Ok, don't shoot me or hack my head off, but I think that the multiplayer
game balance is too easy. I mean, it's possible to get killed (just did,
seem to have been at a zombie spawn point and multiple bandits appeared on
top of me with no warning, but in general, it seems very possible to stay
alive without having to make lots of snap decisions, once you know where you
are and have any one of the top three weapons.
Things that would make the game harder: make the zombies react to shots
from a longer distance. I've had several instances where I fired and missed
at a target, only to have it continue its slow patrol walk. I think that
any target that is missed narrowly should immediately turn and search for
the shooter.
More zombies please. The single player game is too much, too many zombies
in too little space, but the multi-player often feels empty. Perhaps tweak
spawning a bit so there are more zombies at a time in the larger map size.
Zombies should be able to acquire fire arms as well. perhaps they aren't
excellent shots, but the concept of a zombie firing at you from a distance
would be very frightening and would encourage the use of cover and sniping
tactics.
More zombie packs. It's easy to pick them off one at a time, but the fun
comes when there's a pack of five or six. Maybe tweak the AI so that
zombies that are near one another tend to agglomerate into packs.
I think one has to erase progress.ini to go back to the beginning state of
the game after once having saved. Future updates should automagically erase
this file for a death situation, though not a crash.
Zombies flooding the safe zone: Thematically, the safe zone is a known
location where tasty human brains collect. As such, it should be under
constant siege, thus making it more difficult for players to reach it
without a concerted team effort to clear the area. I actually hung out
southwest of the zone for a while and kept it clean, just on a whim,
role-playing you understand, but if there's always a lot of zombies nearby,
it becomes necessary to do this as the zone takes on more functions.
You've already heard my thoughts on weapon drops and usage.
And yes, this makes it harder to learn from the beginning. Perhaps allow
for a beginner mode in multiplayer where the character is by default more
stealthy, thus drawing less unexpected attention. perhaps this mode exists
until the player has reached a certain number of kills, then it is
permanently removed.
Re: chat, I'm sorry, I just don't use this feature in its current
incarnation. It's a great idea, but the limitations are such that I don't
find myself with a need.
Would it be feasible to simply implement direct verbal chat for those of us
with headset mikes? You'd hold down a transmit key and simply talk and it
would be broadcast over the server with the same sound localization. This
would replace the slash key, and would remove universal chat, but would make
actual character cooperation much more intuitive. I don't know if this
would be technically difficult, my understanding of networking protocols is
limited.
Looking forward to the next incarnation.
Chris Bartlett
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