Do Zombies Dream Of A Good Nights Sleep? (Zombie feedback)

[SmashT 10907]

Zombies have many issues and each and one of them is or will be worked on. This is no easy task.

The problem is that people don't really understand what it means to have zombies functioning.

So lets split it into parts:

Movement / Pathfinding/ Navigation / Geometry: The Navmesh is working just fine, and is done really well. You can read in detail about that here. The problem that we now face, even though zombies know where they are and what is around them is geometry and full-body animation system. There are still cases where zombies do get through doors/walls because of those two things as well as server performance and desync. Although it does not happen nowhere near as often as it did before. The navmesh also comes at a memory cost so needed optimization of x64 server to provide more memory space.

Animation: The clipping and zombies going through doors after navmesh has been implemented is geometry and animation related. We however have only full-body animation available (thus limiting the amount of animations, and their blending). So the animation system is going away from full body animation and adding synchronized animations, blending etc to be available down the road. That will take a long time, but we will get there at some point.

AI: This is the behavioral mechanics (how, when and why the object reacts to sounds, items, buildings, blocks, people, other zombies, animals, and how this changes based on all the interactions). To have a working AI you need sensors for reasonable input. Zombie not only needs to know his environment. But status of players, noises etc. This again needs to go into hard code and evolve from there.

Sensors: This is the data structure that enables objects to understand the state of world around them (sound,items,players etc.) Every dynamic object in game has to understand its surroundings. To understand what is between him and his target. How to use those objects. If they somehow change his behaviour etc. Currently the sensors are an old module from ARMA where network code was p2p based (as in client to client mostly) and there was no pathfinding to speak of. New Sensors / AI are under development and can be found in the roadmap/devblogs.

Damage / hit detection and hitting long distances: Damage system needs to be changed, but again this needs to go from script to hardcoded and evolve from there. This is no small task. Hitting from long distances is caused by desynchronization. This is part of object interaction and rendering. Which is undergoing huge optimizations. Hit detection works okay, but is plagued by desync and server performance. Melee issues are hitbox related. This again is something that has to be changed a lot more engine side. The melee itself is already rewritten, which is why you are seeing so many issues. But as with everything, bugs will get hunted down. Feature will get to represent what we intended when it was designed.

Performance/Desync/Network code: Most of the issues with performance, amount of players, amount of zombies etc. Have underlying problems with synchronization and scaling (mostly item synchronization). The code has already started to improve. We have amazing people here taking care of exactly that. That directly ties into AI,sensors (core of the AI), interaction etc. Try to imagine that server is playing that zombie character.. So he is affected by server performance, network code etc. We need to change a lot of server performance and merge the sensors in to start raising zombie numbers and make stealth a viable option. Everything will take time. Server performance is mostly affected by inventory performance (item management) and sensors. They scale really horribly and were not prepared for this amount of interactions. This is however being worked on for better part of the year. Its a BIG change and needs time.

You have to understand that this huge block of work and has a timeframe of months. All of the changes have a convergence point down the road. There is a snowball effects to some of it. Zombies aren't broken, they are in development.The issues you`re seeing now all have underlying problems that will be fixed in the future. There is just no ETA on most of the stuff, since it has to go from script to hardcoded events in engine. That goes for AI and all things people keep complaining about. Most of these things are talked about or at least mentioned in the weekly status reports.

 

Many of these modules are outlines on the roadmap

[Scott61 93]

Harder ?

You have to be kidding...

 

On a LRS,barely even able to see the Zombie from way up in the woods he suddenly turns and runs right at me

They can see for miles now,this "re-spawning" is bullshit once you shoot them or axe them to death they should be gone forever!

Doesn't make sense having them respawn afterkilling one,that is not very realistic at all

 

They can run faster than a human now,especially if your suffering from all the Lag in and around cities

I myself can not even think of going anywhere near anywhere that has food or water do to this as it is absolutely impossible for me to enter a village or city without getting killed by being swarmed by Zombies.They hit once,your bleeeding and then can not even run away to badage the wound.

 

They state of the new Zombies makes the game not only unplayable,but so difficult the game is no longer fun at all!

 

Of coarse,this is all just IMHO

 

Yup... And I hope they only get harder.

 

 

[shagohad 124]

the age old problem with zombies has always been the aggro,

 

it hit a sweet spot a few times in the mod where being stealthy was rewarding, but the truth is the zombies arent fun if you cant stealth past them, at the moment when guns seem to have the same audio effect, zeds see you through walls and from far away when you arent moving, and other bullshit, expect to hear people complain about it, you would have to be completely blind with fanboyism to accept the current state. Maybe acknowledge that a bit of criticism in the right places can help the development?

 

 

edit: just to be clear this post was in response to an OP that got merged and removed, OP was ridiculing people on reddit for complaining about zeds. While sometimes people on reddit need to be ridiculed, the OP was a bit over the top :)

Edited March 24, 2014 by Shagohad

[hotcakes 348]

You know how respawning zombies are completely fine game-wise?

 

It's because the zombies that spawn with the map load before the map is fully loaded. That's right, we've had these problems all these months because someone couldn't be assed to make zombies load later.

[HazZarD87 166]

The guy is right on the spawning part. If a zombie is killed then it should respawn randomly somewhere and not right away, close to where you are.. appearing like some ghost. After all we would be able to clear areas now wouldn't we.

[Danlow 63]

The only part of this that I'm familiar with is the zombie view distance/awareness being glitchy.

They aren't faster than you, and there are lots of places to get food and water. Avoid the Z's when you can, they drop no loot and you don't get experience. You have literally nothing to get from engaging them if you don't have to. Run in, grab what you need, and then run to the woods. I would also recommend avoiding Cherno, as a single gunshot in there attracts loads of them. Its pretty fun :)

 

GLHF

Actually since this hotfix today, the zombies ARE faster than you. I don't mind that, they're pretty easy to kill anyway. They also seem to climb the stairs in the police station now making it a threat. All in all, harder to do stuff solo, in a group its easy, some loot, other holds the zombies away. 

 

The only thing that disturbs me since the hotfix is that when you sprint with the melee weapon out, you hear few steps. As if you where jumping. *step*....*step*.... *step* rather than hearing many steps in short interwalls.

Edited March 22, 2014 by Danlow

[hutchthefreaker 49]

Actually since this hotfix today, the zombies ARE faster than you. I don't mind that, they're pretty easy to kill anyway. They also seem to climb the stairs in the police station now making it a threat. All in all, harder to do stuff solo, in a group its easy, some loot, other holds the zombies away. 

 

The only thing that disturbs me since the hotfix is that when you sprint with the melee weapon out, you hear few steps. As if you where jumping. *step*....*step*.... *step* rather than hearing many steps in short interwalls.

Cool, I can't wait to check that out. 

[snowzero 86]

I honestly think that it was the best move DayZ has made so far making the Zombies run so fast in this latest patch (about 3 hours ago released). I'm on stable and I've never had to experience the Zombie Apocalypse as fun as this. Now, you have to actually care about the zombies, they are not just annoying now and the thing keeping you from having fun. They are now things that you have to worry about, and scare you. Me and my friend just ran through Elektro and almost died ~8 times from zombie attacks where 15 of them were flourishing from all directions at super speeds and almost tore us apart. 

 

The game is amazing with this new addon? And they are now thinking about bringing it down back to normal because people will complain....

 

 

The fact that when running with my M4 out makes the zombies catch up to me and overpower me and kill me is a really good feeling now. I know it sounds odd, but the Mod was a PVP fest, a call of duty on a big map. Now we have a real zombie game. Something that makes us work to loot, its not the player that is the enemy anymore, its the zombies. 

 

Do not let this happen? Show the love, its a zombie apocalypse, we need to fear the zombies.

Edited March 22, 2014 by N7292

[Bearserk 57]

Yup, they're awesome.

[Electi 149]

if you have axe, still not a problem

[res 373]

Yep. 

 

Was pretty impressed with what I've seen today.

 

Them spawning really close to me, not so much.

[snowzero 86]

Yep. 

 

Was pretty impressed with what I've seen today.

 

Them spawning really close to me, not so much.

I agree, spawning to close is a real problem. I was walking down the street and they started to spawn just around me in some areas, within 50m. But otherwise, I like the new gameplay.

[snowzero 86]

if you have axe, still not a problem

Heck no, sorry, but that's completely inaccurate.

 

Maybe with one on you, but if Your running through elektro 3 zombies is a HUGE problem even with an axe.

[blo0dxsh0t 21]

the speed and aggression of the zombies are not a problem for me at all...its the spawn rate...I literally went through 6 magnum clips just running about 50 ft because i had no axe..I would kill one or 2 and instanly 2 more would spawn righ in front of me already running full speed at me...If the zombies are gonna have a respawn give it at least 2-5 mins 

[soulfirez 901]

keep there speed and there high hit damage double there number atleast but fix them so they cant clip walls and make them so its possible if your carefull and crawl sneak past them ( not in there view of course but if not in line of sight (which should be reduced a little).

 

That will give us a fun dangerous but managable if your smart zed apoc...

[HazZarD87 166]

This kind of speed on an aggroed zombie sprinting towards you with nothing on his mind but tearing you to pieces is what I'd expect of the infected. (Always did see em as the rage-virus kind from 28 days later).

 

They should hold it back untill other issues have been fixed though. Zombies now just clip trough walls like they arent there.. even more than they ever did in the mod, not to mention the still broken aggroeing and out-of-thin air respawning. Once they get those things sorted we can give them their Usain Bolt skills again, because now you just make any new spawn a lottery of "will I find a fireaxe in time" :P

[Atzala 1]

if you have axe, still not a problem

Agree, its much more fun. Even with an axe you have to be careful to get the first swing in. I've blown through all my bandages and now med kits and rags are a higher priority.

[Phoenix777 43]

It's funny because just last night I had two zombies that were chasing me down a hill , sort of skid off on front of me and die from fall damage in assuming. It wasn't even that steep of a hill.

I'm guessing that was before the patch, so it may be worse now but I can just see the exploits now:

fire your rifle on hill above town

Wait for zombies to surround you

Run down hill

Mass zombie graveyard

Town free to loot.

[snowzero 86]

It's funny because just last night I had two zombies that were chasing me down a hill , sort of skid off on front of me and die from fall damage in assuming. It wasn't even that steep of a hill.

I'm guessing that was before the patch, so it may be worse now but I can just see the exploits now:

fire your rifle on hill above town

Wait for zombies to surround you

Run down hill

Mass zombie graveyard

Town free to loot.

Yessir. But you forgot one KEY aspect. Good thinking, but zombies respawn within 10 seconds of their death. Close to you, within 100m.

[Forrelist 236]

I was approaching the northeast town, and I could just see four zombies sprinting towards me through the field. Add some stealth possibility and THAT is the game I want to play.

[res 373]

Heck no, sorry, but that's completely inaccurate.

 

Maybe with one on you, but if Your running through elektro 3 zombies is a HUGE problem even with an axe.

 

HUGE problem? I've dealt with 10-20 zombies 1 hour ago and I never waste ammo shooting zombies, even if I have 600 rounds, just for the noise.

 

There was a train of 4-5 zombies chasing me and it's really easy with the firefighter axe, just hit n' run.

 

Zombies are never a problem, even this fast, you can just pick up the loot and run.

[snowzero 86]

HUGE problem? I've dealt with 10-20 zombies 1 hour ago and I never waste ammo shooting zombies, even if I have 600 rounds, just for the noise.

 

There was a train of 4-5 zombies chasing me and it's really easy with the firefighter axe, just hit n' run.

 

Zombies are never a problem, even this fast, you can just pick up the loot and run.

Most people would disagree with you, and I would too. But for all we know, you have the best shot in the town (with your axe  ;) ) 

 

I have my prefrences and you have yours. Lets leave it at that. But lets try not to start a friendly fight in this thread. I get that zombies are still getting there ya know. But I've had my troubles with them this past 2 hours. And you seem to be doing great. Good for you man! (Non sarcastically)

[The_Monk 320]

I discovered that at full tilt, these new and improved zombies can run you down and hit you if you're sprinting away from them holding a gun out.

 

No more carrying 2 rifles for me.

[snowzero 86]

I discovered that at full tilt, these new and improved zombies can run you down and hit you if you're sprinting away from them holding a gun out.

 

No more carrying 2 rifles for me.

Just hire @Res, he can assist you with all your zombie killing needs.

[The_Monk 320]

Killing them with an axe is easy, Swing as they run at you or circle them swinging. If you are carrying two rifles, you drop one of them on the ground to pull your axe out, making you slightly hesitant to do so. Hesitant = dead.

Edited March 22, 2014 by The_Monk