Read - Roaming Horde(s)

[I_Guts_I 7]

We have the infected filled towns and now infected straying away and out of the towns to populate a larger area. I love this with the new update because before it was only really dangerous in the towns, now we have them in the fields but I'm here to propose a concept/mechanic.

The idea in short is to have random or scripted roaming zombie horde(s) of lets say 30+ zombies throughout the map.

Why should this idea should be thought of and attempted to at least a test or implementation?

1. Players no longer can just think of some areas as zombie safe zones. This will shake things up and make the player never know when a zombie threat or situation will occur which adds even more diversity to the game.

2. Setting up camp will be harder and big groups will have to think of way to defend if a horde comes.

3. Bandits will have more to think about than just players to kill and loot

4. If a group is staying in one area the horde will make them change positions.

5. It adds to the experience.

What are your thoughts on this?

[Sidion 0]

Agree'd!

It'll add a dynamic element (and a bit of chance) to those raids on towns.

It'd make finding secure waiting/rally points for groups increasingly difficult,

And it'd give another use for the binoculars. Woo for possible sentry roles in the group dynamic!

[I_Guts_I 7]

Agree'd!

It'll add a dynamic element (and a bit of chance) to those raids on towns.

It'd make finding secure waiting/rally points for groups increasingly difficult' date='

And it'd give another use for the binoculars. Woo for possible sentry roles in the group dynamic!

[/quote']

Yes, all those things and more.

[Mice! 1]

Will the horde move based on gunfire/noise, or will they just seek the nearest (group of) player(s) to them on the map?

Good idea, should add more tension/randomness to looting, basing with others, etc.

[gregor (DayZ) 95]

Seems there is some valid points. In my view would be this good addition to zombie spawning system. Example - most zombies could spawn in western region of map (from west come railroad, i imagine, there might be some bigger cities, full of infected). Much less zombies could spawn on North border of map. And with spawning, they begin its migrating southeast.

I guess, some resurrecting of players might be take place in front of a another wave of spawned zombies ..

And yet something. In my view would be cool, if in harbor of one larger city, would located pair Ocean liners, with many turists, who was arrived at festive week.

Now you have good spot for spawning zombies and maybe interesting (but dangerous)place to explore and take some loot.

[skurcey 11]

/me hopes a dev sees this

What about a zone that move to town to town and that, when it s triggered by players nearby (exept maybe helicopters), spawn Z's. And despawn them to continue to move to next town when players arent near anymore

[wasrad 42]

Im not sure this would be possible due to the fact that zed AI is run locally and not on the server. You could have it so that open fields spawn a few but from what I understand the server doesnt run the AI to avoid desync issues

[I_Guts_I 7]

Will the horde move based on gunfire/noise' date=' or will they just seek the nearest (group of) player(s) to them on the map?

Good idea, should add more tension/randomness to looting, basing with others, etc.

[/quote']

Well I wasn't thinking of the horde as being triggered by gunfre/noise or seek a group. I was thinking more or less of making a horde just wander aimlessly around the map. This would make it random and the player would never know if a horde was coming.

Plus a horde already forms on you now with a gunshot in town. This is a new type of thing where there is just a huge group traveling in areas all over the map.

---

Im not sure this would be possible due to the fact that zed AI is run locally and not on the server. You could have it so that open fields spawn a few but from what I understand the server doesnt run the AI to avoid desync issues

If the Zed A.I. was put onto each server like it is then a random occurring formation of infected that travel around the map would be possible.

---

* Skurcey hopes a dev sees this

What about a zone that move to town to town and that' date=' when it s triggered by players nearby (exept maybe helicopters), spawn Z's. And despawn them to continue to move to next town when players arent near anymore

[/quote']

This would take away from the point of the horde mechanic/event. Its there for a random occurrence that cannot be pinpointed to a certain time and place of action A or action B resulting in the cause of a horde. We already have that in towns.

Also if you have a set path for a horde from town to town then players will again make only the towns dangerous and players would know to watch out for hordes while near towns.

The point of this mechanic is to add randomness of never knowing when danger is going to hit.

[matthew-wang@sbcglobal.net 0]

+1 to this idea

[Mice! 1]

Im not sure this would be possible due to the fact that zed AI is run locally and not on the server. You could have it so that open fields spawn a few but from what I understand the server doesnt run the AI to avoid desync issues

Then the zombies themselves don't have to be handled by the server, instead a horde is represented by a single entity, handled server-side. Once they are near a player, then the zombies are spawned in their client.

[I_Guts_I 7]

Odd. There was a whole other page of posts on this thread but they must have been deleted because of the forum breach.

[clodan 0]

i liked this idea a lot, but i would actually make this "hordes" apprear near roads, heading torwards cities.

And maybe sometime singular zombies on the woods just to get it creepier

[leo235 2]

* Skurcey hopes a dev sees this

What about a zone that move to town to town and that' date=' when it s triggered by players nearby (exept maybe helicopters), spawn Z's. And despawn them to continue to move to next town when players arent near anymore

[/quote']

This would take away from the point of the horde mechanic/event. Its there for a random occurrence that cannot be pinpointed to a certain time and place of action A or action B resulting in the cause of a horde. We already have that in towns.

Also if you have a set path for a horde from town to town then players will again make only the towns dangerous and players would know to watch out for hordes while near towns.

The point of this mechanic is to add randomness of never knowing when danger is going to hit.

I think thats the better implementation of that. Its still pretty random and gives more opportunities to scouts.

The way you described it zombies could just spawn in masses in an area that you just looked at

[species5021 28]

You have been watching the walking dead.

I like the idea, it will give you another thing to worry about when running in fields or forest.

The idea though is still not clear enough, if you have a group of zeds walking around, then why dont the town zeds move off. What motivates the group of zeds to clump together and move off together.

And, its not dangerous enough. Generally im around large fields and if i can see a group of 'walkers' coming i would just lie down and wait for them to pass.

Also it doesn't really matter if it cant be implemented yet, if you find enough good points to this idea so the devs notice, they will find a way to implement it.

[pvt_ammo@hotmail.com 164]

Love this idea, definitely needs to be looked into by the dev team!

+1 from me.

[I_Guts_I 7]

You have been watching the walking dead.

I like the idea' date=' it will give you another thing to worry about when running in fields or forest.

The idea though is still not clear enough, if you have a group of zeds walking around, then why dont the town zeds move off. What motivates the group of zeds to clump together and move off together.

And, its not dangerous enough. Generally im around large fields and if i can see a group of 'walkers' coming i would just lie down and wait for them to pass.

Also it doesn't really matter if it cant be implemented yet, if you find enough good points to this idea so the devs notice, they will find a way to implement it.

[/quote']

watching and reading :)

Also just got done reading World War Z. Speaking of which I would love a winter, summer where zombies move slower in winter.

Books give great inspiration for games but I really didn't even think about those when I thought of this idea.

You may be able to lay down but will one of them possibly step on you?

Thanks for the support everyone on the idea.

[vesmo 21]

Only one thing to say. HELLS TO THE YES!!!!

[I_Guts_I 7]

Another thought popped up in my head. I know this is complicated but in due time maybe possible.

When a player shoots a gun. Based on its level of report this horde that travels on the map then investigates this shot. They will continue to go to that shot until another is made within earshot distance of the zombies detection(1500m-2000m would be a good range) and the they go on to investigate that shot.

This will make all static camps very vulnerable and by god will it make you paranoid when you have to make a shot. Sniper will have to keep moving and groups will have to think twice before camping out a spot.

Whoever agrees with this idea or think it sounds good please help me get this heard by the DayZ dev team. :)

[Peninja 0]

Great idea! Logical and Probable!

[jovial 17]

I like this idea, right now zombies are a nuisance at best, only really made dangerous by being glitchy as fuck, and ceasing to be so as soon as you lead them indoors.

When zombie fucked up pathing and animations are fixed, I would like to see multiple hordes roaming the map, randomly, investigating gunshots over something like above suggestion of 1-2 kilometers. Suddenly nowhere would be actually safe.

Might even be a good addition in the current zombie state, just to make the world a bit more dangerous. At the moment its a bit too easy to survive in the woods once you have the gear necessary for it.

Even with a roaming horde mechanic the woods would be pretty safe, but not as safe as they are now.

[Cedrik (DayZ) 0]

There are already hordes that go from town to town...

Dunno about you but they follow me from town to town for hours on end.

Kinda getting dull that way tho. Its very repetative. Try to sneak... one sees you... you either start runing and every last one runs at you then or you shoot the stupid one that saw you and again they all run at you again. So you get hordes no matter what.

Zombies run so fast its... just lame. And you want hordes?

[I_Guts_I 7]

There are already hordes that go from town to town...

Dunno about you but they follow me from town to town for hours on end.

Kinda getting dull that way tho. Its very repetative. Try to sneak... one sees you... you either start runing and every last one runs at you then or you shoot the stupid one that saw you and again they all run at you again. So you get hordes no matter what.

Zombies run so fast its... just lame. And you want hordes?

All you have to do when spotted is run into a building that slows them down then run out the other end.

You missed the whole point behind the idea for the mechanic as well. Go back and read the post because it is about adding a random element to the game that takes away the dull feeling you, yourself, just described.

Yes I do want hordes. I want to see a pack of 20+ zombies running at me from 1000m away and being scared shitless and have to think ou strategically what to do to survive this fucked up situation I am in.

[jovial 17]

Oh yeah, obviously it should be running hordes. Not walking. But come to think of it, it really shouldn't be implemented until their animation and pathing is fixed.

[I_Guts_I 7]

Oh yeah' date=' obviously it should be running hordes. Not walking. But come to think of it, it really shouldn't be implemented until their animation and pathing is fixed.

[/quote']

I agree with this. I was thinking later in the games development when they get optimization and everything fixed. We may not ever see this be implemented in alpha.

I would be satisfied when the infected just run straight at us instead of zigzag.

[poisonman 28]

yes to zombie hordes, I have it in my wishlist / suggestion thread as well!

+1

http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=18229