My view of the 4.0 meta

[peterptron]

My primary annoyance with 3.0 is the predictability.

You know what’s inside a base, there’s no strategy to killing zombies, and there’s wide imbalance

Guns: they should be a frame and several individual parts, similar to the customization screen. Barrels might have a temperature, which is increased by firing without delays. Each shot damages the barrel more at high temperatures. Barrel warping is a bit too in depth, but accuracy could go down sharply at high barrel degradation points. The majority of guns should spawn only usable for parts. High level guns should attract far more zombies than low level guns do, to scale the risk.

That brings us to my next point: Zombies.
They should not target players outside the navmesh, but you shouldn’t be able to escape them simply by stepping outside the city. Hordes sound like a good idea, but in that case they should be separate from city zombies and there should be dedicated anti-zombie defenses for bases. Zombies should also take strategy to kill, like the special zombies do now, by taking advantage of the place they spawn in. A place with a lot of blind corners should have zombies that fight well in that environment.

Bases: Again, they should make even high level players stop and think. Bases should strike fear into the hearts of players. I suggest to accomplish this by making them unpredictable. A high level player who just walks up and attacks might get doused in hot oil, and then fall into my zombie mosh pit. Raiders should have to “case the joint”. This also incentivizes online raiding, as the traps will be disabled by the owner while they’re inside. I would like a way to quickly throw down a base as well. The current way is too slow to be very useful. Also, stacking should be enabled for a few types of resources.

PvP: Running and gunning in a city with high damage guns should bring the wrath of the zombies down upon you. Firing a minigun (possibly accounting for gear as well, though again that’s a bit in depth) should attract pretty much every zombie in the city and boost spawn rates, but this should be survivable if the player prepared for zombies. If they came for easy kills, they will die most likely.

Crafting: Stripping guns for parts should require a certain level of skill, and a work table. This incentivizes building a base before you can have a good gun. Crafting should be a scrap fest, with most items being broken and only useful for parts. Too many workbenches ruin a game, but a couple types would fit well imo.

The game should not go completely PvE cooperative, as that adds quite a bit to the game, but it should heavily incentivize working with other players for the most part.

I would prefer that melee combat become more hack and slash, it would be fun to charge a group of zombies and actually slice themselves up, with limbs flopping around by themselves, instead of simply being point at the zombie and get just close enough to hit at the last moment. Maybe when the game comes to the stage where updates are mostly polish this could be added.

Skills shouldn’t be completely removed, I think a way to improve your character, not just your gear, is good.

How in depth should vehicle mechanics be?
I like building on vehicles to make them into a nomad base, but currently it’s way over the top.

What play styles should be accommodated?

What are your suggestions for unpredictable base defenses that can easily be implemented by Nelson?

1 like = one vote of support.

[Aj_Gaming]

I would like this, imagine hearing a minigun, then hearing zombies coming, you hide in a building while the zombies head towards the guy, also I think that effect should work with all guns, even if your outside of a city if you fire a weapon and its loud enough to be heard then it could work that way as well.

[GreatHeroJ]

Here’s my thoughts on this post:

@peterptron

Guns: they should be a frame and several individual parts, similar to the customization screen. Barrels might have a temperature, which is increased by firing without delays. Each shot damages the barrel more at high temperatures. Barrel warping is a bit too in depth, but accuracy could go down sharply at high barrel degradation points. The majority of guns should spawn only usable for parts. High level guns should attract far more zombies than low level guns do, to scale the risk.

I am super happy with the gun customization taken from games like EFT, and to be honest, this is a good incentive against mass spraying. I like the barrel temperature idea and it would balance automatics. In addition, I think guns with higher calibers should indeed attract more zombies, and explosions/aircraft especially should have huge sound radius for players to hear as well as zombies.

@peterptron

That brings us to my next point: Zombies.

They should not target players outside the navmesh, but you shouldn’t be able to escape them simply by stepping outside the city. Hordes sound like a good idea, but in that case they should be separate from city zombies and there should be dedicated anti-zombie defenses for bases. Zombies should also take strategy to kill, like the special zombies do now, by taking advantage of the place they spawn in. A place with a lot of blind corners should have zombies that fight well in that environment.

Nothing much to say here, I fully agree with all of it.

@peterptron

Bases: Again, they should make even high level players stop and think. Bases should strike fear into the hearts of players. I suggest to accomplish this by making them unpredictable. A high level player who just walks up and attacks might get doused in hot oil, and then fall into my zombie mosh pit. Raiders should have to “case the joint”. This also incentivizes online raiding, as the traps will be disabled by the owner while they’re inside. I would like a way to quickly throw down a base as well. The current way is too slow to be very useful. Also, stacking should be enabled for a few types of resources.

I’m not so sure about the traps being disabled when the owner is inside. That’s a bit drastic, counter-intuitive, and people will exploit around it. That said I do think there needs to be a wider, more effective variety of base defenses available for use. Stacking would be nice and is probably implemented.

@peterptron

PvP: Running and gunning in a city with high damage guns should bring the wrath of the zombies down upon you. Firing a minigun (possibly accounting for gear as well, though again that’s a bit in depth) should attract pretty much every zombie in the city and boost spawn rates, but this should be survivable if the player prepared for zombies. If they came for easy kills, they will die most likely.

I suppose making zombies more unpredictable as you said above, but also with far more variety would be nice.

@peterptron

Crafting: Stripping guns for parts should require a certain level of skill, and a work table. This incentivizes building a base before you can have a good gun. Crafting should be a scrap fest, with most items being broken and only useful for parts. Too many workbenches ruin a game, but a couple types would fit well imo.

@peterptron

The game should not go completely PvE cooperative, as that adds quite a bit to the game, but it should heavily incentivize working with other players for the most part.

@peterptron

Skills shouldn’t be completely removed, I think a way to improve your character, not just your gear, is good.

Yes. I think skills in 4.0 should be acquired through doing relevant tasks, and at first disassembling guns would have a moderate chance of failure or damage that goes down as you get better. Skills should also promote and encourage PvE gameplay. Too many workbenches is also irritating, especially if they are used to counter-intuitively define tiers.

@peterptron

I would prefer that melee combat become more hack and slash, it would be fun to charge a group of zombies and actually slice themselves up, with limbs flopping around by themselves, instead of simply being point at the zombie and get just close enough to hit at the last moment. Maybe when the game comes to the stage where updates are mostly polish this could be added.

I’d agree that melee is extremely clunky right now, and I would love to see diversity in moves like blocking, lunging, and wide swinging/slashing.

@peterptron

How in depth should vehicle mechanics be?

I like building on vehicles to make them into a nomad base, but currently it’s way over the top.

What play styles should be accommodated?

What are your suggestions for unpredictable base defenses that can easily be implemented by Nelson?

I will touch on this in future posts.

[peterptron]

Just to clarify, I meant that the owner typically disables his deathtraps or shows a way around them when he comes in. I agree that disabling them because the base owner is online is a bad idea.

[SirDevsALot]

Good Ideas. Wow, I have nothing to object. This is hands down the best suggestion thingy imo.

[peterptron]

Large buildables should be built on site, not crafted.

Base defenses should require a generator to prevent them being spammed around the map. These traps could include wall spikes, trap floors, wandering toe eating/kamikaze roomba, zombie mosh pit, electric stun trap, silent alarm, and specially built thick walls with a pop-out turret hidden inside.

Vehicles should have a large variety of craft able accessories, but these should be limited to certain areas on the car. Shredders can only be attached to bumpers, crates can be hung off the back or placed in the back seat, and if plates are allowed, they should have simulated physics, not magical sticking power. They could possibly be attached with screws to the body of the car, or a row can be hung with a wire, which would work well against zombies but be easily taken off by a player with good aim. At the very least, I would like to be able to hang them over the wheel wells to protect my squishy tires. Vehicle based weapons should be zombie only, so mountable guns would be limited to turrets that only target zombies.

[anon24515308]

I don’t think all base defenses should require electrical power, and guns that somehow only target zombies seem outright silly.

[peterptron]

A turret programmed not to kill humans isn’t far fetched, and it’s important not to make cars instant death machines in a PvE oriented game.

Requiring that my suggested powerful traps be usable only near a generator is a balance thing. It prevents them from beating spammed all around the map like the current traps.