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[Spish]

Quite frankly the kung-fu zombies, while amusing at first, have worn out their welcome. Zombielogs are boring, shamefully quick and bloodless, and death by zombie more often than not results from a broken arm as opposed to total disembowelment. Not to mention blunt attacks are going to be a lot less lethal in the next version, so it seems like a good time to implement some changes.

I propose that zombies have their strength lowered a bit, with their AI prioritizing the pinning down of victims with hands/teeth, while other zombies dogpile the target and make with the much deadlier (especially with exposed bone) combat methods of scratching and biting.

Or, hell, just have the zombie tags remove the 'punch' attacks from their repertoire so they'll automatically resort to the bloodier alternatives. This could easily apply to zombiefied animals since they can't even punch in the first place.

Edit: Come to think of it, grabbing isn't even necessary, since biting accomplishes the same thing (but with none of the auto-wrestling nonsense).

[NAV]

I always find it hilarious when a severed zombie hand punches someone. I imagine it crouching, launching itself off the ground, curling up into a fist, and then hitting them in the face. This probably shouldn't happen unless it actually happens.

[Aquillion]

Perhaps zombification should grant claws and sharper teeth?  It often seems to, in movies.

[Helari]

As of now I think zombification only changes attributes and rots the creature. Biting and scratching can already be unrealistically effective (a human can claw another's throat out with regular nails.) Unless zombies will grow claws or fangs then horror movie style instant rending is p unrealistic.

[Xazo-Tak]

When making suggestions, do not forget how Toady develops games.
This would be hardcoding something softcoded into place.
Toady seems to try avoid doing stuff like that.

[Spish]

I figured it wasn't really all that different from the togglable "combat preferences" already in place.

But in that case, I have another idea. A [tag] of some sort that indicates a lack of higher brain function, which, among other things, causes the marked unit to forego any sort of strategy when fighting. In other words, a zombie would not primarily attack with their hands or anything they happen to be holding, and would instead attack by flailing at their opponent in whatever manner the RNG sees fit, rarely ever taking advantage of attack openings; such as automatically going for the head of an unconscious opponent. And while that does go against the whole "BRAINS" convention, it would allow future zombies to propogate a lot more efficiently than they would if they tended to smash their victim's heads to a pulp, like they do now. Also they're not smart enough to ball up their fists.