Zombies (Programming)

-- Main.NecAnthrope - 21 May 2004

Looking back over complaints/comments about the zombies, I noticed I've never once publically stated what I intended the dynamics of them to be. So I'm going to take the opportunity to do so now.

First of all, they're designed to be a medium to high level character threat. Newbies shouldn't be able to fight them effectively, for three reasons:

• Zombie rot. Any successful hit from a zombie has a small chance of giving the player a fatal disease that ultimately will carry thier stuff off if it kills them. This is a twofold threat: the first being death (obviously), and the second being a copy of yourself carries all of your best gear away, usually deeper into the monster area. Only seasoned characters with multiple sets of decent gear can avoid worrying about this.
• Zombie hit reduction. If you hit a zombie anywhere but the head, it does half damage. (A head shot does quadruple damage, but they are much less likely than a hit anywhere else, of course.) That coupled with a higher health than humans (25 as opposed to 20), makes them very difficult to kill.
• Sheer numbers. The zombie area routinely keeps 25 zombies in it. This rises and falls as Zombie rot takes them down, or they're killed by PC's. The number of zombies shouldn't get any higher than that, and usually only does when there's a problem with the area reset.

These three factors combined make the best approach to the zombie area one of non-newbie characters in a medium sized group, all of them carrying mortilex hypos. (ICYDN, mortilex is the cure for zombie rot.) A lone newbie or a small group of newbies going down there is destined to get killed and their stuff carried off.

Now, on the plus side, Zombies themselves do suffer from zombie rot. In game terms, the disease that reanimates them causes their flesh to break down quickly. In non game terms, this means they are infected with a $disease that slowly increases in strength, and destroys the zombie on :overdose. This disease also decreases a zombie's stats, making them more vulnerable as they get older. Some zombies will be easier to kill than others, based on age.

Also, zombies are worth a pretty good amount of xp. They give +2 to the base calculated xp value.

I hope this clears up any questions people might have. Please feel free to page or mail me any questions or comments.

Necanthrope