The Current State Of Zombies.

[Strategos (DayZ) 190]

I know zombie threads come up alot but I did some experimenting yesterday and it clarified for me that in my opinion they are WAY to easy.

I died a few times and had to run the length of the map each time to get back to one or other of my camps.

Twice I ran the entire length of the map with no trouble at all, every town I encountered I ran right through standing up, I grabbed food and weapons on the way , and just kept running. Not once was I hit by a zombie. In total I had to shoot two zombies but I probably could have avoided that. Several times I had an entire town full of zombies chasing me , as long as I kept running they eventually all gave up.

Being sneaky now is actually a disadvantage.

Before you wade in with comments about players, this is a thread about zombies not snipers, but remember running full speed and zig zagging is pretty effective against most enemy snipers as well.

I think zombies need to be more tenacious, they need to keep looking for you for longer. They also need to be more attracted to gunshots. I fired a twelve bore in a barn and didnt draw any more agro! I remember in the beginning crouched in a barn not wanting to fire because I knew wed end up with a horde of 30 -40 coming in and it would be an epic battle for survival.

Edit: the vote is broad to get general opinion, post your specific issues below. So if you think zombies are fine but players should get tired, you still think overall the zombie situation is too easy.

Edited August 2, 2012 by Strategos

[nonfactor 3]

I'm hard core!

[@ndreas 15]

... I choose option #10: I am experienced and think, Zombies (at least their movement) are shitty scripted :)

[drawx 24]

Zombies arent too hard its just the endless respawning. I would like to see a longer respawn timer.

Atm when ur in a city and shoot 1 zombie then they will keep comming. Killing 50 zombies in a single encounter is totally normal nowadays

[Strategos (DayZ) 190]

Drawax have you noticed though if you just keep running, go through a few buildings you lose them all and never have to fire a shot ?

[ZomboWTF 527]

zombies are way to easy, its ridiculous

they pose no threat at all for experienced players with more than two braincells

[MoronToTheKore 57]

The zombies should be tenacious, fast (but not ridiculously so), easily attracted, and fairly numerous. Ideally. But they have to be dumb. Tenacity makes it easy to lead them into traps, attraction makes them easy to distract. Of course there will always be a certain, solid technique to dealing with zeds, but numbers and speed would make a plan of action necessary if you have to be around them. We're the ones with the functioning brains here, make that the leading difference in our interactions.

I also remember hiding in a barn, unwiling to fire a shot for fear of drawing a whole hoard of zombies nigh-instantly to me. It was terrifying.

I mean, if people want to go for slow zombies that could work, but their numbers would have to be much greater to make up for the deficit in threat.

[Mammas_Boy 7]

I don't need to say anything about this really other than skip to 10:18 of this video to see how zombies used to be.

Back when they were a challenge. They had balls, they had numbers, they used to pose an actual threat.

(I'm talking about the big group of around 30 in the distance chomping some poor dude)

Edited August 2, 2012 by Mammas_Boy

[Strategos (DayZ) 190]

Well said moron (lol).

I believe Rocket has stated slow zombies arn't an option, a: they are infected. B: it means greater numbers and more server load to make them dangerous. Fast zombies can be dangerous in smaller numbers which is better for the game.

[Sol (DayZ) 132]

Your poll is too broad in terms of what "too hard" etc means.

I think zombies are easy to kill, but their movement is fucked, and they spawn way too fast and too close to the players.

The amount of ammo it takes to kill one is fine, and the number of zombies is also fine. It could even be increased if they stopped running at MKVII.

~Sol

Edited August 2, 2012 by Sol

[thehumandove 344]

They're broken. That is all I can say

[Strategos (DayZ) 190]

Well there are all kinds of ways to make them harder, the jist of my post is that they pose almost NO threat now if you just keep running.

[Kythia 25]

There are zombies in this game?

All I ever see are ridiculously scripted road runners. They have nothing in common with zombies the moment they aggro.

What's really bothering me tho is that zombies are the perfect player detectors. No zombies arround? Great, no players arround either! All big cities and loot locations (airfields!) should have a decent minimum amount of zombies running arround at all times.

Edited August 2, 2012 by Kythia

[MoronToTheKore 57]

The most pressing issue is the glitchiness of their dectection abilities and their wack movement. They can keep running fast as hell for now, speed is a tweak. But the zig zags and the ducking away from me just to double back; it's artificially making them a little more difficult to kill. Damage really isn't an issue either, I think they should be tougher than player characters actually. But one bullet or two, putting them down isn't difficult.

There are zombies in this game?

All I ever see are ridiculously scripted road runners. They have nothing in common with zombies the moment they aggro.

What's really bothering me tho is that zombies are the perfect player detectors. No zombies arround? Great, no players arround either! All big cities and loot locations (airfields!) should have a decent minimum amount of zombies running arround at all times.

This is good. The only possible problem would be that of server load and all that crap but I don't think a "minimum" number would be too difficult to handle.

[Strategos (DayZ) 190]

64% (ish) think they are too easy so far...

Kythia I actually made a post addressing that exact problem some time ago

http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/23163-new-patch-optimisations-and-zombies/

[TheStoryteller01 12]

You have my beans for setting up one of the few polls with simple, yet balanced questions and unbiased neutral wording.

If I could I'd add a can of pasta and sardines too

[thomas.scriven@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk 4]

I didn't take the poll because the options are too broad - they're easy in some ways but hard in another. I think a headshot should be the only way of one-shotting them with most guns, but for that to be possible they need their pathfinding sorted. I'm fine with running and think it makes them challenging, and although they should mainly spawn around built up areas it should also be possible to meet isolated ones wandering forests/roads/etc. Although it's fairly easy to lose them now I'm fine with this. If you were actually being chased by zombies you'd improvise a weapon from stuff lying around a house or the ground - sticks, rocks, etc, and would also have the option to push them away or attack them with your hands and feet. The engine doesn't support this, and because of that being chased by zombies at the beginning of the game is exceptional tedious and adds no challenge at all. Ducking into a building and hiding is a fun challenge (almost mini-game) which was impossible back with the super-zombies.

[Sutinen 635]

I think they are fine, but the player "fatigue" needs some work. Maybe if you have ran for 4 or less minutes, you start getting slightly slower, so the zombies can hit you. If they could hit you while sprinting or running at full speed, it would be a bit overpowered, because they can break legs.

[Strategos (DayZ) 190]

Ragnor you can still have an overall opinion and state specific solutions in your post.

I cant really see myself how anyone can think they are not too easy right now as I have mentioned a couple of times if you keep running they are absoloutly no threat.

Sutinen, Your answer should still be too easy then. Just because the solution comes from making the players get tired it doesn't change the fact that the current zombie situation is too easy wouldn't you say ?

[tufting 21]

I think the aggro range is too far, but it's pretty easy to deal with them even without a weapon... just ruuuuun!!!

[Blindingsun 233]

Pull 50 zombies. Run to Fur tree. hide in fur tree = profit

too easy

[crockett (DayZ) 41]

I've only played for a few days but it honestly seems it's a disadvantage to try and move slow and sneak. When I 1st started playing I was crawling prone and I'd end up with zombies all over the place and it seems like the longer I was in a area the harder it became because even if I didn't get aggro they would just keep adding up all around the area I was in.

I've since started using different tactic of still trying to be careful because I'm trying to "play" the game not "game" the game, but I now tend to move around in the bent over crouched position fairly fast, if I'm in a busy area with zombies and 90% of the time I never get seen by them. If I do it's easy enough to just run til I lose them then just carry on.

What I'd like to see if a little less zombies overall but much better ones. It almost becomes annoying at times when there are so many in a area and I can't do anything to kill them. I'd rather be able to fight them but have them be smarter with less numbers. This way there is a reason to either kill them if you can or "really" have to avoid them if you have no way to kill them.

Edited August 2, 2012 by crockett

[Strategos (DayZ) 190]

Exactly Crockett, it used to be that you were scared of zombies and had to sneak around towns, cr*pping yourself. It was one of the things that made Dayz great, the constant fear when you had to go and get some loot.

That is now gone.

[drawx 24]

Drawax have you noticed though if you just keep running, go through a few buildings you lose them all and never have to fire a shot ?

Yep that needs to be fixed imo, now its easy to just "kite" the zombies.

Make the zombies run the same speed in buildings as outside, to make it harder, but change the respawn timer imo.

[Nam Otatop 14]

You can lose them just by running through a building with two entrances or running through the forest. The only difficult thing about them is their erratic movement and if you took that away they'd be totally pointless, it's already easy to headshot a zombie all you do is bait the attack animation then shoot them when they stand still.

The biggest danger that zombies pose is that if you have to shoot them and you don't have a silenced weapon, you risk alerting other players via the noise or the obvious running zombies off in the distance.