Zombie Fortress

“

Your friends are all dead... Good luck... Click to listen — The Administrator on fighting reanimated teammates.

”

See also: Zombie (Disambiguation)

Zombie Fortress is a SourceMod plugin and unofficial game mode for Team Fortress 2. There are two opposing teams: the Survivors (RED) and the Zombies (BLU), who wish to eat the Survivors. Survivors need to complete their objective, which may vary depending on the game mode. Survivors have the advantage of having ranged weaponry while the Zombies have the main advantage of having the ability to respawn and convert slain Survivors into Zombies. When a Survivor is killed, they are switched to the Zombie team. When no Survivor players remain, the Zombie team wins. One could compare the game mode to a mix between Arena and Medieval Modes, respectfully, each affecting a different team simultaneously.

The Survivors and Zombies can only select certain classes. The Survivors can choose the Engineer class. They are armed with regular weapons and several perk choices for modified effectiveness against the Zombies, but cannot use sentries. The Zombies can only choose the Medic class (which are only equipped with their melee weapons), a choice of perks, and the ability to use Kill taunts.

Objectives

Zombie Fortress is a very versatile mod that can work with many styles of gameplay. The following are a list of the major types of Zombie Fortress maps:

Survival In survival maps the Survivors attempt to live until the map timer runs out by running away, hiding, or mowing down the Zombies. The Zombies' goal is to kill every survivor before the timer runs out. Good survival maps tend to be enclosed and well laid out. They generally have lots of camping spots but make it easy for players to get around the map. This is currently the most popular type of map in Zombie Fortress.

Attack/Defend In attack/defend maps one team is charged with protecting various control points from the other team until the timer runs out. Normally in Zombie Fortress the survivors are the attacking team and the zombies are the defending team, due to the fact that the zombies have infinite lives and can simply charge en masse` repeatedly to win. Good attack/defend maps have fair control point capture rates compared to the length of the map and usually contain a few traps here and there to snare unsuspecting survivors. The really good attack/defend maps have special kill triggers that kill survivors attempting to delay the round by hiding in spawn or well behind the attacking group.

Capture the Flag In capture the flag maps one team is charged with protecting an information brief case (sometimes given a special model to be something else) while the other team hunts down the briefcase to return it to their home base. In Zombie Fortress this map style is widely unpopular due to the difficulty of pulling off a fair and balanced gameplay. Usually, however, survivors are charged with capture while zombies are charged with defense. There are currently no maps that have survivors and zombies both capturing and defending.

Strategy

• Not all servers use the perk system. The perk tidbits are there for people who play on perk-enabled servers.

Survivor strategy

• All: Survivors should stick together so that the cluster is more difficult to kill, and, on control point maps, to increase the speed at which points cap. In addition, some Survivor perks affect nearby teammates, letting a cluster receive boosts in attack, defense, and crit-chance.

• Engineer: The Engineer is the most defensive class, but can be useful when attacking by using the Gunslinger. The Engineer's Eureka Effect has a -10% shorter teleport time, but comes at a cost of losing 100 metal, while the Jag has an additional increase of +15% in attack speed, coming at a cost of -25% attack damage. The Engineer's buildings are also changed in the name of balance. Engineer's sentries are unplaceable, due to its overpowered abilities. The Dispenser can be used as a blockade, but have -15% building health. The Teleporter works as it would normally. Due to balance issues, server administrators often disable the ability to teleport. An Engineer will often use the "Supplier" perk for he can gain additional metal to help build and Dispensers when in times against a horde, or the "Resourceful" perk due to its ability to restore ammo, metal, and health.

Zombie strategy

• Medic: The Medic can only use the melee weapons. The Ubersaw can tauntkill enemies, while the Amputator can heal and overheal other zombie allies using its taunt (but not the taunting zombie). They are unable to regenerate health is no perks are used. The Medic have a damage increase against buildings, but take more damage to the Engineer's Short Circuit. Call for Medic stays for longer, but stays in the place where the Call for Medic was initiated. Medics have a +10% rate of bleed effect to represent an infection, but do a -25% base damage. Medics have a -5% base health.

Perks

Perks are special abilities that both the Survivors and Zombies can use. They can change health, defense, attack, speed, and introduce new gameplay mechanics. Some perks stack up on each other when used by several players. Perks have been updated by various users, namely the original mod creator Sirot, the person who took after him Dirty Minuth, the most recent public updater Weenie, and the current updater Requiesta de Silencia.

Survivor Perks
Perk	Description
Athletic	You have innate speed and rate of fire bonuses. You have an innate attack and crit penalties.
Charitable	Each kill or assist grants 'gift points.' Call for Medic to redeem these points and toss out a gift for other survivors (or zombies). Gifts grant various temporary bonuses and increase the Charitable's health. Zombies can steal gifts to absorb health.
Carpenter	You have an innate defense bonus. You have an innate attack penalty. Call for Medic to place a barricade. Barricades have 400 health and can be destroyed by anyone. Ability has a cooldown of 25s.
Cowardly	You have a passive 'panic' ability. When hit, you gain temporary speed and defense bonuses. Panic ability lasts 10s and has a cooldown of 25s.
Heroic	You have innate attack and defense bonuses. You gain Crit time for each kill or assist. Crit time is activated when you're the last remaining survivor.
Holy	When crouched and not moving, you heal yourself and nearby survivors.
Juggernaut	You have innate attack and defense bonuses. You have an innate speed penalty. You are immune to self and fall damage. You knockback zombies with melee hits and stun with fall damage impacts. When you avoid self damage you suffer a small attack penalty.
Leader	You have an innate Crit bonus. You grant attack and defense bonuses to nearby survivors. Call for Medic to place a rally point. You gain attack and defense bonuses for each survivor near your rally point, and survivors gain attack and defense bonuses when they are near your rally point. Rally lasts 90s and has a cooldown of 120s.
Ninja	You have an innate speed bonus. You have an innate defense penalty. Call for Medic to place a decoy retreat point. When hit, you will retreat to that point. Decoy ability lasts 7s and has a cooldown of 7s. You jump slightly higher than other survivors and inflict more damage with melee weapons.
Nonlethal	You have an innate attack penalty when using bullet-based weapons. Bullet damage causes knockback.
Psychotic	You have an innate speed bonus and crit penalty. Each kill grants you a temporary attack bonus and a temporary defense penalty. When your attack reaches 80% you will be surrounded by a green flaming aura which boosts your speed and slows the rate you lose your bonuses and penalties.
Resourceful	You receive ammo, health, and metal from kills. You receive temporary attack bonuses from ammopacks and temporary defense bonuses from medpacks and ammopacks.
Selfless	You have attack and defense penalties. You grant a defense bonus to nearby survivors. You explode on death.
Stir-crazy (depreciated, replaced with Psychotic)
Supplier	Your reserve ammo is resupplied periodically, and can hold twice the normal limit. Call for Medic to place supply boxes. Other survivors can resupply ammo from these boxes. Supply ability has a cooldown of 10s.
Traitor	You have a crit penalty. Zombies nearby get added Attack. When you die nearby survivors are poisoned for 30 seconds.
Wise	Bonuses are permanent. +Att on kill or Assist. Defense bonus when hit in melee.
Zenlike	When crouched and not moving, you regenerate health and accumulate a Crit bonus. Crit bonus decreases after each attack or while moving around.

Zombie Perks
Perk	Description
Alpha	You acquire minions by killing survivors or assisting existing minions in killing survivors. You receive attack and regen bonuses when near other zombies or minions. Call for Medic to summon up to 3 minions. Ability has a cooldown of 7s per minion summoned.
Bloodlust	You have an innate attack penalty. As your health reaches 0 your attack bonus goes up to a maximum of 80%.
Combustible	You have an innate defense penalty. You explode on death (unless hit by a melee weapon). By pressing E you can "prime" yourself to explode in 3 seconds. If you are killed before you explode after "priming" you will not explode.
Horrifying	You have an innate attack penalty. Each melee hit causes temporary defense and attack penalties to survivors. If you are slain, nearby survivors affected by your curse rapidly recover from the effects.
Hunter	Call for Medic to place a spawn mark. If there are survivors near when you spawn, the point is destroyed. Att bonus temporarily on spawn.
Leap	You have innate attack and defense penalties. You are immune to fall damage. Call for Medic to perform a long jump. Scouts have a cooldown of 2 seconds, while other classes have a cooldown of 4 seconds..
Magnetic	You have an innate attack penalty. Disable nearby proximity mines. While disabling mines your attack and health regeneration will rapidly increase.
Marked	One survivor is randomly selected as your mark. You gain an attack bonus when attacking your mark and an attack penalty otherwise. New mark is chosen after current mark dies. If your mark is the last remaining survivor your attack bonuses are cut in half.
Rage	Call for Medic to active Rage. While Enraged you gain extra health and speed. When Rage fades you suffer a 50% attack penalty for 15 seconds.
Roar	Call for Medic to push back nearby survivors in front of you and give them -Def. Ability has a cooldown of 15s.
Scorching	You have a speed bonus. You have an attack penalty. You are immune to fire sources. You ignite survivors when you hit them with melee or touch them.
Shield	You have innate attack penalties and defense bonuses. Call for Medic to turn yourself into a beacon. While beaconed, the Shield zombie cannot move and suffers heavy attack and defense penalties, but grants nearby Zombies heavy defense and regeneration bonuses. If a beaconed zombie is killed by a survivor, the survivor gains a temporary attack buff.
Sick	You have an innate attack penalty. Call for Medic to spit acid. Acid lasts for 30s or until you die. Damage caused increases the longer survivors stand inside it.
Swarming	You have an innate speed bonus. You have innate attack and defense penalties. You have instant respawn, and zombies that die near you have instant respawn. You cannot tauntkill survivors.
Tarred	You have an innate attack and speed penalty. Call for Medic to spit tar. Tar slicks last for 30s or until you die and slow enemies within them. You slow survivors with melee hits or when hit with melee.
Thieving	You have an innate attack penalty. Striking a survivor with melee allows you to steal a portion of their ammo, metal, and ubercharge. If a survivor using a primary weapon loses all their reserve ammo to a thieving, the zombie can steal their weapon. Stolen weapons disappear when they run out of their limited ammo supply. Thieving zombies can also steal weapons by killing survivors.
Toxic	Poison survivors on hit. More hits = more time poisoned. Damage near survivors when not moving. -100%Att.
Vampiric	Suffer an attack penalty. Leech HP per hit based on damage. You have a regen bonus and can overheal while leeching health.
Vindictive	+Att +Def on killing a survivor. Buffs carry when you respawn or change classes.

Super Zombie Fortress

Super Zombie Fortress is a remake of Zombie Fortress and was developed by Mecha The Slag.

Super Zombie Fortress works the same as perk-less Zombie Fortress, except survivors only start with melee weapons and collect randomly generated weapons from spawn and from certain areas around the map. Players can only pick up class-specific weapons (multi-class weapons such as the Shotguns can be picked up by all classes who can use this weapon). This makes class variety and teamwork even more important due to limited firepower (and for the Medic, healing power) and distribution of weapons.

It is not uncommon for survivors to lack key weapons such as the Medi Gun or the Rocket Launcher for the majority of the map, especially on smaller teams. Therefore teams should have a variety of different classes to ensure that most weapons can be used and less weapons need to be passed up due to the lack of the corresponding class in the team.

Most Super Zombie Fortress maps that are successful are Attack-type maps where the survivors capture points from zombies. Others have been tried but in general it is a very limited mod.

External links

• Zombie Fortress Steam Community Group
• Zombie Fortress Intox Gaming Forums
• Zombie Fortress GFL Forums
• Zombie Fortress Thread on AlliedMods
• Super Zombie Fortress Thread on AlliedMods
• Zombie Fortress maps on GameBanana