Thread: Campaign ideas from yours truly.

I play on 360, I can't mod maps, and haven't played any modded maps! However. I have come up with some ideas for campaigns that might be cool. What do you guys think of these?



1) Tombstone City: Rest In Pieces

Four Survivors find themselves in a neighborhood. All signs point to escape if they can get into town.

4 Chapters.

A: Oak Hills - Traveling through an infected neighborhood. This lengthy chapter hosts a crescendo event at the very end that requires the Survivors to open a gate to get into a supermarket, but it jams and alerts a horde. The gate must be beaten open with a melee weapon, a human-played Survivor will have to sacrifice their killing ability to open the rusty gate, taking significant time, and the horde never stops.

->Open Spoiler<-

Not sure about the mechanics on this crescendo...

B: Food For Thought - Starting at the supermarket, the Survivors have to maneuver through a commercial district to a safe room, alerting the horde as they go. A Crescendo event occurs when they have to blow up a 18 Wheeler gas tanker to get by a blocked road. Lots of twists and turns, like "The Quarter" in LFD2.

C: Under Highway 9 - A winding road filled with abandoned cars ends abruptly, and is impassable. The Survivors must take the dark and claustrophobic sewer system to get closer to downtown. It begins to rain outside, and the only indication of this are rising water levels in the sewer. The Survivors face a new event based on time to get out of the sewer by jumping across catwalks and tight ledges. If they don't the water will engulf them and they will become incapacitated over time. Once they survive the rising water and climb above ground. They must turn on the street lights to illuminate the remaining portion of Highway 9 and run to the safe room in the pouring rain. This alerts the horde.

D: Toil, and Trouble... and the Horde - The Survivors reach the industrial district of Tombstone City and must weave their way through a grain factory, a slaughterhouse or a car dealership. Each path presents distinct challenges. The Director Chooses your fate by blocking off two of three paths. The three paths meet up on the other side of each at a gas station with a car that was abandoned, but has gas in it.

D1: The Grain Factory: The Survivors must restart the machinery to open the silo, and the way out, alerting a large horde on their position. The factory itself is not lit well and disorienting. The inside path can change (Like "The Cemetery" in LFD2's Parish chapter). Once they survive the standard finale (horde/tank/horde/tank) the door will open and a car on the other side is gassed up to get out of there. The horde will "bug out" at this point and it is a mad dash to the car.

D2: The Slaughterhouse: The Survivors must weave through the grotesque scenes of a pig slaughterhouse. Once they get out the other side, it is a mad dash across an exposed field littered with rotting pig corpses. As the Survivors run, they alert many flocks of carrion birds, which subsequently alerts a large horde to the Survivors. The field is a decent distance to go, when someone gets "80%" of the way a "bug out" occurs and the team better move fast! Whoever makes it to the car survives.

D3: The Car Dealership: Every car in the dealership has an alarm on it, and alerting all of them results in a horde that will destroy even the most experienced teams. The large parking lot must be carefully maneuvered to get to the other side to survive. Inevitably, when the Survivors make it 80% of the way a "bug out" horde will be triggered, and those who get to the car will make it out alive.


2) Dead Zoo: Please Don't Feed The Zombies...
After driving the car as far as it can go, they are stopped by an impassable obstacle and must hoof it by traveling through the town, and a zoo, that ends up near the train station.

->Open Spoiler<-

I found this idea in someone's thread. I kind of changed it around a bit, but it isn't my original idea.

5 Chapters.

A: The Mall - The Survivors start off going through the back door of a mall as the front is barricaded. They go up the stairs to the second floor, and on the third floor there is a safe room. No crescendo event.

B: The Glass Elevator - The Survivors leave and find a staircase to get to the rooftop of the mall. Once there, they realize the door to get down is locked. Not wanting to go the way they came, they activate an elevator to get to ground level, and this attracts a horde when it reaches the bottom. The have to cross the streets and get into a shop for the safe room.

C: The Field - The Survivors get out and cross a large field, and playground. The sprawling mess of rough terrain and abandoned buildings make this chapter lengthy. Birds alert the horde if they are disturbed. Be careful where you walk... The tall grass and heavy wind obscure the noise Special Infected make. This chapter has no mandatory crescendo event. A safe room is at the end of a path in an old machine shop.

D: The School - After leaving the machine shop, the Survivors cross more suburban areas and end up going through a school. The doors are locked and they have to set off an alarm to get in and then run to deactivate it. After making their way through the large school and ending up back to the streets and find a safe room.

E: The Zoo - They head towards a zoo and wind through a maze of animal enclosures. Exhibits include penguins, elephants and lions, all of which are dead, or missing. They find a bunch of military grade Dynamite to blow up the building, The detonator is missing though. The finale is started when they inadvertently trigger a display which makes a loud Lion's roar. It starts a finale crescendo. The Survivors must find the detonator first before escaping outside. Once the detonation happens the chapter ends with a bang, quite literally.


3) Bullettrain: Dying Faster Than Ever
The Survivors get obstructed by a large traffic jam while heading towards the train, They conclude that taking the city's new bullet train into downtown is the best track.

5 Chapters.

A: Memorial Road - The Survivors travel through a rural part of town that gets them closer to the train station. No crescendo event, but some car alarms.

B: Friends in High Places - The Survivors enter the original train station which hosts a variety of loading docks for freight trains. They meet up with 2 other unarmed Survivors (construction workers) who are trapped on the 10th story of a building. An old, rusty crane on the ground must be used to rescue them, but as the new Survivors are descending/walking down the crane, a tank jumps/attacks from the roof and breaks the old piece of machinery's arm off. All three fall on the other side of the freight cars and are killed, the ramp subsequently created by the falling crane arm opens a path, but also alerts a horde. After winding through the rest of the level, the Survivors find a safe house.

C: Caboose Run - After exiting the safe house, the Survivors find a a small 1950's caboose that can be driven on the train tracks to the main train terminal. It is used as a transportation device to get the survivors to the bullet train. It is slow moving, but has ammo and supplies. The entire level is a crescendo event as the Survivors hold off waves of infected (Begins when the caboose is launched). Once the caboose reaches the end, the level is over and the horde stops. Think about tunnels, and special infected that can pull Survivors or disorient their position as very possible, and major obstacles. Running is faster, but will leave you dreadfully exposed. The Director should have a fail safe that punishes people heavily who run/rush ahead.

D: The Rail Terminal - The bullet train is operational and all the tracks are clear. However, the magnetic charge needs to be supplied to the train for it to work. The Survivors must restart four magnetic turbines across the train terminal for the bullet train to work properly. Once all four are started, part five begins (The safe room being the caboose, which is the center of the level.) The Survivors must return to the caboose to end the level. No crescendo event, but a difficult and sprawling level.

Think of this as like ------------->X Caboose is in the center of the X and the four turbines are down winding passageways at each arm of the X.

E: The Train Finale - The train slowly gains power and the Survivors must defend wave after wave of horde until they can board and get the fuck out! -----------(caboose)X(bullet train)---------->


3.5) City of God: Infected Fever? Lead Therapy.
A short chapter that could be Downloadable. Essentially, the Survivors must maneuver through the heavily populated downtown sector. No special infected, just huge amounts of common infected. No melee weapons.

3 Chapters.

A: City Square - An open Square is riddled with huge crowds of infected. There are so many that the entire area is crawling with them. The Survivors are separated by falling rubble at the beginning of the chapter. This forces them into two groups of two. (If offline co-op, one human will be in each group, if single player, the computers will always be in the apartments) They have to maneuver through the open square, and through the rising apartments. The two in the square will need help from the apartment team for covering fire, but the apartment team will need to move fast to get into position. They meet up on the other side and get into a safe room.

->Open Spoiler<-

I don't know about how computers can progress in a level, but this would be alright if they had just one path to get to in the apartments. Interesting concept in splitting the team up... at least in my opinion.

B: Caught in the Middle - After leaving the safe room the Survivors take a short cut through a stadium. It is full of infected. The zombies are alerted to the survivors position as they get caught in the middle of the stadium. The lights turn on when the Survivors get to the field, causing a panic event and the horde descends from the rafters. Exiting on the other side provides a safe room in some shops.

C: Main Street - The Survivors must tear through the ritzy shopping and commercial downtown of the city to make it to the waterfront on the other side. It is packed with infected who were once Survivors that were left and not rescued in time. They succumbed to the infection, and remained in the street. Those with retail fever must be given the lead therapy treatment! Signalling the massive billboard on the top of the nearest building calls in a horde and also supplies rescue in the form of a military APC, which takes them out of the city.


4) Paradise Lost: What Stays in Paradise, Dies in Paradise
The Survivors (canonically, have to shoot the APC driver, but for those who didn't DL, it comes after the train) end up here, the beach town of Paradise. They decide to travel north along the coast.

4 Chapters.

A: The Crimson Sand - A relaxed beach town has been turned into a sprawling mess of infected. There are a lot of witches on this level as they are drawn to the beach. Or possibly, they're just the remains of the bikini laden girls. A Crescendo event is started when an alarm is tripped for a shark warning, entirely on accident. Once the Survivors disengage the alarm across the beach, the alarm stops. A Hotel provides a safe room.

B: Paradise Found - The team makes their way through the rich part of Paradise with casinos and ritzy stores. It looks like the "Vegas Strip". They must cut through the once-lavish, now-infected casino called "Paradise Found". A roulette wheel stands illuminated and the Survivors can elect to spin it, which also turns on the casino's lights. Where's the action at?



0 Gives the Survivors access to the casino vault in the basement, complete with bunches of weapons, health, ammo, adrenaline, pills, and grenades. No horde will be called in. The vault is not the safe room.
RED 5, 7, 30, 18, 34 and 25 give the survivors one health pack, no horde will be called in.
BLACK 20, 33, 26, 31, 2 and 11 give the survivors two health packs + calls a horde.
35% of the time the Survivors will get at least one health.
Although....
19% it will be one health, and no horde. (includes the green 0, with many health packs etc.)
16% it will be two healths and one horde.
Every other number calls in a horde, and doesn't provide health.
81% it will be a horde.
65% it will be a horde without health.
Going to the vault and opening the door without winning the Green 0 will call in a never ending horde, similar to "Survival". You will die, Eventually.
Electing to not gamble means that the Survivors must continue on without the aid of lights in the casino. This is disorienting, but doable.
The Survivors must get up to the 4th floor of the casino and shoot a crossbow across the blocked road to the other hotel. Tread carefully! The floors are weak and you can fall through, becoming a "hanging incapacitated". From there they will "cutscene zipline" or whatever into the next hotel. They must break down a door to get out of the room, which alerts another horde. This is the only mandatory crescendo event in the level, the Roulette game is optional, but should be a fun addition to the game. Finally, descending the stairs and making their way into the safe room on the ground floor.

C: Night of the Living Dead - Now past the hotels and casinos, the Survivors stumble onto a vacant movie set at night. The movie appears to be on the topic of the zombie apocalypse. The team must traverse through the mannequins, props, stages and set lights. All mannequins look like the common Infected. Disturbing anything on set really pisses off The Director. Especially if you move his chair. This is a game between the humans and the AI Director. The difficulty can be astronomical if characters don't pay attention to where they aim. A horde can come at any moment, and the disturbed props can call in hordes as well. A safe room exists on the other side of the movie set in the lobby of a skyscraper.

D: The Skyscraper - After getting through the treacherous movie set, the Survivors call for rescue at the top of a skyscraper. They take an elevator to the top. Classic call and rescue finale. A helicopter picks the team up at the final moments.


5) Deadwood Forest: A Scenic Route To Die For
The Survivors crash in the mountains as the helicopter has a mechanical malfunction. They hide in a cave and begin the next step of their voyage. The pilot is killed but the Survivors manage to live.

5 Chapters.

A: The Cave - The Survivors wake up in a Cave, they must wind through a dark cavern filled with infected to get out the other side. The way they came in is blocked (maybe by wreckage of the helicopter). The cave is dangerous as shooting loosens rock and it falls from the ceilings. Once the Survivors find their way out from the disorienting maze of caverns, water and rock they find themselves on a foggy mountainside. Visibility is limited, and a safe room is not far away, but must be located. It will be in a random location.

B: Fell to the Infection - After leaving the safe room, the fog has lifted. The Survivors make their way through a logging town and a clear cut operation. After a twisty path through the piles of chopped trees, the Survivors must start three large wood saws to clear a path through the remnants. Each one alerts a a horde, so starting all three provides a difficult challenge, but it can be done! After cutting through the opposition, they find an abandoned church on a rocky outcropping to provide shelter.

C: The Maze - Exiting the church on the other side, the Survivors travel further down the mountain. They realize that they must enter a dense hedge maze to make it out. The maze will change in orientation every time the level is started, so it will never be the exact same path. It will be a lot larger than the small cemetery too, in LFD2. Eventually the Survivors find the exit. As they leave the maze, they trip an alarm for a private property, which is the safe room. A horde descends on the team as they sprint to the room to end the level.

D: The Burning Forest - Leaving the safe room, the Survivors must travel through the dense Redwood forest. The towering trees dwarf everything around them. There is a large fire raging through the forest. Redwood trees are not harmed too much by fire, it actually is essential to their survival. The team must maneuver around the dense smoke, fire hazards and large amount of horde to make it out alive. There will be a crescendo event in the middle of the chapter where the Survivors start a bulldozer to push a large fallen tree over a cliff and clear a bridge across a deep river. After getting away from the fire, they find a safe room on the outskirts of a small, obscure town.

E: The Graveyard Shift - The team enters the desolate ghost town at night and encounter very little resistance. The town itself looked like a place that was a site for a mass execution. Bodies of people lined up are all over the place. There are makeshift graves and piles of tombstones, mass graves and other scenes of abominable acts on humanity. The town itself is completely destitute, broken houses and smoldering ruins. The Survivors find a radio on a dead soldier (among a group of dead army personnel) that is asking if anyone of the unit is left alive. After calling for rescue, they must hold out from almost impossible odds in the graveyard from the confines in and around a large Mausoleum in the center. A M1 Abrams tank comes to the rescue after a long wait and the Survivors get in the top.


more to come....

yeah I've been thinking about it... I kind of wish I had known about the possibilities of this earlier. How blind I was.

These are amazing!
Love the titles too.

I think the Graveyard Shift finale may be more appropriate for the Tombstone City campaign. Really fits the name.

Love the finale of Tombstone City, with three different events that could be triggered!

I really like the Caboose Run as well. Slow and safe or quick and dangerous.

I think the Skyscraper might be too similar to the No Mercy: Rooftop, but completely different scenery can be good. Even taller for longer Charger kills.

I would look forward to hearing a lot of quotes from Nick in the casino.

Paradise Lost: Night of the Living Dead is very interesting. You actually controlling the AI director(to an extent), not bad.

I'm glad you like them!

I'd start making the maps but I couldn't fathom how to do things like altering the maze and what not. I spent a good few hours coming up with ideas, and still have some more kicking around. I would like to create a unique finale horde event, I'm just not sure what hasn't been done before.