Mod Concept: 5xFire

Five US/CA/UK/EU National Guardsman/Territorial Army/Royal Canadian Mounted Policemen are tasked with extracting important personnel in the early stages of the infection. The small team is all that can be spared due to the general chaos of the infection.

Episode 1 concept: National Guardsmen are ordered to retrieve a doctor with important information about the infection from a safe zone in a warehouse complex. Minutes before landing the safe zone is overrun. The guardsmen must race against time to find the doctor and get to the roof of one of the warhouses to escape

Stage 1: Inbound

The national guard helicopter approaches the safe area as a garbled radio message announces that the gates have been overrun and infected are inside the complex. the helicopter lands in an open area and the troops disembark, making their way through the relatively quite outer grounds of the complex

Stage 2: Warehouses

The team enters the actual warehouses, meeting increased resistance while moving steadily towards the refugee hospital. They briefly establish contact with the doctor, who is barricaded in a medical supply closet in the refugee hospital

Stage 3: Refugee hospital

The team fights through the overrun refugee hospital to reach the doctor. They find him in the closet and free him, but the fight has attracted more attention

Stage 4: Escape!

The team, with the doctor in tow, pushes through a shipping area looking for an open place for the chopper to land

Stage 5: Climax!

The team attempts to hold out in a partially constructed building while the chopper circles to land

Key differences:

Bigger Guns: Being a military or paramilitary team, the players start out with M4s, C7s, or equivalents. They've also got some extra equipment, like grenades and first aid kits. They may have a few items of heavy equipment, like grenade launchers or explosives, but these will be few and precious

No supplies!: extra supplies are few and far between. Survivors haven't had time to establish fortified safe houses, so with a few exceptions the team is limited to what they've brought with them.

First Aid!: The team has a medical kit that they can use to stabilize bleeding and occasionally give morphine or adrenaline to the wounded, so they can keep up their speed.

Blow that door!: Players can choose to use explosives to fight the infected, or to effect the environment. Explosives might be able to open a path to a shortcut or supplies, or create a barrier at a key point.

Infected!: The team isn't immune to the virus! There is a chance, every time you get knocked down or take damage higher than a certain threshold, that you'll become infected! The player is not told that they are infected, and will turn into a tougher than average infected zombie after a random period of time (1 minute - 30 minutes)

That zombie looks different!: The special infected haven't had time to change to their final forms. They're present in different, but still very dangerous, forms.

Tank = Linebacker - A big, muscular zombie, but not as big as he'll get... The linebacker is fast and very tough. He can knock players down if he hits them on the run, and can pick a player up and throw them, dealing damage and separating them from the group.

Smoker = Gasbag - His tongue hasn't grown in yet, so the the Gasbag hides in wait, then attacks by expelling a cloud of noxious smoke that clouds the players vision, making it hard to tell your friends from your enemies.

Boomer = Spitball - The Spitball hasn't swollen up to the size of a boomer yet, but the stuff it spits is slippery, flamable, and if it gets on your it'll attract zombies...

Hunter = Lurker - Before the hunter was an insane parkour master, he was a Lurker, clingin to ceilings and leaping down to slam his prey into the floor.

Turncoat - If one of your teammates gets infected the most warning you're likely to get is a few coughs before he collapses and comes back as one of the infected. The newly turned Turncoat isn't feeling any pain right now, and he's surging with adrenaline and rage. Turncoats are tough and hit pretty hard, occasionally exploding if they happen to have an unstable homemade explosive strapped to their belt. The worst part, though, is that you don't get much warning, and you might not notice your buddy turn in the middle of an intense fire fight...

The mod would emphasize the Need for Speed vs. Limited Resources and Health, the Need for cooperation vs. paranoia about who is infected and Big Guns vs. Limited ammo.

Further thoughts

I'd like to see an variety of weapons added to the game, allowing the player to choose from a combination of pistol and similarly sized weapons, and a few more rifle sized weapons. Examples would be exchanging the pistols for a sawed off shotgun and a maglight, trading the ammo capacity of the pistols for a bigger close range punch from the shotgun and a maglight smack in melee. Or exchanging one of your pistols for a .44 revolver for more damage and penetration with a lot less ammo, a micro uzi for a huge ROF but little accuracy, a flaregun, which could set zombies on fire, or a can of spray paint and a lighter. Because fire.

Additonal rifles might include an AK47, purely for varieties sake, a 37mm grenade launcher loaded with tear gas that would slow zombies down and disorient them, and a light machine gun, with a large mag capacity but very limited ammo and a long reload.

Other variety weapons might include a lever action rifle, a double barrel hunting shotgun, or 9mm beretta pistols.