Zombie Awareness/Respawning (May help with KOS mentality a bit)

[striker75 3]

I know these have been talked about before, but I can't really find a suitable thread to post it so I made my own.

My suggestions are pretty simple, but both would need to be implemented together, and I'll try to go as in-depth as I can explaining them.

1. Increase Zombie Awareness when hearing Gun Shots.

2. Increase Zombie Respawn times.

In-Depth

1. Many times I've been able to shoot my weapon and a Zombie 50m away ignores it. I can hear Gun Shots 500m+ away and within 5 - 10 minutes can locate the person firing.

I think all zombies within 300m minimum of the gun shot should come RUNNING to the location the gun was fired. I believe there is currently a zombie AI script that makes them investigate the area. If you're fast enough you might get away. A maximum distance should also be implemented obviously, but I'm not sure what would be suitable.

Please don't give me the "Zombies are rotting they shouldn't be able to hear that well!". Well, I actually agree, but they already run like Cheetahs and punch like their arms are metal baseball bats. So, Obviously that argument is (currently) invalid. :sleepy:

-PROS-

1. People would have to really think hard about firing their weapons in town.

2. Player killing would be reduced. Unless you want 100 Zombies chewing on your ass. Except for snipers able to hit their targets at 500m+ range. (not that hard)

3. Zombies become a larger threat

4. Ammo becomes more important. If you fire your weapon and are trapped, you better have at least 6 magazines or you're toast.

-CONS-

1. Zombies could be drawn away very effectively for groups. Making for easy loot grabs. (though the bait might die doing it lol)

2. Lots of Zombies chewing on your ass.... :rolleyes:

4. Ummm........

5. I honestly had one or two more, but I forgot them already. :huh: will update when I remember...

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2. If something like above was implemented then the respawning times of zombies needs to be changed. Something like 15 - 20 minutes before they respawn should be good for the small towns. Larger cities could be shorter, maybe 10 minutes?

I've had to sit in a building for nearly 30 minutes before I could finally escape. Killed around 140ish Zombies, thankfully I had 6 Mags of AKM. I had someone on overwatch and all I kept hearing was "5 more spawned, coming at you". I'll admit it was fun for the first 10 minutes. Wondering if I'd be able to make it out. After 20, I was bored with shooting faces, wanted to leave, and find more ammo.

Coupled with suggestion 1, and how fast zombies are, pretty much all the zombies would be in your face in ~3 Minutes. Except the crawlers, which could easily be avoided after killing the upright fast ones.

-PROS-

1. If you (your group) are fast enough an entire area could be cleared, looted, and escaped from.

2. No more "When will they stop coming".

3. Areas 'might' be able to be occupied but groups. (Would still be near impossible)

-CONS-

1. Larger groups could easily clear areas, obtaining great loot (they can already do this btw).

2. Again, I forgot... It's late! :blush:

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Other thoughts

-Scenario 1-

With the 300m gun shot hearing most (if not all) zombies in town would be aggro'd and sprint there.

"innocent" Survivor is sneaking passed a group within hearing distance.

Zombies aggro'd

Run by "innocent" survivor and notice him

Aggro switches

"innocent" survivor now being either

A. Chased by zombies.

B. mauled by zombies.

results -

Fear

Rage

Lulz

Many Deaths (zombies and players)

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Other ideas. (not in-depth)

1. Zombies Spawn on the outskirts of towns. Have to wander in.

2. Backpack inside backpack. Maybe take up the same space as a weapon. Can't open second pack, strictly for re-gear/tent/friend.

3. Combineable Ammo. I have 6 rounds left, reload. Fire 6 from the next mag, should be able to combine the two now. Better space management. existing solution - Don't reload. Not always the best idea to not reload...

anyway, I have more, but I think that's enough for now.

Thoughts?

-EDIT-

Added a con to zombie gunshot awareness. I remembered!!! :D

[Serrath 0]

I'd definitely agree the respawn time needs to increase so that killing zombies to accomplish a goal is worthwhile. Maybe my playstyle just doesn't agree with ROCKET's vision there though.

Increasing the gunshot aggro range would be very nice, but only if zombies are coded to rush to the gunshot location and not the player himself. If this mechanic is already implemented, it needs to be exaggerated more.

[striker75 3]

Increasing the gunshot aggro range would be very nice' date=' but only if zombies are coded to rush to the gunshot location and not the player himself. If this mechanic is already implemented, it needs to be exaggerated more.

[/quote']

This is exactly what I meant, they should rush to where the shot came from. Rushing to the player would be a bit silly. I'll have to amend my post.

[Serrath 0]

They may currently rush to the gunshot location; this mechanic just isn't pronounced enough for me to make a definite ruling here. The zombies need to be a little less omniscient. I just want to make sure that aspect is emphasized in anything that increases aggro from auditory clues.

[striker75 3]

They may currently rush to the gunshot location; this mechanic just isn't pronounced enough for me to make a definite ruling here. The zombies need to be a little less omniscient. I just want to make sure that aspect is emphasized in anything that increases aggro from auditory clues.

I completly agree here.

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Updated my main post.

Added A Con to Gun Shot Awareness

[Bal Sofs Tihl 7]

Please don't give me the "Zombies are rotting they shouldn't be able to hear that well!".

Actually, they are not rotting. They are not even zombies. They are infected people. They are still alive.

I do like this idea. I think I would prefer a slower speed for infected who are investigating. If they sprint toward every noise, they would spend a lot of time just sprinting around, chasing fences. They should just walk towards sounds until they visually identify the sound as food. Then they go into kill mode and start running.

[striker75 3]

Please don't give me the "Zombies are rotting they shouldn't be able to hear that well!".

Actually' date=' they are not rotting. They are not even zombies. They are infected people. They are still alive.

I do like this idea. I think I would prefer a slower speed for infected who are investigating. If they sprint toward every noise, they would spend a lot of time just sprinting around, chasing fences. They should just walk towards sounds until they visually identify the sound as food. Then they go into kill mode and start running.

[/quote']

I was pretty much primarily talking about Gun Shots. Gun shots are loud, only if you're using a silenced weapon should you be able to shoot 50m from a zombie without aggroing.

I like the idea of them walking instead of sprinting to the sound of a gun shot unless they can visually identify you aswell. It would help reduce the impact of the CON I had.

Though, you then get scenarios like this.

Sit at the tree line, fire your weapon and book it another way. wait for all the zombies to investigate then lulz while you pick up the loot.

perhaps adding a 'interest' timer to the zombies would help curb that.

Zombie hears gun shot

starts walking/crawling/whatever towards it.

after XX seconds if they haven't reached the sound or had visual contact they lose interest and head back to where they were/resume wandering around aimlessly.

[Serrath 0]

Really, instead of an interest timer, you'd get more interesting behavior if you had them lose focus as time went on: they want to go near the gunshot, but the longer since the gunshot, the less weight they give to that exact position, and the more they wander about a wider area.

They'd start all heading straight for you, but slowly fan out and eventually go back to wandering.

@ROCKET: If you're reading this, I'd love to hear your take on the thread.

[Duckman404 37]

1. Increase Zombie Awareness when hearing Gun Shots.

Yes yes yes.

Gunshots are friggin LOUD in real life. A gunshot is likely to be the loudest thing a normal human will hear in their lifetime' date=' in fact.

Currently, I think the way zombies detect players is quite balanced and realistic at the moment; they hear alright, and their eyesight isn't too good, but they're mindless infected humans, so they can be forgiven if they miss someone slowly crouch-walking by.

What I wouldn't mind is half a town's worth of zombies going to [i']investigate the gunshot, rather than immediately locking onto a player and speeding in like a homing missile.

And the current sound radius of pistols is, in my opinion, way too small. Pistols are still very loud, yet very few zombies are drawn to me when firing one.

2. Increase Zombie Respawn times.

No no no no no.

Increase zombies spawn amounts' date=' reduce the respawn time a bit, and you've now made looting towns a group effort; it would create real incentives for players to band together and clear out a town, and once the town is clear, it means people can still wander around for a little while after expending a their hard earned ammo to get rid of those zeds.

1. Zombies Spawn on the outskirts of towns. Have to wander in.

That's the exact opposite of what they do, and is fairly unrealistic. I've always been annoyed at the way zombies will spawn in a town, then wander outside, leaving the inside easy to loot but making getting out a matter of just going prone until you're far away.

They should spawn in towns (since, y'know, that's where their homes are), but rather than wandering out into the fields for a picnic, the majority should keep wandering the streets, meaning that players looting a town actually have to watch out for zombies once they're inside.

2. Backpack inside backpack. Maybe take up the same space as a weapon. Can't open second pack' date=' strictly for re-gear/tent/friend.

[/quote']

That'd be a bitch to code, and is about as realistic as zombies being able to phase through walls.

3. Combineable Ammo. I have 6 rounds left' date=' reload. Fire 6 from the next mag, should be able to combine the two now. Better space management. existing solution - Don't reload. Not always the best idea to not reload...

[/quote']

ARMA II's current system makes this difficult, but now that magazines actually show their capacity when in a backpack/inventory, I think it would be do-able, and would definitely help with inventory management.

+1 to zombies moving towards gunshots (but not locking on like missiles), +1 to combining ammo.

[striker75 3]

1. Increase Zombie Awareness when hearing Gun Shots.

Currently' date=' I think the way zombies detect players is quite balanced and realistic at the moment; they hear alright, and their eyesight isn't too good, but they're mindless infected humans, so they can be forgiven if they miss someone slowly crouch-walking by.

[/quote']

I like the way they currently detect you aswell. I just wish firing your weapon would be a serious choice to make.

No no no no no.

Increase zombies spawn amounts' date=' reduce the respawn time a bit, and you've now made looting towns a group effort; it would create real incentives for players to band together and clear out a town, and once the town is clear, it means people can still wander around for a little while after expending a their hard earned ammo to get rid of those zeds.

[/quote']

The problem I see with that is. Zombies already respawn very quickly sometimes. Like I said above, I got trapped in for a very long time. When I was finally able to get away there were still more zeds just outside where I was.

Increasing Zombie ammounts wouldn't be a problem, but an area would never be able to be cleared with the current speed of respawn.

1. Zombies Spawn on the outskirts of towns. Have to wander in.

That's the exact opposite of what they do' date=' and is fairly unrealistic. I've always been annoyed at the way zombies will spawn in a town, then wander outside, leaving the inside easy to loot but making getting out a matter of just going prone until you're far away.

They should spawn in towns (since, y'know, that's where their homes are), but rather than wandering out into the fields for a picnic, the majority should keep wandering the streets, meaning that players looting a town actually have to watch out for zombies once they're inside.

[/quote']

That sounds fine to me.

My idea was more for, Clear and Hold, for large groups of people. If people are holding a town then loot shouldn't respawn within XXm of a player.

Which would mean you could take a town/city, fortify and defend it, but you'd still have to venture out to find more loot.

Backpack inside backpack. Maybe take up the same space as a weapon. Can't open second pack' date=' strictly for re-gear/tent/friend.

[/quote']

That'd be a bitch to code, and is about as realistic as zombies being able to phase through walls.

I wouldn't be that hard actually. Wheather it's worth writing or not would be the bigger debate. IMO, if I can fit a half ton rotor assembly im my back pack, why can't I fit another backpack in there?

Like I said, you wouldn't be able to open the second backpack and it should be fairly large if you pick another up. It would be just for, a friend, a tent, even trade.