Hey everyone,

Ever since we added the ability to control the civs to the new version of Class 3 Outbreak (way back in May 2011!), there’s been no actual goal to the game. All you could really do was try to hold out as long as possible, or make up your own goal. Even if you killed all of the zombies, nothing would happen. And when you died, the screen would just fade out, without even as much as an “oops you’re dead” :)

The last two updates for Class 3 Outbreak (editable infection settings and map start position) have been about how the game begins. Now that they are done, I’d like to start focusing on what you actually do in the game.

So as I’ve mentioned a few times, the next update I’m planning for Class 3 Outbreak is to allow the map’s author to choose an objective for their map.

This is a very open-ended task, as there are lots of possibilities for a map’s objectives. So I’m planning to implement this gradually – I’ll start with a few simple objectives, and then add more over time. After a while I may take a break to work on some other features, then come back to adding additional objectives later.

So before I start on this I’d like to know: What kind of objectives would you like to see? What would you like to add to your own maps, or like to play in other people’s maps? Of those, which ones would you like the most? This will allow me to work out which objectives I should work on first – based on a combination of how popular they are, and how quickly I can implement them.

Some possible ideas to start with:

• Kill all the zombies
• Stay alive for X minutes
• Get to location X
• Find person X
• …?

Initially I will make it so that each map has a single objective, but in the future I’d like to make it possible to chain together objectives, like get to location X, then location Y, then location Z, or find person X and then get to location Y.

Also, do you have any specific thoughts on how you’d like these objectives to work?

For example does “stay alive for X minutes” mean you need to keep all three of your initial survivors alive, or just you, or any named civ under your control?

Does “get to location X” mean get to a selected building, or get to within N pixels of a selected point, and does your whole group need to get there, or just one?

To “find person X”, should person X be at a random location on the map, or in a predefined location, should they be stuck to the ground so they can’t walk away, should they be in a building, should the building’s doors be locked, what happens if they’re already a zombie by the time you find them?

To “kill all the zombies” do you need to wait for all of the infected to turn, as well?

Finally, do you think the default objective (if the map author doesn’t choose one) should be “kill all the zombies”, or something else?

Let me know your thoughts on the forum, or in the comments below!

Thanks :)

cya,
Saxon