rossmum
May 26th, 2009, 10:20 PM
Aren't there enough zombie games and mods out there? We have things like L4D and Killing Floor, why should we bother with an old mod?
Zombie Master is unique in that it's a co-op survival FPS for one team, and a zombie apocalypse RTS for the Zombie Master. Every player except for one is a survivor and spawns on the map; the ZM has a freelook view of the entire map, and can use predetermined zombie spawns and traps to try and whittle the humans down to a manageable size and then wipe them out entirely. The survivors typically have a whole chain of objectives to achieve in order to win, but the ZM only has one: kill them all.
Sounds vaguely interesting. RTS, you say?
There are numerous types of zombies with varying special abilities, and only a certain type can be spawned from many of the spawn points. These points themselves are glowing red orbs located around the map. To spawn zombies, the ZM simply clicks them, selects which zombie they want, and then orders the zombies about; you can set a rally point for each spawn and also cancel your production queue. Like most RTS games, the ZM has limited resources to use, with this amount gradually increasing if your attacks are successful or if you dispose of inactive units. The zombies aren't the most intelligent things ever, but they can be ordered to move, attack, or defend; blocking whole bottlenecks off or surrounding cut-off survivors is not all that hard and can really put the pressure on. Traps are represented by glowing amber orbs and can take more or less any form depending on the mapper's imagination. They could be anything from collapsing walls to hidden punji stake traps to hidden zombie spawns, and they can be set to trigger when the bulk of the survivors are in range or simply triggered on demand. Even though the mod has been out for several years, these traps are still effective as many players forget exactly which does what and where it is.
How about the survivors?
The survivor team generally start without weapons and need to scrounge them for themselves. Some maps throw guns and ammo at you in massive amounts; others don't have enough to go around, so ammo and weaponry must be shared (both can be thrown away or to other players in need). The weapon list isn't particularly expansive but it includes a semiautomatic pistol, pump-action shotgun, the obligatory lever-action rifle, a magnum-calibre revolver, molotov cocktails, and a Mac-10 with an awesome face drawn on the side of it. I'm not kidding.
The average map will have various critical items scattered about, forcing the survivors on a bit of a scavenger hunt while the ZM tries to pick the stragglers off. Timed battles (hold your position until the Monitor returns!) are also a favourite, but the style of play is entirely up to the mapper. Some maps are fairly quick when played by an experienced team, and some take quite a while. There is no respawning so the dead survivors have to wait around in spec mode for the next round to begin, but the community as a whole is pretty laid-back so it's seldom a boring wait.
What are these 'special zombies' you mentioned earlier?
I'll list off all the types and their abilities, there are quite a few.
Shamblers are your stereotypical slow, dumb, moaning zombies. They move at a snail's pace and they aren't all that quick to attack, but they do a huge amount of damage per hit (about 25 points' worth) and are the only zombies capable of destroying barricades by knocking things askew (and quite often, into survivors' faces at considerable velocity). Shamblers are the cheapest to spawn and are brilliant for boxing survivors in so they can be wiped out by the special types.
Banshees are jumpy little bastards who move quickly and leap great distances; they may be hard to hit but they're pretty weak individually. In large numbers, though, they're absolutely deadly. Banshees are fairly cheap, but useless if you want to try and slow the survivors down or hem them in.
Drifters are the next step up. These guys float along fairly slowly (about shambler pace, maybe a little faster) and have a short-ranged acid-spitting attack which does a moderate amount of damage at a pretty fast rate. Drifters, like their legged cousins the Shamblers, are excellent blocking zombies as they can absorb considerable damage and fan out to cover a wide area.
Hulks are gigantic guys who do about 50 points of damage even for a glancing blow. Getting close to a Hulk is totally inadvisable, but their fairly slow movement speed and their predictability means you can bypass them pretty easily. Hulks are the strongest of the zombies and also expensive to spawn; Shamblers and Drifters are a better option for cutting off the humans. Hulks get spread out too easily and are too slow to prevent a breakout if a gap forms in the line.
Immolators are nasty things which like to set fire to people. The Immolator itself is on fire (it doesn't take damage from this), and while it's not the strongest zombie it can absorb a fair few hits before it dies. Oh, and when it dies, it explodes rather violently and sets an area several metres in diameter on fire, including players. Watch out for these, but don't get too worried. They're expensive and only some areas of some maps feature Immolator spawns at all.
Alright, I'm considering it. How's the community?
As the mod is pretty old and hasn't been updated for about a year, it's not exactly the hive of activity that L4D and KF are. That said, there are still a lot of servers and a fair few loyal players. Most servers are empty but once one starts to fill up, the fun really kicks off. In general ZM players are in it for a laugh and won't whine incessantly when someone fires up HLSS and throws on a zombie apocalypse soundtrack or when someone does something incredibly retarded and gets themselves and the whole team killed.
The one thing I should probably warn you about is that in my experience, several of the servers which are most often fully popped are in some way connected with furry communities. Before you run a mile, they're not the sort who feel the need to ram this down everyone else's throats every thirty seconds, and most of the servers have a no porn sprays rule which applies equally to that sort of thing as well. As long as you don't bring the subject up you'll probably find more friendly players there than you will anywhere else, whether they're community regulars or just in it for a good game on a populated server.
Show me some gameplay or something.
Ok.
kp5U_Sk9u7A
6Q98DorwN_Q
A basic look at the ZM's perspective:
vq5ip6FVNFg
And if that doesn't have you sold on it, this should - there's a map called zm_winchester. Take a wild guess what it is. :haw:
Where can I get it?
(http://www.zombiemaster.org/)
Here. (http://www.zombiemaster.org/)
Or here. (http://www.moddb.com/mods/zombie-master)
(http://www.zombiemaster.org/)
Zombie Master is unique in that it's a co-op survival FPS for one team, and a zombie apocalypse RTS for the Zombie Master. Every player except for one is a survivor and spawns on the map; the ZM has a freelook view of the entire map, and can use predetermined zombie spawns and traps to try and whittle the humans down to a manageable size and then wipe them out entirely. The survivors typically have a whole chain of objectives to achieve in order to win, but the ZM only has one: kill them all.
Sounds vaguely interesting. RTS, you say?
There are numerous types of zombies with varying special abilities, and only a certain type can be spawned from many of the spawn points. These points themselves are glowing red orbs located around the map. To spawn zombies, the ZM simply clicks them, selects which zombie they want, and then orders the zombies about; you can set a rally point for each spawn and also cancel your production queue. Like most RTS games, the ZM has limited resources to use, with this amount gradually increasing if your attacks are successful or if you dispose of inactive units. The zombies aren't the most intelligent things ever, but they can be ordered to move, attack, or defend; blocking whole bottlenecks off or surrounding cut-off survivors is not all that hard and can really put the pressure on. Traps are represented by glowing amber orbs and can take more or less any form depending on the mapper's imagination. They could be anything from collapsing walls to hidden punji stake traps to hidden zombie spawns, and they can be set to trigger when the bulk of the survivors are in range or simply triggered on demand. Even though the mod has been out for several years, these traps are still effective as many players forget exactly which does what and where it is.
How about the survivors?
The survivor team generally start without weapons and need to scrounge them for themselves. Some maps throw guns and ammo at you in massive amounts; others don't have enough to go around, so ammo and weaponry must be shared (both can be thrown away or to other players in need). The weapon list isn't particularly expansive but it includes a semiautomatic pistol, pump-action shotgun, the obligatory lever-action rifle, a magnum-calibre revolver, molotov cocktails, and a Mac-10 with an awesome face drawn on the side of it. I'm not kidding.
The average map will have various critical items scattered about, forcing the survivors on a bit of a scavenger hunt while the ZM tries to pick the stragglers off. Timed battles (hold your position until the Monitor returns!) are also a favourite, but the style of play is entirely up to the mapper. Some maps are fairly quick when played by an experienced team, and some take quite a while. There is no respawning so the dead survivors have to wait around in spec mode for the next round to begin, but the community as a whole is pretty laid-back so it's seldom a boring wait.
What are these 'special zombies' you mentioned earlier?
I'll list off all the types and their abilities, there are quite a few.
Shamblers are your stereotypical slow, dumb, moaning zombies. They move at a snail's pace and they aren't all that quick to attack, but they do a huge amount of damage per hit (about 25 points' worth) and are the only zombies capable of destroying barricades by knocking things askew (and quite often, into survivors' faces at considerable velocity). Shamblers are the cheapest to spawn and are brilliant for boxing survivors in so they can be wiped out by the special types.
Banshees are jumpy little bastards who move quickly and leap great distances; they may be hard to hit but they're pretty weak individually. In large numbers, though, they're absolutely deadly. Banshees are fairly cheap, but useless if you want to try and slow the survivors down or hem them in.
Drifters are the next step up. These guys float along fairly slowly (about shambler pace, maybe a little faster) and have a short-ranged acid-spitting attack which does a moderate amount of damage at a pretty fast rate. Drifters, like their legged cousins the Shamblers, are excellent blocking zombies as they can absorb considerable damage and fan out to cover a wide area.
Hulks are gigantic guys who do about 50 points of damage even for a glancing blow. Getting close to a Hulk is totally inadvisable, but their fairly slow movement speed and their predictability means you can bypass them pretty easily. Hulks are the strongest of the zombies and also expensive to spawn; Shamblers and Drifters are a better option for cutting off the humans. Hulks get spread out too easily and are too slow to prevent a breakout if a gap forms in the line.
Immolators are nasty things which like to set fire to people. The Immolator itself is on fire (it doesn't take damage from this), and while it's not the strongest zombie it can absorb a fair few hits before it dies. Oh, and when it dies, it explodes rather violently and sets an area several metres in diameter on fire, including players. Watch out for these, but don't get too worried. They're expensive and only some areas of some maps feature Immolator spawns at all.
Alright, I'm considering it. How's the community?
As the mod is pretty old and hasn't been updated for about a year, it's not exactly the hive of activity that L4D and KF are. That said, there are still a lot of servers and a fair few loyal players. Most servers are empty but once one starts to fill up, the fun really kicks off. In general ZM players are in it for a laugh and won't whine incessantly when someone fires up HLSS and throws on a zombie apocalypse soundtrack or when someone does something incredibly retarded and gets themselves and the whole team killed.
The one thing I should probably warn you about is that in my experience, several of the servers which are most often fully popped are in some way connected with furry communities. Before you run a mile, they're not the sort who feel the need to ram this down everyone else's throats every thirty seconds, and most of the servers have a no porn sprays rule which applies equally to that sort of thing as well. As long as you don't bring the subject up you'll probably find more friendly players there than you will anywhere else, whether they're community regulars or just in it for a good game on a populated server.
Show me some gameplay or something.
Ok.
kp5U_Sk9u7A
6Q98DorwN_Q
A basic look at the ZM's perspective:
vq5ip6FVNFg
And if that doesn't have you sold on it, this should - there's a map called zm_winchester. Take a wild guess what it is. :haw:
Where can I get it?
(http://www.zombiemaster.org/)
Here. (http://www.zombiemaster.org/)
Or here. (http://www.moddb.com/mods/zombie-master)
(http://www.zombiemaster.org/)