Zeds Different Powers?

[Stickeys]

It was said in the PC Gamer article that Zeds would gain new abbilities as the difficulty ramped up, e.g. clots would sprint on harder difficulties. I've heard a lot of people talk about how they hate enemies becoming nothing more than bullet sponges on higher difficulties, so this is great. What sort of abilities do you think the Zeds will/would gain? I have a few ideas.

Fleshpound: Will shield his body and face with his gauntlets. Rage faster.
Bloat: Act as more of a suicide bombing creeper.
Stalker: Sneak around behind the player. Remain invisible even when attacking.
Crawler: More evasive maneuvers. Lots of jumping and sidestepping.
Husk: Utilize cover more often. Possible run from cover to cover in order to get to the player.
Clots: Drag the player towards the horde.

 

[CrashFu]

Well, in KF1 there was this funny phenomenon where beyond a certain difficulty level everyone became so risk-averse that entire matches were spent huddled in the exact same position, camping the exact same doorway, with the exact same perks, and nobody doing anything except "click mouse when see thing".

A glorified Vision-Test, if you will.

So MY hope is that the additional abilities Zeds gain in higher difficulties will specifically be for the purpose of countering over-cautious gameplay, to encourage high-level players to not be such boring people.

... I am both teasing and being completely serious, though.

Examples:
Firebug might launch a lingering area-denial napalm attack, to keep players from squatting in the same corner forever.

Bloats might attempt to bellyflop themselves onto Berzerkers who have been (successfully) sitting in the same doorway for too long, burying them under their blubber whether the bloat survives the attack or not.

Weaker zeds might gain the ability to frenzy-up simultaneously and move much faster to counteract painfully drawn-out kiting ("There are 130 zeds left and you managed to kill 1 clot in the last ten minutes. I quit.")

 

[Stickeys]

The glorified vision test part made me laugh. But that stuff would work great! The game truly does become boring when it becomes a camp fest. Like all of those custom made maps where Zeds just come from ONE direction. The Zeds should all have different strategies that counteract any one strategy and make the game more varied.

 

[Redthirst]

Some ideas:
Husk - on higher difficulties he will fire two rockets in quick succession before reloading.
Gorefast - when shot in the head, he will run even faster in the direction he was facing before death. When he collides with something(player, another zed, wall) he will perfom his slashing attack and die)
Scrake(that's a pretty weak one) - he won't activate his chainsaw before attacking, so you can't hear him coming.
FP - when he enrages, all zeds around him will run faster as well(because no one wants to be in the way of raging FP).

 

[CrashFu]

Gorefast - when shot in the head, he will run even faster in the direction he was facing before death. When he collides with something(player, another zed, wall) he will perfom his slashing attack and die)

What if gorefasts killed via headshots instead dropped onto the ground and had violent muscle spasms, their dead body swinging the sword around dangerously and becoming sort of a floor trap for a short period unless the body is also destroyed?

Oh man, that would be such a great high-difficulty addition. If you're in the habit of just wasting them with a headshot and forgetting about them, you'd have to be mindful to step back afterwards (especially if they got up in your face WHEN you kill them)

And it would give Support, Demo and Firebug extra purpose on the team, either making Gorefasts important targets for them or doing "cleaner" detail after one is killed by someone else.

 

[KingJoker]

What if gorefasts killed via headshots instead dropped onto the ground and had violent muscle spasms, their dead body swinging the sword around dangerously and becoming sort of a floor trap for a short period unless the body is also destroyed?

Oh man, that would be such a great high-difficulty addition. If you're in the habit of just wasting them with a headshot and forgetting about them, you'd have to be mindful to step back afterwards (especially if they got up in your face WHEN you kill them)

And it would give Support, Demo and Firebug extra purpose on the team, either making Gorefasts important targets for them or doing "cleaner" detail after one is killed by someone else.

Holy **** thats genius. Yes!

 

[moleculo]

Bloat: Act as more of a suicide bombing creeper.

Bloat fast. Bloat strong. I like it.

 

[CrashFu]

Crawlers - Everyone's least favorite Spider-man starts spinning webs at higher difficulty.

In the form of a short-range spray of spider-silk, or spun into webs in doorways..

Contact with either slows the player, to an increasing degree on further applications, and possibly total immobilization and helplessness after a certain point. Can be simply walked off gradually before that point, or:

Players can be freed from webbing or webs can be removed from doorways via any melee weapon* (including chainsaws and the basic combat knife) or the welding tool, or through any firebug weapons.

Firebug weaponry is the fastest and most efficient way to clear crawler webs, if you happen to have a firebug around when you need them. Welding tool is slower but has no repercussions (and is effected by Support's bonuses to welding). Clearing the web away with melee weapons is easy and almost as fast as fire, BUT comes at a price: your weapon gets gunked up with the web and its damage or attack speed is hindered until cleared off (goes away with time, faster if you successfully hit enemies with it.... Achievement for killing a crawler with a web-gunked melee weapon?)



Stalker - Oh, the stalker... So little a threat in KF1, I internally refer to them as "Commando Candy" because leveling up commandos seems to be the only reason they exist.

I think they need some REALLY nasty abilities, don't you?

Maybe on higher difficulties they can somehow extend their cloaking to other nearby zeds?

Or have some power to blind players... just for the irony of the one Zed you can't see making it so you can't see ANY zeds at all. Haha.

Ooh, or she could sneak up behind players and wrap herself around them, grabbing your arm to screw with your aim and digging her claws into you.. to get her off, you'd either have to walk backwards into a wall to bash her against it, or have a teammate attack you, BUT maybe while being grabbed you're partially vulnerable to friendly fire (regardless of server settings) except for melee. So anyone trying to free you has to either get close to do it manually, be REALLY careful of their aim, or make sure to use something weak and non-penetrating. So basically, this grapple attack WILL result in death-by-teammate very often, mwahahahhaha

 

[KingJoker]

Crawlers - Everyone's least favorite Spider-man starts spinning webs at higher difficulty.

In the form of a short-range spray of spider-silk, or spun into webs in doorways..

Contact with either slows the player, to an increasing degree on further applications, and possibly total immobilization and helplessness after a certain point. Can be simply walked off gradually before that point, or:

Players can be freed from webbing or webs can be removed from doorways via any melee weapon* (including chainsaws and the basic combat knife) or the welding tool, or through any firebug weapons.

Firebug weaponry is the fastest and most efficient way to clear crawler webs, if you happen to have a firebug around when you need them. Welding tool is slower but has no repercussions (and is effected by Support's bonuses to welding). Clearing the web away with melee weapons is easy and almost as fast as fire, BUT comes at a price: your weapon gets gunked up with the web and its damage or attack speed is hindered until cleared off (goes away with time, faster if you successfully hit enemies with it.... Achievement for killing a crawler with a web-gunked melee weapon?)



Stalker - Oh, the stalker... So little a threat in KF1, I internally refer to them as "Commando Candy" because leveling up commandos seems to be the only reason they exist.

I think they need some REALLY nasty abilities, don't you?

Maybe on higher difficulties they can somehow extend their cloaking to other nearby zeds?

Or have some power to blind players... just for the irony of the one Zed you can't see making it so you can't see ANY zeds at all. Haha.

Ooh, or she could sneak up behind players and wrap herself around them, grabbing your arm to screw with your aim and digging her claws into you.. to get her off, you'd either have to walk backwards into a wall to bash her against it, or have a teammate attack you, BUT maybe while being grabbed you're partially vulnerable to friendly fire (regardless of server settings) except for melee. So anyone trying to free you has to either get close to do it manually, be REALLY careful of their aim, or make sure to use something weak and non-penetrating. So basically, this grapple attack WILL result in death-by-teammate very often, mwahahahhaha

]

Stalkers need a basic teleportation - not some big distance leap but just a bit so players get confused as to what to shoot

 

[Stickeys]

I think the web idea is great. If they laid web traps around the map it would make movement so much more intense. Imagine running away from zeds, having to be careful not to run into a web, and then having to quickly destroy it before they get you.

 

[CrashFu]

Stalkers need a basic teleportation - not some big distance leap but just a bit so players get confused as to what to shoot

Would a brief (one second or less) invulnerability period before and after teleporting be too much? Like the stalkers would just like of fade in and out of physical being?

Commandos would just have to learn to time it, to shoot them during the window of vulnerability before they're ready to 'jump' again... but for anyone else it would be delightfully maddening.

You hear the stalker, maybe catch glimpses of her, but when you blindly spray bullets in her direction you find yourself hitting nothing... next thing you know you're being shanked from behind.


The mood of the game would change from "Oh there's some stalkers I'll be nice and ignore the harmless things so the Commando can level up" to "Oh jesus no there's some stalkers COMMANDO WE NEED YOU"


If you haven't guessed it, I'm REALLY in favor of enemy abilities that give less-appreciated or less-essential classes the same degree of responsibility and prestige on the team that classes like Sharpshooter enjoyed in KF1.