I’m looking for beta testers for the combat system of my upcoming zombie game at http://zombiesthegame.tk/
There’s no story yet, but once the combat system is balanced I’ll use it in a roleplaying adventure.
Please post any comments, feedback and questions here or send them to zombies.the.game@gmail.com
Have fun!
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I’d prefer for the equations not to be there. It just clutters it for me and I just need to see how much damage I took and how much I dished out.
I liked it, I had mega trouble against the pack of 3 dogs, couldn’t land any hits at all and eventually ran out of hitpoints. This was as a level 4 character with high dexterity and a rapier.
Levelling up system was rather nice, could do with a few specialist things that only show up if you have certain stats, leading you to a talent tree style system forcing you to build a character rather than levelling up a godlike one with maxed out stats in everything. Like the health bonus, may require 2 strength (higher levels requiring more) where as the accurate hit may need 3 dexterity.
It’d be nice if you had some scripted fights in the story as well, like choosing an escape route or securing a house. Big thumbs up, I love zombies and was planning a game in choicescript myself after I finish coding my assassin one for fun.
Its pretty good. I do agree with youngzman about the equations. Sometimes simpler is better. But I like the what your going for.
Hey guys, thanks for playing!
- Equations: You’re absolutely right, it would look better without the equations. It just made early testing easier, but I guess I could get rid of them now. On the other hand I wonder how much information the player wants about his stats and the zombie’s. Should I show the attack (and maybe defense) bonus for each fighter next to their hitpoints?
- Levelling: All of the skills have a stats requirement: Crushing Blow, e.g. requires (current skill level + 3) Strength. All of the requirements are additive, however, so you need to just spend one point in the corresponding stat to meet requirements for a skill. Should I add multiplicative requirements? If so, which skills are good enough to warrant that? Are any skills too weak/strong and need tweaking?
- Scripted fights are absolutely going to be included in the final version of the game. There, you’ll also have other options than attacking and using your skills, depending on the situation and your stats (you could just run away, or maybe you’re smart enough to electrocute the zombies with that toaster).
- Some of the zombie groups (e.g. the dogs) may be too strong for some characters. Balancing the game so every fight is as fair as possible is one of the most important and hardest things I still have to do. So if you get slaughtered, let me know who did it and I’ll punish them with stats decreases.
Thanks for playing once again.
For those who are interested, I uploaded a text document detailing the game mechanics here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14754469/doc.txt
Nice!! I shall look in to trying this out when I sort my laptop out. Thing is, one of the games I’m making is a zombie game too!
It’ll be interesting to see how they turn out in comparison to each other!!
I couldn’t buy Anti-Zombie serum even having 436$ (It should cost 300$).
Hey Myth, thanks for testing. 
I changed some item prices (serum used to be 500$) and forgot to adjust some variables. Should be fixed now.
@Simski: In a zombie survival game, you tends to have companion. If it is possible to code up some people who help you in combat, it’d be really cool.
(And that would mean you have social skills to look out for, too.)
(And cool NPCs can make a game.)
Good luck!
Hey Laytonia, I agree that detailed and unique NPC companions are a must-have in every zombie survival setting and I plan on spending a substantial amount of time on developing them and coding interaction. I’ve been thinking about how they could help you in combat. There are different possibilities, each with their own upsides and downsides:
a) Make them fight half of the zombies (and win if the player wins)
+ It’s easy to code
- It’s predictable
- It’s less fun (and less logical) than teaming up
b) They give the player special abilities in combat
+ It’s easy to code
+ It makes their fighting style unique
- It’s less exciting than having them fight directly
- It’s not very realistic
c) Let the player control them directly
+ They are a substantial help
+ The player has more control
- It’s rather hard to code
- They seem less like individuals and more like puppets
d) Let them fight themselves, using a standard attack each round
+ It’s easy to code
+ It makes them seem a bit more individual
- Their fighting style is predictable and may sometimes be stupid
e) Let them fight themselves, using random attacks and abilities
+ They seem like individuals
+ It makes their fighting style unique
- It’s a bit harder to code
- They may make stupid decisions / not be a great help
f) Code a combat AI for each NPC
+ It’s awesome
- It’s insanely hard to code in choice script
What do you think?
F ! F ! F ! 
Awesome! I’d suggest replacing the numbers with descriptions of injuries – maybe make a random set of injury descriptions, so between 10-25% health the description could be one of four based on a
*rand injury 1 4
*if (injury=1)
*set injtext “You have deep gashes on both legs, and bruises all over your upper body”
*if (injury=2)
*set injtext “You have bites on your shoulders, a broken nose, and blood splattered all over your chest and back.”
etc…
Hey Sam, thanks a lot for testing!
I like your idea because it adds flavor and immersion. The only problem I see is that some players (the gamer-type) will want to know exactly how many hitpoints they have. However, the two could be combined. Or the zombie hitpoints could just be stated as descriptions, making gameplay a little bit more challenging.
In addition, I could add randomized descriptions for attacks, so instead of “X claws at you for Y damage” you might also get “X buries its teeth in your leg for Y damage” or “X’s charges at you, limbs flailing, and hits you for Y damage”. Something like that.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Hey! Simski! Thanks for taking the equations out :] I clicked the link to do some more testing for you, and BAM! Immediete satisfaction.
@MrYoungzman: I’m glad you returned for more, taking the equations out was indeed the right thing to do. Thanks again for the suggestion and keep them coming.
Like Laytonia mentioned, fightin’ zombies can get lonely after a while, so it’s nice to have some company. That’s why, in the new version of the Zombies! Combat System Open Beta, you can team up with either Laura or Butch to teach those undead a lesson (unfortunately, they have lost their capability to learn).
Just gain some respect among zombie fighters (get to level 3) and they’ll ask you if they can join you.
Also, since I’m having some performance issues with my webserver, the game is currently hosted on another, MUCH faster machine: http://goo.gl/CUXjl
I really enjoyed this game, it’s simple, but satisfying enough that you enjoy…and slightly addictive. I’d like more interaction with the NPCs and maybe able to give them weapons too. The only problem that I had is when I reached level seven I could not seem to gain anymore EXP to level up, like an endless loop of just fighting assorted zombies forever.
Hey KageTehVamp, thanks for playing!
There was actually a bug which caused the zombies to not give any xp after level 7. It’s fixed now, though you still won’t get to fight anything but assorted zombies, since I haven’t coded more “zombie squads” for higher level players.
I’m actually working on an improved item management right now. Soon, you’ll be able to have different weapons to equip, sell your weapons and equip your teammates.
For the final game, I plan to spend a lot of time on NPCs and the interactions with them. Since the Arena is basically only a test for the combat system, I probably won’t improve interaction here. (Laura and Butch might both make an appearance in the final game).
I’ve deliberately stayed away from trying this game out, saying “If I want to roll a dice and pretend to fight I’ll go play an RPG” but finally decided to give it a go today. Got to about level to and wanted to smash my head into the desk if I missed a slow moving zombie one more time. Then something strange happened, I decided to close the window and found that my hand couldn’t move the mouse, fifteen minutes later and I was still playing, twenty minutes after that. Bloody addictive!
It’s pretty much A okay as it is but if I had to give my opinion I’d say reduce the amount of times you miss an attack, I was playing a dexterity character and at a high level I didn’t miss very often but at the start there were quite a few misses, it’s a little unbelievable against groups of zombies that wouldn’t be attempting to dodge and can become very frustrating, especially if you end up dying because your character just missed the obese zombie for the 4th time in a row ^^
The NPC part is working wonderfully I actually found them really helpful and you can even put an element of trust into them to finish off a weak enemy while you kill a stronger one, worked very nicely.
All in all, well done Sir. Very entertaining.
Hey Kelfezond, I’m glad you enjoyed the game despite its shortcomings.
At the moment, the attacker rolls 1d10 and adds their strength score to get the attack value. The defender defends with 1d10 plus their dexterty. Consequently, the higher your strength score, the more often you’ll hit. A higher dexterty means you’ll be hit less often yourself.
If the attack and defense are equal, the attacker wins and it’s a hit. That’s a small advantage for the attacker. I could change the defense roll to a d9 or d8, but then the player would get hit more often, resulting in more deaths.
What do other players think? Should attacks hit more often?
Thanks again for your feedback, Kelfezond, I appreciate it.