The balance issues of multiplayer are only temporary. I've been adding in weapons but really haven't done any work making those weapons balanced. These are all things I am in the process of working on.
I've already decided that zombies will never wield weapons, especially not guns. I've never seen any interpretations of zombies where they could use weapons, so I have no desire to take that approach either. I do plan to make things more difficult though, I just haven't gotten to it yet. Deleting progress.ini will not reset your character. That information is stored on the server itself. There is not currently a way to start over unless you create a new name. Direct verbal chat is something I've looked in to at length. It is actually very complicated to implement so I don't see it happening. If it was something relatively easy to do, it would have been my first choice, trust me lol. > Ok, don't shoot me or hack my head > off, but I think that the multiplayer > game balance is too easy. I mean, it's possible to > get killed (just did, > seem to have been at a zombie spawn point and multiple > bandits appeared on > top of me with no warning, but in general, it seems very > possible to stay > alive without having to make lots of snap decisions, once > you know where you > are and have any one of the top three weapons. > > > > Things that would make the game harder: make the > zombies react to shots > from a longer distance. I've had several instances > where I fired and missed > at a target, only to have it continue its slow patrol > walk. I think that > any target that is missed narrowly should immediately turn > and search for > the shooter. > > > > More zombies please. The single player game is too > much, too many zombies > in too little space, but the multi-player often feels > empty. Perhaps tweak > spawning a bit so there are more zombies at a time in the > larger map size. > > > > Zombies should be able to acquire fire arms as well. > perhaps they aren't > excellent shots, but the concept of a zombie firing at you > from a distance > would be very frightening and would encourage the use of > cover and sniping > tactics. > > > > More zombie packs. It's easy to pick them off one at a > time, but the fun > comes when there's a pack of five or six. Maybe tweak > the AI so that > zombies that are near one another tend to agglomerate into > packs. > > > > I think one has to erase progress.ini to go back to the > beginning state of > the game after once having saved. Future updates > should automagically erase > this file for a death situation, though not a crash. > > > > Zombies flooding the safe zone: Thematically, the safe zone > is a known > location where tasty human brains collect. As such, > it should be under > constant siege, thus making it more difficult for players > to reach it > without a concerted team effort to clear the area. I > actually hung out > southwest of the zone for a while and kept it clean, just > on a whim, > role-playing you understand, but if there's always a lot of > zombies nearby, > it becomes necessary to do this as the zone takes on more > functions. > > > > You've already heard my thoughts on weapon drops and > usage. > > > > And yes, this makes it harder to learn from the > beginning. Perhaps allow > for a beginner mode in multiplayer where the character is > by default more > stealthy, thus drawing less unexpected attention. > perhaps this mode exists > until the player has reached a certain number of kills, > then it is > permanently removed. > > > > Re: chat, I'm sorry, I just don't use this feature in its > current > incarnation. It's a great idea, but the limitations > are such that I don't > find myself with a need. > > > > Would it be feasible to simply implement direct verbal chat > for those of us > with headset mikes? You'd hold down a transmit key > and simply talk and it > would be broadcast over the server with the same sound > localization. This > would replace the slash key, and would remove universal > chat, but would make > actual character cooperation much more intuitive. I > don't know if this > would be technically difficult, my understanding of > networking protocols is > limited. > > > > Looking forward to the next incarnation. > > > > > Chris Bartlett --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
