MMORPG Idea (Pretty Long)

[ETEl2NAL407]

I'm sure lots of ideas are floating around this forum and probably some are very similar to mine, but I haven't searched (shame on me), so here's my idea.

I'd follow a storyline that Richtofen gained control of the zombies and began laying waste to the world, but the original characters fought back and ended up creating an army of survivors to combat Richtofen and his zombies. This is where the MMO aspect fits into the storyline as you'd play a character that you design who is simply living in this zombie-filled apocalyptic world.

I'd seperate the original characters into factions for character choice, i.e. Do you want to join Nikolai's faction and receive bonuses for drinking perks/using potions and have a higher resistance to zombie infection? Or do you want to join Dempsey's faction and gain a bonus to your weapon skills/have easier access to gaining different weapons, etc.. I'd give the different factions "racial" trait bonuses like we see in RPGs.

You would perform the normal RPG-esque "speak to this person, do this quest for them, gain experience/special items" stuff, but gameplay would be in the style of FPS. There would be "safe" zones around the world in which survivors inhabit and create villages so you can replenish ammo, purchase perk-a-colas (potions), guns, etc.. but there would also be combat areas or infested zones where ammo is few and far between and perk-a-colas don't exist for purchase. The zombie hordes would not be infinite, but they would still be numerous enough that your encounters in the combat zones could still fill you with that intense panic.

Furthermore, how much more intense would it be to have traveled deep into a combat zone only to realize that you didn't bring enough ammo to finish the job and now must decide to either venture forward, hoping the end to your quest is near or that an ammo cache is around the corner, or try to escape out of the combat zone to sanctuary using your last rounds to fight your way out?

The world would have a true sense of supply shortage in that ammo is scarce and the perk-a-colas that you stock up on would only last for a given amount of time, they'd be taken like health/magic potions and give you a slowly declining progress bar to indicate how much time you had before said perk expired. Of course, this would be directly tied to a trait that could be advanced with gaining levels, i.e. at Level 1, standard perks (players would have options to purchase more advanced perks that last longer for higher monetary values) last 5 minutes, at Level 20 standard perks last 15 minutes or longer if you decide to devote all your skill points to that trait.

Other traits might include things like movement speed, dodge ability, base health/hit points, AI detection (stealth), weapon accuracy, melee strength, revive speed (only useful in co-op MMO) etc.. Perhaps you all have some ideas for more?

In excess of the traits that you would assign points to with each level gain, I'd also include some extra bonuses every few levels or for achieving certain milestones, like killing your first 1,000 zombies or reaching level 5 without getting downed/infected. These achievements, which would be tied in with the PSN Trophies/XBL Achievements, would grant your character a permanent augmentation to use throughout the game like a weapon attachment (red dot/ACOG sight, grenade launcher, fore grip, etc..), permanent multipliers to ammo pickups, or extra quest unlocks.

As for the MMO portion...Simple, really. The quests can be done with help either from higher level players or not. Experience would be split when enlisting help from other players, so it should only be used in dire circumstances, i.e. you ran out of ammo in the middle of a quest. Couldn't I just ask for player help and have them gift/trade me ammo? NO. Ammo, perk-a-colas, and acheivement bonuses would be untradeable. However, we could work in a crafting system and give players the ability to obtain a special weapon that would harvest 115 from zombies which they could then use to craft wonder weapons and trade.

The part that would define the MMO, though, would be a Turned Arena. Say you go down on a quest and no one is there to revive you. Well, this is an RPG so you don't get a game over screen, instead you become a zombie and fall under Richtofen's control, but being the twisted sport that he is, he holds an arena for Zombie combat and victors can either advance in Zombie level or have their humanity restored, surrendering all ammo and perks. Zombie combat would be just hysteric melees on the low levels, but if a player decided to advance their Zombie level the combat would become much more interesting...

It would eventually evolve from scratching with the trigger buttons (much like the Turned mode now) to performing fighting game-esque button combos to perform more intricate and detailed moves. If a player were to advance far enough in the Arena, movement speed and ultimate combos (like fatalities in MK-increasing in gore respectively with level) would be unlocked granting another achievement, permanent gains to their zombie level (so they can return to human form and retain their progress as a Zombie) and eventually the ability to leave the Arena and venture in and out of combat zones to flex your Zombie muscles and cause havoc on human players. This would fit into the storyline as Richtofen being so impressed with how you deal out death that he grants you Free Will. It would be almost like a whole other game while Turned and if a human player manages to put you down as a Zombie, you'd just respawn.

Achievements would exist for high level Zombies who put down players as well as players who put down high level Zombies and Zombies could also claim ammo/perks from fallen humans and save these for a return to Human form. So, a human player financially challenged who needs to get some ammo/perks could use the Turned Arena to farm if they had skills enough to bring down some human players.

That's the jist of my idea for an MMORPG Zombies. What does everyone think? Cool? Lame? Does this inspire some more ideas? What are they?

Disclaimer: If you're Treyarch or another developer and really like this idea, I don't want money if you make it, but I do want a free copy and possibly a god mode code :)

[Supernova4351]

This is amazing. Good job for taking the time to do this!

I would play this all the time, if this was made.

[ThrowAmonkeyBomb]

This is a ridiculously good post, you sure its your idea and not a leaked game? Great job,your an amazing user my friend :)

[ETEl2NAL407]

Lol...Yes it's my idea! Now I did borrow some ideas from other games like Fallout 3, obviously CoD: Zombies, and RPG's, but those are all games I adore, so why not have them smashed into one game? Who really wants to get up and change discs anyways?

Thanks, WKZ...I truly appreciate your praise. You rock too, man! :D

[ThrowAmonkeyBomb]

Lol...Yes it's my idea! Now I did borrow some ideas from other games like Fallout 3, obviously CoD: Zombies, and RPG's, but those are all games I adore, so why not have them smashed into one game? Who really wants to get up and change discs anyways?

Thanks, WKZ...I truly appreciate your praise. You rock too, man!

If only someone from treyarch would see this!BTW,how would gameplay fuction?would kiting exist?just wondering

[ETEl2NAL407]

I would want the gameplay to function very similarly to the Zombies we love, so, yes, kiting would be one way, but the waves would not be continuous. So, if an area you were exploring or questing in had say 100 zombies, they'd all come at you, you could kite them up, slay them, but then you'd be free to explore until you access another area.

Some areas would have jump scares as well, so there'd be a lot more strategy than just kiting them all up and slaying. Players could invest skill points into stealth (something never seen in any CoD Zombies) and if they invest enough points zombies might not even see them sneak through the areas. Without stealth, though, players may have to be weary which areas they access as some areas might have stronger Zombies and if the player's skill doesn't match the Zombies' skill, they might get swarmed and go down.

If you take the best RPG's and dungeon crawlers and mix them with FPS Zombies, you get this game idea. Pretty epic, if you ask me.

[ThrowAmonkeyBomb]

I would want the gameplay to function very similarly to the Zombies we love, so, yes, kiting would be one way, but the waves would not be continuous. So, if an area you were exploring or questing in had say 100 zombies, they'd all come at you, you could kite them up, slay them, but then you'd be free to explore until you access another area.

Some areas would have jump scares as well, so there'd be a lot more strategy than just kiting them all up and slaying. Players could invest skill points into stealth (something never seen in any CoD Zombies) and if they invest enough points zombies might not even see them sneak through the areas. Without stealth, though, players may have to be weary which areas they access as some areas might have stronger Zombies and if the player's skill doesn't match the Zombies' skill, they might get swarmed and go down.

If you take the best RPG's and dungeon crawlers and mix them with FPS Zombies, you get this game idea. Pretty epic, if you ask me.

Amazing idea. the only thing that worries me,is that cod zombies isnt very "realistic" if you get my drift but all in all,excellent post 8-) (I LOVE emoticons )

[TheKingOfToast]

Sounds a lot like Dead Island to me.

[Kwasa]

ALL OF MY MONEY! This is an amazing idea. My only concerns are what kind of max level content would there be? Would it be similar to Borderlands 2, where you just try to gear up and fight a big powerful boss like Terramorphus? Or would it be like a real MMO with dungeons and raids? If the latter, what could the bosses possibly be? I see Brutus, Richtofen, and George Romero as raid bosses but can't think of any others. Maybe Maxis? I dunno, but this is still an awesome idea, and I would easily pay a lot for a game like this.

[ETEl2NAL407]

It would definitely be more like a real MMO with dungeons and raids.

We could probably throw some bosses in, but in order to make them fit the storyline, I don't know if George or Brutus would work. Even though, an exciting thing to imagine in this world is that some Zombies may have mutated or evolved higher intelligence and Richtofen may have granted some Free Will, so we could see Boss Zombies that have evolved to be more powerful, larger, or even learned how to wield guns...Oh shit.

Boss zombies might even team up with other free-willed zombies and create their own faction. They become renegade zombies and cause tons of problems for players. There's a ton that could be done with a game like this, the possibilities are nearly endless.

[ZombieOfTheDead]

How was this ignored for 3 months? This would be awesome!

[Oldmate]

Sounds great, but I'm a bit confused. You have recently put together a piece on how you think zombies is straying too far from the basic formula, and that it takes too long to get into the slaying.

This sounds like you'd like them to completely re-invent our beloved COD zombies.

Seems a little conflicted, but maybe it's just me.

[A11 L1V3S L0ST]

This. Is. Beautiful.