I was browsing, when I saw this particular quote regarding why ZM felt a bit bland to them:
It got me thinking a bit, since having an ultimate solution like the above generally leads to a repetitive feeling game. One potential solution is stage events (though things like enemy variety should also be explored). As you can probably guess, they’re events that randomly occur which can have different effects. Here’s a few I’ve though of:
Airstrike: A large, marked circle is denoted for an airstrike in 5 seconds. Anything in that zone when time expires gets bombed and receives massive damage. You can lure zombies in for easy kills, but be careful that you don’t get caught in the blast yourself!
Noxious Gas: The surface ruptures, revealing an underground air pocket. This creates a large, marked area that can have one or more effects on players in its area: damage over time, speed reduction, reduced accuracy, reduced vision, and/or increased vulnerability to damage. These areas do not affect the zombies, since they do not breathe. The area lasts for 15-30 seconds before dissipating.
Zombie Hands: These are hands that fell off of killed zombies, but aren’t quite dead yet. If a player moves over one, they’re grabbed and cannot move for a full second. While fairly rare, the more zombies you kill the more these will appear. They can be killed in a single shot, if you aren’t currently being grabbed by one, and they’ll naturally die after 10 seconds.
Air Drop: A helicopter with supplies is heading in! This will always drop a powerful weapon, but must be signaled first. Players must stand in a marked zone for 30 combined seconds total before a time limit expires. If they don’t, the helicopter can’t find a drop location and will leave without dropping the weapon. The more players in the zone, the faster the signaling process goes.
Turret Drop: The army has issued the use of a turret to help you get out alive, and it gets dropped in your general area. The player who interacts with the turret first gains control, and they can mow down zombies at the cost of being unable to move. The turret does have ammunition, and will disappear after a while whether used or not.
Thoughts and opinions?
- These events would be perfect for spicing up ZM!
- I’d enjoy seeing these in-game.
- A change like this would be neither good nor bad.
- ZM would likely be better off without events.
- Events like these would ruin ZM!