The basic idea of the Zombie Panic is to create solid game play that is based on a classic zombie outbreak scenario. The living dead are coming for the last remaining humans, and these survivors must fight them off and live through the day.

The game works like this:

Everyone joins a server, in the beginning you can either choose to join the human team or you can volunteer to be the first zombie. If no one volunteers the game will pick one human randomly and the game begins. The starter zombie's goal is to, of course kill the humans while the human goal is to stay alive as long as possible, complete objectives, or even wipe out all the zombies. The catch is that when a human is slayed he will simply join the ranks of the undead, now ready to finish off his old living teammates. The humans can't tell by the player list who’s alive and who’s not, eventually there will only be one survivor still standing if all goes wrong, facing all the zombies which use to be allies, with his back to a wall. The zombies only have a certain number of reinforcements (lives), when a zombie is killed they lose 1 life from the counter. However, when a human is killed they gain 1 life. If the zombies only have 1 respawn left the humans can win the round by killing off the remaining undead left on the map.

Human abilities and advantages:

  • Speed - A zombie can only run at about 80% of the top speed of a human player. Though, the more weaponry and ammo a human picks up, the more it will slow him down, making him an easy target for the undead. If carrying nothing a human can easily outrun a zombie. Watch out so you don't get cornered...
  • Weapons - The humans will have a wide selection of different weapons to use for defending themselves, like firearms, explosives and melee weapons. It is essential for humans to locate weapons and ammo around the map in order to survive, since you only spawn with a random melee weapon and handgun scavenging is a must. Remember that your inventory is limited and hogging weapons will slow you down, so sharing with your teammates is a must which also promotes teamwork.
  • Numbers - At the beginning of the round, there is only one zombie (depends on the amount of players) and everyone else is a Survivor. This means that they can easily watch each others backs and provide cover fire. However, once their ammo starts to run dry and they begin to squabble amongst themselves for the few precious clips of ammo available...
  • Communication - Instead of typing messages to each other (occupying busy hands), which can be really dangerous when the zombies are lurking in the shadows, the humans will have the ability to communicate by voice commands. There will be a menu with several commands that can help the humans to organize a defense, trade ammunition and request help.

Zombie abilities and advantages:

  • Regeneration – Zombies will over time regenerate hit points making it more difficult for survivors to make dead the undead.
  • Carrier - The first Zombie of the round differ a lot from the other undead, he looks different, sounds different and have abilities that the average zombie can only dream of. He is the Carrier! With the power to infect people (10% infection chance per hit by default) he will cause panic and paranoia amongst the living.
  • Persistence - Zombies may seem to die often, but they won't give up. They just keep re-spawning over and over until your pistol runs out of bullets, your back is to the wall, and there is no escape.
  • Numbers - Later on in the game, as the undead ranks swell with the freshly dead, the last few humans will find their superior weaponry small compensation for the hordes of zombies that close in.
  • Zombie Vision - With the zombies not being able to use a flashlight, we have given them the ability to use Zombie Vision. Z-vision works in a way that it brightens up any possible light source in a room to make it more viewable. More importantly, humans that keep active will slowly begin to glow red making it easier for a zombie to track their prey. To prevent games of hide and seek a survivor over a period of time of sitting still will also start to glow red by fear of the unknown.

We want the mod to feel creepy and give you a sense of desperation, and yet not take itself so seriously that you can't laugh at the way you got slayed. Overall fun and playability is the priority, where is realism and horror while important are just a bonus when possible. We want a mod that you can easily play with any number of people, even with small numbers or uneven numbers. Plus, there's a certain sense of satisfaction in tearing apart those heartless survivors who failed to protect you while you were alive, limb from limb.

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Updated Waitress player model ZPS v2.0 Halloween Media ZPS v2.0 Halloween Media
Blog RSS Feed Report abuse Latest News: On The Future Of Panic

21 comments by OkeiDo on Nov 15th, 2009 digg this super bookmark


As you might know, Tatsur0 and Frikazoyd have taken a step back and passed on the torch to a new team of coordinators, Dr.Robot and Daan. Tatsur0 is still around to oversee and help out, but giving us a lot of freedom on the road ahead.

What remains is still a close knit team. We are all passionate gamers, participating actively in the community and love the style and uniqueness of Zombie Panic.

The last few weeks have been pretty hectic. Doc and I have been busy organizing our development team, getting tutored by Tats and Frika, rereading player/PT/dev suggestions up to a year back, drawing up plans for the future, and setting things in motion.

While new coordinators means a new direction we intend to stay true to the game Tats and Frika brought us, and give ZPS the continuity it deserves.

Right now we are working hard on the next patch which will focus on long standing peeves/bugs and overall polish. On the long term we want to make zombie panic a smoother, more accessible game, and bring you innovations designed to reinforce Zombie Panic's unique flavor.


We want to involve the community more in the future of Zombie Panic, so make yourself heard! Please stop by the forums and post your ideas, pet peeves, bugs, etc.

- Dr Robot and Daan
ZP Development Team

Media RSS Feed Latest Video
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ZPS - Horde

ZPS - Horde

Oct 17, 2009 Music 1 comment

New Zombie Panic: Source ambient track "Horde" - By KillahMo

ZPS - Barricade System

ZPS - Barricade System

Jan 28, 2009 Movies 0 comments

Zombie Panic: Source v1.5 will introduce the ZPS Barricade System. Here is a short preview of it in action. (Note: The HUD display is not visible in the...

ZPS - Descent

ZPS - Descent

Jan 28, 2009 Music 0 comments

New Zombie Panic: Source ambient track "Descent" - By KillahMo

ZPS - Zombie Panic Theme Song

ZPS - Zombie Panic Theme Song

Jan 18, 2009 Music 1 comment

The Official Zombie Panic Theme Song. First created for HL:Zombie Panic and completely updated for Zombie Panic: Source.

New Hands and Weapon Animations - Sample #1

New Hands and Weapon Animations - Sample #1

Jan 16, 2009 Movies 0 comments

Presenting the new Hand sets and animations for Zombie Panic: Source.

New Hands and Weapon Animations - Sample #2

New Hands and Weapon Animations - Sample #2

Jan 16, 2009 Movies 0 comments

Presenting the new Hand sets and animations for Zombie Panic: Source.

Comments  (0 - 10 of 2,595)
Mkilbride
Mkilbride Nov 17 2009, 11:12pm says:

Haven't played in like a year, so I decided to download it again. I have a GTX280 now, replaced my old GeForce 8800 GT, and I am using the new 191.07 Drivers on Windows 7 64-bit.

All Source games(L4D, CS:S, DOD, Zeno Clash, ectera, work fine)
All other games work great, great performance, no issues.

Oddly enough, it seems Orange Box mods are giving me odd and jerky framerates, or just not starting up. Mods like NeoTokyo and Dear Esther work just fine, though.

I guess I could revert my drivers back to some older ones which worked fine - but the performance loss(in other games), as well as new features loss would be devastating for just some mods.

Any idea what I should do? Thanks.

+1 vote     reply to comment
wazanator
wazanator Nov 18 2009, 9:46pm replied:

Try posting your problem in the tech section of the ZPS forums I'm sure someone can help you :D

+2 votes     reply to comment
Mkilbride
Mkilbride Nov 18 2009, 11:09pm replied:

Mm, probably not. I've been Googling it alot and reverting really is the only way. I'll wait for some newer NVIDIA drivers.

+1 vote     reply to comment
tfcrash
tfcrash Nov 17 2009, 8:51pm says:

Steam link just crashes my firefox so until its fixed or another link I wont be playing it.

0 votes     reply to comment
OkeiDo
OkeiDo Nov 17 2009, 11:01pm replied:

Try using IE. Or Start up your Steam, got to Steam store and search for "Zombie panic source".

+1 vote     reply to comment
bLiN_de
bLiN_de Nov 16 2009, 8:50pm says:

I am a huge fan of ZP:S. I play it on my free time :D

+2 votes     reply to comment
ice445
ice445 Nov 16 2009, 10:19am says:

Good mod, but there are many bugs and hit detection isn't that great.

+1 vote     reply to comment
OkeiDo
OkeiDo Nov 16 2009, 10:59am replied:

Some people say it's buggy but don't mention what. I would actually say ZPS is pretty damn bugfree after all the fixes we've done throughout the years. Hit detection works too, if you had issues with it then it was probably due to lag. If you want to report any bugs, please post in our forums. Would appreciate it!

+1 vote     reply to comment
wazanator
wazanator Nov 15 2009, 8:57am replied:

lol you do know zombies are supposed to win 75% of the time right?

+1 vote     reply to comment
jesse1994
jesse1994 Nov 15 2009, 10:12am replied:

I play with a Intel Dual Core 2.5 with a Geforce 9400.

+3 votes     reply to comment
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Release Date
Released Dec 28, 2007
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