ZOMBIE FEEDBACK

[Defcon4]

God bless Fritigern for suggesting a "The Thing" themed event/gamemode.

[SnakeEater14]

But that would just be normal SS13 Changeling?

[Crab_Spider]

But that would just be normal SS13 Changeling?

Changelings are very different from The Thing

[SnakeEater14]

I suppose so. Changelings do have a lot more special abilities and evolutions, although I would wager the overall atmosphere and vibe of the mode would not be dissimilar.

[spicemoron]

It's shit.
Really shit.

If the intention was to make an antagonist with a perfect win rate (if they get the mandated admin assistance) then it's a success, but as something that's supposed to be an actual game mode it's completely broken.

Fighting an enemy that isn't much of a threat by itself, but can only be defeated by constructing gay baby jails (that admins promptly break) is not fun.

Being a very slow moving human that is only a threat because the marines eventually run out of ammo is not fun. Nor is being put in gay baby jail. Nor is staring at your corpse as you wait to resurrect (or being stuck in critical limbo since zombies are just slow humans and suffer from bloodloss).

[Trench007]

It's shit.
Really shit.

If the intention was to make an antagonist with a perfect win rate (if they get the mandated admin assistance) then it's a success, but as something that's supposed to be an actual game mode it's completely broken.

Fighting an enemy that isn't much of a threat by itself, but can only be defeated by constructing gay baby jails (that admins promptly break) is not fun.

Being a very slow moving human that is only a threat because the marines eventually run out of ammo is not fun. Nor is being put in gay baby jail. Nor is staring at your corpse as you wait to resurrect (or being stuck in critical limbo since zombies are just slow humans and suffer from bloodloss).

Perhaps if zombies were buffed and could permanently die, the actual fun of the game-mode might significantly improve.

[Kesserline]

Personnally, I really like the feeling at the beginning of the round and the first part of the game after the deployment.

As a roleplayer, it's fucking amazing and panicking when you understand that the situation is going completly off control, people going infected, the staff on the ship going crazy when the infection spread onto it. But, if the feeling is there, you can't really roleplay as you have no time. If you are not on the frontlines helping your buddies, they die and you get stomped in your ass. If you hold the frontlines, you are shortly out of ammo, and you get stomped in your ass.

Compared to normal rounds when, where you are injured, you can still roleplay your way. Thanking the docs, cursing your mates, cursing the enemies, reporting the last intel you can before dying while shitting yourself, you can't here. If you get injured, you can just roleplay your infection for 2 minutes and then, finished.

As a player, I liked the marine part, not the zombie part. For me, the core of this gamemod is the ability to RP. At least, the aliens can roleplay (a little) or memetheshit, but whatever, there is a goal : kill all the oomans. As a marine, if you want to be useful and help your mates, you have to empty your ammo way to fast and die. Or be useless and hide, and then die 5 minutes later because the frontlines are breached your ass is the next on the TO-DO list.

Moreover, compared to normal round, you can't achieve anything. When you kill a Rav, or a mature Crusher you can feel : "Yeah, I fucking helped my team. Even if I died like a dipshit just after, I didn't go without a fight". Here, you just die, like a dipshit.

To sum up :
- Ambient/Feeling : 10/10
- RP : 6/10
- Gameplay : 4/10

[Omicega]

Infection is fun IF you play a ground/marine role and IF your squad is in a roleplay mood and IF you manage to have close encounters without actually becoming infected for a decent period of time and IF you get lucky with how the round unfolds towards you in general. If you don't meet any of those criteria, it honestly feels like pulling teeth and dragging your heels for over an hour wondering when the fun will finally begin, only to realise it passed you by long, long ago.

I can't speak for what playing a zombie is like, but it looks unbelievably boring and that's in fact the main reason for why I haven't bothered to try. Furthermore, the mode itself is a colossal time-waster: it takes anywhere up to 20 minutes before roundstart to set everything up, followed by another 30-35ish for briefing and deployment, and then maybe ANOTHER 15-20 minutes for actual contact to play out and the whole 'zombie' thing to even begin manifesting itself. Furthermore, recent infection rounds have felt much more 'gameplay' oriented than roleplay oriented, but not in a good way. I'm talking about minimising the actual organic/roleplay parts of the round in exchange for 'better' strategies, like building a quarantine and reducing more or less all of medbay to nothing more than a glorified conveyor belt to ferry people into said quarantine until the staff decide it's time to open the floodgates. It becomes less about trying to approach the situation with any form of organic or unplanned roleplay and more like playing to a formula - something that works with regular CM because the game is clearly designed for it and the 'formula' assures that more or less everyone gets something fun to do.

Infection is extremely niche compared to regular CM, has horrendously long quiet periods compared to a regular round, and offers much less actual gameplay for each player across the board, especially for some roles (doctors and the poor guys in req come to mind specifically. Medics get away without losing any 'fun' because they can just roleplay normally but play like a PFC). Honestly, about the only thing I can say in favour of it is that it only seems to pop up once or twice a week, at least for my timezone, so I don't end up wasting too much of my time waiting for it to go away. It's something of a testament to how boring, samey, and stale it is already (speaking as someone who's only played three full infection rounds and one partial one) that I'd rather play more or less any other game mode or map offered than Infection in its current state, which is a huge shame considering how much work and effort has obviously gone into making it a thing.

I guess it's still better than Whiskey Outpost, though.

[misto]

heres some additional suggestion simplified off my

1. make zombi stronger and faster

2. gets back up faster too

3. infection proceeds faster in infected people

4. in exchange for all these buffs to make being a zombie remotely interesting, allow marines ways to finally pulverize/burn bodies into nothingness successfully killing the zombie permanently

youre just playing out the same infection round 3-hour-movie script over and over currently. marines land, zombie shit happens, a couple hours later a horde of zombies inevitably hop on a DS and the almayer gets fucked. you need a way for the players to actually have the fate of the round in their hands. whats that you say? if some medical researcher jumps thru enough hoops for you you might spawn the cure? and the rest of the playerbase can suck it up and die uselessly accomplishing nothing? come on

[Szunti]

When zombies reach crit they should just die instead. It's really boring to wait 4-5 minutes to heal from crit then go back again due to a single bullet. The best strategy for marines is to keep you in crit forever and deny the full health regeneration.