• Please make sure you are familiar with the forum rules. You can find them here: https://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/index.php?threads/forum-rules.2334636/

New play modes

Colt .45 killer

Grizzled Veteran
May 19, 2006
3,987
775
Brainstorm thread!

Well I hate to be the messenger, but KF can get a bit boring with only one play mode, even with varying difficulties. So here is the solution, you people play KF, now turn on your zed destroying brains and spit out any good ideas that come to mind. feel free to expand upon other peoples suggestions; TWI has already proven they read the forums ( Others and myself suggested demoman class and m79 a few months back ); so lets create a clear and concise description of a few more play modes that would kick clot *** in KF.

Il start by suggesting timed modes of gameplay: be they defence or offence. ( ie defend for so long, get to point A in under x ammount of time).
timed defence: survivors in your area have been gathered and assembled into an isolation container ( just some fancy box thingy with windows on it, this way there are no supid ai running around, and two they are in the container for their protection) your job is to protect this container until a helicopter can come and pick it up ( we already ahve the helo model! ), then get yourself to an evacuation point where a helicopter comes to pick you up.

Timed offence: survivors in building X ( or even room X for offices map), get to them before they are killed, get them out of the building. timed offence could lead to a timed offence for the extraction.

Never ending spawning map: get to a cloning/spawning facility and put it out of order, it will continue to spawn zeds of all types till you break it down with some good ol fashion splosives.
 
Survival: Unlimited numbers of waves, until you die. But the number of specimens in each wave greatly increasing, after each wave.

I was thinking this too. It just gets continually harder, and sometimes maybe Patty could even show up for a wave, and rather than die, he simply leaves, wave ends, and you go through another, even harder wave. It would hush all the "too easy" people at least. :p
 
Upvote 0
right i like that. perhaps your longest online survival and the starting difficulty could be tracked as an achievement so people could report/ keep a ladder of who survived the longest. Although how would you add in protected trader time during what is supposed to be nonstop action? or would you just suggest the current structure with an unlimited number of waves?
 
Upvote 0
Story Mode. Before anyone else says anything... yes, like l4d. You traverse a map more or less linearly (of course non-linear free roaming would be better but it is not necessary) to accomplish an objective. There is no back tracking to previous parts of the map (although you can, you just won't get anywhere). The objective can be extraction, retrieving data from a facility, or even better: a combination of objectives. For example, you can be inserted into a city and your objective is to find and rescue a VIP who is located nearby. After you find him, dead or alive, you must reach an extraction point, where you must defend an area as you wait for extraction.

This mode may or may not include traders. You can have the players find weapons or traders along the way.

Maps like this have already been made, but the spawning system in the current game mode does not support a Story Mode. The maps I speak of force you to traverse the whole map fairly linearly by having the spawning points of the traders preset along the map. The problem is that this still does not encourage players to move through the map during the wave since the natural reaction of players is to find a safe bottleneck to whole-up. Players do not worry about getting to the trader until the very end of the wave. Also, the current spawning system will spawn enemies in areas you just traversed, making traversing the map during the wave both dangerous and unrealistic.

Finally, it's called "Story Mode" for a reason. Progression through the level in a Story Mode should feel like an accomplishment and also the player feels a closer connection with both the setting and hid/her character. So I would like to see some find of story, even if it is only defined by the objectives in the example I talked about in the first paragraph.

I have never even designed a map before so I do not know if this is even possible with the current engine. Also, I think some kind of new spawning system needs to be implemented to encourage players to progress through the level. The concept of the fighting "waves" does not fit well with the a story mode.

I realize that this is probably more difficult than just making a new gun, so the resources to implement this may not even be available. However, I think a story mode would greatly enhance the replay value and make the game appeal to a broader audience.
 
Upvote 0
survial mode

survial mode

i agree, i love this game, but i get tired of running around looking for the trader or getting separated from teammates and dying over n over because no ones working together. i would love to see a stay in one place defense mode, like hide out in a bunker n see how long you can hold out. i find my self playing the non perk servers with large amounts of players
because this is basicly what it turns into. i would also love to see a dungeon master or sandbox mode where the host can chose whats thrown at the rest
of the party. i know admins can do this through the console but itd be awsome to see in a more user friendly mode. or have a roll the dice option in the survivial mode a slot machine comes up n if you get 3 ammo boxes u get more ammo but if you get a flesh pound u get a flesh pound lol. kinda silly but id be a riot to play.
 
Upvote 0
heh i had to search back 3 pages to find this, so *bumpy* and yea i hear what your saying, the one playmode gets old quick. but thats already known, what im looking for is suggestions on what to add. if theyr going to spend their time on any playmode, might as well make it one the entire community wants, and helped peice together..
 
Upvote 0
Some RTS / FPS Ideas:

Some RTS / FPS Ideas:

I don't know how applicable this might be, but there are a few games that I really enjoyed that combined an FPS and RTS element together.

An old, adversarial Half-life 1 mod called Natural Selection combined both aspects seamlessly. The mod itself was based upon an alien infestation taking place aboard an increasingly derelict space station.

Space Marines who answered the calling appointed one commander who would designate objectives to the rest of his squad. The squadmates would be able to build structures appointed by their leader which would then unlock various weaponry, equipment, and even statistical bonuses for everyone to utilize.

The game itself revolved around base building and resource capturing, but the catch is that it was all done in a real-time FPS setting. Of course this mod was built with an adversarial approach as opposed to a Cooperative approach that Killing Floor had.

But imagine being able to set up a base real-time in a rather large map environment to fight the enemy horde's leaders (a.i.) on their turf with all of your buddies at your side?

For a very brief (and humorous/entertaining) overview of the game, please check this link out here. It features some very interesting concepts in my opinion that rival some of the more commercialized games out there.
YouTube - Natural Selection Overview

All in all, I believe that maybe implementing a concept that allowed for greater teamwork while opening the door up for combining other modes of gameplay might catch on.

I tend to be a big fan of FPS oriented games with RPG / RTS elements and (edit) have been longing for a game that does so in a horror-survival setting.

Thanks for reading :)

===========================================
Edit: Some post-reply after thoughts:
===========================================

Imagine if you will the desolate aftermath of the zombie infestation. Humanity is on the brink of extinction as the specimens grow in numbers and begin to push forward to fill their insatiable hunger for the living.

As a resilient and courageous squad member of your team of six men and women, you are appointed the task of destroying one of thousands of cloning facilities producing these horrific creatures.

A squad leader is appointed who goes about overseeing the entire operation. Being air dropped initial supplies, you are assigned to building a formidable base while also extending your forces outwards.

Resources (or strong holds) will grant greater access to new weaponry and technology to use to completely obliterate the specimen's forces.

It is with teamwork, planning, and tactics that your team will emerge victorious in the battle to come.

Buildings:

Trader's Hut: A building that allows the players to restock their ammunition based on collective resources gathered.

Human Village: The main HQ of what remains of the battle-worn survivors. This building must be defended.

Weapon Research: Building that gives bonuses to weaponry, equipment, grenades, etc. Also opens up available weapon trees.

Pillboxes: Create temporary and makeshift fortifications that players can use to control the flow of enemy horde movement better.

Medical Center: Building that allows players to heal their wounds from intense battles.

================================================================
Enemy Buildings:

Horzine Turrets: These base-mounted defense measures have been rewired to the Patriarch's liking to protect the cloning centers generating the specimens. They will attack players similar to Sentry guns.

Cloning Pools/Pods: Facility that catalyses the production of specimens. Destroying these will grind the machine to a halt.

Research Centers: Allowing the Patriarch to clone higher level specimens to destroy the remaining human combatants and survivors.

Patriarch Mainframe: The system base of the Patriarch's vital data. Destroying this will land the Checkmate to the struggle (at least this one facility).
================================================================
Enemies:
Enemies will be in large numbers. As time progresses during the match, the enemies will dynamically grow stronger and take different forms. (Clots, Bloats, Stalkers, etc.)
================================================================
Objectives:
Maybe the map could cater to an objective concept in which you and your team must infiltrate and destroy various vital structures. Essentially to stop the Horzine machine in its tracks through eliminating the vital components it requires to continue.

Building structures may or may not be noteworthy in Killing Floor, but to be able to have a mission in which your squad must break certain buildings as a team might really prove to be a fun sub mission!
================================================================
Thanks again for reading!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: joecheeze
Upvote 0
hmm ok so some form of objective mode? well a simplified version of that would be really cool; however that does seem a bit big and would be nice to see in KF 2.

A simple Objective map would be nice. IE wrye could be easily changed into a obj map. you must first clear the ground area, and go to assist the main gate where a distress call was received from in the past 6 hours. after finding the gate area distroyed and all dead, buy what you need from the trader ( might be worth getting rid of the trader for a plain ammo room, trader feels outa place in obj). then make an entry to the basement through any of the 4 sets of stairs going down. the doors would be sealed, meaning that either a support class would have to unweld the door from 500%-1000%, or a demoman could plant a pipe bomb to blow it open. once downstairs intel would need to be collected from one or two of the rooms, while in those rooms the players find out about the spawning operation in the basement. the players would then have the choise to retreat out and collect more weapons and ammo, or press down into the downstairs and set explosives to destroy the spawnin operation. they could be encouraged to retreat by increasing numbers of zeds attackin them in the basement, and one or two Fleshpounders in the basement room as defence of the stalker production. after destroying the production, you have to escape the underground and get to the trucks you spawn by, or to the roof of the gate area where a helicopter can lift you out.

In terms of non linearity of an objective map, i would say give the players the option to enter from any side they want, go back for ammo at any time, and progress through the objectives in any way they want. leaving many objectives as side objectives and not mandatory.
Also objectives could be made for the map and put in a pool of possible objectives ( say 30? ) these coudl range from shutting off computer x, to checking something out, or destroying something else.
Each time you start up that map it picks half from that pool of objectives and gives you a starting 5 or so, some of these 5 may lead to other objectives.

In terms of # of zeds attacking, have a constant stream, but at certain (RANDOM) points, send a full out wave of zeds in, meaning whatever they are doing they must hole up somewhere to defend (kinda like the waves we have now), after that wave is over, there will still be a continuous stream of not as hard zeds. meaning while your 'not in heavy combat' it will set a maximum of 18- 25 zeds and limit them to be easier stuff. The longer and longer the players go, and the more objectives they complete, the harder the game makes it on them, spawning their enemies closer, and makign the waves more dificult.
(note the # of zeds counter will have to go, this way players wont start runing off to their next obj happily knowing the # of zeds in the area)

the trader would be replaced by a military supplier near where you spawn. dead players could be purchased back ( buying a replacement ) for a large sum of money.

IE: farm Search and Rescue : you are dropped in somewhere on farm, the choppers blades wind down instead of it taking off. you and your squad are here to search the houses. on your list of To'do's is primarily to protect your ride, if the zeds get to the ride and kill your pilots you have to extract on a truck; number 2, search the houses. making your way as quitely as possible ( note the stealth in this case, the zeds wont start coming in streams till they know your there and get a whiff of you). each house must be quickly searched, if and when a survivor is found they may need medical attention ( requiring the medic to hitnhold his use button on them for a while of time? ). the survivor then either disapears ( stupid ai code please NO), or one of the players becomes the survivor and must be protected (7th player?) although the second sounds exploitable ( asshole player runs at enemy hordes and looses for you ? ). either way all houses are checked, intel is brought back to chopper. (note guns can be purchased at chopper, dead teamates can also be bought back. then with the intel you provided a few hours later the death sqaud is dropped off to clean up house and clean the area ( normal farm map ).
 
Upvote 0
edit note for the last post, dead players can also buy themselves back for money.

And a personal suggestion for the current wave mode of play. the trader should on harder difficulties have limited supplies of weapons. some would take longer to restock then others. (although selling back to the store would increase the stock). there should also be a mandatory FF level for harder difficulties, say 5% on normal, 10% on hard, 20% on suicidal. i find FF forces people to stop playing this like its Fkin, jumpin around like idiots and running infront of everyone elses fire and nade spamming, with FF on people ususaly tend to be more complaint in picking a spot, sitting there and not moving. although i suspect our very whiney zerkers will probably **** their pants at that suggestion..
 
Upvote 0
Escape mode. Long running tract or very tall building with zeds coming from behind you. Occasional enemies to block path.

I like the idea of running away and shooting. Kiting is fun when it's suspenseful.



Rescue mission in which you have to go to a specimen infested facility (IE the zeds are already spawned and standing around.) Zeds do not home in and attack on you, rather they react when reacted upon. You have to get to the middle and find a downed NPC or rescueable NPC who can shoot but must be protected. Exit facility, find patriarch, fight patriarch.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
yeah but have you ever played a game with a npc rescue mission where people dont whine and ***** about the stupid npc not running his *** off or doing stupid things? i would prefer to not have to deal with any npc's that have to move AT ALL; make one of the human players take his place, make him vanish when rescued, do anything that results in him not having to path his way outa there... that ruins the whole 'suspence thing'.

escape could be cool definatly worth making it a 'peice' of an objective map, im not sure how you could make an escape mode a mode of its own; could you elaborate more?
 
Upvote 0
Survival: Unlimited numbers of waves, until you die. But the number of specimens in each wave greatly increasing, after each wave.

As it stands, the game is more like "Survival" than your suggestion. Considering the only way to end the game in your suggestion is for everyone to die, not to survive. So I don't see much a point in simply making it so the game doesn't end until everyone is dead.

Escort sounds good. I haven't read all that's on it here, but from what has been posted in the past, the idea is that one player will take the role of a VIP (without weapons?) who must be escorted to a certain point. I would say that you expand upon this by making certain maps in which you escort a convoy or group of people to a certain "chokepoint", where you must accomplish an objective (fight x waves, fight through to a X, Shut down cloning machines to thin the ranks of the zeds).

In fact, search and destroy would be an excellent mod to the "survival" idea. Waves continue to spawn until you destroy X ammount of equipment. The more equipment you destroy, the more powerful zeds are released, until the patriarch himself comes to deal with this threat. Unless spawning equipment is destroyed, zeds spawn indefinitely.
Spice this up a bit by making a huge map, with a civilian safe zone, civilians locked in random locations (Doors are locked, can be broken down by zeds and the civies killed, or rescued by players) all the while, the zeds are spawning.

This makes it a bit more complex, in that it's about both protecting civilians and destroying zeds...but either approach can somewhat help with the other.
 
Upvote 0
I don't know how applicable this might be, but there are a few games that I really enjoyed that combined an FPS and RTS element together.

An old, adversarial Half-life 1 mod called Natural Selection combined both aspects seamlessly. The mod itself was based upon an alien infestation taking place aboard an increasingly derelict space station.

Space Marines who answered the calling appointed one commander who would designate objectives to the rest of his squad. The squadmates would be able to build structures appointed by their leader which would then unlock various weaponry, equipment, and even statistical bonuses for everyone to utilize.

The game itself revolved around base building and resource capturing, but the catch is that it was all done in a real-time FPS setting. Of course this mod was built with an adversarial approach as opposed to a Cooperative approach that Killing Floor had.

But imagine being able to set up a base real-time in a rather large map environment to fight the enemy horde's leaders (a.i.) on their turf with all of your buddies at your side?

For a very brief (and humorous/entertaining) overview of the game, please check this link out here. It features some very interesting concepts in my opinion that rival some of the more commercialized games out there.
YouTube - Natural Selection Overview

All in all, I believe that maybe implementing a concept that allowed for greater teamwork while opening the door up for combining other modes of gameplay might catch on.

I tend to be a big fan of FPS oriented games with RPG / RTS elements and (edit) have been longing for a game that does so in a horror-survival setting.

Thanks for reading :)

===========================================
Edit: Some post-reply after thoughts:
===========================================

Imagine if you will the desolate aftermath of the zombie infestation. Humanity is on the brink of extinction as the specimens grow in numbers and begin to push forward to fill their insatiable hunger for the living.

As a resilient and courageous squad member of your team of six men and women, you are appointed the task of destroying one of thousands of cloning facilities producing these horrific creatures.

A squad leader is appointed who goes about overseeing the entire operation. Being air dropped initial supplies, you are assigned to building a formidable base while also extending your forces outwards.

Resources (or strong holds) will grant greater access to new weaponry and technology to use to completely obliterate the specimen's forces.

It is with teamwork, planning, and tactics that your team will emerge victorious in the battle to come.

Buildings:

Trader's Hut: A building that allows the players to restock their ammunition based on collective resources gathered.

Human Village: The main HQ of what remains of the battle-worn survivors. This building must be defended.

Weapon Research: Building that gives bonuses to weaponry, equipment, grenades, etc. Also opens up available weapon trees.

Pillboxes: Create temporary and makeshift fortifications that players can use to control the flow of enemy horde movement better.

Medical Center: Building that allows players to heal their wounds from intense battles.

================================================================
Enemy Buildings:

Horzine Turrets: These base-mounted defense measures have been rewired to the Patriarch's liking to protect the cloning centers generating the specimens. They will attack players similar to Sentry guns.

Cloning Pools/Pods: Facility that catalyses the production of specimens. Destroying these will grind the machine to a halt.

Research Centers: Allowing the Patriarch to clone higher level specimens to destroy the remaining human combatants and survivors.

Patriarch Mainframe: The system base of the Patriarch's vital data. Destroying this will land the Checkmate to the struggle (at least this one facility).
================================================================
Enemies:
Enemies will be in large numbers. As time progresses during the match, the enemies will dynamically grow stronger and take different forms. (Clots, Bloats, Stalkers, etc.)
================================================================
Objectives:
Maybe the map could cater to an objective concept in which you and your team must infiltrate and destroy various vital structures. Essentially to stop the Horzine machine in its tracks through eliminating the vital components it requires to continue.

Building structures may or may not be noteworthy in Killing Floor, but to be able to have a mission in which your squad must break certain buildings as a team might really prove to be a fun sub mission!
================================================================
Thanks again for reading!
MASSIVE QUOTE OF DEEEWMMMM

/sign
 
Upvote 0