Zombie Mode

[Tech Osen]

Had a bit of a nasty surprise when I got dragged into a war through alliances. Barricades will hurt and kill traders. And I had quite a few traders going through suddenly hostile lands filled with barricades and traps en route to my ally on the other side.

 

[Shadowstrike]

I'm noticing that this gave me defensive advantages when France attacked me in a narrow valley. I would use ranged units to snipe their attackers, which would then be raised as zombies to attack the other French units behind them...

 

[Pietato]

Just spit-balling here, but I believe it increases by 0.5 per zombie killed. The relevant parts seem to be:

<Row>
   <ModifierId>TOWERDEFENSE_INCREMENT_ZOMBIE_DEATHS</ModifierId>
   <Name>Amount</Name>
   <Value>1</Value>
</Row>

This is part of a counter that keeps track of the zombie deaths.

<Row>
   <ModifierId>TOWERDEFENSE_ZOMBIE_COMBAT_STRENGTH_FROM_PROPERTY</ModifierId>
   <Name>Scalar</Name>
   <Value>.5</Value>
</Row>

And, this multiplies the previous value by 0.5.

There's also these two arguments, which I'm not sure precisely what they do, since I haven't been able to play around with them yet.

<Row>
   <ModifierId>TOWERDEFENSE_ZOMBIE_COMBAT_STRENGTH_FROM_PROPERTY</ModifierId>
   <Name>InversePlayerScaling</Name>
   <Value>True</Value>
</Row>
<Row>
   <ModifierId>TOWERDEFENSE_ZOMBIE_COMBAT_STRENGTH_FROM_PROPERTY</ModifierId>
    <Name>AdvancedStartMultiplier</Name>
    <Value>50</Value>
</Row>

These two later arguments must be why it scales strangely. My battleship killed 6 zombies in a row just now, and their mutation power did not increase.

Now don't quote this as much evidence, but the ones now spawning in areas where I've had recent fairly heavy battles and where I razed cities (I razed another fairly useless free city as an experiment...my Canada is ruthless this game ) are much stronger. The ones showing up where I had battles a long time ago (such as in ancient and classical eras) are weaker. That's what it seems like anyway.

Maybe it is area specific.

 

[inquisitive_otter]

Just spit-balling here, but I believe it increases by 0.5 per zombie killed. The relevant parts seem to be:

<Row>
   <ModifierId>TOWERDEFENSE_INCREMENT_ZOMBIE_DEATHS</ModifierId>
   <Name>Amount</Name>
   <Value>1</Value>
</Row>

This is part of a counter that keeps track of the zombie deaths.

<Row>
   <ModifierId>TOWERDEFENSE_ZOMBIE_COMBAT_STRENGTH_FROM_PROPERTY</ModifierId>
   <Name>Scalar</Name>
   <Value>.5</Value>
</Row>

And, this multiplies the previous value by 0.5.

There's also these two arguments, which I'm not sure precisely what they do, since I haven't been able to play around with them yet.

<Row>
   <ModifierId>TOWERDEFENSE_ZOMBIE_COMBAT_STRENGTH_FROM_PROPERTY</ModifierId>
   <Name>InversePlayerScaling</Name>
   <Value>True</Value>
</Row>
<Row>
   <ModifierId>TOWERDEFENSE_ZOMBIE_COMBAT_STRENGTH_FROM_PROPERTY</ModifierId>
    <Name>AdvancedStartMultiplier</Name>
    <Value>50</Value>
</Row>

Yeah, I saw this in the code too. I did some testing and I still don't know what is going on. I thought that they would increase by 1 for every two deaths but it just doesn't seem like that is actually the case.

I am probably over-extending myself a bit though since I took over some zombies with Hunahpu & Xbalanque to create a huge zombie army. So there are some additional complications such as: does a unit actually "die" if they become resurrected under my control? And how does the game deal with zombie on zombie deaths?

To me, it sounds like the last modifier (AdvanceStartMultiplier) accounts for game starting in an era different from the ancient era?

I've also notice something weird, zombies that I control do hardly any damage to walls even with a battering ram. My warriors attacked the walls just fine but the zombies did practically no damage.

I'm probably going to make a world in world builder to have a more controlled situation to figure out what is actually going on.

 

[Tigranes]

AI cannot handle zombies. Period. City states getting razed left and right. AI is wasting valuable plots for long barricades in most random way. On prince zombies are relentless. Too many for prince AI civs to deal with. I see strong civs like Kongo left with single capital in Industrial age. Other cities gone. Circle roads mark city ruins.

 

[Tech Osen]

AI cannot handle zombies. Period. City states getting razed left and right. AI is wasting valuable plots for long barricades in most random way. On prince zombies are relentless. Too many for prince AI civs to deal with. I see strong civs like Kongo left with single capital in Industrial age. Other cities gone. Circle roads mark city ruins.

I can't know for sure but, looking at my huge continents with island map on emperor difficulty, it seems to have made little impact. On my home land mass, shared with two AI civs and two CS, not a single city has been raised. And with the whole map uncovered after the satellite launch it looks like everyone is doing fine. Three other civs are also launching space projects.
And there have been plenty of war declarations.
Useless improvements is an issue though.

 

[Tigranes]

I can't know for sure but, looking at my huge continents with island map on emperor difficulty, it seems to have made little impact. On my home land mass, shared with two AI civs and two CS, not a single city has been raised. And with the whole map uncovered after the satellite launch it looks like everyone is doing fine. Three other civs are also launching space projects.
And there have been plenty of war declarations.
Useless improvements is an issue though.

How many Zombies are roaming around? I have a mod that assigns numerical number/proper name to unit names, and I have seen names like 511th Zombie Company. Perhaps number of barbarian camps adds to regular undead mechanics. Enormous TSL Earth gets plenty of both.

 

[lordhaw]

It's interesting that people are seeing zombies wiping out cities. Despite the swarms I saw in my (now finished) Canada game and despite the fact they got stronger no one got wiped by them. I don't even think any cities got destroyed by them. The civs that got wiped or reduced were due to loyalty pressure from free cities due to me also using the dramatic ages mode. But what the zombies did do is affect the military strength and development of the AI civs. There were many times they were reduced to zero military strength. The zombies caused havoc with trade routes and some development of resources by the AI. They were more of an annoyance than anything that required me to keep a stronger than usual military (I tend to go with more passive games with Canada). I found it pretty easy to dominate in pretty much every category and could have shot for pretty much any victory except religious since I usually don't anyway. The only benefit one could say is that you can combine this with barbarian clan mode and get "barbarians" via the zombies through the whole game. Main downside I see to the zombies is that the free city faction seems to be immune to zombies. I get that the barbarians don't attack as they seem to generate the things sometimes but the free cities should be like CS's and get attacked by zombies too. Overall a nifty experiment of a game in the zombie mode that netted one of my most enjoyable civ games in a long time.

 

[Tech Osen]

How many Zombies are roaming around? I have a mod that assigns numerical number/proper name to unit names, and I have seen names like 511th Zombie Company. Perhaps number of barbarian camps adds to regular undead mechanics. Enormous TSL Earth gets plenty of both.

No idea how many zombies but here's a screenshot just after launching exoplanet. Barbarian mode wasn't on so those are all original city states.

I'm not sure what to think of the zombie mode. I had fun but was expecting a last man standing scenario, I guess that's what you got though?
I'm thinking it depends a lot on the map, Portugal gave me a coast start of course and all but two of my cities were coastal. Once I got frigates and privateers I could get rid of zombies with impunity so they never got a chance to really gather in great numbers.

 

[IsabelBraganca]

A new multiplayer game begins at 1:03 with Zombie mode on.
3:00 there is a good number of Zombies in Potato's territory.
3:10 it's a huge horde, Potato is down to one city.
It seems the Zombies don't attack builders nor great people.

 

[8housesofelixir]

3:00 there is a good number of Zombies in Potato's territory.
3:10 it's a huge horde, Potato is down to one city.

This is partly due to they were playing at Online speed. Zombie combat strength can scale really fast in any speed quicker than Standard.

 

[Pietato]

So zombies are completely blocked by civilian units. Well, there goes that game mode...

 

[Zyxpsilon]

Uh? Forts + Missile Silos + Airstrips + Tunnels + Railroads + Flood Barrier Boost + Aqueduct + Canal + Dam + now... Traps & Barricades.

Ya know.. those cute Military Engineers are getting VERY busy.. even far too much with only --2-- tiny Charges at a cost of 170P or 680G.

Firaxis Devs must revise that feature(--s) driven gimmick, asap if not update it within the next Balance-Pass due this April.
Sooooo.. i wont settle for anything less than FIVE.

 

[Rotomagus]

Zombies seem to have a tendency to NOT attack...???

 

[Deadly Dog]

Zombies seem to have a tendency to NOT attack...???

If you mean attack the player make sure they can see you and they will. Lots of us are playing Portugal at the same time and that +1 sight is one-way, so its easy to spot idle zombies from afar. Maybe they should roam, or get +1 sight at a certain point in the game.

They might ignore civilian units entirely, not sure about builders and settlers but Archaeologists definitely so.

They don't attack free cities or their units and they might not attack a nascent City State in barb clans mode, at least not right away.

 

[Rotomagus]

If you mean attack the player make sure they can see you and they will. Lots of us are playing Portugal at the same time and that +1 sight is one-way, so its easy to spot idle zombies from afar. Maybe they should roam, or get +1 sight at a certain point in the game.

They might ignore civilian units entirely, not sure about builders and settlers but Archaeologists definitely so.

They don't attack free cities or their units and they might not attack a nascent City State in barb clans mode, at least not right away.

Well, they just spawn in my territory and do nothing... no good.

 

[Dedrytus]

In my current game I have two zombie spawners. At this progress they show only in two marked places. My whole territory is free of them and my missionary scanners could not find any in enemy territory. So now I am getting lot's of great general points because they ignore both musketman and city. At the beginning of the game I lost my third city there - too many zombies were coming from east, west and south.

 

[blackbutterfly]

Actually the mode surprised me.

It's the first time in Civ VI where I actually played a defensive game at Deity. (Normally at this level you have to play offensively).
That's why it is called Zombie Defense mode.

It's as much about building defensive structures as it is about zombies, which are basically a new type of barb.

 

[James_Champagne]

I had a trade route plundered by zombies...

 

[IsabelBraganca]

I killed a zombie with another zombie I owned (I had the twins, now they are deceased ). Next turn a new zombie spammed in the same place. Then I used my other zombies to soften up the new one, and I finished it with an archer. I had a settler next to a zombie, and he wasn't attacked. I have to watch out if this happens always. Zombies seems to let civilian units alone. Potato noticed that with builders.

I think the zombie mode may be worse for low levels. I'm playing a deity game. This means all city states have walls, and the AI techs faster and gets better units. Even so, at the beginning of the classical age, one AI has its capital overwhelmed by zombies. This AI is the only one that has the same number of techs than me. I may take its capital, no walls can survive that non-stop attack.