Are zombies too easy now? (because it's so simple to hide from them)

[zemalf 3]

This was added/changed back in 1.7.1:

You can hide from an infected chasing you

The idea is great, and realistic, but does it make handling the zombies too easy?

I think it does.

Ever since that one, this has become the common tactic:

= run through town, aggro all the zombies in town, run through the barn in town

= all zombies lose sight in/around the barn & stay there, town is free & safe for fast looting.

It's very rare one needs to fire a weapon on the zombies when "exploiting" this with buildings you can run through.

Perhaps a fix would be that zombies can run inside(?)

And maybe improve their sights and senses even further when they've spotted the player.

Anyway - thoughts? What do you think? Zombies - too easy now or not?

Do you do the sprint/barn/loot trick all the time?

[Lennsik 176]

Shoot a Lee Enfield in the middle of town. Things change real fast.

[Syle22 2]

Hell no they arent

[Sandwichx 103]

Yes. Make them harder. Please. Or at least make more of them.

[zemalf 3]

Shoot a Lee Enfield in the middle of town. Things change real fast.

Sure (and that's the way it should be), but running through a barn (especially a long one) and you still lose most of them.

Firing Lee Enfield, or some other loud weapon, just makes it easier to get'em all on you and make the town even safer after they're all in the barn.

[SmashT 10907]

I thought they were always too easy, have they ever been a challenge at all? I'd like more zombies and for them to be able to actually hit you if you are running.

[vulfy 55]

Right after the guns were nerfed by ArmA's patch, I felt the fear again.

I got so sloppy with body one shot kills, from 1911 or the revolver, as well as the fact that zombies would ignore most of the shots, that the first game after the patch I got swarmed by a horde, after recklessly shooting Enfield in the middle of a town. Emptying my six 1911 magazines quickly got my heart pumping, as they kept on coming.

However a few hours later, I was back to being completely unfazed by walkers.

I say they are too easy. They really need to do damage while running. That will balance the hiding tactics quite well, I think.

[fundan@gmx.de 82]

I say they are too easy. They really need to do damage while running. That will balance the hiding tactics quite well, I think.

Plus you should be either bleeding or get infected with at least the second hit - threat created. Cause even if you loose them in a building/bush you took "damage".

[cpstörd 7]

I say thay are either easy or hard. They are just fucked. Sprinting faster than Bolt and impossible to shoot since they attack animation are just insane.

If rocket change zombies to run inside buildings, without unfucking the zeds, this game is going to have a bad time.

[joppus (DayZ) 12]

Yeah Its gotten a bit too easy.. had a zombie after me and ran into the woods just zick-zacking through some fir-trees, lost him pretty fast ;)

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

I say thay are either easy or hard. They are just fucked. Sprinting faster than Bolt and impossible to shoot since they attack animation are just insane.

If rocket change zombies to run inside buildings, without unfucking the zeds, this game is going to have a bad time.

This is the fundamental problem. Hiding is the only decent counter-measure against zombies that also has the benefit of being fun. Trying to headshot them should be fun but until they're fixed it's pointless.

They also wouldn't work as a metaphor if they're too hard. The only real way you can die in this game is through doing something stupid or getting killed by another player. The idea that zombies aren't the real threat but humans are is kinda the point of zombie stories. Well, until they started running...

[SillySil 295]

Give them player speed. Make them tougher to encourage aiming for headshots. Increase damage dealt by them. Fix the animation.

Because right now the difficulty of them comes from being broken. They see you from 500 meters and run faster than olympic runners, and most of the time you can't hit them cause they "step" forward while attacking you so they get "through" you and you miss.

Loosing them is the only viable tactic against them. No point in sneaking or fighting.

[brizz 7]

zombies are way too easy... in their current state they are just easy obstacles in my way when im looting....

u can run away from them for an infinite time cause they cant attack while moving

this way u can aggro an infinite amount of zombies and just get rid of them bei either running through houses/barns other buildings, or just get them lost around bushes/houses/walls or other objects that block sight. its just boring sometimes.

make zombies able to attack while running so u cant outrun them, additionally make them detect u from a very long distance and even see on close distance when ur prone. on top of that they randomly switch targets from time to time, attacking near survivors even if they arent shooting at them. i know i know ur just saying:

"U CRAZY ?"

think again! every kind of loot would be more valuable with more dangerous zeds, u would actually have to create a plan how to get that precious loot, be it solo, or with ur friends. u will now HAVE TO USE UR GUNS TO KILL THAT ZEDS, cause u cant outrun them. that means more planning and caution needed. use tincans for distraction, or smoke grenades.. think of creative ways !

of course this would make banditry more efficient and easy since u can just wait for a player/group to loot something, and kill them while they are looting or even after they are looting.

a simple solution would be that zeds get in a state of alertnes when they are "woken up" ( meaning someone drew aggro from them for some reason ). in that state they can hear much farther, and this will create a synergy with the "zeds randomly switch targets" mechanic i mentioned earlier - leading to zeds running out to the bandits trying to kill the looting survivors.

ye ye i know this suggestions seem to be a bit hard, but if u guys are honest, u know zombies are too easy,

and its a fucking zombie apocalypse and we are survivors ! shouldnt we be afraid of zombies, and therefor proud if we overcome them by using a smart strategy or good planning or just very nice skills with ur guns, or even all of this ?

[U.B.C.S. Ravin 326]

I have to agree. Zombies with LoS make the game incredibly easy. Not to mention it only makes them inconvenient, posing no real threat.

However, on the plus side. This means people who camp the coast have a much harder time sniping players because they don't need to sneak, they just run through the cities and lose zeds, never giving bad coastal bandits a chance to shoot anyone.

[haroldsax 14]

I've always liked the idea of random hordes of them coming out of nowhere, being able to be on buildings, coming in and out of buildings, like the normal zeds are there and everything, but occasionally you get this massive 100 zed horde that comes out of left field and they're PISSED.

Think about it. It would be even better if it wasn't dictated by location, as in, they can attack in hordes...anywhere.

[SillySil 295]

zombies are way too easy... in their current state they are just easy obstacles in my way when im looting....

u can run away from them for an infinite time cause they cant attack while moving

this way u can aggro an infinite amount of zombies and just get rid of them bei either running through houses/barns other buildings, or just get them lost around bushes/houses/walls or other objects that block sight. its just boring sometimes.

make zombies able to attack while running so u cant outrun them, additionally make them detect u from a very long distance and even see on close distance when ur prone. on top of that they randomly switch targets from time to time, attacking near survivors even if they arent shooting at them. i know i know ur just saying:

"U CRAZY ?"

think again! every kind of loot would be more valuable with more dangerous zeds, u would actually have to create a plan how to get that precious loot, be it solo, or with ur friends. u will now HAVE TO USE UR GUNS TO KILL THAT ZEDS, cause u cant outrun them. that means more planning and caution needed. use tincans for distraction, or smoke grenades.. think of creative ways !

of course this would make banditry more efficient and easy since u can just wait for a player/group to loot something, and kill them while they are looting or even after they are looting.

a simple solution would be that zeds get in a state of alertnes when they are "woken up" ( meaning someone drew aggro from them for some reason ). in that state they can hear much farther, and this will create a synergy with the "zeds randomly switch targets" mechanic i mentioned earlier - leading to zeds running out to the bandits trying to kill the looting survivors.

ye ye i know this suggestions seem to be a bit hard, but if u guys are honest, u know zombies are too easy,

and its a fucking zombie apocalypse and we are survivors ! shouldnt we be afraid of zombies, and therefor proud if we overcome them by using a smart strategy or good planning or just very nice skills with ur guns, or even all of this ?

So you want to break zombies to the point they ruin the game. Cool idea.

[U.B.C.S. Ravin 326]

I've always liked the idea of random hordes of them coming out of nowhere, being able to be on buildings, coming in and out of buildings, like the normal zeds are there and everything, but occasionally you get this massive 100 zed horde that comes out of left field and they're PISSED.

Think about it. It would be even better if it wasn't dictated by location, as in, they can attack in hordes...anywhere.

I think there should a be trigger sequence to a character, not a building.

Zombies are currently tied to buildings. So lets say, as it currently stands, zombies spawn when you come within 200m of a building.

Lets say every shot you take gives you roughly a .001% chance to spawn a horde of zombies from your current point randomly in a direction 200m away. These zombies then RUSH to the last location you fired from, and aggro depending upon the normal DayZ factors, sight, sounds, night, day, ect.

[brizz 7]

So you want to break zombies to the point they ruin the game. Cool idea.

why would that break the game if we are forced to play smart ? can u pls explain this to me ? want only mindless pvp ? go play cod... if not, no offense then. u might have some good reasons to say this, pls share this with us.

[SillySil 295]

why would that break the game if we are forced to play smart ? can u pls explain this to me ? want only mindless pvp ? go play cod... if not, no offense then. u might have some good reasons to say this, pls share this with us.

Because you want to force people to fight zombies (your suggestions make sneaking near impossible, and not everyone and by that I mean 90% of players don't want to spend 30 minutes crawling before getting into a barn). And at the moment zombies are broken. They are faster than olympic runners, run in crazy patterns, go through you, walls and doors. Do you really think it's gonna be fun fighting these things? And please don't go with the "rocket doesn't want this game to be fun" argument. If you make the zombies the main thing of this game and they are broken to shit and utterly annoying to deal with then what's the point playing this if you're not sado-masochist.

[Tenderness 30]

I don't like the part about infected sprinting at enormous speeds, it just seems a bit exaggerated compared to what a rotten body would be able to do. I don't like when they happen to spot you from too far away, but that has been better adjusted with standing/crouching/crawling.

I do like the idea about infected not just giving up on chasing their 'target' so when they do spot someone, it should be a lot harder to loose them. This could be done by them not just walking inside buildings, though I do still think one should be able to hide by running around a corner and standing somewhere safe, and then not making any noise.

The infected should be designed so that it really does take time to sneak past them, because right now I only shoot them for fun when I feel like killing something, other than that, you just have to stay out of a sight when closer than 15meters.

Edit:

Because you want to force people to fight zombies (your suggestions make sneaking near impossible, and not everyone and by that I mean 90% of players don't want to spend 30 minutes crawling before getting into a barn). And at the moment zombies are broken. They are faster than olympic runners, run in crazy patterns, go through you, walls and doors. Do you really think it's gonna be fun fighting these things? And please don't go with the "rocket doesn't want this game to be fun" argument. If you make the zombies the main thing of this game and they are broken to shit and utterly annoying to deal with then what's the point playing this if you're not sado-masochist.

Don't speak for 90% of the community please. I do like sneaking around, because i do feel a strong case of paranoia and what-not. They are pretty crazy when it comes to running, but I'm afraid you can't do a whole lot about that. Fighting them is just about shooting first actually. The mod is supposed to be extremely hard.

Edited August 3, 2012 by Tenderness

[CerebralZombie (DayZ) 151]

You can walk slowly up a hill and they walk 2x slower. Great way to get away in the wild. Also I think the zombies can be harder if you're using a loud weapon such as a Lee or a Kobra. They just keep spawning and coming after you if you shoot them. The numbers sometimes become to much are repetitive, so you are forced to gather some supplies quick and peace!

[U.B.C.S. Ravin 326]

Because you want to force people to fight zombies (your suggestions make sneaking near impossible, and not everyone and by that I mean 90% of players don't want to spend 30 minutes crawling before getting into a barn)

This is how DayZ started and it was never a problem. by no means is DayZ meant to only be played for '30 minutes' anyway and it takes a lot of time and effort to get anything done or accomplished.

[CerebralZombie (DayZ) 151]

This is how DayZ started and it was never a problem. by no means is DayZ meant to only be played for '30 minutes' anyway and it takes a lot of time and effort to get anything done or accomplished.

It can take awhile, but most people just run, grab, n' go. No point in taking your time when you're probably going to die pretty soon. Not saying I don't take my time here and there, but once a zombie see's me I'm off! It should take about 30min+ in a town like Electro, and then I head North for some real weaponry.

[vulfy 55]

In all zombie movies, its actually all in reverse. You are in trouble when you are indoors, and relatively safe when you are on the open ground.

In DayZ, its opposite. You run indoors to evade zombies, while you are more vulnerable in the open. I would love to see a mechanic where you are in danger of getting swarmed and overrun when looting indoors, and being able to escape more easily while outside.

I had an encounter in the barracks one time, during the night. I agroed a couple of zombies, and ran into the barracks. It was pitch black, and the only time I saw zombies, was when i fired my shot, from the muzzle flash. Having an almost infinite spawn of zombies coming to you through the door as your ammo gets lower and lower, really got my backside puckered. All I had was Enfield, so ringing the dinner bell with each shot did not help, as well as the long ass reload time.

Add the panicked breathing and whimpering from my character, it was one of those rare experience only DayZ can offer. Wish there were more moments like this. That was true horror, a scene from a classic zombie movie. LOVED IT!

[SillySil 295]

Don't speak for 90% of the community please. I do like sneaking around, because i do feel a strong case of paranoia and what-not. They are pretty crazy when it comes to running, but I'm afraid you can't do a whole lot about that. Fighting them is just about shooting first actually. The mod is supposed to be extremely hard.

Oh I can't speak for the 90% community but some other guy can suggest something that's going to completely affect 100% of community. Makes sense.

This is how DayZ started and it was never a problem. by no means is DayZ meant to only be played for '30 minutes' anyway and it takes a lot of time and effort to get anything done or accomplished.

Difficulty coming from time or luck is shit difficulty. The difficulty should come from you being good at something not forcing you to just to waste a lot of time. You should be playing WoW.