"We [ZSDW Staff-Marsden, 3Day, John234 and I] are in need of videogame programmers. We are hoping to create a Zombie Simulator for testing out battle plans and tactics presented throughout the site. Even if you do hobby programming or are a bona fide professional, it works and...

We need YOU for the ZSDW Programmer Team!

Questions and comments can be either posted in this thread or sent via PM to AgEnT_GrEEn,

Thanks to Beowulf2700 for the idea :D"

"sry thats a question...edit button why must you be absent it makes me sad."

"Perhaps converting some of the textures and models from the Source engine - it's more modern.
I would say just use the source engine to create the entire thing, but it doesn't have much support for anything but combat, and in a good simulation, the combat would be only a part of it. I think that Fallout 3 would be the perfect engine, so long as we could get our hands on more modern models and textures."

"sorta like the illfated Exanimus MMORPG?"

"thats the idea...there is no save progress, there is no 'WOW' type game world, its bassicly a FPS. each level, like in L4D would be seperate. you would have say....clearing a hospital as 1 level/level set. i guess you MAY be able to work in a sort of RPG level up system. but that wouldnt be the charicters themselves, and it might not necassarly be attrubuted to xp at all, it could be like if you search a police station and happen to find a laser sight. or youve been running around a long time so you delevop stamina. it would make it more realistic then lvl up in rpgs....people dont gain more skill by doing random things and improving skills that they never used before...you have to practice to get good....

but ne who, the player charicter improvments IMHO would make the game more complex then it has to be. your call though. "

"thats the idea...there is no save progress, there is no 'WOW' type game world, its bassicly a FPS. each level, like in L4D would be seperate. you would have say....clearing a hospital as 1 level/level set. i guess you MAY be able to work in a sort of RPG level up system. but that wouldnt be the charicters themselves, and it might not necassarly be attrubuted to xp at all, it could be like if you search a police station and happen to find a laser sight. or youve been running around a long time so you delevop stamina. it would make it more realistic then lvl up in rpgs....people dont gain more skill by doing random things and improving skills that they never used before...you have to practice to get good....

but ne who, the player charicter improvments IMHO would make the game more complex then it has to be. your call though. "

"But that would defeat the purpose of this being a Z-Day simulation, wouldn't it?
Or is this just a general zombie simulator?
I think the purpose would be defeated if the participants in the simulation didn't have to get through the actual outbreak itself first.
Your character should definitely be able to improve, as I'm sure that we will all gain skills that we might not have developed once Z-Day arrives.
And primarily, I think there shouldn't be much stress placed on combat, since that will make this thing lean too far towards just a game. Perhaps have it so that if you get bitten or scratched or anything by a zombie, then you are infected, period. If you are shot, then you are dead, period.

Out of curiosity, who here is actually willing to work on the simulator itself. Aside from supplying ideas and the like, is there anyone who has knowledge in map-design, programming, modelling, skinning, writing, etc? And more importantly, the time to put in? Because I sure don't have time to make maps big enough to suit the purposes of this simulation, and I don't know enough C++ to program adequately for this kind of simulation. I'll spit ideas out like anything, but if this thing is going to get made, then I think we need a list of people who can actually get stuff done and WILL actually get stuff done..."

"I'm no programmer but I know that you would have to make it as open-ended as well as as detailed as possible to accomodate the wild and off-the-wall idea some people would get."