Let's have a debate on zombie AI...

[Torothin 2]

So as of right now this game seems to be more of a 28 days ;ater scenario as opposed to your other zombie movies. What is everyone's opinion on making zombie behavior more of "The Walk Dead" style where all they can do is walk but if they see you they keep walking in that direction leading to potential hurdes of zombies and what not.

I find the current zombie behavior to be somewhat difficult and without proper weapons in a town 9 times out of 10 you will have to bandage yourself as they zig zag all over the place. What about changing the zombie behavior to walking? Heck, we could even make more of them but wouldn't this game be better with a more traditional zombie behavior approach??

The Walking Dead, Resident Evil, Shawn of the dead, all are good examples. Thoughts?

[vanilladragon 1]

unrealistic suggestion. zombies are not a threat at all, need to spawn 3 or 4 times as many i think.

[SupWithThat 2]

I didn't think they were actually zombies, more 'infected humans' - hence the lack of traditional zombie behaviour.

Exclusively walking zombies would just be easy mode.

[MayhemMike 3]

more of them, 10 times deadlier but slower would be awesome.

[torturedchunk 22]

Zombies is a loose term. Yes they are infected, but the traditional "Zombie" tag fits well with the game.

I would like to see more infected spawn. Lots more.

[Terrorfex 0]

Rocket already said that in the next patch we will be able to get a few more infected.

Zeds are not zombies like the ones in Walking Dead.

I do love slow-walking brain-eating zombies, but i also like DayZ style of infected.

[Penguinman401 2]

I don't mind the way zombies are in game currently. Except for the fact that they turn into Usain Bolt after hearing a shot.

[kothen 0]

I would prefer walking zombies but only if they died from head shots. And they don't need to be super slow, they could more or less shamble towards you or speed walk. But if there were walking zombies they would have to make it so that there would be a lot more

[thewinterbear 0]

The only problem with Walking Dead type zombies is it always seems once you get a few on you more and more start appearing from all directions, which wouldnt work in this game as they need to remain persistent, less spawning from air=better realism

Thoug I hope they eventually get massive herds walking around in the wilderness randomly, especially if they could funnel into each other randomly but rarely and make like a (cat 5) supermassive herd like 100+

[Womb Raider 92]

That seems good in theory but the map is just too big to have only zombies that walk. Personally I have no problem with the zombies aside from them glitching through walls and attacking me and rising up through floors.

[Brenelael 1]

While I do agree to a point I don't think the answer is to slow them down to walking speed. Making them run at a normal speed would be a start as right now they run faster than Olympic sprinters. Also spawn more and get rid of the zig-zag movement. Have more zombies that run straight for the player at a normal pace. It really doesn't make any sense that an infected that is deranged from their illness would take evasive maneuvers. They would only know that they need to feed and they would take the shortest route possible to get there.

TL;DR: More zombies that run at a normal pace straight for the player.

[SineDeviance 0]

Honestly, I'd be quite content if they simply fixed (yes, fixed) the zig-zag movement and Kenyan-grade running speed, which makes them impossible to target unless you're going for center mass shots (and even then it's not easy.) I'm not an FPS god like a lot of people that probably play this game. Most of the time I have to wait until they run up close and personal before I can get a solid line on a headshot.

However, I do prefer a "Lots more Zeds, slow Romero-style movement" approach. It has worked very well in lots of games (The entire Resident Evil series, Dead Rising, STALKER, etc.) and I think it would work equally well in DayZ. Fast ghouls are only good for shock value in my opinion, and that largely wears off after the first five or ten G's (slang for ghoul, heh) you encounter.

Slow, shambling masses are much more frightening in this player's opinion, because it presents you with a situation where you'd sometimes need to expend most (if not all) of your ammunition to put down the entire horde. I'd rather have a realistic option of running away as compared to simply running around a wall and going prone. And that's if you manage to somehow run faster than Zack (more slang) which ain't likely.

[bra1n 2]

I like them being infected in this game as they are. I would also like random encounters in woods, also maybe odd chance of a killer bear that takes alot of shooting to get down.

I just wish the walking/attacking through walls and doors would be fixed, everything else is fine.

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

unrealistic suggestion. zombies are not a threat at all' date=' need to spawn 3 or 4 times as many i think.

[/quote']

You sure are a conundrum, I'll tell you what.

You want a horde of blood-thirsty entities whose singular goal in the game is to mindlessly hunt and kill you on sight, no questions asked, every time you see them, and you want them to be more numerous than the already are in the game. Three to four times as numerous!

Yet, in every other thread on the forums when we're talking about the mindless horde that already exists in the game whose job is already to mindlessly hunt and kill you you go to all ends of the Earth to argue that they are destroying the game and ruining everyone's fun and killing the atmosphere, etc., etc.

If you want a challenge from a horde of mindless enemies - you already have it. It's called PvP. Stop arguing against it in every thread on the forum if that's what you want. The horde is already there. They are players. And they are infinitely more challenging because they have REAL human intelligence that didn't have to be controlled by a computer.

You're basically asking with one hand for the designers to spend hundreds of hours finding ways to curb the mindless killing of players, while on the other hand spending hundreds of hours to create a "human like" intelligence for the mindless AI zombies in the game to give you a challenge by mindlessly killing players.

Can you see how this all might seem a bit silly and perhaps undermine some of your impassioned arguments against PvP? Please see it. It really is a chance for you to escalate your discussion of this game to a new level. If you plan to hang around on the forums as much as you do, it might serve you to open up just a tad to new perspectives.

[evotech 0]

Only problem i have with them is that if you just keep running they will never attack you, making it too easy, also, they will always just train behind you instead of attack you

[TheGoldElite 0]

We can't have classic zombies, because they would clog up the game to have enough of them to be a threat. The "infected" model is more practical. thats why they are this way. Also interesting point Zed.

[Morietti 0]

Only problem with Zeds is that they make these loud sounds like they are right behind you, but in reality far away.

Also that they run and "teleport" at the same time, which makes it close to impossible to hit them until they stop to hit you. <-- Might be server issue, i don't know.

[m2n2l2 0]

Zombie AI = run towards you and keep chasing you forever. That's not an AI. That's preset behaviourial mode.

I'd like the zeds to give us a sign through the soundsystem, when you access their range and another sign when you raise their alertness/curiosity. When they get agroed, I'd like them to go all out the way they do now. I'd also like to have "master" zeds that can alert other zeds and summon them after you. These zeds could have the manic behviour all zeds inhibit right now, while the rest of the zeds should be tamed back to the way they were around 1.7.1 . .

. . you could make the master zeds guard good loot places like hospitals, shops, military camps :P

[djkling 5]

OK... I will play both sides of this coin:

1) Fast Zombies. Rocket had said this was more 28-days than Romero; its his mod we should accept that. He will tweak speeds and aggression and numbers to keep it challenging though not impossible. I would LOVE a random chance of a building NOT spawning some zeds so that there isnt an expectation of a zed every building but a bit of uncertainty. I'd love to see the ability to clear whole towns before the respawn to give you stuff to do and objectives, but fast or slow it doesnt matter. The fast is a challenge,and you need less of them to really wreck shop. An isolated zed is a danger in this game

2) Slow zombies: It would PROBABLY be too easy unless you are REALLY dumb. If you notice in Romero movies, zombies number in the THOUSANDS usually. Look at Walking Dead when they entered Atlanta. THOUSANDS. That would cause a lot of server lag and the only real way to up the tension in this is to have them all over the place in HUGE numbers and we'd need mechanics for barricading, makeshift weapons, etc.

As much as i hate being eaten by zeds, the reality is that the way they have it works, it just needs some tweaks!

[nalaskey 0]

Well, since the mod is still fairly new I assume that many things will smooth out with the "zombie" AI. My main concern at this point is the erratic movement patterns of the enemy and how their animation seems to just be "sped up". But I'm sure many things are going to change with time. That's the awesome thing about mods! Overall though I would like to see a slight decrease in their speed. Not much but a little. Honestly what I think would be relly cool would be to have a large variety of movement speeds and animations from the zombies as a result of broken limbs, infection, loss of sight etc. Just an idea.