Talk:Zombie Apocalypse

First round, user ideas

See the forums for more info about this part/page.

SharQueDo

Idea: Total Conversion for Quake I or Quake II, FPS, players are marines/humans, zombies are NPCs (and loads of 'em). Either one big server (world) or several regular servers with 16-32 people. Level-up system, you get XP per zombie kill, which you can improve yourself with a stat-based system (max health, max ammo, and special passive skills that increase your ammo generation very slowly for example).
Motivation: Although I used to program (C/C++), I decided I wanted to do something else for this project. Creating msuic and designing levels (both 2d and 3d).

Role in Project: Tester, Musician, Level Designer/Modeller
Experience with said role: I've made quite a few music tracks in the past, mostly dance/trance, but I'm currently busy with more ambient stuff. Tools of the trade: FL Studio. For 3d level modeling, I've made quite a few levels for Doom, Half-Life (CS), UT99, UT2003 and UT2004. Unfortunatly, I lost most of them, and the rest are somewhere on a backup CD.

Hiroe

After much deliberating, I decided I'm for PlopperZ's idea, I think if we can't make it an mmo it shouldn't have full rpg features, maybe put a level cap at level 6 or have you gain ability through having awesome weapons that cost alot, as this is unbalancing. in all honesty, I think zombie master made a great game and we should follow there example.

PlopperZ

FPS using the Quake engine or similar. Be basically an ongoing Team Deathmatch on a giant map with Zombies(Bots) vs. Humans(Players).Zombies could "migrate" out of the fog at the edges of the level. Maybe have a bit of a story and the player can decide what to do, such as join a gang of other players, be a merchant and sell valuble goods to other players and/or do many other things. There would be lots of buildings and things to hide behind, as well as vehicles. Possibly have progressive stats if the engine allowed for it.

javaJake

No longer active. This project will be over my head, and I will be unable to contribute in any way. If I do happen to contribute, it'll be patching repository code or similar. I really just need to step back and work on my C++ skills in smaller, less time-consuming projects first.

Ideas: I like PlopperZ's ideas, except I lean more towards strategy: I think there should be more to the game than just shooting zombies and making money. Zombie shooting would be the staple "meal" of the game, but there should be lots of other activities to exceed in as well.

I also suggest resources needed (weapons, ammo, food/medical supplies, vehicles, etc.) be the specialty or specialties of two or more distinct human races. They'd have to maintain secure routes or something like that to guard against zombies, so that people and supplies can travel across the map.

People could also create their own informal teams and try to create monopolies on supplies or other such malicious tasks. I'm not sure how this would work, and if the world would remain balanced like this, but it's an idea. .

Why me: Programming has been my primary activity for years. Despite this, I have still yet to learn C/C++. However, I'm eager to learn, and I see this as my opportunity to do just that. With a little time and patience, I should be very helpful. I also love to work in teams, and keep everything very organized for my neighbor. Included in that is a hard-earned habit of documenting my code as I go. I enjoy writing documentation in general.

Experience: Well, I've got 3+ years of combined experience in Java, PHP, MySQL, and XHTML+CSS. I need a project so I can learn C/C++, and this would be it for me! I have a good amount of experience with SVN, have dabbled in CVS when SourceForge was using it, and have a continually-expanding knowledge of Bazaar.

I think if we used your ideas and added them onto my own this would work pretty good! PM me ~PlopperZ

NaN

Ideas: I'd like to see a top-down RPG shooter, either isometric or 3D. I want to use the left stick for movement and the right stick for aiming/shooting. Clicking the left stick should bring up a radial menu for various actions. It should have classes. While the warrior classes should be very straightforward to play, the other classes should require a little more thought to survive. I want to have lots of RPG elements, like special skills that are best mastered by a particular class. I want big worlds where I can do lots of different things. Vehicles, especially cars and motorcycles, would be really cool.

Experience: I think my brother taught me the basics of C loops when I was 11 or 12. In highschool I spent more time programming on my TI83 graphical calculator than doing math problems. My most advanced creation for the TI83 was probably minesweeper. I only became a reasonably good programmer in University, though.

I've had formal education concerning Prolog, Haskell and Java. I also learned about computational complexity and I know some basic learning and searching algorithms. I have work experience coding websites in PHP and MySQL. On my own I've picked up a little Python, Lisp, C and C++. However, I definetely need to brush up on my C(++) skills before I undertake any major projects.

PoisonedV

The way I see it, there are 3 possibilities for the style of game: + Topdown RPG/Shooter + Action/Adventure FPS + BenT's 3rd Person Action/adventure game The middle, if implemented using the Quake 1 or 2 engine, seems the easiest. The others could be developed as offshoots later, but otherwise they are too big of a project to undertake. The quake mod would be an FPS, designed for longer games, running hours or even days, at the very least, the endgame is hard or nonexistent. Players could log in and out of the server and have their stats be the same. It is like a Deathmatch, sort of. ALL the zombies are NPC's, to 1. induce the horde feeling and 2. so that would-be zombieplayers arent over/underpowered. There are only two stats: Skill and Combat. Skill is for things such as Healing or other misceallaneous, while Attack is for, well, attack, and it improves Attack and Defense. They level up passively, but tell you when they do. They level up the more you use that skill. Humans, the players, can choose to be united against the zombies, fall into their own groups and gangs, or to all duke it out individually. Their play style can be completely decided by them. Weapons: There will be a fair deal of weapons, but not an insane amount. Players will start with a bat if they start as a boy, a kitchen knife as a girl. (no offense to anyone, lol) Anyway, thats just some of the idea. I want to make it in depth, but streamlined at the same time.

Desired roles

While all contributions will be welcomed, please only fill in your name if you're willing and able to spend at least a couple of hours on "Zombie Apocalypse" every week. Note that signing up here does not guarantee involvement in that particular role or in any way. If you think we're missing a category, feel free to add your own.

Game Designers

• PlopperZ
• Dutch_Cap
• Hiroe
• PoisonedV

Programmers

• NaN
• God

2D Artists

• PlopperZ
• xnopasaranx
• PoisonedV

3D Artists

Come on, guys. Somebody's gotta do it!

Level Modelers/Designers

• PlopperZ
• SharQueDo
• Hiroe
• PoisonedV

Sound Designers

• PlopperZ (If no one else is willing)
• PoisonedV

Musicians

• SharQueDo
• PlopperZ's Friend

Game Testers

• SharQueDo
• Hiroe
• PlopperZ
• xnopasaranx
• atomicthumbs
• PoisonedV

Marketing and Management

• Hiroe
• PlopperZ
• PoisonedV

Documentation

• PlopperZ
• PoisonedV

The game choices

the first thing we want to decide is what kind of control scheme to use:

Top Down Shooter- this is in the style of the first gta game. we could probably adapt the empty clip or FIFE engine for this.

First person Shooter- any quake game will do for this.

2.5D- Similar camera to Payback, but with 2D graphics. Could probably be done with FIFE or Empty Clip.

The next thing should be how do we control zombies?

npc control

player controlled using an rts like interface

player controlled

multyplayer is next

mmo

server and client

RPG elements

none

full rpg, with leveling and stats

passive progression-your stats and skills progress over time by using them ie: you use a pistol to kill 100 zombies and you get better with a pistol.

Balanced attributes-you have a number of points you can assign to stats and skills. you do not get more points.

Comparison of Existing Engines

Quake 2

Pros

• Mature engine created by one of the world's greatest game programmers.
• Multiplayer supported out of the box. possibility of using optimal grid to link multiple servers together.
• Nice graphics and special effects.
• Already being ported???
• Makes use of the Pandora's 3D hardware.

Cons

• 3D editing is hard

Quake 3

Pros

• Mature engine created by one of the world's greatest game programmers.
• Multilpayer supported out of the box. Supposed to be better then quake 2???
• Nice graphics and special effects. Better then quake 2.
• Already being ported???
• Makes use of the Pandora's 3D hardware.
• Little or no coding required.

Cons

• 3D editing is hard
• Level design might be a little complicated
• Might have lower FPS due to more advanced graphics

FIFE

Pros

• Creating 2D graphics is easier and requires a less complicated editor. This makes the barrier for anybody to add their own graphics much lower.
• Because the world is made up of tiles, level editing is very easy.
• 3D graphics could be used by prerendering them. Prerendered 3D models can have much more detail.
• 2D Should allow for larger worlds.
• Dynamically loading bits of the level and other advanced features should be much easier in an isometric engine.
• Flexible
• Scriptable
• Because it supports Python scripting, some (maybe all) things could be rapidly prototyped in python before implementing them in C++.

Cons

• NO NETWORKING
• No OpenGL rendering yet, so no help from the 3D hardware in the Pandora.
• No dynamic lighting, shadows or other 3D features.

Empty Clip

Pros

• Top down, pleasing 3D system
• Many, many request features already implemented
• Ability to take use of the Pandora's 3D hardware
• Made in C++, full source and linux version available

Cons

• Uses FMOD
• Shoddy networking