Zombie behavior

[Redshift 58]

There is a lot of fun to be had in this game. I love the sandbox approach, the feeling of desperation and fear. I enjoy the fact that I have to be on the lookout for not only zombies but other players, and that going into towns is a nerve wracking experience (I sneak, I dont run through town like a mexican jumping bean while trying to lose the horde in buildings. Thats a playstyle choice and I find it more enjoyable).

There are things that could be done to improve the game though (duh its still in the building/testing phase). And I think that an overhaul of zombie behavior is something that would add immeasurably to the game experience.

What I am referring to is that the zombies in DayZ don't act in a manner that is very interesting, nor consistent with most other references to zombie behavior in other forms of media.

Zombies just idle around towns and buildings. Sure they wander a little bit, but for the most part they just trace celtic knot circles around their starting area. What this leads to is that you know as long as you are not near buildings you are completely safe from zombies, they become a non-factor. You are free to stand up and sprint around making as much noise as you feel like. And this just isnt authentic or interesting.

What I think should happen is that zombie should have a starting spawn point (it can even be the same spawn points they have now), but are not fixed to that location. Do they hear or see something off to their left? Then they should meander that direction. So now that zombie is walking off to the east, another zombie out on its own see the first and its "interest" is not focused on anything else so it follows him. After a while you have a group of 5-10 zombies clumped together walking through the woods. All of the sudden you can't be so certain you are safe since you are outside of a town.

Or you have a player who runs through town to loot it, and then runs out (or even a helicopter flys over a city and the zombies look up and follow it). He attracts the attention of a group of zombies who follow him. Eventually he loses them. The zombies would stop running but stay grouped together, attracting more to the horde as they go. Maybe you end up with a group of 50 zombies all together. A boar or rabbit darts out of the forest and away from the horde, which causes some of them to break off and follow it. Now you have two smaller hordes going in different directions.

This can lead to smaller areas like barns and deer stands, or even the small towns from time to time being empty with no zombies around them. This is a good thing because it is how it would happen in real life, it is more authentic. But overall it ramps up the danger and difficulty of the game because you truly aren't safe anywhere anymore. A herd could be walking up on you at any moment.

The key to this would be using legitimate stimuli to prompt zombie behavior. NOT just randomly spawning herds in the middle of nowhere. And also it would require locking the borders of the map (which should be done anyway), otherwise the herds will eventually wander into the emptiness and become a non-factor. Once a zombie reaches the edge of the map it could either be programed to turn and go in a random direction, or despawn and then respawn somewhere else at a valid spawn location. Also key areas like large cities should have a "draw" or "attraction" making it less likely for zombies to leave without a strong stimulus to do so, so that these areas are never empty.

[TheGoldElite 0]

Interestin points! The current spawn system does feel abit forced, but Is probably for better performance. I would like the team to reconsider zombie spawning thoroughly

[infekt3d 0]

I think the reason for this is the zombies only spawn when players get near them, and despawn when they leave. If, and I'm not arguing your points because I would love for this to be the case, they wandered all over the map though, most peoples computers would cripple under the number of zombies meandering about.

[tadtadtad 0]

Sure but,

Run aggroing the whole town, make sure you get all the zombies, kite them out of the city, lose them and go back to the city and loot everything without any problem.

As Firefall said, zombies spawn when players are nearby, and despawn when the leave for obvious server overload reasons.

[Redshift 58]

Performance issues are, of course, a legitimate complaint about my proposal. I am not a programmer so I am unaware if there is or is not a way to do this "in the background" without significantly impacting performance server-wide. Maybe there is no way, in which case my idea is impractical. But perhaps there is, which is why I proposed it. Maybe Rocket will read it and think on it and come up with something. If not then no harm done :)

Run aggroing the whole town, make sure you get all the zombies, kite them out of the city, lose them and go back to the city and loot everything without any problem.

With the addition of breaking Line of Sight causing zombies to drop off of you I do not believe this could be accomplished. At least not in the large cities. Plus even if you could significantly lower the zombie population of a town in this way you have run all over the city in plain sight of everyone else around, making yourself a target while gathering agro. And once you come back to loot the city everyone else has already gotten the chance to loot everything before you (since they just had to wait for you to leave before looting, while you have to run until you lose all the zombie agro and come back).