Alright. I've finally got my ranged combat crap together. Essentially, I've made it waaay more complicated than it needs to be. Which is the trouble with trying to create a realistic zombie survival game. So now I'm going to share the new mechanics with you all.
The gun is actually the simplest part of ranged combat. It has two areas. Add-ons and Caliber.
There are various things you can do and change to your gun. Most of these will have pretty self-explanatory effects on your weapon, so I'll only show two here.
Silencers will make your gun quieter. Each gun of each caliber has an 'attention' score- that being, how much it gets. This attention will rise with every bullet you shoot in combat - So keep in mind that if you have a quiet little uzi, you'll still bring zombies down on you with the sheer number of bullets being fired. Quieter may not go as far, but it's much easier to follow the sound.
Anyway, A silencer will directly drop that - however it will drop the range a little as well.
Scope will affect your weapon's optimal range. Those who are mildly gun-nutty will be able to put a scope on their weapon. Those with more, can adjust them to where they want their optimal range.
Putting a scope on a weapon will, of course, change it in these ways during combat.
1. Decreased span of optimal range.
2. Far increased optimal range.
3. Slight accuracy bump.
4. Better chance of headshots while in optimal range.
5. Decreased off-target awareness
Having a scope on your weapon - or binoculars will allow these outside of combat-
1. Perception tests to be taken at further distances.
2. The penalty for taking a perception check against the sun is reduced.
3. Minor Areas of Note are put in your map while exploring.
Obviously, certain guns won't be able to shoot as far as their scope allows- And keep in mind that this is an urban setting. There's very little chance you will be able to pull a 4km shot.
Caliber, on the other hand, directly increases all of the attributes of the bullet.
A larger caliber will cause everything to change- and I'm also accounting for the minute differences, such as .22, .223 and .22 250
Which brings us to-
The Bullet. Currently drawing up Excel graphs.
Basically I've taken the Actual attributes of the caliber - (Killing range, weight, and Speed.) Caliber is size, so there's four.
Then I changed these into something I can put into the game. Which gives rise to the new three. Range, Sound, Penetration, and Spread. The last two will increase with the caliber, and range will be more dependent on the weapon. A bullet with a high penetration and a low spread, is your standard Armor piercing round - It will go through a fair few - but not cause much damage to each. A bullet with low penetration and high spread is a hollow point - it does a lot of damage to the target it hits, but it probably won't hit the one behind it that hard.
Range is the maximum distance the bullet can go. A scope won't help you if you're shooting at zombies past that.
Sound is quite easily how loud the bullet is. A higher caliber will quite obviously have a louder sound - and there isn't much way to change this, other than using a silencer, suppressor, or subsonic rounds. With each bullet, your attention will increase. Too much attention, and you risk bringing the horde down on you, or worse, a pack of thinkers. There are three different levels of attention - and you may want to switch to melee if you start getting too close to hitting the later ones.
1. Aware - Other zombies in the area have heard your gunshots and are coming towards you. Any nearby groups will join combat in a few turns.
2. The Horde - Your firing has drawn the attention of every zombie in the block. Immediately after combat, your next turn will have a far larger than normal density of zombies in your area - you might even go straight back into combat.
3. Reported - There's zombies everywhere, and it's quite obvious that you are gunning down everything that comes at you. Be warned, the zombies will be bringing in the big guns. - spawns a squad of special units (thinkers, etc).
More attributes might come in as I think of them, but hey.
On this note, then, a customized bullet - for the modloading fanatics will improve on certain areas. An FMJ bullet will increase your penetration and decrease your spread, and a hollow point- vice versa. An inciendary round will negate all penetration, but has a chance to ignite the zombie in question- who has a chance to ignite his oblivious allies. (until they learn about fire, of course).
The only important part of the environment which should be noted is the new system called 'cluster'. Basically, a tight hallway or bottleneck area will cause a large amount of cluster. When a shot is missed, or penetrates a target effectively, there will be a roll to see if there is another zombie behind it. The chances of this are affected by the amount currently in combat with you, and the cluster of the area. Very wide area- little effectiveness with high penetration rounds.
Shooting is now completely reworked. The old system essentially had:
skillx10 = headshot
skillx5 = Body shot
skill+detail = Critical.
For people with 5 shooting, this gave an 80 percent chance of hitting the target. Which is alright, but not at the standards of professional shooters- who a 5 would be.
So, the new system is that you choose where you're going to aim for during the combat. From there, there'll be a figurative 'target' going over the zombie - with the overall size of the target decreasing with additional skill in accuracy, and your chances of hitting the center of the target slightly increasing with each rank of detail. At the beginning of combat, I'll RNG a number for every 'sweet spot' in each particular target area - (eyes, heart & descending abdominal aorta). If these numbers are rolled during combat, there's your crit. Keep in mind that as the coencentric rings get bigger- and further from the bullseye, there'll be a lower chance to crit.
Perception now also has a very vital roll to play in shooting. A higher perception will increase the span of your optimal range, as well as being added with speed at how quickly you can change targets. A person with a high speed will be great at pumping a lot of bullets into an enemy - but if they aren't aware of where the next enemy is, they'll lose time searching for the next zombie.
In summary:
Accuracy = Tighter grouping
Detail = Steadier hand
Perception = Better off-target awareness.
Obviously, with a changing and evolving enemy, you won't expect them to stay as stacks of meat-flavored carnival ducks forever. This is where this mechanic comes in.
Essentially, penetration in a bullet is how well it gets into- or through- a target.
Spread is how much damage the bullet does once inside.
Your penetration will be very fluid with the range at which you operate - especially with shotguns. After the optimal range, penetration will take a significant drop, and there will be another, worse one, after the bullet's max range.
A target's armor - be it vest or helmet, will have a certain value. If this value goes above penetration, then the bullet you just fired is rendered useless. After that, there is a 1d6 roll for the possibilities.
1-2 = Bounces off. The bullet hits, and falls to the ground. Completely useless.
3-4 = Riccochet. Essentially, the bullet doesn't damage the target in question, but will act as though it passed through, rolling as to whether it hits another target.
5-6 = Hits and sticks. The bullet wedges itself into the armor in question. It doesn't do any damage, but a new number is added to the critical hit list, to represent the bullet which is halfway through already.
As for the inside- your typical zombie is both very fragile, and very not. If a bullet doesn't have some amount of yaw or fragment - then anything other than a head shot just won't drop it - And even that is iffy. However, these zombies aren't invincible, or undead. They're essentially superhuman. So there's only so much blood they can lose before they die - be it from a shot to the heart, or a severed limb.
A zombie will have a certain amount of damage it can take - depending on the type, and slightly randomised. When shooting a zombie, the random number generator decides where it hits. You remember the 'target' analogy?
Well, the number that you hit is not the amount of damage you did, but just where you hit. Hitting the zombie in certain areas will cause for a higher amount of damage (for instance headshots are 10x). Your spread value will simply increase the amount of numbers above and below this.
A small demonstration with a much simplified version - because it's probably not making any sense.
You shoot a bullet with 4 spread and 1 penetration. Basically a hollow point. At a zombie's heart.
[0-500 = 193]
Being between the 100 and 200 mark, I would take this to be inside the second 'circle'. (keep in mind that this is a very unpolished sim for now - I realise the target gets bigger as it goes outwards).
Following a clockwise pattern, with 1 to 100 being the areas inside the second circle, it's a clear shot just underneath the right collarbone- a shot to the lung. I'll take this as 2 damage.
Now, because the bullet has 4 spread, the two numbers on Either side of 193 are also added, as the bullet breaks up. This means that this shot counts as getting a 191, 192, 193, 194 and 195.
2 damage for each = 10 damage.
Now, that should make things a little clearer.
Keep in mind that nothing specific happens if the spread carries it over one of the 100 or 200 marks - etc. It's just counted as more damage, unless one of the spread numbers is a critical.
And that's the 'how to' on killing your zombies.
So that's the new ranged combat system. I'll be attempting to work out some kinks tomorrow, and stockpiling data, but I should be ready to get the turn up in about 15 - 20 hours.
For all who haven't posted a turn yet- get to that.
For anyone with a question, comment, suggestion, or criticism, post it or PM me.
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Topic: Tack's Zombie Survival. (Read 7956 times)