Zombie Survival Server Improvement Ideas

[Snowyamur]

Going to say this on the very top, not the bottom. It takes time and commitment to improve something. I know there are three coders on the HG team for Zombie Survival (maybe more, I'm not sure), but in order for this server to improve, initiative must be taken. Yes, it's a lot of work to code; I've coded before, but in the end, what really matters is how much time and effort was put in to make something amazing.

 

Being an old-time player on HG’s Zombie Survival Server, there isn’t an odd day where I wish the server could be more interesting. While I don’t express that feeling as often as I would like, the server is growing older every day and falling far behind the Zombie Survival mod’s actual build-state, which is four years behind.

 

Personally, the server is doing better than most because there are players on it every day, it is regulated and secured by our Moderators and Division Staff, and the community overall isn’t completely tainted. However, in my eyes, I see the server as slowly degrading for reasons too long to explain.

 

I would like to take the time to list some suggestions on how to improve the server overall, be it attracting more players or implementing an innovative creation that makes playing on the server a more pleasurable and enjoyable experience in the eyes of others.

 

*Note: Almost every idea here will likely not be implemented, but hey, now HG has them. Predictable results will be very-limited here because they can vary from player-to-player, but the possible positives and negatives will be listed. There is a fine line between what will help and not help the server, as such, the actual impact varies. Ideas are general or specific.

 

Additionally, this is technically the official thread where I will post more ideas, but that will depend on if people consider this or not.

 

Legend

Green - Positive

Red - Negative

 

Feedback Response Statuses

[significant] - Greatest impact on the game; must be acknowledged and considered; can shape the gameplay to a better form.

[Neutral] - Can affect the game or not; should be acknowledged; whether it is good or bad varies from player-to-player; can hurt or harm gameplay.

[Not a Priority] - Least impact on the game; can be noted, but should not be prioritized; can benefit the gameplay, but to a lesser extent.

[Detrimental] - Greatest impact on the game; must be acknowledged and considered; has the possibility of ruining or hurting the gameplay the most.

 

 

Weapons with a Purpose (Zombie-Immunity + Weapon Banes; Zombie/Weapon Re-Work) [significant]

Instead of having a bunch of weapons that many players will not use [due to point-whoring], incorporate weapons that will harm certain zombies, giving them a reason to be used and worth spending points on.

 

Ex: Devolver (zombie that reduces the max health on a cade with every attack) is weak against Evolutionizer (gun that fires like a gluon, but does maximum damage only against Devolvers and little to no damage against other zombies).

 

Each weapon has damage determined on how strong its specified victim is (calculated by coders) and the cost is fixed for these weapons. Choice of the developers to get rid of the unused, wasted weapons or keep them in their Tier slots; special weapons have their own tab like Melee weapons.

 

Not every player will use this or that special weapon; special weapons in-turn create specified roles to fight undead, which may or may not be necessary or relevant. Also, it’s likely players will avoid or ignore this feature, for the regular boss zombies suffice.

 

Requires lots of time and professional programming skills.

 

Arsenal Patrons Program (Point Re-Work by Point-Spending) [significant]

Rather than saving all these points for nothing, it’s better to find a way to spend them without incurring complete, definite losses.

 

APP encourages point-whores to spend their points to unlock special perks and goodies through a currency unobtainable by normal means. The currency is earned by spending points on the Arsenal Crate, but it is not a currency you can purchase directly, rather it is a currency earned per certain number of points spent.

 

For instance, I spend 100 points and I earn 1 currency point, and it doesn't matter what I spend those 100 points on. APP is an encouragement to aid the team through point-spending, all the while the huge-spender earns rewards him/herself.

 

Special purchases might make the original Point-Shop useless. Point-whores, or those considered "rich" on the server could waste their points on useless items to accumulate a large quantity of currency points, losing the purpose of being rewarding for helping the team, which is the true goal of APP.

 

Requires heavy-thinking and coding to maintain balance for both humans and zombies without breaking the game.

 

The Flesh Box (Zombie Arsenal Crate) [Neutral]

Zombie players can use points they own as a human to purchase certain perks and upgrades, excluding weapons.

 

Can work well in tandem with APP if desired: encourages point-spending, and eliminates point-whoring. Additionally, this provides more interesting gameplay for zombie players. Perks and upgrades for zombies are not permanent; they last for one round. Every zombie player can only choose their perks/upgrades once per round. If APP is applied, zombies can earn special currency points for their own special goodies as well.

 

Perks and upgrades might not be useful because zombies have the greatest perk of all: infinite spawning. Additionally, some perks may not be considered by zombie players as essentially useful if they don't lead to immediate slaying of humans.

 

Requires heavy-thinking and coding to make zombies-with-perks a fair fight against humans; could require modeling and animation software if a new model for the box is desired.

 

AI (Artificially-Intelligent) Zombie Bots [Neutral]

Players get tired of being forced into roles they find undesirable. More specifically, playing as a zombie. As such, let the AI be zombie for them.

 

Players are no longer forced as zombie; bots can be zombies for them. Players have free reign of whether they wish to be human or zombie. For instances where the zombie team cannot contest against the human team, AI bots can even the odds due to being more relentless and dangerous than the actual zombie players. When zombie players rage-quit, AI bots will take their place and act as substitutes for their absence.

 

AI processing might make the server lag every time it turns on. Additionally, if a player must suicide to become a zombie because he/she wants to be a zombie, that can become frustrating to do every round. AI bots may ruin the point of the game because players will no longer find a reason to build a barricade, and the server loses its unique personality for the zombie team.

 

Requires lots of time due to significantly-painful AI pathing and is tedious.

 

Gun-Damage-to-Point Ratio Improvements [significant]

Damage against zombies grants a greater number of points per certain damage number.

 

Encourages more humans [and point-whores] to purchase weapons and fight the horde, providing builders time to barricade, resulting in less shitcades.

 

Can discourage playing zombie due to incapability of killing humans with all the gunfire, encouraging more rage-quits and AFKing.

 

Requires math skills to calculate and determine a reasonable quantity of points received for inflicting x-variable of damage against a zombie.

 

Closer Ghoul Spawns [Not a Priority]

Ghouls and Alpha Ghouls can now place their spawns slightly closer to humans without penalty.

 

Encourages zombie players to continue the endless death-rush (continue playing the game and stay) as the need to walk long distances is eliminated and they can feel like an actual, endless swarm of undead.

 

Humans will find this overpowered as this will render nearly every cade they build pointless if the zombies can keep rushing at them at such a hastened pace.

 

Requires time and math skills to determine practical ghoul spawn distance.

 

Musical Rotation (More Music Choices, Option to Set Music Choices at Random) [Not a Priority]

Players can select different music tracks to play when they are human or zombie. Players may also set different music tracks to play at random.

 

Provides a greater variety of music to listen to. Eliminates having to listen to the same track repeatedly and adds taste to the role. Furthermore, makes the gameplay more fun.

 

Players may not care about what music they listen to, and for all we know, they could turn it off and listen to their own music off YouTube, iTunes, Soundcloud, or Grooveshark.

 

Requires a comprehensive understanding of the human and zombie roles to select the music. Additionally, lots of music tracks may be required.

 

CadeAid Tool [Neutral]

In-built program that shows a fading grid (in a circle) for a selected (lifted) prop when it is close to a dynamic surface or prop.

 

Ex: If I pick up a crate, and place it at the edge of a doorway, I can see a grid and use that grid to line up the crate how I want it for the barricade.

 

Makes barricading a lot easier for caders who have a hard time determining the distance between props and dynamic surfaces. Overall, it is a practical tool, and it can be disabled or enabled.

 

For pro-caders, this is a cheat, so f**k this idea.

 

Requires a deep-understanding of programming (specifically Lua, I think) to make this tool possible. Also, time-commitment is essential.

 

Poisonous Impairment (Poison Blind Re-Work) [Neutral]

Poison blown in the face no longer creates an epileptic blur. Poison in the face will now cover your entire game browser with a dark-green box or with a sickly, dark-green smudge. As of now, the current state of poison impairment is considered overpowered by some, and annoying to others.

 

Eliminates the annoying, drunk-like state from being blinded by poison and replaces it with a more natural vision impairment that makes sense for poison. Prevents player from having to endure the drunkard's state. Can be toggled-on or toggled-off at the player's discretion.

 

I don't have epilepsy, so let's keep this, no problem. Also, removing the drunkard's state makes poison-in-the-face a useless feature.

 

I'm not playing a joke here, the effect from poison in the face for ZS is capable of triggering an epileptic seizure, thus I'm serious about this one.

 

Requires a complete readjustment to the poison-in-the-face system.

 

Bountiful Rewards [Not a Priority]

Winning should be rewarding. To me, it's about the experience, to about 99% of the world, it's about how much you get for winning. For winning a map on the human team, you will be rewarded more points, and perhaps other goodies as well.

 

Makes AFKing less likely to happen because this encourages players to pour in their efforts, points, and work to ensure victory. Prevents players from whining about the rewards being low when they are actually high. Gives meaning to winning a round for those who want rewards. Rewards can simply be points, or be something more special for the winning humans.

 

Not fair for the zombie players because they will not receive rewards for their team winning, but that's the point; your goal is to survive, not die. If the rewards are solely points, that's simple. If the coders decide to make the rewards randomized, unique, and different for each map, that could be challenging.

 

Requires math skills to calculate and determine a reasonable prize pool and coding skills to configure this system.

 

Teleportation Shield (Chrono Butcher Augment)

When the Chrono Butcher teleports through a barricade to a certain spot, there will now be at least a 2-3 second invulnerability period at which it cannot be damaged.

 

Viable for Chrono Butcher players as it removes that fear of being insta-gibbed on the spot. Allows more breathing room for Chrono Butchers by allowing them to maintain their current health following a teleport. Encourages hit-and-run tactics.

 

Human players may find this overpowered as the Chrono Butcher is already strong given that it can bypass a barricade. The point of the Chrono Butcher is to insta-kill it on the spot when sighted, but the actual player behind the Chrono Butcher may find that somewhat unfair. Players are likely incapable of finding where the Chrono Butcher teleported to anyways, so this is practically useless.

 

Requires programming skills.

 

Hybrid Ammunition (Different Ammunition Augments) [Not a Priority]

Human players can now purchase different ammunition hybrids for their weapons, albeit they are more expensive to purchase than normal ammunition. All Tier 6 weapons are excluded from this. The ammunition types afflicted are Pistol, SMG, Shotgun, and Rifle ammunition. Effects from Hybrid Ammunition cannot stack; each shot from Hybrid Ammunition refreshes the effect.

 

Ex: A box of Infernal Rounds costs 15 points a box and will set zombies (and wooden props) on fire when shot at, inflicting 3 damage/second over the course of 5 seconds, totaling 15 damage by the end of the duration.

 

Provides human players more unique ways to fight the undead with Hybrid Ammunition. Can prove interesting to many human players as it allows them to tackle specific damage-dealing roles. Zombie players will now have to think about their tactics to overcome this, encouraging more teamwork. Can work in tandem with The Flesh Box, where zombie players can purchase perks/upgrades to inoculate themselves from the different effects of Hybrid Ammunition, but not all of them.

 

Price for the ammunition is expensive, and is heavily-discouraging for point-farming. Players may find the damage and quantity of bullets superior over special, albeit reduced quantities of Hybrid Ammunition. Zombies are weak anyways, so the special ammunition will likely not matter. Zombie players could find this overpowered as this is technically a human buff to kill zombies faster. May cause severe latency issues (lag) as a result of extra particle FX being used and extra scripting running in the terminal.

 

Requires advanced programming skills and lots of time commitment.

Edited September 15, 2017 by Snowyamur

[Sebastian Bravo]

I like this Suggestion!

[Snowyamur]

I like this Suggestion!

 

Thanks, there's more to be added on to this.

[Northground]

I will try to break down, add onto and give my own opinions on these suggestions you have given us. Your first thing is giving weapons a purpose which is something i completely agree with. A gun should not be added into the game if it doesnt differ in some way that makes it better in a certain situation. There is no reason to have 3 smgs in the same tier that is good in the same scenario but have a difference in dps unless they have some other stat that even it out. This just makes the worse weapon completely worthless to buy. The underlying problem is that a lot of new weapons have been added in the past that hasnt been correctly balanced. If a gun get added and it is a little overpowered, a buff to the zombies are required. When a buff gets added to the zombies the older weapon is made more useless. This is something that is knows as Power Creep. And about adding weapons that especially good against certain zombies i think could be something to look into instead of just adding new weapons that are better in every aspect.

 

Arsenal Patrons Program sounds like incentive to make people spend their points. And i do agree that we should implement something that makes people spend their points instead of just saving them. But it is a little unclear here exactly what you want to implement. Is it permanent upgrades that never go away or do they only last the map out in which you bought them on? Do you get this currency by spending points in the Arsenal crate or can you buy them directly. I think a permanent upgrade system based on points would make the game unbalanced very quickly. If we would include something that could be implemented permanently i would rather have it be cosmetics or skins or anything that doesnt affect the games balance. My suggestions is that these upgrades should only last during the map in which they are bought and that the currency itself that you have accumulated by spending points should carry over from game to game. This way you wont have permanent upgrades but can choose to save them untill a special occasion if you want too. But it would of course also need to be balanced. More obscure traits and not direct stat upgrades probably.

 

A Zombie Flesh Box is basically the same thing and once again do i think that permanent upgrades would make it very unbalanced. The best route to this suggestion i think would be by only allowing Zombies to spend the points that they have earned that game to buy upgrades which only last that map. Zombies wouldnt profit as much if they choose to use this system but it would make it more interesting to play Zombie.

 

AI is something that i am sceptical about. It would make more people not leave the game but it just sounds like an easy way to earn points without actually playing the game. And if you do not earn points by letting and AI take over theres no good reason to stay on in the first place.

 

Gun-Damage-to-Point-Ratio is something that is very important and could be altered very easily. It is however hard to find the right balance without making humans earn too much or too little. In the whole of thing i think its balanced acceptable right now. You have to do some thinking on what weapons you can buy in order to make points but it is possible to earn a good deal of points. My only problem is that some weapons are not very profitable even though the same damage earns you the same amount of points on every weapon. This is mostly due to how much ammunition you get between different weapon types and what situation these guns are used in. An idea could be to not change the Damage-to-point-ratio but being able to change what guns have what Damage-to-Point-Ratio. It would also make some of the worse weapons worth buying. The only problem would be balancing a certain weapons Damage-to-Point-Ratio and at the same time balancing how much damage it deals. The best solution would however be to not use this on every weapon but only on the ones where the gameplay style makes it harder to make points.

 

The Ghoul spawn i think has an okay distance from human at the moment but it could maybe be improved.

 

Having more options for the music being played is something i could see being added. Theres not much to say here, it would just bring more variety to the server.

 

The Cade Grid suggestion is not something i am going to debate since i have no experience involving cades.

 

Poison-Blind is not something i find very bad. I think the poison effec right now is acceptable and it being annoying is kinda the point. It it however can cause an epileptic seizure then thats a good reason in itself to change it.

 

When it comes to the reward for winning maps i do find it at a good balance right now. Humans earn plenty of enough points by just playing the game and if you have managed to reach wave 6 you should have profited already. Adding new rewards that arent points could be something to look into.

[Ryze]

Here are my thoughts. Now remember, the devs are working on other stuff, so I singled out things I don't think are needed. As for the other suggestions, I could see a few being added when the devs have the time to do so. I like APP the most.

 

AI (Artificially-Intelligent) Zombie Bots

Bad idea, defeats the purpose of ZS as nobody will play zombie.

 

Change Ambient Zombie/Human Music (More Music Choices)

I don't think this should be a priority right now, half the time people are on TS or listening to music, I for one barely notice is.

 

CadeAid Tool

Let's not make cading too easy.

 

Bountiful Rewards

We don't want to flood the economy with more points, there's plenty as there is.

[Snowyamur]

@Ryze

@Northground

 

I will consider the feedback and make changes to the following above.

Edited September 14, 2017 by Snowyamur

[Snowyamur]

NEW STUFF

• Legend - Green and Red text are now easily navigated through this simple add-on to the thread.
  
• Statuses - Feedback will now determine the statuses of each idea, and each status can change dependent on feedback majority.
  
• Feedback will now affect what is written for each idea (determined by me).
  

NEW IDEAS

 

Teleportation Shield (Chrono Butcher Augment)

When the Chrono Butcher teleports through a barricade to a certain spot, there will now be at least a 2-3 second invulnerability period at which it cannot be damaged.

 

Viable for Chrono Butcher players as it removes that fear of being insta-gibbed on the spot. Allows more breathing room for Chrono Butchers by allowing them to maintain their current health following a teleport. Encourages hit-and-run tactics.

 

Human players may find this overpowered as the Chrono Butcher is already strong given that it can bypass a barricade. The point of the Chrono Butcher is to insta-kill it on the spot when sighted, but the actual player behind the Chrono Butcher may find that somewhat unfair. Players are likely incapable of finding where the Chrono Butcher teleported to anyways, so this is practically useless.

 

Requires programming skills.

 

Hybrid Ammunition (Different Ammunition Augments)

Human players can now purchase different ammunition hybrids for their weapons, albeit they are more expensive to purchase than normal ammunition. All Tier 6 weapons are excluded from this. The ammunition types afflicted are Pistol, SMG, Shotgun, and Rifle ammunition. Effects from Hybrid Ammunition cannot stack; each shot from Hybrid Ammunition refreshes the effect.

 

Ex: A box of Infernal Rounds costs 15 points a box and will set zombies (and wooden props) on fire when shot at, inflicting 3 damage/second over the course of 5 seconds, totaling 15 damage by the end of the duration.

 

Provides human players more unique ways to fight the undead with Hybrid Ammunition. Can prove interesting to many human players as it allows them to tackle specific damage-dealing roles. Zombie players will now have to think about their tactics to overcome this, encouraging more teamwork. Can work in tandem with The Flesh Box, where zombie players can purchase perks/upgrades to inoculate themselves from the different effects of Hybrid Ammunition, but not all of them.

 

Price for the ammunition is expensive, and is heavily-discouraging for point-farming. Players may find the damage and quantity of bullets superior over special, albeit reduced quantities of Hybrid Ammunition. Zombies are weak anyways, so the special ammunition will likely not matter. Zombie players could find this overpowered as this is technically a human buff to kill zombies faster.

 

Requires advanced programming skills and lots of time commitment.

[pikachu 2013]

Bountiful Rewards We don't want to flood the economy with more points, there's plenty as there is.

 

I NEED MORE POINTS. jk

 

Poisonous Impairment (Poison Blind Re-Work)

 

 

at least have the option to toggle one or the other. ex have new or old

 

i think the others are good at least

[Snowyamur]

@pikachu_2013

 

I will consider the toggle for Poisonous Impairment, thanks.

[Adam Cole]

AI (Artificially-Intelligent) Zombie Bots [Detrimental]

Players get tired of being forced into roles they find undesirable. More specifically, playing as a zombie. As such, let the AI be zombie for them.

 

Players are no longer forced as zombie; bots can be zombies for them. Players have free reign of whether they wish to be human or zombie.

 

AI processing might make the server lag every time it turns on. Additionally, if a player must suicide to become a zombie because he/she wants to be a zombie, that can become frustrating to do every round. AI bots may ruin the point of the game because players will no longer find a reason to build a barricade, and the server loses its unique personality for the zombie team.

 

Requires lots of time due to significantly-painful AI pathing and is tedious.

 

 

boi have you seen our bots (When properly pathed)? They are arguably better than most players. I do an "event" like this sometimes and it ends up working out because its just a pointwhore event (Generally as a stoploss to pop drop). I redeem the zombies (Who are players) up till wave 3 or when zombie team is making significant progress. Ends up working well and wouldn't mind it as a admin initiated event or a random event. (Only if the map has paths though)

 

Definitely wouldn't work as a player initiated event though due to balancing.

 

Edit: Also wouldn't mind each player who "ragequits" being replaced with a bot.

Edited September 15, 2017 by Adam Cole

[Mr. Robot]

Bountiful Rewards [Not a Priority] Winning should be rewarding. To me, it's about the experience, to about 99% of the world, it's about how much you get for winning. For winning a map on the human team, you will be rewarded more points, and perhaps other goodies as well.

For sure idk bout the other goodies but you sit there 30-50 minutes if you win and you get 10-50 points thats a lot of work put in for such little reward i'm comfortable with objective prizes however...

 

Gun-Damage-to-Point Ratio Improvements [significant] Damage against zombies grants a greater number of points per certain damage number.

Also agree with this however it should only be slightly increased.

 

Hybrid Ammunition (Different Ammunition Augments) Human players can now purchase different ammunition hybrids for their weapons, albeit they are more expensive to purchase than normal ammunition. All Tier 6 weapons are excluded from this. The ammunition types afflicted are Pistol, SMG, Shotgun, and Rifle ammunition. Effects from Hybrid Ammunition cannot stack; each shot from Hybrid Ammunition refreshes the effect. Ex: A box of Infernal Rounds costs 15 points a box and will set zombies (and wooden props) on fire when shot at, inflicting 3 damage/second over the course of 5 seconds, totaling 15 damage by the end of the duration.

 

Im not sure but i feel like this would increase lag severely..

 

Poisonous Impairment (Poison Blind Re-Work) [Not a Priority] Poison blown in the face no longer creates an epileptic blur. Poison in the face will now cover your entire game browser with a dark-green box or with a sickly, dark-green smudge.

This 100% I find it obnoxious and overpowered especially the duration.

 

Change Ambient Zombie/Human Music (More Music Choices) [Not a Priority] Players can select different music tracks to play when they are human or zombie. Players may also set different music tracks to play at random.

I wish we could just disable music altogether i find it useless and annoying especially if you want to actually listen to music while playing.

Edited September 15, 2017 by Mr.Robot

[Snowyamur]

@Adam_Cole

@Mr.Robot

 

I'll be sure to make changes reflecting your feedback. Thanks.