientists and researchers pop up trying to reverse engineer more cures... or perhaps even engineer a more potent virus? Maybe we see more players decide to play as zombies. Might even see a certain fanatic zombie-worshipping cult come out of the woodworks... ya never know!

I hate to say it, but the current meta is essentially nothing more than a loot grinder. All that being said, these are major changes to how the game is played so it is something that the entire community should decide on, if management is okay with it first.

Let me know what you guys think!
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ViolentViolet
Posts: 207
Registered for: 1 year 7 months

10+, totally agree!
Right now you just need to be with the biggest group with the biggest attitude to have the advantage. It does not matter how dumb you go about the situation.
Yet in zombie lore, it is often those groups who get infected, and the calculating careful stealthy people often are better at preventing being bested by the apocalypse.

You can totally ignore RP-ing the zombie apocalypse by just shooting badass weapons without any realistic consequences.
Yet the strategy of the silent rogue has a lot of downsides in the current status, that could be rectified with some realism.
Pearly wrote: September 16th, 2022, 6:20 pm As of this moment, the survival aspect of this zombie apocalypse survival server is in my opinion simply not up to par considering the in-character setting we RP in. I'd like to propose some suggestions that would change that and make for a more challenging but rewarding experience in DSRP.

a. Food and water no longer prevents your HP from dropping when infected. First aid kits do not work on you; you cannot heal. You have a set amount of time while your health bar continues to deplete to figure out what to do. You are essentially a ticking time bomb.

a. Allow IC doctors to slow the infection for a bit using medication on hand (painkillers, antibiotics, beta blockers) that would slow the virus, but not completely stop it. This would help encourage more doctor RP and give them something to do that's more involved than a simple quick /cure RP. Essentially, this encourages more in-patient medical RP over boring and quick out-patient stuff.
  • Make infected people lose 1HP per minute, giving infected people 1.6 hours to solve their infection (if at 100HP, I believe we all have 150HP is the default, making it 2.5 hours)
  • Make food, drink, and medkits less effective for the infected, so you can no longer stay ahead of the infection forever by just looting as Rambo
  • Add a doctor perk with the ability to restore hp, and prolong the survival of the infected (promotes RP) (Maybe doctors should be able to synthesize an antidote from 10 virus samples, 5 scraps & 1 bottle of water, on a time limit)
  • Optionally reward players who pick to be zombie upon death. (We only have NPC zombies now, player zombies are way more of a risk. (Restore the removed zombie perks, since zombies mostly have to wait for players to come to them and the gameplay is not very engaging)
Guessing it takes about 100 zombies kills to earn $1K to be able to buy an antidote, which is totally possible in 1.6 hours, and you might even be lucky and loot a cure
Pearly wrote: September 16th, 2022, 6:20 pm c. Admins/mods should not be able to /cure without an RP reason. Or better yet, they should not be able to /cure at all.
This is a very abusable command and is easy to slowly get used to having.
There is a bug where you sometimes spawn as zombie. As well as in the past I had some unexplained deaths as a human, where I would die and be a zombie.
In those cases, players need a revive, but it rarely happens.
Suggest the amount of times the /acure is used is logged and compared between mods (in relation to their online time, this can be easily automated and just roll out a score per mod)
Or maybe add a required reason parameter to the command, and have it show in mainchat just like the ban/kick messages. That way mods can't abuse it due to the visibility.
Pearly wrote: September 16th, 2022, 6:20 pm b. Reduce the probability of infection when being bit by a zombie.
For my ping and FPS, it's fine and should not be easier.
However, there is a huge discrepancy between how infectious a player zombie versus an NPC zombie is.
Pearly wrote: September 16th, 2022, 6:20 pm c. This would take a lot more work and scripting, but maybe introduce a sneak game mechanic so people can sneak up on zombies and kill them stealthily?

2. Gunfire

This suggestion is entirely dependent on what people think a 'zombie' should be, but in almost every depiction of a zombie apocalypse in movies, TV and literature... zombies can hear. If you shoot a gun out in the wild, you SHOULD be concerned about attracting zombies to your location. Using stealth to AVOID zombie encounters should be the #1 option; #2 should be disposing of zombies quietly using melee weapons, or a silenced pistol. Pulling out your AK47 to mow down zombies indiscriminately should be a last resort.

That's why I think we should implement a game mechanic that alerts zombies (both NPC and player) AND humans to your location if you fire a weapon that's not silenced. Something like a map marker appearing briefly at your location within a certain radius.
Better NPC zombies, right now they only take into account how near you are.
Suggesting new detection ranges:
  • A player standing still is not detected if zombies come near them
  • A crouched walking player is only detected at a very short range
  • A slowly walking player is detected at a short range
  • A running player is detected normally
  • A sprinting player is detected at a long range
  • A player firing a weapon without a silencer is detected at long range. (For zombie players show a red marker on the minimap for 10 seconds after a shot is fired)

Pearly wrote: September 16th, 2022, 6:20 pm Another proposal would be to spawn NPC zombies in the distance and have them immediately run toward the location. This can be either probability-based (a set % chance to spawn a zombie after firing a gun) or based on how often you fire your weapon... or both![/b]
Will create the risk of zombies spawning in walls/buildings you are standing close to, not being visible until they are upon you.
Once saw a pawn teleport script that somehow was aware of the map objects and always spawned you next to a player at a reasonable spot, not sure where to find it, maybe something like that. Which would be extra complex with custom mapping.
Pearly wrote: September 16th, 2022, 6:20 pm This can also provide opportunities for creative roleplay surrounding the virus and zombies; maybe we see scientists and researchers pop up trying to reverse engineer more cures... or perhaps even engineer a more potent virus? Maybe we see more players decide to play as zombies. Might even see a certain fanatic zombie-worshipping cult come out of the woodworks... ya never know!
Love it, /accept death needs to be added for zombies so they don't instantly respawn, allowing for more RP.
Edit* to make it more manageable for players, zombies should emit sounds, so we can not only see but hear them.
vojska
Posts: 4
Registered for: 1 year 6 months

I only agree to the suggestion of adding proper medication to slow down the virus. Finding straight antidotes in dirty syringes among dirty areas is just gross and ridiculous. How do you even roleplay you found something like that and that it has no further implications on you after the injection? Makes more sense to buy an antidote or develop it.
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shalls
Posts: 241
Registered for: 1 year 7 months
Location: Australia
Characters: Sabine_Callarez

Yes.
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Awide
Posts: 265
Registered for: 1 year 9 months

Will add
Madlad
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