An elegant solution to zombie spawning + game difficulty

[Etherimp 1323]

So, I think I have an elegant solution for the way the game handles zombie spawning, which will increase the game difficulty while maintaining performance. Before going into it though it's important to take a look at how the game (seemingly) handled zombies in the Mod, and how it handles them in SA. Take note of the differences, and what could be done to implement a more robust system that is actually feasible.

 

 

In the Mod:

-Each building had several "potential" loot placeholders*.

-Loot had the potential to spawn on specific placeholders, based on a percentage chance. Which meant...

-Sometimes loot would spawn on none, sometimes on all, usually only on a few. 

-Buildings/Loot spots themselves had a chance of spawning a set number of zombies. Some were low, such as 0-2, some were higher, such as 3-6.

-Zombies would spawn when 1 or more players came within 200 meters of a building with a zombie spawn chance assigned to it.

-Zombies would de-spawn when all players moved 300 meters away from the zombies themselves.

-This means, Zombies could still be active, and then more could spawn, if you kited zombies 200+ meters away from a spawn building, then moved back within that radius.

-All of the zombies assigned to a specific building could be killed and zombie spawning could be halted, assuming you did not move into or out of another spawn radius (200 meters).

-Zombies would roam away from thier spawning location and towards nearby players.

 

Pro's to this system:

-Rather resource efficient, as you are only spawning zombies when people are actually near-by. 

-Allows for a lot of zombies to be present within a certain players active area.

-"Protects" loot by placing zombies as a barrier around it.. To get to loot, players have to deal with zombies somehow.. either by shooting them, avoiding them, or melee attacking them.

-Allows loot to respawn. (Loot respawns were based on a different mechanic than zombie respawns.)

-Made higher value loot areas more difficult to loot without using firepower or clever use of kiting/melee attacks to clear a path.

 

Con's to this system:

-200 meters allowed snipers and other...predators, to scout out other players quite easily with little or no danger to themselves from zombies.

-Could be exploited in a number of ways.. IE - players could run into an area, kill all the zombies in the area, then camp the area.. If zombies spawned around them, they knew players were approaching.

-Felt Gamey when zombies would spawn or despawn before your eyes... Lacked immersion.

 

 

Current DayZ SA System

 

-Zombies spawn at server start and are static

-Zombies seem to have approximate "areas" where they spawn

-Zombies seem to spawn in somewhat random numbers.. Sometimes there's a lot, sometimes there's only a few in a given area.

-A few zombies will roam, but most stay in 1 place.

 

Pro's to this system:

-More immersive in some ways. Zombies don't spawn out of nowhere.

-Consistent in terms of performance.

 

Con's to this system:

-Once zombies are killed, they do not respawn

-If you see no zombies, you know an area is looted.. and without loot respawns, it's usually a waste of time

-Zombies are only a threat when first signing into a server.

-After the first hour or so a server has been up, high pop areas become death match with no zombies to worry about.

 

So, here's my proposed system..

 

1. Zombies spawn at buildings within 1000m of any given player.

2. The less players are on, the more zombies spawn for a given player. (To a limit)

3. The more players are on, the less zombies spawn per player. (to a limit)

4. The more players in 1 area, the more zombies spawn.

5. Zombies do not despawn, but rather reach a "cap".. Once the cap is reached, no more zombies can spawn unless somewhere on the map zombies are killed.. Once a new "slot" is open, more zombies may spawn within the 1000m area around players. Higher population areas take priority over lower populated.

 

 

Pro's to this system:

-No more scouting areas by checking for zombies, as your view distance is < or = 1000m.

-Areas remain challenging, and get more challenging the more players are in that area.

-Low pop servers remain challenging and get more challenging to lone wolf. 

-High pop servers, lone wolves will run into less zombies, but run the risk of dealing with more players.

-Performance wise, it remains the same as it is now, but focuses zombies in specific areas rather than spread across the map in towns that nobody has been to or goes to.

 

Con's to this system:

 

-You tell me.. none that I can think of.

 

* - You can think of a placeholder as a "spot" inside of a building where loot will sometimes spawn. For example, the Barracks is a "building" with several "placeholders" in it.. Sometimes items will spawn on top of the lockers, other times they will not. The lockers are just a "placeholder" which CAN spawn loot. The building itself has several placeholders inside of it, but zombies are assigned to the building rather than the placeholder specifically. This serves as a means of separating "zombies" from "loot".

[Etherimp 1323]

Bumpity...

 

Something I'd like to add: Dean has said they can run 4000 zombies in their debug builds.. With my method, on a standard 40 player server, that's 100 zombies per player.. On a 100 player server, 40 zombies per player (everywhere they go).. Imagine how much more of a challenge surviving and looting would be.

 

Also consider how it would impact server hopping and KOS.. 

 

Hanging out in Elektro with 10 other players running around (for a total of 400+ zombies) and trying to KOS/hold up people would be insanity.

[JuX 72]

If you have read the announcements there will be increased numbers of zombies and wondering zombie hordes. Not to mention all the zombies will respawn on server reset.

[Etherimp 1323]

I've read that. This is not about that.. This is about how they handle zombies as a whole.

[Etherimp 1323]

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