Halloween Update

[south]

Zombie scope? Zombie vision goggles? Cool idea, but might have to be on the expensive / rarely dropped side? But...as you know... I am biased.

[Dr. Bob]

Not a bad idea. That's primarily what I use zombie blood for

[P. E. Logos]

I'm really looking forward to this! From what I've heard, it's going to be a blast. My halloween plans actually involve this event. That said, is there a particular timeframe you're looking at? Timezones are different and such. I need time to prepare!

[v.o.c]

im not 100% but i think from around 5pm ville time cst, but dont quote me on it

[Dog]

Yep
5pm CST until 8am next morning CST

[The Weasel]

Mr. John Wayne and myself are planning on being on server IX (San Diego). Yep, sounds like a hoot! What better way of spending Holloween night?!!!! Love the ideas floating around. Especially the parachute drop! I get awfully tired doing all that running! LOL!!

[south]

I'll be there, too. "Hurry up dern kids, Daddy's got helmets waitin'"

[Aardvark Ratnick]

Gotta tell you that the zombie skeleton gets old real quick. He is too fast. His attack rate is too fast. And he is too tough. Plus he is a loner so to speak. He is frequently ahead or separate from the pack. While you deal with a pack in one direction he is flanking you in another. On low population servers he upsets the game play majorly. When he charges you you can't switch weapons fast enough to kill him sometimes. And his reaction time is damn near instantaneous. And as a human playing skeleton the most effective way to play him is the most obnoxious way. I call it griefing since it does nothing but cause grief and bad feelings. You really don't have to even attempt to cap flags or kill people. You can just jump in, on a flag cap, make a few half heated slashes then jump out. The person gets credit for a flag defense and the counter for the cap starts over. He can just repeat this over and over again. And if he has company he becomes so much more difficult to kill and cap the flag. Don't know what else to tell you about him. He looses his fun after playing just 1 map for me. Some suggestions that might help remedy this.

1) Bullets have to do something to him. It doesn't have to hurt but there needs to be some sort of effect. Positive effect for the allies.

2) slow him down. Both his run/walk speed and his attack speed.

3) to prevent griefing he doesn't reset the flag cap counter. He just stops it. that way he will be forced to clear all players from the flag to reset the flag.

4) make him more expensive to play

5) make him worth more game me points when killed.

[Rico[CotC]]

Gotta tell you that the zombie skeleton gets old real quick. He is too fast. His attack rate is too fast. And he is too tough. Plus he is a loner so to speak. He is frequently ahead or separate from the pack. While you deal with a pack in one direction he is flanking you in another. On low population servers he upsets the game play majorly. When he charges you you can't switch weapons fast enough to kill him sometimes. And his reaction time is damn near instantaneous. And as a human playing skeleton the most effective way to play him is the most obnoxious way. I call it griefing since it does nothing but cause grief and bad feelings. You really don't have to even attempt to cap flags or kill people. You can just jump in, on a flag cap, make a few half heated slashes then jump out. The person gets credit for a flag defense and the counter for the cap starts over. He can just repeat this over and over again. And if he has company he becomes so much more difficult to kill and cap the flag. Don't know what else to tell you about him. He looses his fun after playing just 1 map for me. Some suggestions that might help remedy this.

1) Bullets have to do something to him. It doesn't have to hurt but there needs to be some sort of effect. Positive effect for the allies.

2) slow him down. Both his run/walk speed and his attack speed.

3) to prevent griefing he doesn't reset the flag cap counter. He just stops it. that way he will be forced to clear all players from the flag to reset the flag.

4) make him more expensive to play

5) make him worth more game me points when killed.

It is precisely those reasons that make him fun to play, and play against. I LOVE playing against a human Skeleton. I will run to meet that guy every time. But you know me - I hunt the humans when they are on the map.

Skeleton is the only zombie I like to play. It totally suits my playing style to run that zombie. And on Colmar, where it's totally dark? AWESOME.

They don't make any sound. Also awesome. The challenge is great, and I'm a huge fan of this new zombie - even more than the UNG. I loved the UNG when it first came out, too.

[v.o.c]

1) Bullets have to do something to him. It doesn't have to hurt but there needs to be some sort of effect. Positive effect for the allies.

2) slow him down. Both his run/walk speed and his attack speed.

3) to prevent griefing he doesn't reset the flag cap counter. He just stops it. that way he will be forced to clear all players from the flag to reset the flag.

4) make him more expensive to play

5) make him worth more game me points when killed.

Myself i think both the Bot and Human skeleton are pretty much perfect. The jumping in to stop a cap is not the only way to play him but it is the most productive, you need to think about how to play. you can just run around stabbing but life expectancy would be low, he is remarkably easy to kill. Even the Bot i have way more kills on him than he as on me. As for the price i'd swap him with wraith and let people play him for free.

[<eVa> + Sarge +]

The Skeleton is perfect. It costs $150 a pop, which is a lot. Myself, Carrot and Rico have pissed away all our money playing it. The price will keep people from playing it too much.

Like Carrot said it is actually very easy to kill. That is why you have to keep moving or your $150 is gone quick. It seems hard to kill because the people who have had the opportunity to play it have become very effective with it. The Skeleton only slows down the inevitable Allied cap-out.
The human controlled Skeleton can get himself into trouble when triple jumping and hitting the invisible walls and then landing straight into a pile o' Allies waiting on him.

The Bot Skeleton is harder to kill IMO. It comes right at you forcing you to make a quick switch to knife after just shooting the reg Zombies. It is hard for sure.

To quote Tom Hank's character Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own..

"It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great."

[Rico[CotC]]

One other thing - as an Allied player, I have MANY times sacrificed myself to prevent zombie cap by running into the cap zone to prevent capping.

The zombies doing it is no different.

[Dr. Bob]

Is it possible to make the skeleton not switch targets? The UNG encourages team play because one person can lead the UNG while the others run at him. Take a jab at the skeleton and he whips around and nearly kills you. I think that would help significantly, because he does get a little frustrating to play against.

Again, I don't have any complaints about the human skeleton. He keeps the allies moving and I really think he adds a new (and balanced) dynamic. That bot, however, irks me every time. He can kill you before you can get a knife out. He can come with a horde of green dudes and you'll stab every zombie before him. And running really isn't an option from the bot skeleton. I think having him lock on to one player might really help all of that though.

[Dog]

I have reduced the health of the skeleton a little. I think he's just a little too overpowered.
Last night I was playing him and was able to slaughter Allies bunched up.

I'll look at getting the bot to lock on to targets.

I also changed the Infected One's sprite. It doesn't flicker any more and looks more like an Allied player.

[Dog]

Nerfed skeleton for the haters.
It is now susceptible to explosion damage. Health is also lower and head shot damage is restored. Human skeletons still shouldn't have issues since they can jump in and out, but the poor old bot skeleton, I will have to monitor. Having said that, I have upped to speed to normal (it was slower than average infected)
*sigh*

Also added Bob's suggestion of getting to parachute quicker in menu.

And trying to fix an issue with the Wraith. Logos is keeping me informed