Why aren't all 4 zombie types ever present in the same fights?

[nokori3byo]

OK, not sure if this is the right place for this, but it seems somehow less wrong than anywhere else,

Why do you suppose it is that we never see all the zombie types together in the same place? While it's true that there are general areas in which standards, fasties, hulkers, and zombines all appear, they're never quite present in the same fights. IIRC, there are only 3 poisons in all of EP. 1, and you never see them in the presence of fast zombies. I think is is also true of HL2.

Is this related to technical issues or is it just how the scenes ended up being made? I wonder if Ep. 2 will be different in this respect.

 

[Polaris]

Ravenholm, anyone?

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Zombines aren't in ravenholm.

 

[Narvi]

Gameplay issues.

Oh sure the fast zombie is beating me up but that's okay because I still have eighty health left OH GOD POISON HEADCRAB IN FACE *dddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet*

 

[ríomhaire]

Poison headcrabs + fast zombies = HOLY CRAP!

Would make for an interesting fight, if you were basicly thrown to the lions with all types of zombies around.

 

[Hellrider]

When Freeman was in Ravenholm zombines barely existed, if not at all.

 

[Ridge]

What about the underground level of EP1?

I recall fast zombies, poison zombies, regular zombies and zombines....granted last time I played that was before the update that took half the zombies away....

 

[ríomhaire]

I don't think there were ever poison zombies in the same place as fast or zombine though.

 

[kineaesth]

What if maybe the different Zombie types don't get along with each other? They're not exactly very sociable creatures, so maybe they'd kill each other. Just an idea...

 

[Iron_cube]

Because of gameplay mechanics.

You wont ever see a poison zombie with combine soldiers shooting at you (even from far away) for obvious reasons.

Same with pz and fz.

 

[nokori3byo]

Good point, Riomhaire. Valve are so conscientious about keeping gameplay fun, they probably kept those two zombie types apart. I still think having them together in at least one scene would make for a pleasinlgy frenetic challenge.

Also, I guess it is possible to get fasties and poisons involved in the same fight in Ravenholm, if you A) don't kill the two posions that spawn after you climb the cardboard boxes and B) deliberately jump off the rooftops where the fasties spawn after you cross over the platform, then circle back to where the poisons had been.

 

[soulslicer]

I still rremember getting killed in the shack in hl2 in the coast with the poison zombie, after I was reduced to one health and was atttked by a headcrab

 

[nokori3byo]

Because of gameplay mechanics.

You wont ever see a poison zombie with combine soldiers shooting at you (even from far away) for obvious reasons.

Same with pz and fz.

Well, there were poison headcrabs in the imfamous Barney/sniper sequence in FF. And I think they were there specifically to make you more vulnerable to sniper fire. No poison zombies though...

 

[nokori3byo]

I don't think there were ever poison zombies in the same place as fast or zombine though.

Zombines and poisons do appear together in the hospital standoff sequence in Urban Flight (after the electrified water area, but before the sentry gun/hallway area). The poison starts off outside the room but it's possible for him to enter if he lives long enough--and the headcrabs attacking you are from his brood.

 

[Asknoone]

As people said, it's all about gameplay. You couldn't really put them together, I don't think.

 

[Apocalypse89]

Poisons and fasties are in the same area when you go the "wrong side of town"(the place with the broken rotor blade trap) in Ravenholm

 

[leib10]

There were normal Zombies there too.

 

[Polaris]

 

[Iron_cube]

Well, there were poison headcrabs in the imfamous Barney/sniper sequence in FF. And I think they were there specifically to make you more vulnerable to sniper fire. No poison zombies though...

Normal soldiers troops shoot rapidly and can hit you from far away (even if its no real threat). Yet it would frustrate the player if one bullet hit him while he just got bitten by a poison headcrab.

The snipers part is balanced and if you get bitten and shot, its your own fault for not taking the hidden bastards down.

 

[Headcrab Pie]

Mabey, instead of Valve making it like that, it just happened to be that.

 

[Iron_cube]

Nah, valve spends at least a whole week designing a map. Everything is planned.

 

[soulslicer]

I would say it would be much longer than that. If it was a week a map, that would be 10 maps (10 weeks for ep1..) impossible.

 

[leib10]

Well, there were poison headcrabs in the imfamous Barney/sniper sequence in FF. And I think they were there specifically to make you more vulnerable to sniper fire. No poison zombies though...

That's exactly why they were there. Poison Headcrabs by themselves are not dangerous at all since they technically can't kill you.

 

[nokori3byo]

Fair enough, but I'm pretty sure you have to backtrack to make that scenario happen like that. Isn't that fastie one of the ones that spawn on the rooftops after you've crossed the platform?

EDIT: Oh shit! It just occurred to me that there is, in fact, a scene in which fasties and poisons are on the screen at the same time: right after you ascend the boxes in the "wrong part of town" segment, a single fastie spawns and attacks from above you and two lurkers spawn in the area behind you. I take it back. (The original point about all 4 zombie types not being involved in a single fight stands--but that can be explained partly by the scarcity of lurkers in Ep. 1)

 

[Cheomesh]

What are these Lurkers you speak of?


And I always figured it was for gameplay reasons, with the "storyline" reason of poor social interaction. I mean the combine created the fast and poison types, so they're likely to not get along well with any others because they may not be "natural" to the others.

 

[nokori3byo]

What are these Lurkers you speak of?

Poison zombies (also sometimes called "hulkers").

 

[QuantumFireball]

Taken from Raising the Bar;

The Black Poison Headcrab is actually from an experiment that was made during Half-Life 1 that we brought back and finished for Half-Life 2. The idea is pretty simple: it doesn't actually kill you when it attacks, it just leaves you with one point of health, no matter what. Black Headcrabs were a great tool for adding panic into an encounter. Once players had learned the distinctive sound of the poisonous crabs and knew the implications, they would spin around desperatly looking for the creature regardless of their other foes. The mere presence of the threat thus made the other monsters in the scene more threatening and interesting" - Tom Leonard

So yeah, for obvious game play mechanics they did not add poison headcrabs with fast zombies... because that would be a little too panicky.

 

[Link]

Although it didn't happen in game, I think the poison headcrap sound followed by the fast zombie roar would probobly be a more effective blood freezing even than anything in doom.

I'm usually fairly calm playing games, even the fast zombies are a case of, take out shotty and wait till they get close, no sweat. But those poison headcrabs, espesially with the lurkers were very "ARGHHHH, SPRAY THE ROOM". Very dificult to look cool when you've just killed three walls and the floor whilst screming and then died anyway.

 

[ríomhaire]

Hehe. I know what you mean Link, every time I hear a hiss in HL2 and EP1 I start sprinting around the room looking for the headcrab before it poisons me.

 

[Narvi]

I got over that when I realized I could sidestep the headcrab lunge.

You couldn't do that in HL1. Little ****ers were rocket-powered gasbags in that one.

 

[Azner]

IN a poker room?

 

[Darkside55]

I got over that when I realized I could sidestep the headcrab lunge.

You couldn't do that in HL1. Little ****ers were rocket-powered gasbags in that one.

You could do that in HL1...that was my preferred method of disposing them. Wait 'til it jumps, sidestep, run up behind it and CRACK!

 

[Narvi]

You could do that in HL1...that was my preferred method of disposing them. Wait 'til it jumps, sidestep, run up behind it and CRACK!

It was harder. Humping bastards weren't physically simulated, so it wasn't exactly intuitive.

 

[nokori3byo]

My new favourite thing about fast zombies

OK, so this is only tangentially realted to the topic, but I thought I'd sneak it in here rather than starting a new thread.

Lately I've been admiring the manner in which fasties react to being grav-gunned with heavy objects. A lot of players probably avoid using the grav-gun to despatch these guys because their nimbleness can make them hard to hit. But if you pull it off, you'll get to see ragdoll phyiscs at its most entertaining:

Look, it's David Lee Roth: And Pele:

The first of these actually did a double summersault and landed behind me, which was awesome (if a little questionable, physics-wise).

 

[Omega11]

Umm. . . Does anyone remember the scene where you climb up to those red roofs, at which point, you walk some planks and come to a little sort of ledge on a building?

Because this is what I remember being there;
-Rz
-Pz
and
-Fz

=S

I was up on the ledge, and I could easily avoid the Regular Zombies, but Poison Zombies were flinging poison headcrabs at me, at the same time, a Fast Zombie jumped to the ledge, and. . . well the screen went red XD

That's the ONLY scene I can remember with Poison Zombies and Fast Zombies together, albeit, there is one scene where they are really close.

When you're on that roof, and the storm drains start shaking, so you can walk back and close the door, and Fast Zombies pop in through sky lights. Once they're dead, you can go down the elevator, to find a Poison Zombie by a car.

 

[-Psy-]

You could put them together but gameplay-wise that would be like mixing butter with shit and calling it a piece of cake.