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Day 1 Meta Game Apocalypse


RedKrypton

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So the meta Game is in the works and I thought can make a suggestion for it.

 

So my idea involves the day 1 start, which isn't possible due technical reasons.

All of those suggestions ment to play from day one, but mine is relient on the Meta Game.

 

The idea starts in the character creation. You select your job and background (redneck, middle class, etc.)

Then when you start the game a simulation starts with about 10% of the population infected. The simulation goes on for about a week, then it throws you in your character (or another person if you want) to take over. You can be part of a group, alone be surrounded by zombies or already having a safe house established.

How it should work:

Your character spawns in, and has friends, foes and sometimes love intersts in his neighborhood.

Let's take some stereotypical rednecks from the north of Muldraugh at the dinner.

Let's say some got problems with each other. At first almost everyone will meet up at the dinner to speak about the situation with the zombies. Maybe one is already bitten and dies on the toilet. He will reanimate and infect 2 or 3 more. They quarrel about what to do and the group splits up. some remain at the dinner and some others try to find the salvation elsewhere. Your group borderd up the windows and is waiting.

 

But that's only your group. Everywhere friends try to survive and have bordered up their house offices or huts.

They eat, die and sleep ntil one week and you take over.

 

One thing, which is essential is that everything is like a normal city in the beginning. So a fully stocked supermarket, unlooted shelves in gas stations and shaks containing wood, nails and hammers. The NPCs will take the stuff themselves and you'll sometimes find the motherlode when a group disappeares and leaving it's medicine, guns, food, water behind.

 

I hope this suggestion can solve the blandness of the map in a sense, that the map really looks like it had been hit by a zombie apocalypse. So the loot distribution makes sense and raiding does make fun (just kidding ;D)

I may nt have covered all variables so please tell me, if something is missing.

 

Clydes for Christmas everyone!!!

(clyde) (clyde) (clyde) (clyde) (clyde) (clyde) (clyde) (clyde) (clyde) (clyde) (clyde) (clyde) (clyde)

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Ideas similar to this one have been discussed at great length, and the way you describe it in particular makes it sound more like a story mod than an addition to the actual game with the scene in the diner, which I do not want to be a part of my own PZ story canon.

Near the end of your post in particular where you start talking about everything fully stocked and groups leaving behind large hordes of pilfered goodies when they mysteriously get wiped out I get the impression that you'd want this put in so you could run around and easily find large caches of supplies and go from there. 

Either way, I'm against this idea. It'd take time and effort to script these linear events, not to mention the devs would have to completely gussy-up Muldragh by hand to make everything "pre-apocalypse" and I'd like to see their energy put into other areas of the game rather than a specific scripted-event that dictates a portion of the game for you.

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I would like to see the game "feel" like Day Z has arrived.  Right now it feels like someone sprayed a Zombification Agent via crop dusters and here we are.

  • Where are the burned down building?
  • Where are the fortified positions by FEMA or the military?
  • Where are the signs people tried to defend their family and homes?
  • Vehicles - wrecked or otherwise

Right now, we are given free reign to just run where ever.  I think it would be awesome if people in a gated community tried to defend their neighborhood.  Players cannot just walk in.  They have to find a way into the place (maybe through house or a break in the fence).  Find corpses stacked like cordwood behind the police station, with holes in their heads.  Etc.

 

Maybe a lot of this is planned (as most of it would just be barriers with pretty graphics) and the Devs are busying working on the meat and potatoes of the game, only to come back by later with pie.

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I really like this idea, but maybe if it was part of a mod and not the baseline game. It seems the people above don't quite understand. From my understanding, it would simulate a week of gameplay in the metagame, and allow NPC-s to team up and make progress, and then throw your character a week in from the metagames perspective. I don't know if a "Story Mode" is being implemented or not (Similar to Baldspot and Kate), but if it were to be this would be an amazing part of it. Your own randomly generated story, made from metagame events.

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I really like this idea, but maybe if it was part of a mod and not the baseline game. It seems the people above don't quite understand. From my understanding, it would simulate a week of gameplay in the metagame, and allow NPC-s to team up and make progress, and then throw your character a week in from the metagames perspective. I don't know if a "Story Mode" is being implemented or not (Similar to Baldspot and Kate), but if it were to be this would be an amazing part of it. Your own randomly generated story, made from metagame events.

There was an older build with a "Story" section which was essentially a selection screen for K&B and Story or Quest based mods and it was implemented as a framework for the community modders as well as TIS to expand upon later with stories where they'd control a specific survivor and usually play through a pre-scripted storyline or series of quests or something like that. I wouldn't be surprised if a similar option is added to the newer versions when TIS gets back to K&B.

 

And I believe what the OP is asking for is that the game basically begins on the day of the outbreak when NPCs are just going about their daily lives; houses and stores would be full of all of the normal supplies and amenities they would normally have. Then, without the player taking part, a week goes by where the NPCs basically form groups, build safehouses, fight off the zombies, and raid everywhere for supplies.

After that simulated week, the player character's avatar is plopped in. 

That's the gist of what I get from it.

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I would like to see the game "feel" like Day Z has arrived.  Right now it feels like someone sprayed a Zombification Agent via crop dusters and here we are.

  • Where are the burned down building?
  • Where are the fortified positions by FEMA or the military?
  • Where are the signs people tried to defend their family and homes?
  • Vehicles - wrecked or otherwise

Right now, we are given free reign to just run where ever.  I think it would be awesome if people in a gated community tried to defend their neighborhood.  Players cannot just walk in.  They have to find a way into the place (maybe through house or a break in the fence).  Find corpses stacked like cordwood behind the police station, with holes in their heads.  Etc.

 

Maybe a lot of this is planned (as most of it would just be barriers with pretty graphics) and the Devs are busying working on the meat and potatoes of the game, only to come back by later with pie.

 

Yes, agree with this completely. Would be amazing if it was semi randomly generated. Combined with buildings having differing amounts of loot in them (kind of how much they were looted, gonna make a suggestion around this) could make the game much more random and interesting.

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The game kinda starts out like it did for Rick in The Walking Dead.  You come out and find out the world went to hell.  Now the game may not actually start out that way, but it sure feels like that right now.

 

I think we will see more polish as the game progresses, injecting more flavor into the vanilla game.

 

One of the hardest parts for zombie themed media to do well: the start of the apocalypse. 

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The game kinda starts out like it did for Rick in The Walking Dead.  You come out and find out the world went to hell.  Now the game may not actually start out that way, but it sure feels like that right now.

 

I think we will see more polish as the game progresses, injecting more flavor into the vanilla game.

 

One of the hardest parts for zombie themed media to do well: the start of the apocalypse. 

 

 

Whenever I do this in a Play by Post game or a face to face pen and paper game, I isolate the players from society at large.  This is either done by the players to escape or being "locked down" by a job.  For instance, when all hell starts to break loose the player decided to head to a "preppers" place, an extended family gets stuck in the moutains, vacation at sea or working on a remote job site.  When players return to "civilization" they see glimpses of the world gone to hell and maybe even run into a few "crazy" people (ie the infected or just plain mentally unstable).  The players eventually discover the world is pretty much over and they are hanging on the brink.  Most of the time they then try to escape back to a safe place (sometimes where they left... ie Eden), discovering they cannot make it back.  Maybe the players have objectives that must be completed before they can seek to escape (finding family is usually a biggie here).

 

IF I was a dev, I would have the military/FEMA close off all the roads into and out of the game area.  This is a precaution to make sure the contagion does not break free.  If citizens try to flee the area, they are shot.  This isolates the player(s).  The powers that be allow radio, TV, cell service but it is either cut off or fails.  Now the players do not know if what is happening to them is happening anywhere else.  Is this affecting the people in the town nearby?  County?  State?  Region?  East Coast?  US?  Northern Hemisphere?  Etc.  As a dev, this lets me release info as I need to.  I dont have to write the end of the story, when the players are just starting on the prologue.  The players then see their world come to an end.  The players are then left with the options: hunker down, try to suvive by any means and/or gear up to make an exit stage left.  When the players make it to "stage left" (edge of the map) the devs then have to play a part of their hand: someone is either still holding the borders closed or Zed has broken free.

 

I set a game up where the military was actually trying to protect small communities across the US, knowing that the major cities have failed.  Turns out, they did not stop the sickness in the player area.  The players then find out where Zion (someplace safe) existed, and tried to find it.  Now is Zion just something that exists because we hope for it or it really DOES exist.  This is another card the storyteller holds close and only shows when he has to.

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One of the hardest parts for zombie themed media to do well: the start of the apocalypse. 

 

 

I've always wondered what day PZ is supposed to start while I'm playing it. It seems like the game is geared to start at day 1.5 or day two of the apocalypse, with the infection coming in and being swift like the black-plague, infecting and turning people over the course of a day. Suddenly everyone is waking up to find Knox county under quarentine with panic and anarchy ensuing hours later.

 

I would imagine in the completed game on day one of your game you would (if you decided to venture out of your home) see things like small groups of zombies mauling the unprepaired caught outside, people looting houses, stores and beginning to barricade their homes, the Knox Co. police holed up in their station and police car blockades in the towns trying to fight off the growing horde.

 

The hospital's doors would be locked and barricaded as the doctors and staff would probably be the first to realize there was no hope and would lock and bar the doors to prevent anyone from entering or leaving as they succumb to infection and/or get overwhelmed and eaten by their patients that have turned.

 

The border of Knox County would have the roads and clearings barricaded by the military who will shoot anyone, living or undead, on sight if they venture too close to the barricades . Maybe the troops will shout a verbal warning to the living to turn back before opening fire. Helicopters would patrol the thickly forested borders of Knox county, again shooting living and undead on sight, only they wouldn't have a verbal warning.

 

This all would last for a day or two. Eventually the police station and police car barricades would be overran by the zeds, the last of the hospital staff killed and turned, a few houses and stores empty and ruined (broken windows, smashed doors), stripped of goods while other homes have had their windows barricaded over and turned into safe houses. The only thing on the streets would be wandering hordes of zeds.

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One of the hardest parts for zombie themed media to do well: the start of the apocalypse. 

 

 

I've always wondered what day PZ is supposed to start while I'm playing it. It seems like the game is geared to start at day 1.5 or day two of the apocalypse, with the infection coming in and being swift like the black-plague, infecting and turning people over the course of a day. Suddenly everyone is waking up to find Knox county under quarentine with panic and anarchy ensuing hours later.

 

I would imagine in the completed game on day one of your game you would (if you decided to venture out of your home) see things like small groups of zombies mauling the unprepaired caught outside, people looting houses, stores and beginning to barricade their homes, the Knox Co. police holed up in their station and police car blockades in the towns trying to fight off the growing horde.

 

The hospital's doors would be locked and barricaded as the doctors and staff would probably be the first to realize there was no hope and would lock and bar the doors to prevent anyone from entering or leaving as they succumb to infection and/or get overwhelmed and eaten by their patients that have turned.

 

The border of Knox County would have the roads and clearings barricaded by the military who will shoot anyone, living or undead, on sight if they venture too close to the barricades . Maybe the troops will shout a verbal warning to the living to turn back before opening fire. Helicopters would patrol the thickly forested borders of Knox county, again shooting living and undead on sight, only they wouldn't have a verbal warning.

 

This all would last for a day or two. Eventually the police station and police car barricades would be overran by the zeds, the last of the hospital staff killed and turned, a few houses and stores empty and ruined (broken windows, smashed doors), stripped of goods while other homes have had their windows barricaded over and turned into safe houses. The only thing on the streets would be wandering hordes of zeds.

 

 

This seems to be pretty accurate. One thing though, it would take around 2.5-4 days for the police to respond after the "first" case. Say, camper gets bitten, ends up in Cortman medical, dies, reanimates, bites a bunch of people in the clinic. That's at least a day there. Add the bitten people reanimating and it spreading, day and a half.

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