zombie behaviour questions from a new player

[helixA2 1]

Hey there,

Started playing standalone recently, never played the mod before.

I have a few questions (and yes I understand it's an alpha yaddayaddayyadda)

I've tried testing these things but it's hard to tell just based on my experiences.

 

1.  I was standing quite a long way outside of a town and a zombie started running towards me. Any ideas as to how far they can see? Is their ability to see you diminished by nighttime? Are they attracted to torch/lantern light?

 

2. Will zombies notice the sound of a player walking/running close by? or is it just sight right now?

 

3. My understanding is that if you have any weapon less than an axe, trying to kill a zombie will likely result in getting injured, is that correct?

 

4. When a zombie is knocked out on the ground, I see a little icon with a rifle appear, what's that about?

 

5. Is this statement correct? When running away from a zombie, they can't see through the walls of a house if you are outside.. ie they can't see through a house, but if you are inside the house they can see through the wall.

 

6. Does lying prone, crouching actually effect hiding from the sight of a zombie?

 

7. I'm bleeing from a zombie attack, I use rags to bandage myself. I'm still somehow hurt though as my character keeps making noises, and my sprinting ability is reduced. Will I die eventually from that even though I'm no longer bleeding?

 

Thanks in advance! This game is so awesome, I love the imersion of it. Server I was playing on last night had "Hiking Simulator 2014" as the welcome message; thought that was pretty funny!

 

 

 

[Timecharge 28]

I don't know about all of your questions because I haven't sat down and tested it yet (i might on my next respawn) although to handle zombies it really isn't that complex.

 

To get rid of zombies you can 1) Sneak up behind them hit them in the head and they will usually fall over giving you enough time to get away, 2) Sprint past them they probably won't catch you unless you stop to check a house or something, 3) Crouch/Go Prone by them, try not to be RIGHT next to them however it varies I have crouched by multiple zombies and not been seen then occasionally they will see me.

 

You can also kite them once you get used to their attack style for looting, most of their attacks are charge-like and they are going to stop for a second and lunge forward at you, if you time it right you can usually just kite them around a table or through a building fairly easily.

 

edit:

 

Oh yeah and if you want a zombie to stop chasing you get out of range or cut around a LOT of corners and eventually they will loose track of you.

Edited January 24, 2014 by Timecharge

[Khad (DayZ) 293]

1. As far as you can see :D But...well... it seems to be not a correct behaviour, but happens all the time though.

 

2. Absolutely. If you are too slow, they can be aggroed by your footsteps, as they've turned their back to you. 

 

3. That's right. If Z's are running after you, you should run until you've found an axe. As soon as you got one, you don't have to be scared by them anymore ;)

 

4. That's the gear button. F or middle mouse button will activate this button. Z's don't have any gear! But if you beat down a player (Punch against the head without Motorbikehelmet) you can grab his weapon, if you're fast.

 

5. Well.... I don't know... they seem to see through walls really often. And they can noclip. Tip: It's damned dangerous to stay in houses, when you have a Z after you because it could be possible, that he punches through the wall or even the whole house, while you're not able to defend yourself O_O

 

6. A little...maybe. Well it does, if everything works fine. But if they have their long-range-aggro-bug, it won't work. 

 

7. You won't die from this that easy. But try to find alcohol or desinfeciant and use it. Use it on wounds- never drink it O_O

 

There will be a new Z-AI in the feature. The AI, which you experience at the moment is just a placeholder. There will be even more Z's, when the servers can handle it, too. 

 

 

P.S: They want to be called Infected. That's the political correct word for them o.o

 

 

Edit:

 

 

1) Sneak up behind them hit them in the head and they will usually fall over giving you enough time to get away

I personally see a Z... run to him like hell with the axe in my hand and scratch them. Sometimes I'm  too fast to pull them. Everytime they're too slow to hit me. 

Edited January 24, 2014 by Khad

[Loafy 46]

Beans for you.

 

Seven good questions and Seven great answers.

[damagefilter 34]

I get the impression that Zombies generally are not interested in how dark it is, how much noise you're making or, in fact, any environmental factors.

Supposedly it's buggy behaviour though.

You can, sometimes, run up a zombie, do a chicken dance in front of it and it seems just to ignore you. You may then approach it with an axe and just hack away at it.

I call them braindeads.

 

Another situation I came across was at night time (okay, moon was out so it wasn't pitch-black. But dark, nevertheless).

That Zombie was about 100 meters away from me, I was running between a bunch of bushes.

It recognised me right away and started following me. If it had visual contact or just heard the sound of my footsteps ... I have no idea.

 

So currently, zombie behaviour appears to be random.

[Jonah_Hobbes 171]

I get the impression that Zombies generally are not interested in how dark it is, how much noise you're making or, in fact, any environmental factors.

Supposedly it's buggy behaviour though.

You can, sometimes, run up a zombie, do a chicken dance in front of it and it seems just to ignore you. You may then approach it with an axe and just hack away at it.

I call them braindeads.

 

Another situation I came across was at night time (okay, moon was out so it wasn't pitch-black. But dark, nevertheless).

That Zombie was about 100 meters away from me, I was running between a bunch of bushes.

It recognised me right away and started following me. If it had visual contact or just heard the sound of my footsteps ... I have no idea.

 

So currently, zombie behaviour appears to be random.

[Jonah_Hobbes 171]

You can kill them with other items but they take multiple hits. Anywhere from 7-15 I've found. This goes for spades,crowbars and fire extinguishers. The DayZ Wiki states that the other melee weapons, (not axes), take 3 hits to kill an infected but this is NOT backed up by my experiences.

Splitting axes take 2-3

FireFighter axe one hit everytime.

Be careful of crawling in prone, I've read on here that it is not as effective as in the Mod to hide you, I've not tested this yet though.

[BadassPreacher 47]

Zombies in general are not very smart, despite the fact that they have discovered a way to phase through walls...

 

1. No idea. Seems pretty random, sometimes  I can be right net to zombie or sprint next to it with no aggro. Sometimes they will find me in the tree line 200m away... So better safe than sorry.

 

2. They seem to get upset when you make sounds (gunfire, eating, etc). Yesterday I tested my newly found sawed-off on a zombie in Zeleno, and had about 6-7 of his undead friends aggro me :D. In the future, I would like to see proximity chat alert zombies as well.

 

3. Definitely. It's axe or nothing for me, unless bleeding is one of your favorite post apocalyptic pastimes. (fire axe 1-hit kill, splitting axe 2-hit kill/1-headshot kill)

 

4. You could/can probably loot the zombies at some point, for small house hold items like soda cans etc.

 

5. In my experience when they have aggroed me, they follow me until I get them stuck/glitched in a building or get enough distance between us. Line of sight doesn't seem to be an issue.

 

6. I'm inclined to say, yes. Crawling has allowed me to go past zombies that are close by, more reliably than just walking past them.

 

7. Your character can get sick from zombie attacks. But if you don't have a "sick" status, and you character is still moaning a lot and revealing your position every two minutes... A little morphine will cure that right up! Morphine makes the apocalypse a much smoother experience :D

 

 

I don't claim that these are facts, but my personal experiences in this game. Good luck and have fun! 

Edited January 24, 2014 by Badass Preacher

[helixA2 1]

thanks everyone. that was very helpful! I have some more questions but I think I'll start a new topic as they are not about zombies.

[Monkfish (DayZ) 339]

1.  I was standing quite a long way outside of a town and a zombie started running towards me. Any ideas as to how far they can see? Is their ability to see you diminished by nighttime? Are they attracted to torch/lantern light?

- I've read elsewhere on the forum that their sight good for about 300m, although I don't know how accurate this is. They certainly seem to be able to see you from a good distance away if they're facing you, so maybe it's correct. Don't know about night time or the torches though.

 

2. Will zombies notice the sound of a player walking/running close by? or is it just sight right now?

- Pre patch, my experience was random when sneaking up behind them. Sometimes I could run up and they'd not flinch, other times they would hear me 10-15m away whilst crouched. Not had chance to test this post-patch.

 

3. My understanding is that if you have any weapon less than an axe, trying to kill a zombie will likely result in getting injured, is that correct?

- Likely, yes. Fire axe is best (one hit kill) but a splitting axe will still down them. If you're weaponless, punch them in the head, it knocks them to the floor giving you some time to run away and out of sight.

 

4. When a zombie is knocked out on the ground, I see a little icon with a rifle appear, what's that about?

- It's a looting icon. Likely a bug as zombies don't carry anything/can't be looted, although it might be a placeholder if zombie looting is a planned thing.

 

5. Is this statement correct? When running away from a zombie, they can't see through the walls of a house if you are outside.. ie they can't see through a house, but if you are inside the house they can see through the wall.

- Behaviour was changed in the latest patch. They can now long longer run through walls and I've successfully lost zeds by running around/through buildings. I don't know if they can see you when you're in a building but my experiences thus far suggest not.

 

6. Does lying prone, crouching actually effect hiding from the sight of a zombie?

- Not a clue. Try testing it as a new spawn when you have nothing to lose.

 

7. I'm bleeing from a zombie attack, I use rags to bandage myself. I'm still somehow hurt though as my character keeps making noises, and my sprinting ability is reduced. Will I die eventually from that even though I'm no longer bleeding?

- Not currently, although the groaning indicates the player is in pain and their health is low, so you should probably sort that out otherwise your next encounter might knock you unconscious due to shock/kill you. Painkillers/morphine will stop the character making noise, but the only way to regenerate health is to have full blood and not be hungry/thirsty. See Merino's excellent guides on the health system stickied at the top of this section.

Welcome to DayZ. Run safe.

Edited January 24, 2014 by Monkfish

[InflatedLyric 39]

I concur, infected behavior can be very erratic.  Sometimes seeing through walls or entire buildings.  Also as stated aggroing from nearly a kilometer away.  I have turned a corner and been about 5m away, without an axe, and manage to walk backwards a safe distance and never get aggro.  I have also tried sneaking up on some with an axe and they aggro before I get within melee range.  I have also gotten aggro from a balcony of an apartment on the very top floor even though the infected was not even looking at me and I previously had to walk down the very same side of the building that I was aggroed from.

 

I have also had aggro from about 100m while crawling with a broken leg.  It all leads me to question if there is more than one AI behavior model at play; overall it seems very bug though.

 

As far as question 7) goes, I have not noticed anyone saying painkillers.  That is what I thought was the solution to groans of pain.  Of course I never have it when I need it and if I find it, I never needed it. (If I get too bored, probably because I have almost everything, I tend to roam hotspots hoping for interactions only to get KoS by some guy that thinks I am a boss because I can go up North and find loot).