Making Zombies more Skillful

[milkjuggernogs]

It should be noted that I am a huge fan of zombies, and have been playing since the WaW days.

Around the beginning of Black Ops, I started to become bored with zombies. I couldn't quite put my finger on why I became less into zombies, but nonetheless, I was losing interest. The answer came to me while I was playing some Halo multiplayer (I know, traitor). I wasn't being challenged anymore. With each new map pack release, I would get hyped, but then end up disappointed. It wasn't that Treyarch was doing a bad job making the maps, it was just that they were so easy to master, I wasn't having fun playing anymore. I'm the type of person that likes to excel at everything I do, so naturally a lot of thought goes into how I can perform a task the best that it can possibly be done. The thing was, on a map like Ascension, I had it figured out in less than a day. Get thundergun, get raygun/mustang and sally, buy flopper and jug, run trains. I hit the skill ceiling of zombies so quickly and easily that it stopped becoming fun. Bunch the zombies up, blast them with the thundergun, rinse and repeat. Point management, playing safe, and all the other things I thought were meaningful really weren't because that was the strategy on every map. Even on Moon, the biggest map yet, the game devolves to the same old running circles in the dome, although you can basically have unlimited ammo with hacking powerups. 90% of the map is unused space, and to me, that seems wrong. Why not just make the map a circle if that's all the game is going to be? Each room and section of the map should, IMO, be unique and offer different and versatile strategies that teams can set up on. This way the meta-game never stops evolving and new rounds are constantly being reached.

Now, you're probably wondering, how can zombies possibly be altered to be made more skillful? Well, the AI can't really be changed at this point as I feel that would change the feel of zombies too much, and it would all together play like a different game that would turn people off.

One idea I've always had was a gamemode called Competition Mode. It would just be standard zombies, but at the bottom of your screen would be a timer that counts down from 1 hour. The goal would be to get as far as possible in 1 hour. Now you're most likely thinking, how will this possibly make the game more skillful. Well, it won't necessarily make the game harder to play, but what it will do is put pressure on players to not sit back and breeze through rounds running trains, but play zombies aggressively and get up in the faces of the zombies. If the objective is to get as far as possible in an hour, you not only can't take breaks for things like crawlers, but you'll need to have team communication and really use teamwork to end rounds as quickly as possible.

Think of all the possible strategies that could come from this. Is it most advantageous to sit in the spawn room and try and kill them quickly while you only have one window to worry about? What happens when you get to a high round and it is now taking too long to kill the zombies? Should you keep certain areas of the map closed, so that zombie spawns won't be so spread out? When should you buy perks? What perks do you need?

The limitless possibilities of this gamemode is what excites me the most about it. Now the game doesn't devolve into running circles, as that wouldn't be conducive of getting to a high round in a short amount of time. Before, you had all the time in the world, now you have to go out and get it done quick.

What do you think?

P.S. Sorry for any grammar errors I may have made, I didn't proofread any of this, and it was kind of made on a whim.

[NZheadshot1]

One idea I've always had was a gamemode called Competition Mode. It would just be standard zombies, but at the bottom of your screen would be a timer that counts down from 1 hour. The goal would be to get as far as possible in 1 hour.

This is probably the coolest idea for a game mode I've seen. I really hope they add something like this to the final game

[brains] for you good sir!

[Kill_All_Monkeys]

That is actually a really cool idea. You deserve [brains] 's.

[complexinvalid]

Normally I think the majority of ideas on this forum are dumb but you got something there. Even worse than running trains is people on YouTube posting videos of them running trains like it's an acquired skill lol

[deathb4di2h0nor]

I found myself saying all of this, at about the same time. I began on challenges that me and my friends made up. No Jugg. Pistol only. KNIFE ONLY ...challenges. Even these became boring. I used to think it was the atmosphere that brought me to zombies, but when I went to BO from WAW, I knew that wasn't it. It was the challenge. And once that is taken away...well...you are stuck in a continuous loop. Every map is different, and yet, exactly the same. Sorry if I am just randomly throwing things out there, but I completely agree with you.

I like your idea. With BO2 already confirmed to have new game modes, I could see this being used. I would also like to see a map that is impossible to run circles in, and includes a George type zombie to prevent camping. Picture Shangri-La, but with a boss anti-camper type zombie. Shangri-la would have been perfect if they didn't make it so easy to see where you can stand without having zombies spawning ahead of you. (example: the mouth of the cave, next to the bridge.) You can pretty much stand there the whole time, no problem. If there was a George type zombie, Shangri-la would have been much harder.

[MrShortKhop793]

Smart I hope this makes it into the game, if not I think this can start a good habit, I will try to get people to be more aggressive when I look for matches, and for this website I think a teammates finder/aggressive play or playstyles fourm/ thingy would be a good idea for this site, [brains]