What would you like to see in the next DotD?
Post suggestions, bugs of the old version or anything else here.

One suggestion was to add a deathmatch mode.
To do so, we need quite a few ideas how to balance the characters. Ideas are appreciated

To give you a little information what's already done (not completely up-to-date):
Version 5.3a
-The majority of all skill/item descriptions has been updated
-Skills updated
-Major code improvement
-Lags and crashes should be fixed now
-The amount of zombies in later waves has been slightly reduced
-The game difficulty will now vary depending on the average level of all players
-A new character has been added: The Ghost, a veterinary Marksman with various abilities which range from taking out a single target to weapons of mass destruction. The Ghost is currently unplayable (inspired from Star Craft)
-Mini bosses added, which come during the wave, but not cause a nuke to explode after their death
-New abilities such as Suppressive Fire or Artilery are in work
-New (unique) items have been added
-New max level will be 200. Since a new save/load system has to be created in order to save this great amount of experience It'll take a while to implement it.
-Biomechanical Upgrades are likely to be implemented. What exactly it is is yet to be discussed

One small thing that has bugged me forever, which you hopefully has changed, is that the Battery Expansion item gives 100 more mana, but it says it gives 125.

And I would like to see a melee hero, which has some sort of poision resistance.

Thank you S3rius, great topic.

I also like the idea of a melee hero, would be a nice change.
I'm sure i can think of some ideas for myself, but i'll have to post them when i have more time. Will check this again soon!

s3rius, if you want, i'll give you a forum section where you can host your project.

nice idea, but we better delay it 2-3 weeks, until I'm back from holidays. Otherwise I won't have much to write anyways

ok, just pm or something. if you need help with graphics or coding or other support, just ask.

Thanks for the offer. When I'm facing a problem I'll consult you
maybe I could use some help with sounds, since I've never really worked with them before, but I'll see that when I start working on that.
I'm just writing a little change log which I'll post this evening I guess^^

† Dawn Of The Dead 5.3 Alpha †
Some information about most of the changes that have been made.

Game mechanics:
The actual gameplay didn't change too much, although I'm planning to implement a few more game modi in later versions. I rewrote almost everything from the original code (5.5k lines of badly written JASS ), thus there are no game-crashes anymore and lags are at a minimum.
There is now a total of 15 waves, which will, together will a dynamic difficulty system, surely be a challenge even to DotD vets.

The save/load system... at the moment it's still at a maximum of 140, but
I'll implement a new code system as soon as I'm absolutely sure what has to be saved in the new code. New maximum level will be 200 then.
I'm also working on some small features (such as bio-mechanical enhancements) to allow players to improve their heroes even if he's already a 200er.
Old codes will still work - even with the new save system.

Marines:
Each hero has experienced a great change. First, the Soldier has been replaced with the Sniper.
Secondly, each marine now has a skill book with class specific abilities (Alltogether arround 12 skills per hero), which improve by leveling the hero's other skills.
Generally marines are now faster and have a significant greater damage than in 5.2F, but have a bit less hp/mana. I balanced a lot skills such as Antibiotics (which was obviously too hardcode) or Transfusion (which was too weak) and re-made the hero skills in a way that every marine now has at least 4-5 active skills (Grunt only had grenade back then..).

The scout, originally one of the most useless heroes, has become much more important since he will have to pinpoint bosses, can indicate stealthed enemies and his presence increases the drop chance of highly useful items.

The Demolitions can now deal a great amount of damage within very short time, ideal to deal with mobs or inveterate bosses.

The Grunt is now the unchallenged no.1 damage dealer and excellent when it comes to base defense, but due to his weak movement speed and some other factors he is not very effective against targets such as fast bosses.

Some marines now have different clip sizes (e.g. Sniper or Grunt)


The Grunt's skills

Zombies:
There are a quite a few more bosses and mini-bosses. Don't want to name them now (you will find out by yourself when the time has come ). But I can say that you'll need a organized party and good teamplay to defeat some of them.
Zombies are now weaker for low-level teams and grow stronger and stronger the more (experienced) players are in the game.
Alltogether there are less zombies per wave, since I don't want anyone to have to play 3+ hours just to finish all 15 waves.

Graphics:
I changed most of the original icons and skins, added some explosions etc to certain skills, modded the terrain a little and created a new preview/loading screen - just a bit eye-candy


A Tac Demolitions uses his Rocket Barrage

Miscellaneous:
I've added a bunch of new items, which will spawn as the game advances.
You'll now have to watch out since there are some creatures which are hard to spot with the human eye (vertex owns^^ ). In a test match we've lost our scout to them.. poor guy.. was a good man.

The map size and loading time is now significantly lower (thanks to Vexorian's map optimizer and some hours of work on skins, icons and sounds).

Some commands such as -kills have been added.
The multiboard now contains a clock that shows the elasped game time.


The recent loading screen

Although it sounds a little as if I'm almost done with the new version this is sadly not the case. A lot of the named features are not completely functionally or still have to be balanced. Also I'm the only one who works on the map at the moment (my mate's a friggin WoW addict >.<) and I'll be far away from my pc during the 2 weeks of my holidays.
Judging from these facts, it might take a while for me to release DotD 5.3

Feel free to criticize, comment or ask your questions.
Once again: If anyone got some cool ideas for game modes, missions, heroes, skills, new zombie classes, some system, or or or... post 'em here!

I'll sum it up in one word for now: Awesome.

Sounds really great. I know already my new favourite: SNIPER FTW!!! don't make him too weak.

i'm curious for what items you have implemented...

may i ask what the current filesize is?

About the sniper:
I'll try to make him equally strong to the other characters, but still thinking about his abilities.

About the items:
Plasma Grenades, a unique armor, a unique kind of recharge pack, a new ammunition type (such as U-235 Bullets), rifle scope, H&K XM8 Assault rifle (unique), and some more..
I'm also planning on adding Flare Gun, Grenade Launcher, some new kind of demolitions, maybe Frag Grenades.

About the file size:
Old size: 2.70 MB (2,836,512 Bytes)
New size: 1.79 MB (1,887,734 Bytes)
Difference: 0.91 MB (948,778 Bytes)

When I optimize the map it's another ~220 KB less, and I think I could squeeze a few more KBs out of the skins.. the size also includes the newly added skins and icons.

awesome! that size is perfect.

somewhere in the STARS project section should be the abils of the sniper i was using in that map. maybe that gives some inspiration... i'll check.

btw, i'm creating your section already in the maps projects - but it stays hidden unless you come back from your holidays or when you want.

THe DOTDS Sniper Skills could be a great help, but I can't seem to find them
Thanks a lot for the creation of that section. I'll put myself infront of the editor as much as possible during the two days that are left until my departure. Maybe I can get enough things to work for another little update.. ^^

i swear i put it somewhere on this site... doh, the search-system here could be better as well...

but here are some skills i remember (how many do you still need, btw?)

• Binoculars (reveals an area)
  

• Target (switches between target torso, head, legs and arms. interacts with "marksman skills")
  

• Marksman skills (effects depend on what mode you switched "Target" to:
  

1. Target Torso: 'Normal' mode. Chance to deal multiple damage.
   
2. Target Head: 'Headshot mode'. very low chance to deal VERY high damage (basically instant death for non-boss units), maybe chance to miss (balancing)
   
3. Target Legs: Lower damage dealt, chance to stun enemies for a moment. (Alternative: chance to decrease enemy movement speed - casts 'slow' on them, or sth similar)
   
4. Target Hands: Lower damage dealt, chance to decrease attack damage of the target temporarily.
   

• Desert Eagle (kills several enemies that are standing in a line to compensate a little snipers bad melee powers)
  

• Active Camouflage (Enemies prefer to follow other team-member; though that was one skill that i haven't coded yet)
  

• Designate (Marks an enemy or a point for artillery fire or similar actions)
  

other quick ideas: Recon-Drone (warns when hidden units are close, Sniper shot (active skill, very high range, single shot), Jump down cliff, ...

that are those i can remember for now. maybe others will follow later...

The Recon drone and active camo (although it'll be hard to realise) sound promising. Binoculars and designate are already planned/in use.
The targeting of different body parts sounds kind of time consuming and futile to me. A sniper is to kill the zombie he is firing at, not slowing him down.
Whereas Target Head sounds interesting.
That's a list of things I have thought of:

Code:

Sniper:
-------------------------------------------
+Covert Operations Spellbook
  -Evasion
  -Inceased sight range / scope
  -Accuracy (like marine's)
  -??? (Let's zombies respawn less likely)
  -EMP Cartridge (acts like purge)
  -??? (Slows down bosses per hit)
  -Schrapnell-Splitter
  -Incinerate (acumulating damage to a target that received  several hits)
+Critical Hit / Headshot (change to kill lesser enemies instantly)
+Claymore
+Canister Shot? (Like the one from notd2)
+Rapid Fire (+attack speed in exchange for movespeed - tempoary)
+Scatter Shotgun (Actually like Desert Eagle)

the '+' means it's a hero skills, the '-' means it's a skill for the Spellbook.

The targeting of different body parts sounds
kind of time consuming and futile to me. A sniper is to kill the zombie
he is firing at, not slowing him down.

ya, probably a little too time-consuming. You'd have to use "channel" as your base and create 4 dummy spells - one for each target mode - that is triggered then on the target with some coding.

futile, IMO not really. there would be tactical use for it especially on mini-bosses or bosses. switch to slow when more time is needed, when a team-mate is fractured or something like that...

[quote="Sunny_D"]

there would be tactical use for it especially on mini-bosses or bosses. switch to slow when more time is needed, when a team-mate is fractured or something like that...

Well, I'll think about it, but with too time consuming I actually thought of the in-game use, not the coding (I'm pretty sloppy sometimes so coding a spell is always time consuming for me ).I think I am going to implement the 'Target Head', but probably in a slighty different way.

I shot a few more screenies. Have fun with 'em :

The Nuke




Image 1: Impact
Image 2: 1 second after impact
Image 3: 2 seconds after impact
Image 4: 9 seconds after impact (fallout)

Zombie



Image 1: The subject is barely visible
Image 2: A flare has been used to illuminate the target.
Image 3: Termination

The Flare Gun

Image 1: The Subject received a direct hit from a flare bullet, suffering from incineration and disorientation.

That's it. If I manage to get the Sniper to work today or tomorrow I'll post some images of him. If not you'll have to wait two week for further information.

great screenies. the vertex colored enemies should turn out pretty interesting!

can't wait to see the sniper in two weeks then!

Ok, a little information about what I already have finished from the sniper's skills:

Code:


-> Critical Strike (Hero skill)
    Ability Class: Passive
    Not much to say about it. Stronger than the other marine's crits, though.

-> Concentration
    Ability Class: Active
    Greatly increases the sniper's ability to deliver mortal hits. (Increases the marine's critical strike ability, greatly:)
    Each level increases effect, duration and mana cost and decreases cooldown.

-> Auto Burst (extremely powerful together with Concentration)
    Ability Class: Active
    The sniper fires his rifle with maximum speed for a short time.
    Since the weapon is highly sensitive this skill is has limited uses to ensure that no malfunctions will occur.
    Each level improves duration and reduces cooldown. Can only be used 4 times!

-> Claymore (Hero skill)
    Ability Class: Active
    Places a Claymore which explodes when an enemy comes close, dealing 450 damage in it's proximity.
    Each level decreases cooldown.

-> EMP Cardridge  (Hero skill)
    Ability Class: Active
    Sends out an EMP charged cartridge that rips through undead material until it's energy is used up.
    Each level increases damage and range. (This skill is just a gap-filler at the moment, since I couldn't think of
    something better. It's a little copied from NotD: Aftermath.)

-> Rifle Scope (Hero Skill)
    Ability Class: Active
    Uses the rifle scope to reveal the designated area and all invisible units in it for a short time.
    Each level inceases cast range and duration or area of effect and reduces cooldown. 
    (I'm thinking about giving an armor malus to all enemies units that are revealed by scope - or boosting the sniper's
    damage for that time.)


This is still WiP, though.

I am going to start a public beta version as soon as I have some things finished:
-> The last 2 waves ( Although 11 - 13 are everything else than balanced^^)
-> Multiboard (RAWR! This is the 5th time I am making a new freaking multiboard because I can't get it running properly >.>)
-> Hero skills (at least from all heroes that I have already started to edit) That's the recent status:

(√) Marine
(√) Demolitions
(W) Scout (75% Finished)
(W) Engineer (75% Finished)
(X) Operative
(X) Medic
(W) Sniper (40% Finished)
(X) Ghost (If I even add him)

I will probably add a random weather system, so that it doesn't rain all the friggin' game
Weather such as rain, heavy rain, wind, moonlight, maybe snow and wind will slightly change things like visibility or movement speed of all units.

/me waits eagerly for the open Beta

Mhh looks nice...but one question, are u using jass or gui triggers?

Because i think GUI will bring you in trouble with the save/load system and will make it hard to get the spells Multi-Instanceable.

98% JASS written of course

Yea, the original save system was GUI-coded, took me quite a while to get it running smoothly.

P.S. Yippey!!! Finally, I've created a multiboard that is actually working

congratz +redneck

that's good news!

I can't wait for this. Since DotD 5.2f is useless with the *Crazy* version out.
Before you had to work your way to high level. Now you can just leave your computer on for a couple of hours and you'll be level 140.