Your Feelings About The Future Of Zombies.

[Rissole25]

I noticed they seemed to promote rushing through things quickly. Buried's LSAT PaP'd R1, and Die Rise's facing the dragon early, screamed using the bank. Even pre-bank Die Rise it was still achieveable. Now I don't mind these kind of achievements, but only when they're like Ascension's PaP before R8. It's not too early of a round, not too late of a round, but still challenging. That promotes maximising points, points distribution, and doing things you wouldn't normally do.

We need more achievements like that, and Buried's Survive in the maze for a round past R20

[GameChanger]

The way I see it, the Next Game needs to push forward, but make sure to look back. I don't know about you, but I don't want to play the same version of Zombies over and over. I want FRESH content!It's frightening to take risks, but so much great things can result from it. The main problem with BO2 Zombies was that it felt "gimmicky". TranZit clearly didn't belong on current gen consoles, Die Rise had plain horrible and confusing map design, and Buried cranked the easiness up to an 11. The story is also completely messed up, with no way to make heads or tails of anything at this point. What BO3 needs to do is simply take advatange of next-gen's power, take risks in design mechanics but don't make them a hassle to deal with, and FOCUS ON THE STORY. We're (well most of us) are interested in the TranZit 4. There's so many unresolved questions and subplots. How is Russman still alive? What is "the incident"? What's the status on the Marlton and Misty relationship? Who's The Flesh? What exactly is Broken Arrow? How did each of the characters meet (besides at the Bus Depot)? Why do I have to ask all these questions? BO3 needs to make sure the Zombies story is wrapped up without too many loose ends, and we're golden.

[Stop Mocking Me0]

"The night is always darkest before morn…"  -Some wise guy

 

Not going to lie, when you look at WAW and ESPECIALLY black ops, BO2 was complete trash… I would choose to play BO1 maps over all of the BO2 maps (grief, turned, and survival included). But does that mean I hate the zombies series? No…. Not by a long shot…. All we need is to shift the story into high gear and knock every doubting and disappointing fan out of the park, which should be 1000 times easier with the Xbox 1/PS4/Steambox or whatever. Need an example: GO look my Countdown list, any of the 10 will do, but I prefer the final one. 

 

Things we need to have : 

 

PHD trolls-gone: Not funny, the only reason they were acceptable in BO1 was due to the M2 and perma-flopper. 

 

Customizable box pulls: would be so cool, you could change around a few of your box weapons, although all the weapons work generally the same- (note this can also lead to earn able weapons!) your perma perks, your starting pistol (m1911, Mauser, ect.), and a whole slew of things!

 

BRING BACK WONDERFIZZ: jesus that machine is long over due! 

 

Upgradable perks: Not for all perks (looking at jugg) but some perks: Stamin up: runs faster and longer, mule kick-four weapons: Note, you have to WORK for these upgrades, they're not just buyable things you can go to the bank to work with.

 

Bank needs to be redone: WAY too OP, perhaps you can put in infinite points, but can't withdraw them, and instead can use them to purchase new guns for your box?

 

Weapon's locker does not need to be changed, that worked fantastically. 

 

Infinitely powerful wonder weapons: BO2 dropped the ball on this one… These things MAKE the game… 

 

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GET A BETTER STORY AND SOMETHING LESS REPETITIVE THEN POWERING TOWERS!- nuff said...

[Speedo Cola]

I think they should add more doors like someone said earlier, and I think they should make it more like BO1 in the sense of secrets. You know, more mini EE's and radios, something like Der Riese or Moon. I also like the scarier scenery and more interesting scenery from BO1 as well. The wonder weapons intrigued me and traps were awesome, too. However, I don't want a complete transition back.                

I liked a lot of what BO2 had to offer, such as Solo Leaderboards and buildables. But I want to have less of a reliance needed on buildables. They're good to use, but when you have to have them to do good, it gets really annoying. Also, I liked the innovation behind the RGM2, making a second version of a weapon. I'd like to see more of that on the next installment. What really intrigued me, however, was the Blundergat. I'd love to see other ways to upgrade weapons again, such as the acid kit from MOTD. I also enjoyed the hidden weapons from that map, more of that please. NTZ (may have been my idea btw) was awesome, I'd love to see more crossovers, such as Hijacked or Plaza. Some maps like that are fun to take a break from the story. The EE's were boring in my opinion, and the story should've been more in-deph. I liked being able to travel/teleport to new areas of the map, and the enemies were great. Grief brought fun with it's twist, while Turned sorta failed. I liked the idea behind extra modes, however. I'd like to see some new ones with dedicated, special maps.

I'd also like for there to be a way to play 2/3 player games with your friends and it still count, and if someone leaves for rounds to still keep recording (give those who leave round in which they left.) Theater was great, I'd like to be able to stream or record more with next-gen advanced features. I'd also like to have maps get cut into pieces for survival again, it made it fun for practicing in smaller areas, and was fun for shorter games. I want vehicles to return as well. Now that Eminem is in a partnership with Call Of Duty, I'd like to see them make use of his talent with EE songs. He's a lyrical genius, for heavens sake! So there's no telling what subliminal messages he could write up for zombies, plus his music is typically pumping. I still want some rock music, though, and that Johnny Cash track was great! Maybe they could throw in another Skrillex track as well. Perks were alright, hopefully they get more creative in the next release though. 

I hope they put my dream in: pro-perks. They'd need to make them insanely expensive though, and only purchaseable after like Round 55. I could imagine going up to a machine and getting a needle to inject the pro perk into you. It'd be great. I also liked the bank and weapon locker, please bring them back unchanged. They're fine as they are. I like the PAP functionality they added, and I'd like to be able to continue upgrading weapons after the first PAP by using other means like the acid kit (only to make stronger, keep attachment functionality on PAP machine.) I also want a couple new powerups, and the skinning thing was awesome! I want more of that, as well as skin packs (Imagine it Treyarch, its a win-win situation! You make loads of money, and we get something we love!) Maps with their own PAP camo was awesome too, I'd love a random camo machine to waste cash on to make my gun look good. I also want to see challenges and digging come back. Perma-perks were awesome, please keep doing that. I also want more maps, without sacrificing the quality of them. Perhaps 2 per DLC, one storyline related, and one not? Idk. I also want more traps, that are upgradeable again. I also want to start off playing as at least one of the O4 if not all, however, I want to return to the N4, and see Weasel again. Maybe even the "FIVE" crew as well? Idk, but I know it'll be a good release. Since Sledgehammer recently revealed they're making the next COD game, that gives Treyarch more time to work, and they may even make a new engine in that time! Who knows?! I hope it's a zombies-only game though. That'd be awesome.

Sent from my WunderWaffe using Maxis Wireless ©

[ZombieOfTheDead]

Sent from my WunderWaffe using Maxis Wireless ©

The wall of text! It burns us! 

[Speedo Cola]

The wall of text! It burns us! 

Sry I was on mobile. I'll fix it lol

[Chopper]

Please try not to re quote the wall of text....now there are 2 :)

[Stop Mocking Me0]

Back on topic, YES! More doors, in buried, tranzit, and die rise a good 80% of the map is open to you before round 4, in die rise, moon, kino, you WORKED for your placement, none of this open area shiz...

[Onlyzombiestanding]

zombies needs to go to its core. but the BO2 zombies modes should stay

[Stop Mocking Me0]

Thats kind of a contradiction… but ok… 

[Nemesis_96]

Grief should definitely stay, I actually quite enjoyed that.

Turned though... No... NoooO

[The Clay Bird]

My feelings for zombies future are somewhat nervous.

 

If BO3 is the same as BO2, they will kill zombies for a large part of the active community.

No-one I know bothers with BO2 anymore, they are all back on BO1.

 

The main issue is re-playability.  That might seem a contradiction but let me explain further.

 

Zombies will of course always have re-playability.  An endless survival mode with no way to win; in it's nature promotes replaying the game over and over again, to beat your highest score.

 

However, when applied to BO2 model what that led to was frustration from players at the elite level, being limited in how far they could by whichever script error ends their game.  If you know that you can't go past say level 120 on Die Rise before the patch, or level 105ish on Origins, what's the point?

 

Then we come to the buildables.  I'm sure they can be fun, I know they can.  An attempt was made to move away from the original feel of zombies, and give I suppose a more winnable, or completionable (why isn't that a word!) factor.  Winning would be completing an Easter Egg, the completion part would be finally upgrading a staff for instance.

 

In itself, there is nothing wrong with that.  However, WAW came out over 4 years ago, and got people the first taste.  BO followed it 1 years later, or 3 1/2 years ago.  People had been playing zombies for 3 years before BO2 came out, and turned it all on it's head.  People literally make their living from this game, not that many, but some do.  Then you have all the youtubers and twitchers who do it for fun.  I have made maybe 5 videos since BO2 came out that I cared about, and I hate them compared to what I did on BO.

 

Regarding the buildables, when someone is going to sit there and play a game for up to 50 hours, and many do when aiming for the insta kill rounds, they have no interest in building something.  I know this group is a real small percentage of the actual customers, but they make most of the videos that the majority watch on youtube, and it's that group that IMO leads a lot of people to come to sites like this, to develop their own skills and learn to get better.

 

I can't be the only one who noticed that the strategic aspect of this site pretty much died on release of BO2.  It just wasn't the same.

 

As a suggestion going forward, I would say that there are ways to appease everyone.

 

I'm going to take Origins for my example.

 

There should have been 3 modes - survival, custom and story.

 

Survival should have had no EE, and the staffs available from the box.

Custom could have options turned on and off.

Story mode would be the only place to complete the EE, and the only place with buildables.

 

I would even be happy if survival mode was only unlocked after completing story mode.  But don't make me spend an hour every single time I start Origins to fully upgrade 2 staffs and get setup.

 

The biggest thing that my friends miss, is the turn on and go mentality that was on BO1 and WAW.  You start, spend 5 rounds doing whatever, get a perk or 2 and away you go.

 

I do understand what Treyarch attempted with BO2, but it was sorely misguided and pissed off a lot of people.

 

Try to get it better next time guys.

 

 

While I understand what you were getting at, If the zombies team goes about making BO3 to cater to those who go for 100+ rounds or people who make youtube $$ off it, then we will end up with a shitty game. (because that is less than 1/10 of   a % of the zombies community)

 

I agree they need to go back to the core, but only because of what made Nacht Der Untoten so fun and popular.  Its just straight up simple fun.   The more complex it becomes the more off-putting it is to most. 

 

The reason why black ops 1 is getting so much replay is because it was the perfect balance between your WaW maps and BO2 maps.  (where waw is simple with one objective basically, stay alive and BO2 is obviously designed to promote EE completion first and foremost)

 

The maps contain very little story related material outside the EE's in BO2.  In waw, it's ALL outside RR because there were no EE's as we know them now (side quests or whatever)  Again BO1 knocked it out of the park with the balance between maps standing alone on their own without an EE and then with the vvalue the EE added.

 

 

 

 

tl;dr ,  Less emphasis on EE's more emphasis on fun, but for those of us who want to do the EE's make the reward worth the effort, and make it less a priority (a la Maxis immediately telling you to start the EE at the beginning of each map)

[Zombiefaces]

Well said the clay bird

[ThrowAmonkeyBomb]

*The night is always darkest before the dawn*

P.T.

[949]

IMO zombies took a nose dive during BO2. I voted for "wary of the future" but also think it should go back to its core.  They keep trying to make bigger and bigger maps and put in all these crazy "things" (can't think of a good word to use) that are cool for like 2 games then turn into an annoyance. I think the biggest a map should be is ascension sized.  I feel like treyarch is scared that if the don't make the map "the biggest zombies map yet!!!" people wont like/buy it.  I would way rather they make a REALLY REALLY good small map, somewhere between Nacht and Der Riese, than a huge "uncool" map ex Origins, Green Run, Die rise.

[Rissole25]

Quality over Quantity.

I'm not sure Activision realize this.

This is actually weirdly ironic. Multiplayer Maps were way to small and close quarters. Zombies was way to big and open. It was nice to have the simple Nuketown in BO2.

[MysteryMachineX]

I think Zombies has grown tremendously. Sometimes they were right and sometimes they were… less right. But I always loved Treyarch's creation. I feel confident they will improve even further next time.

[Chopper]

While I understand what you were getting at, If the zombies team goes about making BO3 to cater to those who go for 100+ rounds or people who make youtube $$ off it, then we will end up with a shitty game. (because that is less than 1/10 of   a % of the zombies community)

 

I agree they need to go back to the core, but only because of what made Nacht Der Untoten so fun and popular.  Its just straight up simple fun.   The more complex it becomes the more off-putting it is to most. 

 

The reason why black ops 1 is getting so much replay is because it was the perfect balance between your WaW maps and BO2 maps.  (where waw is simple with one objective basically, stay alive and BO2 is obviously designed to promote EE completion first and foremost)

The thing is, what I suggested was not that at all.  

I suggested that for any map, they have 3 modes, allowing people to play survival only with no buildables.  Anything they can create for a map, be a buildable or objective, can be removed for a particular mode.

 

If mod tools were ever released for BO1, I could see lots more people getting gaming PCs and laptops.

[Dahniska]

I like what they did with Black Ops 2. I also liked Black Ops 1... but not as much. I'm a high rounds player, myself.

I do agree with Chopper that Black Ops 2 doesn't allow for 100+ round gameplay as much as Black Ops. The lack of traps (except Mob) and the generally low quality of Wonder/Insta-Kill weapons makes 150-round games hard to pull off on Black Ops 2. Origins is possible to do it on but the challenge is indeed whether or not your system can handle it. Mine gave me a "maximum anim info exceeded" error on Round 108. Mob of the Dead is a bit more easy to do the high rounds on.

Other than that, Buried also gives errors (or at least so I have heard - the map is too boring for me to try to find out for myself if this is true or not). Die Rise is ruined for 100+ round gameplay due to the Sliquifier patch. TranZit was hard before the Jet Gun got nerfed, now it's even worse. The other small maps (NTZ, Farm, Town, etc) can't do 100 rounds cause the strongest weapon is the Mark 2.

Despite the difficulty in getting those rounds (assuming one has the skill to do it), I enjoy the gameplay on Black Ops 2 and I agree that the game should cater more to the average player than us no-lifers. I feel like Treyarch was on the right path with Origins and Mob of the Dead. The best map style in my opinion is one that those maps embody - maps that you must earn your way through, that give you things to do and earn, that give each player a chance of having some good weaponry options no matter if one or four people are in the game and that provide fun and replayability.

When I'm playing with friends who want to go for rounds, Die Rise is usually not desired, or TranZit, or Buried. We like Mob and Origins because each person can get a share of the high-round action (Hell's Redeemer or Staffs) without sitting in a corner. These maps take skill and teamwork... which is what Zombies should be like.

On the subject of trying to make a survival mode for each map, I don't think that would be a good idea. Treyarch even gave us Town and Farm to experiment with that very concept... and they are popular. But doing that with each map would.., take away the uniqueness of that map. The work it takes to set up in Origins is what makes that map a challenge. Even trying to imagine the map without the staffs and the work of earning things you get doesn't seem right, to me. For those who want a game that takes 5 minutes to set up, Town is there. I don't think all maps should be like that. Being good at Origins means you know not only how to play Zombies, but you know how to play Origins. Origins is special because there is a lot to it... The fact that it isn't simple is what makes it unique, and having survival mode like Town would take away from that, in my opinion.

Similarly, can you imagine if you had to gather all the pieces for the Thundergun on Kino to build it on Round 2? Or if you could get the Wunderwaffe from the box on Call of the Dead? Why bother to play the map the way it was made when it would be easier if you could just get the rewards without working for them? What about the persistent perk added with Vengeance that makes you only lose one perk when you go down? Am I the only one who considers that to be something that ruins the game by taking away the challenge of getting Jug back? The challenges that each map contains, which make it time consuming to get all your stuff or reach the endgame where you have everything you want are what makes the game fun and challenging. Why would you want that taken away?

I know I shot out a wall of text there, and I'm sorry for the long read. But in the end, I'm saying I like a map that is challenging and appreciate even time-consuming, challenging maps if there are good rewards. I love the direction that was taken with Origins and Mob of the Dead and, considering that the next-gen systems have more power and should reduce the errors of high rounds, I'm confident that I will love the next Zombies game if plays similar to Black Ops 2's best maps.