One of the big things i want to have introduced to the overpopulated Zombie genre is survival. just killing as many zombies as possible wont be enough. you'll need to defend yourself, by either barricading your position or by setting b***y traps to thwart would be thieves at night. yes living people wll be your greatest threat in the night, but that will be covered later.

well the closest thing to what i have pictured for the building/rts feel is COD: Nazi Zombies, that would be a good example of how the player would be able to do a quick patch job. it would last a bit longer of course, but the look and feel would be similar. but for more advanced and sturdier construcition you would turn to your buildings Command desk, ussually located in the more secure parts of a building. there you would have a crude drawing of the house in a blueprint style format, and your PDA would serve as a menu for storing designs of "upgrades" you had learned. from simple patch jobs with wooden boards, to welding steel doors shut, to putting plywood and good backing to windows. you can make anything from a simple stash to a full fledged stronghold.

from this command desk you would also have access to all the resorces on the lot. like you'll be able to give survivors tasks, from gather food and materials in the local area, to guard the windows, to fortify the building the best they see fit (dependant on the survivors Mechanical abilities), to even in the event of a complete overrun you can order them to hold down the command room. (i shy from calling it a safe room although some houses may have more solid defendable positions from basements to tornado safe rooms)