Disguise as the Undead

[Lightning Flash]

This is obviously referencing The Walking Dead.

 

Why not have the capability to later yourself in the blood of your undead foes to "hide" yourself when around large hordes? It would make wandering around potentially dangerous areas just a little bit easier.

 

But not too easy. It will wash off when you go around in the rain. When covered, it will take around 30-60 seconds for it to wash off. When it does, all zombies around you will immediately wander at you.

[Jjoncm1]

A cool idea, although, you would probably only be able to walk or sneak around anyway as not to draw attention to yourself. Not sure if that would be hard to code in or not. 30-60 seconds is quite a long time in-game time and they would also have to factor in sandbox settings like 1 hour day - real time. 

[Rathlord]

I hate it when zombie shows/movies pull this stunt. It's silly. That's not how smell works. I'll post what "The Zombie Survival Guide" has to say about this in a bit. Suffice to say I despise the entire idea and hope it never makes it to PZ =D

[RedKrypton]

The stupidest thing about the whole WD smell idea is humans can't smell as well a freqking dog. And don't come me with "Humans only use so little of their brain" argument. A dog has about 125 - 220 million cells to smell, a human about 5 million.

The only thing sillier than this from the Walking Dead is, when you die you automaticly reanimate. :/

[Rathlord]

Human sense of smell still isn't horrible. It's been proven that humans can track where other people have walked over a sheet of paper just by smell.

 

That's not the point, though. The point is scent doesn't work like that. "Covering up" a scent is a misnomer in the first place; the original scent will ALWAYS be there, and if you're assuming that zombies work based on smell in the first place (since the entire idea of it is covering up your smell it wouldn't work because they'd still smell "you" with the other stuff.

 

The whole idea is just backwards as hell =\

[TheChaosOfCreation]

The stupidest thing about the whole WD smell idea is humans can't smell as well a freqking dog. And don't come me with "Humans only use so little of their brain" argument. A dog has about 125 - 220 million cells to smell, a human about 5 million.

The only thing sillier than this from the Walking Dead is, when you die you automaticly reanimate. :/

How is that silly? Its the same as in the romero movies.

[Jjoncm1]

Human sense of smell still isn't horrible. It's been proven that humans can track where other people have walked over a sheet of paper just by smell.

 

That's not the point, though. The point is scent doesn't work like that. "Covering up" a scent is a misnomer in the first place; the original scent will ALWAYS be there, and if you're assuming that zombies work based on smell in the first place (since the entire idea of it is covering up your smell it wouldn't work because they'd still smell "you" with the other stuff.

 

The whole idea is just backwards as hell =\

 

I mean how do zombies work? Can anyone honestly say? Technically your eyes would get milky making sight near impossible and are the hairs in your ear still alive and working to transmit sound waves? Are your smell receptors still functional. Can anyone prove that this theory would or wouldn't work. Nope, chuck testa =P

 

Human sense of smell isn't horrible of course not, although to comment on the dog post, dogs do have quite an amazing sense of smell and can distinguish individual sources (I am hoping to be a K9 officer in a few years) through many porous materials. If you have ever been around a dead body, that's pretty much all that files your head (depending on stage of decomposition). I would doubt, granted there is no way to prove it, that zombies would be able to smell the rotten flesh covering you and under that your armpit sweat. Would seem illogical assuming they still had a sense of smell.

[Rathlord]

You're right JJ, there's no sense trying to quantify zombies specifically.

But what I'm saying is that if zombies do distinguish targets by smell (which is slightly odd anyways) then there is no explanation that is remotely reasonable for this kind of "zombie camo."

 

While arguing the nitty gritty of how zombies work is silly, it's still perfectly viable to debate this kind of thing if you argue from a reasonable assumption.

 

Max Brooks also makes an excellent point in his book; he reminds us that many animals can sense when other animals are diseased and sick regardless of any symptoms that are easily pinpointable. It's certainly possible that zombies could use this 'scent' of the disease to distinguish prey from other zombies, in which case just having dead zombie guts wouldn't do it; you'd have to have live tissue infected with live disease, which brings me to my next point.

 

Slathering bodily fluids all over oneself that belong to a zombie seems like an awesome way to get yourself infected. Especially if you pretend to not be omnipotent, and put yourself in the shoes of a survivor: would you really put zombie guts all over yourself if you had no idea how the disease was spread/works?

[TinnedEpic]

First place I saw this done was Zombieland. Tbh that movie was kinda taking the piss out of zombie survival. I personally wouldn't want to cover myself in zombie blood on the off chance zombies wont detect me.

[CaptainBinky]

I'm really not a fan of the "covering yourself in zombie gore to disguise yourself" technique. That's not to say it wouldn't work - if you've masked the smell of fresh meat, and you act convincingly zombie-like, then who's to say that wouldn't fool a braindead shambling idiot?

 

That's not the reason I don't like it. I don't like it because I can't think of anything more idiotic than covering yourself with infected zombie blood In The Walking Dead telly show, they play fast and loose with the blood - on the one hand they play the "oh noes I've been scratched" card, but on the other, they'll have zombie gore splatter all over their face and mouth and they're all, "yeah, whatever".

 

Get zombie blood in your mouth and you're as good as bitten, imo.

[Rathlord]

Yup; and anyone how knows anything about blood born pathogens knows just how little it takes to get a person infected through. The tiniest cuts or any bodily opening.

[Spaniard]

Yeah I like the The Walking Dead but you two are absolutely right. I can't help but think the same thing whenever you see scenes of them "masking" their smell or getting blood on their face, etc. . . I'd be paranoid as hell about touching a zombie, animated or not.

[LeoIvanov]

No matter what you say, Zombies are a work of fiction, and arguing about whether or not anything in the work of fiction is real is silly.

 

We already know that should zombie virus happen in real life, it would make absolutely no sense from scientific point. First is "dead" wouldn't be able to hear, because after dying thing in their ears just explode (not sure about proper names of these things). Next is, the dead wouldn't feel pain, and feeling pain is what makes people survive simplest things like scratches. If Zombies were to walk on anything that can scratch/hit them, they'd wipe themselves out far faster than any military. Plus, their wounds don't regenerate, and with time they only decompose more. There are way way more scientific proofs that zombie apocalypse wouldn't exist, so i'll stop here.

 

Now that we've got the "But damn that wouldn't be real" nonsense out of the way, let's debate on the ground of whether or not it'll be awesome to actually have in the game. Let's say zombies in Zomboid are the same zombies that are present in The Walking Dead. Meaning, if you smear the zombie guts all over yourself and accompany it with a couple of limbs, you should have no problem walking among the dead. Imagine walking around in West Point, who'se streets are filled with zombies, smeared in zombie guts and limbs, praying that rain doesn't start. Also, walking while constantly holding RMB. At any point you feel like some zombie will reach out for you and take a bite. That's what i'd call "tension".

 

Will it be fun? Hell yeah. Will it be real? Well, depends on how you take the whole idea about the zombies anyway. For me it's just a fiction that would never make it's way to real life, so taking anything related to zombies in it as real is just nonsense anyway.

[CaptainBinky]

I don't really buy the "zombies aren't real therefore..." type arguments, to be honest. Whether or not a zombie apocalypse could ever happen, or whether or not reanimated corpses could pose any real threat is pretty irrelevant. The point of any work of zombie fiction is that you accept the premise that it can happen, and has.

 

After that, it is entirely up to the individual authors to determine precisely how things work and how "realistic" things are going to be. There's no reason not to stick to realism just because the premise, in itself, is not realistic. If the thing which makes you turn into a zombie can be spread through bites and scratches - and therefore, blood and saliva - then it stands to reason that you don't want that shit in your mouth The fact that such a scenario can't happen in the first place is no more relevant to the realism of the rest of it as whether there could be an American werewolf present in London or if a person like David Brent would ever be employed as an office manager

 

edit: Of course, this is all entirely moot if we say that zombies are not attracted by smell or sight, primarily, but body heat.

[EnigmaGrey]

No matter what you say, Zombies are a work of fiction, and arguing about whether or not anything in the work of fiction is real is silly.

Star Trek is a work of fiction as well; it doesn't stop people from arguing over internal inconsistencies within the franchise, nor speculating about "how it could work," nor (some) of the authors working their asses off to at least make fictional events plausible and true to reality.

I know, it's a terrible example. (Captain Binky will save me . . . !)

 

[Rathlord]

Leo I already responded to that when i replied to JJ several posts above yours. Do us all a favor and read the thread before commenting =\. That is an inherently flawed, broken argument.

As a matter of fact, scientists use this method of argument EVERY DAY. There is all kinds of research and debate about different ways of using and applying different forms of exotic matter that may very well not exist. That fact neither diminishes the validity of the research, nor stops them from getting funding from prestigious institutes.

[Zombiepupz]

Weell... Surely if u covered yourself in the deads smell then it would make them hesitate before attacking, (taking this idea from a book) if u cover yourself in the smell it shouldnt make you immune to them at all maybe they would hesitate be4 attacking you eg. look at u but have a delayed reaction for a few seconds as they are confused whether you are dead or alive as you smell alive and dead? giving you precious few seconds to escape. 
edittt.. Just read Rathlords idea 
Rathlord, on 03 Nov 2013 - 2:10 PM, said:

Yup; and anyone how knows anything about blood born pathogens knows just how little it takes to get a person infected through. The tiniest cuts or any bodily opening.

Well if someone made a sort of i dont know perfume? that smells lke the dead and you spray it over yourself instead of covering youself in gore, because as you said that wouldnt be the smartest idea. This could be found on scientist npcs or at labs or something?

Just my variation of the idea, please correct me if it wouldnt work

[LeoIvanov]

I know, Rath. With my post I just wanted to give that huge and harsh dot on the arguement about whether or not the whole "Covering yourself in zombie guts" would be real.

 

Yeah, we can consider that humans can't really smell better than dogs and that no matter what you cover yourself into, if zombies were to distinguish us from their kind by smell, we wouldn't have been able to cover our scent with the blood and guts of the zombies. I understand that perfectly well.

 

But it just bugs me a lot when various people go and blame the TV show/comic book (And we all have to agree that this is where this was aimed to ) that covering yourself in zombie guts wouldn't disguise you in the zombie herd. For all I know, it can be "It either works, or doesn't" situation, and it all depends on what author wants this to be. After all, his zombies are HIS zombies, and if he wants his virus to not recognize human covered in zombie guts as a living person, then let the hell be it

 

Of course we can argue about it as long as we want, but in the end, the deciding factor regarding whether or not this feature is going to be implemented is if It's gonna be FUN. And what is fun? We can totally all agree that PZ's zombies won't care if you are covered in zombie guts or not, but still add this mechanic in. Then we can all silenly never mention it, and add the mechanic to smear zombie blood all over yourself. People, obviously thinking about Walking Dead, are totally going to try this out. Then, with a huge troll face, the game is going to let zombies chomp on your face. Or, you can totally go with TWD storyline and have it disguise you. Really, your average joe most likely won't be thinking "Damn, is smearing myself with zombie leftovers is realistic? I mean, humans can't smell better than dogs, and...-" when playing the game.

 

And I might have chosen poor chain of words in that reply, didn't really want to sound harsh or anything. Sorry, Rath

[Rathlord]

No worries. I'd be totally okay with this if it didn't change zombie behavior at all and had a 50% chance to infect you.

In fact, that's one of a string of "anti suggestions" I'm working on. I'll get back here when I finish.

It is worth noting, though, that being fun isn't necessary enough to make it a part of the game. Fighting dinosaurs with laser rifles would be fun, but it wouldn't fit PZ. That's how I feel about this as well.

[EnigmaGrey]

Of course we can argue about it as long as we want, but in the end, the deciding factor regarding whether or not this feature is going to be implemented is if It's gonna be FUN.

I really hope not.

[TheBuzzSaw]

I'm pretty sure the creators of The Walking Dead have elaborated on this in the past: living people have no distinct scent. Covering yourself in rotted flesh/guts adds a significant odor, and the walkers find targets by focusing in on the non-scent of rotting flesh.

 

I'm not claiming it makes sense, but that is quite different from the proposed hypothesis that the dead guts cover up an existing smell.

[Rathlord]

Chasing people by nonscent would be like chasing an invisible person by lack of seeing them =\

[Jjoncm1]

No worries. I'd be totally okay with this if it didn't change zombie behavior at all and had a 50% chance to infect you.

In fact, that's one of a string of "anti suggestions" I'm working on. I'll get back here when I finish.

It is worth noting, though, that being fun isn't necessary enough to make it a part of the game. Fighting dinosaurs with laser rifles would be fun, but it wouldn't fit PZ. That's how I feel about this as well.

I'll have my dinosaurs right after my dragons please!

 

 

Chasing people by nonscent would be like chasing an invisible person by lack of seeing them =\

 

Other than the fact you have other senses that help locate. If everyone has bad BO in a room except one person. You can if you are near them can't you? (Rotting flesh would be an even easier job)

 

Also, out of curiosity, is PZ Zombie infection blood born or blood/saliva. Because I know someone said earlier that getting stuff in your mouth is good as infected but if it was blood born, that is not true for the same reason you can't get HIV/AIDS by kissing a person with HIV/AIDS. Granted if you had a cut in your mouth it might be different. Also, in the Walking Dead, didn't they use like rubber clothing and boots to put all the stuff on so it never touched their skin or actual clothes...

 

Anyway, whether this would be a cool idea or not is completely based on the PZ Zombie infection lore, I'd be fine either way.

[Rathlord]

Also, out of curiosity, is PZ Zombie infection blood born or blood/saliva. Because I know someone said earlier that getting stuff in your mouth is good as infected but if it was blood born, that is not true for the same reason you can't get HIV/AIDS by kissing a person with HIV/AIDS. Granted if you had a cut in your mouth it might be different. Also, in the Walking Dead, didn't they use like rubber clothing and boots to put all the stuff on so it never touched their skin or actual clothes...

 

Anyway, whether this would be a cool idea or not is completely based on the PZ Zombie infection lore, I'd be fine either way.

 

 

PZ lore is kept somewhat intentionally nonspecific for a few reasons. First, they'd rather not go into the details. One of the biggest reasons is that the fear of the unknown is one of the most powerful fears. TIS says (and I completely concur) that the more you confine and classify something, the less scary it is. Second, it gives them a little bit of wiggle room to work around what they like for lore (and I agree with this, too). Our good friend from TIS already posted his thoughts on it, so I find it likely we won't be seeing it in the game. 

 

They did use some rubber clothing and such in The Walking Dead, but the reality is you'd need a hazmat suit to be 100% safe. Infectious organisms (especially viruses) tend to be hardy little critters capable of surviving all kinds of stuff and still finding a host. I sure as fuck wouldn't risk my life to try that.

 

Nota Bene: PZ lore is roughly based off of a mix of 'the good' Romero and Max Brooks' "The Zombie Survival Guide" and "World War Z" (the book, not the blasphemous movie).

[LeoIvanov]

 

Nota Bene: PZ lore is roughly based off of a mix of 'the good' Romero and Max Brooks' "The Zombie Survival Guide" and "World War Z" (the book, not the blasphemous movie).

 

 

"World War Z - a movie that brings together every good thing from the book that you loved... About the title" ~Honest Trailers 2013