DISTRICT OVERRUN - Build 03

New playable build!

Zombies have been a bit haphazard. This build has been centered around improving the effect that the zombies have on the game by updating some of their movement mechanics.

When military or officer humans are infected and turn they will retain their former stature and strength as an infected.They also gain the ability to attract other zombies from the local area.This results in the formation of zombie hoards.You now need to be mindful of what you are heading into, as a well placed hoard can very easily mess up your day.Whilst in a hoard the usual mechanic of one zombie calling out when it sees you means you can swiftly have a hundred or more barreling after you.

Zombies will also be more persistent when pursuing any potential prey.As previously they would assume you had disappeared the second you make it round a wall.The lack of memory on the zombies part made it very easy to escape.Now the zombies will continue their pursuit to the last known location of any target that had been lost, unless of course some other unfortunate target crosses their path.When following the zombies often keep up the chase into any buildings, so diving in through the nearest door is no longer a safe bet.

Some various improvement were also made to the human AI variants.Now marines and offices can also make use of doors. (as long as they are not locked)And progress has been made on reducing friendly fire incidents, so that the shooter will hold fire until they are aiming directly at their target.Which removes the issue of firing in what ever direction they were facing towards when first startled.I am yet to add any check that prevent firing if there are friendlies between the shooter and target,even though this somewhat represents the chaos of a zombie attack.

I have also noticed that some mechanic of the game are not inherently understandable.And without a tutorial, have been misrepresented as odd game features.Namely the encumbrance system, which slows down your movement based on the cumulative weight of all the weapons you are carrying.To help resolve the issue I have decided to make use of the entity dialogue system.So now whenever you pick up enough equipment to start severely effecting your speed,your character will spit out one of a selection of dialogue messages that help portray that there will be consequences to loading up on weapons.I have also made use of this when trying to unlock a closed door.Which is a feature that has long been disabled for lack of any means to explain to the player that a door is in fact locked, and that they can potentially shoot it in order to free the lock.

CHANGES:

• Added saving and loading, although save to single default save file for now.

• Added player speech dialogue when the player picks up 4+ weapons.
  Which better communicates the fact that carrying weapons will slow down your movement.

• Leader Zombies. Any zombie that is not a civilian, including lab zombies.
  Will give out groan calls that keep nearby zombies following them.
  Resulting in the formation of roaming hoards that follow the lead of the stronger zombie.

• All AI now see further, from 300 to now 400

• AI will now react to damage, with the marines turning to face the source. And other AI having different reactions.

• Zombies have more health depending on type, ie: officer zombie has double health

• Zombies will remember the last location of any targets that break line of sight.
  They will then continue to run to that location, giving them a better chance of following around obstacles.

• Zombies now have an incubation stage, lasting 5 seconds before they become active.

• Doors are stronger and may be locked with a 1 in 5 chance-from 50 health to 200.-Unlock when damaged to 50%.

• All Human AI can now open doors.

• Player will show a dialogue if the door is locked.Dialogue lets the player know that the door is locked, and shooting the door will open it.

• AI will break through locked doors

• Fixed lab civilians not rendering with correct skin

• Fix bug with rotated segments not rotating AI as well. When generating map.

The project is still in development and so some features are unfinished.

More info on this and other projects :
Dynamic Cell Games twitter: @DistrictOverrun youtube: Youtube

Enjoy and please give feedback.