What are the actual rules for preventing zombie spawn in a player base?

[AlyssaFaden]

There's about 3 rules I've read about to stop zombies spawning in a base/taken over POI. None of them are working.

 

1. Bedroll.

Nope. Doesn't work. Unless the range prevention from said bedroll is particularly small.

 

2. Claim Block.

Nope. Doesn't work. In two POIs now the range of the block has been well beyond the POI itself, and yet in both POIs zombies have respawned.

 

3. Improve the blocks on the ground so they're now player owned blocks.

Nope, doesn't work. I improved the entire floor to improved concrete and then had half a dozen irradiateds spawn in the very room in which the floor was "player made".

 

So what _are_ the rules for zombie spawning, or is it just bugged and erratic?

[h1tm3h]

Is it torches?

[SylenThunder]

[h=3]Sticky: FAQ: How does zombie spawning work?[/h]

I don't believe the bedroll blocks now that the LCB does. LCB's are know to be pretty buggy as to whether they actually function atm.

 

3 hasn't worked since at least a9.

 

Don't build in POI's and you won't have much of an issue though.

[AlyssaFaden]

hey thanks for the sticky, that's appreciated. and thanks for the information as this aligns to my ingame experiences

[Juliet_Capulet]

We had zombies spawning in our base, until we replaced all the grass (ground) blocks with wooden floors.

[Hazeree]

I thought that placing blocks on all spawnable areas stopped them, not simply upgrading the existing.

 

Examples: Upgrading the already wooden floor to reinforced wood or scrap iron does not block spawns.

 

Placing new blocks (like forges, chests, or simple wooden plates) stops the spawning.

 

Player placed items that are not part of the POI stops spawning. Zeds dont spawn unless there is a nice clear floor space (never seen sleepers on beds or furniture). This means that every block space needs to be occupied, and putting the flattest block (plates) makes it easy to be able to walk around.

 

But not entirely certain of this.

[SylenThunder]

I thought that placing blocks on all spawnable areas stopped them, not simply upgrading the existing.

 

Examples: Upgrading the already wooden floor to reinforced wood or scrap iron does not block spawns.

 

Placing new blocks (like forges, chests, or simple wooden plates) stops the spawning.

 

Player placed items that are not part of the POI stops spawning.

No. This hasn't worked since a16.

 

 

... Zeds dont spawn unless there is a nice clear floor space (never seen sleepers on beds or furniture). This means that every block space needs to be occupied, and putting the flattest block (plates) makes it easy to be able to walk around.

 

But not entirely certain of this.

They will spawn in the next available vertical space. Which may be your roof.

[AtomicUs5000]

I've tested this once.

If you place a block exactly where the spawn is, it doesn't always guarantee that they won't spawn. Sometimes they just appear directly above... at the next location vertically that has enough space. This you can see sometimes on horde night if zombies clip into a wall and get sent upward to your otherwise inaccessible area.

 

So if you did this in a POI, you will likely end up with zombies on your roof. It does stop it most of the time though. I think what makes it not work sometimes is that it depends on the size of the sleeper volume that triggers the spawn. I suppose if you have a lot going on in a large POI, it is possible to trigger a spawn split-seconds before blocks are materialized, essentially causing this clipping.

 

One thing I found that seems to stop them 100% of the time is placing a water block at that exact spawn location. Perhaps water is rendered before other things. If it's a spawner that spawns an upright, standing zombie, it has to be at ground level. I discovered this when trying to spawn crawlers in a sewer system I made. I got around it by triggering spawns floating above the water so that they actually spawn in the air and fall in before the player gets close. Surprisingly they stay asleep.

 

None of this solves the problem reasonably... I just thought I would share what I found from playing around with stuff one day.