Zombie Fortress 1.0.0 Released

I’d like to thank Nirolak Draal, Broken:Tripod-Turret, Spoit, DualEdge and the rest of the Penny-Arcade community members for their help.

Have suggestions, criticisms or questions? Please e-mail me at zf.feedback@gmail.com.

Zombie Fortress is a SourceMod plugin that brings the zombie survival genre to Team Fortress 2. The survivors (RED) must fight back a horde of zombies (BLU) and survive an allotted amount of time before they are all killed and turned. Zombie Fortress is specifically designed to be compatible with a normal map rotation. Maps that are specifically designed for Zombie Fortress will automatically activate the plugin and deactivate it at the map’s end.


FEATURES:
- Adds a brand new gametype to Team Fortress 2.
- Two unique sides to play as. The survivors are well armed but once killed are permanently turned into undead. The melee zombies with a quick spawn time use sheer numbers and focus fire to overwhelm the survivors.
- A fair and reliable auto-balance system to ensure all players have equal opportunity to play zombies and survivors.
- Extremely quick rounds compared to other zombie survival games. A round will at most last approximately 5 to 8 minutes.
- Extensive help system to introduce new players.
- Almost all classes have been modified in some way, adding variety to a server.

BASICS:
At the beginning of the round, the teams are shuffled in such a manner that 2 thirds of the players are survivors and the remaining third are zombies. Each team has classes assigned to them and they can only be that class.

The survivors (pyro, soldier, demoman, engineer, sniper, spy and medic) must prevent the zombies from capturing the control points while at the same time avoiding being killed in the process. If a survivor is killed, they join the zombie team immediately. The biggest issue the survivors face is running out of ammo, especially since the maps have very little ammo around the control points.

The zombies (scout and heavy) need to either kill all the survivors or capture all the control points to win. Unlike the survivors, the zombies are only armed with melee attacks with the exception of the heavy’s sandvitch. Group efforts to take out important targets is crucial as a lone zombie will often lose to a group of survivors. All zombies have minor health regeneration.

MEET THE SURVIVORS:
PYRO [Assault]: Cannot use the axetingusher. The pyro is the frontline defense against scouts and with assistance, deal with heavies. A pyro is often within melee reach and can be killed with a single heavy critical punch, so beware.

SOLDIER [Assualt] Starts with double rocket ammo, this ammo returns to normal limits once the excess is depleted. Increases speed, same as demoman. The soldier with his high health is a great at stopping waves of zombies from overwhelming the survivors. However, he is not as great against single targets.

DEMOMAN [Assualt] Starts with double grenade ammo, this ammo returns to normal limits once the excess is depleted. Fills the same role as the soldier but accomplishes the task differently.

ENGINEER [Support]: Cannot use the shotgun. Sentry only lasts 22 seconds and cannot be repaired/upgraded/refilled. Dispensers do not resupply and instead used as barricades. Sentries with their knockback are great for warding off zombies but require a large amount of metal to maintain.

SNIPER [Support]: Whenever the sniper kills a zombie, he regains 50 health, 5 rifle rounds and 25 SMG rounds. The sniper, alongside the spy are resource efficient ways to kill zombie heavies which normally drain a lot of the survivor’s ammunition.

SPY [Support]: Cannot use the sapper. Can cloak for 33 seconds and can attack immediately after decloaking. Fulfills the same the role as the sniper but more efficiently. However, the spy is a melee class and can easily be killed.

MEDIC [Support]: The medigun’s overheal is capped at 125% and last indefinitely. Fulfills the same the role as the sniper but more efficiently. One of the key players in the survivor’s defense and expect them to be targets of the zombies quite often.

MEET THE ZOMBIES:
SCOUT: Melee only. Quick and deadly with the bat, the scout is most suited to killing the support classes. Whenever a scout is killed, he drops his bat which restores 100 ammo when picked up a survivor. If you intend on trying to drain the survivor’s resources or want to kill a pyro, go heavy.

HEAVY: Increased movement speed. Melee and sandvitch only. The heavy is the siege weapon of the zombie team. He can take out most classes with one critical punch and can soak up a lot of damage due to his 300 health. A heavy zombie normally drops nothing upon death unless the sandvitch is equipped, which is dropped to be a health pickup to be used by either team. The heavy due to his slow speed is not suitable at taking out support classes alone.

FOR MAPPERS:
You really need to be aware of three things. First of all, all maps designed for zombie fortress must start with zf_ to be automatically flagged by the plugin as a ZF compatible map. Secondly, remember that the survivors need to be strained for resources. Otherwise they will always defeat zombies with their superior fire power. Lastly, the teams must not switch at the end of the round.

OTHER CREDITS:
While I never personally thanked or asked… bl4nk’s Sudden Death Melee plugin was what got me started in making this plugin. SourceMod and its SourcePawn language is not that easy to dive into given its unique tendencies and it helped me out a lot into developing my own plugin.