[OPINION] Repeated Failure is Getting Frustrating

[K.L.R.G.]

@tiny lampe :
There is this room with a zombie and a chest in the first long corridor where I experienced this and finally tested it. You can open the door, run past him, loot the chest, run back and close the door. But most of the times he'll slip out immediately.
This forces you to stay a short time close to him to close and open the door when you want to keep him trapped. And there he most of the times attacks me when I'm equipped with a weapon, while he leaves me alone if I'm unarmed.
That was by the way the first zombie I met when I started the game for the first time, obviously equipped with a nail because that was the first weapon I could find ... And of course he attacked me immediately and some other situations like that made me believe that the zombies will always attack you ... Not that there is any reason to trust them ... not when you can easily (un)lock them away with doors ...

 

[Zoltan]

I really hope that in the future the inhabitants roaming the place can open and close doors, they look smart enough to do it anyway. Would be great also that the one carrying a key can also unlock and lock doors when they move around.

 

[K.L.R.G.]

@Zoltan :
I would love to see that. It would make the game incredibly more frustrating, but also very very exciting again. And it would give the whole zombie-AI a real purpose. But as far as I know it's only planned that there will be some newer enemytypes in future levels that will be able to open and close doors ...

 

[Tyon]

I hope zombies are kept as they are, trapping them rooms is a tactic I've used in every play through and I've grown used to it. More enemy types that could open doors would be great though, human survivors or something along those lines is possibly the easiest "door smart" enemy that the devs could add in the next patch.

 

[Zoltan]

I hope zombies are kept as they are, trapping them rooms is a tactic I've used in every play through and I've grown used to it. More enemy types that could open doors would be great though, human survivors or something along those lines is possibly the easiest "door smart" enemy that the devs could add in the next patch.

Come on a little challenge wouldn't kill you...or maybe it would

That really depend of the player, I wouldn't mind a little added difficulty, maybe the best would be some sliders that we could tweak to have the best experience for each and everyone.

 

[Tyon]

Come on a little challenge wouldn't kill you...or maybe it would

That really depend of the player, I wouldn't mind a little added difficulty, maybe the best would be some sliders that we could tweak to have the best experience for each and everyone.

I don't think it would be all that challenging for me, since killing zombies is pretty damn easy once I get decent gear. I just think the zombies fill a really good niche. But it's within reason to presume they can open doors, since they can grip weapons and swing them around.

 

[NachoDawg]

I don't think it would be all that challenging for me, since killing zombies is pretty damn easy once I get decent gear. I just think the zombies fill a really good niche. But it's within reason to presume they can open doors, since they can grip weapons and swing them around.

Maybe riggor mortis in thier minor limbs (fingers) lock their hands around the weapon?

That said, it would be cool if the zombies acted a bit "stiffer"

 

[Anthony Obilor]

They aren't zombies as we know them. Everyone on the dev team have always called them undead. We do not know the lore supporting them yet, what they can do, how they came about, is it contagious or just a state of being,all these have yet to be revealed to us, all we know is they aren't "alive" anymore.

 

[Greenbrog]

Yeah I've never understood why people call them zombies.

 

[Bullethead]

@K.L.R.G. & @tiny lampe
Maybe somebody snuck a zombie magnet into my skivvies, maybe my pheromones annoy them, but I only find 1 truly pacifist zombie.

Spoiler

He wanders around armed with a chair leg

This guy I can even bump shoulders with as I squeeze by him and he just stands there. All the rest of them, however, always attack if I get within a corridor's width of them, whether I'm holding a weapon or not, looking at them or not, running or not, it doesn't matter. Most of them ignore me until I get within that close although a few will charge me on sight from a long distance

Spoiler

Chick with candlestick, dude with sawblade, dude with 2-handed piece of wood debris, plus some of those placed as traps in rooms you really don't need to enter

But either way, there's no walking by them in a corridor or similarly narrow place. So at best I can open a side door, stand a safe distance from it, hopefully they go in there by themselves, and then I run up and close the door behind them. But this isn't possible everywhere so then there's no choice but to fight, and trying to do that on the most favorable terms I can arrange.

That's the situation I have. For some reason, zombies seem to hate me more than other players. I try to emulate what I see others do in bloodless videos and it just doesn't work.

 

[Bullethead]

They aren't zombies as we know them. Everyone on the dev team have always called them undead. We do not know the lore supporting them yet, what they can do, how they came about, is it contagious or just a state of being,all these have yet to be revealed to us, all we know is they aren't "alive" anymore.

How are they not "zombies"? They walk, they fight, they're dead, and they still have meat on their bones. That's pretty much today's pop culture definition right there. Originally, of course, a zombie was a mindless corpse, essentially a meat robot, raised by a sorcerer to perform menial labor. No free will, just the will of the sorcerer. But these days, zombies are created en masse by diseases, hazardous waste, radiation, etc. With no sorcerer imposing his own will, the zombies are free-rang, following their own animal drives, making their own decisions at some basic level. What we have in Exanima seems to be a cross between the original and the pop culture types. Apparently they require sorcery/thaumaturgy to create but then follow their own volitions.

Besides, "undead" is a class of many things. Ghosts, vampires, zombies, draugr, you name it. The game's got skeletons, which (at least in the trailer) reassemble and return to the fight while the meat-clad walking corpses stay down. I'd call both of them "undead" but clearly each needs its own specific name to distinguish their traits and for ease of conversation. So, "skeletons" and "zombies".

 

[K.L.R.G.]

Like bullethead said. They are zombies as far as you can define a zombie by popculture standard. Because if they were not there would still be no excuse for not opening a door when angry. As far as I remember from atleast the northern european mythology (is that a thing?) there where the in german called Wiedergänger which loosly translates to "going-again". And they were the reason why superstitious people back than reportedly opened up a part of their house wall when somebody died, transported the dead through this new whole in the wall and than closed it again.
They supposedly did it so that if the dead would come back from the grave have no entrance to come back into their home to. If you transport your dead through the door, they would have tried to come in through there. You can take that thing with a grain of salt but that's the most specific thing about "undead" aside from vampires I know in terms of door-use.

@Tyon: Hence the "once I get decent gear". Try to get decent gear when every single undead in the first level would roam around freely. You could hide nowhere because they could open every door. So you have to keep natural distance ... Good luck with that in these narrow corridors and the unpredictable undead-AI that would have the possibility to reach nearly every room ... It would be really hard to avoid battles that way ... The moment you got decent Equip it wouldn't matter that much but it would be really hard to get to that point unscratched, because you know ... doors wouldn't protect you anymore and every hit you receive as unarmed is lethal damage ...
It would be possible with the healing jar to end up in level 2 as geared up and fully healed, but it would be really hard that way ...

 

[Tyon]

@Tyon: Hence the "once I get decent gear". Try to get decent gear when every single undead in the first level would roam around freely. You could hide nowhere because they could open every door. So you have to keep natural distance ... Good luck with that in these narrow corridors and the unpredictable undead-AI that would have the possibility to reach nearly every room ... It would be really hard to avoid battles that way ... The moment you got decent Equip it wouldn't matter that much but it would be really hard to get to that point unscratched, because you know ... doors wouldn't protect you anymore and every hit you receive as unarmed is lethal damage ...
It would be possible with the healing jar to end up in level 2 as geared up and fully healed, but it would be really hard that way ...

That's a good point. I've noticed pretty much all the zombies in the first level besides the 2 I mentioned to be pretty docile, so it wouldn't affect me very much. It would also add a fair amount of variation to the levels since you won't know what to expect in a room.

 

[Murf]

If they were zombies, I think Madoc would have called them zombies. He has never used the word on the forum. He calls them undead for a reason I imagine. Maybe he doesn't like the term. More than likely, over time, the lore is going to explain this whole nightmarish underground and we will know the true meaning of what they are, how they came to be.

Here is a quote where the Madoc showed some images of a new creature and then talked about the naming of creatures.
(emphasis is mine)

"Ghoul" is basically a misnomer, as with most of our creatures. It's what people in game usually call them.

Also,

Since when can mindless undead operate door latches? I've certainly never seen this, anywhere.

http://www.baremettle.com/forums/index.php?threads/first-impression-feetback.2651/page-4#post-33967


We have no clue the whole story behind what is happening down there and some parts that we do already know are more than likely false because of ignorance (on behalf of the author) or because of blatant deception/misdirection by the author.

 

[K.L.R.G.]

@Murf:
I still don't buy this argument. Of course you do not see that anywhere. Because in all books, comics and movies they "lock" the doors with keys, door bolts or other typical door mechanics ... That's why most zombies obviously hammer at the doors until they break ... because obviously a simple door handle is not the reason they can't open it ...

And to go full anal with this as Matt Easton put it so nice recently ... The doors in Exanima don't look like they can be closed with something other than a key ... So pulling or pushing is enough to open and close them ... XD
We have these really angry "not-"zombies who want to bash your brain in with an improvised weapon and the moment you throw the door in their face they give up? I would imagine them bashing at the door and opening it by luck alone ... xD
They can open them if they are only ajar ... so they must be able to push and pull doors ... xD
And these doors must work by pushing and pulling because thats the only explanation why the player can open them with the way the door handles are designed ... ... ...

 

[Murf]

We have no clue the whole story behind what is happening down there and some parts that we do already know are more than likely false because of ignorance (on behalf of the author) or because of blatant deception/misdirection by the author.

 

[K.L.R.G.]

Believe me ... I'm still waiting for that one scroll or book that excactly breaks down how a mad sorcerer enslaved the whole underground colony and turns the inhabitants into watching slaves that are bound to specific watch-positions while they are magically programmed to not open doors so that they can be kept in check ... while they are still intelligent enough to use weapons and to have a wide range of aggressive to harmless behaviour ...

... Really loved to read that somewhere in a book of the later levels ...

 

[NachoDawg]

Why on earth you are ranting about incomplete AI behavior in something like the second update of an early access game is what I'm wondering

Seems kind of redundant

 

[Madoc]

The doors play a latch sound when you open them and do not open when you just push them, they must be operated and whether you see a big latch or not they're clearly supposed to have latches. All doors (in real life) have latches whether they can be / are locked with a key or not.

It should be very clear that this is not an enslaved underground colony from the lore. The lore already clearly explains the basic reason for them becoming undead and where they came from. The location was abandoned a long, long time before any of these current inhabitants arrived.

 

[konggary]

it would be awesome if they could bash doors down while pursuing you