The following post was provided to us by Left 4 Dead 3 member, Dirk. He has taken the time to share with us his many thoughts and ideas for L4D 3 gameplay and characters.
First off this is gonna be a long one and then I’d like to say I enjoy some of the previous ideas, such as armor, perhaps have pieces lootable through-out the maps with different benefits.
Customizing the Survivors
Now I’d say still keep a set group of characters, so you can have the variety of dialogue they bring to the group: such as comedic relief, the tough guy, mysterious past… so on and so on. But make it where you can change their clothes, accessories, possibly a perk from a past trade; such as butcher (bonus to melee weapon damage), police officer (increased accuracy with guns), Doctor/Nurse (bonus to health packs), relapse (past drug abuser, increase duration with adrenaline and such), Scrapper (less damage from melee and deals slightly more damage with shove) scavenger (more likely to find items)… the list can go on and on.
With the nurse idea on mind it would also be nice to be able to trade health packs for those times when you have a stubborn AI who won’t pick one up, as well as if you have a “nurse” on your team you can pass all your med pack to them to get more out of it.
I also feel it should be more life-like with loot-ables, instead of having them standing up as if they were carefully set there a few minutes ago, have them where you have to search bodies, trash cans, infected survivors packs, ect… I mean if previous survivors didn’t come by and take them then the zombies would of knocked items off shelves possibly kick them around.
Vehicles
As to the idea of vehicles, I disagree with the idea if the maps remain like they are. First wouldn’t be enough room to drive one and second, it would make it to easy to get through a map. Now if the maps became more expansive like a single possible car every so few places, with obstacles that vehicles can’t pass in sections, so everyone had to spend the majority of the level on foot then yes, vehicles would be cool.
Fight When Incapped
The ability to fight back when you have been grabbed by an infected would be nice, now to make it so you can survive any special make it so you just use your fists. Perhaps every hit will do 3-5% of its health, so you won’t be able to kill it before it incapacitates you unless it was already damaged. Even once you go past your first 100 health, and being considered incapacitated you can still fight back until you kill it so you can bleed out (slower death then when getting grabbed by a special)
More Zombies
I for one would love to see more single popular zombies. In the final level of the hotel campaign, I saw Jimmy Gibbs Jr. which as I was beating his skull in with a crowbar I recognized him from all the posters. I’d love to see more zombies like that, an individual that is popular in the campaign if one existed and have them attack you as an infected.
I think that is all my input for now on gameplay additions. Now on to a few zombie ideas I have.
Zombie Ideas
Juggernaut
Make it so it can withstand twice as much damage as the tank and possibly increase its strength to a possible two hit maybe even one hit to incapacitated. And unlike the tank, he swings his fist from above to avoid tossing survivors from him. To make him balanced, make his movement very slow so survivors can out-maneuver him if they pay attention to their surroundings. Maybe even make it so aggressive that it will kill anything in it’s way. I’m not just talking to how the tank will accidentally kill zombies near a survivor when it attacks the survivor, but will kill zombies that are simply just standing near it maybe even it will kill other specials that get to close to the survivors; kind of like an alpha male showing his dominance stating that these people are his prey. So possibly an idea for how you figure you’re near one the ground will be cover in bloody tracks and such and as you get closer more blood and zombie corpses there will be.
Ambush Zombie
Another idea for a zombie from that, an ambush zombie. It will hide in trash cans, dumpsters, piles of dead bodies, and anything else that will provide cover such as those items. You get close and he jumps out or possibly could be covered in spikes and can toss said spike off his body at you from his hiding spot. Once he throws the spikes impaling a survivor he will attempt to hide again after exposing his cover, so your best bet to find him is to pay attention to your damage arrow and shoot any cover spots from the direction of damage or wait for him to expose himself again. He will be very silent almost impossible to find until he strikes, unless you go through the level shooting anything your bullets can penetrate.
The Infecter
Perhaps even an Infecter, so very fragile, with long sharp claws that always has thick black blood dripping down them. Maybe he can be a little faster then most zombies. He will be distinguished from the others by a slight cough and perhaps the sound of it running its claws across items such as walls, fences, car, ect… It will charge, attempt to reach a survivor and impale them with its claws. After attacking a survivor it will lose all strength and slowly die, kind of like a bee. The survivor with the zombies black blood inside him will have to find some vaccine or reach the safe room within a time limit before becoming a special infected. Now the vaccine (being 2012 or so, what with medicine always getting better) now of course it doesn’t make you immune otherwise there would be no zombies, it just targets the decayed blood in your system and neutralizes it. With the zombie outbreak and everyone needing some and using it until they couldn’t afford anymore the medicine has become rare to find just lying around, so it’s not often you will find it. After becoming an infected the survivor can not be brought back via defibrillators, only by reaching the safe room can he be brought back into the game. maybe even have him play as an infected the entire chapter until the next chapter.
Different Models
I would also like to see different models for the special. For example, instead of the same Hunter with the grey hoodie, have a similar model generator to the one used in left for dead 2. Basically used to change skin tint, hair, and clothing; with clothing basically changing it with adding of symbols, change of color, different jacket/vest, maybe belts. And possibly even having a generator for pitch frequencies so they don’t all have the same pitch of voice.
Feel free to leave your comments to these ideas below, or share your L4D 3 gameplay ideas here.