Ok so recently I noticed out on the left4dead411 forums that people were coming up with new ideas for boss infected that you can play as. There were a lot of really interesting and creepy ideas that people had.

To read about those ideas, click here.

So does anyone have any great ideas of their own?

The only one I have come up with so far is basically a shadow infected. Give him an ability that has a fairly long re-use timer that allows him to target a shadow (obviously it has to be large enough) within line of sight that he can "teleport" to but the animation should look like he sinks into it and climbs out of it. Then give him the ability to be almost completely invisible while in the shadows.

The fun of this is that with the survivors having flashlights they can disrupt that ability fairly easily and this forces this dude to play it very stealthy.

Now for his attack he should get like shadow tendrils (edit note that I am thinking of these as fairly short range, nothing like the licker infected reach) that reach out and envelope the target, basically he is trying to eat them through this so as a result he is probably going to be slowed down. Allowing the victim to scream out for help while like this gives the players an opportunity to help their friend and then by allowing the shadow infected a chance to maneuver the victim as a shield you can create opportunity to defend itself while it feast

Particularly creepy would be looking at this thing standing in the shadows holding a victim, because you would basically see bits and pieces of the victim but due to its near invisibility in shadows it would look like part of the victim was just missing.

There would have to be some restrictions obviously on how dark the shadows need to be to work but overall I think this would keep me freaked out while playing.

edit: Here is sort of a quick photoshop of what I was thinking the tendril wrapping would look like to other survivors, keep in mind I am not an artist so this is just concept and I'm sure it would look much better if it were done right.

Wow that would be a freaky boss infected.

My only problem is that it kinda breaks some of the realism, if there's any realism with zombies...but I suppose that doesn't matter so much, as there's that weird Witch zombie already.

Great idea though! I'll have to think of a good boss infected today.

@Ben,

Its interesting also because the infected would have to choose between using the teleport to move into combat or out of combat since I am imagining a VERY long refresh timer. Need to keep it somewhat balanced after all...

bump

come on slackers, you can't tell me none of you have good ideas

im to tired to think
thought i would come in here and say how danm excited i am for this game

Damn, I've been too busy playing Garry's Mod with friends to think of some ideas...I will though...since nobody on VGChartz seems to care.

Beguiler Infected:

Ok the technical details of this guy are below, but the basic idea is this, by causing fear with his ranged attack hallucinations he builds up a small horde (max: 15) of zombies who travel with him. This allows him to pick a good time when the PCs are busy and rush them to use his Viel of Deciet ability which allows him to cause the PCs to start hallucinating seeing their friends as foes, the danger is that the beguiler must stay in the area of the survivors to continue to effect them and while they cannot see him the fact that they feel surrounded by zombies will ensure a spray of bullets that can (and probably will) hit him and quickly kill him. The other strategy that players can use when recognizing what is happening is to back away from the area so they can see normally again...the danger with this is being seperated and/or swarmed...so choose wisely.

Special qualities for this zombie is that he is faster than normal zombies but extremely fragile having only a small amount more health than the normal zombie.

This guy has 3 special abilities, two of them are attacks and one of them is a defense....both of the attacks are linked to the same timer which should have about a 30 second refresh.

Attacks Refresh: On hit - 30 seconds; On miss - 3 seconds

Hallucinations: This is a ranged attack that requires line of sight which must be maintained for the attack to continue. The Beguiler initiates the attack by targeting a survivor and then so long as they stay on screen the beguiler will be able to affect his target. While using the ability the beguiler is slowed to 1/2 speed due to it require concentration. The effect of the attack (if it isn't obvious) is that the targeted player will begin seeing zombies rush him from various directions usually directions that will help the Beguiler keep the person in line of sight.

Zombies attacking the player in this way do 1/2 normal damage and any damage they do replenishes the Beguilers defensive ability. It is also important to note that only the targeted PC can see these zombies and he is also the only who can hurt or be hurt by them. They are all in his mind after all...

Note: Maximum effective range for this ability should be a bit longer than pistol range.

Veil of Deceit: This is a point blank area attack, meaning it effects an area but the area is that directly around the beguiler. All those in the area of effect see their friends as infected and cannot see the Beguiler (but can still hit him in crossfire). Duration 20 seconds.

Zombie Shield: This is the Beguilers defensive ability that is always on but must be charged through the Hallucination ability. By causing fear and terror the Beguiler becomes an empowered and attracts other zombies that travel around him and protect him. For every 10 damage done with the Hallucinations ability he attracts 1 zombie to a maximum of 15. These zombies will however still succomb to their need to feast when in close proximity with surviors. These zombies are the typical run of the mill zombies except they can keep up with his increased move. When they die the Beguiler needs to replenish them again to get them back.

What are Left 4 Dead about?

I am going to give a short synopsis but you need to read this. There are 2 parts to it and it fully explains most of the game setup.

Ok basically the game is a zombie survival game...only you can play as either zombies...or survirors. The survivors are trying to make it from point A to point B and just trying to survive, depending on the level they are usually trying to escape to a safe area. The zombies are just trying to see that these pesky immune survivors die a horrible gruesome death..and preferably a death that has them trembling in fear.

The game involves obviously 4 survivors played by humans and ideally 4 boss zombies played by humans. The fun part is that there are tons of regular zombies who spawn throughout the level...and the really fun part is the spawning is completely procedural. What this means is that the game attempts to measure the fear, excitement, stress, etc...of the survivors based on what is happening and how they are doing and it uses this information to control where, when, and how many zombies spawn. The result is that you will have lulls where you are in fear of the next attack and highs where you are engrossed in the fight for your life...literally...but most important of all this means that you can play the same level 20...30....50...100 times and still not learn the spawn locations...because they don't have spawn locations...it is completely random..not partially..completely random.

 edit: part of the procedural spawning of the normal zombies includes the spawning of the Boss Infected....which is what the humans play.  These "Boss Infected" have special abilities that they can use to terrify, confuse, and hopefully kill the survivors with and they also have a whole other area outside of the "survivor portion" that they can access.  Zombies see green outlines of claw marks and cracks in walls where they are allowed to climb verticle surfaces and break through walls etc...this allows the zombies to have a freedom of movement outside of the areas available to the survivors and gives them a lot of options for ambushing and stragizing against their enemies.

So, people play as the bosses?