Zombies Generations

[Jose420]

I Was thinking that is unrealistic that a zombie can stay years walking , so my idea is that when the zombie spawn it start like a internal clock that it Will die in 2 weeks or more time (you can change it).Whit these we can have a balanced population of zeds , because whit migration they can go to the city and repopulate it.

[Amada]

Wouldn't that lead to road literally stacked with corpses? If all the zombies on the map were to die and more were to wander in from the roads that would mean that buildings wouldn't have zombies inside of them right? If zombies were constantly dying and being generated across the map wouldn't that cause a bit of lag (well that already occurs with players killing them, but not quite on the same scale). Whilst a neat idea (28 Days Later had all the zombies starve to death after two months), it seems a bit unnecessary and not something that could be implemented well enough. The population's already balanced (uh, strongly biased against the player mind), so, for the sake of not happening to wander to the next town over and finding the streets littered with corpses (and free loot at that), at the moment the game can probably get away with how the old zombie flicks handle this subject, "shrug. Their dead already so how can they die of malnutrition?".

[Comrade Crimson]

Don't think this is too good an idea to add in gameplay wise, given the points expressed above.

 

And to perhaps give a bit of justification to the zombies with some whack science theory of mine:
 

The virus that made the zombies, well, zombies also kills off any bacteria or parasites that'd rot and decompose them. It's why animals probably won't be eating zombie corpses (or zombies) any time soon because the meat is infected and would cause them to die.

 

As for muscle deterioration... maybe the zombies just conserve their energy well by standing around all day, have photosynthesis, eat fairy dust or something else someone would come up with. Maybe the virus has the zombies feed off its internal, useless organs and body tissues, which it has plenty of when there is a lack of fresh meat, and at the rate it does this it might not need too much.

 

Not something I'd go too crazy about.

[Jose420]

But if you dig grave in real life you can see the bones of the dead and when you die the body create some type of worms that descompose you and insects can too...

But yeah the loot of buildings Will be easily to take

Last thing worms and insects can die and be zeds? :0

[Daman453]

Don't think this is too good an idea to add in gameplay wise, given the points expressed above.

 

And to perhaps give a bit of justification to the zombies with some whack science theory of mine:

 

The virus that made the zombies, well, zombies also kills off any bacteria or parasites that'd rot and decompose them. It's why animals probably won't be eating zombie corpses (or zombies) any time soon because the meat is infected and would cause them to die.

 

As for muscle deterioration... maybe the zombies just conserve their energy well by standing around all day, have photosynthesis, eat fairy dust or something else someone would come up with. Maybe the virus has the zombies feed off its internal, useless organs and body tissues, which it has plenty of when there is a lack of fresh meat, and at the rate it does this it might not need too much.

 

Not something I'd go too crazy about.

Now now, Rathload did a unoffical story about the zombie virus. How zombies run off little "power", after they use the juice from restarting body up, they start to eat there flesh. The things that they need to move are left off untill almost death. Infact, some of the brain, like the frontal lobe (Hearing and sight) are restored. With the brain stem and the part that controls hunger, then the part for anger. Any thing that eats zombie flesh will go into shock and die, but not rise from the dead.

 

Wouldn't that lead to road literally stacked with corpses? If all the zombies on the map were to die and more were to wander in from the roads that would mean that buildings wouldn't have zombies inside of them right? If zombies were constantly dying and being generated across the map wouldn't that cause a bit of lag (well that already occurs with players killing them, but not quite on the same scale). Whilst a neat idea (28 Days Later had all the zombies starve to death after two months), it seems a bit unnecessary and not something that could be implemented well enough. The population's already balanced (uh, strongly biased against the player mind), so, for the sake of not happening to wander to the next town over and finding the streets littered with corpses (and free loot at that), at the moment the game can probably get away with how the old zombie flicks handle this subject, "shrug. Their dead already so how can they die of malnutrition?".

See above ^

[Rathlord]

The referenced unofficial lore I wrote, for the record: http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/4359-mommy-where-do-zombies-come-from/?hl=where+do+zombies+come+from

[_Gold_]

But if you dig grave in real life you can see the bones of the dead and when you die the body create some type of worms that descompose you and insects can too...

But yeah the loot of buildings Will be easily to take

Last thing worms and insects can die and be zeds? :0

 

http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/192-commonly-suggested-suggestions-read-before-posting-unofficial/

 

[n]    Zombie Beasts or Infected Animals

[Comrade Crimson]

But if you dig grave in real life you can see the bones of the dead and when you die the body create some type of worms that descompose you and insects can too...

But yeah the loot of buildings Will be easily to take

Last thing worms and insects can die and be zeds? :0

The thing is those people did not die due to the zombie virus. They were not infected.

 

The zombie virus kills you- then reanimates you. And it kills anything else, its why they aren't just eaten by maggots, worms and all other grub from the rug.

 

Animals that do partake in eating zombie flesh- would die from the infectious, toxic material and grow sick and die from the shock and fever. And would not re-animate. Virus is coded for humans, and humans only- but it'll still kill other living creatures.

[Strang]

Also this zombie virius slows down the decomposition rate, allowing zombies to survive for years. This depends on the clays as we'll though

[Impetiso]

Degradation and decomposition of the corpse is how the real "virus zombies" would work, as anything alive (and "virus zombies" are alive) needs energy to stay alive, and keeping alive a body still requires some energy. 

Any Zombie that walk, see, hear, fight, climb, scream and can't suffer degradation and decoposition at a slight slower rate than a normal body does it's not a "virus zombie".

 

Then, if zombies don't die from degradation it's for game purposes, not because the virus can prevent it.

[raymond]

Because the game follows the classic John Romero's scenario more or less, as I heard in one of the threads, it's good to remember 1985's Day of the Dead - according to dr. Logan, the Zeds can last for years, due to the virus' decomposition slowdown.

[Kajin]

Yeah, zombie flesh is so toxic that anything that tries to consume it, bacteria included, is killed. Zombies take forever to rot as a result.

[956Texas]

Jose its just a game, i doesnt have to be releastic. If people wanted it to be releastic, the game would end a month into the game.

[Viceroy]

Just to reiterate that it is not necessarily a virus, the official stance of the game is and will always be complete obfuscation and mystery as to what causes it.

 

So for all we know it could be Ragnarok. Magic, Fairies, A level 88 Bone Dragon that cast 'Global reanimate', McDonalds using too much preservatives, geneboosting, subcutaneous parasites/plantgrowth, alien weapon... Arguing one view of the cause and 'realism' in general is fruitless when the subject matter revolves around that which is literally impossible, and that impossibility (The reanimation and continual functioning of a body that no longer functions.) is central to the genre and gameplay as well.

 

So for gameplay/genre matters. The zombies last forever essentially and to kill them off and repopulate 'fresh' ones would be preposterous as there would need to be a constant supply of newly reanimated corpses (i.e. Civilization) or a gate into the underworld or some source of these people. From a gameplay perspective the zombies won't ever die of 'age' or 'decay'. They might weaken but they won't start piling up in the street either simply due to the fact that it would make it blooming hard to explain where the zombies are coming from. Whereas currently it is a combination of "The rest of the country" and "The local area.", but these arguments will cease to suffice if a zombie dies naturally.

 

So to paraphrase what Amada said: "They are already dead, why would they die?"

[956Texas]

So if they were dead why do bullets kill them if they are dead? This is a huge mystery. (I dont mean to be contradicting no one, but its a good topic to discuss)

[Impetiso]

So if they were dead why do bullets kill them if they are dead? This is a huge mystery. (I dont mean to be contradicting no one, but its a good topic to discuss)

Technically, they are undead, that's why you can kill them. If something is dead, then it's dead. If something it's undead, then you can unalive it. 

[Viceroy]

It is also not necessarily 'death' as we know it, the zombie could very much still be 'alive', just not functional anymore due to the nervous system being obliterated and not allowing control of extremities. Same way a car can be a writeoff but still have doors that open and close. In a sense.

 

Damage does not always equate to death.

 

EDIT: And to further this point, chances are if you were to butcher and eat a 'dead' zombie you would also become 'infected'. And if this is the case it would further prove the point that the zombie and whatever causes it, is still active if not functional.

Edited August 31, 2014 by Viceroy

[Dryke]

As suggestions go - this one, too, falls into the category of realism vs. gameplay.

 

Is it realistic that eventually a zombie would decay to the point that it was no longer a threat?  Absolutely.  You can come up with any number of scientific facts that simply cannot be ignored or explained away even with a magic zombie virus.

 

However...we all have to admit that to even begin to imagine a true zombie apocalypse there has to be some suspension of disbelief.  So if we accept that a corpse can, under any circumstance, become ambulatory and start attacking the living then it's not a very far step to say that whatever animates the corpse can keep it going for at least a few years.

 

And once you reach that point...well, how many of us have ever lasted one year in PZ, let alone several?  At the end of the line, I personally think there's no reason to implement any type of 'zombie death from decay' system because the lore itself already provides enough justification to say that no one in the game is likely to live long enough to see it actually happen

[Rathlord]

Good post Dryke, that's the real crux of the matter.