Saturday, July 13, 2013

Outbreak Survival! [Mystery Update Day 1]

The Mystery Update was a series of updates revealing a new thing each day.




 Day 1 announced the release of the Medic Weapon set.




A new VIP which gave the player a healing weapon as well as two Medkits, which when thrown on the floor generate a healing circle that heals players if they stand in it.


Tons of drastic changes and new additions were made to the map



The first of which was the inclusion of a quick way for Zombies to travel to the Underground. All they had to do was enter the Zombie door, which was the transparent green brick with the face on it.



Then they drop down the hole until they reach the main station area. Truss parts also allowed for Zombies to climb back up quickly, although if you were a fast zombie type it was quicker to climb the stairs.




By dropping down you end up here at the Underground Zombie spawn. The Underground spawn was added because players found it took too long if they died to travel from the Town spawns all the way to the Underground.





What the Zombie spawn looks like from the outside. It was placed very close to the staircase, meaning that players now had to be alert when travelling down them, just in-case of ambushes.




A new GUI was added to the game as well. This GUI provided information regarding the rules, various Zombie types, updates and how to play tutorial. The GUI was opened by clicking the "Open / Close Help GUI" button, which was located to the left of the screen.




A picture showing the GUI layout whilst displaying the welcome page.





The Zombie info page. This page displays the stats, abilities, strengths and weaknesses of each Zombie in the game. The page also featured a short Bio for each Zombie, as well as the time it was unlocked and what you needed to type in the chat to become one.





Some other area changes included this location in the underground. At first there was only two ways to get here, one being very hard to get to, the other being blocked off by a timed door that unlocked every so often. This still made it too hard for players to reach this spot. So a third pathway had to be created.




Third pathway led from the back of the other scaffolding defence area to here.






This part also changed, the third pathway was placed to the left of this, while this area was encased with walls. This was because it was very hard for Zombies to get up here, and when they did the Human would just jump off and run away. This created frustrating gameplay and had to be changed. After the change players could still jump down, but they had to come forward which usually made them easier targets for Zombies.


The pathway was also made wider since Zombies took too long crossing the narrow beam, which made them die often. Kami Zombies or Bloat Zombies (later to be added) were very useful at this location, if the Humans got stuck inside, the explosion damage would hurt many of them allowing other Zombies to finish them off easily.



The Brown House also had a small change added to it. A bannister going from one window, allowed players to walk across to the other window.


The bannister led to this small room which could only be reached by walking across it.

The room from the inside. The window in front is the one where the bannister is.
The other window to the right had a platform outside it, which players could climb a green drainpipe onto the roof.


This is what the roof was like. It was a desirable place for Windforce and Ghostwalker users. As well as big groups of Humans.


Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Zone Analysis: Underground area

Zone Analysis is a mini series designed to enlighten you about the style, design, aesthetics and balance of a particular Zone.

So without further ado, lets take a look at the Underground!

(Note: This version of the underground was before the Lake Zone update which made drastic changes to the Underground.)




The entrance to the Underground was located in the top right-hand corner of the map. It was far enough from the other buildings and close enough to the Zombie spawn to allow for both teams to access it easily.




It took quite a while to descend the stairwell which led to the main station. This was intended due to the fact that the game was originally going to have toxic gases, which required the Underground to be set well... deep underground.





The elevator hiding place was the first thing you encountered when you got down there.






The truss ladder was hidden behind the elevator, meaning new players would have to discover it
before knowing how to get up there.



From here you could either stand back and shoot the Zombies coming through the entrance (which is a walkthrough wall) or stand on the ledge and shoot Zombies from above.





The main station room is located just as you finish walking down the stairs. The room was fairly large although it was restrictive due to having a roof unlike the town. This was the effect I wanted to create with the Underground. An enclosed space. This part featured the iconic London Underground symbol, as well as a few comedy advertisements and ticket gate / barriers.





Funny advertisements were placed all around the Underground so that people can have a little laugh while exploring / surviving.



More adverts with stairs leading to an upper floor. Different floor levels added tactical gameplay for both the Humans and Zombies.

 

Secret ledge overlooking the platform. Secrets added a lot of fun, and generally were hard to find, but once a few people knew about them, nearly everyone could get there.


Another example of different floors.




This part was placed above the platform, and was designed to be some sort of scaffolding, there was only one way to get up here, and the path to travel to it was very narrow. This helped the Humans shoot the Zombies easily.


The only way up to the scaffolding was to climb these truss parts.



A second set of stairs led from the main station down to a long corridor.

These stairs led from the main station and brought the players to the platform.

A frontal view of the stairs, as well as a quick look at the platform.



Two of the iconic London Tube's are seen on the platform. Players can stand on top or go inside them.




The second train allows you to either enter it to cross over the tracks, or walk on the train tracks.



To stop the tunnels ending up being extremely long. A black wall was placed to stop players from entering it. This also made it look like the tunnel was very dark and not a place you'd want to go to.



What Zombie game would be complete without ventilation shafts?





The vents were very narrow which meant the players couldn't jump or have any space to manoeuvre inside them



Travelling in the vents allows you to visit these two locations. The first is a very wide open room, which was very good to defend in if there were lots of Humans around.




The second room was fairly big, and was known as the storage room, due to it having lots of crates and vending machines. There were two buildings, one was smaller and only had one floor, the other was a lot bigger, you could climb up to the roof and there was a secret passage which led to a secret area.


The secret area. It was high enough so that Kami zombies couldn't explode on the ground and get you, but when more people found out how to get there, it was fairly easy for the Zombies to get the players up top.


Vending machines and barrels were used to block zombies getting into the room.



These crates and doors added a lot of extra detail to an otherwise empty hallway.


This concludes the design process of the Underground map. Next up the Town.











































Sunday, July 7, 2013

Outbreak Survival - Second Major Update

The second major update changed quite a few weapon and Zombie stats. While also adding a new Zombie, which was unlocked near the end of the round.





 
The Blitz Zombie



The Blitz Zombie's stats at the time were:
Speed: 15
Health: 600
Damage: 22

It was unlocked at 4:59





 A wooden plank connected the two buildings, making standing on top of them a viable strategy.

Outbreak Survival - VIP Spree

The next update happened the following week.

The first themed VIP T-Shirt's were added. Which instead of being called VIP they were dubbed as "Weapon Sets"



The Ducky Pirate Weapon Set image

The Weapon Sets were called:
Samurai Baker Weapon Set      
Ducky Pirate Weapon Set
Lone Survivor Weapon Set             
Hair dryer Knight Weapon Set

These four VIP's joined the original Standard VIPMega VIP and Ultra VIP. In this update Mega VIP was put on sale and had items created for it.
     
The Ducky Pirate Weapon Set and Ultra VIP were not for sale and did not have any items made for them at the time. Even to the day of writing this, Ultra VIP still isn't for sale and no items have been drafted up or added to the VIP.

The Underground received a few more Vending machines for players to push and use as barricades.





Movable Vending machines
 
 
Along with a new defence spot which was located behind the elevators when you first enter the Underground.
The Underground.
 
 
The elevator.
 
 
Area behind the elevator.
 

Outbreak Survival - First major update

The very first update that was made was created early in the morning, and was uploaded later in the evening. (GMT time) which meant when it was done, most people from America just about came back from school.

The update included the very first VIP T-Shirts and game badges.
 
Badge for when you join the Human team
 


The picture for the Standard VIP T-Shirt

 
The game also had a new Zone added. This new Zone was called the Underground, which was lightly based off of the London Underground in England. The new Zone had plenty of open space as well as tight corridors and ventilation shafts. There were two trains in the station as well as numerous billboards. (More detail of the Underground Zone can be found here.)

A new GUI was added to the game which showed the Player's avatar, as well as their HP and a  button to open the Shop GUI.

 
 
A save system for tools and Points was also added. Points saved with data persistence which saved and loaded the Points automatically every time you joined and left the game. Whereas the tools were saved and loaded manually, players had to say /save and /load to get their tools. (Although quite a few players though that you had to save Points this was too, even to this day a few people still say /save)
 
The first VIP's were called:
 
Although both Mega VIP and Ultra VIP were not for sale and didn't contain any items.