Game Stage Confusion?

[RamboTurnip]

I don't profess to understand the impact of game stage, however, I'm now on day 18 and whilst minding my own business crafting in my base (not horde), I have had 4 screamers spawn, 3 of them radiated, a long with being attacked by 2 wandering hordes. 

 

 

I relocated my base to the desert biome, but still, for day 18 compared to what I used to face this seems excessive? Or am I just remembering things pre 1.0 incorrectly? Community guidance and grounding would be much appreciated right now!

 

Kind regards, 

Jimbo

[Riamus]

Desert would increase the level of zombies, but the change is in how quickly screamers can spawn.  They can spawn 4x sooner, but with a lower chance and can spawn 2 at a time without needing to scream to summon one of them.  This can make doing things more challenging.  The best thing would be to have some form of defense around your base to deal with them.  Turrets, spikes, etc.

[RamboTurnip]

I'm more than happy to alter my priority with regards to base design, if this is what's now going to be the new normal? What I'm trying to ascertain is if there is any form of relatable "list" that links game stage to zombie type/frequency spawn expectations? I.e. should I now be prepared for Demo's knocking at my door nightly?

 

Kind regards, 

Jimbo

[Riamus]

1 minute ago, RamboTurnip said:

I'm more than happy to alter my priority with regards to base design, if this is what's now going to be the new normal? What I'm trying to ascertain is if there is any form of relatable "list" that links game stage to zombie type/frequency spawn expectations? I.e. should I now be prepared for Demo's knocking at my door nightly?

 

Kind regards, 

Jimbo

As far as I know, game stage itself hasn't changed.  Only spawning of screamers.

[Fenris]

Not sure about the lower chance 😀 Maybe it is coded that way, but my experience says differently. I've been playing a bit slower than others I suppose, day 14, game stage 64 and have had screamers show up every night for the last 4 days.

 

Only one at a time at this point. Contrary to what I've read and seen on YouTube, they have not done their "summoning" scream unless they have direct line of sight, just the regular "hey there is a screamer here" scream. Could be because I have feral sense turned off, or others were spotted and just didn't realize it, dunno/.

 

I expected some activity since I've been using my forge more and have 4 dew collectors, but wan't thinking every day. Right now it isn't really a problem, still weak enemies. Just not looking forward to a hoard night every night at higher game stages.

[RamboTurnip]

I decided on a "Glock 9 Stun Baton Best Weapon" build for this run through, only to find in one of his latest video's, it's actually really sodding frustrating so trying to pivot to Club/Sledge. That aside, I wouldn't say I've been overly crafty compared to previous games, I've just been quite surprised by the activity around my base considering only 1 forge, 1 bench, 1 chem station and 2 dew collectors - and none of them have been particularly active. 

 

Kind regards, 

Jimbo

[Riamus]

22 minutes ago, Fenris said:

Not sure about the lower chance 😀 

Per devs in the patch thread, old screamers were 70% spawn chance at 100 heat.  New screamers are 20% spawn chance at 25 heat.  Not sure the old method, but the new one resets if no screamer and waits 4 minutes.  If there is a screamer, it resets and waits 22 minutes.

[RamboTurnip]

Again, I understand the basic concept of heat/activity for a player base - has this changed? I.e. weighting of certain production items and again, is this relational to gamestage?

 

Kind regards,

Jimbo 

[RamboTurnip]

Just as a random one, I was getting Tier 3 quests from the trader in the Desert biome, he's now only offering Tier 2.... When I've completed Tier 2 already and was half way through Tier 3? Could this be signs of a corrupt save game?

 

Kind regards,

Jimbo

[seven]

That's a side effect of a bug fix in one of the latest patches.

 

Gamestage and screamers - I think that might affect whether you get normal, feral or radiated screamers but not whether you get screamers. The new activity is really just a result of the change. Before you could set a bunch of water on to cook and be fine, maybe run a forge. Now, just the campfire after a while can call in a screamer. They really went overboard on this.

 

Stun baton is great except for the killing part. Sometimes you get a good headshot, other times you beat on them for a minute. In the past I've done T5s with stun baton and then a silenced pistol for a kill shot. Now, that silenced pistol will still call screamers. So, I've been doing stun baton, switch to sledge for high damage, and then pistol only when necessary.

[Riamus]

1 hour ago, RamboTurnip said:

Again, I understand the basic concept of heat/activity for a player base - has this changed? I.e. weighting of certain production items and again, is this relational to gamestage?

 

Kind regards,

Jimbo 

Just to add to what seven said, I don't know if any weighting has changed on what causes heat, but with the heat only being at 25 to spawn, things that normally didn't spawn anything because they didn't usually get heat up to 100 before stopping can now spawn screamers.  The campfire was the example the devs used.  And heat isn't tied to game stage... Other than that you are usually generating more heat at higher game stage because you are using more workstations.

Edited July 23 by Riamus (see edit history)

[zombiehunter]

Yeah, the screamers are a problem now.  They come in radiated pairs most of the time.  I was doing a T5 quest, I think it was Higashi, mostly using melee and by the time I got to the second floor, I heard screamers.  I went back downstairs only to find FOUR radiated screamers.  I mean, come on.  Like someone else said, I think they went a bit overboard on screamer spawning.

[seven]

The screamers also apparently have the same x-ray vision as cops. I ran an infested T5 quest at the Wright house (I think that's it, was known as house on the hill in Navezgane). Anyway, I hadn't fired a shot using all crossbow and melee, just a bit of scrapping, but while in the final loot room I hear a screamer roaming. I closed the door and finished the boxes. Screamer apparently screamed though because now there was a horde trying to get through the door. Went up the escape tunnel and was greeted by more screamers and a huge horde. A much tougher fight than the quest. It's just ridiculous now.

[zombiehunter]

16 minutes ago, seven said:

The screamers also apparently have the same x-ray vision as cops. I ran an infested T5 quest at the Wright house (I think that's it, was known as house on the hill in Navezgane). Anyway, I hadn't fired a shot using all crossbow and melee, just a bit of scrapping, but while in the final loot room I hear a screamer roaming. I closed the door and finished the boxes. Screamer apparently screamed though because now there was a horde trying to get through the door. Went up the escape tunnel and was greeted by more screamers and a huge horde. A much tougher fight than the quest. It's just ridiculous now.

Yeah, I know.  I was on another quest and I was on the third floor, deep inside the building, and I hear a screamer.  All of a sudden I hear her scream like she had line of sight on me.  Before long I had a horde coming up after me.  There was no way she could see me, yet she screams anyway.  Again, I think TFP went a bit overboard on the screamers.  They need to tone it down a bit.

[Riamus]

2 hours ago, zombiehunter said:

There was no way she could see me, yet she screams anyway.

Pretty sure a screamer who cannot find you will scream eventually.

 

I had a radiated screamer tonight at my base.  I happened to have just gotten in my 4x4 and saw this green thing running toward my base, so I ran her over.  That was fun.  No other zombies. 

[Suxar]

13 hours ago, Riamus said:

Per devs in the patch thread, old screamers were 70% spawn chance at 100 heat.  New screamers are 20% spawn chance at 25 heat.  Not sure the old method, but the new one resets if no screamer and waits 4 minutes.  If there is a screamer, it resets and waits 22 minutes.

Now it’s clear why I began to meet them so often when mining ore.

[zombiehunter]

On 7/23/2024 at 8:32 PM, Riamus said:

Pretty sure a screamer who cannot find you will scream eventually.

 

I had a radiated screamer tonight at my base.  I happened to have just gotten in my 4x4 and saw this green thing running toward my base, so I ran her over.  That was fun.  No other zombies. 

I just had another case.  Day 12 at night.  I had THREE screamers show up and all I had generating heat was two dew collectors.  Nothing else.  It's kind of ridiculous now.

[meganoth]

1 hour ago, zombiehunter said:

I just had another case.  Day 12 at night.  I had THREE screamers show up and all I had generating heat was two dew collectors.  Nothing else.  It's kind of ridiculous now.

 

Any activity really generates heat. Even jumping (AFAIK), harvesting, cutting trees, opening chests. The new setting makes it just A LOT more random. You will always eventually reach the heat level unless you absolutely do nothing. And when you do it is just random whether they spawn. But after they spawned you have a much longer phase where they can't spawn anymore in the same place.

 

Are you really complaining about hordes of zombies? All the last alphas almost everyone was complaining about streets being empty, not enough zombies, ...

 

We had such a horde last night and our crafting base was damaged. Well, we were still used to how it was before, that the crafting base was essentially save. Is this really how a zombie game should be? Make a base and don't even need to add traps and automated defenses or defend it?

 

 

[zombiehunter]

1 hour ago, meganoth said:

 

Any activity really generates heat. Even jumping (AFAIK), harvesting, cutting trees, opening chests. The new setting makes it just A LOT more random. You will always eventually reach the heat level unless you absolutely do nothing. And when you do it is just random whether they spawn. But after they spawned you have a much longer phase where they can't spawn anymore in the same place.

 

Are you really complaining about hordes of zombies? All the last alphas almost everyone was complaining about streets being empty, not enough zombies, ...

 

We had such a horde last night and our crafting base was damaged. Well, we were still used to how it was before, that the crafting base was essentially save. Is this really how a zombie game should be? Make a base and don't even need to add traps and automated defenses or defend it?

 

 

Thanks for the info on the new heat settings.

 

No, I am not complaining about more Zs.  I like that there are more wandering hordes and more Zs in the streets.  What I don't like is how just running two dew collectors, nothing else, attracts THREE screamers.  You have to admit that this change is drastic compared to the last alpha.

 

I know that this will probably not get adjusted back in any way so it is something I will have to adapt to.

[rateds2k]

Love the new screamer settings. Finally making my main base and mining more challenging

[Riamus]

1 hour ago, zombiehunter said:

Thanks for the info on the new heat settings.

 

No, I am not complaining about more Zs.  I like that there are more wandering hordes and more Zs in the streets.  What I don't like is how just running two dew collectors, nothing else, attracts THREE screamers.  You have to admit that this change is drastic compared to the last alpha.

 

I know that this will probably not get adjusted back in any way so it is something I will have to adapt to.

One of the devs said that you can get 1 or 2 screamers but that when they scream, they can get a third.  Might be what happened there.  I think that if they just dropped it to one screamer and then a scream might attract a second, it might not feel quite as overwhelming to people.  Or maybe just bump the heat from 25% to 30 or 35%.  But I'm also fine how it is.  It just takes a little more planning, which is fine.

[zombiehunter]

33 minutes ago, Riamus said:

One of the devs said that you can get 1 or 2 screamers but that when they scream, they can get a third.  Might be what happened there.  I think that if they just dropped it to one screamer and then a scream might attract a second, it might not feel quite as overwhelming to people.  Or maybe just bump the heat from 25% to 30 or 35%.  But I'm also fine how it is.  It just takes a little more planning, which is fine.

Yep, like I said, I will have to adjust to it.

 

Thanks.

[theFlu]

5 hours ago, meganoth said:

All the last alphas almost everyone was complaining about streets being empty, not enough zombies, ...

Good advice otherwise, but the streets are still empty; traveling through the world is the safest thing you can do. Just don't hop 50 times on the same spot

 

As in, it's a different mechanic, with a completely different feel to it. Number_of_zeds_killed_daily may have been fixed, but threat_of_lurking_zeds hasn't, and empty_look_of_everywhere hasn't.

[Roland]

2 minutes ago, theFlu said:

Good advice otherwise, but the streets are still empty; traveling through the world is the safest thing you can do. Just don't hop 50 times on the same spot

 

meh...traveling would be just as safe and easy if they filled the world with zombies. You are faster than they are. I've used the mods that increase the numbers and put zombies everywhere. You just run past them maybe juking once or twice but otherwise no extra danger to traveling. And that's just on foot. With a vehicle, it is even more simple. Now, once you arrive at a destination to do something like mine, loot, or build then it is dangerous to have all those zombies around coming at you. You have to spend serious time cleaning up the area before you begin.

 

That is how screamers are relevant. They put a bunch of zombies at your destination where you are in the process of trying to complete a task and not as useless non-threats while you travel and leave them behind where they forget about you once you are about 10-20 blocks away. More wilderness spawns do nothing to affect travel but all those spawns in the area where you want to stop and work? That is when it's dangerous and that is exactly what the screamers create.

[theFlu]

You're faster? You don't Have to be. Let's say a "vehicle breaking" -mechanic. At the moment, that wouldn't matter a bit, as there's no threat anyway.

The juking, avoiding combat, or meticulously killing everything on your path, while making your way to your destination is exactly what is missing to make the world feel Active/Alive/(undead?).

 

Being able to just run around every zed on the path is "just" a design decision.

 

And just the look of the place.. this is marketing material from the steam page (direct link, I hope it'll work) :

 

Yes, they're all AI off, idling, manually placed there for the photo-op; but it does show that at least someone in marketing thinks there should be zeds in a zed world...

That's about 30 zeds (dense cluster at the bus), normally you might be able to capture 3-4 in that kind of a pic.

 

I'm not saying I'd want that image to be the norm, that looks like a tough time - but I'd rather that, than the emptiness of the world.