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[Araph]

Of the survival-horror variety. I've been working on an intended-to-be-scary-eventually game, and I've been trying to make sure the monsters will be totes legit scary, brah.

The general idea of the game is that a few players are the medieval ghostbusters-type guys and one other player controls the monster (similar to Damned). The protagonists are trying to destroy evil altars to exorcise the monster, while the monster is hunting the players down. The players can interact a bit with the environment (blocking the monster with doors, lighting torches or candles to drive it away) and have some very limited defenses (a four-second magic shield, scrying through mirrors) to protect themselves with.

Every time an altar is broken, the monster 'dies' and respawns as a different type of monster (with no repeats). I'm angling for different strategies to be use against different monsters (for example, lighting torches to drive away a monster that can only attack in darkness), but having another type of monster exploit that (following the previous example, having a monster that can teleport through lights if they're lit). Ideally, the respawning would keep the players uncertain as to what type of monster they're now facing, which, hopefully, would foster paranoia.

Before I start actually programming the monsters' abilities, I thought it'd be a good idea to see what other people thought of my ideas and get feedback. Currently, I'm considering the following monster pairs:

One that can only attack if it's in darkness, but another that can teleport through lights.
One that can only kill somebody if they release it from a mirror by looking at it, but players can scry other rooms through mirrors.
One that can possess/impersonate people, but another that can...?

Any ideas for monsters? Barring that, any thoughts on how to add scariness? I'd love to hear any thoughts on the matter, even (especially) if it's just a 'this thing happened in this one game and it freaked me out'.

[Girlinhat]

I find horror games are often lacking because of the sheer fact that they're games.  One thing I've always wanted to see done, are monsters that blend in with regular people, and are difficult to spot or notice.  Like, the ghostbusters have the job of escorting 11 people from the tavern to the church (because hallow ground) but somewhere along the way, you notice 12 people.  The problem is, if invited into the church, they're immune to the holy effects, and can wreak all sorts of havoc.

The problem here, is that it's best done when the individuals are poorly known.  So in a Spacestation 13 style, it'd work best when names are random and personality types are assigned on flashcards, so you have a hint of how your character would act.  The 12th would spawn somewhere along the path, and have the task of slipping in quietly.

OTHERWISE I'd say you'd need pretty decent atmosphere.  Not just graphics, but atmosphere that can handle lighting effects, naturally blurred vision, and line of sight.

[lordcooper]

One that can possess/impersonate people

I'm pretty sure teamspeak and mumble would render that one moot

How about one that doesn't attack directly, but drains health from others while concealed nearby?

[Levi]

Any time you are helpless its fairly scary.  Maybe a monster that can paralyse players.  Here is a few variations.

- If direct eye-contact is made with the monster(ie, the player looks directly at the monster for more than 0.25 seconds) while the monster is looking at the player, the player is paralysed(ie, can't even turn).  The difficulty here is a bit high for the monster.

- The monster can paralyse a single player simply be staring at them, but the monster is somewhat weak.  Good for killing a single straggler separated from the group, but not so hot against a group that sticks together.

It'll be tricky to balance the fear of being paralysed , with the frustration of being paralysed though.

Another idea that kind of goes along with the eye-contact mechanic.

Monster is completely invisible to a player when being stared at (FOV less than 10 degrees?).  Great for escape and confusion.
Monster is completely invisible to a player if its not being stared at (FOV greater than 25 degrees).  Great for flanking.

[SHAD0Wdump]

One that can possess/impersonate people

Actually, those two work off of each other quite well. One possesses a person and attempting to fight off that person can result in bodily harm or death to a team member, while the impersonation leaves fuel for attempting such harmful acts.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Give the monster things he can do to the environment that impede the hunters or empower himself.

For example, a monster that likes light will want to break open the shuttered windows. A monster that doesn't need to breathe will want to flood the area with poison gas. A monster that can see players on its minimap as long as they're touching a plant, will want to place down moss and ferns and stuff.

So if the players start seeing this behavior, these traps, these ways the monster has modified his environment, they will get hints as to what kind of monster it is. Of course, the monster might be able to trick them by doing things some other monster type would do ...

Monsters should leave behind traps and stuff too. And I like how the Hidden can staple slain hunters to the walls and ceiling to unnerve the survivors.

I suggest that slain hunters get to view the action from a survivor cam, so they're not just kicked to a lobby. But one survivor ability - or use of an altar ritual or something - should bring a slain hunter back as a ghost that must stay near (the altar / its slain body / its raiser) rather than being a respawn or free-roaming cam.

Generally, make special abilities things that any hunter can do with the things in the environment - but he needs it just the right way. He needs ingredients, he needs the clouds to part so he gets good moonlight on the altar, he needs silence or music, etc. And the monster can deprive them of those things if it knows where to go and wants to risk being caught.

Monsters should rely on ambush. If the hunters find the monster out in the open in a room or hallway, they should have a good advantage. I guess that means I'd like to see the monster be fairly weak but fast, or invulnerable except for a limited resource that the hunters have, or it has a limited strong attack that it needs to regenerate.

For example, a werewolf may have a special attack but otherwise just mauls for little damage. The normal mauling mainly shoves the guy away. The power maul does real damage. But to recover his power maul he needs to bathe in direct moonlight (so if the clouds are over the moon he's screwed). Fighting a werewolf in moonlight is the bad idea. The players need silver arrows and silver swords to hurt him. But silver arrows can break (50% per attack), and silver swords can bend (10% per attack). Arrows are non-fixable but you can straighten a sword in the smithy - which is outdoors in the courtyard, a prime werewolf-ambush site. Arrows and swords are hidden around the map in various places, some of which the more-agile werewolf has better access to than the hunters. Do they split up and gather as much as they can, or stay together in case the werewolf attacks?

The Hidden is invisible and can leap and sprint. But he can be seen by hunters as a shimmer, which lets them hit him if he's too slow. The Hidden has low health and only a melee attack, except for a very limited supply of grenades (I think 1?). He can regain health by chewing a corpse, but he can't get more than like 30% health from one corpse. The hunters have strong weapons but just getting hits is the problem.

[Karkov]

A changeling that can shape itself into a normal prop on the stage (and doesn't do it out of place) would be a rather good jump.  Especially when you scryed that room, nothing's out of place, you go into and suddenly the table starts gnawing on your fresh corpse.  Somehow that reminded me of that piano out of Super Mario 64.  Table/Piano grows teeth and chomps on your character.

A monster with a completely different attack vector from the other monsters, i.e. the ceiling, under the floor, crawling on the walls, etc.  It'd throw off people scrying to get a look, and if you're not watching everywhere at once the thing's gonna sneak up on you.  I wouldn't even mind if that one had a one hit kill, especially if it mean there were a bunch of survivors going through the rooms and suddenly one in the middle of them all gets chomped.

A monster that's a hive-mind.  Tons of tiny things you're unable to kill but hurt you rapidly.  You could stop them for a time, but not kill them.  Only way to kill them would be to take out the mind itself, probably a larger, different colored version of the swarm.  It'd be pretty interesting anyway.

[Araph]

I find horror games are often lacking because of the sheer fact that they're games.  One thing I've always wanted to see done, are monsters that blend in with regular people, and are difficult to spot or notice.  Like, the ghostbusters have the job of escorting 11 people from the tavern to the church (because hallow ground) but somewhere along the way, you notice 12 people.  The problem is, if invited into the church, they're immune to the holy effects, and can wreak all sorts of havoc.

OTHERWISE I'd say you'd need pretty decent atmosphere.  Not just graphics, but atmosphere that can handle lighting effects, naturally blurred vision, and line of sight.

That game would be amazing, but the point about teamspeak and mumble does kinda inhibit that sort of play in a smaller game. About the graphics, I'm really looking forward to getting to do fancy camera effects and whatnot, but that will have to wait until I have access to Unity Pro.

One that can possess/impersonate people

I'm pretty sure teamspeak and mumble would render that one moot

How about one that doesn't attack directly, but drains health from others while concealed nearby?

Programs like mumble are why I hesitate to have a possession mechanic, but I still think their might be some potential for 'dude what are you doing HOLY SHIT YOU'RE THE MONSTER' moments with just impersonation (since the other players wouldn't know the monster is impersonating somebody).

Draining health could be good. Like, if the monster stays close to you for long enough, your screen starts blurring and swaying and eventually your character collapses.

Monster is completely invisible to a player when being stared at (FOV less than 10 degrees?).  Great for escape and confusion.
Monster is completely invisible to a player if its not being stared at (FOV greater than 25 degrees).  Great for flanking.

This... Is almost certainly now going to be in the game. It's genius; a sort-of reverse Weeping Angel thingy.

Ninja'd by two three people while slowly typing this out on a phone. I'll read through your posts momentarily.

[Karkov]

The Hidden is invisible and can leap and sprint. But he can be seen by hunters as a shimmer, which lets them hit him if he's too slow. The Hidden has low health and only a melee attack, except for a very limited supply of grenades (I think 1?). He can regain health by chewing a corpse, but he can't get more than like 30% health from one corpse. The hunters have strong weapons but just getting hits is the problem.

25% from a corpse, grenades are dependent upon how many people are in the server.

EDIT:  I realized that was a little ambiguous, there's some formula for grenades to people, not sure what it is off the top of my head, but it's there.  So larger servers, I think I've seen up to three grenades?  I know two is definitely a thing.  I'll go check it out later.

[choppy]

One that can possess/impersonate people

I'm pretty sure teamspeak and mumble would render that one moot

How about one that doesn't attack directly, but drains health from others while concealed nearby?

There are ways to prevent this from being a problem. One make the game dark and have no name tags. And two is you will not know if the monster is by have the player models similar.

One monster that would be nasty is a weak but fast-killing monster (say death in five seconds) that drops from the ceiling and latches on.

Another would be a mirror monster when you look into the mirror with the monster a ten second count-down starts at the end the player explodes and the monster takes his place.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

You could also rely on players playing fair. Things like Trouble in Terrorist Town and Prop Hunt kinda require players to be cool about stuff. If your game is targeted toward a small group of friends playing together rather than random pub matches. I think TTT rewards all the traitors on a team if the traitors win, which discourages a slain traitor from calling out his buddies to the innocents.

The map with the church and escort could simply be X villagers trying to reach the church, but along the way they need to figure out which of them is a monster. Have 0 to 1 monster per 2 villagers. Yes that means it's possible there's no monsters! We are the real monsters etc. 

[itisnotlogical]

How about one that can make other players look like monsters? But it makes a very loud/distinct sound when it does so and takes a looooong cooldown period, so the actual monster player has to make it count.

[Nirur Torir]

I think you should have a monster with a secondary ability to place a trap that teleports one player. After the trap is triggered, the monster can't attack for 30 seconds or something to prevent camping. Random teleportation with disorientation and isolation is scarier than a random quick and certain death.

[Levi]

I think you should have a monster with a secondary ability to place a trap that teleports one player. After the trap is triggered, the monster can't attack for 30 seconds or something to prevent camping. Random teleportation with disorientation and isolation is scarier than a random quick and certain death.

That is a great idea.  I can totally see me spazing out if that happened to me. 

[Leonon]

Real time voice distortion that lets the monster say things in G Major over voice chat with randomly changing direction that the voice comes from.