Dynamic places where it isn't safe. Although you might be safe in Mall X when you log out, the zombies might invade it while you're away, which would make logging in and evading imminent doom rather interesting.

Did you mean survivors should be able to use primitive traps? Or did you really mean zombies? I don't know if zombies on my MUD (or atleast, most of them) will be that smart and crafty.

As for being able to hear zombies, it'd be pretty easy to code in. Though it makes the tin can tripwire a little less useful. Currently, when a zombie tries to bash a door or barricade, whoever's on the other side of it can hear the zombie.


At the moment, that's ~sort of~ supported by the code.

The MUD uses this system where every room has an invisible integer value assigned to it, the 'heat value'. This value is constantly raised by a survivor's presence in a room, or any actions that would create noise. Talking, explosions, gunshots, etc. Different actions raise the heat level by different amounts. The heat dissipates into neighboring rooms and spreads out before eventually tapering off. The traditional zombie AI (what I call 'seek and destroy') is attracted to rooms of greater heat, so any location that a player is at during the night will not remain safe for long.

That's pretty awesome. I'd suggest creating temperature safe rooms so players can learn to exploit this weakness–for example, if you're hiding in a meat locker, your heat isn't going to travel and noise will be muffled, making it a better hiding place until the hungry dead leave. (On that subject, I think you'd do well to have a separate noise mechanic as well. Don't assume talking will generate heat, especially if people can get walkie talkies or cell phones, which would be a good modification to the generic tell channel.)

I probably should have been more clear about the heat system thing. I sort of use 'heat' as a catch-all term for measuring the extent of how much activity is going on in a room. It encompasses all things that a player can do to catch a zombie's attention. I actually have a room flag coded in that prevents generation of heat, but it's reserved for the starter tutorial area. That's not to say that there aren't items or skills that players can acquire to reduce their 'heat' footprint, though.

Edit: The heat system also introduces the issue of having to choose between a weapon of superior firepower vs. something less powerful but more quiet and less likely to garner unwanted attention.

This is sounding VERY interesting and cool! =) What codebase are you using for this project, Kaeden, and how long before you're in public beta? ;)

My new zombie MUD is salvaged from a previous MUD project of mine that's been placed indefinitely on hold (sorry to disappoint anyone who may have been eagerly awaiting the release of SpaceMUD). That project was 100% custom, written by myself in Java. I'm unsure of when it will be ready for public beta, but (just throwing a number out there, don't hold me to it! :P) it might be within the next month or two.

That's a shame about SpaceMUD; I was looking forward to it. :cry:

Any chance you'll release the old codebase for others who might want to get it going?

I'd be a bit embarassed to showcase the source code for SpaceMUD. It may have had some neat features, but I went about designing it horribly. SpaceMUD was a major learning experience for me. I sort of coded it by ear, not really having a clue what I was doing. The structuring of all of the classes was terrible. It's also plagued with some thread concurrency bugs that I have yet to iron out.

I'd like to think I learned from a lot of my mistakes, though. I feel much better about my new codebase than the old one.

So, atleast for now, I think I'd prefer to keep SpaceMUD's source under wraps.

Hmmm… this may be kind of stealing from L4D, but perhaps multiple types of zombies, each with special abilities…
ok, more than "Kind of stealing" but hey, it's still awsome :rolleyes:

For the oneliner thing, just make it like a random command. You type oneliner and you get a random one liner from a cheesy zombie movie.

Kaeden says 'There's something….on the wing!"

Kaeden smashes his cricket bat into the face of a zombie!