I think Zombie Massacre has the most potential with workshop mapping, but as is currently we don’t have enough control over the mode while creating a workshop map.
For example, it’d be very useful if I could change how many days there are, the length of each day, how long of a timer there is to reach the helicopter (this is especially needed for large maps).
We should be able to adjust boss parameters such as their HP, size, and the ability to spawn multiple bosses at once. It’d be cool to set up minibosses throughout the week, every 2-3 days.
It’d be nice if we could swap the keycard model (and icon via canvas url?) and text when obtained.
I’d also like if we could entirely disable the timer for specific days, set it so you have to complete an objective to unlock the ability to escape, such as radioing for help.
I really hope we can see some of these in the near future, it’d drastically open up the possibilities with ZM map making.
You are able to do this already with the ZM Game Controller and Game Events modules.
You can hook up the event ZM OnDay1 to Pause the timer on the game controller. You can also set the timer and resume the timer.
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Oh perfect, thanks for the heads-up! I’ll definitely be using this on my map so you have to actually call in the heli.
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Another very useful ZM-specific build tool we could use: Add Zombies as a “Team” option under Blocking Volumes. It’d be nice to block players from a path but allow Zombies to go through.
Zombies are actually part of TeamB while players are TeamA, so you can make blocking volumes that only zombies can walk through, but there’s a bug that causes zombies to still treat them as solid walls anyway.
In case it helps, there is kind of a workaround for that.
If you place down a thin Blocking Volume as a ramp, low enough to the ground and at the right angle, zombies will walk over it (if it’s too high they’ll treat it as a cliff and avoid it, if it’s too low players can still walk over it from the other side).
If you get the scale/angle right and set the volume to TeamA only, the zombies won’t collide with it and it’ll basically act as a “wall” that zombies can walk through while players can’t.
(the volume in the screenshot is scaled to 0.1 on the thinnest axis and is angled 54.02 degrees)
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Another suggestion related to ZM-specific game object settings:
The Zombie Massacre Camera Volume is… frustrating at the moment. We need settings to adjust how fast the camera rotates to the new angle, for one thing. At the moment it whips around so fast, it’s jarring.
Also if you’re holding a movement direction when you hit a camera volume, you don’t continue going the direction you were previously like most top-down games would handle it. For example if I’m on the default camera holding W to go up and hit a volume that has me face reverse, suddenly I’m going back down the way I came, which usually results in you running into a horde that was chasing you.
Another camera volume setting we could really use is something like, “only rotate camera to this angle (or zoom in) while in the volume.” That way when you step out of the volume you go back to default angle/zoom. Currently I have to put default angle/zoom volumes around the other volume so it sorta acts this way, but then I’m running into issues with the previously-mentioned movement issue. It’s very easy to end up bouncing back and forth between volumes because you’re switching directions.
One more suggestion for a ZM-specific IO object: The Camera Hide Module could use some work. The connections tab says it’ll “fade” an object, but that’s not true, it hides it entirely. I want to put trees on my map, it’d look really weird to not have any given the setting, but any time you’re near one the leaves completely cover the screen. If I set a Camera Hide Module to “fade” the tree, it hides the entire thing when I’m near it, trunk included, and that looks bad. It’d be much preferred if only the leaves of the trees were fading away.
