Zombie Escape: Different Server, Different Settings. A VERY LONG RANT.

Those of you that know me or Hannibal, may have seen us playing by time to time here or there. We actually play in many servers, and more often than not, we decide what server to join upon what map is being played and how many people are playing.

We don’t have a “Favourite” server (even if we recognize some maps run better in some servers, or are more enjoyable to be played with some populations), which brings me to the main point of today’s rant: the different settings of the different zombie servers, and how they affect the maps and the mappers.
This rant is specially directed to the Zombie Escape Mappers and the different servers Administrators in charge of their settings; but I hope everyone (who actually reads the whole thing) enjoys the reading.

So… Where do I start? Zombie Escape settings are as varied as servers running the mod; sometimes the differences are unnoticeable, and some times they are abysmal. Generally they only mean little and servers manage to balance their own settings accordingly, but sometimes they are indeed game breaking and make some maps unplayable.
Most of the mappers are used to map for their own/favourite server, and take only those settings into account, ignoring other servers, and making outsiders believe the map is broken when it was just made with different settings in mind…

I will not mention any server name, since I believe we are kinda neutral in this blog. With that in mind I will proceed to write about the more important settings, and which ones I think (personally) are the best ones; or why some maps are not as enjoyable as they should with the “wrong” (different from the mapper had in mind) settings.

———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———-

~ Zombie Spawn (Timer, Number and Teleporting or Not) ~

– The are servers that spawn the zombies really fast, and there are servers that take up to a minute for the first zombie to appear.
– There are servers that spawn only 1 Mother Zombie, others a couple/few, and others that spawn a percentage of the population.
– There are servers that teleport the Mother Zombies back to the spawn position, and others that leave them where they were to start infecting the human crowd.

Nowadays the timer for the first zombie to spawn it’s more or less similar amongst all the servers I join, quite short.
However, some servers still take a little too long to spawn the “Mother Zombies”; and In the past I even saw some servers that would take up to one minute to spawn the first zombie! I guess this it’s a remain from the transition from original ZM to ZE, and the late spawn was supposed to infect a bunch of people who were hiding/holding the same barricaded room already.

You can’t really talk about those 3 settings by separate (since they affect each other; you can’t really spawn a % of zombies in the middle of the crowd or teleport back a lonely zombie) and there is not really a “best” setting. However, some opinions about it:

– First of all, if you are going to teleport your zombies back to spawn, you need a minimum number of them, and not just one; I have seen this and it’s a really big fail.
– If you are going to teleport your zombies back to spawn, you need to spawn them really fast; you want them right behind you from the very beginning, and not just walk safely to the boats/first-hold/whatever.

Personally I grow a little bored of the “Only 1 Zombie spawning in the middle of the crowd” because it’s too easy to get fail rounds (Zombie AFK, Zombie couldn’t infect anyone before being shoot down, Zombie infected everyone in front and humans can only hide and not even try to win), but some times it gives fun situations and I am not recommending servers using this system to change it.
However I do recommend to take into account that some maps were designed for one setting or the other; so you may be interested in changing your custom settings for a map if your setting is not working with it; or you are getting too many “fail-rounds”.

Examples:
– Mines of Moria was made with a “Zombie Spawning in the Middle of the crowd Infecting” setting taken into mind; and that’s why there are zombie stoppers where the 3 paths meet (because zombies could indeed get there faster than humans). If you teleport your zombies after spawning, even in great numbers, you will take all the action from the cave-paths, and get too late to the Balin’s Tomb hold, effectively removing from 30 to 40% of the action in the map.
– Mako Reactor system tried to accommodate to all settings, and even if most servers made it work (arranging settings when necessary because the map was worth it) it was kinda of a big fail, since it still made many servers to change their spawning settings to adapt. However; I really dislike seeing how some servers slowed down the spawn timer so they could have plenty of time to get the materias in the city; zombies should be on that beam on top of the last wagon when the train doors open for humans; being right behind them from the first second.

For Mappers:
– I would suggest any mapper, from now on, to include (or explain) the spawning settings that the map was made for (or you think better suit it) in the Gamebanana description (or Forum/Blog if you use one) and include those in the README in the .zip file aswell.

~ Zombie and Human Speed ~

– Most servers have a normal 100% speed on humans; however, few have increased human speed (some for everyone, some depending on classes, some depending on donations).
– Most servers used to have faster (110%+) zombies that required being shoot or they would catch the humans; however lately I have seen an alarming increase of 100% (normal speed) zombies on many servers; and I even saw once a curious server that had slow (50%) zombies; it was a completely different game style.

Personally I don’t think human speed should be increased (original Counter-Strike speed works fine; and sometimes mappers take it into account for some timed event) and I truly believe that zombies do need to be faster than humans, by a fair bit.
When you play on a server where zombies run at 100% of speed (same as humans) you don’t need to turn back and shoot them a single time, because they won’t catch up with you as long as you don’t fail… And if you happen to turn and shoot… They are freaking doomed…
Same usually goes for zombies that have “only” 105-110% speed; specially if you can ignite them with a grenade.
In my opinion zombies should have (at least) a 115-125% speed of what humans have, so you do indeed need to shoot/grenade them by time to time and so they can actually catch running humans. I have read some people complaining about how lately the game has become a “Run and don’t shoot until the so-called hold position”, but even if that’s sometimes the mappers fault, servers are usually to blame aswell.

Examples:
– FreeZe‘s maps (specially noticeable on PotC and SG1Misions) were made for servers that had really fast zombies; forcing you to shoot while running (or using grenades) at some points; making a full-action packed map of shooting non-stop; and the little zombie stoppers (pyramid’s stone, falling tree) were there to give a NEEDED little advantage to humans. When playing those maps on servers with “slow” zombies, you end up running without looking back most of the time; and decide the map was badly made.
– Hannibal special weapons and triggers that affect the zombie speed (Freezer Gun, Slow-Zombies Paranoid Trigger, Ice Materia and Gravity Materia) give back a speed of 115-120%; you can notice how zombies on “Slow Zombie Servers” become faster after suffering their effects.

~Human Weapons (Reload and NoReload, Infinite Ammo or Not) ~

– There are servers that require you to reload normally,  some with increased ammo clips, and some were you don’t need to reload at all.
– There are servers that grant you unlimited ammo, and some with a finite amount of bullets.

Here, I guess, it’s all about balance and general settings. It’s all about tastes and it being balanced properly with the Zombies HP and Knockback. Usually, if you have infinite ammo and no need to reload, the zombies on that server will be tougher, having more HP, increased regeneration and will be less affected by the bullet’s knockback.
Personally I think the normal ammo clips, having to reload, and a big amount of finite ammo are the best settings. Having to reload in a crucial moment (and not all humans at the same time) is big part of the gameplay in my opinion; and having a limited amount of ammo (of 700-1000 bullets) is enough to win/complete any map; but can still make you run out of bullets if you just keep shooting non-stop instead of shooting when a zombie shows his head. I like to think when it’s a good time to reload and not being able to just keep wasting bullets without thinking.

Examples:
– On some of the newer maps (like Mako Reactor and Predator) there are “Boss Fights” that need to be balanced with the original (Clip Size and need to Reload) settings. Those fights become easier than planned if you use increased ammo clips or no-reload.
– When a map is really long, intense, or contains some bullet-eating event (like Predator does); mappers should give the means for the players. Luffaren replenish bullets before Predator’s Fights, and Eddie put 1.000 bullets weapons in Hypernova for anyone to get; some other maps also have ammo crates that restore your ammunition.

For Mappers:
– If your map includes a insanely amount of shooting because it’s very long, very intense, or got bullet-draining events (like long boss fights, incredible strong breakables), thing about including some “Ammo Crates” or other means of getting extra bullets at some points.

~ Zombie Stats (HP, Regeneration & Knockback)~

– Zombie HP varies a lot from server to server; personally the lowest I saw was 2.000, and the highest 15.000.
– Zombie Regeneration varies a lot from server to server aswell. Some don’t have any kind regeneration, some regenerate only after infecting a human, some regenerate slowly over time, some regenerate at fast rates.
– Zombie Knockback can be as low as almost not moving them (or just stopping them under constant fire, rather than pushing them) or as high to make a zombie fly from side to side of the map with a single headshot.
– On most servers, Mother Zombies (the original/s zombie/s spawning) have increased HP and Regen, sometimes they can also have reduced Knockback or increased speed.

Here, once again, it’s a matter of balance. If you only spawn a single Mother Zombie, he should be really thought so it can’t be pushed or taken down easily; and if you have NoReload, zombies should have increased HP and reduced Knockback to survive and push against the non-stopping fire.
However… I want to make a couple of things clear… First of all, this is Zombie ESCAPE we are talking about, and it’s about escaping zombies to a safe position (the end of the map). It’s not “Zombie Hunting“, or “Massacring Zombies” or “Playing with Zombies for Dummies“. What I mean here, is that zombies need to be really strong in the escape servers; and nothing annoys me more than ZE servers that have zombies weak enough I can hold (and end killing) 2 of them, at once, on my own; they literally can’t do anything unless is the human that fails.

– They need a high amount of HP: so they can’t be killed easily nor fast.
– They need a really high regeneration rate; not only so they can be at full health in a short time to try to infect human’s defended position, but also so he can basically regenerate all the HP he is losing under a single human shooting at him.
– They need a balanced Knockback (depends of the Ammo Clips and other settings). You don’t want them to be un-pusheable; but you sure don’t want them neither to be a joke for the humans that can be shoot really far away.
– Zombie Mothers need to be tougher than original ones; and a custom model for them it’s welcomed.

I have seen servers with ridiculous settings here… To the point that zombies only have ONE SINGLE TRY to get humans; if they fail, they have no HP left, a regeneration rate so low that won’t heal the HP taken from a single headshot in the 4 minutes remaining of map; so they need to choose between showing their faces and diying under human fire, or hiding and diying later by the nuke.

Examples:
– Some maps (Paranoid, Mako, Predator and others maps) have custom or secret weapons that will hurt zombies. On servers with ridiculously low HP on zombies, those weapons become overpowered.
– Not all maps are the same long or intense. In some maps you shoot the zombies a little here and a little there, and then it’s over; but in some maps you are shooting the zombies non-stop. Many mappers (Hannibal on Mako Reactor, Luffaren on Predator Ultimate, Eddie on Hypernova and GrandOP on God’s Wrath) had to recur to triggers giving extra HP to the zombies because they were just being annihilated under many server settings; and when the map has to trick the settings this way, because zombies get annihilated, in Zombie ESCAPE, it’s kinda sad.

Personally I like 7.500 HP for the normal Zombies, and a Regeneration of at least 100HP/Sec (6K over 1 minute). You should be able to stop/knockback the zombies, but not to the point were a single human can hold 2 zombies in an open area for as long as he wants; much less a single human holding 10 zombies in a zombies-need-to-crouch vent.
I don’t say those settings are perfect, nor that servers should do as I said, but you sure don’t want easy-to-kill and “useless after being badly hurt” zombies on ZE imo.

For Mappers:
– If you thing your map it’s too intense (Zombies getting shot a lot or for long periods of time) for most servers, you can add triggers at some points that set them to X hp (like healing them); however servers should handle this issue on their own if they have weak zombies.

~ Zombie Respawning (Humans Dying & Joining Late) ~

– Some servers allow people to come back to life after dying, others only allow you to do so if you joined late, some don’t allow it under any circumstances.

Many of you are probably completely familiar with the command !zspawn. If it’s enabled makes you able to join an already started round as a zombie (even if I have seen a couple of servers that allowed you to rejoin as a human).
Some servers force the respawning, making you respawn as a zombie again after dying. While others won’t allow you to join a round even if you joined late.

Personally I think !zspawn should be ALLWAYS enabled (and spawn you as a zombie). You join late? Join Team Zombie! You died as a human crushed by a falling bridge? Join Team Zombie! Humans shotted you to dead as a Zombie? Join Team Zombie, again, and seek for revenge!
This way, players that died or joined late can decide if they want to play (some people are not big fans of spectating). More so, defending/helping humans that might die from some hazard (like blowing up a bridge) becomes more meaningful if not only means you will lose some humans, but that you will have to fight more zombies aswell. Sometimes, the original Mother Zombies weren’t lucky and couldn’t infect anyone, but those 3 humans that failed the jump and those 2 players that just joined the game can help them!

The difference between servers that allow/force !zspawn with those that don’t can become incredible big when the map it’s particularly deadly (Trap Escape, Mako Reactor, Predator Ultimate) or zombies have a high dead rate because of long hard holds.
Remember that time you were only 10 humans alive and 2 zombies, with 30 dead people? Imagine that again with 10 humans vs 32 zombies; the ending of the map can easily change from “Boring” to “Freaking Epic and Almost Impossible“.

Now, I have nothing against the “Force !zspawn” setting some servers use; but remember to disable it when the map you are playing has AFK-Killers.

Examples:
– Paranoid contains some deadly weapons that will just destroy any zombie if properly used; without allowing zombies to respawn, the end of the map can lack numbers of living dead to shot at.
– Mako Reactor and Predator Ultimate high amount of mortality between humans (mostly due to falling down the pipes or Predator himself) guarantees epic final battles if respawning as a zombie is allowed.

For Mappers:
– Take in mind that some servers allow respawning as a zombie; so don’t use AFK-Killers; or use them only on CT (human) team if they are really needed.
– Try to open shortcuts or enable some teleports after a while to allow the respawning zombies to get to the action relatively fast; it’s useless to respawn as a zombie if you won’t be able to catch up with anyone before the map explodes.

~ !Ztele Command ~

– Some servers allow to use this command, teleporting you back to the spawn position; sometimes only for zombies, sometimes only for humans, sometimes for both.

Ok… I can’t believe I’m making a paragraph for this point, but I think I needed to after playing on a server that allows !Ztele to being used by humans…
There is no point in allowing !Ztele to be used by humans in zombie ESCAPE. Your goal is to escape to the safe position, not to teleport back to avoid being zombified and hide for the rest of the round since it’s guaranteed you won’t get to the end in time…

If you are going to infect a human; and he leaves, nothing you can do against it. But if he !Zteles, that’s, in my opinion, completely retarded, and should be completely disabled as an option for humans. Not only is not needed, and even annoying, but it has also zero base to exist and no realism at all.
For zombies it’s not really needed, but doesn’t hurt neither, as it can help them in some situations; like when they are cornered under human fire and going to die anyway (but here !ztele wouldn’t be really “needed” if !zspawn was enabled). But mostly they use it for two reasons: to check if the last human is AFK in the spawn or near it; and to get out of some place they got stucked into.
(Notice that humans can get stucked aswell but: They can get unstucked easier shooting at the stucking props than the zombies knifing, most of the time they will just get killed by the prop if it had some damage or their “showing parts” will allow them to get zombified, and then being able to !ztele as zombies).

For Mappers:
– If you have some stucking props, break them after some seconds to free the stucked players; the same props can be deadly in a server and just stucking in other depending on physics settings.
– As happens with !Zspawn, !Ztele can prove itself quite useless if there aren’t shortcuts of some kind to go back to the action or if an AFK-Killer is going to kill you.

!Zmarket Command

– Some servers allow you to use this command to get weapons/ammunition/grenades at any point.

I personally don’t like this option. The bullets from the weapon you get at the very beginning should be enough for complete the map (if not wasted).
Personally I have only seen this being abused (getting new weapons to avoid reloading while on a hold or Boss Fight).
It can also ruin some nice setups some mappers try to make; like forcing you to start with pistol and look for weapons in the armory or arround the burning town.

~ Napalm Grenades (and their Knockback) ~

– Most servers I play have now grenades that will ignite the zombies for some seconds.
– Some server don’t allow grenades, some allow up to 3 per player.
– Sometimes the grenade Knockback doesn’t exist, sometimes it’s huge.

So… Personally I have nothing against the grenades igniting the zombies; but some servers over-do it, igniting them for way too long.
As many of the previous situations, it’s a matter of balance; but more often than not I find that the grenades igniting for the longest duration, are also the ones with the lowest knockback and the slowest zombies… Which becomes ridiculous.

It’s ideal that the grenades don’t ignite for too long; the on-fire effect on zombies is really annoying (when playing as a zombie, and you are a player as much as humans are) and is also quite laggy (specially when there are many zombies and/or in small rooms).
Personally I would keep the ignite; but make it stay for only 1-3 seconds, 4 tops. Those servers were you ignite for 5-10 seconds after being grenaded BY A SINGLE HUMAN are really annoying; not to mention that you will probably get grenaded again in a short time…
Anyway, as mentioned, this has to be balanced in many ways; but try to keep the ignite time short; since it’s really annoying for the zombie players.

By the way… I haven’t seen Fail-Nades for quite a time, and not so often anymore… Looks like many servers grow bored of that possibility and greatly reduced their pushing power. That’s fine (if you prefer it that way), but if you reduce the Fail-Factor, you should also make them less useful (ignite less time).

~ Restricted Weapons (AWP Camper, Scout Runner & Easy-Mode) ~

– Most servers have one or more restricted weapons, for varied reasons.

So far, I don’t think I have played in a Zombie Escape server that allowed all Counter-Strike weapons. The reasons for restricting some of them are varied.
Sometimes some of the most powerful weapons (high damage/accuracy/ammo-clip) are restricted because properly used they are too powerful against zombies.
Sometimes the ones are restricted are because to many people getting them will ruin the round for everyone; like when there are too many AWP Campers, or many people getting the Scout (the only weapon that allows you to run faster than holding a Knife or Pistol) just for the speed boost, and not helping his human mates.

I understand the need (or chosing) of restricting or not some weapons; and unlike with other server settings; I never saw any big problem with the allowed weapons.
However, you may be interested in not allowing Sniper Rifles on Mako Reactor and Predator (even if your server usually does) because they contain boss battles that are based on number of HITs (not damage); and since they are tuned to be a real challenge, carrying people with those kind of weapons is a huge disadvantage (usually fatal) for the whole team.

~ Zombie and Human Models (Sometimes Even Classes)~

– Some servers use original (Counter-Strike:Source and Half-Life:2) models for both humans and zombies.
– Some servers use custom models for humans and/or zombies.
– In some servers you can visually tell apart a Mother Zombie from a Normal Zombie.
– In some servers you can choose a Zombie/Human class, which different stats and attributes. Like increased speed, HP, no fall damage, less knockback, etc…

Well, once more this is most a matter of personal opinions and tastes. Some people prefer the original zombie models that remind them from the old times; some prefer new and more detailed models.

Personally, I like custom models, with some variety. I like being able to tell apart the Mother Zombie from the rest of the zombies (which is usually stronger, bigger and uglier), and I also like some variety between the zombies themselves (not all looking like clones), but within the same setting (and not some random-nonsense of models of different colours, themes and styles).
I also like the possibility of chosing a !zclass (for zombies; I don’t think it’s needed for humans) that have different models and attributes (some are faster, some are weaker but smaller, some are slower but stronger and with less knockback, some have a huge regeneration rate but with lower HP, some keep a balance between all the stats…)

But to be honest, I don’t think zombie classes are needed to have fun on Zombie Mode (they are just an extra that some people enjoy) and even all zombies looking alike can look good when a nice model is chosen for the task (the Alien Xenomorph model comes to mind).
However, what I really wanted to mention on this point, is the possibility of chosing specific models for specific maps. I’m not a server administrator myself; and I don’t really know the lines needed to accomplish this (or even if can be done on servers running something else than Zombie Reloaded); but as far as I know it can be done, and I know at least one server administrator that it’s preparing his server to give LOTR Orcs, Goblins and Trolls models for his Zombies while playing the upcomping Minas Tirith.

Sometimes Zombie Escape ca become a little repetitive and I’m pretty sure things could be spiced up and keep a little fresher if there were different zombies matching different maps (Aliens for Zombies and Space Suits for humans in Hypernova and SpaceStationFlee; Orcs, Goblins, Trolls and Elves on the LOTR Maps, HeadCrabs and ZombieHeadCrabs on Black Mesa and HL2-Themed-Maps; demons for Hell Escape and other hellish maps, or even go as specific as using Warrior Bugs for the Starship Troopers maps from Bill Smauz.

I know this kinda requires some work from part of the server administrators (and downloading extra MBs when joining the server) but it could be really nice…
Lately I had been working myself on making and animating models; and I would like to even make something server-worth if someone wanted to give it a shot.
If I owned/administrated a server, I think I would personally go for Silent Hill models for the Zombies (Pyramid Head for mother zombie and then Insane Cancers, Hell Hounds and all those horrors for normal zombies), and probably something realistic and human (like the L4D survivors) for humans.

If someone who can change the models on his server is up for including something new; or knows how to change models for a specific map and wants to give it a shot, I would like to chat with them and learn the correct code lines or expose them some of my suggestions.

Examples:
– There had been a couple of Only-LOTR maps servers back in the day when Helm’s Deep was released, that contained LOTR-Themed skins for both teams; was quite fitting.
– I found quite curious playing Predator Ultimate in a server that was using Predator Skins for Humans and Alien Skins for Zombies for a long time.

———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———-

And well… That was it…
A very very very long rant for today indeed; only suited for those that like to read and are truly interested in the theme or my personal opinions about it…

To sum it up, I think my perfect server would be something like this:

– Zombies would be right behind you from the very beginning (short spawn timer; numbers and teleporting them back or not may vary between maps when needed).
– Zombies would be sightly/noticeable faster than humans (120% of their speed maybe), so you need to shoot/grenade them or they will catch you, never the same speed, since you can completely ignore them while there is space to run.
– Zombies would have enough HP and Regen to avoid becoming useless at any point; and only being killed when cornered or greatly outnumbered (this could vary if small or fast Zombie Classes were available)
– Mother Zombies are stronger than Normal Zombies (more HP/Regen, less Knockback) and look different.
– !zspawn (as a Zombie) would be enabled at all times for everyone (people joining the server, and dying human/zombies), and probably forced on the maps that support it with teleports, shortcuts or being small enough that you can go back to the action before it ends.
– !ztele (as a human) and !zmarket would never be enabled.
– There would be Napalm Grenades, but burn only for 1-3 seconds. The more useful they are (like greater ignite time) the easier should be to fail nade with them.
– There would be Limited Ammo (about 600-900 bullets) and you would need to reload; using the original ammo clip sizes.
– There could be zombie classes; with sightly different but balanced values; not a must.
– It would use different zombie models (and sometimes human models) to match the theme of the map being played if posible, giving variety and spicing things up.

I left Block vs NoBlock out of this settings because I will rant about it specifically on a future rant.

I hope someone enjoys all this reading… Sorry for not including screenshots, feel free to give link to images that could fit any of the points; I would love to edit the entry to include them; but right now, after writting all this, I don’t feel like using more time to look for (or make) fiting screenshots.