Zombie Boss Idea: The Thing

[Weeman]

So I got the idea from John Carpenter's The Thing which is probably one of my all time favorite movies. For those of you who have not seen it it is about an Antarctic research base where a bunch of scientists are trapped for the winter when they encounter an alien creature, that after a certain amount of time, can fully assimilate a person and it can then take that person or animals shape and form and even mimic their dialog. In the film this "someone isn't who they say they are" creates an incredibly tense atmosphere.

 

 

So I got the idea for a boss zombie based off that. If it was even possible what would you guys think of a boss zombie that had the ability to kill someone and then take their form? Say I spawn as The Thing and I find a straggler and kill him, I then absorb him over X amount of time and take his form, this would give any humans around time to either kill me during the absorption or call out who got absorbed. The Thing probably would be only a first boss wave pick and we'd have to decide on how to balance him in terms of what he can do and what damage he would have since his whole purpose would be to try and infiltrate a cade. In the movie The Thing is incredibly weak and is easily disposed of by fire, it's power was in it's ability to turn others again each other.

[KitBallard]

Sounds brilliant but it actually reminds me of the gamemode MORBUS where one or more were Aliens disguised as Humans,they could take any players name and character.

 

And wouldn't it be obvious if somebody would pick ''the Thing''? Ok the thoughts of being insecure about humans would be amazing but would also make ''The Thing'' obvious. Like Humans will shoot other Humans to see if they are the Thing or not.

[Rizon]

Seeing this in ZS would make me play again but it also comes with the pro and cons that I'm sure you're aware of Weeman, as everyone will be killing each other off as KitBallard said.

 

Maybe if a map with all the details of "The Thing" could be created just for this boss? (This way players will understand the concept and not just go on a killing spree randomly).

[A Tax on Tyson]

I love it! But it'd be hard to code/balance though.

[SkeletalElite]

Good Idea but most of the time the thing wouldnt be able to get in the cade because he would get shot in crossfire

[Weeman]

Good Idea but most of the time the thing wouldnt be able to get in the cade because he would get shot in crossfire

Yea it would be a high risk high reward boss. If you got inside a cade the potential damage you could do would be crazy.

[Weeman]

That's actually not what the original thing looks like, gotta watch to the end of the movie to know what it's original form is ;-)

[TheAtrocity]

Kill feed aside, I'm fairly sure it would be easier for humans to figure out who got assimilated as stragglers are followed by more experienced players for loot and bait. I do, however, like this idea. Sounds like MORBUS with a Lil zs to it. Maybe we can make an event (and map) for this boss.

 

Map specifically with many rooms ya know?

[A Tax on Tyson]

We could try screwing around with the vortigaunt model a bit and try to make him really fucked up looking by re-texturing him or playing with his proportions a bit. Who actually makes the zs models anyway?