Zombie Migration and Pack Mentality

[Time Glitch 453]

Currently in DayZ, zombies are something to only be worried about in towns and cities. Even then, they're a bit of an afterthought. They're something you can prepare for and avoid with relative ease.

I think this needs to change.

I don't know how possible it would be, but I would love to start seeing wandering zombies around the wilderness and backroads. There wouldn't have to be many, maybe 3-5 in a small pack, but enough to keep you on your toes.

But there needs to be more.

I would like to see (very rarely) a huge pack of zombies. 30-40 zeds who are just shambling aimlessly in one direction. Maybe they start in a place like Cherno, and just keep going. Maybe they gain more members as they move through towns. My point is, I want to see herds of zombies. I want to freeze in my tracks as I realize that there's a huge horde right in front of me in the woods, or see them from afar on the plains.

This would put zombies back in the minds of the hermits and wilderness survivors out there, as well as present a huge, ever-roaming threat that could be encountered by anyone.

What's your thoughts?

[nomim814 0]

This is exactly what I was thinking. Perhaps have the spawning point for zombies be in the cities and then have them 'meet up' right out side of the city. They could then shamble in a direct line to other cities and get a few more each stop. 30-40 zombies would be a little heavy for the server to keep track of, even if there was only 4-5 groups. Perhaps 25-30 zeds would be perfect. I would shit my pants the second I saw one; one false move and you would have 30 zeds breathing down your neck before you could say 'HELP ME GUYZZZZZZZ!!!!111!1!one!!' on the chat. This is a great idea!

[oktyabr 53]

The way I understand it is that DayZ spawns zombies around buildings and such as you near them, dynamically. My idea would be to further experiment with this coding so that the following might be achieved without too much additional overhead:

1) Spawn zombies in towns and such exactly as they do now, as a player approaches the area. Once dead do not allow the zombies to respawn in the "developed" area within a certain distance of any player. This would permit "clearing" a block, farm, area of a base, etc. Even a city the size of Cherno could be "cleared" and kept that way as long as there were enough players scattered about the city. Once an area is player free for a time, that is, the players leave the farm, base, whatever, it's open zombie spawn area again, just like current.

2) An exception to respawning zombies that have been killed would be on the outskirts of towns and villages, at a greater distance, even if a player is still in the town. This would help depict the scenario that even though the zombies in the town/farm/whatever are killed more are moving towards that area from the wilderness. They would need to have a tendency to move towards the town/farm/whatever as well.

3) Spawn zombies IN the wilderness dynamically around (in front of) a player at a reasonable distance, far enough that they wouldn't be seen just popping in out of thin air. This would provide a good chance of zombies wandering around anywhere you went in the wilderness. A check must also be made to prevent a zombie from just popping up on top of another player as well.

4) Increase zombie "curiosity", maybe sense of smell, whatever, so they tend to slowly walk towards stationary survivors (not aggo'd).

This should make towns and the like clearable, fortifiable safe havens for survivors and help encourage grouping and team work of a sort. A run to the NW airfields would be very dangerous but the military loot might still make it worth while. Bandits could no longer just hide in a bush somewhere with a sniper rifle for very long without the chance of a zombie stumbling across them. Bean wars on the beaches would likely end as gunshots, even in the wilderness, would now have a chance of drawing the zed to your position.

TL;DR Spawn zed in the woods, no respawn of zombies in survivor occupied farms and sections of towns, bases, etc.

[sujimichi 0]

Occasional large herds of zeds (walking dead style) and small out of town groups would be brilliant and as Oktyabr points out could be a really good antidote to camping snipers. Also at night you can blunder through forests without a care in the world (aside from falling), having some out of town zeds would make night time in woods a bit more intense.

What do you think about having a trigger to spawn some zombies in if the player remains in one place for too long (say 10-20 minutes during day, longer at night)? Also as an antidote to camping and provides another reason to keep moving and exploring.

[DemonGroover 8836]

Perhaps there needs to be random spawn zones. Much like when you get close to buildings Zeds spawn.

Instead there could be random zones that can appear anywhere on the map - like heli crash areas. They will spawn Zeds as soon as a player steps into them. They would still spawn 30-40m away. Maybe 1 zed, 2-3 zeds, perhaps a whole horde of 20.