Zombies eating the player/NPCs

[GodWaffle]

Hey everyone,

As the title says, I'm suggesting some new zombie behaviour.

Currently zombies will swarm the player relentlessly, smashing through windows and doors just to get to you, and what they do is scratch and bite you until you drop dead.  Then, they mope around or wander off.

This, in my opinion, takes away the whole motive for the zombies to come at you in the first place, by nature a zombie's primary objective is to eat.

Most people would say this doesn't matter since you're dead anyway, but when NPC's and multiplayer are implemented, it could be a vital survival tactic.  

Let's go with a scenario: You and your partner are out searching for some supplies for the group, your partner is being clumsy and making too much noise, leaving doors open, etc.  Before long you've got a huge amount of zombies swarming, and you end up getting surrounded.  Now this story can split two ways:

A - Zombie mechanics stay the same, your partner gets caught first, dies within about 7 seconds, the zombies then instantly come for you and thus you die too.

B - Zombies feed on people, your partner gets caught first, the zombies pile onto him, tearing him apart and feeding on his flesh, while you sprint past and make it back to your camp.

Or even option C - Zombies still feed on people, you're surrounded, your group is relying on you to bring food back, so you make a hard decision and shoot your friend, quickly grab as many supplies as you can from his inventory and run as the zombies pile onto him and eat his body.

So we have a pretty cool game mechanic which can lead to realistic scenarios.  The feeding behaviour could even be set up in the sandbox options:

Under Zombie Lore, we have the 'Feeding Behaviour' dropdown..

- Doesn't eat
- Eats living humans
- Eats living creatures
- Eats any meat

The 'eats any meat' option would allow you to use meat as 'trails' for zombies to follow, so you could perhaps lead zombies to a hostile survival group using a trail of meat.  Also, they would feed on any dead body lying around on the ground.

This entire mechanic would require a new animation for the zombies, and perhaps if a zombie isn't eating much they could decompose faster.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to see this implemented

-GodWaffle

[RoboMat]

I'd also love to see this implemented.

 

I'm not sure at the moment, but I think this was on the "will be implemented eventually" list ...

[Guest]

It goes without saying that zombies ripping out your intestines and eating them will *someday* be implemented in the future.

 

Probably after it is out of Alpha stage.

 

E: Also, blood trails would be cool. Although they are already implemented. (somewhat)

[GodWaffle]

I'd also love to see this implemented.

 

I'm not sure at the moment, but I think this was on the "will be implemented eventually" list ...

 

Yeah, I think this isn't too important until there's other human presence in the world, when it can actually become useful other than just something funny to watch after you die.

-GodWaffle

[GodWaffle]

It goes without saying that zombies ripping out your intestines and eating them will *someday* be implemented in the future.

 

Probably after it is out of Alpha stage.

 

E: Also, blood trails would be cool. Although they are already implemented. (somewhat)

 

I think that when zombies eat, there should be a lot of blood going everywhere, would be fantastic to watch - and correct me if I'm wrong but I think blood trails do attract zombies currently?  

Also, zombie blood should be a different colour to fresh human blood, would be great for following a dying human and taking his supplies once he kicks the bucket.

-GodWaffle