Zeds carrying turned on radios attracting other zeds

[PlasticandRage]

If this doesnt happen already it could be pretty fantastic. I thought it happened to me just now. I was fighting off a zombie halfway up a stairwell and started seeing buzzes coming from a part of the building Id already explored, and knew there was nothing in there that could be making that noise. Turns out it was a tv on the upper floor. The mechanic could make things like defending your safehouse a lot more intense. Single zombie comes in and draws more, and more.

 

It could facilitate some pretty awesome radio stories too. Survivors looking for other survivors and things like that.

[cool daddy shark]

This would be a nightmare if all the zombies had acute hearing on.

[PlasticandRage]

It could create a lot of cool scenarios, like having a profound effect on herd formation and movement. Groups here and there all following around a zed that's consistently making noise and things like that.

[Teesee]

Thing is, I don't know if tv/radio noises are active outside of the player's cell / view.

[BayCon]

This is an.. odd feature. Doesn't sound very realistic to me.

[PlasticandRage]

This is an.. odd feature. Doesn't sound very realistic to me.

Whats unrealistic about it? 1 and 2 way radios exist in the game. How is it a stretch to think people may have died with them turned on?

Like if a survivor died with a 2 way radio on them, that they had on them because they were communicating with other survivors, I wouldnt think itd be a stretch to think those survivors might try to radio that person when they didnt come back.

Or that a survivor was listening to a 1 way radio and was then killed. I dont see how any of that is unrealistic.

[CaptKaspar]

This is an.. odd feature. Doesn't sound very realistic to me.

 

Why not? If a player could die with one turned on and in their possession, why wouldn't others as well? The police officer, fire fighter, construction worker, soldier, or plain old survivor with a radio could all plausibly have died with a walkie talkie in their possession that was on (maybe why they died in the first place ). Question is how long that battery from 1993 would last. A few hours? maybe a day or two?

 

It would at least give a purpose for having the walkie talkies in game.

 

Right now I don't see the point except as a source for electronic parts. I don't need them to communicate between players (in game server-wide text chat, Steam voice chat, etc negates that need). I can't seem to place one on the ground and have it remain on. Furthermore, I don't think they continue to work when they are out of the players field of view. I just don't see the point in having them. I've asked a few times here on the forums what people are doing with them, and it seems like the vast majority of people either ignore them, or scrap them for parts.

 

I'd love to be able to place them a decent distance away from the walls of my base on the ground and transmit noise through them to attract zombies away from my walls, but I can't seem to do that.

 

Other than catching a very rare survivor radio broadcast, what good can they do?

[PlasticandRage]

^ yeah battery life would really be the only issue. Itd have to be something that only really happened prevalently the first week of 2. Or once NPCs are implemented, finding the ocassional freshly dead zed with one.

Id think a 2 way could potentially last a while if it wasnt being used too too often, but I know like emergency service 2 ways will scan channels and thatd probably hurt battery life.

[BayCon]

 

This is an.. odd feature. Doesn't sound very realistic to me.

 

Why not? If a player could die with one turned on and in their possession, why wouldn't others as well? The police officer, fire fighter, construction worker, soldier, or plain old survivor with a radio could all plausibly have died with a walkie talkie in their possession that was on (maybe why they died in the first place ). Question is how long that battery from 1993 would last. A few hours? maybe a day or two?

 

It would at least give a purpose for having the walkie talkies in game.

 

Right now I don't see the point except as a source for electronic parts. I don't need them to communicate between players (in game server-wide text chat, Steam voice chat, etc negates that need). I can't seem to place one on the ground and have it remain on. Furthermore, I don't think they continue to work when they are out of the players field of view. I just don't see the point in having them. I've asked a few times here on the forums what people are doing with them, and it seems like the vast majority of people either ignore them, or scrap them for parts.

 

I'd love to be able to place them a decent distance away from the walls of my base on the ground and transmit noise through them to attract zombies away from my walls, but I can't seem to do that.

 

Other than catching a very rare survivor radio broadcast, what good can they do?

 

 

 

This is an.. odd feature. Doesn't sound very realistic to me.

Whats unrealistic about it? 1 and 2 way radios exist in the game. How is it a stretch to think people may have died with them turned on?

Like if a survivor died with a 2 way radio on them, that they had on them because they were communicating with other survivors, I wouldnt think itd be a stretch to think those survivors might try to radio that person when they didnt come back.

Or that a survivor was listening to a 1 way radio and was then killed. I dont see how any of that is unrealistic.

 

 

Why I think it's unrealistic:

 

In a world with smartphones coming in and radios dying out, the dwindling audience of radio listeners mostly listen on the drive to or from work in their cars. When was the last time you walked around with a radio in your pocket? And police officers? They would only be tuned in to the channel for their station or squad, etc, so having a zombie officer with a talkie turned on would rarely produce any voices after law enforcement is eliminated. When it does produce a voice, it would not likely be loud enough to attract any zombies (unless it's standing right next to you). Closing a door in Zomboid sounds like a teenager slamming the door to his or her room after arguing with their parents, but that currently produces no coded noise, so it would be very unreasonable for a radio to do so, especially when you factor in how walls can muffle pretty much all sounds from electronics other than high quality speakers, subwoofers, studio monitors, and the likes, and even then, they may have some trouble punching through walls. If you've seen a cop and heard his or her talkie, it's not all that loud. Also, about players having them turned on... it's the player's choice. In real life, again, VERY few people would walk around with an old-fashioned radio trying to figure out what's going on as the world dies. Now, I get that the game takes place in the 90's, but what about those who change the year to something more recent? It would be very out of place. Even back then, I'm sure many people did not walk around with a mobile radio, and even then, I don't think they would leave it on unless they've got some obsession: it MUST be on at all times. Quite unweildy and inefficient, if you ask me.

 

Also, talkies in general don't make sense in this game anyway. I don't think you can use them to communicate, but you can tune in to radio stations? With a talkie? Come on, man.. And as I already said, talkies aren't very loud in real life anyway. Now, I'll test my TV by turning it up and standing outside in real life to see if a nearby horde should effectively be able to hear it, but for radios!? No way.

 

 

While I think it's unrealistic, I do think it would be interesting to see radio text through your walls approaching your base and hearing a bunch of groans, and I do agree it could create some interesting stories.

[PlasticandRage]

This game takes place in 1993.

And police and emergency services radios can easily be as loud as a normal speaking voice. If you were out walking around a street with other people around and spoke with your regular speaking voice it'd be heard. Yeah, not through closed doors or walls, but if you were in a room with someone, or on the same floor, or outside within a certain distance, I'd say at least 20 feet, itd be heard. Im not saying I think they should make loud enough noise to draw zombies across the map or anything. More like the kind of draw you get when you hit Q. Speaking voice level.

Also the majority of the 1 way radios in the game are not big old timey radios. Theyre small handheld radios. In the 90s people did use stuff like that. Not to mention that during a cataclysmic world event people stay glued to their media sources to hear whats going on. It wouldn't be unrealist to think if someone had a radio in their possession during the ending of the world that theyd be carrying it and listening to it to hear whats going on. Its already been said that if a player can die holding a radio, why not a zombie? The fact that you can set the date to be anything you want is kind of a moot point. The core game is intended to be set in the 90s.

[Demonic_Kat]

I only think this is odd because currently you cannot actually "hear" the radios/tvs. You read the text. If there were an actual sound to the devices, perhaps it would make things more interesting. (By more interesting I mean "OMG NOT ANOTHER F**KING RADIO CARRYING ZOMBIE + FOLLOWING HORDE!")

[PlasticandRage]

You cant hear anything when you hit Q either, but it still makes in-game sound.

If you hit Q in the woods and nobody is around does it make it sound?

 

I wouldn't be surprised if both of those things were on a list of things to be addressed at some point anyway though. I can't see them wanting Q to remain silent, and if they were to address that, I could only assume they'd want to address the silent radio/tv noises as well.

[EnigmaGrey]

EnigmaGrey likes this.

[Blake81]

Funny thing, I actually use radios as a sort of distraction now and then so I support this idea. When I wanna distract a horde from somewhere, I just set down a radio, grab a Walkie and hide before spamming Q. Surely enough, the Zed go towards the radio, but they don't attack it or anything; they just keep ''Dancing'' around it like it was party music.

 

That said, I'd love if we could somehow stick a Tape Recorder to a radio and make one really good radio distraction device...

[CaptKaspar]

Funny thing, I actually use radios as a sort of distraction now and then so I support this idea. When I wanna distract a horde from somewhere, I just set down a radio, grab a Walkie and hide before spamming Q. Surely enough, the Zed go towards the radio, but they don't attack it or anything; they just keep ''Dancing'' around it like it was party music.

 

That said, I'd love if we could somehow stick a Tape Recorder to a radio and make one really good radio distraction device...

 

How do you do this? When I turn both radios on, tune them to the same frequency, equip one and drop the other, the one that I dropped always seems to turn off. What am I missing? This is exactly what I want to do with them.

[PlasticandRage]

^ you can set up the big 20 pounders. I just figured that one out just now. You set them up using the furnature movement tool. That might be a piece of this puzzle. Maybe if you tune one to the same frequency as a 2 way?

[Blake81]

 

-snip-

 

How do you do this? When I turn both radios on, tune them to the same frequency, equip one and drop the other, the one that I dropped always seems to turn off. What am I missing? This is exactly what I want to do with them.

 

 

You have to turn them on AFTER you put them down, else they turn off by themselves. Everything else you're doing it right.

[CaptKaspar]

 

 

-snip-

 

How do you do this? When I turn both radios on, tune them to the same frequency, equip one and drop the other, the one that I dropped always seems to turn off. What am I missing? This is exactly what I want to do with them.

 

 

You have to turn them on AFTER you put them down, else they turn off by themselves. Everything else you're doing it right.

 

 

"Dumb" Question: How do I turn them on after I put them down? I tried with a Premium Radio and a Premium Walkie Talkie. I put both on the ground, tried right-clicking on the sprite and I was only given the option to grab or equip in primary or secondary. I also tried right clicking on the radios in the 'ground' inventory window. I only had the same options to grab or equip.

[PlasticandRage]

^ You have to place it, not drop it. Get one in your inventory, then open the same toolbar you would if you were moving furniture, and choose place. Then you'll get the little square with the walkie talkie in it, and you can place it where you want it. Then once it's down you can right click for device options. Same way you set up the big HAM radios.

 

 

HAH! It absolutely works! I just tried it. You place the one, like I said above, then go into device options, tune it to a specific frequency, I used 0.2, just because it's all the way at the left for the slider and I was busy running from a herd I brought in to test it out. Then I took off, equipped the other, set it to the same frequency, and started hitting Q. The radio on the ground started spouting the same stuff my character was yelling with the Q's, and part of the herd broke off to check it out. Such potential there.

 

You have to be really close to the other walkie for it to work though, otherwise it'll just say '...' which I take as meaning you're out of range. Way closer than I thought you'd have to be. I don't think it has to do with my choice of walkies either, because I'm using 2 military models. I think it may have to be within your vision cone too. That kind of limits things.

 

Yeah, you have to be so close that I can't see it being very useful as it is now. You have to be so close to the other when you hit Q that the zeds come for you mostly anyway. Maybe if you were inside a building and it was outside, and you were looking at it through a window or something? I just tried it outside.

[Blake81]

"Dumb" Question: How do I turn them on after I put them down? I tried with a Premium Radio and a Premium Walkie Talkie. I put both on the ground, tried right-clicking on the sprite and I was only given the option to grab or equip in primary or secondary. I also tried right clicking on the radios in the 'ground' inventory window. I only had the same options to grab or equip.

 

 

That's because you can't just DROP them; you have to PLACE them like when placing furniture, then just turn them on like a TV.

 

Radios are, in fact, the only piece of equipment that you can also place down as a piece of furniture.

[CaptKaspar]

*snip*

 

 

 

"

 

*snip*

 

Thank you so much for helping out! I hope I am not the only one who was having this problem

 

Now that you have explained it, I see how it works. Seems a little counter-intuitive having to 'place' it using the furniture tab instead of just placing it on the ground, but I am glad that it works!

 

[PlasticandRage]

I dont know that its even really worth it. I did some experimenting and for the most part you have to be so close to the placed walkie, that the zombies will just target you anyway when you start hitting Q. Theyd need a big range upgrade to be useful for any of the things Id thought about using them for.

[CaptKaspar]

I dont know that its even really worth it. I did some experimenting and for the most part you have to be so close to the placed walkie, that the zombies will just target you anyway when you start hitting Q. Theyd need a big range upgrade to be useful for any of the things Id thought about using them for.

 

That's a bummer!

 

I haven't looked into it, but it probably isn't super difficult to make a mod that boosts the sound output of the radios/walkies so the zeds are more attracted to them.

[Demonic_Kat]

You cant hear anything when you hit Q either, but it still makes in-game sound.

If you hit Q in the woods and nobody is around does it make it sound?

 

I wouldn't be surprised if both of those things were on a list of things to be addressed at some point anyway though. I can't see them wanting Q to remain silent, and if they were to address that, I could only assume they'd want to address the silent radio/tv noises as well.

It's not that I think that it not making a sound is bad, it is just that when it involves z movement you are made aware of the movement.

 

E.g. all the audible movement generators: dogs barking, screaming, helicopters, and footsteps. You can hear all of these, you know they're going on. When you press Q, you can see yourself yelling. When you run, you can see yourself moving and possibly being sighted.

 

If you have the radios on z's you would be able to see the words, but only if you're facing the right direction and close enough. Meaning, you're left in the dark if there is one approaching from the rear (where as in a more real setting you would be able to hear them approaching by the sound of the radio).

[PlasticandRage]

Yeah, no arguments here. As radios are now, after doing some extensive experimenting trying to use two walkie talkies as a lure, Id think the whole system would need a bit of an upgrade for my suggestion to work in a way that makes sense. Just their range alone. IRL they make walkies you can go buy in a store thatre good as far as a mile away, but the ones in game seem to reach only about 20 paces. If that. The whole survivors trying to reach out to other survivors thing wouldnt make any logical sense working within those proportions.