knocking post back up.

Reviving!

*electric noise in background*

Well, last time I'm gonna bump this... if you guys honestly want it to die...

I really like the idea of having zombies crawl up, though it would require a bit of animation. I also like them falling (accompanied by some debris?). As for howlitzers and trojans... trojans would make it a bit harder, I guess, but they would be slightly out of place. I like the pentagram spawn, even if it already exists elsewhere.... may I make a suggestion to this effect? If we make a pentagram out of four pressure plates and a button that comes up after a few seconds of being pressed (switch is to make a fifth point and ensures that people actually want the challenge), it causes a trojan to spawn in addition to all four phantoms warping to stand in front of/around the trojan, and re-spawning. In later tiers, it *might* add in a few howlitzers/zombies? As for howlitzers, how about we make them spawn from those green gravestones when a player enters what would normally be their line of sight/attacks the grave, and make a chance for one to randomly replace a normal gravestone? Seems like a pretty natural entry.

Another note on trojans: bad terrain. Trojans would have great difficulty navigating the gravestones that litter graveyards. I propose that we limit them to a few specific areas, ideally grave-free ones?

I love all your ideas.

My Votes: Watch out for {Voter's Notes}!

::The Badass List (Ideas that reached +10 in popularity)

•[+1] Let Zombies spawn from other flavour-appropriate areas, such as climbing up the edges, falling off roofs, from the ceiling etc. Even "being catapulted" as suggested, with a sinister warning laugh. Graves should mean zombies, but zombies should also spawn from elsewhere, to create more of a surprise or unexpected spawn.{Voter's Note: AND make it so some zombies start on map already spawned, or spawn before players get there. It'll help slow runners a bit. This would be great, along with the flavour spawning!}
•[+1] Add Howlitzers.

::The Regular/Original List

•[+1] Increasing Zombie numbers.
•[0] Have "special shape" spawns that have different summoning properties. e.g, a pentagram of graves might summon a Trojan in the middle, or a square of graves might summon Howlitzers at the corners, or a circle might be surrounded by Shadowfire with Howlitzers inside et cetera...{Voter's Note: Make it monster gate areas (defeat all monster to leave) and only one per GY.}
•[0] Increasing Zombie damage.{Voter's Note: I don't know since I haven't been in a GY in awhile.}
•[-1] Giving Zombies a post-mortem "homing skull" ability akin to Howlitzers.
•[-1] Increasing Phantom numbers from 1/knight to 2/3 per knight.
•[0] Decreasing Phantom respawn cooldowns.
•[+1] Make Phantoms (maybe even Zombies too, within the GY) resistant to special damage, like Vana's mask.{Voter's Note: Only vulnerable to normal damage, and strong NOT invulnerable to all other damage types. This would make them unique imo.(phantoms not zombies)}
•[0] Buffing (or undoing the nerf) Zombies/Phantoms inside Graveyards only.
•[+1] Adding Silkwings, or creating a Necromancer, or Undead Healer or sorts, akin to T3 Menders.{Voter's Note: With AoE heal ^_^}
•[+1] A "Zombie Wolver" or undead animal type creature as well to run around fast and nippy, to contrast the current slow zombies. A shadow/piercing type damage monster that's fast and scurries around between slow mobs of zombies would add something extra to really watch out for.
•[+1] A "Zombie Daddy" that boosts and powers up nearby zombies in the same fashion that wolver daddies power up wolvers.
•[+1] A "Graveyard Vulture" that flies in and attacks you with the express intention of stealing your collected goods thus far that run, then attempts to fly away with your goodies forever. In a similar fashion to Klepto's, it will worry more about stealing your goodies and escaping than killing you, making it a problematic distraction, but not dangerous, as such.{Voter's Note: Only if all phantoms are alive, players have at least two of the same type of one vial, and make them very rare.}
•[-1] A "Grave Wisp" that inflicts poison, curse and stun all at once. These demons patrol the GYs and make sure that anyone unlucky enough to be hit by one is landed with inflicting less damage, receiving more, moving and attacking slower and having weapons/items cursed off from them, all while surrounded by the normal baddies of the map. Dangerous stuff!
•[0] Add Carnavons.{Voter's Note: Only in T3 if at all.}
•[+1] Add Trojans.{Voter's Note: I <3 Trojans :3}
•[-1] Add a lot of scattered Totems across GYs.
•[-1] Give Phantoms a revival radius around them, in the same fashion as Totems.
•[+1] Allow killed zombies a %-based chance to either completely just get back up again and keep fighting, or let half of their body crawl towards you in a continued fight to kill you at reduced speed/damage etc{Voter's Note: The latter, not the former. Repawning will not help the problem.}
•[+1] Adding an undead ankle-biter of sorts that's expressly there to hinder your movement and slow you down, by doing nothing other than jumping at/on you and reducing your speed, while letting everything else kill you.
•[+1] Including more obstacles and giving less space to move.{Voter's Note: Not to much though, just a few more and a little less space}
•[+1] Reducing visibility/view by creating a fog/darkness around the sides of the screen, only letting you see a few blocks in front of you. NOTE: this will not be like the "fog" graphic in current GYs/CSKs, but an actual opaque black template around the screen that completely blocks visuals, therefore low gfx settings would get it too. Higher gfx settings would just make this template look prettier.
•[+1] Disable minimap in the same fashion as SLs, making navigation that bit trickier. Couples nicely with the "fog".{Voter's Note: This should not completly be disabled, but perhaps make it go to static in certain areas where there are more zombies, phantoms, or other.}
•[+1] Adding a random status theme to GYs.
•[-1] Adding more hazards to the environment than just the occasional branch or spikefloor.
•[+1] Have the torches/walls fire ghost bullets endlessly (not too fast or too regularly, but hitting hard enough to care about) and have no way to kill the source, just to create more things to avoid within the GY.{Voter's Note: these should not be strong or fast, but rather an obstacle to make it harder to avoid zombies}
•[-1] Make GYs closer in design to Unknown Passages, and have the zombies spawn infinitely, but have no drops (allowing heat/cr to be collected elsewhere).
•[0] Ambushes after/before the Elevators.

I actually think it would be neat to see GY's being similar to Left for Dead, having to run through already existing zombies, with an occasional horde. This would also give more of an idea to use our light weapons (Avenger and AP) and just a side note, i think Antigua should pierce zombies, if not all monsters. This would give it that piercing that was taken away, without the crappy piercing damage type (Wolvers are fairly rare unless in a beast stratum or Snarbo, and fiends we have callahan and flourish).

Because I'm tired of graveyards being so easy...

yeah yeah yeah yeeaaah to this idea

Let Zombies spawn from other flavour-appropriate areas: +1
Add Howlitzers: Grudging Bomber's +1
Increasing Zombie numbers: +1
Have "special shape" spawns that have different summoning properties. e.g, a pentagram of graves might summon a Trojan in the middle, or a square of graves might summon Howlitzers at the corners, or a circle might be surrounded by Shadowfire with Howlitzers inside et cetera...: -1
Increasing Zombie damage: -1, Zombies appear in FSC
Giving Zombies a post-mortem "homing skull" ability akin to Howlitzers: -1. FSC.
Increasing Phantom numbers from 1/knight to 2/3 per knight: +1
Decreasing Phantom respawn cooldowns: +1
Make Phantoms (maybe even Zombies too, within the GY) resistant to special damage, like Vana's mask: +1 (Yay for Blast Bomb opportunities)
Buffing (or undoing the nerf) Zombies/Phantoms inside Graveyards only: +1
Adding Silkwings, or creating a Necromancer, or Undead Healer or sorts, akin to T3 Menders: +1, Silkwings would fit
A "Zombie Wolver" or undead animal type creature as well to run around fast and nippy, to contrast the current slow zombies. A shadow/piercing type damage monster that's fast and scurries around between slow mobs of zombies would add something extra to really watch out for: +1
A "Zombie Daddy" that boosts and powers up nearby zombies in the same fashion that wolver daddies power up wolvers: +1, maybe something like the Grim Totem?
A "Graveyard Vulture" that flies in and attacks you with the express intention of stealing your collected goods thus far that run, then attempts to fly away with your goodies forever: +1
A "Grave Wisp" that inflicts poison, curse and stun all at once: +1
Add Carnavons: +1
Add Trojans: +1
Add a lot of scattered Totems across GYs: +1
Give Phantoms a revival radius around them, in the same fashion as Totems: +1, if dead Phantoms can be moved or lose the radius.
Allow killed zombies a %-based chance to either completely just get back up again and keep fighting, or let half of their body crawl towards you in a continued fight to kill you at reduced speed/damage etc: 0
Adding an undead ankle-biter of sorts that's expressly there to hinder your movement and slow you down, by doing nothing other than jumping at/on you and reducing your m.speed: +1
Including more obstacles and giving less space to move: 0
Reducing visibility/view by creating a fog/darkness around the sides of the screen, only letting you see a few blocks in front of you: Angry Bomber -1's this
Disable minimap in the same fashion as SLs, making navigation that bit trickier. Couples nicely with the "fog": +1
Adding a random status theme to GYs: +1
Adding more hazards to the environment than just the occasional branch or spikefloor: +1
Have the torches/walls fire ghost bullets endlessly (not too fast or too regularly, but hitting hard enough to care about) and have no way to kill the source, just to create more things to avoid within the GY: +1
Make GYs closer in design to Unknown Passages, and have the zombies spawn infinitely, but have no drops (allowing heat/cr to be collected elsewhere): -1, come on, we want something out of all that zombie-sharding.
Ambushes after/before the Elevators: +1

Perhaps the Zombies that appear can themselves have a random status variant? So you've got all kinds of zombies running around, a la In Cold Blood (the mission with the chromalisks at the end... trust me, you'll remember it if you've done it), but with zombies.

Also, perhaps you can add:

ZOMBIE GUNNER: This Dust Zombie is armed to the teeth, sporting two Howlitzer shoulder-cannons and a Howlitzer head under his arm. Having triple the health of a regular Zombie isn't enough; this Zombie unleashes storms of Shadow bullets upon his foes. This fires three (tier 1), six (tier 2), or nine (tier 3) Shadow bullets in a spread. When the Gunner hits half health, he hurls the Howlitzer head under his arm, causing it to act as a normal Howlitzer head, but loses one-third of the bullets per gun attack. If he's killed, both Howlitzer heads will fly off, exploding as usual.

Let me say only one more thing...

SUUUUUUUUNSHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARDS!