Zombies

If you are picking hypothetical, fictional badness, zombies are just the worst thing that can happen — other monster movies have monster hunters. Guys who specialize in killing vampires or werewolves or whatever. But there is no such thing at zombie hunters, just survivors. Zombie numbers are mind–boggling, they have no fear, cannot be harmed in any useful way, and can only be killed in a very specific way, which is bad enough one on one, but where there’s one zombie…

Pandemic is a terrifying enough concept, and leaves its own scars on society. The big influenza outbreak of 1918 sickened enough people that you can express it in fractions, instead of merely a big number. And that just did a number on the world. Imagine something happens where the number of dead can be expressed in fractions… and then they come back to kill even more. Something like that would screw up a society for generations.

The Zombies in Fort Zombie are necromantic in origin.

There are the usual kinds of poor average souls shuffling around, but some have retained a trick or two — so there are football zombies that don’t just move towards you but will sometimes line up and try to tackle you. And there are joggers, which are about as fast as the zombies get — the rest are classic walkers from all walks of life — pun intended. Some are still holding on to tools they might have had in life and they have some idea of how to use them, like soldiers with their rifles.

The zombies are us and to a limited degree retain some of what they are, hence football players that will try to tackle you, or soldiers having some vague muscle memory about how to squeeze off a shot at you.

Zombies seek to eat living flesh with seemingly no particular preference for brains.

The bite of a Zombie is infectious, leading to eventual death and re–animation unless promptly treated at the time of infliction. However, catching the Rot is not dependent solely on physical contact with a zombie.

Dozens of Zombies, some with special abilities derived from their half–remembered lives before becoming undead!

While Head Shots will usually kill a Zombie, you should be aware that not all Zombies are restricted to moving at a shuffle — some even run.

Lack of zombie parts? How about they had them shot off earlier in the action? Rest assured that zombie parts roll about on the ground when blown off unless the damage take to the part is so high it is destroyed completely by it. Also be assured that some things may take advantage of those spare limbs laying about.

Zombies go down pretty easy — unfortunately they get back up again most times just as easy. Zombies should never beat you one on one, it is the turning around and realizing that while you have been satisfyingly beating one to real death, 6 more have surrounded you. So your violence in Fort Zombie has to be intense but also smart.

Zombies also lack object permanence, and will almost always lose interest in the player after losing line of sight. The best strategy to avoid combat is to walk most of the time, and save your stamina to jog and break line of sight with any zombies encountered. Cutting through unoccupied buildings can also help and is typically a good method of losing any pursuers. Something as simple as putting a lamppost or bus stop between you and the encroaching undead, dropping into an empty in ground swimming pool, or turning 1 corner can either make them instantly forget you exist and go back to wandering aimlessly or at least buy time to get further away.

Zombies also have limited climbing abilities, but anything they can climb over will still cause them to pause for a non insignificant amount of time, so jumping over small fences can also give you time to break line of sight and recover stamina.

Recent research on the phenomenon show indications that not all infected completely lose their mental faculties after re–animation.
Further research as to the cause of such retention is highly recommended. — Document Unknown

Die with a gun...undie with a gun. Turns out the NRA can modify their slogan. --Mecron

BTW a mine flail would be AWESOME vs zombies — I wonder how many are in stock and how spread out they are? — Mecron

Variants[]

Many variants of zombies can be encountered by the player, with some having unique abilities to make them stand out. These variants include:

• Normal Zombie: zombies with no unique abilities. They will simply charge the player and begin attacking them upon spotting them. Have many generic variants, some slightly more unique variants (the chef and the hockey player, for example), and a few location-specific variants (such as the fast food employee zombie).
• Baseball Player Zombie: wields a bat that's far more dangerous than the typical zombie attack, and can damage limbs far easier. Ranged combat is heavily advised.
• Firefighter Zombie: same as baseball zombie, except they're wielding a fire axe. Again, ranged combat is advised, as their weapon can do immense damage if even 1 blow lands.
• Police Zombie: wields a pistol. Will fire upon the player after spotting them and getting within range. Incredibly dangerous, should be killed or escaped from as quickly as possible.
• Soldier Zombie: same as police zombie, except they wield a far more dangerous assault rifle. Can kill the player incredibly quickly. The best strategy for dealing with gun zombies is try to close the distance while minimizing the time spent in their line of fire and then end it with one headshot up close from a gun of your own. Melee combat is risky, as they will continue to use their gun in close quarters combat.
• Paramedic / Scrubs / Nurse Zombie: will collect zombie limbs and reattach them to dead zombie torsos, reanimating them if their head is reattached. Will usually prioritize attacking player. Cannot reanimate zombies who have had their torsos destroyed.
• Jogger Zombie: a zombie that moves far faster than normal zombies. Has a unique running in place idle animation.
• Football Zombie: large zombies who will get down and point their helmet at the player before quickly charging in a straight line at them, knocking them over if contact is made. They do not lead their target and do not turn mid charge, making avoiding the charge trivial.