Concept for a new RTS

[Milquetoast Thug]

I don't post here often, but I've been pitching this idea to various forums, and I want to see what people think of it. The basic concept is this: a RTS set in a zombie invested world, sorta like Land of the Dead, except... you know, GOOD.

The various factions could range from large colonies of relatively ordinary surviors, to smaller, but more elite military forces, to wackier shit, like necromancers and mad scientists. The latter three are of course partially to blame for this mess.

The main resources would be Food, Ammo, and... zombies. that's right, zombies are a resources, abilte a somewhat dangerous one. Food and ammo can be harvested from the various abandoned stores/supermarkets/ and gun shops/armories. Food can also be grown by building farm like building, sorta like in warcraft. Food is used primarily for making more units, while ammo is the more specialized resource needed only for advanced units, sorta like vespine gas in Starcraft. Obviously, some factions need more of certain resources than others.

Now, the third resource, zombies, is a bit different. Zombies are just kinda randomly scattered across the map(s), and slowly grow in number from various locations (graveyards, the friendly neighborhood pit to hell, and of course, the chemical plant where bad stuff got spilled.) They will also eventually spawn if certain types of units are killed. Unless the zombies see tasty flesh bound units (i.e, most of the units in the game), they'll just wander around randomly. If they do see flesh, they'll swarm it, and tear it apart. But regardless of how many players there are in a game, there will almost always be 10 times more zombie than all the other players combined. and this is where the innovation (and fun) begins: the player get to start using the zombies on each other.

See, each faction would have it's own unique way of capturing or "requisitioning" zombies for their own devious purposes. the civilian colonies might just dig pits or have simple net traps, while the military and mad scientist factions would have roving velicles or machines that go out and grab zombies and bring them back to base. The necromancers could probably just grab zombies at their liesure with a specialized hero unit, you know, as long as he keeps them supplied with food (harder than it sounds of course, because if his forces runs out of food... well, zombies are not know for their loyalty.)

Once a faction gets zombies, they can start doing things with them, like doind specialized research that only the prescense of the walking dead can provide. Civilians might get to research, for instance, "Amputation!", which gives them better hitpoints against zombies, and of course, the followup research, "Come get some!", which lets them start strapping power tools to their limbs... meanwhile, the mad scientists can create a soylent green-esque device to turn their extra zombies into ... uh... "food." Other factions might use zombies more directly. The military can fly helicopters over your base, and drop the shamblers right onto your mans, while the necromancers could despoil land, making even more zombies come around. And of course, the mad scientists, could do the worst thing of all: create intelligent zombies.

Of course, while the base objective of the game would be to wipe out the other factions, there could concievably be other modes, where you have to kills a certain number of zombies to win, which creates a dilemma (do you horde zombies to use on other people, or just kill the zeds outright?) as well as "famine" mode, where food contiually depletes, and whoever gets the most (or a set amount) wins.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Feedback would be appreciated.

[StarZander]

Sounds like an interesting idea. I know I'd play it, but there would need to be some sort of story involved. And is the world and style of everything supposed to be wacky/funny, or dark and grim?