Realistic Zombie Types

[ThatHelicopterPilot]

1. Zombies trapped in body bags: They cannot bite, scratch or cause any kind of direct harm, but as they are squirming around in there, there is a chance they will knock you down if you get close to them. Maybe the squirming behavior can be triggered if they hear noise with a eventual calm down after some time has passed. Upon opening the bag, a zombie corpse will spawn on top of the body bag.

2. Zombies with missing limbs: Zombies without a arm have a slightly higher chance of causing a laceration wound do to the fact that the broken arm bone is sharply pointing out of it's shoulder. This can be something like the medium and short ranged melee weapons the player uses, but for zombies. Also legless zombies crawl.

3. I don't know if this is implemented or not, but it seems to me like zombies that wear helmets are just as easy to kill as those that don't. Having zombies be more protected by the clothes they wear would be more realistic and we can have tough zombies in riot gear for example.
 

4. Barbed wire zombies. The zombie got entangled in barbed wire or some other spiky/sharp object. This zombie has a higher chance of giving you a scratch, laceration or some other wound which does not lead to getting infected with the virus.

EDIT: Added a few more.

5. Heavily decayed. These zombies have been out in the world for some time, might have been the first people to actually get infected or had the misfortune of being thoroughly ripped apart by a large group before they turned, in any case, their appearance makes the player nauseous.

6. Known zombies. Sometimes you might just cross paths with zombified loved ones and this causes you to have severe depression upon seeing their shambling husks(Don't know if this will be a thing when the NPC update comes out, so here you go.).

Edited August 18, 2023 by ThatHelicopterPilot
Added 2 more zombie types.

[getstoopid]

Love all of them! 

[Bryan Butler]

"Known zombies" is an interesting idea. I believe it would be a relatively easy feature to implement and it has the potential of adding depth to the game lore, such as:

 

If the character visits a location that matches their jobs, seeing zombies in uniform may lead them to recognize these zombies as someone they knew and trigger negative moods (e.g.: policeman player visits the police station, sees a zombified cop in uniform, text above the player head reads "He/she was my boss/colleague/friend". Additionally, killing this zombie could trigger sadness. 

 

Also, it could be possible for the player to randomly recognize civilian zombies as their friends, neighbors, relatives, clients, teachers, secret lovers, dentists, hairdressers, therapists, etc., maybe even referring to them by name, and this experiences should trigger the same negative moods, in different levels (e.g.: sight of zombified neighbor leads to sadness, but sight of zombified wife leads to severe depression).

 

 

[DiegooLoquii]

On 8/17/2023 at 8:52 PM, ThatHelicopterPilot said:

1. Zombies trapped in body bags: They cannot bite, scratch or cause any kind of direct harm, but as they are squirming around in there, there is a chance they will knock you down if you get close to them. Maybe the squirming behavior can be triggered if they hear noise with a eventual calm down after some time has passed. Upon opening the bag, a zombie corpse will spawn on top of the body bag.

2. Zombies with missing limbs: Zombies without a arm have a slightly higher chance of causing a laceration wound do to the fact that the broken arm bone is sharply pointing out of it's shoulder. This can be something like the medium and short ranged melee weapons the player uses, but for zombies. Also legless zombies crawl.

3. I don't know if this is implemented or not, but it seems to me like zombies that wear helmets are just as easy to kill as those that don't. Having zombies be more protected by the clothes they wear would be more realistic and we can have tough zombies in riot gear for example.
 

4. Barbed wire zombies. The zombie got entangled in barbed wire or some other spiky/sharp object. This zombie has a higher chance of giving you a scratch, laceration or some other wound which does not lead to getting infected with the virus.

EDIT: Added a few more.

5. Heavily decayed. These zombies have been out in the world for some time, might have been the first people to actually get infected or had the misfortune of being thoroughly ripped apart by a large group before they turned, in any case, their appearance makes the player nauseous.

6. Known zombies. Sometimes you might just cross paths with zombified loved ones and this causes you to have severe depression upon seeing their shambling husks(Don't know if this will be a thing when the NPC update comes out, so here you go.).

Zombies trapped in body bags, I don´t think is needed, but for the other, zeds with missing limbs, more protected zeds, barbed wire zomibies are cool too, (It can use the same system of spike armors of B42), the heavily decayed zeds were supossed to be in B41, but the system doesn´t actually works, so it can be cool to be added properly, and the know zombies is a great addition too, what can be add to your character background and immersion. 

[SilentLight]

On 8/17/2023 at 7:52 PM, ThatHelicopterPilot said:

Known zombies.

Could easily be associated with survivor corpses/zombies, both in single player (if replaying the same area/map) and in multiplayer (if seeing another survivor or your own prior character build). Could be as simple as a binary check.

[Tails]

would be nice if some trait will affect certain zombies like

 

- Deaf zombies that has to rely on smell and vision to track down the player.

 

- Fat zombies where they cannot move as fast but when they fall it could take longer for them to get back on its feet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Enlaviala]

Zombies that vomit sporadically (the zombie stomach is also undead) and contaminate the environment and makes the player sick or nauseous. You can slip if you walk over vomit

[krazmuze]

I like Pathfinder Second Edition for a TTRPG that split from D&D over a decade ago and has more of a focus on monster tactics options and customer options to combat them - here is a list of fun zombie variant abilities from that!

 

https://2e.aonprd.com/MonsterFamilies.aspx?ID=103

Edited April 4 by krazmuze

[Enlaviala]

I like the idea that fresh zombies are stronger (+prob bite), walk faster and older ones walk slower.
Each zombie should have its own movement speed with more variability than the rest.
Variability removes automatism from the game. Currently there are categories, each one with exactly the same speed. I would like to see trackers some faster than others. Walkers with different speeds, etc. respecting the category

Edited April 4 by Enlaviala