I like the idea of playing as a common infected when waiting for your special but it should be a choice and as a spectator you can select an individual common infected/uncommon infected that is already spawned. The idea about playing as a director is a good idea too. Maybe make it to where the directors only have a certain number of points to either help the survivors or help kill the survivors depending on which team they’re on. I also thought of a small idea that could be in versus mode: what if special infected were rewarded with small bonuses if they were playing well. Like if a player scored enough points in that life then the player would have the choice of choosing between small upgrades to enhance the special infected that they’re playing as. Like a spitter would have longer spit time or more spread, the hunter may have more damage, the smoker could have a longer reach, the boomer could have a shorter delay in between pukes, the charger could have more health, the jockey could ride the survivors faster, and the tank could punch cars and stuff farther. I think this would encourage special infected players to do a better job.
And for the fun of it, here are some of my ideas for infected:
Reaper- this special infected has the appearance of a priest and has long slender arms and legs (almost like slender man). His eyes and tounge would be cut out to form a horrific face with no emotion. He has the ability to cloak for only a short period of time (about 8 seconds) and his camouflage wouldn’t be the greatest but still hard to see. He makes a subtle breathing noise out of his mouth when he isn’t cloaked and doesn’t make any noise at all when cloaked. His attack would be to sneak up on survivors and grab their throats and dig his nails into them, slowly choking the survivors. The damage per hit increases slowly to kill the survivor faster and faster. When killed he emits a loud shrill scream that will attract nearby infected. Also, he can slowly drag a survivor away from his/her group and move to a new location. Although dragging a survivor decreases the damage dealt. Also, as the reaper is choking a survivor he can also push the survivor to the ground and choke them doing even more damage (although once on the ground the reaper cannot drag the survivor anymore and will only let go if either he kills the survivor, is shoved off, or is killed).
Primal- The primal is a pretty basic special infected, it has an ape-like appearance (hence the name “primal”) and has mutated hands for feet. It has a decent speed, but it crawls faster when it’s crouched and on all fours. When it attacks, it either jumps on the survivor or takes out the survivors feet and starts beating the survivor with its fists. Maps also provide ceiling areas that the primal can crawl on and hang, waiting for a survivor to pass underneath to jump on.
Wretched- The wretched is an irradiated special infection that has extreme mutations like a small arm growing out of its back and an an eye growing on its temple. The wretched was basically a special infected working at a nuclear power plant and was exposed to radiation, the wretched has a Geiger counter equipped with it that is constantly reading its radiation levels. This is the only sound it makes besides the subtle but hideous mutational growths. The wretched has an exposed abdomen filled with radioactive organs. The wretched digs out its deformed organs and throws them at the survivors, dealing low damage but converting a large portion of a survivor’s permanent health into temporary health, slowly killing the survivor. It has a long recharge time but it can be a nuisance as it forced survivors to use their health items. The wretched can also irradiate teammates as well, giving them a small damage boost for a short amount of time while also healing them.
I also had some ideas about uncommon infected too:
Gas mask zombies- the fact that worker zombies don’t get attracted to bile bombs doesn’t make sense to me, I guess it was easier to program? I don’t know. But if left 4 dead 3 has worker zombies they should only be resistant to pipe bombs, that’s where the gas mask zombies come in. These zombies wear a gas mask and they are resistant to bile bombs.
I also would like it if the common zombies that got their legs blown off would crawl at the survivors, just a thought.
Now I now the thought of vehicles in left 4 dead is completely retarded, but I thought of a decent way to implement them into the game. What if an entire level or at least a section of a level was devoted to having to using a vehicle to travel long distances. Like if the survivors were in the city and the safe house was several miles away. Or it could be a choice, like go through the alleyways on foot or take the main roads in a car. Of course there would have to be the concern of how the survivors defend against zombies and how the zombies attack the survivors. Well there would be the driver of the vehicle and then the other survivors could ride as passengers, shooting out of the windows to protect the driver. The zombies could grab on to the car and rip and destroy it piece by piece. There would also be the concern of how special infected would interact with the vehicle. Well considering special infected can respawn if they are too far, give the special infected noclip if they’re in the spawning menu. But then the next concern would be how would the special infected attack the vehicle. The charger could charge the vehicle, slowing it down, the hunter can pounce on the vehicle, ripping it apart, the boomer is an obstacle itself, but he could blind the driver if he gets close enough and cause a horde, the smoker could pull doors apart and pull survivors out of the vehicle if he is a good enough shot. The spitter could spit in front of the vehicle or on the vehicle, slowly deteriorating it, and the jockey could grapple the vehicle, causing damage and shaking the vehicle, worsening handling. We already know what a tank could do to a vehicle. I know I’m thinking a little too much about this but I think it would be a decent thing to add but I can see the reason why it’s a bad idea