Zombie Mode

[blackbutterfly]

Could it be that the civilian units have no inherent "pull" for the zombies to take them, but they might get taken if they're in the way of a zombie that's on a path towards another target?

IDK

I think it's simply to allow your workers to build barricades and traps.

In my first game with zombie mode (4-leaf map, online speed, no other modes, no mods, prince difficulty) the AI got his 3 capitals surrounded by zombies and could not get rid of them. All 3 AI capitals where at min health all the time, and the zombies were everywhere. I just took his capitals with an ironclad.

Yup. Crazy easy on 4 leaf clover.

You can play this at Deity no problem with Zombies. Just build ships.

FYI I've made guide on Steam comprising my notes from gameplay -> https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2442917795
Feedback please.

 

[Abaxial]

After reading this thread I thought I had better have a go. It seems moderately amusing but so far (late renaissance: prince, small continents, standard) it's underwheming. Every so often one or two zombies pop up, throw themselves at the nearest city, and die. They've not been a problem to me or, so far as I have been able to see, any AI civ. I notice many zombies in the antarctic wastes, but they are welcome to that.

 

[Shadow757]

After reading this thread I thought I had better have a go. It seems moderately amusing but so far (late renaissance: prince, small continents, standard) it's underwheming. Every so often one or two zombies pop up, throw themselves at the nearest city, and die. They've not been a problem to me or, so far as I have been able to see, any AI civ. I notice many zombies in the antarctic wastes, but they are welcome to that.

It depends on what type of game you're playing. If you're playing a domination game the zombies will be harder because the more you kill the more you get. And then it snowballs, the more you kill the tougher they get. If you're playing any other type of game without a lot of killing (and that includes wiping out barbs) they aren't so numerous or tough.

Try a necromance game, get the hero twins and start taking zombies. Have the vampire secret society. Then conquer the world with your uindead hordes. Just make certain you take a civ that gives a bonus to attacks so your zombies are tougher than the regular zombies. I used Aztec, the luxury bonus really helps. It's mid industrial era (just getting to oil) and my zombies are over 100 and the regular zombies are 92.

 

[kzcosme]

I tested about 3 times with 3 different outcomes.

With Vietnam on Prince, had some hard work pushing the hordes away but was doable; the AI fared well too. The map was fully colonized.

With Greece on King, I lost 1 city and barely saved another in a foreign continent cause the zombies owerwhelmed all the AIs except Brazil. It was a Walking Dead episode, with lots of dead spots on the map.

Now I’m in a game with Monty on Emperor and the zombies barely spawn. Had to check if the mode was on!

Having fun so far!

 

[Shadow757]

Yup. Crazy easy on 4 leaf clover.

You can play this at Deity no problem with Zombies. Just build ships.

FYI I've made guide on Steam comprising my notes from gameplay -> https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2442917795
Feedback please.

I liked it. I'd recommend adding the Aztec's to the list of races. The luxury bonus helps a lot (especially getting Maui and making more luxury's), and using settlers to finish settlements faster gets you the necessary Encampments faster. You're right about air force and navy. I have lakes full of Frigates, killing anything that comes near.

 

[MrRadar]

Ok, I've completed one game with this mode. I thought I'd go with something apocalyptic-halloweenish-fantasy, so the enabled modes were Zombies, Heroes, Secret Societies and Apocalypse. Played Mayans (for the memes) on Deity, Standard size and speed Continents map, no mods.

The start was promising: I took a settler from Chinese, settled my third city with it, but a barb camp spawned nearby and zombies ate the city, while my another settler en route for the fourth city place was very sadly burned to death in a spontaneous jungle fire on the spot of the planned city. Going from 4 prospective cities back to 2 was a bit discouraging, but I went out for a stroll and then continued

After that, however, all was very much manageable. Zombie game was something of 'whack the mole' sort, ranged units and city walls with an odd cavalry support could deal with them no problem. I haven't built a single trap or a barrier throughout the whole playthrough. In the end, I was more scared of and scarred by the falling comets, one of them nearly took out my capital. I guess, I'll have to try this mode again, with no other modes enabled.

 

[IsabelBraganca]

• Zombies get +1 mutation strength for every 4 deaths. So everyone in the game would have to kill a total of 440 zombies in order to get them to be as strong as a GDR.

Did your map have 2 civilizations?

In the post below there is the TOWERDEFENSE_ZOMBIE_COMBAT_STRENGTH_FROM_PROPERTY - InversePlayerScaling with the value true , and TOWERDEFENSE_ZOMBIE_COMBAT_STRENGTH_FROM_PROPERTY with the value 0.5.

I had a feeling that the number of the kills necessary to increase the mutation strength would be 2 * number_of_players.

I created a test hotseat game with 4 players, and the number of kills to increase the mutation strength was 8. There was no city states, so I could count more accurately.

The formula for the mutation should be something like that:
floor (startera * 50 / 7 + number_of_kills/(2*number_of_players))

Start Era - ancient - 0
classical - 1
medieval - 2
and so on..

If you start the game in the classical era, the zombies start with a mutation strength of 7. I still need more testing to be sure. I pay on Mac, so I cannot use Fireturner,

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>

 

[iammaxhailme]

I'm playing my first zombie game. I'm still in the classical or medieval era, but so far it hasn't been too major; just a few zombies randomly popping up and splattering them on my walls/archer defended cities. Honestly that's less annoying than regular barbarians, becuase at least zombies dont' raid my tile improvements as far as I can tell. I haven't got much use out of traps yet. I think things may change more later in the game, though.

 

[Dedrytus]

Zombies can capture settlers/workers if they kill unit that escort them. Note: never escort civilian unit in presence of zombies

 

[Abaxial]

They can kill religious units.

 

[Shadow757]

They also kill civilian units if they just run into them by accident.

 

[blackbutterfly]

If you start the game in the classical era, the zombies start with a mutation strength of 7.

Do you know why on some maps the Zombies go crazy?
Like on 4 Leaf Clover they will decimate all but the caps if you let them.

But on other maps they won't take over. I'm playing the TSL maps, Europe and Asia and they're far from super aggressive like on 4-Leaf Clover. (Or 6-armed Snowflake) for that matter.

 

[tsf4]

Playing on a duel map with 4 civs and 3 city states, they went crazy. I couldn’t keep up with them even on settler mode.

 

[Tech Osen]

Do you know why on some maps the Zombies go crazy?

Maybe it's just tightly balanced. Either they stay under a threshold and it's manageable or they tip over and snowball away.

 

[Victoria]

The Zombies themselves are *never* dangerous though

When your back is turned and two strength 30 zombies turn up at an un walled city, say that.

How in the hell, excuse my words, am I supposed to play this mode?

kill the camp then lure the zombies away from your cities to other civs, then get them killed there. Build walls

 

[blackbutterfly]

Maybe it's just tightly balanced. Either they stay under a threshold and it's manageable or they tip over and snowball away.

Like this?

 

[iammaxhailme]

I'm playing my first zombie game. I'm still in the classical or medieval era, but so far it hasn't been too major; just a few zombies randomly popping up and splattering them on my walls/archer defended cities. Honestly that's less annoying than regular barbarians, becuase at least zombies dont' raid my tile improvements as far as I can tell. I haven't got much use out of traps yet. I think things may change more later in the game, though.

OK, so I finished the game. I was only on prince, which is really easy, but I never had any real trouble with them. The AI, however...



I used the console commands to reveal the whole map. London's been at 0 health for ages, and that entire tundra area south of it was full of 3 city states and a handful of English cities. Then... the hordes came... there is a lot of empty space you can see on the minimap which is chock full of zombies, which is probably why the AI has not been settling more cities there.

 

[Shadow757]

Here's a note, when you use a cities Dark Ritual or Turn Undead it starts the timer on all undead in the radius, even ones you already owned (i.e. from the hero twins or an apostle).

 

[Andrew Johnson [FXS]]

Like this?

This is a good example of the "awful snowball" effect. A lot of war = a lot of zombies = more war = high mutation strength. My normal advice here is to, again, play this mode when you're ready to play a zombie game (and not as a "let's just add it" to a "regular" Civ game), and then really try to balance the warmongering. Do more deflection (e.g. Dark Signal) and less outright elimination. It might mean altering your normal Civ strategy. Or, of course, do what you're doing there and just hold on - if you're that besieged, the AI should be paralyzed and you can inch towards another victory.

Of course, I see the timer on a lot of those zombies, which means that, honestly, you're in trouble. Good luck!

 

[tsf4]

Andrew, any strategy to avoid shooting them down and acting like they are not there?