Rickety Cricket

^ This is excellent. Makes training more difficult yet doesn't eradicate it completely. I especially like the part about the special zombies being more frequently integrated into the normal hordes. The whole having things unlock in higher rounds is a stellar idea. It would give you more motivation to survive and give you something to look forward to and work for in later rounds thus keeping the game fresh. I'm loving everything you're saying here man!

I wrote something in the Asylum about the British Industrialization and how we may end up in a mine or mineshaft in the future. I predicted that the mine would actually be in Britain because that's where the last Watt's Steam Engine that I talked about in my post was located. So I was right about the whole mine thing but was off on the actual location. Still, I'm pretty proud that I did that much.

Here's the thread for those who are interested:

http://www.callofdutyzombies.com/forum/index.php/topic/153206-could-britain-be-our-next-stop/

Like it or not training is huge in zombies. Whereas I may not like it, I still acknowledge that fact. I like the idea of having two separate difficulties or settings. Well three actually, assuming that Easy mode would still be there. You could have Easy, Classic (which would just be exactly what it is now) and Hard. In hard mode you'll see the smarter AI. It would also be cool to see something like you mentioned where the health caps off. Say the health caps off at 20, then after that you'll start to see the more advanced AI changes. Either way I want to see something different and face a new challenge. I'm glad you guys were able to give your input!

So while zombies is out of season, I decided to give Ghosts a try. I wasn't too impressed with the campaign and multiplayer didn't interest me. Extinction however, is a different story. I played it a few times and wasn't very good but as I kept going and going I started to absolutely love it. It has that zombies survival feel with a mix of interesting challenges and objectives that keeps the game from getting boring and repetitive. Playing all of this Extinction made me think an awful lot about zombies and how what Extinction is doing right could easily work in zombies. So I'd like to break down a few things I think zombies could learn from Extinction.

AI:

The first thing I tried to figure out with Extinction is how can I manipulate the AI to survive. I quickly learned that you almost can't. I was actually incredibly pleased to discover this. I was always one of the few that was 100% against running trains in zombies. I always found it to be a ***** and easy way to win. Not to mention that it was boring as hell and it made bad and rude players think they were walking gods because they could achieve high rounds in solo. If you try running away the scouts will catch you. You try camping, the scorpions and seekers obliterate you. The only way to survive is with good team work and smart tactics. They could look at how the aliens act and have the zombies do some of the same things. Have the zombies lunge at you from a distance and slow you down, zombies that can actually run faster than you and zombies that can tell where you're going to move and can cut you off or keep you from going anywhere. If zombies were to implement an AI that was as smart as the Extinction AI not only would the game be a nice new challenge for new and old players, it would mean that players would be more inclined to work together and play smarter because alone, they wouldn't stand a chance. I feel like that's what zombies should be about, working together with your team to survive and discover the mysteries behind the game.

Special enemies:

I've always like games that include special enemies. Games like Left 4 Dead, Gears of War and many others did a great job implementing special enemies. I feel Extinction also did a great job of this, not so much in zombies. In Extinction there are a great variety of special enemies that can redirect your focus and change how you're playing in seconds. It keeps you on your toes and keeps the whole experience interesting. The specials in zombies didn't really do that, they just sort of annoyed players and could be handled pretty easily. Take the Panzer from Origins for example. It's not a constant threat, you know when it's coming and if anyone on the team has at least a Ray Gun of PaP weapon it can be dealt with in a matter of seconds and won't be seen again for a few more rounds. Once the Panzer is gone you just go right back to what you were doing before. They tried to amp it up by sending more than one in later rounds but that just turns a 30 second chore into a 60 second one. Same with Brutus in MotD, he spawns, you kill him and that's it. The threat is gone in seconds and everything goes back to the way it was before. The threat is always there in Extinction. The scorpions don't just disappear after death, more and more come and they never stop. I'd like to see some more challenging specials in zombies, one's that offer a constant threat that if not handled alongside the regular hordes, could very easily be your demise.

Ranking System:

Some people think that the ranking system is zombies isn't very good. I am one of those people. I hate the zombies ranking system. I like the idea of having a ranking system in zombies so you have an idea of how experienced a player is and how much time they've spent on the game. But having a ranking system based on stats is a horrible idea in zombies in particular because it can be easily manipulated and isn't always a good representation of a players knowledge. I've ran into a lot of high ranked zombies players who are clueless and refuse to do anything other than train in order to keep that rank. The Extinction ranking system i think is the best way to handle a ranking system in a game mode like Extinction and zombies. You gain experience as you play and get rewarded for doing well and playing as a team. I hated how everything was all secret with the ranking system, the whole mystery thing is really cool in the story but let's keep that there. There was absolutely no need to keep how the ranking system worked a secret. In the end all it did was frustrate players and by the time I figured it out it was way too late to dig myself out of the hole. I really preferred the stat tracking in Extinction too, it was detailed and layed out much better than zombies stats were.

My idea for a zombies ranking system and stat tracking:

As you play you gain experience and the better you do the more experience you gain and once the match ends you get that experience. However training and kill farming could be used to gain rank which is why other factors and requirements could stop that. For example, say you're a level 10, in order to reach 11 you need to complete a challenge. Such as complete a a game without using perks and complete a minimum of 15 rounds or something like that. I'd like to see prestiges too, but requirements for prestiging would require much more, like completing an Easter Egg or something of that nature. That way the players who do invest a lot of time, try and use teamwork will hold that high rank that they deserve and you can have a broad range of ranks as opposed to just five. With a more broad number based ranking system it's much easier to identify the type of player in your game. As I mentioned before I would like to see a more detailed stat tracking system, I think being able to see stats you have with a particular gun would be nice too.

Those are my big three things that I think Extinction did great and would work in zombies without completely revamping the whole game. Keep in mind that these are just my opinions, if you agree or disagree please reply, I want to know what everyone else thinks. Thanks!

The new game modes sounded fun and were for awhile but they got boring way too quick. They were poorly executed. I honestly believe that there is potential in alternate and competitive game modes in zombies, it just has to be done right. I'd be lying if I were to I didn't lose sleep staying up thinking of cool ideas for alternate game modes.

I enjoyed all of the maps. Yes motd and origins were 'better' looking, but my favorite map is still die rise.

I completely agree. Die Rise's layout and how it played was great but was incredibly uncreative in terms of how it looked. Mob and Origins looked scary and really detailed and Die Rise, as well as TranZit and Buried, looked really boring.

Hello, name's Rickety Cricket.

I've been on the site for almost two years, I'm glad to see that it's back! I just thought I'd post an intro for anyone new and for those who might remember me. I used browse these forums everyday and post occasionally and now that I'm in college and have a ridiculous amount of free time, I'll be here a lot more and I'll definitely be playing zombies way more too. So add me if you're down to play! I'm also working on some zombies fan fiction that I'm really excited to share with everyone here on the site.

See you around,

Rickety Cricket

doesn't sam say, "there are worse things in here than you richtofen". so there must be something in the mpd before she gets herself in, how old is the mpd? older then the zombies? when did these worse things get in? how much influence did they have over the zombies? so many questions,..

perhaps the eye colour has something to do with the controllers intentions or emotions? red devil pure evil, yellow sam neutral messed up feelings? blue richtofen um,.. playfull, mischievious,? richtofen does seem to be the only one having fun! lol. haven't seen maxis take control yet but orange mix of yellow neutral messed up feelings and red evil, find my daughter kill everyone,..

so these new zombies, if influenced by whatever is in the mpd BEFORE sam arrives, could have neutral intentions-emotions, the glowing eye colour could just suggest that there is in fact some form of influence or controller of some sort, I mean the eyes are glowing when there dead, something has to make the eyes glow,..

so new announcer maybe? and more questions, hopefully this final dlc brings a lot of answers,..

This honestly makes a lot of sense.

The return of the original four without a legitimate reason or proper closure on the new four.

I wouldn't mind that at all... We could see the N4 in the next game, and the O4 could be back because they're in an area the N4 can't access...

Trust me people complained so much about the N4 that chances are high that we'll never see them again, which is a shame because I really liked them and they had huge potential to be really interesting characters. People didn't give them a chance, when the O4 and EEs were first implemented I knew tons of people who hated it and complained all the time, now look, they turned out to be awesome.

The return of the original four without a legitimate reason or proper closure on the new four.

Well.... Remeber, the Assension Easter egg had nothing to do with the moon easter egg, and so, it's possible that this Easter egg has nothing to do with the next map at all....

But I like the idea of the "ultimate evil" taking over, that seems like a good turn, and may even force richtofen and maxis to team up.... And I get one step closer to hearing skillet's "hero" duo sung by ax7 and Sigman in an epic display of samanthia and richtofen killing zombies...

But I feel the actual mobster's story is done... Just like the COTD crew's story was finished after their map...

Oh! Maybe you can play as a Dead ops arcade 2 version of the MOTD crew! Or even the tranzit crew! That would be sweet!

Where if you did the good ending you play as the MOTD crew, but the bad ending will leave you to play as another group of people.... Possibly just random soldiers....

In Ascension you recovered the Kashmir mechanism with was used to charge the V device on Moon, so it's EE was important to the story and the Moon EE. However I do agree in that the MotD crew's story is finished It would be cool to find out what happened to Weasel after what happened in MotD but chances are that we'll never see them again.

Flamethrower without a doubt. So many good times...

I'm a huge BioShock fan and Infinte was absolutely incredible. Even though the setting and characters were completely new, it still felt like a BioShock game. I enjoyed the combat and story much more than the previous two but I liked the weapons and the upgrade system from the previous games a lot more but that wasn't a really big deal to me because the immense story and creative combat made it just as good if not better than the previous titles.

The ending was friggin' brilliant, it totally blew my mind. But they hit us with that Inception ending, did Elizibeth/Anna vanish from existence just like the others or did she remain there? I personally think she didn't die out because after the credits Booker goes into her room and she's there so maybe our Elizibeth was one from a universe where Booker didn't give Anna away, a perfect universe if you will

Wasn't Der Riese the place that Richtofen, Maxis, and all of Group 935 do their experiments?

Yes it was.

There's also a cure in the begining of Turned too remember? I defintely think there's more to the VR-11 that is to be discovered.

I'm not new but I never got around to actually making one of these but now I think it's appropriate since I'm posting and participating on the site much more than I used to be. Anyway, name's Rickety Cricket and if you watch or have seen Sunny in Philadelphia you may notice that my user name comes from one of the characters in the show. I'm a big fan of the show and this was alias when I played Garry's Mod so I figured I'd just use it universally for everything I do on the internet. I'm a big Zombies fan, obviously, but I'm also a huge fan of other series like BioShock, Dead Space, Halo, Borderlands and the list goes on. I also live in Iowa, and no I don't live on a farm. If you're ever down to play some zombies or anything else just hit me up, my gamertag is loacted on the right.

The TranZit navcard does actually work on the Die Rise table. And if your refering to Microsoft points when you say MS points, thats probably not what Jimmy is refering to when he says points, CoD doesn't do microtransactions. Plus having to use real cash to unlock parts of the map would just alienate the entire fan base. However I think these navcards could very possibly open new parts of the map or alter it in some way. I wish we just had more info on them. Oh and welcome to the site! :D

Oh my god, that glitch is so friggin' annoying. I was playing once and my buddy and I went straight for bowie and after I got it we knifed through the Jumping Jack round and I got Who's Who. The following round I went down and I got revived only to find that it glitched and I couldn't knife and the bowie was all I had. I intentionally jumped off the building to my death, spewing vulgarities on my way down.

Based on "Coming Home" I'm assuming that we'll see a return to Germany at some point. You should defintely expand on this because I think there's a lot to be discovered. As for the original four, I would be alright if we never saw them again. Please don't hate me.

I can't believe I've never noticed all the clues. Great work bringing this to the light!

I wrote a theory about coal mining in Britain during the industrial revolution and I think i've figured out what the thing is in the corner of the Die Rise loading screen. As for the game over sound, I think the crashing sounds too light to be prison bars. Going along with my theory about mining, I think it could possibly be the sound of a mineshaft elevator/cab slamming.

viewtopic.php?f=103&t=29310

Yeah, I've been saying that is a mine cart wheel for some time now.

While it is possible that it is a minecart wheel, it is rather unlikely. Most minecart wheels don't have thick spokes or at least they didn't during Britain's industrial revolution. Most minecart wheels were a large solid circle with a smaller and thicker circle on top of them so the cart could ride on rails. What you see in the loading screen is far too thin to be a minecart wheel. Not to mention the circle object appears to be attached to something else and what it looks attached to doesn't look like a cart.

I'm calling it now. That. Is. Not. A. Film. Reel. It is a water (or maybe another liquid) valve on a rusty metal pipe. I honestly can't see how anyone would ever see that as a film reel. This seems to point toward the next map being underground. We may see Paris (Dieffel Tower ) as a map. I can imagine the Eiffel Tower in the top left, swarming with figures underneath. Bottom left corner a Picture of a hatch, leading into the catacombs. Top right an old tunnel with bones on the walls, bottom right a close up of a skull with blue eyes...

Good Call Out. I saw (and still see) a mine cart wheel and we'll be playing under ground in a coal mining area.. Not really sure where

I absolutely agree. If this is the case then I believe it will be in Britain, northern Britain more precisely. Read my thread on Britian's Industrial Revolution I explain why.

viewtopic.php?f=103&t=29310

I think I might have a clue as to what it is. I wrote and posted my theory in the Asylum section though.

viewtopic.php?f=103&t=29310

Could Great Britain be the a future DLC map? Based on evidence I've seen and things I've read I believe so. But to first understand why, you'll need to read up a little bit about Britain's Industrial Revolution.

Pre-revolution

Prior to Britain's industrial revolution, the country had been known for having and distributing the highest quality coal in Europe. They also mined 5/6 of the coal in the world during that time. Coal, being a valuable resource, made Britain very rich. Money is almost necessary when trying to revolutionize. Alongside that Britain had everything they needed in order to begin their industrial revolution, they had a stable and peaceful country, great trading agreements and a free market. Now Britian's industrial revolution had already technically begun but it wasn't until the 1780s that things really began to take off and dramatic changes began to take place.

The Industrial Revolution accelerates

So the Industrial revolution begins to get serious at about the early 1780s. The way things were done and the way things were made really changed. Things were no longer done by hand but by machine thanks to the new inventions that had been developed. However in order to run these machines, coal was needed (I'll expand in the next section). Britain had already acquired a great deal of coal by this time but it would need more in order to power the machines and still make a profit from selling and trading. Britain found that a massive amount cof coal was located in the northern part of the country so they began to mine there and where there is mining to be done there are going to have to be workers in order to do it. So people began to flock to the northern part of Britain becuase that's where the jobs were and since there were more people, the north began to urbanise very quickly. Facilities were also based in north to cut out transportation expenses aswell. With that said, mining itself was no safe job by any means.

The Demand for Coal and the Watt Steam Engine

With an industrial revolution going on it was no surprise that there was a massive demand for coal in Britain. One machine in particular was a real game changer during the industrial revolution, The Watt Steam Engine. Developed by James Watt this engine was an improvment on the already working Newcomen engine. This modified engine was much more fuel efficient and required a lot less coal to operate. This engine was perfect for powering the machinery that was being used and developed during this time period. Factory owners loved it, a more effiecent engine that costs less and because of how cheap it was to power these machines factories began to operate more machines at once and make more product and in turn more profit. And since it's cheaper to run a machine than pay a worker, factories everywhere were doing it and because of that there were more steam engines and because there were more steam engines there needed to be more coal.

Mining conditions

Everyday people both men and women and even children risked their lives mining. The shafts were dark, cramped and the air was filled with black soot which could easily result in a disease called black lung. The work itself was hard aswell, for hours you either spend your day smashing rocks or pushing carts. Death in the mine was far from uncommon and death had many names down there. Here's a short list of the most common accidents that resulted in deaths in the mine:

- Crushing

- Suffocation

- Exhaustion

- Starvation/Dehydration

- Disease

- Falling down shafts

- Explosions

- Poison gas (Seriously)

About 4000 miners died each year from mining related accidents. 4000 a year during a revolution that lasted 70 years. Work got even harder and the death toll got even higher once the Watt Steam Engine began to get popular in factories. Workers had to get more and more coal as years went on so the mines had to get deeper and deeper thus making the job even more dangerous. So you could say the Watt Steam Engine was inadvertently responsible for the death of thousands of miners.

Die Rise loading screen and Jimmy Z's Twitter

This is the bottom corner of the Die Rise loading screen.

Now I believe that what that truly is in the corner is no more than a Watt Steam Engine, or at least a part of it.

If you look on Jimmy Z's twitter in his bio he has a link to the Watt Steam Engine wiki page. I believe he put that there in order to steer us in the right direction to figuring out what's next.

Clues in the Zombies storyline

There are also a few clues I've noticed in previous maps that support my theory.

The first of which being the teleporters in Der Riese. Each teleporter had a sign next to it. They read "FRA" for France, "GER" for Germany and "ENG" for England.

Germany is an obvious location because it was the home base for 935. France was a location probably so 935 could have access to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, what they wanted with it, we don't know yet but we know they needed it for something. The last teleporter was England. It's been very vague as to what 935 needed in England. Is it possible that 935 was aware of the large 115 mine in England and planned on using the teleporters to access it? It makes sense I mean in order to mass produce the WunderWaffe DG-2 and continue to tests at Der Riese and other locations they would need a large ammount of 115.

Another clue I noticed was that if those miners did find 115 in the mines, then it wouldn't be the first time. Remember Shangri-La? There was a fairly large ammount for 115 being mined there too. Who's to say there isn't a massive ammount of it deep underground in Britain?

This is my first actually theory I've written myself, please leave feedback and add on if you wish to do so. Thanks!