Is there any reason to not bash in zombie heads?

[K.L.R.G.]

After completing the game and some comments from Madoc about the zombie behaviour I started experimenting around a bit with the Zombie AI ...

And at first I was impressed by the fact that the zombies in fact did not attack me if I only wielded a torch. Although I think it is very counter-intuitive to the "think realisticly about what you would do when you are in this situation ..."-approach ... because ... you know ... first thing I do after I wake up alone in a dungeon with an everburning torch is picking up the next best thing to defend me ... Which will make most Zombies very likely to attack you despite being peaceful ... That's excactly what happens to me very early which was why I came to the conclusion that all zombies must have been aggressive dicks that will attack you sooner or later ...

Another downside is that they will attack you on the slightest touch which can happen accidentally with the sometimes bumpy physics ...

And then there are these just aggressive guys who attack you ... And ... let's say you stayed calm and all the other zombies just ignore you even if you stand next to them ... And then you open a door and meet one of the instantly aggressive zombies ... you can't defend yourself because if you do all zombies in the room will dogpile you ... ... ...

And I really like the idea that there seems to be a system that allows the zombies to even build up trust ... But does it have any use in the current game yet?

For one it's counter-intuitive especially when some of the zombies will attack you anyway, no matter how peaceful you are ... And on the other hand it's much easier to just lock these guys with doors and finish them of one by one as soon as you feel confident enough in terms of equipment ... Especially with the perma-death that forces you to take as little risk as possible, if you want to have a chance to see the end of the dungeon ...

Am I missing something? Did you have any other experience or are there planned future features that are just not build in yet? Like I said ... I would love to be able to befriend the inhabitants of the dungeon, but I do not see any way to actually do it usefully ... So please tell me if you had any other experience with that?

 

[Anthony Obilor]

You missed the whole point, the point is that even the undead have different personalities and react differently. Why should all undead react the same way? Why must they all do the same thing? The point that you are filled with passive undead and then you suddenly open a door and are attacked,this my friend is called a situation, an unscripted situation where you better fight for your life, run for your life or die. The fear of dying is what makes this situation even scarier. I have bumped into undead with no reaction, even running into them and they didn't get aggressive,like I said b4 they have thresholds for what they react to before they decide to be aggressive.

The ally system has not been added yet, when that is added we will be able to have ally go with us but for their own reasons and decision, it won't be a
Join me
Not right now
I have no need of ur scrawny ass!
The npc will decide to follow you based on how it factors into their goals.

 

[K.L.R.G.]

@Anthony Obilor :
It's interesting that some of them didn't react when you bumped into them . Even the most peaceful zombie I've met yet attacked me when I accidentally touched him ...

Well ... maybe I'm an overanalytical immersion-breaking troll, but I don't actually fear them that much ... I got used to open doors and if there was a zombie I closed it and wait until he went by ... and then lock him somewhere else or just bash his head in afterwards ...

That's why I am curious if anybody actually had different experiences with the system ...

And I'm definitely curious how well Exanima and especially Sui Generis will handle these natural ally-decisions ... Especially if they'll be able to communicate to the player why the AI is doing what it is doing ... because in my opinion there can be millions of things happen in the code behind the scene ... if it doesn't give the player a clue/feedback why it is happening it will just look random and in the worst case buggy ... (which was the first thing a friend of mine assumed after watching over the shoulders for the first hour of Exanimas untrustworthy zombies by the way ... xD)

 

[Anthony Obilor]

The undead aren't scary on their own, but a situation where you find yourself suddenly surrounded by undead and 1 attacks you after opening a door is a scary situation where you will actually be afraid for your characters life. Like I said, the game of doors is a new player tactic,I did it, others did it, but now we don't have to because we are that familiar with the system. I start fights with multiple undead for the challenge sometimes especially when I'm more geared up. Also know what your enemy is wielding

 

[Bullethead]

I think of it as a risk-reward thing. It seems a near-certainty that you'll meet a berserker zombie eventually so you need to gear up and stay healthy for such occasions. This argues against picking fights with pacifist zombies. But OTOH, there's also the risk of meeting the berserker when near a bunch of pacifists you've spared, so that argues for killing the pacifists. And because they're pacifists, you can usually start the fight with a really good cheapshot on them in a quiet corner of your choosing. Thus, you minimize your risk in fighting them, which minimizes your risk in the inevitable meetings with berserkers.

 

[comham]

Sui Generis, right now, I think most players that want to get to the end play it like a stealth game the first playthrough, and then experiment with combat in the arena, and see if they can get to the end with a few kills under their belt.

Like, just the design of the map, the amount and type of equipment available, the lack of healing, the absence of magic. It's effectively a stealth game.

 

[Bobob]

Zombie lives matter.

 

[Bullethead]

Zombie lives matter.

As Lord Balfour famously said, "Nothing matters very much and few things matter at all."

 

[Bobob]

As Lord Balfour famously said, "Nothing matters very much and few things matter at all."

This Lord Balfour sounds untrustworthy to me.

 

[Bullethead]

This Lord Balfour sounds untrustworthy to me.

Well, he was a politician and I've never met one of those I trusted.