Zombie Numbers

[Crater Creator]

Now that people have had time to really get into Alpha 17... exploring all the new points of interest... using them as bases and quest destinations... journeying across the reorganized biomes and new random world generation in vehicles new and old... I'm curious what people think about the number of zombies in the world: both the sleepers in points of interest, and the wanderers/biome zombies out in the wilderness. Did Alpha 17 get it right, or do you want more or less in either location?

 

Standard disclaimer: this poll was not The Fun Pimp's idea and will not necessarily be influential.

[AtomicUs5000]

I checked "The same number of zombies inside" because what I would really prefer is a change based on POI. Some large houses have too many zombies, which makes me want to check "Fewer zombies inside. It's not a clown car!"... but there are other larger POI's, POI's considered public places where the possibility of a large crowd is rather likely and for those I want to check "More zombies inside. It's an infestation!" So, the best I could do to just say "The same number of zombies inside".

 

For outside, I would like more. Not so much the individual zombie in the wild... but more in city streets and absolutely more in a wandering horde. Hopefully optimizations will return those wandering hordes to what they once were.

[Lanadon Conners]

I chose Fewer inside because there are some POIs that are just unrealistic when it comes to numbers inside. I mean was there a family reunion when the apocalypse hit?

 

Outside I would like a bit more randomness in the makeup of Hordes. I can see an entire horde of soldiers or football players and when I encounter them, I get excited and cheer; totally immersed, but I seem to mostly encounter herds with mostly Nurses, cheerleaders or Mama Junes.

 

For myself, a "Herd" should have at least one of each zombie type (cops and spiders included) and maybe a few new types (hint hint).

[Star69]

Should be an option for more zombies inside and outside! More zombies everywhere.

[AtomicUs5000]

Should be an option for more zombies inside and outside! More zombies everywhere.

 

You can choose multiple

[OzHawkeye]

I don't mind the relative number of zombies inside buildings, but I feel like the game has lost something vital since A10 (or so) days, when you would approach a city and (if you'd jacked up the spawn rate for cities as we did massively) you'd see a real horde of zombies awaiting you.

 

We'd have a hundred or more on the A10 server we played the most, and wandering hordes could be almost as big.

 

Special attack zombies, feral zombies, irradiated zombies, flying zombies, jumping zombies, they're all a little lost on me, if I can't get a true horde of zombies, though it may just be simply beyond the Unity-7Days combination to do it now I realise.

[bdubyah]

We definitely need more outside. Lots more in cities/hubs, and even a bit more wandering around the biomes. I agree with Atomic in that I'd like to see lower amounts in normal houses/small stores and stuff. The Factory/Skyscraper POIs should have plenty, though.

[KingSlayerGM]

Great poll @Crater! You always find clever ways to pose questions in the polls.

 

I hope that many people will vote and that TFP will take note of the results.

[Crater Creator]

Great poll @Crater! You always find clever ways to pose questions in the polls.

 

I hope that many people will vote and that TFP will take note of the results.

 

Thanks, KingSlayer! I was inspired partly by your suggestion in the Dev Diary.

[Arrek]

I don't mind the relative number of zombies inside buildings, but I feel like the game has lost something vital since A10 (or so) days, when you would approach a city and (if you'd jacked up the spawn rate for cities as we did massively) you'd see a real horde of zombies awaiting you.

 

This is something I really miss too, I remember fondly those first trips into the 0,0 city in a game and having to battle from block to block literally everything, or if I was unable to do that maybe make a mad dash into somewhere and grab what I could and hope to avoid the doggos. It was different from fighting my way into a room, I was fighting my way into the city I guess.

 

I tend to agree with the sentiments that normal houses and smaller POI have a few too many whereas the big ones pack them in there, factories can have tons of workers per shift.

[theFlu]

My rig won't agree with my vote, but, same inside, more outside. With the caveat of "same" meaning a better distribution. Some jam-packed, some almost or entirely empty.

MAYBE even tied to loot of a place, be the house big or small, the crowd was there for a purpose, trying to survive. With their gear.

Same POIs could have a clean and a barricaded version. "No-one ever fortified this" so it just ended up cleared of stuff, but otherwise "normal". With very limited zombies, they essentially wandered off. Less loot? yeah. And no, just a bit more travel.

Of course having a Shotty factory spawn "empty" would be a sad day ..

 

And that would be quite some effort to "clean" some of the current dungeon crawls, for the active benefit of getting to get disappointed when approaching a POI...

[crazyduck]

More roaming Zombies outside and not so many inside is my vote. It makes not much sense if i go into a small POI and 10 or 20 zombies waiting inside, or if i go into such a Poi and find 4 Zombies waiting inside a small Bedroom or some sort of small Storage Room. or 5 above the room waiting to jump down.

 

If more Zombies walk around outside this can become a real risk for looting too, if this zombies hear the player they could search for the source of this noise would be much more immersive and woudl also make much more sense.

[ktr]

1.) Fewer zombies inside - What I want in my heart of hearts is a small reduction in small to moderate size POIs overall coupled with variance. It's very rare to run across a POI that's empty or has only one zombie in it. A smidge more variety would be nice!

 

2.) Same number outside, but again with some variance. Small towns should have a few zombies wandering the streets, larger towns should have more, and further you get away from civilization (or what's left of it) the less you find until one of them wandering hordes blows past!

[Hek Harris]

I only die in POIs, never outside. That's why I want more z inside POIs and less outside. Outside's zombies are just easy XP, except when they are set on high speed.

[RestInPieces]

As expected and as people have been saying for a long time now, first and last options are the most popular by far. There should also be a large factor of randomness to both, simply because the world will feel less artificial with it.

 

except when they are set on high speed.

 

And the zombie nightmare speed is still no match for the player's speed...

[ktr]

As expected and as people have been saying for a long time now, first and last options are the most popular by far. There should also be a large factor of randomness to both, simply because the world will feel less artificial with it.

 

 

 

And the zombie nightmare speed is still no match for the player's speed...

 

Does the player stamina not balance it? I've never played with zombies on nightmare speed, but I've had a couple of run ins with dogs where stamina was my downfall.

[RestInPieces]

Does the player stamina not balance it? I've never played with zombies on nightmare speed, but I've had a couple of run ins with dogs where stamina was my downfall.

 

You can casually kite zombies in a nightmare speed blood moon while picking up stuff without getting any hits. You can even evade zombies on nightmare speed without perks, while having infection stage 3 with barely any stamina if you time your sprints by sprinting for a second before they hit.

 

If you do the same with dogs they are not an issue and at a non-malnourished/diseased state, your character regens way more stamina than what is needed to put some distance between you and the dog, hit it and repeat. Only using melee power attacks while doing it can make things problematic as they cost a lot and stop your regen for a moment.

 

I'd say that stamina, after the latest changes, not only doesn't limit you, but is mostly decorative, as long as you don't spam power attacks or neglect your character's basic needs.

[ktr]

You can casually kite zombies in a nightmare speed blood moon while picking up stuff without getting any hits. You can even evade zombies on nightmare speed without perks, while having infection stage 3 with barely any stamina if you time your sprints by sprinting for a second before they hit.

 

If you do the same with dogs they are not an issue and at a non-malnourished/diseased state, your character regens way more stamina than what is needed to put some distance between you and the dog, hit it and repeat. Only using melee power attacks while doing it can make things problematic as they cost a lot and stop your regen for a moment.

 

I'd say that stamina, after the latest changes, not only doesn't limit you, but is mostly decorative, as long as you don't spam power attacks or neglect your character's basic needs.

 

 

Then it sounds like that definitely needs adjusting. I can see a player being faster than zombies (generally) even on Nightmare speed, but I'd think it'd be for short bursts and being generally healthy.

 

 

I realize now that I should have said the encumbrance is generally my downfall as opposed to stamina.

[JCrook1028]

I don't mind the relative number of zombies inside buildings, but I feel like the game has lost something vital since A10 (or so) days, when you would approach a city and (if you'd jacked up the spawn rate for cities as we did massively) you'd see a real horde of zombies awaiting you.

 

We'd have a hundred or more on the A10 server we played the most, and wandering hordes could be almost as big.

 

Special attack zombies, feral zombies, irradiated zombies, flying zombies, jumping zombies, they're all a little lost on me, if I can't get a true horde of zombies, though it may just be simply beyond the Unity-7Days combination to do it now I realise.

 

It's not the engine's limitation. Ravenhearst has HUGE wandering hordes and they work perfectly.

[Tin]

For me:

 

I would like to see a wider range and variety of numbers in poi's of all sizes, but not just packing every place with sleepers, which is currently done in 17.2.

Some places should have many, even the smaller places; Some places should have few, even the larger places; Some places have none, because nobody was there during a super horde night.

 

Zombies roam, and there's super horde nights every 7days (if playing default), so a small shack in the middle of nowhere could conceivably have a ton of zombies inhabiting it, since a survivor (at one time), decided to stay their thinking they were more safe out in the middle of nowhere. On the flip side, some factory in the middle of a city, could have no zombies in it, since those people working there, were smart enough to evacuate and go home, get the family, and hunker down in their home, or leave for the countryside.

 

I just don't find having boatloads of zombies in just about every poi that compelling of game play. I know right? If you played my PoC mods in A16 ("The Dying Lands" or even more so "The Devils Eden"), I did something similar to what they are doing currently, so this is old hat for me.

At first it's pretty riveting and excitable, just from the shear slaughtering that is being done, but after awhile.. it starts just to get exhausting.

 

I also feel about the same for the biome zeds; I find it acceptable, but lacking all at the same time. While I can see some biomes being sparse in the biome zombie count (Burnt forest, desert, snow), other biomes (like Wasteland, Pine forest) are severely lacking in the biome zombie count.

 

*The only reason I say the Pine forest is severely lacking is (from my perspective): It's where I would think most people tend to settle.. More people in that particular biome = place where the food is for Zombies = Zombies migrate to the food = biome has more Zombies*

 

The reason I say more needs to be in the wasteland is: Just liked having a biome that was overloaded with them, while being a place to avoid, at first, it was fun going on a zombie killing spree every now and then, once you got a bit more outfitted.

 

So uhh.. I don't really fit in any of the poll choices

[KingSlayerGM]

snip

 

I really agree with you, and you stated it so well. More variety in POIs and more Zombies outside.

 

However I also miss the city spawned zombies. Those wandering zombies that spawned in cities when you approached. They made approaching cities risky.

[n2n1]

Less inside, x100 more outside.

it is necessary that it was dangerous to explore the world and not the houses.

 

That's how much should be in the Horde Night....or more...

[ravend]

Less poi's and more zombies outside. We shouldn't have free rain to wander freely so much. They traded worry about wandering zombies for jump scares. Hell I don't even need to fortify my base as much.

 

Poi's are easy now, just open up a door fire a few rounds and make noise. Step 2 is kill them as the come thru 1 at a time. Step 3 loot.

 

Look around and see if 1 or 2 zombies come from the sides and repeat to the next poi.

[Roland]

Less poi's and more zombies outside. We shouldn't have free rain to wander freely so much. They traded worry about wandering zombies for jump scares. Hell I don't even need to fortify my base as much.

 

Poi's are easy now, just open up a door fire a few rounds and make noise. Step 2 is kill them as the come thru 1 at a time. Step 3 loot.

 

Look around and see if 1 or 2 zombies come from the sides and repeat to the next poi.

 

Just curious about how having fewer zombies inside would change your step 1, 2, 3 strategy one bit...?

[Star69]

I would like to see more sleepers not respond to gunshots. It kind of seems cheesy to walk up to a building, fire a shot and the whole building empties out. Having a few still hiding somewhere to jump out at you while looting will keep your heart rate up the whole time. I don’t want to feel safe in buildings that aren’t my base. It’s all about the fear factor for me.