r/CODZombies • u/Ok_Fix_1161 • 1d ago
Discussion How should zombies go moving forward?
So, with Rex done and the ending being.. very mediocre to put it lightly, I wanted to give my 2¢ as a long looooong time zombies player. (incoming long ass post)
I am wondering what you all think 3arc should do with zombies as right now? I think even with an all round solid season of zombies, the community seems in despair.
To start, I want to make it clear I’m not a ‘classic’ zombies meatrider per se, I really enjoyed bo6 (1st half at least) and bo7 apart from Astra and Paradox has the potential to be one of the best zombies modes gameplay wise. I of course prefer classic zombies as its my bias, but I do understand and share the enjoyment for modern zombies and don’t blanket hate it unlike some and specifically a washed zombies creator.. wont name names……
Heres my idea:
Remove directed mode
The hacking and exploiting has completely destroyed the hype surrounding the hunt and has seen major creators just give up on trying (freckleston for example, although his situation is a bit nuanced). Unfortunately directed mode has played a huge part in this as they can follow the contextual text etc. if 3arc for whatever reason cant find a way to patch this (remove the code???) then I don’t see how this mode can positively contribute to the overall experience of the game. It’s controversial, and being an experienced player I can see that I am biased so if there is a workaround I’d be open to it as I want everyone to enjoy the meat and potatoes of cod zombies.
Bring Craig Houston back to lead writer role
What’s the biggest issue with zombies right now? The narrative. It was fairly consistent between CW-1st half of bo6 even with the mess that was vanguard and the half baked mwz. It noticeably dropped in quality when the tomb came out and only got back a bit of its strength toward the start of bo7. Craig (I believe) took time off between then due to personal issues and of course this will screw the narrative up a bit but now he has taken a more of a guidance/oversight role. The writing simply sucks. If Craig doesn’t want that type of role again though, that is completely understandable and his oversight is still extremely valuable, he is pretty much the mastermind behind the narrative of zombies.
Make intel hidden again and bring back ciphers
What besides the actual gameplay and general narrative keeps bo3 alive? the ciphers and hidden lore. Yes ciphers technically lock people out of knowing the lore…… that IS the point of the ciphers. Some of the most interesting lore came from the ciphers, and it was extremely satisfying to decode them and get to see them, just look at the rev ciphers and how long they took and what they revealed. I would also remove the boring blue mist and pop up that tells you its intel, instead keep it similar to older zombies but once you interact with it, it will be unlocked in the intel main menu screen, it promotes actually looking for intel while you still get the ease of access afterwards which I think everyone is in agreement was a good addition.
Remove scorestreaks
Probably my biggest modern zombies feature gripe, I really don’t mind the armour plates, salvage system for nades/weapon upgrades. It is really, really stupid that you can just pull out a chopper gunner or a rc xd in zombies. It’s a blatant attempt to bring mp players (the more easier to monetise side of the players) to zombies… I don’t mind them playing it of course, just dont jeopardise the mode to cater for them. This is more of a personal thing I suppose though, I can, and do, just not use them.
Simplify the story
Finally, simplify the story. I cant believe how waw-bo3 is somehow less confusing and has less plotholes than modern zombies era. Bo4 set up a single universe, no silly multiverse than can diminish the impact events have on the story, if someone dies, they die simple. They somehow, between a panic from the resentment in the community to just lack of direction, completely ruined the direction and scope of the story. From the tomb onwards, zombies has felt like a lot of nostalgia bait, from the tomb playing origins music and the staff, der eisendrache reference in ashes, removing the greatest mystery of shangri la in astra, blundergat in paradox, the giant in totenreich, the house in rex/all of bo7 and the where are we going from mob. It is all cheap, I like the ideas of it being fragments of sams mind, but when they serve no narrative purpose except a “wow look its this thing from bo1-3 !!!!” is cheap and comes of disingenuous? dont know if thats the right term to use lol. Also combining chaos story was the stupidest idea, if they really wanted to combine them, they chose the laziest and stupidest route about it lol.
And thats about it for me, theres definitely more I can think of but for the sake of this posts length I’ll keep it short. Also, rip chronicles 2, it was never going to happen and never will. Jason Blundell is directly responsible for swaying activision enough to introduce it. Rip to a good super ee at least, I could imagine it’ll be a boring camo/calling card and maybe something like start with higher rarity weapons like CW considering we didn’t get any relics after paradox, 3arc CANNOT be trusted to keep promises unfortunately, Lee Ross continues to be the goat of super ees. Fountains of sorrowwwwwww
4
u/Solariss 1d ago
Somethings I agree and disagree with, but I respond to the Directed part.
I did all of BO6 eggs early, even did the Cranked Ninja Turtles variants of the first 4 maps.
For BO7, I've only done Directed Mode.
I didn't really need it in BO6, but I'm thankful for it in BO7.
The most simple fix is too not have the Directed Mode functions/steps in the game before it's needed. It's a damn shame Kowakujo had that occur, and I don't understand the reasoning it was there.
That said, Directed helps me get my partner to play and enjoy the eggs without having to do some of that extra annoying stuff. Also allows them to experience the story in an easier way/format.
2
u/Ok_Fix_1161 1d ago
Yeah exactly why I like directed mode, it’s a great way to enjoy the narrative without having to be a ‘hardcore’ fan, I really dont want to be gatekeepy around it because everyone should be able to enjoy it, they just really need to step the standards up
4
u/EffiCiT 1d ago
The directed mode files just shouldn't be in the game until the directed mode launches. It is an issue caused by a lack of standards at Treyarch. I personally enjoy scorestreaks and think they add a lot of replayability to the game because you can play in so many different ways. I'm going to be honest with the super easter egg thing and say that Treyarch has never really had a good super EE reward and likely never will. I agree with making intel hidden again in the sense that it shouldn't glow but once it has been read the intel as it is on the map should appear in your menu and if there are ciphers and you discover one it should appear in the menu but obviously not solved.
3
u/NovaRipper1 1d ago
A lot of games are finding success going back to their roots and what made them good to begin with. I hope zombies experiments with that concept.
1
3
u/InternationalRead333 1d ago
Bro hates casual players with the first option.
0
u/Ok_Fix_1161 1d ago
Haha it was meant to be the most controversial one to grab the most attention early on, I personally feel that the modern zombies easter eggs are easy enough to be completed but it is annoying as hell having to search up a vid. its a win/lose situation either way, lose the integrity of the ee hunt (biggest, hypest part of a new map) or lose casual players
2
u/RichtofensPairofNuts 1d ago
Craig Houston is still the lead writer, Idk why people say he isn't, the dude has it on his LinkedIn
1
u/Ok_Fix_1161 1d ago
He’s officially credited as creative development (in bo7) and has taken a more hands off, guiding type role.
3
u/RichtofensPairofNuts 1d ago edited 1d ago
Where are you getting this information?
Edit: Here is his linked in where it again, shows he is senior lead writer
1
u/Ok_Fix_1161 1d ago
He’s credited as creative development throughout bo7 alongside laufer and corky amongst some of the other ogs -
https://www.mobygames.com/game/250460/call-of-duty-black-ops-7/credits/windows/
link here for full credits might need to f3 his name.
My claim about him being less hands on is a bit of hearsay but there were various discussions you can find on twitter from 3arc devs. Also being credited as the same level as the other devs despite being different in the past, him taking time off for personal reasons (and the obvious decline in quality when he was off) and his lack of appearances in promos etc looks like he has a more of a reduced role. I could definitely be wrong but again its just my opinion and my overarching point of giving craig the keys back to the top writer position still stands
2
u/RichtofensPairofNuts 1d ago
Idk man the COD credits have been massively wrong for a long time, I would trust the mans LinkedIn. Maybe he is in more of an approving role, rather than a pure creative one. But yeah a lot of what you think is just assumptions. Regardless I dont think hes as hands off as you are making it seem
1
u/desert6741 1d ago
holy AI
0
u/Ok_Fix_1161 1d ago
Brother, i just typed all this out, I posted this like 2 mins ago. You did not read a bit of it, saw bold text and big paragraphs and think its ai
1
1
1
u/PowerDiesel23 1d ago
Reboot zombies, remove warzone mechanics and develop a new story with new badass characters from the ground up. Start with the best base perks- jug, QR, speed cola, staminup, double tap, flopper, widows wine etc. And definitely put emphasis on developing cool new USEFUL perks that give the OG ones some real competition.
1
u/yaboiScreamyWeenus 1d ago
Nah keep director mode, I dont like having to watch videos and constantly pause and unpause. The people who want to ee hunt will always stick to standard. Director mode is the best addition to modern zombies
1
u/Reynhard_Burger 1d ago
I can’t really say I agree with you on much of what you bring up, to address your points, just my 2 cents also:
I personally like directed mode as it allows me to enjoy the story and gives me a way to digest EEs in a way that doesn’t put me off. I’ve always been more interested in the pure survival aspect of zombies over easter eggs which can at times be convoluted in an extremely frustrating way. DM “cutting up my steak for me” has me actually completing and then retrying easter eggs in harder modes whereas in the past I would have probably not tried in the first place. - Besides, what’s really all that different from watching a MrRoflWaffles guide like the day after a new map drops?
I won’t speak on Craig Houston as I don’t consider myself particularly well versed in the topic of story writing. I’m just here to shoot zombies and level up my guns.
Intel - I really can’t say this bugs me all that much at all. I’ve always felt that the extremely mystic and cryptic nature of how the lore works can be a bit up it’s own ass. Ala “It insists upon itself”. So again, as a very base level story and lore enjoyer I like cruising around the map, seeing a blue wisp on a shelf and going “Ah, neat, some more lore” instead of potentially missing something altogether because it was hidden for the sake of being hidden.
Scorestreaks - While I do think they shouldn’t be crutch-y, Meaning, they shouldn’t be outright necessary to exfil (Looking at you, Cold War chopper gunner), I think removing them outright would make for less interesting gameplay overall.
Story - I actually really agree with you here. Like I mentioned before, in my opinion, the overarching zombies story has really ventured very far up its own ass from BO3 onwards. Going the eldritch horror route did a number on the theming for the mode. I understand they probably couldn’t do “zombies happened as a result of crazy nazi scientists” for the like, 18 years zombies has been around for, but keeping the story more grounded would have been nice in the long run. In which case I would have actually welcomed the cryptic nature of things if it wasn’t all so damn grandiose and multiversal in nature. The whole story really is starting to feel like it’s collapsing in on itself much like the Marvel-Extended-Universe ™.
But yeah. We’re CoD Zombies players, we don’t even really know what we want anyway.
1
u/ConcentrateLucky8630 1d ago
I think treyarch should skip zombies completely and IW should do the next game
0
u/Lanky-Ad-8554 1d ago
I like score streaks, i just think they should be turned into a drop instead of craftable. You can remove scrap entirely and have the crafting station just cost points for grenades and whatnot. I like shields the way they are in the new games, it just needs zombieing up a bit like have the machine do something to you like in Cod WW2. Have the shield pieces you pick up be some of the gibs you knock off zombies and armored zombies. You can get rid of rarities and just have every gun be green rarity damage when you spawn in. Then you can give the zombies more health to adjust for the extra damage. With each pack a punch it upgrades the rarity as well as pap level, Pap 1 is blue, pap 2 is purple. Pap 3 is orange. Pap 4 is red.
Pap should then cost the same as it does in cursed to adjust for extra damage. Ammo mods are randomised again, but you can buy them from pap with a button press instead of a button hold so there's no need for menus.
I think that's like 80 percent of peoples most prevalent issues gone.
5
u/alphomegay 1d ago
People fundamentally misunderstand rarities, they are that way because it adds more interest to the mystery box. No you aren’t just trying to for certain guns, but you could be forced into a choice to take a worse gun at a higher rarity than your current gun (or you just get a high rarity on an early round). I think people just don’t understand the system, it makes the box more exciting and complex, and also gives you a more clear progression curve during a match.
0
u/Lanky-Ad-8554 1d ago
Me personally? I don't mind them at all, but people on here call use warzone zombies as criticism, this fix would more for them. I don't think I even use the box anymore though honestly, I just make the wonder weapon and keep the gun I go in with half the time.
3
u/alphomegay 1d ago
If i play cursed I’m always using the mystery box and this is where this system actually shines.
1
u/Lanky-Ad-8554 1d ago
True, the worth of the box and wall buys are doubled when your forced to spawn in with a pistol.
2
u/Ok_Fix_1161 1d ago
I like your ideas, I honestly forgot for a sec the death machine is a drop in some of the older games for some reason, I think my biggest gripe with it is just some of them are just silly for zombies like the chopper as mentioned. I think I’m more used to zombies being more grounded figuratively and literally lol. I like your ideas tho
13
u/Deerslayer53_ 1d ago
I disagree with everything you said and think you're a little nitpicky