zombie player detection

[sbafa01 0]

i would like to propose changes to how zombies detect players.

1. when a zombie hears a player action (be it a gunshot/footsteps etc.) they travel to the location of the sound to "investigate" (instead of agressing onto the player instantly when they haven't seen you). they could do this at any pace, i'd suggest that the louder the sound the faster they go to that location (i.e. footsteps slow, "quiet gun"; medium pace, sniper rifle; fast pace etc.)

2. zombies require a line of sight to the player to fully detect the players location and attack them, allowing players to attempt to evade zombies after they have been heard by them by hiding/moving to another area without being heard again.

3. if a zombie loses its line of sight with a player for too long it returns to chasing the sounds the player makes rather than the player itself.

i believe these additions to zombie behaviour would allow for more complex and satisfying player/zombie interaction (at least for me lol). my apologies if something like this has already been suggested.

[Mutonizer 78]

+1 on this totally. Was checking threads before posting the exact same suggestion.

1) On top of the "sound variation defines pacing", a little RNG should be added, to propagate tension and unknown. There should also be a chance that the infected doesn't react at all depending on the sound level.

2) As you said, sight should be the only real "aggro" on a player.

3) Adding some recurring checks on an infected aggro might be nice:

- Do I see some meat? If yes, chase! If no, investigate last position then wander off.

- Did I lose my meat? If yes, investigate and roam/patrol around about, then back to wandering. If no, chase!

- Is any meat I can see easy to get? (on the ground) If yes, beeline for it, ignore everything else. If no, chase current meat!

And just adding it there: Blood should make for fresh targets for the infected, using some kind of "smell" system.

- Do I smell any blood? If yes, beeline for it, ignore everything else!

These changes in behavior would allow for survivors to try and trick zombies, which is usually a huge part of scavenging in a zombie apocalypse genre.

[johannesmp 2]

I have to agree with this. With 1.5.7 I noticed several occasions where I aggro'd a large pack of runners, and then pulled far away to avoid my shots attracting any more, only to have a group of jumpers that were aggro'd along with the runners arrive about 5 minutes later, despite having completely lost line-of-sight on me. It was rather silly.

[wallace71 3]

+50

thought I lost my train in cherno, wandered my way up to the NE airfield where I had a buddy waiting for me (took about 4-5hrs due to my constant searching for loot in deer stalls), about 5 minutes after I arrive at the NE airfield a hopper derps itself over the ridge line and runs towards me

:huh: <-my face when

[oxysplatter 0]

+1 on this too.

The state the mod is in atm makes it impossible to fire a shot.even when zeds are far from sight or even out of sight.

My mate took a shot from a sniper from about 100m. As soon as he fired we got swarmed by about 15 zombies coming out of nowhere.It breaks the realism and thus the immersion.

zombie speed could be determined by actual zombie speed. i.e. crawlers crawl,hoppers hop etc.

[tkgwheeler 3]

Your idea regarding sound not causing aggro is spot on!

If implemented well it may also make those looking for slower zombies happy too as the Zeds may just wander towards the sounds until they see you. Once they see you they do their berserker charge like they currently do! That would be awesome!

[spirotris 0]

Excellent ideas, thumbs up!

Combine this behavior with a LoS rule so you can get a zed train, run up a hill, do a couple of house corners and then run inside a shed or something, lay flat on the floor and stay quiet til they lose interest and wander off..

As it is now it's like they stick a GPS-locator onto your backpack and can find you no matter how much distance you put between yourself and the zed.