No zombies around?

[-Holo-]

Zombies seemingly stopping to respawn, maybe related to screamers not spawning in hordes?

Both these issues are something that me and my friends playing on my dedicated server har noticed over several alphas now, especially 20 and 21 now with the new downtown cityblocks.

Initially there's zombies sprawling around the city, but after a while they're just gone and can walk around hundreds of meters of downtown without a zombie in sight.

The zombie cap in the dedicatedconfig.xml I have increased to over 5000 now just to see if anything happens. but nope.
 

Also noticed that more often then not, nothing happens when a screamer screams. No errors nor spawns appear.

 

Has anyone else came across this behavior?

 

 

 

 

[BFT2020]

Have you tried cleaning out the game data?

[-Holo-]

7 hours ago, BFT2020 said:

Have you tried cleaning out the game data?

oh yes. many many times. And the dedicated is always a newinstall too.

[BFT2020]

Going to need to see server and client log files to see how the game manager is spawning enemies

[-Holo-]

Managed to get lucky with a quick test today as a screamer came to say hi.
From around 21:39 I encountered her, and ran around a circle kiting her around to get her to scream, which she did twice. but No zombies spawed so killed her at 21:41.
This is from the server:

2023-09-14T21:39:03 450619.987 INF VehicleManager saved 4625 bytes
2023-09-14T21:39:22 450639.154 INF Entity zombieSteveCrawler 61747 killed by ***
2023-09-14T21:39:30 450647.142 INF Time: 7510.13m FPS: 20.10 Heap: 2670.5MB Max: 4098.1MB Chunks: 658 CGO: 66 Ply: 2 Zom: 9 Ent: 19 (646) Items: 0 CO: 6 RSS: 5631.7MB
2023-09-14T21:39:43 450660.660 INF zombieMarlene SpawnLimbGore loaded preafab in asset bundle. path: @:Entities/Zombies/Dismemberment/Marlene/Blunt/Head.prefab
2023-09-14T21:39:43 450660.661 INF Entity zombieMarlene 61758 killed by *****
2023-09-14T21:39:48 450665.585 INF zombieYo SpawnLimbGore loaded preafab in asset bundle. path: @:Entities/Zombies/Dismemberment/Yo/Blade/Head.prefab
Couldn't create a Convex Mesh from source mesh "Gibs_Yo_Detach_Blade_Head" within the maximum polygons limit (256). The partial hull will be used. Consider simplifying your mesh.
2023-09-14T21:39:48 450665.587 INF Entity zombieYo 61752 killed by ***
2023-09-14T21:39:50 450667.592 INF DroneManager saving 0 (0 + 0)
2023-09-14T21:39:50 450667.595 INF DroneManager saved 9 bytes
2023-09-14T21:40:00 450677.186 INF Time: 7510.63m FPS: 20.05 Heap: 2844.4MB Max: 4098.1MB Chunks: 658 CGO: 65 Ply: 2 Zom: 7 Ent: 18 (646) Items: 0 CO: 6 RSS: 5631.6MB
2023-09-14T21:40:23 450700.260 INF zombieSteve SpawnLimbGore loaded preafab in asset bundle. path: @:Entities/Zombies/Dismemberment/ZombieSteve/Blade/Head.prefab
2023-09-14T21:40:23 450700.261 INF Entity zombieSteve 61745 killed by ***
2023-09-14T21:40:30 450707.226 INF Time: 7511.13m FPS: 20.00 Heap: 2779.5MB Max: 4098.1MB Chunks: 658 CGO: 63 Ply: 2 Zom: 6 Ent: 18 (647) Items: 1 CO: 6 RSS: 5631.6MB
2023-09-14T21:41:00 450737.246 INF Time: 7511.63m FPS: 20.00 Heap: 2964.0MB Max: 4098.1MB Chunks: 658 CGO: 64 Ply: 2 Zom: 6 Ent: 17 (647) Items: 1 CO: 6 RSS: 5631.7MB
2023-09-14T21:41:03 450739.881 INF Entity zombieScreamerRadiated 61762 killed by *****
2023-09-14T21:41:03 450740.090 INF VehicleManager saving 8 (7 + 1)
2023-09-14T21:41:03 450740.090 INF 8993102 VehicleManager write #0, id 20166, vehicle4x4Truck, (-1194.0, 36.0, -1544.1), chunk -75, -97
2023-09-14T21:41:03 450740.090 INF 8993102 VehicleManager write #1, id 56907, vehicleMinibike, (-1150.7, 3.0, -1535.9), chunk -72, -96
2023-09-14T21:41:03 450740.090 INF 8993102 VehicleManager write #2, id 38775, vehicleMinibike, (-1148.2, 3.0, -1529.8), chunk -72, -96
2023-09-14T21:41:03 450740.090 INF 8993102 VehicleManager write #3, id 51509, vehicleMotorcycle, (-1149.6, 3.1, -1531.5), chunk -72, -96
2023-09-14T21:41:03 450740.090 INF 8993102 VehicleManager write #4, id 18136, vehicleMinibike, (-1194.5, 36.0, -1546.7), chunk -75, -97
2023-09-14T21:41:03 450740.090 INF 8993102 VehicleManager write #5, id 12666, vehicleMotorcycle, (-1193.0, 36.1, -1541.4), chunk -75, -97
2023-09-14T21:41:03 450740.090 INF 8993102 VehicleManager write #6, id 51896, vehicleMotorcycle, (-1196.7, 36.1, -1538.6), chunk -75, -97
2023-09-14T21:41:03 450740.090 INF 8993102 VehicleManager write #7, id 1898, vehicleBicycle, (-2408.4, 34.9, 1278.8), chunk -151, 79
2023-09-14T21:41:03 450740.093 INF VehicleManager saved 4625 bytes

And this is a snipped of my client log at the same time:

2023-09-14T21:39:34 16576.957 INF SectionType change from None to Combat
2023-09-14T21:39:34 16576.957 INF Loading new config for Combat...
2023-09-14T21:39:34 16576.957 INF Played Combat
2023-09-14T21:39:34 16576.957 INF Fading in Combat
2023-09-14T21:39:34 16576.957 INF Notified SectionSelector that music played
2023-09-14T21:39:34 16576.977 INF Loading new ClipSets for Combat...
2023-09-14T21:39:34 16576.979 INF Combat loaded new config and clipsets
2023-09-14T21:39:37 16579.981 INF fadeInCo complete on Combat
2023-09-14T21:39:43 16585.862 INF zombieMarlene SpawnLimbGore loaded preafab in asset bundle. path: @:Entities/Zombies/Dismemberment/Marlene/Blunt/Head.prefab
2023-09-14T21:39:48 16590.852 INF zombieYo SpawnLimbGore loaded preafab in asset bundle. path: @:Entities/Zombies/Dismemberment/Yo/Blade/Head.prefab
Couldn't create a Convex Mesh from source mesh "Gibs_Yo_Detach_Blade_Head" within the maximum polygons limit (256). The partial hull will be used. Consider simplifying your mesh.
2023-09-14T21:40:02 16605.367 INF Time: 276.34m FPS: 65.10 Heap: 2363.5MB Max: 2649.7MB Chunks: 331 CGO: 223 Ply: 2 Zom: 0 Ent: 15 (288) Items: 0 CO: 1 RSS: 3581.1MB
2023-09-14T21:40:23 16625.529 INF zombieSteve SpawnLimbGore loaded preafab in asset bundle. path: @:Entities/Zombies/Dismemberment/ZombieSteve/Blade/Head.prefab
2023-09-14T21:40:32 16635.373 INF Time: 276.84m FPS: 64.87 Heap: 2494.2MB Max: 2649.7MB Chunks: 331 CGO: 223 Ply: 2 Zom: 0 Ent: 15 (289) Items: 1 CO: 1 RSS: 3588.3MB
2023-09-14T21:40:35 16637.620 INF SectionType change from Combat to HomeDay
2023-09-14T21:40:35 16637.620 INF Fading out Combat
2023-09-14T21:40:35 16637.620 INF Played HomeDay
2023-09-14T21:40:35 16637.620 INF Fading in HomeDay
2023-09-14T21:40:38 16640.642 INF Paused Combat
2023-09-14T21:40:38 16640.642 INF fadeInCo complete on HomeDay

 

[Jugginator]

Does this happen on a new save too? If so or not, a whole log file may help. In your first snippet, there are zombies loaded in the world (Zom: x)

[-Holo-]

8 hours ago, Jugginator said:

Does this happen on a new save too? If so or not, a whole log file may help. In your first snippet, there are zombies loaded in the world (Zom: x)

I'd say yes. We had a testserver running which also had this symptons, The snippet above was just a example on a screamer not calling in a horde when she screams

(This is something we have noticed happening with screamers since atleast A18)

 

The empty town problem is something that seems to develop over time, Initially theres zombies around, but after time the town gets more depopulated.

(with town in this case I mean what I presume is 'downtown' tagged in spawning.xml, where the density seems highest with buildings and so.)

Standing in the middle of 'downtown' doing a LE on the server returning 0 zombie spawned seems off. In a downtown area ideally there should always be zombies respawning and trickle in to give it a dangerous feel.

(This is in pineforest biome too, didnt get any downtown area anywhere else on the tiny rwg size from default)

[Jugginator]

5 hours ago, -Holo- said:

I'd say yes. We had a testserver running which also had this symptons, The snippet above was just a example on a screamer not calling in a horde when she screams

(This is something we have noticed happening with screamers since atleast A18)

 

The empty town problem is something that seems to develop over time, Initially theres zombies around, but after time the town gets more depopulated.

(with town in this case I mean what I presume is 'downtown' tagged in spawning.xml, where the density seems highest with buildings and so.)

Standing in the middle of 'downtown' doing a LE on the server returning 0 zombie spawned seems off. In a downtown area ideally there should always be zombies respawning and trickle in to give it a dangerous feel.

(This is in pineforest biome too, didnt get any downtown area anywhere else on the tiny rwg size from default)

 

Hm. That's really strange. Haven't seen that since... A17/18 I think. Got a server for me/some others past day 100 and zombies are everywhere. If you want to DM me some logs maybe I can spot something out of place. Does it also happen in towns that aren't visited often or at all?

[BFT2020]

I agree with @Jugginator, really need to see complete logs.  What you posted is just what is happening at that moment of time; the logs will indicate what is going on from when you first start up the game to your playthrough and will give valuable clues on what is going on.  And since Jugginator is QA, he will probably root cause it faster than us amateurs sleuths  😉

[-Holo-]

13 minutes ago, Jugginator said:

 

Hm. That's really strange. Haven't seen that since... A17/18 I think. Got a server for me/some others past day 100 and zombies are everywhere. If you want to DM me some logs maybe I can spot something out of place. Does it also happen in towns that aren't visited often or at all?

I'll try to get a couple of logs hopefully during the weekend. (Right now it's running a bit modded)
Unvisited towns have initially zombies roaming around, we havent stayed around the small towns long enought to notice, (It's usually the downtown area's thats empty.

 

Hm. the Respawn delay value in spawning.xml, is the respawning wonky enough to only 'count' time when a player is in the area? I think that would explain a tiny bit why it's so empty.
Even though we do spend time in POI's in downtown quite often and there's usually not a zombie visible outside anywhere

3 minutes ago, BFT2020 said:

I agree with @Jugginator, really need to see complete logs.  What you posted is just what is happening at that moment of time; the logs will indicate what is going on from when you first start up the game to your playthrough and will give valuable clues on what is going on.  And since Jugginator is QA, he will probably root cause it faster than us amateurs sleuths  😉

Yeah, gonna fix that, just got a nice opportunity to get the screamer-not-summoning-anything-when-screaming moment in the log.

[BFT2020]

4 minutes ago, -Holo- said:

I'll try to get a couple of logs hopefully during the weekend. (Right now it's running a bit modded)
Unvisited towns have initially zombies roaming around, we havent stayed around the small towns long enought to notice, (It's usually the downtown area's thats empty.

 

You might have a mod issue that is causing this (maybe a conflict between mods, an issue with someone's code, or something not properly updated to A21).

 

FYI, the entity group file changed from A20 to A21 so if you got any mods that affects spawning from A20, those might be a source of your problems.

 

A21 Entity Groups

    <entitygroup name="ZombiesAll">
        zombieBoe
        zombieJoe
        zombieSteve
        zombieTomClark
        zombieMoe
        zombieYo
        zombieBusinessMan
        zombieArlene
        zombieDarlene
        zombieMarlene
        zombieSkateboarder
        zombieBiker, .3
        zombiePartyGirl, .3
        zombieUtilityWorker, .3
        zombieJanitor, .2
        zombieNurse, .3
        zombieSteveCrawler
        zombieFatHawaiian, .3
    </entitygroup>

 

A20 Entity Groups

    <entitygroup name="ZombiesAll">
        <entity name="zombieBoe"/>
        <entity name="zombieJoe"/>
        <entity name="zombieSteve"/>
        <entity name="zombieTomClark"/>
        <entity name="zombieMoe"/>
        <entity name="zombieYo"/>
        <entity name="zombieBusinessMan"/>
        <entity name="zombieArlene"/>
        <entity name="zombieDarlene"/>
        <entity name="zombieMarlene"/>
        <entity name="zombieSkateboarder"/>
        <entity name="zombieBiker" prob="0.3"/>
        <entity name="zombiePartyGirl" prob="0.3"/>
        <entity name="zombieUtilityWorker" prob="0.3"/>
        <entity name="zombieJanitor" prob="0.2"/>
        <entity name="zombieNurse" prob="0.3"/>
        <entity name="zombieSteveCrawler"/>
        <entity name="zombieFatHawaiian" prob="0.3"/>
    </entitygroup>

 

[-Holo-]

2 minutes ago, BFT2020 said:

 

You might have a mod issue that is causing this (maybe a conflict between mods, an issue with someone's code, or something not properly updated to A21).

 

FYI, the entity group file changed from A20 to A21 so if you got any mods that affects spawning from A20, those might be a source of your problems.

 

A21 Entity Groups

    <entitygroup name="ZombiesAll">
        zombieBoe
        zombieJoe
        zombieSteve
        zombieTomClark
        zombieMoe
        zombieYo
        zombieBusinessMan
        zombieArlene
        zombieDarlene
        zombieMarlene
        zombieSkateboarder
        zombieBiker, .3
        zombiePartyGirl, .3
        zombieUtilityWorker, .3
        zombieJanitor, .2
        zombieNurse, .3
        zombieSteveCrawler
        zombieFatHawaiian, .3
    </entitygroup>

 

A20 Entity Groups

    <entitygroup name="ZombiesAll">
        <entity name="zombieBoe"/>
        <entity name="zombieJoe"/>
        <entity name="zombieSteve"/>
        <entity name="zombieTomClark"/>
        <entity name="zombieMoe"/>
        <entity name="zombieYo"/>
        <entity name="zombieBusinessMan"/>
        <entity name="zombieArlene"/>
        <entity name="zombieDarlene"/>
        <entity name="zombieMarlene"/>
        <entity name="zombieSkateboarder"/>
        <entity name="zombieBiker" prob="0.3"/>
        <entity name="zombiePartyGirl" prob="0.3"/>
        <entity name="zombieUtilityWorker" prob="0.3"/>
        <entity name="zombieJanitor" prob="0.2"/>
        <entity name="zombieNurse" prob="0.3"/>
        <entity name="zombieSteveCrawler"/>
        <entity name="zombieFatHawaiian" prob="0.3"/>
    </entitygroup>

 

Oh no, I'm mostly just modding myself so not relying on many external mods that I don't know what they do , only got an UI mod on this save that's not done myself.
 

[Jugginator]

If it's modded that's okay, still worth taking a look at to see what's going on. But oddly, that log snippet did show multiple zombies spawned. 

1 hour ago, -Holo- said:

Hm. the Respawn delay value in spawning.xml, is the respawning wonky enough to only 'count' time when a player is in the area? I think that would explain a tiny bit why it's so empty.

In theory, no zombies should be spawning with players in the area (how it works in the wasteland, for example). 

[-Holo-]

On 9/15/2023 at 7:26 PM, Jugginator said:

If it's modded that's okay, still worth taking a look at to see what's going on. But oddly, that log snippet did show multiple zombies spawned. 

In theory, no zombies should be spawning with players in the area (how it works in the wasteland, for example). 

I'm sorry, I was unable to sit down an play 7 days in the weekend, Hopefully I'll manage to find some time this week for it -.-

[Jugginator]

7 hours ago, -Holo- said:

I'm sorry, I was unable to sit down an play 7 days in the weekend, Hopefully I'll manage to find some time this week for it -.-

 

Ah you're fine Holo no rush . Whenever you have a chance that's fine, give me a ping or DM when you do.

[The_Great_Sephiroth]

Just adding my experience here also. In A20 and now A21, if you spawn in a screamer, she can scream, but nothing spawns. I am NOT having issue with screamers spawned normally bringing in hordes, some of which include more screamers.

[Jugginator]

33 minutes ago, The_Great_Sephiroth said:

Just adding my experience here also. In A20 and now A21, if you spawn in a screamer, she can scream, but nothing spawns. I am NOT having issue with screamers spawned normally bringing in hordes, some of which include more screamers.

 

Oh yeah that's a thing we've discussed internally. A spawned screamer isn't a "scout" which means her summoning ability doesn't come into play here. Technically any zombie can be a scout, the "scream" is something she does when she sees you and isn't actually what summons zombies, it's the "I am a scout and I saw a player" event that actually summons zombies. 

[The_Great_Sephiroth]

Okay, I thought that the "scream" what a custom method in her class/entity/whatever that did the work. Am I wrong in remembering back in like A15 a spawned screamer WOULD spawn zeds?

[Jugginator]

Nah the scream is what she does as soon as she spots a player, which when a scout does lock eyes that's when the horde gets summoned. There's a cooldown IIRC of 2 - 3 screams summoning per screamer. I think this has always worked this way, I believe A16 is the last one I remember it working this way.

[NekoPawtato]

On 9/20/2023 at 2:31 PM, Jugginator said:

the "scream" is something she does when she sees you and isn't actually what summons zombies, it's the "I am a scout and I saw a player" event that actually summons zombies. 

It feels like there's a big misconception then, because I'll often come across info or people saying that the scream is what triggers the spawns.

Even the wiki says "Effects  Summons zombie hordes with her screams"

https://7daystodie.fandom.com/wiki/Screamer

[Jugginator]

1 hour ago, NekoPawtato said:

It feels like there's a big misconception then, because I'll often come across info or people saying that the scream is what triggers the spawns.

Even the wiki says "Effects  Summons zombie hordes with her screams"

https://7daystodie.fandom.com/wiki/Screamer

 

For all intents and purposes, that is technically what spawns the horde in; but in actuality, no it's the scout function that gets called when a scout "sees" a player. This is why F6/sleeper-spawned screamers don't summon zombies -- they aren't scouts at this point. For everyday gamers whom aren't modding the game or rather intend on modding the scouts (I guess you could say game lore), that's clear enough.

 

Just tested this to be sure it still works before saying so here: if you change the screamer to another zombie and the zombie sees you, it will also summon scout hordes. Just they don't scream when they see you, only the screamers do

Edited September 22, 2023 by Jugginator (see edit history)

[Pichii]

On 9/10/2023 at 3:36 PM, -Holo- said:

Zombies seemingly stopping to respawn, maybe related to screamers not spawning in hordes?

Both these issues are something that me and my friends playing on my dedicated server har noticed over several alphas now, especially 20 and 21 now with the new downtown cityblocks.

Initially there's zombies sprawling around the city, but after a while they're just gone and can walk around hundreds of meters of downtown without a zombie in sight.

The zombie cap in the dedicatedconfig.xml I have increased to over 5000 now just to see if anything happens. but nope.
 

Also noticed that more often then not, nothing happens when a screamer screams. No errors nor spawns appear.

 

Has anyone else came across this behavior?

 

 

 

 

Yep. When a server goes into standby status after not being played for quite a few hours, the server will initialize and zombies will not populate for 4-6hr in-game.
Just keep playing. The server will catch up and remember after some time.
**Screamers DO NOT always scream when you hear the scream and this is intentional behavior now. I think the scream just adds a big ol heat surge to the heat map thus, they can scream more than once without triggering a horde.

Edited October 4, 2023 by Pichii (see edit history)

[Jugginator]

1 hour ago, Pichii said:

**Screamers DO NOT always scream when you hear the scream and this is intentional behavior now. I think the scream just adds a big ol heat surge to the heat map thus, they can scream more than once without triggering a horde.

 

Minor correction: screamer "screams" have screamers in the spawn group at a low chance. It doesn't add heat.

[-Holo-]

On 9/20/2023 at 6:19 PM, Jugginator said:

 

Ah you're fine Holo no rush . Whenever you have a chance that's fine, give me a ping or DM when you do.

-Finally- I've had some spare time to sit down a little while to get a pair of logs.  Whats the best way to upload them? Clear out serverIP and upload to pastebin or something?

 

[Jugginator]

5 hours ago, -Holo- said:

-Finally- I've had some spare time to sit down a little while to get a pair of logs.  Whats the best way to upload them? Clear out serverIP and upload to pastebin or something?

 

 

Yeah anyway you want is fine. You can dm the logs to me if you want