Been thinking a bit recently about how a zombie-based RTS would work. It's definitely an untapped possibility and I think it could be interesting. These are the ideas I've come up with so far for how I'd like the game to work. Suggestions and criticism welcome. Especially suggestions, as it's not too fleshed out yet, I don't have actual specific details of the units or even a name for the game. Anyway:

The game takes place in a city after a zombie outbreak. There are 3 different factions to choose from: The Survivors, The Army and The Zombies. The Army are trying to contain the infection by killing both the zombies and any survivors that would just feed the zombie horde. The survivors are trying to escape and defend themselves from the army and the zombies. The zombies are trying to kill everyone because that's what zombies do. They're just like that, you know? I see the Army as having expensive but powerful units, the zombies being the swarming race and the Survivors being the middle ground, as well as being more defence-focused.

Units are squad-based (as in Dawn of War and Company of Heroes). The game will be mainly infantry based, perhaps with some higher-tier units being vehicles for the Army and Survivors.

Unlike most RTS games, where buildings are built from scratch, maps in this game have normal, neutral civilian buildings already in place, as the game is set in a city, which are converted into useful buildings that create units, provide resources, etc. The stats of the converted building (hit points, attack power/range for defensive buildings, etc) are based on what the building was converted from. Any neutral building can be converted into any type of useful building, but the varying stats mean certain building type are more suited to certain purposes than others. All buildings are always garrisonable, but converted buildings may only be garrisoned by the team that owns it (and their allies in team games). A converted building that is damaged to 0 HP will be deconverted back to its original state, with some damage to the remaining unconverted building. An unconverted building damaged to 0 is destroyed completely.

Various doodads on the map will also be able to be interacted with for potentially useful results. For example, vehicles could be shot and blown up to kill enemies or raided for more resources and trees could be toppled to block access and create chokepoints.

The game has 2 resource types: Supplies and People. Supplies are justa generic, universal resource, obtained by converting specific buildings (shops, etc) into a resource generating building. People would be used to create units and convert buildings and each faction would have a unique way of generating this resource. Survivors would automatically generate it at rate based on how much territory they control (a value based on the number and placement of buildings and units). The Army would have to convert buildings into comm centres to use radio for reinforcements, generating People at a rate based on the number of these buildings. Zombies, obviously, would infect enemy units to generate People. This would be done with a special ability (not necessarily unique to one unit) that would convert enemy units that are near death.

That's all I have. Well?

Any game where you get to turn your enemies into flesh eating mutants gets a positive reaction from me...

That just sounds awesome.

Would the Zombie "Convert" ability be always on? Or would you have the choice of saying "Don't really need any more Civilian-Zombies. Just murder those guys."?

Also, could Military-Zombies use the weapons they had when converted, or would they just get a bonus to strength or not anything at all? I would assume Military-Zombies would be slightly better in most areas, seeing as they were Military men in their past lives. The trade-off being that it's harder to get them.

Holy crap, someone must make this game. This sounds incredible.

That does sound like a good idea and you have some very interesting and unique concepts although there are still a few questions I have:

How would zombies justify having vehicles? Just saying that they don't have them means that they would be outclassed by the other faction's more specialised units.

While the army could easily justify having various unit types avalible, how could survivors do this? (they're essentially just rabble with guns, they wouldn't have any real organisation or structure) how could zombies do this? (it's just a horde of corpses, they certainly have no structure or hierarchy).

While it's clear what structures the army and survivors would have (military facilities and fortified structures respectively) what use would zombies have for any kind of structure?

If these things could be sorted then I think you're onto something there, keep up the good work!

That sounds like a good idea. I would play the game certainly.

I wouldn't, but still, sounds good. Perhaps it would work better if you have verhicles scattered around the map which the militairy and survivors can use?

Also, the objective of survivors would rather be getting away then getting everything killed. And perhaps it would also be a good idea if the army can also try to evacuate the survivors (aka convert them to more militairy).

And why not turn based? Why does everybody treat Turn based as leprosy these days?

There's not been too many Zombie RTS games out there, so kudos for that.

Hmm, not a bad start, although the details are making my head hurt (though that might be a combination of Jelly Bellies and lack of exercise). Under the current design, the poor survivors seem royally fucked - not the firepower to deal with the army, and zombies picking on them for easy respawn fodder. Maybe a better system would be army versus zombies with the survivors being up for grabs by either to replace lost numbers.

Possibly (like many games) do away with the army entirely and have the survivors undergoing a desperate game of trying to find weapons to fend off the zombies before they're found and gobbled up. Survivors are faster, but Zombies have no fog of war so they can try to trap the survivors.

I have been thinking of something like this for a while.

The closest thing that has come to something like this is a flash game called Autumn War, which is unfortunately quite simple.

I'm thinking this would work not quite as a Command & Conquer type interface, but maybe more of an in-depth Halo Wars-esque control scheme, while you can zoom out to view the entire planet or countries when choosing where to move.

Iron Mal:
That does sound like a good idea and you have some very interesting and unique concepts although there are still a few questions I have:

How would zombies justify having vehicles? Just saying that they don't have them means that they would be outclassed by the other faction's more specialised units.

While the army could easily justify having various unit types avalible, how could survivors do this? (they're essentially just rabble with guns, they wouldn't have any real organisation or structure) how could zombies do this? (it's just a horde of corpses, they certainly have no structure or hierarchy).

While it's clear what structures the army and survivors would have (military facilities and fortified structures respectively) what use would zombies have for any kind of structure?

If these things could be sorted then I think you're onto something there, keep up the good work!

Some good points there.

I reckon you could just have powerful zombies in place of vehicles for the zombie faction. Balancing would just be a matter of giving them the right stats.

I pictured the survivors as having some sort of organisation, rather than being outright anarchic. You know, banding together for mutual benefit. THe zombies, well that's a bit tricky. Hive-minds area bit overdone, I feel, so perhaps they aren't entirely mindless but have a primitive sentience of some sort. This might take a lot of further consideration.

Zombie structures could be mutation centres or something. I'd maybe need to sort out how the game's infection works to get some better and more plausible ideas.

This sounds really good, and doesn't seem terribly unbalanced. Zombies could have special types of super-zombies instead of vehicles, kind of like Abominations from Warcraft3 or the special Infected from L4D. I like the idea of the zombies converting enemy units into zombie units, but it seems very limiting if that is the only way they gain more 'people'. Not sure how the zombie faction could make use of buildings, either, unless they infest them or something and turn them into nests to generate more zombies.

Overall sounds very good, you should try and put together a team of modders or something and make this happen!

I'd want it to be sort of like the old "Commando's" games, where you have different survivors with different skills and you need to use all of them to get through a mission. Also there would be tons of battles with hordes of the undead.

wingshot:
Hmm, as a bit of an idea for zombie structures. If the zombies are of the viral type wouldn't it make sense for them to occupy specific structures that are ideal for bacterial growth (i.e. warm and wet). Perhaps they could occupy a pet store or a dog pound as well, it would make sense that such a building would be the prime source for some zombie dog lovin, maybe even zombie snake lovin too.

I would think that specific buildings like pet stores wouldn't really be necessary. I'm assuming that the plan is to have a building change in appearance when captured by a faction (survivors put up ramshackle defenses on the building, etc) so when the zombies infest a building it could become dark, shady, and foreboding, and become an infantry-producing building where fresh zombies could come crawling out of.

I actually really like this idea. It obviously needs to be fleshed (no pun intended) out a little more, though.

Calobi:
Would the Zombie "Convert" ability be always on? Or would you have the choice of saying "Don't really need any more Civilian-Zombies. Just murder those guys."?

Also, could Military-Zombies use the weapons they had when converted, or would they just get a bonus to strength or not anything at all? I would assume Military-Zombies would be slightly better in most areas, seeing as they were Military men in their past lives. The trade-off being that it's harder to get them.

Frankly The whole weapon idea you had wouldn;t work out THAT way. It could work out like the police officer or armed forces zombies would randomly and accidently squeeze off a shot from like a pistol (going anywhere possibly killing their own).

The idea of the game would only work for one if the zombies are fast. But where would the zombies come from anyway? OH I got an awesome idea how about instead of a zombie faction...... You have A terroist faction or someone like umbrella corp who manufactured the virus! That way the zombie barraks could be like a room full of bodys and when a unit is being made a vent lets out a gas and some bodies get up! It would also have varying toxins for different units such as if it were left 4 dead a toxin for smokers,tanks Etc.

Spartan Bannana:
Holy crap, someone must make this game. This sounds incredible.

Yeah it does. I'm really not an RTS fan, but I'd play it.

Anyway, I like the previously mentioned idea of Survivors not being a faction, but instead a sort of resource to replenish numbers.

Iron Mal:

How would zombies justify having vehicles? Just saying that they don't have them means that they would be outclassed by the other faction's more specialised units.

You could just zerg the Zombies out and give them massive mutated zombies as their "vehicle" units. The fact that they don't get transport vehicles would simply be a negative for playing as them in exchange for having swarms of units.

That sounds awesome I've never thought of something like that before.

I've played a zombie RTS. It's a bloody good concept and plays very well on it's simple level. Then you throw in a multiplayer where you're fighting over the living.

This sounds awesome. Present the idea to someone immediately, I want to play this game A.S.A.P.!

wingshot:
Bob, tell me this RTS's name. Please. PLEASE. I LOVE YOU

It's only a Jave game done by Jagex. Called "Zombie Dawn" (oh, what original naming). I apologise for building your hopes up too high.

I think the Military should be the most 'defensive' as really their only objective is containment, however why they dont just carpet bomb the whole city?

Zombie spawn from graveyards. Each zombie team starts with one graveyard that periodically spawns more zombies.

Miltiary units spawn from airdrops or whatever, so Military needs a Comms Centre

Survivors spawn from secret tunnels. They start with a secret tunnel.

Randomly NPC characters appear on the map that are VIPs (mayor, scientist, MIA sniper, Engineer, whatever)

Each team has a motivation to capture that person and add their skills to their team (For the military it explains why they aren't carpet bombing the place as well)

Zombies are zerg

Army is Terrans

Survivors are protoss

SURVIVORS

Real focus on individual characters. Low unit pop but no or low doubling up (i.e you can only have one of most units)

I think the survivors should be rarer, but have heaps of special skills as they know the terrain better. They may not have all the hardware of the army but they have the 'Bruce Campbell' factor of just being fucking heroes. A survivor player has to be good at micromanaging units who have lots of skills but aren't necessarily that tough.

So An individual survivor unit 'Jimmy the gas station attendant' Has a special flamethrower ability that can toast like 15 zombies easily but its on a timer. He might have other powers like 'skate or die' where he hops on his deck and skates off super fast.

Most units will be individuals or small groups (The Dirty three... a group of Mariachi's/gunslingers influenced by the film Desperado)

ARMY

Focus on modern military, track wheeled robot scouts, full spec soldiers, tactical attack choppers, laser guidance, cover, long range assaults, protocol etc.

Army has more long range firepower then the Zombies but their units are weaker. An army player values his squads and their synergy. To achieve maximum effectiveness the player has to employee complex tactics

For example a missile strike relies on several factors. The player upgrades his radar facility to enable missile strikes. Each attack takes 30 seconds to mobilize a chopper into the battle area. The chopper will then do a fly over that lasts 5-10 seconds. Army player has to enable laser targeting from one of his ground units on the target. Also if he enables two laser sights from an angle of 90 degrees or greater the damage of the attack is increased by x%

If the player fails to employee laser sighting on the target then the chopper aborts the mission and the timer is reset.

In this way the Army player uses the abilities of his ground squads to support off map and special abilities. A military player plays like a modern military outfit

Military is also bound by some rules of Engagement. Some units may no leave cover if there is too many zombies present, and if a small force of military is vastly outnumbered by scary zombies they may panic and flee to random parts of the map or cower in a corner somewhere.

Also Military cannot engage Survivors without being engaged by them first. This is set to a timer as well. Several units will have close range taser or tear gas attacks that are not bound by these rules and allow the Military player to indirectly influence the game even if the survivor does not engage

ZOMBIE

Zombies players will be rewarded for moving units in mixed packs. In this way it promotes the 'horde of undead' approach that we all want to see. Units might include meatshields, brain eaters, screamers (that increase the fear level), Heavies (good for moving debris to create road blocks, Hurlers, thrall, Nimblers (fast, weak stun units that can jump from building to building scale walls etc).

Zombies have a keen sense of smell, so unit indicators may appear outside of LOS, however these may not specifically stat what units, just that there are units in that vicinity.

Also I think Darkness, mist, fog and rain should all play a big part in the game. Zombie units, as they are primarily low tech, will be the least affected by this.

I could go on....

Heres a idea.. Fast zombies are the basic unit for zombies. While slower more powerful zombies are the next step up, they could rip a building apart and if killed get back up withen 20 seconds unless their disposed of by a unit, and the more units in the squad the faster they are disposed off, but! If a surivor/army headshots them zombie then they die for real.

Building ideas: Pet shops, which give various pets for the zombies. Hospitals, can be used by both. The surivors can get medicine from looting it, or get it up and running if oil is supplied.. Zombies can get ubered from here so that they move faster, more resistant and the like. Basicaly there upgrade building.

I made a zombie map for Warcraft 3 (original, huh?) that had you trapped in a small, square set of city blocks that was well populated with civilians, and over time one or two became infected, causing them to gradually lose hitpoints. On death, they became a zombie with 33% chance to infect their target with each attack. It worked really well when I added abilities to them that when they spotted a target - player or civilian - they could 'call out' to other nearby zombies, resulting in spontaneous swarms converging on the target's location from all sides. That AI aspect would be a nice addition, resulting in less zombie player micro management to maintain the horde's effectiveness. The infection system, however, meant that with a coordinated team of players the infection could be contained efficiently and eliminated, so frequently random members of the surviving population had to become infected - think airborne, low infection rate spores or some such.

The point there is, unless the zombies have an alternative method of gaining new members, they might find it very hard to survive in the face of massed machine guns or whatever. If the survivors gain people based on the area control, so should the zombies. If there's people still theoretically holed up in there, the zombies are likely to find them, though perhaps less likely than the survivors are.

The general "idea" of a "zombie RTS" could be factored into the upcoming HALO wars game quite effectively with the flood. Though the flood would allow for a more standard RTS experience with their ability to have spore colonies. Allowing you to have a high charity Esque production plant and having advanced units stemming from captured or killed units, and special units steaming from a Gravemind who would allow the flood to initiate the final stages of development. Granted the developer may have to take a few liberties with the flood to ensure balance and variety but it sounds like something that's more plausible, considering it would already have a fan base.

The good people at lionhead have released very little on halo wars, and while the flood may be in the game they haven't said if their playable, and because of the balance issues may come off as a more zerg like race other than a zombie infection.

but your idea is much better.
:)

These ideas certainly show that a "zombie apocalypse" themed RTS game would be fun in concept at very least.

Personally, I would hope there would be a bit of a RPG to it, especially for the Survivors. Have them start off weak but the longer they survive the more bad ass heroes they become. Have the army start off strong but have really slow level progression. And no levels for the zombies but rather "evolves" that develop the boss infected.

My thoughts on zombies converting buildings would be that it would turn it into a trap, the place would look 'normal' to others, so that when they go to capture and garrison the end up being ambushed by whatever level of swarm the building would support.

Also, have the Survivors be big on having innovative, improvised weapons and such from being master scavengers/looters/DIY hobbyists.

If you're looking as to how an infection would work in game, if you haven't read it yet, I recommend World War Z by Max Brooks. An excellent read and it may help give you some inspiration for other ideas.

What would the penalty for not feeding the zombies be? would they just die?

This idea is full of win. Call Valve.