Pushed Around and Other Nuisances

[Anxiety123]

So, since Google has failed me, I'll go ahead and ask.  Has anyone else had trouble with zombies (esp. fast things like dogs) pushing them around?  Pushing them through walls?  Dogs pushing themselves underneath you, passing behind you, and biting you in the ass?  This happens to me surprisingly often and I haven't found any sign that other players have the same experience.

 

Also, I've been playing since early A18 (still incompetent, but not a newbie either) and I can't find a reliable way to deal with the A19 dire wolves in the early game if they catch me in an open field (e.g. dire wolf hiding in a tree).  I'll throw an honorable mention out to the gamestage 4 dog hordes.  They're too fast to outrun.  I usually can't pole up effectively;  they wreck wooden structures and I often can't even place a block since they love to stick their noses in the way.  They're way too beefy to fight.  If I'm near a building, I have options.  In an open field, death is guaranteed.  It feels unfair.

[meganoth]

Does sound like something is wrong with your game. Have you every used mods? If yes, check if there is anything in a directory "Mods" in your install directory, it may mess with the game, especially if it is outdated.

 

Best would be to create a video of dogs pushing you on youtube or similar and post a link to it.

 

[Anxiety123]

I do use mods.  Too many.  No DLL mods, though.  The pushing could be mod-related and that thought did occur to me.  I don't remember it happening in A18 though, so it could also be an issue with A19.  That's why I asked.

[meganoth]

2 hours ago, Anxiety123 said:

I do use mods.  Too many.  No DLL mods, though.  The pushing could be mod-related and that thought did occur to me.  I don't remember it happening in A18 though, so it could also be an issue with A19.  That's why I asked.

The best method to find out more is to start a separate vanilla game and see if the problem turns up there too. To play modded and unmodded at the same time just make a copy of the installation directory and remove the mod folder there. Then start the copied version by executing 7d.launcher.exe (or something similar) directly. You have to have steam running for the copy to work.

 

 

[Roland]

17 hours ago, Anxiety123 said:

Also, I've been playing since early A18 (still incompetent, but not a newbie either) and I can't find a reliable way to deal with the A19 dire wolves in the early game if they catch me in an open field (e.g. dire wolf hiding in a tree).  I'll throw an honorable mention out to the gamestage 4 dog hordes.  They're too fast to outrun.  I usually can't pole up effectively;  they wreck wooden structures and I often can't even place a block since they love to stick their noses in the way.  They're way too beefy to fight.  If I'm near a building, I have options.  In an open field, death is guaranteed.  It feels unfair.

 

This sounds like it is possibly the result of a mod. Most animals in the vanilla game cannot overtake a player running unencumbered. If you are encumbered either from inventory or heavy armor then, yes, you can be overtaken but if not you should be able to outrun everything and the wild animals have a territorial tag that makes them give up pursuing you if you keep running and have enough stamina in the tank. But you also have to be flat out running with your back turned to them and not trying to back away while shooting.

 

[Anxiety123]

I checked the ConfigsDump for my save.  The dire wolves there are identical to the vanilla XML, except the lines end end with "/>" instead of " />" (note the whitespace) or vice versa, but that's irrelevant.  I don't think anything affects player speed, and I know I've been outrun and mauled while unencumbered, otherwise uninjured, and unarmored.  I don't think the dogs have actually overtaken me, but I can't seem to outrun them either.  I seem to outrun mountain lions and bears.  Dire wolves, however, seem to just outpace me and I don't think that's from a mod.  So my difficulties dealing with dire wolf ambushes for the first maybe 20 levels are just standard gameplay, I think.  If you have any advice for surviving them in an open field, with no POIs for daring parkour escapes, please share.

[theFlu]

The obvious solution sounds a little .. obnoxious, but I'll start with that: Having problems in open fields? Don't go to open fields...

 

Of course, you'll want to cross some. And wood frames are unreliable because they're weak and hard to stack while dodging a wolf. So, use something more durable (cobblestone) and stack it up before the wolf needs dodging. In other words, make tiny towers as you go, with a jump-up-system of your choice. Two cobble blocks with a wood frame nearby, maybe a torch on the side (carry a few extras) - to spot it when you inevitably run through the area in the night.

[MechanicalLens]

11 hours ago, meganoth said:

Does sound like something is wrong with your game. Have you every used mods? If yes, check if there is anything in a directory "Mods" in your install directory, it may mess with the game, especially if it is outdated.

 

Best would be to create a video of dogs pushing you on youtube or similar and post a link to it.

 

 

There is one mod that decreases zombie reach. The consequence of it was exactly as OP described. Uninstalling it fixed the issue.

@Anxiety123 Check for this mod and if you have it, uninstall it.

[Boidster]

18 hours ago, Anxiety123 said:

I don't think the dogs have actually overtaken me, but I can't seem to outrun them either.  I seem to outrun mountain lions and bears.  Dire wolves, however, seem to just outpace me and I don't think that's from a mod.  So my difficulties dealing with dire wolf ambushes for the first maybe 20 levels are just standard gameplay, I think. 

 

I did some testing related to this last year, but didn't include dire wolves. I'll re-run the test with regular and dire wolves.

 

Edit: testing complete. My test track was a flat road. Critter spawned into open pen on right side, I started running from the block embedded in the road across from the "0" sign. So I had about a 10m head start.

 

 

 

Results:

NAKED LEVEL 1 SURVIVOR	Wolf	Dire Wolf
Running for 50% stamina	Lost interest after 10m	Right behind me
Running for 100% stamina	NA	Bit me at 90m, killed me by 130m

 

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by Boidster (see edit history)

[Anxiety123]

20 hours ago, MechanicalLens said:

 

There is one mod that decreases zombie reach. The consequence of it was exactly as OP described. Uninstalling it fixed the issue.

@Anxiety123 Check for this mod and if you have it, uninstall it.

Thank you.  This explains that problem.  I made my own mod to reduce every enemy's reach by 35% IIRC.  I hate that the vanilla zombies have six-foot gibbon arms.  I don't plan to disable that mod any time soon, since it really helps in multiplayer when one player lags horribly, but at least I know why it happens so frequently.

 

That said, I did have a chicken push me last night.  It was fleeing a building as I tried to enter and shoved me out of the way.  So that's a thing.

 

3 hours ago, Boidster said:

 

 

 

 

Cool.

 

I've long wondered something and never bothered to test it.  The actual MoveSpeedAggro value on dire wolves doesn't look out of line compared to some other creatures.  I wonder if the size scale affects it.  Some other games work that way (e.g. Morrowind).

Edited April 28, 2021 by Anxiety123 (see edit history)