Idea?

[DukeDawson]

i know this idea is rather far off what u have but still hear me out, I have played a mod on Half life 2 Called Zombie Master, Just for the record If im tempting you to play it.. Dont, The admin's dont listen to there players and have made basic zombies so amazingly weak where 2 shots with a pistol takes them down,

Any way moving on the game play system is what interests me, One player is Chosen to be the "Zombie Master" and is in Constant Spectate mode And can spawn and move zombies to his will and the others have to survive simple as, there are set spawn points to spawn zombies and certain actions a zombie master can do, and his Spawn bar go's up constantly during time, and a certain amount of the bar can be used to spawn either Shamblers (Basic zombie) Banshee( Jumping Zombie) Some other pointless one and a hulk, (Brick house)

I did enjoy the idea of a zombie master, because the zombies... would always go different ways, or... one game.. will never be the same. Perhaps you guys at Killing floor might consider going down this path?

I know it would take a hell of alot of Codeing and making some new models alike, But you shud consider it.

And i also like'd the barricade system although in this its pointless but ... They had set items laying about like tables and Box's that you cud push to make a wall... and hold zombies, maybe you could do that too..

(Im aware of the welding tourch) But a wall of objects allow you to shoot thru it as well...

Just a suggestion please feel free to rip it apart with angry and aggressive comments

[Grim]

The barricade idea is implented into KF, it's just fickled cause Karma (physics) doesn't work so well in the Unreal Engine

[DukeDawson]

Ah, I see. Perhaps u can just add more pushable objects in general because i know in some of the levels you can push certain objects into the way ... just try and add more of them maybe ?

Im not telling you how to do your job just trying to help lol

[[AM]Echo 419]

Yea ive played Zombie Survival mod for GMOD and the way you can barricade is awesome. I wish the Unreal engine didn't blow in its physics department because barricading yourself in is fun. I also like the idea of being able to play as a zombie once you die but I don't know how well it would work with just 6 people on a map.

[DukeDawson]

Nah...... i dislike the idea of being becoming zombies... then they become amazingly noticeable.. JUMPING up and down... doing something daft. zombies.. are good.. as .. zombies, perhaps when a corpse dies it becomes a npc zombie.. that would be decent

[[AM]Echo 419]

That sounds like a good idea.

[DukeDawson]

you've gotta remeber you've gotta make it hard.. but.. fun... if u make barricades.. it might be too easy... its fun.. but easy... they shud be easyly pushed aside unless... made right...

[Alex]

I had wanted to do something like this from the get-go but the unfortunate truth about Karma is.....it sucks

When you're playing on your own listen server, you'll notice that you can push objects, and it's fairly smooth and responsive to your movement. As soon as you're a client on a dedicated server, however all of that goes out the window

Jerky, clipping through karma objects, dissapearing karma objects, immovable objects. The list goes on and on. I didn't design the "Good karma" mod that KF uses for its online physics, but i get the impression that there was a reason UT never made real use of environmental physics.

[Antigod]

It's a pity that Unreal 2.5 engine didnt support Physics, seems very odd they didnt develop it more, especially with games such as HL2, FarCry and Doom3 around the corner, ah well it wasnt to be!

I assume Unreal Engine 3 has a proper physics engine, I remember reading a while back that they were promoting the use of 3rd party physics card, uhhhhh!

[Alex]

antigod said:

It's a pity that Unreal 2.5 engine didnt support Physics, seems very odd they didnt develop it more, especially with games such as HL2, FarCry and Doom3 around the corner, ah well it wasnt to be!

I assume Unreal Engine 3 has a proper physics engine, I remember reading a while back that they were promoting the use of 3rd party physics card, uhhhhh!

Kind of the same reason they didn't bring normal mapping off with UT2k4 either. They stripped alot of stuff out in favor of speed, and playability. Since, let's face it , that's what the UT franchise has always been about - before graphics.

If you root around in the UT2k4 texture files you can find various un-used normal maps, and some funkeh shaders that almost simulate it. but it was never to be.

I get the impression the same occurred with the physics.

[[AM]Echo 419]

The UT engine would be alot better if it focused on Physics and graphics equally.

[mrmedic]

The Unreal Engine is perfect, you just are picky.

Another zombie mod I played for ut2004(Forgot the name) had a barricade system, but rather than using karma, it used...an actor. You found wood, nails, hammers, etc, and you would "use" them on the door. This would then barricade it. The zombies could then tear it down.

That mod also featured playing as a zombie, it was a choice when you died. To give you something to do whilst waiting for the next wave. If you prehaps make it voluntary, then it might work. Disallowing a lot of stuff would be a must though, and definetly sort the zombie class you can play as in some sort of rank.

It can be abused if not, a player could simply join the wave, and grenade himself to death. Then play as a fleshpound, and kill the players straight away. To avoid doing that, some sort of rank system may work. E.g, required money/kills/time on server, etc.

It wouldn't really work in that well, as Killing Floor is about a zombie survival. Meaning, get the most out of living. When you die, thats your punishment. With playing as a zombie, you wouldn't get any punishment, you would just get to annoy your mates instead.

I do feel that the Karma engine was rushed/cut out a bit. But maybe it was only designed for the Unreal Engine 2.5 runtime, allowing mentors to show people physics, as a visual aid.

[[AM]Echo 419]

I'm not picky, I'm spoiled by GOOD physic engines like the Source engine. Unreal Engine gets the job done but with corners cut.

[Alex]

echo419 said:

I'm not picky, I'm spoiled by GOOD physic engines like the Source engine. Unreal Engine gets the job done but with corners cut.

For what it's worth, the UT3 physics seem to be a real cut above 2k4. I get the impression that environmental stuff was omitted for the UT series because it's just not a priority in a fast paced online shooter.

[kyben]

It wasn't necessary for UT2k4, but it could be for mods.