Helper Survivors

[OrangeCat X]

Actually, I'd love helper survivors, like in HL when you run across Barney, or resistance fighters.

Non-playable of course.

National Guardsman: Separated from his unit, he will lend his gun to you. But, as he is not "hero level", he cannot be healed when he goes down that final time. Only two of these guys at a time. You only lose him when he dies.

Girl: Has a pistol, cannot use bigger guns. She is only worth some kind of bonus when you get her to a saferoom. Like a level 3 gun? (S.A.W.? Blooper Grenade Launcher?) Stereotype, she trips/falls and screams, attracting infected like a delicious subway sammich... Will you leave her to die?

Homeless: Has a pistol. He seems to know where all the pill, med-packs and weapons are. Will move with you throughout because he feel 'safer" with you. Useless in combat though. Leave HIM to die?

[Infest0125]

These are actually pretty good ideas... I love the homeless idea but how about NO revivals for these guys instead, like in HL.

[OrangeCat X]

That would be ok. But it begs the question.

Would you waste your time to pick up a bot?

And would you waste a precious medpack on one? ^.^

[Infest0125]

And would you waste a precious medpack on one? ^.^

Yes, it really depends on the situation. Heal the homeless and he'll show you his way to another medpack. Heal the soldier and he'll help you a lot in battle. With the girl, I wouldn't take her if she screams like that and only uses a pistol. Even if it is for a level 3 weapon, my autoshottoy and M16 are just fine thank you very much.

[OrangeCat X]

Although if someone wants that level 3 weapon, like some of the other people on this site, you know who you are, then they have to put up with her wacky anticts. Like her sitting down and curling into a ball if she falls behind too far. :evil:

What game was that? DAMN... on the tip of my tongue...
Resident Evil 4!!! The blond girl would just sit down if you ran ahead to fast! FUCK that pissed me off. (But in a good Horror movie way.)

I'd love to see a variant where you have to drag 3 NPCs to the next safehouse for points.

It would be HELL ON EARTH in vs.

[OrangeCat X]

Heal the soldier and he'll help you a lot in battle.I always felt a little cheated when one of the NPCs in HL was dropped or worse, when I entered an area that they could not follow. :( I loved Barney's witty banter.

Speaking of Banter, Last night on L4D I heard...

Bill: "You call this a zombie apocalypse? I remember the zombie uprising of 1957!"

Zoey: "What? Uh..."

Bill: "Ah... I'm just horseshittn' you."

I LOVE that stuff. :)

[Steve Cloud]

Having some survivor follow you around shooting his pistol might make a pretty cool campaign/map gimmick but I absolutely hate escort missions so I reckon the Girl and Hobo are bad ideas. I prefer to just have some guy running behind me killing the occasional infected and not have to worry about him at all. If he dies, he dies, no loss.

I'd just like it if in one campaign when you're getting onto the rescue vehicle, one or two soldiers with M16s are near the entrance and start providing you with some cover fire while you run in. Just to, you know, actually let you see some other living humans in action.

[OrangeCat X]

Just to, you know, actually let you see some other living humans in actionYeah, I know. It probably adds to the isolation that you NEVER see another human, but once in a while, it'd be nice.

[Steve Cloud]

Except for that helicopter pilot in No Mercy theres no-one else. But he doesn't do anything. I don't think he even really moves.

[arsis]

This game was built for 4 players. If you had more, then the game would be so unbalanced. Why do you think there's two hunters, one smoker, and one boomer at once?

The only way it would work is to add more bosses at once.

[jaydig]

The only way it would work is to add more bosses at once.

I don't think there should be bots in Versus, just in Campaign. The three archetypes in first post would be good for randomly placed helpers of varying usefulness.
I wouldn't make them revivable or place any kind of reward on their survival though, to keep people worrying about other players and not NPCs.
It would be good for a laugh when the random extra guy gets mobraped and then totally friendlyfired to death by the whole team.

[OrangeCat X]

Soldier: "Why do you keep calling me 'meatshield?'"

Francis: "Ah... No reason."

[NovaSilisko]

Soldier: "Why do you keep calling me 'meatshield?'"

Francis: "Ah... No reason."

Win.

[lerlerson]

I like the idea of other survivors popping up in campaigns, although I'm inclined to think that it would probably not work very well in Versus. I had an idea awhile ago for a survivor like Churchguy who has gone insane as a result of the apocalypse, and shoots everybody, zombie or not, and one of the maps would have Boss Infected stop spawning an the AI director stop throwing hordes at you and the survivor would try to snipe you and you'd have to run behind cover and then sprint forwards to pass by him before getting to the end of the map and having a showdown with him.

Obviously that wouldn't work in Versus, though.

[Bizarro]

Why wouldn't they work in versus? To compensate for survivors getting back up maybe the infected should have computer controlled special infected?

I don't even understand why there aren't computer controlled special infected on versus in the first place.

[JudicialT]

Father Grigori: Randomly shoots infected with his double gauge from the rooftops.

[fhein]

Teenage boy: Constantly tells you what to do. Calls you an idiot every now and then. Will run ahead to pick up weapons. If low on health, might shoot you in the back to take your medkit.

[Bizarro]

Teenage boy: Constantly tells you what to do. Calls you an idiot every now and then. Will run ahead to pick up weapons. If low on health, might shoot you in the back to take your medkit.
If you're gonna play that game you're forgetting a major character.

Old lady with PMS.

Special effect- constantly nags the infected and makes them run away in fear.

[OrangeCat X]

Crazy guy: Really good with guns, but sooner or later he "snaps" and yells. "ALRIGHT YOU MOTHERF**KERS!!! BRING IT!!!" This attracts ALL the zombies in the area.

Time to run and leave him.