Board Thread:Suggestions/@comment-33231226-20171008140352

Please read why​ I'm making this, as it may seem like a terrible suggestion at first...

We pretty much have two of each kind of zombie except brutes (tank-ish zombies).

1. Normal z's and Tickers are both regular-ish, using contact damage as a primary form of damage. Both have special perks (normies can run, tickers have rads and explosions) which help with their overall damage output, but they're still like walking bags of cash.

2. Edgars and Leapers both attack and easily dispatch people who stray too far from their group. They're slippery, but easy to kill if you have precision timing.

3. Diggers and Elementals are focused around using status effects (stunned, burning) to harm foes. They can be hard to kill at times.

4. Brutes are the only tank-type zombie. They have high damage and high health, but they suffer from slow speed and limited range (they can throw clubs, but it has low accuracy and requires incredible aim). What if there was a new kind?

​Now, for the actual suggestion​

Name: Gaper

Spawn Rate: Slightly lower than brute (digger spawnrate lowered to compensate. also an appropriate nerf for diggers)

Health: 500, 1000, 1250, 1750

Type: Tank-ish

Speed: 20 (18 at levels 3/4)

Kill reward: 75, 115, 175 (depends on how strong the Gaper is)

Abilities: Sprint, Eat Corpse, Slam, Shield

Appearance: Very Dark Green. Starts smaller than an average zombie, gains size

​The Gaper has an ability to stack its power.

The Gaper can eat a corpse by pressing E over a defeated survivor (the respawn countdown pauses during this, allowing the Gaper to eat survivors that only have 1 or 2 seconds left). It takes three seconds, and the Gaper is left vulnerable during this. However, if a Gaper successfully eats a corpse, it is fully healed and it receives a huge stat boost. It's not as overpowered as it may sound, considering that it's unlikely for a corpse to be far away from the main group of survivors.

Survivors cannot zombify or respawn while being eaten.

Stat Boosts

Level 1 (starting stats):

Health: 500

Smaller than a normal zombie

Contact damage: 5

Abilities: Sprint

​Level 2 (one corpse eaten):

​Health: 1000

Same size as a zombie

Contact damage: 15

No more special abilities

​Level 3 (two corpses eaten):

Health: 1250

Brute-sized

Contact damage: 25

Speed decreases from 20 to 18

Abilities: Block (same as brute's block)

​Level 4 (three corpses eaten)

​Health: 1750

Slightly larger than a brute; still fits in doorways

Contact damage: 40

Abilities: Block, Slam (similar to brute club smash, but the Gaper uses its fists. Requries 25 energy)

Eating any more corpses will only heal it by 500 HP.

Why?

It's annoying as hell when you die and your team doesn't do anything. Even if your team has defibs or your items dropped, they still may have a tendency to completely ignore a body. The Gaper will encourage body guarding.

Before you say that the Gaper becomes overpowered as it levels up, consider everything that can stop it from becoming more powerful. The corpse may spawn far away or fall off of the map. The player may also get defibbed, or they may respawn/zombify. The Gaper can also get killed while eating a corpse. The Gaper also has to eat three​ corpses while avoiding all of the possible dangers that can stop it. A level 4 Gaper may as well be as rare as a Charged Brute (except for maps like Farmhouse and No Mercy, where there's a shit ton of glass)

Its movement also lowers as it levels up. It loses the ability to sprint, and its movement decreases at level three. It is also still limited to contact damage, and it has no ranged attacks whatsoever (though its Slam attack has a slightly larger AoE than a Brute). Its movement at levels 3 and 4 are still higher than a brute.

Unlike a Brute, a Gaper's head grows along with the rest of its body (it doesn't grow as rapidly at levels three and four). This increases the target for headshots. 