Zombie APOLCALYPSE-- OOC

[Flamjetxx]

I like the ideas we have going about here.

I think we should start naming off zombie variants, I'll compile them into one and wee can pick and choose, or combine zombie aspects. We can have a normal list and a boss list. let's just throw the names out.

Zombie types that I have so far from your comments include (and I will add some of my own ideas too):

-Human incubators/clickers
-Bear zombie (which we can expand to animal zombies-aka dogs/deer/etc)
-Zombies that sprint (faster than humans, but aren't necessarily very agile)
-Larger, but slower zombies that can take a serious beating (much like tanks)
-Leaping zombies with high levels of agility (can basically get anywhere, but aren't particularly fast runners)
-Perhaps a basic zombie- more for reference, but also for amassments.
-...

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--Also, keep in mind the survival aspects of this. Zombies are only a fraction of the issues we will face! If we take a scenario such as getting kicked out of our established settlement, then we will have to start from scratch while outrunning/encountering the zombies. We will have to find/ make food. Transportation methods- with no vehicles we will either have to walk, bicycle/ some new contraption, or use animals). Weaponry- will the zombies be sensitive to sounds? because guns will be a rather poor choice of weaponry, not to mention there's only a finite amount of bullets in the world that's usable, so maybe resorting to using bows will be more likely.

There's just a ton of aspects on survival alone that can make this fun by itself, and adding the zombies is to spice things up and give it a scare factor- a reason to fight for our lives nearly constantly. Also a reason we'd have to be constantly on the move...

i want to also compile a list of survival issues we may run into, and we can pick and choose from some of these to give this an interesting survival aspect.

-Food sources
-opposing groups= raiders/ pirates (Like Mad Max style)
-transportation
-Setting up camp during evenings (ex: human sentries to guard perimeter of camps?)
-weapons
-radiation from after-effects of nuclear power plants
-(and as much as I hate to say it due to how much I hated this in Walking Dead) power struggle in leadership
-illnesses
-children/ elderly/ wounded (those who cannot pull their own weight)
-fresh drinking water!
-...

 

[Flamjetxx]

Later i will be excited to post a character creation template/ thread, so the faster we get through this, the faster we can get along to character creation!!!

 

[Cainhurst Crow]

I think what might be interesting is if the zombies were more or less isolated in what used to be highly populated areas, like big cities and etc, while the more rural, smaller town areas, now serve as sort of camps for human survivors. So basically big cities would be teeming with zombies, and you'd encounter less and less as you went away from them. These small towns wouldn't have as much supplies however, so supply runs into cities or "hot zones" as we could refer to them, could be our chance to encounter zombies, desperate survivors, and whatever other horrors come about in these situations, human or inhuman.

Also, for the sprinter or jumper zombies, I'm kinda thinking something with massive legs, but no arms, and maybe a creepy looking jaw/mouth from how the parasite has evolved to best use its host. Name suggestion: Runners.

Animal Variants: Super rare due to necessary cross-species contamination or spread, usually caused by flukes from large amount of fungal or viral ingestion ((IE, animals eating zombies)). Aggressive. Hard to kill. Attracted to large amounts of zombies. Will attack anything, infected and uninfected alike. Similar to Rabies.

 

[Joy Carleec]

I like what you're saying about the infected stuff being a fungal spore. It would be cool to see variation within the variation too IMO kinda like mini-bosses I guess. It would also be cool if we end up going with the post apocalyptic thing if radioactivity kills them since they're fungal spores infecting human host. I think that makes sense, it would destroy whatever brain the human host had unless they somehow mutated to resist that, so we could go in a run down plant or something (for some reason I don't know) and suddenly encounter some super-strong mutant resistant to radioactivity, and be forced to kill it or let more like it spread I guess? Idk, maybe it would be cool if we killed it and used parts of it for ourselves. It would be nice to figure something out like that a bit later when some of our members come and go, the survivors can start using the 'zombies' own stuff against them, or to protect ourselves (shields made from strong clickers face plates.)

Well the fungal thing is the real "zombie", the body it inhabits is just a vessal for it to spread. When the body dies, it begins to decompose and thats when the releasing stage begins to pump spores into the surrounding air.

Short of a flame thrower i'm not certain how you'd 'destroy' it.

Zombie Types from Last of Us:
First stage is "runners", second stage is "stalkers", third stage is "Clickers". Then you also have "bloaters", which are kind of like a cross between a tank and spitter, from left 4 dead.

Environmental Problems:
- Winter is a serious hazard for the sick or young/old.
- Fires
- Hot summers.
- Rain can make landslides / cause illness without shelter and even ruin crops in excess.
- Man-Made hazards, such as chemical spills, etc.

 

[Miz]

I'd like to see the Witch make and appearance, it would be a good scare for our heroes. I also like the smoker, a zombie that can pull people with its large tongue, grappling them and hauling them away.

 

[Sess]

I think what might be interesting is if the zombies were more or less isolated in what used to be highly populated areas, like big cities and etc, while the more rural, smaller town areas, now serve as sort of camps for human survivors. So basically big cities would be teeming with zombies, and you'd encounter less and less as you went away from them. These small towns wouldn't have as much supplies however, so supply runs into cities or "hot zones" as we could refer to them, could be our chance to encounter zombies, desperate survivors, and whatever other horrors come about in these situations, human or inhuman.

This is probably one of my favorite ideas suggested in this thread.

Animal Variants: Super rare due to necessary cross-species contamination or spread, usually caused by flukes from large amount of fungal or viral ingestion ((IE, animals eating zombies)). Aggressive. Hard to kill. Attracted to large amounts of zombies. Will attack anything, infected and uninfected alike. Similar to Rabies.

I like the idea of indiscriminate attacking a lot as well. Basically what I really think would be ideal is if the fungal parasite/infection could only operate the host and mutate it within reason. If, for instance, it's host's brain is exposed to radiation that would definitely mess it up and likely could melt or destroy it. Being reliant on that is what I was saying when I said radiation should kill them. I think radiation should kill the fungus/infection as well, then we could have areas in which people walk around in hazmat suits and eat/live in shelter-type things because they decided it would be best to irradiate the area. I see the radiation thing as sort of a light side duality. It has the capacity to cleanse this infection that could be seen as god's way of testing, or getting to humans as they began to feel they were on top of the world. It could also be seen as the pinnacle of human ingenuity, utilizing some nearly uncontrollable destructive force for their own benefit. Something like a homeopathic remedy to a massive genocide. :b

This isn't really shaping up how I imagined it might, I'm still planning on taking part, but there's a chance I might have to kill off my character or not start at all depending how much work I can get done on my indie faction and PC regardless of other members' activity within it.

 

[Flamjetxx]

Characters created in diverse RPs are seperate from the SWRP RPing characters.

 

[Sess]

Characters created in diverse RPs are seperate from the SWRP RPing characters.

That goes without saying. I'm trying to say that if I maybe not be able to be as involved with this as others may. (Idk how you got that :b)

 

[Ringer123]

...I want in. :unamused:

 

[Joy Carleec]

I'd like to see the Witch make and appearance, it would be a good scare for our heroes. I also like the smoker, a zombie that can pull people with its large tongue, grappling them and hauling them away.

Maybe, so long as it fits the theme of the existing zombies we have; since the Left 4 Dead style stuff (with exception of the normal infected) is very different from Last of Us, which in turn is very different from Dead Rising, etc.

 

[Sess]

Maybe, so long as it fits the theme of the existing zombies we have; since the Left 4 Dead style stuff (with exception of the normal infected) is very different from Last of Us, which in turn is very different from Dead Rising, etc.

The witch could be like inner-city drug addicts who got infected.. crackheads, tweakers, stuff like that you know? Male or female, their body is twisted by the lack of nutrition and excess of chemicals in the infected host's brain. Idk, just an idea.

 

[Nor'baal]

Just so you are aware, I intend to make a character who totally refused to leave the town :P

Just to make it more interesting.

 

[Joy Carleec]

The witch could be like inner-city drug addicts who got infected.. crackheads, tweakers, stuff like that you know? Male or female, their body is twisted by the lack of nutrition and excess of chemicals in the infected host's brain. Idk, just an idea.

Really interesting take on it :)

 

[Miz]

Just so you are aware, I intend to make a character who totally refused to leave the town :P

Just to make it more interesting.

That should be interesting. I intend to make a super Catholic Hispanic prego.

 

[Flamjetxx]

We would have to match up different aspects from the zombies in all of these in order to make them all themed together.
And anyone is allowed to join in, just contribute some ideas, and we can get this moving better.

Zombie types that I have so far from your comments include (and I will add some of my own ideas too):

-Human incubators/clickers
-Bear zombie (which we can expand to animal zombies-aka dogs/deer/etc)
-Zombies that sprint (faster than humans, but aren't necessarily very agile)
-Larger, but slower zombies that can take a serious beating (much like tanks)
-Leaping zombies with high levels of agility (can basically get anywhere, but aren't particularly fast runners)
-Perhaps a basic zombie- more for reference, but also for amassments.
-ones that grapples and pull people away
-I think it would be creepy as hell to have a zombie that is more stealthy, and can warn other zombies of human presences. Humans always know where zombies are it seems, but zombies almost never notice the humans at the same time. Perhaps we can have an agile/ stealthy-type zombie that warns other zombies with a loud screeching that can be heard from miles around. They don't have to be strong or even attack humans, but they are just an alarm system to let zombies know when humans are around.
==And going on the same topic of alarm zombies: there won't be a whole lot of humans around at this point, so these zombies need to mutate/evolve for a reason, and they need to eat to survive, so maybe there are conflicting groups of zombies? These zombies establish hunting territories for humans, and hunt each other. The alarm zombies will make a different alarm for their respective clans...
-Witches- I don't actually know what these are though.
-A combination form of zombie that sprints and jumps. has long legs and no arms. Specialization on jaw perhaps to trip humans while running away- in order to let other slower zombies catch up and disembody them?
-On that note, perhaps there will be a zombie specialized for dismembering humans? Something with massive claws and laws that just splice and tear them apart for the rest of the zombies to take their share and run away with it. This can also chop an arm off of a human while the survivor escapes...?




And I should ask what is the theme for these zombies? Common traits among all of them? The fungus? or will it just be a hierarchy of zombies in clan/ semi-organized form that allows different zombies to have different roles in a hunt?

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i want to also compile a list of survival issues we may run into, and we can pick and choose from some of these to give this an interesting survival aspect.

-Food sources
-opposing groups= raiders/ pirates (Like Mad Max style)
-transportation
-Setting up camp during evenings (ex: human sentries to guard perimeter of camps?)
-weapons
-radiation from after-effects of nuclear power plants
-(and as much as I hate to say it due to how much I hated this in Walking Dead) power struggle in leadership
-illnesses
-children/ elderly/ wounded (those who cannot pull their own weight)
-fresh drinking water!
-winter/ summer seasonal issues
-rain issues to cause over flooding killing crops...landslides
-fires
-chemical spills (other man made hazards)
--and going with the living condition explained by Sess. I like the idea of living in a high radiation location to be safe from the zombies, but We'd have to come up with a dang good reason for being forced out of that hiding place... perhaps over exposure with radiation, or Acid rains have destroyed most of the building isn the area, and thus we need to move to a different location where our buildings aren't sinking in the acid rain...

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Either way, amazing ideas you guys! keep it up, and I think I'll throw out a suggestive compilation of the zombies we will use. Anything you agree with or disagree with, go ahead and mention it. anything you want added, go ahead and say you want it. I will also add the scenario as to where we live, why we are leaving, and where we will be going.

Scenario:

For 7 years, our colony has been lying in wait behind the toxic fogs' protection. The remnants of the nuclear facilities caused this fog to cover the small towns outside of (Name a Location). Ordinarily, us humans would avoid such a thing, but in reality these fogs are a blessing in disguise. The zombies cannot survive in these fogs, but thankfully, we can. The extremely high levels of radiation have been shown to kill the fungal infect on the zombies. They become void in this area. The settlement the humans currently are living in is a small area untouched by the radiation. Wind currents blow the fogs away from a small location where humans can live free from the zombies.

The only times that humans would need to encounter the zombies is when making supply runs to gather equipment that cannot easily be made any longer. This is mainly metals, but it encompasses nearly everything made in the pre-outbreak. Factories created items in mass that are difficult to create now a days, so supply runs must be made in order to improve society, but some things you just cannot fix.

For the past year or so, highly acidic rains and snowfalls have been frequently visiting our region. In the past, they hadn't done a thing, but recently they have higher concentrations of radiation, and are dissolving the rocky foundation where we live.

Our green houses, our barns, and our homes are sinking into the ground. We are being buried alive. Despite the many protests, we must move out and find another place to live, but in order to do that, we must confront our greatest fear. The zombies have expanded and evolved to newer and better means of hunting. They may not have been hunting us, but they sure as hell have been hunting something. They've grown into territorial clans that are highly concentrated in the big city of (insert City Name).

We've heard of locations similar to our own in protective levels of radiation, but that are untouched by the acidic rains and snowfalls of our current home. We will be able to restart our lives there and not make the same mistakes there than we have made here, but we have to first cross into the heavily populated locations of zombies to get there. How many of us will survive? And will this new home keep us alive for much longer than our old home?

The Zombies:

The zombies are created by a viral fungus that takes over the human brain upon contact with the substance. Insteead of feeding off of bacteria, it feed off of us. along with feeding off of us, they turn us into mindless monsters with an insatiable lust for flesh, fresh if they can find it. Surprisingly enough, they have formed their own hierarchy. This means they are clearly smarter than we give them credit for, but that doesn't make it any easier on us. The viral fungus absorbs the brain and only keeps the necessary parts alive, then they seek out food, be it humans or their own kind.

Killing the viral fungus causes the body to start a decaying process that fills it with spores. The carcass will then explode from pressure buildup that will release these spores. Getting them in our food, water, or lungs will infect us, and cause us to turn. It is surprisingly slow, but you can tell the symptoms. by the end of the day, you could be a zombie just like them. it immediately attacks the brain altering your thoughts. You will immediately become a liability to the group and any liabilities beyond saving must be taken care of. Even if it means killing you outright.

If these zombies hurt you in any way vie biting or clawing, you are also at risk of contracting the spores that cling tot he outside of their bodies. Getting bitten or scratched gives you a 30% chance in getting infected. Treatment is highly recommended unless you're a betting man, but anyone trained in viewing wounds will be able to spot an infection within the wound. this will be a great judge of picking out those who need the below treatment.

There is, however, a chance of recovering from exposure to these spores. If you catch this immediately, a high dose of radiation can kill the spores. it will leave the individual weakened from the radiation, but it should kill the spores. These doses are nonlethal, but taxing on the body. This is a last resort, and double exposure will certainly kill the individual, so don't get anymore spores in you after you piss the bulk of the radiation away.

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The hierarchy is as described below:
(Attributes ar ranked in a system where 5 is the Average Human. anything below is sub human levels, and anything above is super human levels. A 10/10 is impossible for a human to achieve. same with a 0/10.)

Drones- These are the common infected, and are basically just humans that have been recently infected. These are weak and make up the majority of the population. They rarely ever advance in the hierarchy unless they consume a good deal more zombie meat than any other of the drones. The mutation will effect them in the traits that they most use. If they fight or eat more often, then they will go up the main evolutional chain. Though if they run more often, then they will advance in the specialized chain.
Drones are also servants of the queen. They help to construct hives, and essential help the queen in any way possible, including sacrificing themselves to sustain her or to create warriors/hunters in times of clan wars.
Like all the zombies, the fungus infects and covers the brain, and thus protects it from any killing blows from lower caliber rounds. This makes all the zombies rather difficult to kill.

Strength: 0000000000
Speed: 0000000000
Agility: 0000000000
Constitution: 0000000000

Main Chain:	Specialized Chain:
Rippers- Are the first Tier of the Main chain of Zombie evolution. These evolve from drones that fight more often than run. They are slightly faster than the average zombie, but their specialized jaws and arms are made to literally rip apart prey. They have bones that protrude through their skin that are razor sharp. They are efficient in dismemberment. Don't let one of these ambush you! You will lose a limb at the least. Strength: 0000000000 Speed: 0000000000 Agility: 0000000000 Constitution: 00000000000	Screechers- These, often seen with Sentries, are the initial evolution of the specialized chain. These are fast, stealthy, and loud as all heck! They hide in the shadows out of site and help to guard perimeters or help out on hunts. When they see potential prey or a threat, they will screech so loudly it can make ears bleed and can be heard from miles around. Each clan's screechers have a unique warning screech and can be used to recognized to clans. Strength: 0000000000 Speed: 0000000000 Agility: 0000000000 Constitution: 0000000000
Clickers- These are a dulled down version of the rippers. They are just as lethal, but they tend to be completely blind. These evolve form rippers that stray off more often. They have developed an enhanced echolocation system that makes efficient at finding things. Because of this, they are very good at hearing things that many would rather not hear. making a noise would cause the Clicker to endlessly search for you. The only thing is that they are directional, so staying behind one, silently, will keep them from finding you. they do not give up tasks easily, so be ready to fight or flight. The last thing you will experience after one of these find you is a rapid clicking death where you are killed in a similar manner to the rippers. Strength: 0000000000 Speed: 0000000000 Agility: 0000000000 Constitution: 0000000000	Sprinters- These are at the for fronts of hunts. They are the fastest and most agile of the zombies. When they locate a target, they will give chase and trip their prey. They will then let the rippers disembody the victim in order for the tanks to bring them back to the hive. Strength: 0000000000 Speed: 0000000000 Agility: 0000000000 Constitution: 0000000000
Sentries- These are average speed, but stronger zombies. They tend to be taller than most in order to see greater distances. Their eyesight is very good compared to Clickers' echolocation. They are bread to guard their territories. They keep inside a perimeter, and pace it relentlessly. They always have a their eyes open, which are actually elongated, and partially protruding from their skulls to allow for a 180 degree field of vision. It is verity difficult to get past one of these. If they find you they will not hesitate to charge (though about as fast as you can run) and rip you apart in a vicious way. These are often seen with screechers. Strength: 0000000000 Speed: 0000000000 Agility: 0000000000 Constitution: 0000000000	Grapplers- These often go off on their own, and hide in the shadows. They are just as stealthy as the screechers, and will ambush those passing by, and latch onto them with their tongue, and drag them back to be eaten. Many belong to clans, but don't often participate. They do a similar job as the tanks in hunts. Strength: 0000000000 Speed: 0000000000 Agility: 0000000000 Constitution: 0000000000
Tanks- Are actually very slow, but very durable. They are actually quite large as well, and despite looking as if they're a mutated fat man that got infected, they actually mutated into being so large. They can travel at walking speeds, but they are incredibly difficult to kill. They have developed a large body of pure muscle mass, and an incredibly thick skin covered in the mold. Penetrating their skull is next to impossible with out a rocket or a drill of some sort, but good luck with that one! Tanks usually are seen dragging bodies away for food. They bring and protect the bodies from most other zombies, and bring them to the Queen(s). they are often used as shields by other zombies if danger is nearby to them. Strength: 0000000000 Speed: 0000000000 Agility: 0000000000 Constitution: 0000000000	Hunters- Are the highest evolution of the Specialized chain. These are quite rare, but they are the leaders of hunts. They are fast, agile, and dangerous all around. These re much like warriors i regards to the hunt. If or when they 9as they often do) encounter another hunting party, they will kill the oppositions' hunters, rippers, and (if they can catch them) sprinters. They resemble dogs more in appearance despite having been a human (a very long time ago). Particularly successful hunters may evolve into a version of a queen by being allowed to consume the dead zombies from a war. This is a reward to participation in the war, or success as hunters. Strength: 0000000000 Speed: 0000000000 Agility: 0000000000 Constitution: 0000000000
Warriors- Are the rarest of the evolutions. These are a cross between a tank and a sentry/ripper. They are tall, large, and actually fast. unlike their former evolutions, they are actually quite fast. They are the epitome of the dangerous zombies. These are bread for wars between zombies, and that's all they will do. They don't hunt, and they don't work at all. All they do is fight in wars to the very last Zombie. They don't eat with the exception of the brains of their victims; so after a war, they either die out or evolve to the very last evolution if they happened to be particularly successful in a war. Outside of wars, these essentially don't exist. Strength: 0000000000 Speed: 0000000000 Agility: 0000000000 Constitution: 0000000000

Queens:

Warrior Queens- Are very large Zombies that have evolved from successful Warriors. They are difficult to kill and are essentially the most dangerous (and slightly larger than) warriors. the only thing is that they will actually go about turning other drones to her command by injecting her own fungus into them. The effects are instantaneously, and when live humans are brought to her, she will do the same with them. These humans become instant drones. She will often help to invade another clan of zombies, and kill other queens when her warriors and drones are out of the way. She will then turn her drones to her, by injecting her own fungus inside them. Mass genocide of another clan is rare, because of a clan queen wanting to turn as many zombies into her own clan ass possible. Very rarely will a Clan Queen break off from her own clan Queens to start her own clan, but it is possible.

Strength: 0000000000
Speed: 0000000000
Agility: 0000000000
Constitution: 0000000000

Hunter Queens- These are essentially a smaller, faster queen than the warrior queens. They won't confront the other queens directly, but they will certainly help to spread their clan's fungus. They often are very efficient in building hives with the drones and often have the most control over the drones. This could be in part by the rate in which they turn other clan zombies. Which is much faster than the Warrior Queens.

Strength: 0000000000
Speed: 0000000000
Agility: 0000000000
Constitution: 0000000000

-There are usually only 4-6 queens per each hive the size of 500 or so total zombies. That's one queen per every 100 zombies.

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Zombie Hunts:

The Sprinters lead the hunt, in searching for and running down potential victims. the screechers try to follow closely behind them, and essentially make a small perimeter around the hunting party in order to warn of intruders. The tanks make up the base of the hunting party, where the sprinters will frequently not stray too far from them, unless they see potential targets. Hunters, grapplers, and rippers will stay near the Tanks until a screecher alarms them or a sprinter goes out of sight indicating a nearby target.

Hunts usually invade near the borders of enemy territories, where they can pick off sentries, screechers or ideally drones. The sprinters will knock down or unbalance targets, the rippers will then take them apart limb by limb. The hunters will also do the same unless they are needed to fight them which often occurs with Sentries. The tanks and grapplers will then bring parts of the kill back home to the hive for the queens.

Upon the occasional hunt where they meet a rivaling hunting party, they will break out in a miniature war, were a successful hunter will prove itself worthy of queen-ship if there happens to be an availability. The sprinters and rippers will head off the battle, but will frequently return back to the tanks for protection. The hunters may choose to stay with the tanks, or they may sprint ahead with the sprinters and rippers. It is largely up to the hunters to win the little battles. they will tie out the other hunters, and kill the tanks (surprisingly quickly too). The rest is a free for all on killing and dismembering the weaker hunting party -after the other hunters are killed.

Members of a hunting party:

2 Hunters
1-2 Tanks
4-5 Sprinters
3-4 Rippers
4-5 Screechers
2-3 Grapplers

-Sizes of the hunting party vary, but the number of hunters is always 2 no matter the clan. They are actually uncommon enough to find the rare hunting party with only one Hunter in it.

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Sentry Positions:

Sentry zombies stand guard to the borders of their territories, just on the outskirts of the hive's location. They try to fight off hunting parties, sometimes successfully, but they are mostly just to ward off intruders long enough for the screecher's to attract backup. The screechers are spread out more than he Sentries, and are usually within range of a Sentry. Grapplers also lurk quite closely to these. they are spread out along perimeters, but bunch together at unspecified posts. Warning will attract any available grapplers, hunting parties, or even a queen who is feeling lucky!
It is not unheard of, but quite uncommon for a tank to be in a Sentry's midst, but they can be very useful in defending an attack.

Members of a Sentry post:

3-4 Sentries
5-6 Screechers
5-6 Grapplers
0-1 Tanks

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Wars:

Defending from hunters is incredibly important though because if a particular clan feels that another clan's defenses are too weak, they may decide to eliminate the competition by starting a war. Wars are often initiated with increased hunts, boldly attacking another clan. These hunts will often contain more than four hunters ion each hunt. The clan being attacked will often begin weaponizing zombies. This is by letting drones feed Tanks and Sentries. This will create warriors. Hunters will also participate in wars as they are very formidable opponents to warriors. Before the start of a war, a hunter is often he strongest zombie in a clan, apart form the queens. They have been known to finish off wars before they even start by attacking and sometimes successfully killing the other clan's queens one by one.

The other clan will create warriors to fiend off these attacks. By this time the attacking clan will be in the process of creating warriors to counter their warriors. From then on, skirmishes will result in Sentry posts, which are now guarded with Warriors, until a pattern is established where one big battle will occur involving warriors, hunters, ranks, and Sentries will weaken one clan enough for an attack to be made involving some of the queens will eliminate the enemy clan's queens. The clan's drones will often be converted for food and labor. Drones are essentially the slaves and results of wars. It isn't uncommon for a clan to have anywhere from 700-1000 clan members in mostly drones directly after a war.

This number will steadily drop as the initial clan will consume the spoils of war, and turn them into sentries and hunting parties to strengthen their clan's reinforcements. This is when extra Queens are usually initiated. While the numbers of drones diminishes back to normal levels, then the queens will fight for power and usually kill the weakest of them to return the Queen number back down to a reasonable number of 4-6.

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Outside the Big Cities:

Drones cover the outskirts of the big cities! Thousands of them stay just outside of the big cities, untouched from the clan's territories. These drones consume each other, small rodents, and stray humans in order to survive. They rarely consume enough to evolve, but when they do, they may be able to create the starts of their own clan, and migrate into the Cities, yet this is incredibly rare. When clan's diminish in drone population (do to evolving drones to fill hunting/ sentry positions) the clans send out hunting parties to bring them back to the hive and convert them. Queens most often leave the hive to help hunting parties do this, although still rarely. These outskirt drones are the city clan's resources.

Population is heaviest in the dead center of the city, where the strongest clan often resides with populations levels as high as 2500 in rode to combat the many surrounding clans constantly testing their defenses. The clans just around them tend to have near 1500-2000 clan members, and the number drops to near 500 on the outer limits of the city. These are the clans that most need to dip into the outskirt drones for clan members. AS clans ascend the ranks and win more wars, their populations steadily increase, even after their drone levels return to normal levels, which might go from 500 before the war to 600-700 after the war. The clan will grow stronger and often occupy the inner territories for more/ better hunting grounds. This is why the strongest clans are in the center of the city.

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Human Population:

At the very farthest reaches of the zombies' territories, are within the uninhabitable zones which are drenched in high levels of radiation. These are where the surviving humans reside. This is where the humans will stay until the clans eventually kill each other off into extinction, or eventually evolve to reproduce (god forbid).< This could be a plot twist! Yeah?

Frequent supply runs are often needed to be made in order for humans to retrieve necessary supplies to build homes, green houses, radiation resistant barns, and clothing. These supply runs are incredibly dangerous, but are often successful since the highest populations of zombies are directly inside hive locations. Humans must avoid only hunting parties and sentry posts. Supply runs are often quite fruitful for the experienced supply runner.

Though the human population is dwarfed by the zombie population, they are very capable of warding off zombies, and surviving in general.

Though many humans prefer to live in the radiation protected towns, some prefer to stay away from the radiation. These are usually considered pirates as they often try to ambush humans making supply runs into the city. Though they will enter the city themselves, they prefer to have others do the work for them. There is an unspoken law that humans don't kill other humans, and thus these pirate raids leave the supply runners without their supplies, but still alive. This may be because of the pirates wanting to keep their supply of supplies to keep coming, but his may also be because every human knows that the zombies are the enemy, not the humans.

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Weapons:

Weapons have evolved a great deal to accommodate their needs to protect themselves from the zombies.Weapons have evolved to keep humans from spreading the viral fungus, and are highly specialized weapons although some still prefer to use more traditional means of weaponry. Pirates tend to more frequently use the traditional weaponry.

Traditional weaponry- These are the good 'ole fashion lead bullets. These are whatever was left over from the old civilization before the spread. These penetrate the armor best, are are often used by all parties to weaken the fungal growths on the head plates of all the zombies. Pirates, however, use this with the blatant disregard of the bursting effect the zombies have after they are killed with such weapons.

Armor piercing weaponry. This is often very strong weaponry. This can be a bow and arrow, but has more recently been seen with the spear guns. These weapons shoot large stakes, spearlike projectiles, or just about anything to pierce armor. These weapons are also commonly used by pirates for their effectiveness of piercing the head plates of the zombies, though they still cause the bursting effect when they die. These are mostly used by the settlers as a method to kill tanks and other thick-armored zombies.

Fire Weapons- These are mainly flame throwers. There are many flame-producing variants of the flame thrower that are designed for different methods of killing. Some are accurate and have a longer range. Some are meant to cover as much area as possible ad are generally used to create a wall of fire to allow for a speedy escape for supply runners. New variations of these weapons use projectiles that ignite fires on the head plates of zombies. This kills the virus and sets the body on fire, which will neutralize or minimalize the bursting effects of the zombies. These weapons are, however, rather difficult to come by due to the difficulty in locating a decent fuel source.

Electric Weaponry- These are the big brothers to gazers. The levels of electricity used in these weapons are enough to instantly kill a normal sized human. A longer shock period is necessary to kill larger zombies. This actually kills and shuts down the body and the spores within it. This will completely eliminate the bursting effect of the zombie. These weapons are difficult to come by however, due to the difficulty in constructing them and and the difficulty in retrieving effective enough power cells to use. Newer variations of this weapon uses projectiles, whir the oder versions needed a line to the weapon itself in order to shock them. The projectiles will allow for a run and gun experience. These are highly effective!

Radiation Weaponry- These fill canisters with high concentrations of radiative material. This may be radiation waste or radiation water. This waste or water is injected in the zombies upon contact via the small canisters. The zombie will immediately slow and die. This will also neutralize the bursting effect and is considered an effective and readily available weapon type due to the easily acquirable weapon fuel. These are most used by Settlers, but not unseen with pirates!

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Clothing/ equipment:

This includes anything resembling a hazmat suit. Masks and high powered breathing apparatus' are often used to confer the bursting effects of dead zombies, and to breath easily in the radiation infested air of their homes. These suites aren't orange or yellow like in the old civilization, but are usually colored to blend in with the ruined city-scape. The lack of color is to not stand out on supply runs.

Animals are also seen in makeshift hazmat suits that are incredibly durable! These suits protect the animals from the toxic environment and possible infection due to the bursting effects of dead zombies, even if it is incredibly rare, it's not unheard of! Protecting animals is incredibly important due to them being a source of food and locomotion!

Every citizen of the town wears a wristband, that acts as a clock, a Geiger counter, and a compass. Failure to have any of these malfunctioning may result in a quick, painful, and unhappy death for a citizen. (The clock can be needed to tell the time of current changes in the fog that may bring higher levels of radiation closer to the town, much like a tide...it's also good for telling time...)

Every citizen venturing into or beyond the fog will make sure they carry a radiation pin as well as a weapon. encountering any zombie, even if it's a drone, may result in injury or contracting spores. The necessity of the pin can neutralize the spores and save your life (this is much like an eli pin, except not for allergic reactions).

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Drop in comments/ suggestions! More edits to come later!

 

[Miz]

I'm not sure about the whole fifty years part, by then everyone on the planet would be dead from malnutrition(Bits of scraps and candy bars, things like that). I think we should start from the outbreak, then when we have our group meet up we can do a little time skip, maybe a good five years.

 

[Joy Carleec]

Also. Any prolongued exposure in something as actively radioactive as a fog would basically be unsustainable for life, let alone growing food. It needs to be reasonably sensible. Like a bunker in a raidation zone or radiation zones surround the majority of the village; which acts as a barrier. But they still have to avoid them themselves, uisng the guage thing. Think Chernobyl. Some of it you can go to, but other places you must not go.

50 years also makes it so pretty much noone who survived the outbreak is still alive, so I think we should scale that back as Miz mentioned.

 

[Flamjetxx]

Yeah, I just came up with it on the fly... Otherwise, everything else looks good, or good enough? Keep in mind, we can add, remove, edit, or replace anything in here.

-But what I was thinking with the fifty years thing (it doesn't have to be fifty) though is that a routine has been established, and time was put in to create that living arrangement. With growing food, I was thinking green houses that are off site of the town. Having to run outside the protective borders of the town to get to the food. Same with barns for keeping livestock. It doesn't have to be in the town itself, but maybe as you suggested the fog or radiation locations are surrounding the town. A mountain to the town's back and a layer of radiation area on the outskirts of the town as a protective border of sorts -like wind pattering in the area allocate the fog around the town or something... this is why I have this here ;)

If the town itself is radiation-free, then perhaps we can keep the green houses and livestock barns within the borders of the town. i just want there to be an established routine/ way of living. I want them to be self sustaining as far as feeding themselves, but the necessity of pre-synthasized materials or materials created via factories would be rather difficult to come by unless you go out into the city...This is not saying that they are surviving solely off of canned good and pare candy bars at this point (especially considering that t=canned good won't last too long either way, maybe maximum of ~3 years, and by then it would be a jelly...) So I also want there to be a reason for them to be already used to being in the midst of the zombies and encounter them on a semi-frequent basis, maybe once or twice a week? That way when we have to move the town we aren't going in with literally no knowledge of how to defend against the zombies...

So in that manner an extended period of time into the Apocalypse, not necessarily 50 years, but perhaps 5-10 years is still reasonable would be efficient enough to say you made it that far and have established this way of life... I also want to add in there different jobs that people in the town would perform: Supply runs, Leadership, farmers...
Then there are pirates... and the loners that like to live alone and fiend for themselves... I just want to supply a bit of options when creating characters here.

And I like the idea of a time skip thing, that we do a thread of where we were when it all happened, and how we got away from it, though at that point there would be very few higher evolution zombies, I'd say they'd mostly be the drones? If there was an evil corporation,(Umbrella Corp. for ex.) then they could have been experimenting with them when they grew too much to manage and they were released on the world, then we can justify the higher evolutions running around, like a Queen running around infecting humans like cray-cray.

So, anyway, we do a thread of the outbreak, and how we all found each other, and how we found the town location... Then a time skip, where we end up finding out that the acid rain is sinking the town, and we need to move across (whatever city) to get to the new town location... There just needs to be a motivation for us risking our necks to go out into the middle of the city where we're heavily exposed!

Just keep adding ideas, and Ill make edits. For now I'm going to throw down some stats for the zombies to show you relatively what their strengths and weaknesses are, keeping in mind that the higher evolutions will have less and less weaknesses, but that's where our weapons will come in! I'll also throw in a new piece of equipment to gauge radiation.

 

[Joy Carleec]

But what I was thinking with the fifty years thing (it doesn't have to be fifty) though is that a routine has been established, and time was put in to create that living arrangement. With growing food, I was thinking green houses that are off site of the town. Having to run outside the protective borders of the town to get to the food. Same with barns for keeping livestock.

To be fair though humans are resourseful and it wouldn't take nearly that long to 'set up'. A year or two at most to get the basics down. 50 is like. They've been there for one or even two (very young though) generations. And really that wouldn't be happening in a radiation thick zone. I think you underestimate just how much radiation would be needed to kill off a parasite, which would likely be as much or more than what a human can survive for a short time without getting perminent radiation sickness.

So you'd either have the means to detect and avoid the radiation pockets (since it's never distributed evenly) or the gear to survive it for short periods of time. Since livestock and farms take space; I doubt they would fit entirely inside the 'town' or protective barrier. So we could still have the dangerous 'food run' or whatever. Or maybe expansions that go beyond the protection and have to be protected the old fashioned way? Chocolate and canned foods can stay good for years - so early on you'd rely on non-perishables until you can grow / breed your own.

Another thing about radiation, is short-lived species are actually more resistant than longer-lived species. Chernobyl has examples of mutated boars and deer with shorter life spans, but breed younger that actually 'live' in the radiation.

I suggest we start from the outbreak, do the meet up, found the town after a journey, timeskip and do whatever and then late game we could timeskip again to a new generation of survivor, if you want. It really depends on how long you want each story to go. If we timeskip too early, then we can't really go back easily.

As for how we find one another; I suggest it be a small community or something who band together. You might not know everyone, but instantly you might turn to one another. Makes it easy for people to have a reason to group up, when it's simplified than that. Obviously not everyone will be from the community, as outsiders or whatever. But its a good starting point.

P.S Any amount of acid rain would make it impossible to grow crops and you'd take that into account before living there. XP

 

[Flamjetxx]

Don't forget to suggest any ideas you feel would work better. It just makes it easier on myself.

-So 2 years time skip. since we don't need a whole lot of time to set up.
-I'll get rid of the fog altogether, but the radiation will blanket most of the location the town is, but perhaps the town can be surrounded by a few radiation pockets with higher doses, that need to be mapped or watched out for.
-No acid rain throughout the period of time they were there, but we still need something to cause them to be forced from their home? Perhaps the acid rain is something very recent like a few months? Maybe if this is set in California location, we can use earthquakes? I'm thinking something natural. Or regarding the location specifically.We just don't want them traveling too far, but have the need to travel. Perhaps some of the radiation was runoff in (normal) rainfall and allowed a small path for drones to barely make it to the town? If radiation can runoff.
-We can leave the greenhouses/ farms outside of the town.
-I don't think I want to time skip twice though. Just one time skip would be enough unless you can come up with a good enough challenge or goal to essentially replay the post apocalypse again. We will start at the outbreak, and time skip after settlement, when the problem (whatever it ends up being) starts.
-I'll get to making a pre-timeskip outline after work @ ~7:30. Then we'll have the basic outline for each of them. and after we decide whether or not those are efficient enough or not, then we will move onto character creation.