Test: Zombie Train!

[Grimey Rick 3417]

Due to a combination of extreme boredom and mild curiosity, I thought I'd try to amass a massive zombie train of death in Chapaevsk after a server restart. The results were... disappointing. The maximum number of zombies I was able to have board my train was four at any given time. Once a fifth zombie started chasing me, one of the original zombies would stop and refuse to continue the chase with a sulky look on their face.

 

Fun.

 

[Munson_fry (DayZ) 312]

u need a medic ! FAST 

 

lol good idea by the way 

[iBane 381]

Interesting factoid on the 4 limit and this is very likely intentional at this time.

 

Zombies atm are a temporary alpha placeholder.  They are not in the final/planned version nor are they optimized.  Limits like this are in place on a lot of things to help keep lag/FPS drop problems under control as the game's architecture is improved/optimized to handle the high volume of planned dynamic items.  

[Elle 562]

oh I've done this before as a newspawn I've managed to keep up to 5 interested but its a lot of work - they do provide good cover running into electro, ya just gotta mix and mingle with em while not getting hit by em. oh and a lot of backtracking to get that one that always stops.

[Grimey Rick 3417]

Interesting factoid on the 4 limit and this is very likely intentional at this time.

 

Zombies atm are a temporary alpha placeholder.  They are not in the final/planned version nor are they optimized.  Limits like this are in place on a lot of things to help keep lag/FPS drop problems under control as the game's architecture is improved/optimized to handle the high volume of planned dynamic items.  

 

Yeah. I'm aware of that. I just wanted to see how many would actually chase me in their current state.

 

oh I've done this before as a newspawn I've managed to keep up to 5 interested but its a lot of work - they do provide good cover running into electro, ya just gotta mix and mingle with em while not getting hit by em. oh and a lot of backtracking to get that one that always stops.

 

Really? Even brushing shoulders with them, as soon as that fifth zombie started chasing me one of them instantly stopped, no matter how tightly I ran circles around it. Could you post some pictures by any chance? I'd be interested to see your technique. :3

[Elle 562]

Yeah. I'm aware of that. I just wanted to see how many would actually chase me in their current state.

 

 

Really? Even brushing shoulders with them, as soon as that fifth zombie started chasing me one of them instantly stopped, no matter how tightly I ran circles around it. Could you post some pictures by any chance? I'd be interested to see your technique. :3

unfortunately I don't have any screens of it but the next time I spawn I'll certainly grab some - basically I end up having to run back to the one that stopped and give it a good shove to gain agro which causes one in the larger group to loose agro but that one is in the direction I am heading anyway so give it a good shove on the way by and it goes back and forth like that till I have em all in town - once in town its a crap shoot and I don't care how many I have, I'll start looting while leaving most of them at the door I went into and picking up more out the back (or front depending on where I entered). nothing like a meat shield or four ;)  

[ig-rage 78]

They are not in the final/planned version

If you are saying that zombies won't be in the game when its released, then the devs need a slap, I paid for DayZ not Day. Edited March 14, 2014 by IG Rage

[sumusiko 30]

DUDE TURN AROUND HE SEES YOU

[TomatoSupra 207]

Due to a combination of extreme boredom and mild curiosity, I thought I'd try to amass a massive zombie train of death in Chapaevsk after a server restart. The results were... disappointing. The maximum number of zombies I was able to have board my train was four at any given time. Once a fifth zombie started chasing me, one of the original zombies would stop and refuse to continue the chase with a sulky look on their face.

 

Fun.

 

 

I want to see MASSIVE hordes of zombies when they optimize them. Like when you walk into cherno or elektro there is too many to even run past.

 

That would be awesome.

[Princess Dookie 35]

That's a shame. It would be awesome if we could get a little horde to chase us around.

[BadAsh (DayZ) 1513]

Disappointing. They seem to have lowered the number even more since when I tried this a couple of months ago. I managed to herd 6 of them.

[Irish. 4886]

See patch notes on: optimizations..

 

LOL

[Princess Dookie 35]

Makes me wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that some zombies see you, while others don't. Could it be that even those that are far away will sometimes remain triggered, giving us a immunity against some other zombies, until that trigger is released? 

[BadAsh (DayZ) 1513]

Makes me wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that some zombies see you, while others don't. Could it be that even those that are far away will sometimes remain triggered, giving us a immunity against some other zombies, until that trigger is released? 

 

From the several player experiments having been carried out, it seems fairly certain that there is a hardcoded limit to the number of zombies able to follow one player at any given time. Remember that individual zombies can spot you on very long distances, and often through walls and other obstacles.

[BadAsh (DayZ) 1513]

This is from my experiment in January, which shows the at the time maximum number of 6 zombies chasing me at once, while other zombies can be seen in the background, which had previously been chasing me but had stopped, as I ran into new zombies that began chase and thus replaced the older ones in the herd:

 

[Grimey Rick 3417]

This is from my experiment in January, which shows the at the time maximum number of 6 zombies chasing me at once, while other zombies can be seen in the background, which had previously been chasing me but had stopped, as I ran into new zombies that began chase and thus replaced the older ones in the herd:

 

 

Cool, I wonder why they lowered the limit. After all of the server optimizations, you'd think they'd raise the limit.

[BadAsh (DayZ) 1513]

Cool, I wonder why they lowered the limit. After all of the server optimizations, you'd think they'd raise the limit.

 

I suspect some of the optimisation work involved cutting down on features like this and loot in certain buildings etc. In other words lowering the number of zombies able to follow you, but rising the total number of zombies on the map. Cutting corners in a way, but hopefully just done temporarily for testing purposes.

[Gruffallo 16]

If you are saying that zombies won't be in the game when its released, then the devs need a slap, I paid for DayZ not Day.

The Z refers to Zebras, they are not implemented yet.