New Patch Optimisations And Zombies

[Strategos (DayZ) 190]

Well at some point we are getting 1.7.2 which contains optimisations that may allow more players and more zombies per server.

I've been thinking a while about one issue with zombies in particular and that is the issue with them spawning. It gives away player positions. It also bothers me that you can skirt towns and buildings at pretty much an exact range and not see any Z's at all.

So my thought was that with the new resources zombies should spawn at a much greater range from the player. Double ? triple ?

This will have several effects. Firstly you will feel like there are zombies around all the time making it more "zombie apocalypse". It will make it harder for people to know automatically when other players are around.

It will also make zombies less predictable as they will have wandered further when you encounter them. As it stand you watch them spawn in, wait for them to wander off and avoid them. But if you come towards a town and they have already wandered into the tree-line near you ? Who knows :)

Finally as a slight modification to their behaviour Id like to see zombies wandering to investigate distant sounds outside their agro range. Currently they investigate close by sounds like direct chat and eating etc. thrown , bottles etc. It would be nice if they investigated distant gunshots and explosions.

this combines with their longer persistence would make for much more dynamic gameplay I think.

Example: If you are giving your mates sniper cover from the woods outside town. You may not notice some Z's shambling your way from a nearby deerstand, your next shot suddenly results in enraged undead. More danger , more uncertainty. All good in my opinion.

[piepieonline (DayZ) 0]

Just a small note, zombies can come investigate without going agro - just this afternoon I was providing sniper cover for a mate, fired one shot, and 3 or 4 minutes later a crawler had moved right up next to me.

EDIT: I should clarify, he wasn't agro or anything, just coming to investigate.

This was a DMR, but I have also had this happen with the CZ550.

[Sentinal (DayZ) 20]

Zombies Have a tendency to move towards the player even when not aggro'd

[piepieonline (DayZ) 0]

Yea, but they still kind of wander, these few weren't, they headed directly for me, and stopped and stood around when they got to my firing position. (I bailed)

[Strategos (DayZ) 190]

Yeah Im aware of the wandering investigation that zombies do. I was suggesting that that is extended so that they investigate load noises in the distance in addition to investigating quieter noises close by.

The whole thing is to make zombies a bit more of a permanent, unpredictable feature of the landscape.