As I’ve done with Planet Panic I thought I’d do another THICC suggestion for one of my other favourite gamemodes; Zombie Massacre, seeing as how it’s now being played by multiple players and not just everyone in solo, the game shows some flaws that could be improved.
Point Share:
This is a pretty controversial suggestion, as players who storm zombies and have the best powerups (let’s say medic vs mercenary) will always come out on top with the highest amount of points to spend.
Now this wouldn’t be much of an issue, it rewards players dealing with the zombie threat adequately. However feels like it defeats the point of working as a team, as you’re best off running into a part of the map so zombies that spawn nearby are always your kills.
My suggestion is to use some math to take the team’s total points all together and split it between the group, this rewards teamwork as it doesn’t discourage players sticking with the group and actually rewards them as you cut down zombies far quicker than you would running off on your own. This way the entire team benefits from a good massacre and not just the top players. In addition, this shouldn’t effect solo play in any way as points are only shared with yourself. Like dividing by 1.
Scientist’s Combo Ability:
So let’s cut straight to the cheese, it sucks. But why does it suck?
Well for starters it’s a set arch, meaning compared to literally every class’ combo ability means you cannot hit enemies which are in your face. And that’s like half of the time in the match, making it practically useless.
My suggestion is to simply let players aim where to throw the explosive flask, it can still auto throw but let players choose where the flask should land. The current damage is great and the radius is fine as an anti-crowd ability.
Endless Mutator:
I know map voting is going to be a thing so party members can stick together after a match ends and play some more, but this little mutator is for those masochists that just want to see how far they get before inevitably biting the dust.
After each day, it is no longer based on how long you survive for the chopper to arrive. You MUST kill the number of zombies for the helicopter to even think of landing to pick you up. Each day the horde gets bigger, and some zombies get tankier. At the end of each week a boss will spawn in the common map instead of teleporting the player to an arena, and after each week that boss will get another peg of health and deal more damage. And who knows, maybe even at some point two bosses spawn at once, goodluck with that~
Additional Modes via Maps:
I believe this was talked about way back in a dev stream, but perhaps some linear objective based maps which will be far harder than wave survival, where players must make their way through a map whilst doing objectives like hold out at an area whilst gigantic steel doors open, gather pieces of a machine that will repair and ram a blockade to progress the map.
Compared to wave survival, the enemies are constant and progressively get greater in numbers and the more stronger enemies spawn more often over time. At random a large wave is announced to be approaching and players must bunker down to protect eachother or risk getting over-run. Players must navigate and complete objectives through the map as fast as possible or risk getting entirely wiped out.
Maps can be designed with this in mind, where early stages are more narrow due to the easier enemies spawning but as players get closer to the end or even at main objective points they open up. Allowing for greater mobility, dodging as the enemies get harder.
Weapons That Need Changes:
Let’s rapid fire these out~
Tommy Gun: Increase fire rate (right now it’s worse than the starting Uzi)
Bolt Action Rifle: Increase damage, lower clip size. (It’s a worse magnum in its current state)
Auto-Shotgun: Increase damage (Why is this weapon so bad? It’s a SHOTGUN!!)
Rocket Launcher: Increase radius (For its rarity it sure does blow, not in the good way)
Grenade Launcher: Remove clicking causing detonation and make them detonate on proximity (Pill spam baby!)
Flamethrower: Needs afterburn damage over time (Even if it’s minor damage, it’d be a nice addition)
Visual Feedback for Doctor’s Ability:
As it is now, player’s don’t seem to realise the medic’s ability actually heals. As rediculous as that sounds I see many players with next to no health just walk right out the healing aura and die moments later.
I believe adding better visual feedback from entering the aura would be better.
Similar to how other classes get a material effect over them when they have a combo ability ready, being inside the aura of a doctor’s ability adds a faint red sheen to the player, followed by a faint pink’ish red circle which follows beneath their feet whilst inside. The player gains a particle effect that emits pink’ish red plus signs around them before fading, signifying something is being increased. Usually a red plus sign is often recognised as a medicinal symbol, so I believe this would work instead of the red ray the centre of the aura shoots out at players.
Aim Assist for Pitch:
Right now the player cannot aim at enemies that are even slightly below or above them, they aim straight. As fine as that is for now (even though some maps have very specific areas where you shoot over the heads of enemies) I think it’d open up a new way to make maps if there was some minor aim assist for firing at enemies below or above you. Such as firing down stairs, ramps or even firing at enemies dropping from a height above. Just a personal thing that could add a touch of depth to some maps. This could be done by checking to see if the reticle is on an enemy, so to aim at enemies below you have to aim directly at them opposed to just simply aiming at terrain or past them when they’re on the same level as you.
Boss Needs Greater Melee Damage Resistance:
Self-explanatory, right now melee deals insane amounts of damage to bosses. This is possibly due to having none or barely any damage resistance compared to ranged weaponry in the game.
The boss has a passive damage resistance against most weapons, it’s the reason it takes so long to kill even with an M4A1, but melee? Fuck that, say goodbye to 1/6 of the boss’ health from one swing with a sledgehammer. Needs a change so Survivor + Melee isn’t such a game breaking meta against bosses.
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So what do you guys think? Zombie Massacre is still a WIP and needs all the helpful suggestions it can get.
Perhaps you have a suggestion that wasn’t listed here, I’d love to hear it!
I love making these big chunky suggestions since it gets me thinking about design ideas even down to minor things that could better the whole experience.
Oh and @Johanna goodluck on that village map. I really look forward to it.
But anyways, thanks for reading! 