Zombie strength in numbers

[CreepyD]

I had a thought when I saw todays pic for the Mondoid..

Currently zombies bash on doors / windows / fences etc, and each one has a strength which gradually gets whittled away until it's destroyed.

Well that's not very realistic tbh, maybe it's even a known placeholder, I'm not sure

 

There's a good example that was tested on Mythbusters some time back, whereby you have a large really strong wooden barn door, heavily reinforced with beams from the inside.

A single person or even a handful cannot do any damage what so ever to it, it's just too strong.

 

But they also tested bringing say 50 test zombies to the show, pushing in unison - and you know what?  Yes the massively strong wooden beams started to crack and it would have eventually given way if they had kept at it for many hours as real zombies would do if they knew someone was inside.

 

So back to the Mondoid pic, that fence which is usually indestructible should actually be taking damage under the strain of that many zombies - you shouldn't have the comfort of knowing that's never going to break.

It would need some visual way of you knowing it's buckling slightly in advance though.

Similarly, if you build a strong reinforced wall, you shouldn't have to worry that just a single zombie bashing it for long enough will break it, but more zombies would be a problem.

 

So each material needs an invulnerability threshold, then over that they need to take more damage the more zombies are bashing, exponentially more damage.

Also more walls of the same type together should spread that damage out, so when it goes the whole thing goes down, or at least a large section.

 

I don't know how all this would be for gameplay, I was just thinking realistically as that's generally what this game is about

[makkenhoff]

The Mythbusters thing was quite some time ago, 2013 I think, the episode itself had some flaws, some of which they go over in the after show, including the unrealistically high score Adam got for zombie love taps (kills). They do explore the idea in a web only clip, and Adam makes the comment that it was actually quite tiring to get the required force to actually split a skull.  The idea that an axe/sword/etc is superior for zombie killing over modern firearms is a matter of debate, usually solved by the addition of a scenario that makes one or the other superior in that particularly situation.

 

With regard to the actual content of your post, which breaks down into "zombie strength should increase by a factor of X per zombie with regard to how fast a barrier's durability should degrade with a few additional modifiers for material type and constructor's skill.  I agree, it would be VERY realistic to have that done, at least to a certain point with regard to the object they are attempting to break. I'd equally have to admit I would be concerned that it would be impossible to have a lasting barricade - the zombies will never stop coming, no matter how many you kill* and as a result, no structure would stand for long under this type of system. (*As it stands with your typical default settings you can never really eliminate the zombies.) Erosion does this slowly over time already, a zombie horde of sufficient size would demolish entire neighborhoods in a considerably shorter time frame, especially if they do it without noticing a player first.

 

If we take it a step forward and pretend that it is in the game, from that point, I'm not sure how this might work as a player, I might take advantage of a horde of zombies to effectively wipe out another player's base using these new (in theory) mechanics. I'll admit, I can certainly get a kick out of the idea of the lone survivor being devoured simply because he couldn't reinforce all the windows at the same time, but with regards to single player, this idea might be so overpowering that it would make base building not recommended as a strategy, let alone multiplayer grief aspects. 

 

I do like the idea, and Mythbusters was a pretty good example, but to me it has some balance issues right out the door that I'm not certain are worth the time committment.