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[Granite26]

One thing I do like about Jagged Alliance 2 is it's zoom up command structure.  Something similar could work here.

Especially if you used a little bit of AI to allow you to tell your troops to fortify a building before they started doing stuff.  They'd board up the windows, post sentries to intelligent positions (if they had the 'guard' job.)

Could be cool...  I'm definitely for taking away the 'engineer' 'scientist' 'soldier' dynamic, although there should be huge skill gaps/advantages to specialization.

[Jakkarra]

each person having sets of skills would be nice, not having these skills readily viewable would also be a boon, you get to know how good they are at things by practice.

im really liking this idea.

[Tilla]

http://createdigitalmotion.com/2009/06/18/ever-woke-up-in-a-procedurally-generated-city/ This tool is awesome. Possible applications a la a project like this are obvious. Procedural, fully interactive, real-scaled cities :3

[Jakkarra]

this is perfect for generating random areas.

[Mephansteras]

Oh, that's awesome!

I've got some ideas for how the skill system will work. I'll try to get those written up tonight.

[Jakkarra]

this going to be in 3d?

if so, and its compatible with the XSI mod tool, i can begin doing things for it when i get a max Poly count.

[Muz]

Lol, just a tip - don't make it too ambitious if it's not beyond your level of experience. Do just a few steps higher than you think you can handle. It's easy to design a 3D game with procedurally generated cities, but not that easy to code it. And things like "the 'engineer' 'scientist' 'soldier' dynamic" make the coding much more simpler. You can always be ambitious in a sequel, so no need to aim too high in the first game.

Also, this should be in the Creative Projects section now

[Mephansteras]

Good point. I'll move it over.

[Mephansteras]

Ok, proper forum now.

I agree with making things simple for a first run.

For Skills:

Basics:    Every character having every skill (even if at 0 level). Using skills or being trained in a skill during off-duty time will raise it. All skills will have a ranking from 0-100.

Skill Improvements: Training/Using a skill will have a chance to improve the ranking. The higher the current skill level, the lower the chance that the skill will be improved. This lets people ramp up quickly without maxing out too quickly.

Training: Training must be done under a Trainer. The higher the skill of the trainer, the higher the chance that the ranking will improve.

Skill breakdown: Skills will have multiple levels going from Category down to Specific. For Example Firearms->Rifles->AK47.

Skill Synergy: Using some skills will automatically give a chance to improve the higher categories. So firing the AK47 will give a chance to improve the overall Rifles or Firearms skills.

Thoughts?

[Muz]

Ah, that's not really the interesting bit. The technicalities can be put in or thrown away later. What about the goal? What does the player do? The spirit of the game, man! Everyone has suggestions, but someone has to point out which path the game is taking.

Do we build bases? Any research?
Is it a turn-based game? Squad based?
What gives zombies an advantage? Are players going to be outpowered by the zombies (X-Com style)? Or simply outnumbered with limited resources to fight back?
What's the zombies' general strategy (assuming they have one)? Would they have a leader? It's not directly important.. but a guide to how the zombies will act when the players are doing something else.

Also would be useful if you singled out which part of the game you expect to be most fun, so efforts can be focused on improving that. Is it about the strategy? Survival?
Are you meant to be pent up in a base and slowly/quickly move from one safehouse to the next until you get to a safe exit, or are you expected to hole up in your base until help arrives? Better yet.. does the game design accommodate both playstyles?

[Zironic]

Well, make sure weapons are accessible, because making skills very specific means people have to have access to a continued source of said weapons, especially if they break over time.

[ousire]

i like the idea of being the mercenaries better. have a small, craptastic base at first, and the goal is to wipe out zombies in an area and slowly clear out towns. you can take over a building in the city as a new base. the larger the building, the better more people you could have in your gang. maybe some buildings could give boosts to certain stats or abilities. also able to raid any others for supplies.

the over-arching goal is to wipe out all zombies in africa/wherever, and you just keep hopping across the landscape from base to base, with a chance of a previous area being re-infected. you can build defencive buildings to lessen the chance of this happening at a cost of X number of Y resources, or you can leave people behind as a 'border guard' at the cost of X number of people from your group. you can also choose how many supplies to bring with you. the more supplies you bring from point A to point B, the slower you travel, and thus the higher chance of being ambushed by an enemy. the less supplies, the faster, the safer, ect. but the worse off you are in the new place.

in your home base, theres a chance of being attacked by enemies, either zombies, gangs, ect. also tieing in with the supply issue, the more supplies you have, the more likley you are to be attacked by gangs. the more people you have, the more likley you are to be attacked by zombies. if gangs win that fight, you loose X supplies, if the zombies win, you loose X people.

enemies would include zombies (duh), gangs and bandits who want supplies, cultists trying to sacrifice you, and possibly even the military. thats all i got so far

lastly, i would like to direct people's attention to this site: http://www.zombiesurvivalwiki.com/ a funny site i came across a few years ago, but it would be perfect for ideas of things you could build, weapons that would be good to use, maybe even an idea for WHY zombies started to appear.

[Servant Corps]

I don't really like that procedural generation video. I mean, one spray of bullets destroying entire walls? Gah! I know this is a game with zombies, but I want beliviablity!

I am a veteran of Urban Dead, a Zombie Apoc MMORPG, and thus has been exposed to many non-Romeo canon stuff. I trust Meph will reject these suggestions, because TMBWS is a bad idea. However, I must list them anyway.

---Zombies have an organized hiearchy, and coordinate their attack times so as to overwhealm defenders. They prepare their forces, and then strike when ready, in order to defeat the enemies. Zombies are outnumbered constanly, and are more powerful tactically than surviviors. Zombies are motiviated by "Barhah", the zombie sense of community.
---Survivors have access to Revivication, which they can use to revive their allies. This means that death is not a problem for surviviors. All newly-dead zombies are alerted to the nearest revive point, so that they can wait to be revived by surviviors. Many surviviors have came up with a new idea called "Combat Revivification" which is basically reviving zombies. Since revives automatically turn zombies into humans, combat revives prove to be an effective counter to zombies, being more effienct than actually killing them.
***There are also Revive Point Killers, humans who attack Revive Points and kill zombies, so as to gain experience. RPKs are hated by surviviors.
***Pro-Zombie Zombies may seek to clog revive points by posing as a zombie looking for a revive, but secretly have immunity to the revivication in quesion. This causes the Revivers to waste time (as well as a revive needle), forcing humans to dispatch a time to kill off the Pro-Zombie Zombie and keep the revive point running.
---Zombies who have been Combat Revived may seek to join back with their Zombie fellows, but wish to bring revenge on the Humans who have taken them away from the Horde. These Zombies are called "Death Cultists", and they will kill as many humans as possible before getting killed themselves and turning into a zombie. Death Cultists are often times more powerful than zombies themselves, mostly because Death Cultists have no qualms about using guns. Meanwhile, in a seperate but related trends, "Life Cultists" start to appear, former humans who decide to kill zombies while being zombies themselves. "Life Cultists" are pro-human zombies, and "Death Cultists" are pro-zombie humans.
---Zombies can have power struggles and ideological struggles. The main ideological struggle within Zombiedom is if "Death Cultism" is in fact fitting in the spirit of "Barhah"? Are you really helping the zombie cause by being a human being and killing other human beings? Or are you in fact implictly implying that Humans are better than Zombies? Sadly, zombies never actually kill other zombies as a result of ideological disagreements and power struggles. They do argue a lot.
---Zombies can never die. They may get headshot, but they'll eventually regenerate and come back to life. Combined with the fact that Surviviors can never truly stay dead (since they'll just revive)...and the Zombie Apoc will remain an Apoc for, well, ever.

[Granite26]

Urban dead is designed to support PvP ZombievHuman, and should be judged accordingly.

[Jakkarra]

i believe the walls destruction was a showcase, they probably upped the gun's damage, it'll usually take explosives i assume.