[lin3ar]

http://war-lords.net/threads/zombie-escape.3560/

http://war-lords.net/threads/zombie-esca...list.3770/

http://war-lords.net/threads/zombie-escape-server.6721/

http://war-lords.net/threads/u-we-should...rver.6681/

http://war-lords.net/threads/survey-zomb...bers.7041/

As you all know, the idea of a ZE server has been floating around for a while. Currently, perhaps due to inactivity and lack of time on the part of the roots, the idea seems to not have been put to work lately. If enough interest and approval is generated in setting up the ZE server, the roots say they'll begin to work on it. For now, let's archive all ZE idea into this thread so that it remains in full view on the front page of the section.

Here are my suggestions for a ZE server. If anyone else has suggestions, please feel free to post them.

1. RPG Mod

How will this work? The mod will be something along the lines of:

- gaining experience per zombie kill or human infection (zombie kills should have twice or three times the experience rewarded than a human infection due to the difference in difficulty)
- experience gained goes towards a level system, for example, there are 200 levels from 1-200
- each level gained rewards you with a skill point that can be spent on improving attributes such as
* increased health
* increased jump height (might require some delicate tweaking or elimination altogether because of the setup of some maps)
* increased bullet damage
* increased grenade damage
* increased maximum armor

You might be thinking "RPG Mod is too cumbersome for gameplay - it makes things too complicated!" Actually, that slight complexity is actually a good thing for ZM/ZE. I've played and admin'd for a ZM/ZE community long before joining wL and the RPG mod worked perfectly - it ensured that there was incentive to continue playing in order to gain ingame benefits and was a hit with the player base. From my experiences, nonsteam players especially love the RPG Mod and most ZM/ZE servers do not run it. Since we are a both steam/nonsteam community, we could use this to our advantage to gain traffic.

2. Custom human player models

http://s-low.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6...d90e447e06
http://s-low.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9...d90e447e06
http://s-low.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3...d90e447e06
http://s-low.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9...d90e447e06
http://s-low.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7...d90e447e06 (Yes Sako, we haven't forgotten about you)

These are just a few examples of the variety that custom models provide to gameplay. Again, from my experiences in a steam/nonsteam (before it permanently transitioned to nonsteam) community, customs models are always popular with players, especially nonsteam players, as long as download time is manageable. Who wants to just see those plain old models all the time in a mod like ZE? With so many custom models out there, we can rotate in new models every one or two months to keep things fresh and interesting and at the same time not have too many models on at once. Additionally, we can encourage community participation by having people vote suggestions for which models to rotate in and out.

Now, here's where my suggestion takes a radical turn - I propose dividing models into public and private. Public models are open for all players to use while private models are only available for admins and donors.

Before I get flamed to death for proposing that wL accept donations, hear me out. By keeping some of the more "desirable" models exclusive, we encourage people to contribute to the community by being an active member and possibly contributing monetary support. It's a subtle way to expand the membership of wL while keeping gameplay balanced. You'd be surprised at how many people are willing to donate $5 or $10 or more just to use custom models. In fact, I have already proposed giving donor benefits across all wL servers that grants the ability to buy the opposite team's weapons, extra /ab per half, reserved slot, possible automatic teamswitch on command, possibly a custom model (that does not deviate too far from the regular CS:S models), etc. There are certainly ways to implement donor benefits as an incentive for people to get involved and contribute in the community without compromising fairness. Admin applications, as always, will not be reviewed on the basis of donations.

3. More zombie classes/races

The average ZE/ZM servers run around 4 zombie classes, usually the same models across all servers with the same stats. This, as you all know, may become boring after hours and hours of playing. Since we have custom human models with RPG Mod (which also affects zombies), it only makes sense to have more zombie classes/races to choose from, giving players access to a greater variety of zombie models and stats.

By stats, I am referring to health, speed, jump height, knockback resistance, and health regeneration. Each zombie model/class/race should have a different value for those stats as to promote variety and strategic use of certain models on some maps.

Zombie models can possibly be subject to division or public/private ones, though that may not be necessary as most people prefer human models.

Here are some examples of zombie models that we can use aside from the normally used ones:

http://s-low.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1...d90e447e06
http://s-low.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8...d90e447e06
http://s-low.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8...d90e447e06
http://s-low.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2...d90e447e06
http://s-low.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3...d90e447e06
http://s-low.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3...d90e447e06

4. Buymenu anytime, anywhere

Before I go on, I suggest that the starting cash every round is $10,000.

Having unlimited ammo on ZE is generally a terrible idea for most maps unless you dramatically scale up zombie health and attributes. As such, humans should have 900 rounds in each gun, but must reload after each clip. However, sometimes, in a map, you may want to switch out guns because another gun might be better, you are bored with your current one, etc. A universal buy menu is the solution, but there's a catch. All guns will cost at least 1.5x as much as their original price. The scaling should be determined by the general usefulness of certain types of guns in ZE. For example, AWP price should remain generally the same due to their general uselessness on ZE while SMGs should be inflated to 2-4x their original price due to the popularity of SMGs in ZE. Armor should also be for sale for twice the original price. An additional option would be to buy extra health as a zombie (for example, +1000 health for $7500)

Also enable the option to buy grenades. Grenades are a critical part in ZE since (assuming we run the Napalm Grenade mod like every ZE/ZM does) they are used to temporarily slow the zombie advance. Because grenades are so useful, make their price prohibitively expensive, such as $5000 for a grenade via the universal buymenu.

Here's where donor benefits come in again. Donors should receive a 33% discount on all items in the buymenu. Assuming donors have to buy up at the beginning of a round, the discount should only amount to the difference of 1 grenade, which should not imbalance gameplay too much, since you also have to take into account players turning into zombies upon spawn.

A bounty system might complement the buymenu nicely, as the buymenu's items are very expensive.