Zombie Apocalypse RPG 1.6

[Captain_Wrathbow]

Which addon server is it on? 1.8 or 1.9?

The question is more for the benefit of anyone else who reads this, since I'm going to go check it out and find out for myself, probably before you read this and reply.

[Zerovirus]

It's on 1.8

The game looks fun, but I find it hard. Then again, I suck at Wesnoth. Are you able to save the girl? Right now it looks like probably not, the zombie has priority set on her.

[Captain_Wrathbow]

Mmkay.
Just had a snack after getting home from school.

Downloading and playing now....

[PapaSmurfReloaded]

It's on 1.8

The game looks fun, but I find it hard. Then again, I suck at Wesnoth. Are you able to save the girl? Right now it looks like probably not, the zombie has priority set on her.

Nop, she's there just for the sake of drama.

Like every blonde that gets killed in horror movies.

[Kvinkunx]

I like the idea of the mod in general. Cool work with the gfx too.

I just find it hard. Unless I have missed something, you are pretty dependent on knowledge where to find weapons, and even if you know their locations, you are destined to die pretty soon because you have no means of healing and zombies can inflict 8 HP damage at 40% per hit, which is pretty high (or 6 HP in lamp light).

I would make weapons randomly distributed and more frequently found. It is pretty disappointing if you search first 3 houses and find absolutely nothing, despite all the boxes and furniture there.
I would add medkits if they are not implemented already.

I would perhaps make the survivors have ZOC. Zombies with 6MP are pretty annoying if you can't effectively block them.

Do you plan to include class specializations for survivors, like medic, sniper, etc?

The blonde: took me two sessions to realize you cannot save her. Hoped that she will boost the party somehow if I save her, since the game is so hard. She sounded too normal for me to realize "Oh right, it is a typical annoying blonde, I just gonna enjoy her quick death."

[PapaSmurfReloaded]

I like the idea of the mod in general. Cool work with the gfx too.

I just find it hard. Unless I have missed something, you are pretty dependent on knowledge where to find weapons, and even if you know their locations, you are destined to die pretty soon because you have no means of healing and zombies can inflict 8 HP damage at 40% per hit, which is pretty high (or 6 HP in lamp light).

Most items are in pretty obvious places, and there are signposts which tell where you are and where some places are(in case you cannot recognize what a place is just from looking) too.

And there are means of healing, namely the medic kits.

I don't want to go spoiling though.

I would make weapons randomly distributed and more frequently found. It is pretty disappointing if you search first 3 houses and find absolutely nothing, despite all the boxes and furniture there.

Most houses in the map are there for the sake decoration and the game is long enough already, and it would be kind of unrealistic to just plant guns everywhere, besides, there are more than enough.

And in the end what you have to do is to survive, once you got a medic kit and at least two guys get guns advancing isn't particularly difficult.

I would add medkits if they are not implemented already.

There are.

I would perhaps make the survivors have ZOC. Zombies with 6MP are pretty annoying if you can't effectively block them.

That would make the game easier than it is now, I mean it's a survival RPG.

As a matter fact, the lack of player ZoC and most enemies having ZoC was one of the first features I wanted in the game, along with continued after-kill movement.


What's the fun if I take absolutely all the challenge away though?

Seriously, planting guns everywhere, giving players healing from start, giving players ZoC... lol

Do you plan to include class specializations for survivors, like medic, sniper, etc?

Was thinking about that, I can't think of enough difference though.

The blonde: took me two sessions to realize you cannot save her. Hoped that she will boost the party somehow if I save her, since the game is so hard. She sounded too normal for me to realize "Oh right, it is a typical annoying blonde, I just gonna enjoy her quick death."

It's a horror survival, of course you have to see how harsh the situation is.

Perhaps I might make her saveable, one of the features I've been thinking about would be a score system based on how many people you rescue/save, which would as well allow me to use more houses and things.

But that's just an idea, and the odds are that I'm going to be pretty busy in RL so I'm not planning to make big changes.

[Mabuse]

hey smurf, cool that it is out.
and dont worry about people complaining it is too hard.
they always complain.

if the game would be played right through on the first try then you'd know its too easy.
(which would be far more annoying)

i will give it a try as soon i have some time on my hand


EDIT: ah well, i see right now i have some time :...:D:D:D

[Mabuse]

first thing:

gameplay is a bit clumsy.
this is because you dont search automatically/dont know where to search
its extremely annoying to run over every single item (almost every hex in a house) and right click to see wether you can "examine" something or not.

suggestions:

1)
mark the locations where you are able to "examine" something with a special marker.
this makes sense becauee its more comfortable for the first timer, and the "2nd timer" will anyway know where to search.

2)
auto search. you must still search and move on every hex (if you are a 1st timer) and there will be no marker, but yu dont have to consult a right click menu, instead use "move_to" event pops up something where you will be asked wether to take the item or not automatically.
this makes sense because its really frigging annoying to right click on every hex you step on.

additionally, the right-clicking doesnt add anything. use "move_to" events.


3) the best thing is perhaps you use a combination of the 2 points above. mark the items somehow.
i think this is easiest done if you make the interior-items actually as items but overlay terrain, and then place a marker item

marker item:

touchplate-75.png (1.67 KiB) Viewed 4159 times

(you can animate this marker item with different intensities so it will blink, but this isnt a nessessity)

and also use a move_to event so the player dont need to right click.
the right clicking anyway doesnt add anything to the game (unless there is some inventory management) so you can just leave it away.



i would say this suggestion as kinda urgent because i was quite annoyed and play with the idea simply to look into the code to know where to search in order to make the game actually playable.

usually, in most games, you can see the items to collect already anyway.
(you can see a sword items laying around there, or something similar unusual.
you see to step on every hex is actually annoying, but to step on every hex AND right click then is basically unplayable.




i would be happy with move to events already, just to clarify. no real need for "touchplates" that indicate where you can find something.


EDIT:
btw, i was disappointed that you couldnt use the "pitchfork" as a weapon.
i suggest to delete it or make it availbale as a weapon. because i think a pitchfork is actually an improvement over a fist.

[Mabuse]

another thing i would suggest is a slight char development section at start of each game.
before game start you may chose some basic inventory items, starting gun, some small first aid kits (no health kits). first aid kits may restore some HP and cure posion or something like that.
of course there is more to chose from, i may have a list.

the thing is, the starting combat just with 3-2 fists isnt very satisfying and allow the player some equipment to chose from at start and offer some more strategic options woudl be great

in any case, i think the game/mod could really need some more work on it to make it awesome.

more monsters would be ok, real ranged weapons would be ok (after shooting you lose all your movement, max range of 6-8), and stuff like that.

in any case, dont see this post as bad, the work you made so far is great, but i think you can make more out of it.

i can also understand if you are a bit tired becasue its hard and huge work and dont want to work much on it. i offer help on this if you want.

but now i will play some more and see

[Mabuse]

I would make weapons randomly distributed and more frequently found. It is pretty disappointing if you search first 3 houses and find absolutely nothing, despite all the boxes and furniture there.

yes. the game needs more little items. like cure-packs, or small med kits that resore health.
some little (melee) weapons that can be found at start (dont tell me that in an average house there is nothing that you may use as a weapon).

but also some little things that allow to develope your character at start may ne nice.

you may make an icon of a destroyed helicopter and use it as a "starting shop" where players can upgrade their heroes for some bucks

can contain
- some mellee wepaons of different efficiancy
- remaing points can be spend in med kits, cure kits, explosives (may be used to balst something open).

can all that stuff.


i agree its hard work and time consuming

[Kvinkunx]

I second this proposal of Mabuse, including the pitchfork.

Gave it another shot today with pals and it still felt unsatisfying even if we went for the medkit at the beginning.

It feels rather empty. I think the general audience would want at least some decent weapons shortly after the beginning and quickly bring down first zombies with these. Survival movies are like that, you got a gun and shoot down 2-3 zombies, before more move in and you feel like you gotta move on to get better equipment.

[Araja]

I've been playing it in local game, controlling all 4 commandos, and at the time of the post am on turn 300.
That's the background and possible justification part done

Anyhow, I'd agree with the moveto events. While there is a certain flavour in searching the whole house, it just becomes a grind later on if you have to move and right click every hex. A moveto would keep the search feeling with less of the grind, especially if items become randomised or scatterered. Even if they don't it's still nice for first timers or people who can't quite remember where something was.

Oh and by the way, very nice mod. The interiors are easily the best Wesnoth buildings I have ever seen, and the lamp posts are a nice touch as well. Also, I'm liking the survival theme instead of higher-powered system. Nice to see a proper zombie apocalypse .

[Mabuse]

....

[PapaSmurfReloaded]

yes. the game needs more little items. like cure-packs, or small med kits that resore health.

There are two medic-kits in already, isn't that enough though?

And also the beds in the hospital are going to be usable, in fact they already were but I forgot to add that back when I changed the hospital floor.

I don't wanna go spoiling but there is a medic kit right at the start, look for a suspicious bookcase in the school.

some little (melee) weapons that can be found at start (dont tell me that in an average house there is nothing that you may use as a weapon).

I know , in fact the idea was to add melee weapon, but I don't have animations for them, I'll have to leave em animationless.

I obviously wanted a chainsaw in the game, in fact I had already thought of a quest to get a chainsaw and then the fuel for it, but dropped and went on with the rest of the things.

you may make an icon of a destroyed helicopter and use it as a "starting shop" where players can upgrade their heroes for some bucks

can contain
- some mellee wepaons of different efficiancy
- remaing points can be spend in med kits, cure kits, explosives (may be used to balst something open).

can all that stuff.

I don't know about this, honestly I don't like the idea of a shop.

I'm more likely to add different classes with starting items.

Starting the game isn't so difficult.

I'm just going to add a few events with dialogues giving some hints, which was the idea from the start but I forgot to do it when I started working on the sidequests.

first thing:

gameplay is a bit clumsy.
this is because you dont search automatically/dont know where to search
its extremely annoying to run over every single item (almost every hex in a house) and right click to see wether you can "examine" something or not.

The idea is to be able to examine all objects on the map, although I started doing it I dropped it in the beta because it would take me a few days to make the individual events and description for each kind of object, and I had already delayed the release many times before.

1)
mark the locations where you are able to "examine" something with a special marker.
this makes sense becauee its more comfortable for the first timer, and the "2nd timer" will anyway know where to search.

Perhaps, but that might make it just too easy, and later on there will more items so the map is going to be marked everywhere.

i would say this suggestion as kinda urgent because i was quite annoyed and play with the idea simply to look into the code to know where to search in order to make the game actually playable.

Don't be so harsh, this is the first beta.

usually, in most games, you can see the items to collect already anyway.
(you can see a sword items laying around there, or something similar unusual.
you see to step on every hex is actually annoying, but to step on every hex AND right click then is basically unplayable.

i would be happy with move to events already, just to clarify. no real need for "touchplates" that indicate where you can find something.

I did try to make some of the starting item stand-out a little.

The first medic kit is in a bookcase that looks different from the others, and the first gun is in a little shop that has only one crate.

You don't need to stand on every hex, you can click adjacents.

EDIT:
btw, i was disappointed that you couldnt use the "pitchfork" as a weapon.
i suggest to delete it or make it availbale as a weapon. because i think a pitchfork is actually an improvement over a fist.

Even if it cannot be used as a weapon right now I don't see why to delete it, it's part of the decoration.

[Mabuse]

There are two medic-kits in already, isn't that enough though?

I don't wanna go spoiling but there is a medic kit right at the start, look for a suspicious bookcase in the school.

umm, i looked into the code to be able to play the game better, i actually know about every single item in the game, and also played some H's already. wit that knowledge (well, i can definately say that knowledge where to find stuff improves the gameplay - not otherwise, not to know where stuff is and search everything and dont find anything, is just frustrating)

unfortuanately my save file gots corrupted, but i was even able save the BLONDE woman with my flamethrower guy (it happened that i didnt go to that area in the first turns on my test game - instead when i returned with my flamethrower the sequence triggered the first time, and i was able to annihilate the zombie with the flamer )

i also killed the necrophage already, ufortuanately wesnoth then crashed - and i have to replay it all :p since the save dont work

i just tell you that so you can have the understanding that i know very well how the gameplay works.

the thing that there is not much to find in essence makes searching a bit frustrating.
also: the fact that i did know where to find stuff actually IMPROVED the game.

once you know where to get things you can speed up the game and develope strategies - i think its a help when you see immediatly if you can pick up something or not.
for that reason i simply would place the weapons recognizable as weapns on the map. so you may place simple a shotgun item for the mossberg for example.

the game is challenging




EDIT:
deleted blabla


concrete suggestions:

- place easily recognizebale items on the maps. a shotgun item for a shotgun, a white package with a red cross for a med kit

- add some SLIGHT melee weapons. in the areas/houses where is nothing to find yet.
that way you still have to get everywhere and it makes the game more interesting.
be aware that only SLIGT melee weapons whould be added, since a stronger melee retaliation will make the game easier.
i thought about adding 4 knifes (5-2 melee pierce), 4 axes (6-2 melee balde) and the pitchfork (6-2 melee pierce) to the map.

- improve the healing system by adding one-use bandages.
you may want to add some small bandages (to restrore 25 HP per use to the game) so that p1 can be healed actually before the 2nd med kit is found. put these in areas that doesnt contain anything so far.
also keeping some bandages for later find is good so that players can perhaps at also sometimes independent from each other

- after you got the key to the armory, you can spawn some packs of 40 HP zombies to make the way back up to the armory abit more interesting.