Zombie rework

[TheNightingale]

At the moment, zombies are simple mobs that, when they attack someone in crit or dead, turn them into another zombie. They also resurrect after a while when dead.

I propose:
--The Zombie Virus--
Zombies, rather than being simple mobs, are normal humans infected with a special zombie virus.
This virus is blood-based, but at its most advanced stage, this virus turns the infected into a zombie race (the hallowe'en one)...
... and becomes transmittable by contact. So a fully-grown zombie can infect other zombies.
When someone becomes zombified, they are instructed to spread the zombie plague through any means necessary.
Additionally, attacking a dead body converts it into a zombie immediately.

--About zombies--
Zombies retain their previous identity, but have two nodrop/abstract/unacidable claws (like armblades), which deal moderate brute damage per hit.
They also have zombie armour (deathsquad-tier) covering their chest, legs and arms, making them highly resistant to firearms, lasers and melee weapons. (Their old gear falls on the floor.)
Zombies are spaceproof and immune to oxygen damage, but not fireproof.
Zombies have very low health (50?), but are virtually immune to all damage due to their armour. Their weak point is their head, which is unarmoured.
If a zombie is killed, it will resurrect after a short time, unless destroyed fully (by gibbing or incinerating the body).
Curing a zombie is possible, but you'd have to get close to them to do it, and they can break out of restraints like a hulk.
If a zombie ingests the cure to the zombie virus (a mixture of gold and omnizine), they stop being a zombie (their armour and weapons are destroyed, and they turn back into a human), but die.

These zombies won't actually be too hard to kill, but they'll be very hard to put down for good (like real zombies). Their main strength is that they spread the zombie virus on contact, and the cure is very hard to come by. The easiest way to cure zombies is by using a rapid syringe gun loaded with gold-omnizine syringes, and then defibrillating the bodies to return them to non-zombie status.


TL;DR: Rather than simple mobs, zombies are humans who spread their virus on touch. They get two armblades (so no using items!) and deathsquad-tier armour, and are nigh immune to all damage except fire and attacks to the head. Gib them to destroy them forever, or cure them with gold-omnizine to undo the virus.

An additional zombie gamemode could have a few members of the crew infected with the zombie virus by default. (They can still spread the virus by blood before becoming a zombie - after they become a zombie, it's by touch.)

[Bluespace]

target head
shoot 3 times
butcher with knife
cya zombie

[TheNightingale]

Butchering them with a knife doesn't work; they're technically humans now. You'd have to destroy the body like you would with a changeling - which makes it a whole lot harder to put them down for good. (Locking them in a windowless room also works - they can't destroy walls.) Either that or cure the virus with endgame-tier reagents.

[Super Aggro Crag]

zombies should be removed

[Steelpoint]

Armour is a neat touch but is useless considering most people already aim for the head, and hitting the head is not something that is skill based in this game.

What you could do is add a sort of range variable to attacks hitting the head of a Zombie.

Melee weapons would, for example, have a 100% to 80% chance of hitting the head of a Zombie. Ranged weapons however would lose head accuracy the more tiles away they are from the target. So a firearm fired from seven tiles away might have a 20% chance to hit the head, while at point blank range it might be a 80%.

Otherwise the armour is a waste of time.

[TheNightingale]

That could be interesting. What happens if they fail the chance to hit the head? It hits the chest, or they miss?

[Steelpoint]

Should just hit the chest or arms.

The system might seem a bit contrived but it's mean to be balanced and a risk vs reward. It would make melee very effective due to the near 100% hit change, whereas ranged weapons need to be at close range, and thus in near melee range, to be viable.

Otherwise as soon as Security or Cargo starts rolling out the Lasers or Auto Rifles, all the Zombies will be killed instantly.

[Poorman]

Shit I wish I'd scrolled down before I posted my own thread.

But my take:

Zombies are just too strong, even during admin events. Zombification is way too fast, when they start to number heavily it's too disadventageous to try and destroy their bodies. They're also simple mobs, and ignore stuns entirely.

Zombification should be coded as a virus, the mob's bite being the transfer of the disease, and over the course of I'd say 5 minutes, they would become a simplemob zombie. If they're in crit, the process should speed up to around one minute. The infection should interfere with the subject's brain material, making it incompatible with MMIs, and making cloners unable to copy their genetics while in the virus period, to prevent people from just having themselves borged or killed and cloned to prevent zombification.

This makes zombies a lot more manageable, and keeps zombie rounds from spiraling entirely out of control extremely quickly. It also creates a potential new weapon for an antagonistic virologist, giving them the ability to release a plague upon the station should they desire to.

Alternatively to all this, you could just make zombies weaker, slower, and take away that obnoxious ability to get back up. Either way, you're taking out one of the two pieces that together make them virtually unmanageable by any means.