Most Skilled Characters

[Becky's Butt]

I think I'll start an actual topic on this. Give me a bit.

[Twist]

Arguable. Soviet Russia had a plan of using neutron bombs to exterminate Ukrainian population with keeping the infrastructure intact. T-Virus could very easily be used as a siege weapon to inflict massive casualties and leave the infrastructure. Its only real downfall was the lack of universal and proper cure but Id say Outbreak took care of that.

Wesker himself speculates that using zombies as viral vectors was one of the best features of T.

I remember this. This may have been the thing that led to Umbrella studying the Ebole virus.

[News Bot]

Well that too can be avoided with Tyrants like T-103s, Nemesis and TALOS which can't really infect you until later stages of damage. Well Nemesis could if he engaged you in melee but it's main power in combat would obviously be using weapons like the rocket launcher.

The only B.O.W with the ability to infect something with a virus is Nemesis. But it does this as a secondary method to kill it's target. And even when infected, it still tries to eliminate the target first hand.

No other B.O.W worth it's salt would dare infect another being. That pretty much removes the entire point of having a weapon in the first place if it isn't going to make your target stay dead.

[A-J]

but then again nemesis's virus didn't exactly did a bang up job either, didn't have any visible effects on jill the whole time she was infected, hell she even claims she "doesn't feel anything" from it.

[Becky's Butt]

The only B.O.W with the ability to infect something with a virus is Nemesis. But it does this as a secondary method to kill it's target. And even when infected, it still tries to eliminate the target first hand.

Zombies count as BOWs I do believe. They are biological weapons after all. But just speaking of Hunters and Lickers, I see your point.

[News Bot]

Zombies count as BOWs I do believe. They are biological weapons after all. But just speaking of Hunters and Lickers, I see your point.

Zombies are just byproducts. I don't like to label them as B.O.W's, but I know what you mean.

[Alexia_Ashford]

I'm sure earlier on in the games, it was stated that they wanted a virus with a 100% infection rate, which was then altered later on into wanting powerful, controllable B.O.Ws?

It really again depends on what you're looking for. I personally believe that the T-Veronica virus has the most potential because it allowed the infected to still be more or less human, and control their mutations. When Alexia was out of the tube, she never had time to examine or study the new strain that had formed within her. Steve was infected with this strain raw, never having a chance to bond with it like Alexia had, yet even still he was able to still think (shouting CLAIRE!) while in his mutated form, and he could transform himself back. This new strain has a lot of potential for her purposes, of transforming the user into something more powerful.

In terms of biological weaponry, I'm not sure how effective it'd be. I'm not even sure what the infection rate of T-Veronica is, because we only ever see it being directly injected. Whether Alexia could control T-Virus infected creatures is debateable, but I do believe there was an experimental T-Virus being worked on in CVX, different to the one in RE1-3. Whatever was in the bombs she was planning to use to be able to control everyone in the world, it would either be T-Veronica or this new T-Virus. Odd though that Wesker wouldn't mention it or mention trying to get a sample of it..

In terms of a biological weapon (by that I mean one with a good infection rate that would wipe out a population, not a tool to create B.O.Ws), I'd still say it would be the T-Virus. The G-Virus is good, but it can only replicate in a suitable host. Other than that, it just kills them. Whatever the T-Virus infects, it uses the host to infect more things, and it can infect just about anything, and has different reactions in anything it touches. It can also mutate humans into efficient fast killers (Crimson Heads/Lickers).

[Biohazard EX]

Zombies are just byproducts. I don't like to label them as B.O.W's, but I know what you mean.

Well, zombies are by-products, but at the same time, they are the result that Umbrella desired. I mean, there was that one document you find where they suggest that it would be good to capture enemy soldiers, infect them with T-Virus, then return them to their ranks and let them infect everyone else. It's a better form if biological warfare than just sending a pack of unarmed Hunters to do the job.
So I guess... The idea is that you turn P.O.W.s into B.O.W.s.

[News Bot]

yet even still he was able to still think (shouting CLAIRE!) while in his mutated form, and he could transform himself back

Curtis Miller does the exact same thing in Degeneration under the same circumstances, and that's the G-virus. The virus has nothing to do with them being able to retain their intelligence, it just depends on the time between mutation and when they see something (in Steve's case, Claire) that brings up some shred of emotion. Every virus has a period of time before the host is completely lost, something which Annette remarks about in RE2.

T-Veronica had no potential at all. But you are right about my proposed theory that there is a new T-virus strain in CVX that is airbourne. This one has a much higher infection rate.

Wesker was only interested in the B.O.W aspect of the viruses. He could care less about an in-efficient virus with minimal benefits and an even more catastrophic strain of a virus that merely creates troublesome beings.

[Biohazard EX]

Well, doesn't the T-Virus start off airborne anyway? I mean, otherwise, how the hell did it contaminate the lab and the mansion? We clearly know that the keeper was never bitten, or injected, nor did he lick any dead cerberus, or anything of the sort. Still he was infected.
Same with everyone in Raccoon City who was infected because of the rats.

[News Bot]

Well, doesn't the T-Virus start off airborne anyway? I mean, otherwise, how the hell did it contaminate the lab and the mansion? We clearly know that the keeper was never bitten, or injected, nor did he lick any dead cerberus, or anything of the sort. Still he was infected.
Same with everyone in Raccoon City who was infected because of the rats.

The water tank in the basement of the mansion (where the Neptune's were kept) was broken. I'm pretty sure this is the source of it, then the virus slowly spread through the mansion and the lab through an unknown method (though it was probably water).

The virus in CVX however, spread through a vent from a tiny lab and had the entire island infected and teeming with zombies and cerberus' in mere minutes.

[Biohazard EX]

The water tank in the basement of the mansion (where the Neptune's were kept) was broken. I'm pretty sure this is the source of it, then the virus slowly spread through the mansion and the lab.

But... Wasn't that the water that the sharks swam in? How does that have anything to do with the water that was running in the Mansion taps?

[News Bot]

But... Wasn't that the water that the sharks swam in? How does that have anything to do with the water that was running in the Mansion taps?

That's just the source. There are many ways the virus could've spread. Plant 42 was still being documented before the virus got to the researchers, and it sucked up the water.

There wasn't really much thought put into how the virus spread in RE1 anyway. Even rats could've spread it.

I'm more surprised snakes and crows got infected.

[Biohazard EX]

Yeah, but that's what speculation is for, right?
I mean, I hope I don't get lynched for this, but so far the best explanation I've seen is the one in the movie, that the virus goes from liquid, to airborne, to blood transmitted.

[Alexia_Ashford]

The virus in CVX however, spread through a vent from a tiny lab and had the entire island infected and teeming with zombies and cerberus' in mere minutes.

In that case though, how come Steve, Claire and Chris weren't infected? If it's because of the 10% of people who don't get infected from the T-Virus, surely there'd have been more survivors than that? And wasn't Rodrigo bitten by a zombie yet he didn't turn? o.O