Escape From Zombie Island 2 ready for public consumption

[The Omega]

Ok, finished an Authority game.

First, it was buisness as usual. Getting my cities overrun, all except for city hall, the docks, and the armory and the military base. Then build a few cruisers, to help defend for the inevidable hordes.

Then the hordes came. I started to rush missiles and stuff as fast as possible, but still lost the armory and the military base. (Hank was still alive though) Eventually, I recaptured the military base, and missile time again.

I think I fired off a total of 25 crusise missiles at the advancing hordes, while sparing an occasional cruise missile at any zombie king I can find. (and randomly missiling cities to check if they are there)

Eventually, I finally killed their last king unit ( ), and then it became happy.

Basically, the Authorities are freakisly hard to play as. I had to go out with an army of dockers to pillage cities for more supplies from the zombies, cause I ran out hurrying missiles.

I was just about to post that the Authorities were too easy to play as.... I didn't lose a single city while playing as them, and completely pwned the entire island before I even got a chance to build cruise missiles....

 

[odintheking]

I've had the same problem as Virote, where the game crashes for no reason.

 

[Vuldacon]

Lord Malbeth... I like #2 better. #1 has a peaceful look to it with the Orange Sun light. The Pictures seem to become Grainy especially in the cloud area at this Resolution and or the method of making the palettes. It is best to use larger images or at least about as large as what is needed to start with.

my trail version of the painter I am using expired so I can't open the pcx pictures, Ican't look at Lord Malbeth's picture so I'll just go ahead and work on the zombie city and the normal city ones. Is it okay if I enlarge the picture a bit?

Cloner4000...What "Zombie City and Normal Ones" are you talking about? As for enlarging the images...as long as they are not "Grainy" when completed.

Actually, IF we can find a set of Images that go from a Bright, Nice Sunny Day to a Dark and Ugly one...they could be used for the First Three Tech Screens.
Concerning the Size of the Images for the Tech Screens...they can be smaller but if the entire background is to be filled, then we need to use the sizes I stated earlier. There are many ways to handle the Modern Tech Screen but because that Screen will be filled with Techs, I believe it will look Best if the Entire Background is Filled. Much of the Background will therefore be covered by the Tech Windows. If we use small, detailed images, they will be covered so larger will probably be best. Even with some areas covered, it will be recognizable. I don't expect you guys to make these and in fact it may be best If you do not try because the images have to be fitted to the Tech Screen backgrounds anyway. If you can find Great Images and post links that will Help the Most. IF you do make some Backgrounds, I would like to see them as well.

 

[Lord Malbeth]

I did make the pic smaller. Stupid Palettes!

 

[Cloner4000]

I was talking about the ones Lord Malbeth put up, he said he have the city and the background but I can't see the pictures so I was asking if that's what you guy want as the background

the first link is about a city filled with zombie..should go with the outbreak. It's not exactly the size but it could probably be resized without sacrifice too much details.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a33/cloner4000/1116956063.jpg-Edit Nevermind, I remember the picture is large but somehow I was really mistaken..

THe second one is a plain city at night, but it still doesn't look too gloomy, how about a city under hurricane?
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a33/cloner4000/City1.jpg

The Third Option is a closed area of a burning city with fences, quite big should do fine.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a33/cloner4000/Shot0133.jpg

 

[KingArthur]

I'm a bit worried about the CTDs some of you have been seeing. I haven't experienced it myself but then I probably haven't played long enough. Vuldacon thinks it may be a unit sound or faulty ini setting but I'm not sure because I would have expected the CTD to occur again when the autosave is reloaded.

Maybe an ambient sound as Virote_Considon said but that should be easy to test if anyone is willing to do it? Taking each ambient sound file one by one. Make multiple copies of the file and give each copy a names of one of the original ambient sounds file. Test in game until the ambient sound plays and then move onto the next file and so on.

I might be the Music but again I would expect this to be a consistent CTD unless the music loops back to the start each time you play. I'll need to check.

Obviously, I'd like to get to the bottom of this one before release date.

 

[KingArthur]

Hey, in the spunky kid pedia entry, it says they can only be killed through bombardment and attacking, but some zombies attacked him and he died, . Also, there should be more preplaced gasoline (like inside the car park) because currently, there are like no cities with gasoline in their radius, and you can't build the friggin' helicopter, :angry:. Also, how do you build colonies?

Zombies should be unable to attack Spunky Kids so I don't understand why that would happen - try it with Timmy. I'll recheck setting tonight to make sure. Can I ask what version of Conquests you have?


The Scavenger unit is used to build colonies. Gasoline should jump around the map quite often. I guess you've been unlucky but I'll check to see how may occurrences of the resource exist at one time. If it's too low I'll increase it.

 

[Plotinus]

The music will restart from the beginning of the playlist every time you reload. This is why I suspect the problem is from either one of the music tracks or from an ambient sound. As King Arthur says, the only way to be sure is to test it. Personally, I would do this by copying all the suspects into the music/build file, and then altering the music.txt file so that the first suspect comes top of the list. If it passes the test, alter the music.txt file so the next suspect is top of the list. Repeat until the culprit is found.

I think it probably *is* a wayward sound. They do cause apparently inexplicable crashes.

 

[KingArthur]

I found the problem for this- it alows growth to city sizes 2 AND 3- like the Graveyard.

I don't get you. Why would this setting prevent the ZNS from being built?

 

[Vuldacon]

If the Crashes are taking place when a new tech or unit has just been obtained, I would like to know about this. It seems to me that because ambience sounds all play from the beginning of the game and music has more of an order, that the Music is a more possible culprit. King Arthur and I have not had time to play through a game so have not experienced any crashes. If ambience sounds were the problem all would be experiencing crashes earlier in the game.

Cloner4000...Yes, the first image would be a good possibility if it was larger. The second image is not exactly what I would like to show for paradise Island. Something that shows either an Island with sky and water and that get away to a beautiful place type image....then either the same image or one similar that has a storm coming and looks ominous. The Main Tech Screen needs a Horror Movie feel to it with Zombies. Think "Friday Night Fright" Show lol. The third Image is Great for size and does depict a troubled city but seems lacking in the Horror Department.
Again, the First two Tech screens should show Paradise Island as THE Beautiful place to live. The Third Tech Screen should show that is changing but does not show what...just something ominous is coming. A Dark Storm that shows this could be used and it could be just over water as viewed from the Island. The Main Tech Screen should depict the Horror of Zombies such as is seen for Horror Movies.

 

[KingArthur]

Personally, I would do this by copying all the suspects into the music/build file, and then altering the music.txt file so that the first suspect comes top of the list. If it passes the test, alter the music.txt file so the next suspect is top of the list. Repeat until the culprit is found.

Good idea. Does anyone from the playtesters want to volunteer for this tedious yet neccessary task? If not I'll tackle it tonight. I'm still in the process of writing the civilopedia to make it as complete as possible.

 

[Plotinus]

It doesn't take long to do at all. Make the necessary changes, start the game, if it doesn't crash then quit back to the title page, change the music.txt file, repeat. The only time-consuming bit is when it actually does crash and you have to load up the game again to test the next one.

 

[Virote_Considon]

I don't get you. Why would this setting prevent the ZNS from being built?

Because it means that the hospital needs to be at LEAST size 7 before it can get built, and IIRC, the Zombies don't have any improvement that can do that in the hospital.

 

[KingArthur]

Because it means that the hospital needs to be at LEAST size 7 before it can get built, and IIRC, the Zombies don't have any improvement that can do that in the hospital.

The Hospital Wonder doesn't have to be built it's already there at the beginning of the game.

 

[Virote_Considon]

Oops, I meant Zombie Nurse School.

 

[Cloner4000]

The first three are beautiful seaside Cities shots from Miami
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a33/cloner4000/05-05-10_lincoln-fotomontaj.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a33/cloner4000/06_miami_02.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a33/cloner4000/06_miami_05.jpg


Then There is more choices for the ominous feel.
This one is city with sunset..doesn't look too scary though
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a33/cloner4000/06_miami_06.jpg

This one is with a really couldy sky, how's the feel of it? it got resize to a really small size, but the original one isn't that big either.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a33/cloner4000/CloudyCity.jpg

The last one is a building with thunder strike in the background. it's not a city, but if you think the effects are good, I could search more for a whole city with thunderstroms.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a33/cloner4000/ThunderStrom.jpg


for the zombie city, can someone pointed to me the key pharse in search, I'll look it up but right now I can't seem to find one within the city, so any idea as to work that contain zombie in the street

P.S. I found another shot of a city street with three zombies attacking, it's from the game city of the dead I think, but I didn't post it as I think it's too scary and bloody when it's up close like that... what did you think?

 

[Bluemofia]

I was just about to post that the Authorities were too easy to play as.... I didn't lose a single city while playing as them, and completely pwned the entire island before I even got a chance to build cruise missiles....

May I ask how you did this?

 

[The Omega]

May I ask how you did this?

Sent Joe and two SWAT teams to the Radio Station, and they killed any zombie that got two tiles near the Station (Except for Alpha Zombies, which when they appeared, everyone just hid and hoped they went away.) Meanwhile, Hank and Paul both attacked the Armoury, and eventually captured it. They then moved on to the Graveyard, and captured that, securing most of my western cities from threat.
Back at the Radio Station, more and more zombies started coming, but my forces continued to kill them before they reached the Station. And with the Survivors securing my left flank with the Furniture Store, the Station didn't face any real threats until an Alpha Zombie attacked and killed Joe. Then I started exclusively defending, with no one leaving the Station. I was able to hold out long enough to research Call 911, and rush some SWAT team people. And by fighting almost exclusively with elite soldiesr, I was able to get a leader.
The leader and a SWAT member attacked and captured the Convention Center. Some zombies tried to retake it, but they were killed.
Back in the west, Hank and Paul went and assisted some Dockers to take the Gentlemen's Club. They then attacked the Factory, helped by Dalek. Got another leader, who went and joined the first leader in an attack on the Carpark.
An army of Strippers and Dockers then attacked the Fast Food Place, but suffered heavy casualties capturing it.
Killed the last Alpha Zombie at the Airport, then blitzed the remaining human civs with tanks.

 

[Bluemofia]

Ah. The zombies overrun the Radio Station for me with a massive horde, and same with the Police Station. So, basically I'm screwed because they've got something like 50 zombies trekking around City Hall deciding whether or not to take it.

 

[The Omega]

Well, you basically have to try and bleed the zombies to death. You can't kill all of them, but if you keep constantly killing them, then they can't get into large groups.