They are defiantly able to run... I lost count on how many runners i have had.
My last death ( when i stopped playing because ... fed up ) involved the Zombie type that in Vanilla normally is the big head weaver.
Entered a hardware store that i cleared mostly. Wanted to finalize looting the backroom ( it was already broken open as i activated the sleepers before and draw most of them out ).
Enter and look inside ( long darkish room but spotted no obvious Zombie sleepers ). Turn left, place several wood frames to block the doorway so nobody can sneak up on me. Before i knew what happened, i had this Zombie on my neck ( lets say it was bad for my heart ). As i tried to get away, it was ran so fast i was clearly a running variant. It also made no sound until it started hitting on my skull. I jumped probably 20cm in my chair here not expecting a Z attack and it took me beyond any surprise.
I have had running Zombies even during pure day time.
* Fat Hawaii zombies running in daylight and outside. Check. One dead from a Hawaii sleeper that activated on the floor above me and broke out, jumped down and ... even trying to outrun him on the street. No go and dead.
* Hungry Fat Women zombies running. O yes in daylight.
* Slim ( normally head weaving in Vanilla ) running. O freaking yes. Two dead ( one inside sleeper ).
* The darker skinned security Zombie running. O yes ... That one activated after my last dead when i tried to get my stuff back.
Horde spawns in 3 or 4 runners. I was pure lucky that when the horde spawned in, that i had just moved to go chop a tree and a building prevented them from detecting me. As the AI is designed to run to your exact position when they spawn/activate. But i so clearly notice 3 or 4 running Z's first, then followed by more normal walking Z's. And was thinking if i did not move by pure change to go after a tree, they will have been one me so fast like the Zombie dogs.
Type:
All of them had NO red eyes that i can remember. Just normal default types. That last game was only 5 days in with 2 deads so the game never spawns advanced zombies like that.
The only Zombie with special eyes has been a special /custom school girl zombie that attacked and that was a 100/iron club/pummelPete 1 bullet sponge that took so many hits to put down it was insane.
Note: that Zombie did not turn into goo and was not harvestable!
The issue is that Starvation seems to mix animations patterns. Aka give crawling zombie pattern to Hungry Fat Women or ...
And i assumed that one of the animation being the running Feral running animation was also randomly getting spawned. Finding out that this is not normal behavior surprises me. I assume that like with other mods this was done deliberately to make it (insane!) harder.
Given the quote mentioning shade or inside, well, some of them did spawn from inside sleepers. But it does not explain the horde with runners or from a previous game attempt one slim weaving Zombie on Day 1 that got activated on the street and ran a marathon behind me.
I remember trying out Starvation in the past with A15 and also getting running Zombies on the street on Day 1 and giving up on the game because of it ( i hate runners ), so my assumption was with A16 this was still normal behavior.
Note: using 7D2D Mod launcher to cleanly separate mods. Other mods are Vanilla and Ravenhearst.
Side note: So far every runner zombie has been when i was inside a city zone. Grassland city, plains city, with a small bit of cactus in the middle .. areas you expect to be more peaceful. But when you even get rare rat scorpions spawning ( no hyenas or snakes in that city in 5 days )...
Silenced Zs.
Also not the first time that i got Z's that simply do not make a sound. Customs like the Yeti at times make sound but can also not make sounds ( see below ). One of them was also a Semi-runner.
Start of game:
Another issue is that when you start a new game, Zombies in your area are not activated until midday so you can have a change to harvest / get your gear done.
But ... Spiders, Yetis, snow panthers etc are actived. As a result you can be shopping wood only to have a sneaky Yeti be on your behind and nothing to defend. Or having Spiders running very fast and large patterns forcing you to fight them ( with almost nothing ) or getting pushed outside the safe zone into more animal foes or getting pushed outside the safe zone into a area that will trigger early Zombie spawns.
Trust me, not my first rodeo with 7D2D
I know most of the tricks and normally if a Z surprises me, its because of lack of attention on my part. But running Zs inside a building can be frustrating. Even outside runners with even runners on Day 1. And even worse when some Zs do not even make a sound. Its just a hart attack game like that. I like a challenge but with the current Starvation runners / silent Zs issue that i had, it was like playing with constant tension level at 1000%.
I even ended up using Rust game tactics none stop circle bolder resource gathering because i knew how fast those runners got to me.
See above. One can only say in the last encounter when i finally was fed up, that was the direct result of my dead. Getting stuck with a running Zombie inside a enclosed wood framed room with a running Z. And i was not even stunned, he was so fast on my behind without a sound, dropping my health by half before even turning to know what the hell is hitting me. Tried to get move, jumped, moved another meter, dead ...
The chair trick is a big AI cheat. Its like misusing there AI so i try to avoid it. It makes the game less fun.
But to prevent sneaky Zombies, i try to mine on wood frames to prevent sneaky Zombies from surprising me. Building wood ramps, standing 2 frames high, picking up the old ones while crouched, moving to a new spot 3 frame away. Bridge building i like to call it, especially in biomes with too much grass where if you crouch you have 0 visibility. But that does not work inside buildings ...
