Q&A: Zombies and Survivors in Class3, 7/13/12

[Undead Sanya]

Q&A: Zombies and Survivors

Now that we know a little about the world and the backstory, it’s time to learn about the people that inhabit the world. Some of them were people at some point, anyway. (The entire Q&A is the first three posts in this thread, so be sure to read the whole thing before commenting!)

Zombies, Behavior and Weaknesses

Ruben and Derp Alert asked: Can you shoot limbs off the zeds while they are still alive?

Yes, you can shoot off their limbs and blow holes in their torsos, and they’ll keep coming at you.

Ghost Kage, Sander, Keith, and a bunch of others want to be absolutely sure: Do Class3 zombies require headshots to die (and stay dead), or do they have hit points you need to deplete?

Head shots are by far the most effective method of killing a zombie. Our producer, Jess, says “If you’re melee attacking you basically need to beat the snot out of them enough to destroy the brain.” Believe me, you’ll know when you’ve destroyed the brain.

PJ added: Will you be able to dismember a zombie?

Yes.

Sean asked: Is the zombies’ sense of sight dulled at night, so that you can pass through certain areas that would have gotten you spotted during the day? Or is the opposite true?

Jess again: “Their senses aren’t dulled (our zombies don’t have the best eyesight anyway) but they do tend to be more active at night and they prefer to travel in hordes. So while you might not encounter as many stragglers at night, you’ll be in bigger doo-doo when you encounter a nocturnal zombie — because where there’s one there’s a whole lot more.”

Last week we told you that once you claim a building as a Home or an Outpost, zombies will stop spawning inside the building. CaptMugwash, Seth, and Killtheinfected want to clarifiy: If you clear the map of all zombies, will zombies keep spawning to account for ‘off-map’ zombies moving into your neck of the woods? What if a (cleared) building isn’t claimed?

If you clear it but don’t claim it, zombies will come back. Claiming a Home or Outpost will suppress the zombie spawn for a small radius around the building, but the creatures will continue to spawn elsewhere and wander toward your community if they hear anything to investigate.

As for clearing the map, it’s not that small — you simply will not be able to move fast enough to shoot every zed. There are some parts of Trumbull Valley that have no buildings for you to claim, and therefore you can’t stop the zombies from creeping in through the gap in your line.

[Undead Sanya]

Survivors

Several people from the forum community wanted to know: What happens if you kill off all the survivors? Will more spawn?

There will always be more survivors in the world. But if you’re going through them like Kleenex, you’ll have a harder time finding enough people to keep your Home thriving and growing.

Robert had an interesting question: Can the NPCs be trusted?

In Class3, yes. You may need to earn their respect before they’ll help you (and some of them are so downright unsavory that you won’t want to invite them into your Home), but in Class3, you don’t need to worry about a fellow survivor clubbing you like a baby seal.

Redfield, Jaffin21, Ronster619, Seth, and plenty of others wondered how you communicate with your survivors: How do you tell your fellow survivors to help you build things and to help you search for supplies? How do you communicate with them when you don’t see them? Are there walkie-talkies or something?

You’ll interact with survivors who are not part of your community by agreeing to help them, trading with them, and earning their trust. After they join your community you can assign them to various duties in your home base (e.g. manning Watchtowers, working in the Workshop, preparing meals in the Kitchen, or tending to the wounded in your Infirmary). They’ll also be available for scouting, supply, and rescue missions when you call in to your base via walkie-talkie and request assistance.

Seth had some specifics: Will survivors follow you around, or can you tell them to stay at one of your buildings? Guard a (non-Home, non-Outpost) building? Can they fight? Will they run [if things get out of control] or stand and be eaten?

It depends on the situation, the survivor, and what you’ve done to that point.

You can assign a survivor to defend a Home or an Outpost. They can’t do anything with an unclaimed building, but the number of buildings that can be claimed as an Outpost is far greater than the number of potential Homes.

After that, what they do depends on their own tendencies and the situation itself. They will choose to fight or run for it, depending on what’s going on (number of zombies, where you are, what you’ve done in the past, their own inherent preference, and more).

You can get more specific in some situations, usually mission related. But generally, you’ll choose which survivors are best in which situations, and which survivors suit your strategy of the moment, and then see how it plays out.


Mr Burningzombies, M4ngo, and more wanted to know: What about survivors you haven’t rescued, how do you interact with them? Can they be killed (before you have a chance to invite them to join your group)?

The interaction is more “action” than talking. Depending on what you’ve done so far, and the survivor’s own personality, they may offer you the chance to do them a favor. They may tell you to get out and go away. They might be extremely friendly. It just depends on the circumstances.

Survivors won’t join your community until you’ve earned their trust (and you can lose the trust you’ve gained through your actions or lack thereof). And yes, they can be killed before you’ve built that relationship, if you are working with them on a mission and you don’t protect them.

They aren’t at risk until you’ve encountered them, for gameplay reasons. If they’re over on a part of the map you haven’t gotten to yet, and therefore haven’t met them, there’s no chance they’ll die until you have a chance to act. No guarantees after that, though!

Seth asked: Is there a limit to the number of survivors you can recruit?

There is a limit based on the how many bodies you can house, feed, and equip. You won’t want to have 100 people milling around in the base you’ve built in an old church. Effectively, the limit is the size of your base and your ability to provide resources for its population.

In Tom’s opinion, “[other humans are] the enemy, zombies are just added danger. It’s an apocalypse, complete societal collapse. No more morals or democracy, just greed and survival.” Will that kind of thinking be an element of the game?

The other survivors aren’t an enemy in the sense that they will try to kill you. But in terms of the story we’re developing, there are definitely human beings who aren’t Nice People in Trumbull Valley. There are some survivors who, if rescued, will harm your community with their bad attitudes and tendency to sow discord... and THAT leads to nasty consequences.

M and Ghost Kage wanted to know: Will it be necessary to sleep in Class3?

Every survivor needs some downtime in order to operate at maximum personal efficiency, so in that sense, yes, they will need to sleep. Time to build a Bunkhouse!

M, Fabian, and many others wanted to know if the world keeps turning when their characters are logged out: Will the game go on if I log out? Will zombies continue to spawn overnight? Will I have to worry about my character being in a safe place? Will my character start up in the same place/condition I was in when I logged out?

The number of zombies won’t change, and your Home (and your Outposts) will not be damaged while you’re logged out.

But if you weren’t rested, or if you were injured when you logged off, you’ll come back feeling fresh as a daisy, assuming you were offline for the same length of time it would have taken you to rest online. Any work you had queued up, such as upgrades to your Home facilities, or weapon repair in your Workshop, will continue to progress while you are logged out.

As a result of those mechanisms, though, you may have an extremely hungry community if you stay offline for months. Your survivor band will also be healing up and resting... and eating food and drinking water.

Ghost Kage and others asked: How will food and water affect the player controlled character and other NPC survivors? Will scavenging for supplies (food, water, ammunition) take a big role in this game?

You will need to feed your community, or they’ll lose faith in you and eventually abandon you.

And yes, if you can’t grow food in the safety of your base, you’ll need to scavenge for it.

Budwyzer was talking about just how real he hopes we’re going to get. He said: They have said repeatedly that they want this game to be a hardcore survival game; that takes into account human waste and NPC psychological needs.

Psychological needs and survivor morale are an important part of community building. Unhappy survivors don’t work as hard, contribute as much, or follow your lead as well.

As hardcore as we are, though, human waste management is a bridge too far in terms of “things we want to simulate.”

[Undead Sanya]

Character Creation

A note about character customization: We’ve seen lots of questions on the topic. We are working on a design update feature for the website, which will include our plans and our thinking on character building. Phinney (our creative director and font of general awesomeness, for the benefit of those of you who are as new as I am around here) was at the San Diego Comic-Con this week doing a little...investigation. But we’ve got him back, and he’s going in the pit trap. Look for that feature next week or the week after!

[william4]

yay more info

[DAVEoftheDEAD]

I would like to be able to fence zombies in and feed people to them*. I hear a lot of effort is in surviving and taking care of your survivors but I'm more of a governor type can I indulge my dark intentions?

[Seth]

great info and thanks for answering ALOT if not all of my questions

Keep up the great work UL!

[Undead Sanya]

I would like to be able to fence zombies in and feed them to people.

Putting the green in soylent green, eh?

I suspect this game may not be exactly what you're looking for, but you'll have to let me know as we get closer to launch

[Seth]

1 more question if you have the time to answer sanya
-Will resources such as food and water or ammo respawn or is their a limited amount of it in trumbull valley?

[TheMuse]

Yay

Message was too short... Bah humbug!

[Seth]

Yay

Message was too short... Bah humbug!

yes it was pretty short but better than nothing, you wouldn't want the devs to go silent would you?