Playing around with Feral Sense settings in xml files.

[Kyonshi]

I like the Feral Sense feature but im wondering if there's an in-between and if its achievable by modifying some values in its xml settings.

Like i turned it on in one of my game at early stage and it was kinda overwhelming. I had a hard time progressing in the map. Now i know its supposed to make the game harder, but like now it felt way too much. So i turned it off just to see the difference and then it felt like the whole town was empty... And im playing with the Dangerous Cities modlet, which increase the count and spawn rate of zombies in towns and cities!

So my question is where in the xml files are the Feral Sense coding lines and what values should i modify to find a setting that's just right for my taste?

[Boidster]

Look in entityclasses.xml. There are only three settings:

 

ZombieTemplateMale:     <property name="AIFeralSense" value="1.5"/>
ZombieBear:     <property name="AIFeralSense" value="1.2"/>
ZombieDog:     <property name="AIFeralSense" value="1.6"/>

 

My guess is that the lower the number, the weaker the "sense". Have not played with it myself, though.

 

Edit to add: poking in the code, it would seem that this is a straight-up multiplier for the base sense range of the entity.

 

    this.sightRange = this.sightRangeBase;
    if (this.aiManager != null)
    {
      this.senseScale = (float) (1.0 + (double) EAIManager.CalcSenseScale() * (double) this.aiManager.feralSense);
      this.sightRange = this.sightRangeBase * this.senseScale;
    }

 

In pseudo-code this reads:

 

Get the base sense range for this entity

Get the game-wide sense scaling, if any (EAIManager.CalcSenseScale())

Get the entity's own Feral Sense value  (this.aiManager.feralSense)

Calculate ScalingFactor = (1 + [game scaling] + [entity feral sense])

Actual sight range = [base range] * [ScalingFactor]

 

Note that they call it "sight range" but it appears to be used for sound as well. Sounds in the game have a "range", but do not attenuate - if gunfire has a range of 100m, the full volume is "hearable" for 100m for the purposes of calculating whether a zombie heard it. See Steath.txt.

Edited January 31, 2022 by Boidster (see edit history)