Zombie Pathfinding

[IronCoffins]

I've noticed this for awhile now. With zombies pathfinding it gets a bit confused and unrealistic sometimes. for example, my current safe house is at the Big warehouse in Muld. Only 2 things so far I've noticed well 3 maybe but I'll get to that later.

 

First.) When I knocked out the stairs on the bottom floor and used a sheet rope for my access point in and out from the roof, I was at least still expecting zombies to bang on the doors & windows as such, but they don't. I guess its a AI issue for however its coded. all the noise making in the world I make wont have any zombies banging. I guess(they know) they cant get me. I ended up rebuilding stairs again just so I can have them gang up on the doors and such. I like it like that.

 

Second) If there is a lot of zombies could be anywhere from 10 or more, and they move up the stairs, they seem to get clogged up though the stairs. Then a few will break free and continue with there attack on me. This happen to save my life one time in a game when a horde of 100 or so was making their way to me up the stairs, then they got stuck. Those seconds saved my life, as I picked them off one by one.

 

Third) Not really new, I've saw this issue fixed to some degree before & do remember it mentioned it was, least the cut down rate at witch it happens, but does still happen, guess you have to be in the sweet spot I suppose, im talking about the zombies jumping though windows. 

[IronCoffins]

how did you spawn in zombies? What mod do I need for that?

[Brybry]

I used a local server and used the admin command '/createhorde 20' No mod needed.

[Bloody Mary]

It's not so much realism that zombies get stuck on stairs, but right now it's actual glitchiness. I've seen zombies teleport, phase out of walls, phase under stairs, phase up a floor, die and collide into each other at random, and generally spaz out on multi-level staircases.

[EnigmaGrey]

Don't think I've witnessed any of this . . . is that on multiplayer, Bloody Mary?

[syfy]

never seen any of the stuff Mary is talking about, whether in MP or sandbox

 

is she playing the latest build?

[EnigmaGrey]

never seen any of the stuff Mary is talking about, whether in MP or sandbox

 

is she playing the latest build?

You can ask her directly.

[syfy]

 

never seen any of the stuff Mary is talking about, whether in MP or sandbox

 

is she playing the latest build?

You can ask her directly.

 

somehow i think we may have to wait a few hours for the answer though

[Josko]

Yeah I've notices this too, especially the zombies getting stuck on the stairs. Hope this gets a fix soon

And I'm curious how the zombie pathfinding will be when they add like 7-8 stories buildings and you are at the top. They will probably get stuck there too lol

[IronCoffins]

well I swear I've saw the zombies not bother to try to get me, after I knocked the stairs out.  Ok well even If the zombies were inside the building and the stairs were knocked out they just stand there, that I get for now. Maybe later when more animations are in the game, we could have one where the zombies are reaching up, still trying to get you regardless if they can or not. This way there still doing something instead of just sitting there. Or worse they leave

[JensTheViking]

Hmm...

Again if you divert your thoughts to a horde of let's say TWD zombies...or more like the zed in books like "The road to Woodbury" and/or "The rise of the Govenor" it will take time even for a single zed to get up a set of stairs since they have no motor skills or such to realize that "These are stairs and I need to step like this and that...". So they end up falling down and continuing their way towards the pray by crawling.

Now this I guess doesn't take that long since 4 wheel drive is more...I dunno...fall free? But if you take 30 zeds doing that at the same time at the same stairs...they'd end up piling on each other pinning the ones at the bottom from moving barely at all while the ones on top would just crawl over the others to the top.

Which is faster...a pile of them coming at you or a single one getting to you? I dunno...just thinkin out loud here. But maybe...just maybe my point would be that the so called clogging would make sense as it is? Maybe it was just shear luck that I saw this clip from Robbaz on youtube where his fort gets runover, but it takes time. In the end he's overrun but in the beginning it seems that he'll be able to pull it off.

The sh*t starts to get real from about the time of 7:00 onwards...contains some graphic language so if you're sensitive or it is other wise forbidden to input such content on the forums...do not watch it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX5Wia83PY4&list=UUN474WQPkqqhUbxhkXKieQw

Cheez...how do I manage these...these mondoids?

[Brybry]

I don't really see #2 as a bug. Just take a bunch of normal humans overcrowding any area and trying to move through it IRL and you'll have pathfinding issues and bottlenecks.

There's a reason emergency evacuations are practiced and it's stressed for everyone to walk not run.

 

#1 doesn't hold true when I test it.

I spawned a horde and fired a shotgun outside to group them near a two-story house. Then I put a sheet rope out a 2nd story window and destroyed the stairs.

Then I fired a shotgun from the 2nd floor and the zombies were attracted to the house, broke windows, climbed through them, beat on doors, etc.

I didn't try boarding up the windows or doors or replacing them with walls to see if the behavior was the same though. It could also be something specific with the warehouse as I didn't test that specific building.