Zombie Counts and Options

[RestInPieces]

Now you just have to permit yourself.

 

 

 

He just wants you to burn your cpu :/

[Adam the Waster]

Yes. Go to the eintityclasses.xml

Find this line for the zeds.

<property name="SightRange" value="30"/>

 

Change to something like:

<property name="SightRange" value="90"/>

and you will have more than enough coming to get you.

 

I think someone has already made a modlet for this, not sure.

Either way, its been able to be modded ever since they put in that property in the xml. <- not big stuffing it, just letting you know it has been like that for awhile, and is still viable in A18.x

 

bro your speaking latin to me. i followed a guide and it was confusing. took me a hour and it didn't work (granted it looked like it was a old alpha but i looked simimaler)

[Ghostlight]

So can anyone tell me the exact numbers to change in which files to achieve this?? I want lots of wandering zombies everywhere.

[Prisma501]

So can anyone tell me the exact numbers to change in which files to achieve this?? I want lots of wandering zombies everywhere.

 

Check the /increased wilderness zombies/ modlet from jax

 

https://7daystodie.com/forums/showthread.php?94906-JaxTeller718-Modlet-Collection

 

Cheers

[Boidster]

Edit - yes, take Prisma's advice. Unless you want to learn the XML and get into modding, use someone else's modlet. I'm a glutton for punishment so I DIY some of this easier stuff.

 

Original post below.

 

So can anyone tell me the exact numbers to change in which files to achieve this?? I want lots of wandering zombies everywhere.

 

Sure. If you want to directly edit spawning.xml, then look for this section:

 

<biome name="pine_forest">
 <spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="3" time="Day" entitygroup="ZombiesAll" />
 <spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="4" time="Night" entitygroup="ZombiesNight" />
 <spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="14" time="Any" entitygroup="EnemyAnimalsForest" spawnDeadChance="0" />
 <spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="21" time="Any" entitygroup="FriendlyAnimalsForest" spawnDeadChance="0" />
</biome>

 

Simply change "maxcount" to however many zombies you want in each spawning area* and change "respawndelay" downward if you want them to respawn more quickly (in game days). You can change day and night separately and change the hostile/friendly animals too. I upped them all and reduced all of their respawndelays as well (doing this for friendly animals will result in much more raw meat availability, so balance to your playstyle preferences).

 

*I am not certain how big a "spawning area" is, but it seems to have maybe a 5-10 chunk radius? Assume it's 10 chunks, so roughly 320x320m area. Setting maxcount=4 means at most 4 zombies will spawn in that area. As you drive through a very large forest you will go through many of these areas and each of them can have at most 4 zombies (they can wander into other areas of course). So it's not "4 zombies worldwide in forests"...you will see dozens of zombies as you move through the biome.

 

I have mine set to maxcount=4 and respawndelay=1 at the moment and it sure feels more like the old console game now. Push it as far as your PC (and you) can handle.

 

Repeat the above for the next few biomes - wasteland, desert, burned_forest, and snow. If you want a little variety in your snow biome, add this line in there anywhere between <biome name="snow"> and </biome>:

 

<spawn maxcount="2" respawndelay="1" time="Day" entitygroup="ZombiesAll" />

 

If you want to do it as a modlet, I can help you via direct message if you want (be warned - I am a modding neophyte; I just know how to use XPath, none of the fancy stuff).

[Ti2xGr]

I have been playing with the spawning.xml for some days now to get our map balanced per player requests. We have so many zombies in the Wasteland areas, we recommend not entering until later game stages (seriously). I am going to be adding Demolishers to randomly spawn there as well soon. We've bumped up the animal counts per biome as well. The snow and Desert biomes are "safer" in regard to zombie count in general so people who don't want to be "hassled" by zombies build in those biomes while those who want a challenge head toward the burnt forest or wasteland. The other biome areas are somewhere in the middle (Spawn count at 7 (and more animal life) with .5 for a day count (twice a day). We have it set for zombies spawning in the Wasteland 5 times a day and a count of 25 daytime and 35 at night. We capped the overall zombie count at 40 to keep client zombie counts reasonable enough so the lag on blood moon isn't too bad on pretty much any system.

[Adam the Waster]

Edit - yes, take Prisma's advice. Unless you want to learn the XML and get into modding, use someone else's modlet. I'm a glutton for punishment so I DIY some of this easier stuff.

 

Original post below.

 

 

 

Sure. If you want to directly edit spawning.xml, then look for this section:

 

<biome name="pine_forest">
 <spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="3" time="Day" entitygroup="ZombiesAll" />
 <spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="4" time="Night" entitygroup="ZombiesNight" />
 <spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="14" time="Any" entitygroup="EnemyAnimalsForest" spawnDeadChance="0" />
 <spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="21" time="Any" entitygroup="FriendlyAnimalsForest" spawnDeadChance="0" />
</biome>

 

Simply change "maxcount" to however many zombies you want in each spawning area* and change "respawndelay" downward if you want them to respawn more quickly (in game days). You can change day and night separately and change the hostile/friendly animals too. I upped them all and reduced all of their respawndelays as well (doing this for friendly animals will result in much more raw meat availability, so balance to your playstyle preferences).

 

*I am not certain how big a "spawning area" is, but it seems to have maybe a 5-10 chunk radius? Assume it's 10 chunks, so roughly 320x320m area. Setting maxcount=4 means at most 4 zombies will spawn in that area. As you drive through a very large forest you will go through many of these areas and each of them can have at most 4 zombies (they can wander into other areas of course). So it's not "4 zombies worldwide in forests"...you will see dozens of zombies as you move through the biome.

 

I have mine set to maxcount=4 and respawndelay=1 at the moment and it sure feels more like the old console game now. Push it as far as your PC (and you) can handle.

 

Repeat the above for the next few biomes - wasteland, desert, burned_forest, and snow. If you want a little variety in your snow biome, add this line in there anywhere between <biome name="snow"> and </biome>:

 

<spawn maxcount="2" respawndelay="1" time="Day" entitygroup="ZombiesAll" />

 

If you want to do it as a modlet, I can help you via direct message if you want (be warned - I am a modding neophyte; I just know how to use XPath, none of the fancy stuff).

 

i tried that i set it to 8 a few days ago and . i had zero zombies and animals. i don't know if there's a save setting ability.

[Boidster]

Check the /increased wilderness zombies/ modlet from jax

 

https://7daystodie.com/forums/showthread.php?94906-JaxTeller718-Modlet-Collection

 

Cheers

 

One small point about that modlet - it does not reduce respawndelay which is not a problem, just note that once an area is cleared of the random zombies and hostile animals, it will take 3 days, 4 days, and 14 days respectively for daytime, nighttime, and animals to respawn. If you want the place crawling with zombies and hostiles all the time, mod the modlet and reduce respawndelay.

[Boidster]

i tried that i set it to 8 a few days ago and . i had zero zombies and animals. i don't know if there's a save setting ability.

 

I'm going to assume that by "it" you mean the "maxcount" value? Which biome(s) did you change? All of them? You made the change under <steam install dir>\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die\Data\Config? You can confirm that the settings were applied by checking here (on Windows):

 

C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie\Saves\<mapname>\<savegame name>\ConfigsDump

 

The XML in there is dumped there each time you start the game. Changing it will have no effect - it just shows you what the game was using when it started.

 

There is no save settings - once the XML file is updated, it will be used upon game start. I assume you're not using a dedicated server; if you are it's slightly different. Same file, same edits, just a different file location.

 

If you made the change in the correct place, next step is to check the startup log.

 

<steam install dir>\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die\7DaysToDie_Data\output_log__date_time.txt

[Adam the Waster]

I'm going to assume that by "it" you mean the "maxcount" value? Which biome(s) did you change? All of them? You made the change under <steam install dir>\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die\Data\Config? You can confirm that the settings were applied by checking here (on Windows):

 

C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie\Saves\<mapname>\<savegame name>\ConfigsDump

 

The XML in there is dumped there each time you start the game. Changing it will have no effect - it just shows you what the game was using when it started.

 

There is no save settings - once the XML file is updated, it will be used upon game start. I assume you're not using a dedicated server; if you are it's slightly different. Same file, same edits, just a different file location.

 

If you made the change in the correct place, next step is to check the startup log.

 

<steam install dir>\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die\7DaysToDie_Data\output_log__date_time.txt

 

i play solo

 

 

and this stuff looks so confusing ill just stay out of it unit i find a video on it

[Boidster]

...with .5 for a day count (twice a day)

 

This is great to hear. Your map sounds fun. On first look, the default spawn settings for wasteland seemed very tame. Your sounds more like what I remember from prior versions including console. It was the No-Go Zone until you had advanced weapons and plenty of medkits.

[Boidster]

i play solo

 

 

and this stuff looks so confusing ill just stay out of it unit i find a video on it

 

Yeah, I take Roland's point about all of the "settings" being changeable in XML, but I can also understand that finding and editing XML (and reading log files for errors, ugh) isn't everybody's cup of tea. A UI setting will be better (I have faith TFP will add it).

 

You should try JaxTeller's mod, linked above. For that you just drop the file in your Mods folder and it works. No fiddling required.

[Adam the Waster]

Yeah, I take Roland's point about all of the "settings" being changeable in XML, but I can also understand that finding and editing XML (and reading log files for errors, ugh) isn't everybody's cup of tea. A UI setting will be better (I have faith TFP will add it).

 

You should try JaxTeller's mod, linked above. For that you just drop the file in your Mods folder and it works. No fiddling required.

 

but i don't even know how to mod

[Boidster]

but i don't even know how to mod

 

Well there is a tutorial on the Wiki, but it's kind of poorly written IMO. There are also a couple of YT videos, just search for "7d2d install modlet". I watched two of them and...well...YT creators need to learn how to teach people, but the information is perfectly accurate.

 

If you can do these three things, then you can install mods:

 

1) Create a folder on your hard drive

2) Download a ZIP file from the internet

3) Unzip that file the folder you created

 

Those are the only skills needed. Specifically for the Jaxteller mod linked above:

 

1) Create this folder (if it doesn't exist already):

 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die\Mods

 

2) Click the link that Prisma501 gave above; it will start a download of "JaxTeller718_IncreasedWildernessZombiesX3.zip"; save it wherever you want, just make sure you can find it

 

3) Unzip that file into the \Mods folder you created in step 1

 

Start your game and you should have x3 the usual zombies roaming around.

[Adam the Waster]

Well there is a tutorial on the Wiki, but it's kind of poorly written IMO. There are also a couple of YT videos, just search for "7d2d install modlet". I watched two of them and...well...YT creators need to learn how to teach people, but the information is perfectly accurate.

 

ok Thank you!

 

 

 

 

however the modlet is A18.2. i don't know if it would work on A18.3

 

 

again thank you.

[Tehnomaag]

In my opinion the number of "wandering" zombies is pretty OK. Once you get the hang of it dealing with small amount of zombies during a daytime is relatively trivial even on higher difficulties. There is always an option to up the difficulty some to punish yourself more for over extending and getting hit by a random walker but at some point it just makes the fights more tedious as zombies turn into damage sponges.

 

So yeah - the "danger" part is POI's / dungeons with a more limited manuevering room and if you miss some sleepers in closets behind you and wake them up by making a lot of noise fighting someone then you can get jumped occasionally by a surprise sleeper creeping up on you from behind. At higher difficulties and early game with little to no armor it can be pretty punishing to get hit by a zed doing 150% or 300% of the normal damage per hit.

 

There is a lot of options to up the challenge for people who look for it. Up to an optional permadeath mode and additional intermediate steps like the option to delete the stuff you had on you when you died, droppign everything, dropping only backback or toolbelt, etc. Option to make zombies faster even during daytime, etc etc.

[Nauman Marwat]

Vultures always attack you if you are in a vehicle. They hate vehicles with a passion.

Lol I use that as a bait.

[Ghostlight]

Thanks for all that. I'm happy editing XML. A quick question on "resapwndelay". I have set their awareness/sight to 200 so they should be coming for me at all times from a large distance. However if I kill them all, will that be it for a full day. In short, can respawndelay be set at a value less than 1 such as 0.1? I see little point in a larger zombie count if I can just kill them and be back where I started in an empty world.

[w00kien00kie]

Decimal/float values may actually work looking at the code. Will need to test to be sure.

[Roland]

Also, what if zero is used as a value or what if that part is deleted completely?

[Ghostlight]

Edit - yes, take Prisma's advice. Unless you want to learn the XML and get into modding, use someone else's modlet. I'm a glutton for punishment so I DIY some of this easier stuff.

 

Original post below.

 

 

 

Sure. If you want to directly edit spawning.xml, then look for this section:

 

<biome name="pine_forest">
 <spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="3" time="Day" entitygroup="ZombiesAll" />
 <spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="4" time="Night" entitygroup="ZombiesNight" />
 <spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="14" time="Any" entitygroup="EnemyAnimalsForest" spawnDeadChance="0" />
 <spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="21" time="Any" entitygroup="FriendlyAnimalsForest" spawnDeadChance="0" />
</biome>

 

Simply change "maxcount" to however many zombies you want in each spawning area* and change "respawndelay" downward if you want them to respawn more quickly (in game days).

 

OK I will trying this tonight. However one thing does confuse me. Is the snippet of XML above the current settings that I can expect to see when I edit my XML? Because that would imply there is only 1 zombie per pine forest area and it respawns in 3 days if killed. Much as I complain about the lack of zombies, I do see more than that!! How come?

[Roland]

I think it is per chunk. And there can be several chunks around you loaded at once. In the options if you have view distance to max I believe the game loads a 10-12 chunk radius around you so that is a lot of potential spawns. For A18, TFP changed it so that the more distant loaded chunks would no longer spawn since you may never interact with them directly and only the few chunks immediately around you would spawn.

 

Also in my own modlet I copied and pasted the “spawndeadchance = 0” to every entity spawning line instead of just the few shown above in the code snippet and that seemed to make a difference—but it may also just be in my head.

[Adam the Waster]

OK I will trying this tonight. However one thing does confuse me. Is the snippet of XML above the current settings that I can expect to see when I edit my XML? Because that would imply there is only 1 zombie per pine forest area and it respawns in 3 days if killed. Much as I complain about the lack of zombies, I do see more than that!! How come?

 

same its very confusing. mostly due to the fact that i have a brain of a zombie monkey

[Boidster]

OK I will trying this tonight. However one thing does confuse me. Is the snippet of XML above the current settings that I can expect to see when I edit my XML? Because that would imply there is only 1 zombie per pine forest area and it respawns in 3 days if killed. Much as I complain about the lack of zombies, I do see more than that!! How come?

 

Yes, the snippet I showed is the default values.

 

I think it is per chunk.

 

Really? Probably I'm confused due to ignorance about how it decides if it will spawn zombies into a chunk. Maybe it is max 4 per chunk (under my new settings) but the odds of any chunk spawning a zombie are really quite low and maybe even the code does a nearby-chunk test to make sure it doesn't overpopulate due to RNG shenanigans (imagine if 6 adjacent chunks all 'rolled' max 4 spawned zombies - insta-horde!). So it appears as if the spawn area is much larger than a single chunk, but really it's just that only 5% or whatever of chunks actually get a spawn trigger activated.

 

I will say that I am getting 'bothered' by zombies around town quite a bit more now. Even had a cheerleader drop into my under-construction pit trap while I was working. It startled me 'cause it has been so long since really any zombies bugged me when working. Feels like old times!

[Roland]

Well I did say "I think". It could be per 2 chunks or per 3 chunks or even in a particular radius around the player. Whatever "it" is, it isn't exposed to xml so we have to work with whatever it is.

 

I do know that "it" is not an entire biome.