This is my massive suggestion for the new Turned enemies. I posted a rough draft before just to give people an insight on what I propose, and generally it’s well-received.
My post include:
- Brief info on them according to the Road map
- Difference between the Turned and zombies
- New status bar that relates to the Turned
- A list of enemy ideas based on the small description, though mostly my imagination
- How the Turned reacts to daylight
- Concept for locations with the Turned and restoring them for player housing
- Special looting event for end-game
Introduction
What are they?
The Turned would be the new proposed enemy of Unturned II, reimagined from the standard green virus-born human zombies in the first game. It is described as “very dark, organic mutations and growths on the apocalyptic buildings, e.g. growths that spawn monsters or creatures attached to the ceiling.”, likely meaning that they won’t be mere humanoids but mutated forms that likely absorbs victims and create unrecognizable things.
Turned? Aren't they zombies?
Technically they are zombies in a way that they take over life to become an slave of an infection. However unlike the zombies they do not infect by a virus but by assimilation. This also means that survivors cannot have immunity against it (See below on ‘Turning Point’).
This is purely a concept and not of the dev’s views on what he wants the enemies to be.
Fan theory
I believe the Turned is the result of a failed experiment conducted by advanced extraterrestrial beings on their quest to immortality or just extended life. Pretty much they tried to change the way their bodies work, but instead of enhancing age, they created a monstrosity that consumes life to ‘Live as one’, pretty much a cross between a parasite and an endosymbiont.
The thing is extremely adaptable, somehow wiped out the entire research complex and used their space ships to travel out of its planet of origin to spread everywhere, with one of the ships crashing into Earth in hibernation. A certain organization got their hands into the thing first, kept secret from society and somehow kept government agencies at bay before getting their experiment leaked by a whistleblower.
(Note that this is made up and does not logically follow real science)
New status: Turning Point
Separate from immunity bar. Turning Point is the progress before you become Turned. Every hit you take from Turned creatures will fill the Turning Point. Once completely filled, you will rapidly lose HP and on death you become the Turned (See ‘Revenant’ below). Possible symptoms could be pale-dark skin and/or slight growths
To make matters worse, getting hit by the Turned has a chance to contract a more persisting ‘Virus’ that slowly raises the Turning Point (It’s very slow, maybe takes 100 mins from 0% to 100%). Sounds slow but you can take account on getting hit which will raise the Turning Point. Very quick if you aren’t careful.
To reduce the Turning Point you need potent medicine like antibiotics and medicinal berries/plants which will halt the process but will only take away a portion of it. You can fully remove it by using vaccines, something which aren’t naturally found but crafted using components from medical locations (Easy when looting a research facility).
What’s different from the green immunity/infection bar? That one is used to threshold hygiene (e.g. Mouldy food), radiation and disease (If added), and it could also act as natural resistance when it comes to the Turned, with high immunity significantly reducing the chance of getting infected by the Turned.
Types of Turned
The Turned take many forms, but witnesses have passed along and shared information on the most known forms you will face when traveling along what used to be civilization.
Walker
The simplest Turned. Incomplete, they take the victim's original humanoid form. They walk aimlessly looking for anyone not Turned.
- Standard health with average speed
- Has a delayed melee strike dealing damage on contact
- More dangerous as policemen, fire fighters, guerrillas or military personnel with better health and damage.
- Weakness: Head (Still partly human, after all)
Lurker
Crawling mucky things that lack legs, using their strong arms to travel and cripple their targets
- Above average health with sluggish speed
- On contact, will grab onto a player’s legs and does continuous damage. Hitting it causes it to flinch and let go of you (This is independent from getting stunned by heavy weaponry like sledgehammer and sniper rifle).
Hunter
Unfortunate wolves that have been Turned. Their hunting senses aid them to track down hiding survivors.
- Below average health with very fast speed
- Has twice the detection range.
- Fast attack speed dealing low damage per hit
- At a certain distance it will pounce at the player in a linear direction (Meaning it can be dodged if constantly moving), dealing twice its normal melee damage on contact.
Stumbler
"Grotesque looking forms created through an accelerated process from large growths caused by loud noises. They don't last long in the open due to this.
- Low health with fast speed
- Summoned from nearby large black growths or Snags whenever loud noises are heard (e.g. Gun shots, car alarm/explosion). Unweary survivors will easily be swarmed once they fired a shot without hiding or moving away.
- Only active for several minutes after spawning before it dissolves into a black puddle that quickly disappears
- Average speed melee strikes dealing low damage on contact
- Has variable appearances, with different kinds of weakness points with each appearance (e.g. Head, body, back)
Burster
This is what happens when you mix gas with mutated forms of flesh
- Low health with low speed
- Can explode, damaging anyone close to it including the Turned. They only explode when it’s VERY close to you (So you can melee it) or when killed.
- There’s a 2 second fuse before it explodes, giving you time to dodge it.
- Weakness: Entire body (Except legs)
Revenant
Seasoned survivors who has recently become one of the Turned.
- Standard health and speed equivalent to the player.
- Only appear if you become Turned, will take the appearance of whatever gear you have. They are basically stronger Walkers
- They have a chance to use either of your previously-held primary or secondary weapon. However they’ll be slow with melee weapons and ranged weapons will simply be used as a blunt weapon (No damage difference fortunately for you). Another upside for survivors is that they do not increase your turning point if a weapon is held. Choice of weapon is random
- Items you had before you got killed can be looted off from its corpse on death
- Weakness: Head (Still has your intelligent/dumb brain)
Spitter
Aggressive living sentries that spits out acid at unexpected survivors. Will surprise them when they see it walk
- Above average health. Only walks with slow speed when aggravated
- Has two combat modes:
- Sentry - Does not move and will quickly shoot out small bolts of acid at a limited range. Deals mediocre damage with small AoE.
- Mortar - Will move slowly and slowly shoot out a large ball of acid at extended range. Deals moderate damage with large AoE leaving a puddle of acid for a while. Will go back to its original spot when the player is off range.
- Getting hit will cause damage-over-time for 10 seconds (1 HP per second)
- Vehicles are extremely vulnerable to acid spit.
- Will bite at melee range, dealing standard damage.
- Weakness: Torso (Leaves out an acid puddle on death)
Behemoth (Mini-boss?)
Not even bears can resist the mutation. They charge at their foes, mauling them into walls or send them flying.
- High health. Slow passive speed but very fast when charging.
- Has standard resistance to most damage sources except fire and explosives
- Charges at the player. Will take a pause before running into the player at a linear distance (Can be dodged if running to the side constantly), dealing heavy damage and causes knockback on contact. Will take a short while to regain energy when missed, but will be stunned for longer if it hits a wall.
- Slow swinging speed dealing moderate damage at melee range
- Weakness: Back torso (Unarmored)
Sentinel
One of the rarest monsters, these frenzied giants relentlessly defend the alpha spawners with mighty strength but rarely gets far from one. For some reason they look like gorillas.
- Extremely high health and fast speed
- Has standard resistance to most damage sources except fire and explosives
- Gives a pretty hard punch if you’re close enough.
- Throws debris when out of melee range.
- It’s pretty big and wont fit in most places (Like buildings). They still can hurl debris at you but will easilly be uninterested and move to its original spot (Guarding the Alpha spawner).
- Weakness: Front Torso (Unarmored)
Grappler
Sentient growths on ceilings that grab onto people with its long arms while slowly consuming them.
- Low health and are immobile.
- When unprovoked, they appear as dark growths which can camouflage with the surrounding growths around it.
- When near, they enlarge and long arms will appear to try to reach for the player. Does continuous damage while grappled until it is killed
Snag
A wall of mutated flesh which will block the way of any unexpected survivor. They are commonly found blocking the passage to spawners, or valuable loot.
- High health and are immobile
- Has high resistance to most damage sources except fire and explosives. Gains immunity during daylight
- Can harm you when touched or punched.
Spawner
Bulging mutant growth that constantly spawns minions to spread the infection.
- High health and are immobile
- Has no form of combat/self defense
- Spawns walkers or lurkers up to 5 active when close. Can spawn Stumblers indefinitely
- Has small resistance to most damage sources except fire and explosives
Alpha Spawner
The heart of the infestation. Nothing stops growing when this abomination is still alive, being well deep in cities and heavily guarded.
- Very high health and are immobile
- Has no form of combat, but will explode a few seconds after being defeated
- Spawns walkers or lurkers up to 10 active. Will always spawn 1 sentinel
- Invincible when spawners in the location are still alive
- When vulnerable, has small resistance to most damage sources except fire and explosives
Dealing with the Turned using weapons
Pretty basic, just use any weapon that deals damage. However explosives and fire generally ignore some types of enemies’ damage resistance or have a special effect.
You cannot stun then unless you have a heavy weapon like a sledgehammer or a powerful gun like the sniper rifle/rocket launcher. Dealing damage, however, will slow their movement for a split second, even greater if you shoot their legs (If they stand at all)
Day/night response (OPTIONAL)
This idea is based on NarcolepticHound’s post in regards to light being a factor to these enemies.
How would the Turned react to the day?
Personally I think this is a great idea, as it gives some character to the Turned on why they prefer residing in buildings than in the natural environment. On daylight all types of enemies cannot respawn unless you made a disturbance in some way (e.g. Triggering spawners, making noise).
The only Turned types that could roam outside and persist during daylight would be Walkers, Revenants, Hunters and Behemoths. Reason why is that they more of resemble their former selves (Humans/Wolves/Bears) and would make scavenging locations not much of a care-free berry picking. However they are less efficient in terms of speed, power and awareness (-25%?). All other types of enemies will simply scatter back into shelter or simply dissolve.
Still that doesn’t mean the place will be less dangerous. You will always find enemies inside infested buildings.
At night, enemies will begin to spawn normally and the daylight debuff will cease to take effect. Any surviving turned inside buildings will also start to move out.
Infestation, enemy composition and restoration of locations
I took some ideas from this post, which fits perfectly.
How effed up is the world?
Locations are overgrown with mutant growths and spawners. Most buildings will be infected and will always have a form of enemy in it. You can always see large black growths at some place in a building, that thing can spawn a single Stumbler to head to the spot where the noise is last heard. They can’t be destroyed unless the place is claimed.
You cannot build structures within (or near?) infected locations unless the place is claimed.
Spawners keep the place infected and live with enemies.
- Minor locations (e.g. Lone cabin) - No spawners
- Military outpost/campground/farms - 1 spawner
- Town/militia bunker/research facility - 2-3 spawners
- Military base/city - 0-1 alpha spawner, 4-6 spawners
You can see that small locations would have little to no spawners for easier player housing, but as it gets more larger it will have more spawners to make it tough to make a base in.
When a spawner is destroyed, it will slowly rebuild itself in a while (Not too quick though). The only way to halt the process is if you claim the area, so you gotta destroy all spawners to make it happen.
Making locations great again!
When you clear all spawners, you can have the option to restore the place with a special type of generator. However it will act as a horde beacon from the previous game; Setting one up and turning it on will initiate a ‘Wave survival’ kind of battle where enemies will go to your location constantly, losing if you get killed or the generator is destroyed. You win after 2 minutes of surviving the place (Maybe more for larger locations?)
When the process is finished, the location will completely cease all enemy spawns and the growths will slowly disappear. However that does not mean the stragglers that survived will perish as well. You gotta clear them all.
You can only claim 1 location and have it free of enemy spawns. You can place another in a different location, but only one of them will be active. Switching on a newer one on will disable the previous generator and that place will be infected once again (Any placeables will remain there and prone to damage from the Turned if near).
What about multiplayer?
To make it fair, you cannot claim locations with an alpha spawner. This means that cities and military bases will not be able to be claimed but simply scavenged in. Disabling such thing will leave it as a singleplayer end-game goal where you gotta restore important locations. Making smaller locations only claimable allows groups to hold places where only players from the group can build in it.
You can try to overtake a claimed area by interacting with the special generator. Reclaiming an owned location will make it belong to you and your group mates, which will also cease ownership of savepoints like beds within the area so they cannot respawn in it. It’s not instant, you gotta wait 60 seconds before it becomes claimed. All players who belong to the group that claimed the location will be notified by a small message, giving them time to retaliate.
Excursion: Overgrown Complex
Will do later. (Sry)
What do you think?
