Have ideas for making bullet-sponge zombies less annoying? Post them here.

[Dimpy]

I thought I'd open a thread for this since I've heard complaints about bullet sponges.

One idea to start things off: Chainsaws and augers do more damage the longer you hold them to a zombie's flesh in a single cut.

The realism behind it is that if you cut for a half a second at a time, you only will graze the skin or armor, but as you hold down the weapon, it will cut further and further into the vital organs, where there will be a lot more damage. A single 6 inch cut in a 12 inch diameter log will do a lot more damage than 4 3 inch cuts. The same I would expect would apply to zombies. This mechanic gives a game-balancing counter to bullet sponge zombies, because a zombie with 4x health would only take 2x the time to be killed with a chainsaw, if the player has the skill and/or the courage to stay close to the zed long enough to make a sustained cut. Since it's already easier to make longer cuts on stunned zombies, this should not stack with the "3x stunned damage bonus"

As I was reading this, I realized that power attacks may already provide something similar to this.

Anyway, enough of my ideas, let's hear yours.

 

[Viktoriusiii]

Make them more tanky. The more bullets they tank, the more it becomes a survival horror game and less a tower defense arcade

 

[Sinz]

Hollow point bullets

Inciderary rounds

You should see bullet sponge zombies in the hardest difficulty setting

 

[caatalyst]

I think one of the main issues with zombies is the lack of impact when hit.

More than often you fire a shotgun to their faces and they don’t even flinch.

More reaction animations, more sensitive knock back and dismemberment would really help here.

 

[Strykhar]

Add dismemberment bonuses

Dismemberment bonuses?

As limbs are removed, damage is multiplied. If crawling or prone, damage is amplified further. Thus, the tank zombies can absorb hits/bullets center mass and head shots than usual, unless you knock down and dismember, they take a lot more damage.

This would also make combat more interesting to go for other parts of the body than just the head for later game zombie types. Perhaps make the radiated zombie elbows and knees glow brighter indicating armor weak points.

Perhaps cops have a weak waste and get chopped in half removing their ability to puke or explode.

Same for military zombies since they have ballistic helmets, and body armor, go for other body parts to chop them down and eliminate them.

I think rather than a health meter & middle of screen text notifications of (3x Stun Damage), have a relative damage meter HUD to indicate effectiveness of blows, or make it more obvious with more varied blood and goo splatter/zombie animation impacts.