Zombie-like Characteristics?

[vVTalonVv]

Working on a survival horror game, where zombies populate the world and the player must figure out how to survive and continue on.

Right now, I have a town built and a script that randomly generates a set amount of zombies throughout the map each time you enter it. Also, the zombies will shamble around and try to catch up to the player... where they try to touch you to engage in combat (hopefully I can figure out how to work a good ABS so that I can have the players running around and shooting bullets instead of fighting hand to hand)

What I would LIKE... is that the zombies... act like zombies! This includes the random shambling about, but also... so that they don't always just run towards the player. A zombie would be on the other side of a building, and know that a player is that and start his way towards him! Is there a way to script something that would make it so that the enemies will only start to follow the player when they get X spaces from them, or when they "see" them?

Thanks in advance! And if you know about an action game system, something like maybe zelda... idk, where you can walk around and shoot. That would be awesome!

 

[Glitchfinder]

you know, you might want to include a pathfinding script as well. Zombies may be dead, but they still don't go thru brick walls. Also, check out Mr.Mo's ABS. It has a lot of features, though. Finally, I really dislike the classic concept of zombies as undead, brain-eating, stupid, slow, etc. If you were undead, you would no longer have several constraints felt by the living: You would no longer feel pain, you would no longer need to breathe, and, since we're breaking reality anyway, you probably would be able to push your body way beyond its mortal limits, even without much food. What I'm saying is that you could be incredibly fast because: you don't need to drag in breath to keep moving, you don't feel pain for pushing past normal limits, and you don't need to worry about your body being run into the ground because, let's face it, you're already dead. You would also be able to move with great power, for much the same reasons. Imagine this: If you were dead, you could probably run as fast or faster than a running athlete, share the same power as a footbal player or bodybuilder, and rip people's brains out of their heads without much struggle from them. The only reason the zombie (in American culture) is a slow, shambling, stupid undead creature is because they were used in too many horror movies where the writers wanted the heros to survive. So, they had to make the zombie scary, but they also had to make it where the hero, with a little brains and a little athleticism, could easily get away. Instead, think of something like I Am Legend, or, if you've read the book series The Dresden Files, the book titled Dead Beat. (please excuse the horrible pun on the part of that author, all the book are like that, for example, one about werewolves is titles Fool Moon)

 

[Kain Nobel]

If this is XP I would look up Cowlol's A* Pathfinding, that would make your game a little bit more intense. Look at his demo, and play the option that says "Finding Ranges" or something, you'll have 3 lancers constantly following you like white on rice. For any strategical game like a game where you've gotta fight/dodge a bunch of zombies, that would be a good tool if you learn how to use it. Use the pathfinder to aid 'intelligent' zombies, and then just use some events with fucked up move routes to imitate "idiot" zombies.

The only ABS I really know about other than Mr. Mo's ABS is XAS Action Hero which is pretty cool, but it basically is a whole Game system of itself so I'm not sure what the compatabilities are outside of the entire system. You should ask somebody about different ABS systems and figure out which one works best for you, there's really a couple different Zelda-like Battle Systems out there.

 

[vVTalonVv]

you know, you might want to include a pathfinding script as well. Zombies may be dead, but they still don't go thru brick walls. Also, check out Mr.Mo's ABS. It has a lot of features, though. Finally, I really dislike the classic concept of zombies as undead, brain-eating, stupid, slow, etc. If you were undead, you would no longer have several constraints felt by the living: You would no longer feel pain, you would no longer need to breathe, and, since we're breaking reality anyway, you probably would be able to push your body way beyond its mortal limits, even without much food. What I'm saying is that you could be incredibly fast because: you don't need to drag in breath to keep moving, you don't feel pain for pushing past normal limits, and you don't need to worry about your body being run into the ground because, let's face it, you're already dead. You would also be able to move with great power, for much the same reasons. Imagine this: If you were dead, you could probably run as fast or faster than a running athlete, share the same power as a footbal player or bodybuilder, and rip people's brains out of their heads without much struggle from them. The only reason the zombie (in American culture) is a slow, shambling, stupid undead creature is because they were used in too many horror movies where the writers wanted the heros to survive. So, they had to make the zombie scary, but they also had to make it where the hero, with a little brains and a little athleticism, could easily get away. Instead, think of something like I Am Legend, or, if you've read the book series The Dresden Files, the book titled Dead Beat. (please excuse the horrible pun on the part of that author, all the book are like that, for example, one about werewolves is titles Fool Moon)

Thanks for the reply!

As far as how the zombies in my game are... it will consist of a lot of slower dumber zombies in the beginning. Later on, I want to introduce faster moving and more intelligent zombies (like the crimson heads from the RE Remake)

If I can figure out how to later... I'm going to throw in new monster creatures that will have different abilities (able to jump on top of things and attack from above, ranged attacks, etc.)

But thanks for the help! I'm going to check out that ABS and see what it can do for me and I'll play around with the pathfinding. I'm VERY new to RMXP. I've only done a little bit with a previous regular turn based rpg, but I want something new.