Zombies

Page Created 04 January 2016

This page has not yet been fully updated to reflect changes in v1.06 in Arulco Vacations

In Arulco Vacations the Queen's biological and genetic programs are in full force. There are Bloodcats, Bug Creatures and Zombies infesting the countryside.

The Zombies can be troublesome even though the incidence of them is at a very low setting. To minimize the number of Zombies that appear it is advisable to not hang around the tactical screen after a battle. Instead, go to the strategic screen and advance time a bit. Give your Mercs some time to rest, and the bodies some time to decompose. While there at the strategic screen you can do all the inventory-related stuff that you need to do. Of course, if you do not "Allow Zombies" in the preferences . . .  you won't have any zombie problem at all. On the up-side, Zombies can be easy targets in small numbers, and dispatching them can be an easy way to increase your ability scores.

Zombies are on at (what should be) a very low setting of occurrence -- 1 in 20 chance modified lower by a random chance 50-50 chance to become a zombie if the 1 in 20 chance occurs. However, individual zombies can rise up again multiple times. It will be very rare to get a zombie wave as waves as a default are disabled, but not rare to get a zombie. Zombies can climb roofs and jump through windows and over fences, however, so there's no easy way of getting away from them. Zombies will also be wearing whatever armour they had on when they were alive.

I set the zombie occurance low because zombies make each battle longer, change the tempo of the game, and too many zombies makes the game become a total zombie apocalypse more than a mercenary invasion of a third-world country using biological WMDs (the why of the zombies). It also affects your gun choices as I find that shotguns with buckshot ammo and SMGs with HP & Glaser ammo become vitally necessary when there are zombies popping up -- especially with the NCTH (New Chance To Hit) system. I wish there was a setting to allow zombies to increase in frequency over time as that would be perfect, in my opinion.

Zombie 'poison' is set lower than the default as far as damage. Poison damage is set to 50% of actual damage, and the hourly poison damage infection multiplier is set to 2.0 (half the default) 3.0 (3/4 of the default, for v1.04d). To cure zombie poisoning you will need Antidote or someone with the Doctor skill and a Medical score of at least 50.

Civilian Zombies!

Civilian Zombies won't crash the game in Arulco Vacations because I gave all the civilians "regular" bodytypes, with the one caveat that the children and the "cripples" still have their civilian bodytype (meaning, no fight animation), so the children and 'cripples' still crash the game if they turn into Zombies and attack. You will have to kill those two types of civilian-zombies before they attack in order to prevent a game crash. Luckily, there are not too many of those types in Arulco even though I have increased their number a little.

A walker vs. zombie race!

By the way, a great comedy zombie flick is Cockneys vs. Zombies, especially if you are a fan of British film as it has many of your favourite British actors in it. The pictures on this page are from that movie. The Zombies in Arulco Vacations are the shambling Night of the Living Dead variety, but not quite as slow as the zombies in Cockneys vs Zombies -- though the JA2 "cripples" (wheelchair civilians) can probably 'outrun' these Zombies.

 Civilian zombies everywhere!

Best tactic is to use your Buckshot, HP or Glaser ammo. Zombies give importance to those little used ammo types. Keep a couple shotguns and HP/Glaser-loaded SMGs around just for zombie-control.