PC Why don't zombies bite?

L

Limdood

New member
So TFP has made it crystal clear, with this last alpha, that in the lore of their game, the zombie infection is transmitted by bite. It is spelled out perfectly in the description of the fists perk line.

So....why does every zombie humanoid swing their arms?

Why not give zombies a separate attack type and animation that is a bite? Maybe roughly 1/3 of their attacks and/or immediately after enraging.

Give it a 100% chance to cause or increase infection (modified by effect resistance).

It would:

1) make the infection/bite relationship make more obvious sense

2) be a cool new visual for the zombies

3) make infection slightly more frequent/persistent, BUT also more predictable, and thus, able to be planned for

4) give players a brief/temporary break from the professional boxer/MMA fighter-level of ducking, weaving, and head bobbing...they'd finally do a straightforward attack for once that didn't jerk their head wildly to the side...albeit at a significant risk if that's when you decide to go in for a swing.

5) finally fit the zombie-bite trope from virtually every zombie movie ever.

Yes, it would be undoubtedly a lot of work to add a new animation to each zombie, but now the lore is irrefutably clear - the zombie's bite is what infects, it seems like it really ought to be in. And the tradeoff of a straightforward attack that lines up and exposes the head seems to be a perfect risk/reward balance of dramatically increased infection chance (or severity boost) if they land that bite.

 
They actually do have a bite animation. Just chop off their arms to see it. Why it’s not used more, I have no idea though.

 
Yea I was about to say, they do bite. Just gotta remove their arms first. Honestly they should do a random bite attack that if it hits gives 100% chance to infect.

Remember the old days when you could take off both of their legs, their arms and just leave on the ground like a bitey doormat? Cant do that these days for some reason.

 
Yea I was about to say, they do bite. Just gotta remove their arms first. Honestly they should do a random bite attack that if it hits gives 100% chance to infect.
Remember the old days when you could take off both of their legs, their arms and just leave on the ground like a bitey doormat? Cant do that these days for some reason.
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Yeah, sometimes they wouldn't even move at all. After a horde night, you would go outside to clean up and take damage from something, then wonder what what it was until you look at your feet.

 
Yeah, sometimes they wouldn't even move at all. After a horde night, you would go outside to clean up and take damage from something, then wonder what what it was until you look at your feet.
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We use to put frames around them and keep them as pets as long as we could.

 
Switching zombies from smashers to grab-and-biters along with giving players a push or kick attack would take this game's combat to a whole new AMAZING level.

That being said, people have been asking for this for a LONG time, so I don't think it's ever going to happen.

 
i think i would be cool if they had that and a couple other attacks

lunge/tackle: for leap

Scratch: bleed

Roar: rage

Grab: for stun!

- - - Updated - - -

Switching zombies from smashers to grab-and-biters along with giving players a push or kick attack would take this game's combat to a whole new AMAZING level.
That being said, people have been asking for this for a LONG time, so I don't think it's ever going to happen.
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that would be cooL!

 
They actually do have a bite animation. Just chop off their arms to see it. Why it’s not used more, I have no idea though.
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Because, honestly, it looks kind of weird. It's almost like they're just headbutting you.

I agree that the game would be 100 times better if the zombies were of the "grab and bite" type, such as the ones in No More Room in Hell. Problem is that it's way easier to hook up an attack animation and call it a day than to overhaul the whole combat system by adding grab and bite scenarios, which would lead to a whole other lot of problems with clipping and AI involved.

 
Because, honestly, it looks kind of weird. It's almost like they're just headbutting you.
I agree that the game would be 100 times better if the zombies were of the "grab and bite" type, such as the ones in No More Room in Hell. Problem is that it's way easier to hook up an attack animation and call it a day than to overhaul the whole combat system by adding grab and bite scenarios, which would lead to a whole other lot of problems with clipping and AI involved.
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maybe the grab could be a tackle

and the bite could look be animated like if a person was biting forward rather then a wired head butt!

 
You guys missed the point...might as well move this to the Pimp Dreams section because they've shown no interest in doing stuff like this.

 
Because, honestly, it looks kind of weird. It's almost like they're just headbutting you.
I agree that the game would be 100 times better if the zombies were of the "grab and bite" type, such as the ones in No More Room in Hell. Problem is that it's way easier to hook up an attack animation and call it a day than to overhaul the whole combat system by adding grab and bite scenarios, which would lead to a whole other lot of problems with clipping and AI involved.
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I see it the same way and it really makes we wonder. From day one, when you first say to yourself, "hey, I wanna make a zombie game", immediately after you think about these things.

 
I see it the same way and it really makes we wonder. From day one, when you first say to yourself, "hey, I wanna make a zombie game", immediately after you think about these things.
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I agree. It would also heavily escalate their threat level, making the smallest numbers of zombies really dangerous still if one of them grabs you. Nonetheless, it's not that bad in the end, really. I just try to imagine that the stun is them grabbing you and the punches are them biting you.

 
Problem is that it's way easier to hook up an attack animation and call it a day than to overhaul the whole combat system by adding grab and bite scenarios, which would lead to a whole other lot of problems with clipping and AI involved.
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I'm well aware...it was just an idle thought that I felt like putting into a post.

I'm well aware that adding a bite, animating and coding it, and making it relevant would take a LOT of work. I'm just confused because if they didn't want that, then why double down on the "bites, and only bites, cause infection" with the fist skill line? Prior to that, I can't actually recall anywhere where TFP flat out says "its the bite" - before the fist perk flavor, TFP had plausible deniability to just say that zombies carry the infection, and can transmit it a variety of ways.

The added bonus of finally being able to line up a clean headshot, maybe, at some point, was also a massive plus in my opinion.

 
I'm well aware...it was just an idle thought that I felt like putting into a post.
I'm well aware that adding a bite, animating and coding it, and making it relevant would take a LOT of work. I'm just confused because if they didn't want that, then why double down on the "bites, and only bites, cause infection" with the fist skill line? Prior to that, I can't actually recall anywhere where TFP flat out says "its the bite" - before the fist perk flavor, TFP had plausible deniability to just say that zombies carry the infection, and can transmit it a variety of ways.

The added bonus of finally being able to line up a clean headshot, maybe, at some point, was also a massive plus in my opinion.
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They went with the bites purely because they needed cool abilities for the players to unlock through the skill trees, and they came up with one that allows you to reduce chances of infection down to no chance at all by using your fists. The only way to make sense out of that is by stating you're knocking their teeth out.

So, to summarize, it was purely out of convenience.

 
They went with the bites purely because they needed cool abilities for the players to unlock through the skill trees, and they came up with one that allows you to reduce chances of infection down to no chance at all by using your fists. The only way to make sense out of that is by stating you're knocking their teeth out.
So, to summarize, it was purely out of convenience.
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Unrelated, but I tried out the brawling skill tree....the frequency with which I got infected probably dropped 5-15%...It's still the birds that infect me 70% of the time, dogs 10% of the time, and 10% of the time its a zombie that hits me from behind while mining or fell thru a roof or something (despite looking)....I suppose it's been decent for the 10% of the time that i get hit while actually facing the zombie that manages to hit me.

screw those birds though...

 
Unrelated, but I tried out the brawling skill tree....the frequency with which I got infected probably dropped 5-15%...It's still the birds that infect me 70% of the time, dogs 10% of the time, and 10% of the time its a zombie that hits me from behind while mining or fell thru a roof or something (despite looking)....I suppose it's been decent for the 10% of the time that i get hit while actually facing the zombie that manages to hit me.
screw those birds though...
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Yeah, the vultures are one of the biggest problems early game due to this reason. God forbid you end up like me in my 1st A18 game, and avoid them at all costs. I've found that constantly backing up at normal speed while being chased by one is enough to avoid their attacks indefinitely until you manage to kill it.

 
Actually it might not be that hard to implement. You have death animation - essentially ragdoll for player. And when you die, you can clearly see zombies eating your corpse. What if there was chance to knock a player down and zombie starts the eating animation, except in this case, camera would stay in player and not switch to 3D.

You could then use kick or something to get rid of zombie, or you would have to switch for handgun/knife to kill the zombie like in Left 4 dead. The more zombies are around the more dangerous, because you can not get up until you shot/stabbed all of them. This would make zombies ♥♥♥♥load more dangerous.

Larger stronger zombies would have higher chance to knock you down and heavy armor would decrease this chance somewhat (it might make scrap armor actually viable early game). Attacks from behind might be almost garuanteed knock down, what would make everyone watch their 6.

There could be perks for example in agility, that would decrease this chance. Or something like taekwondo - have a chance when a zombie would knock you down that he gets knocked down instead. That would be cool.

 
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