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Incoherent Zombie behavior


Peon

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Sorry if this belongs in bug report, I wasn't sure where to post it.

 

So I just witnessed something I can't really explain. I was exploring away from my base when the helicopter event popped up. No worries, I'm far from my base so I don't risk drawing Zs in my safe area, I hit the highway and drive around in a field Northwest of Wespoint to gather as many Zs as possible in an empty area. Once it's gone, I drive back to base only to find it swarmed by the undead. Most of my walls are intact as I left the gates open and I find around 50 Zs just bashing on my containers. 
I guess while going away the helicopter flew over my base and drove them there, that's not the problem. The issue is that zombies seemed very interested by random shelves and crates, enough to focus them as if they were not inanimate objects. 
In the screenshot you can see that they even went as far as focusing on the shelves that held objects, ignoring those that were empty. 

There is several incoherent things with this situation:

 

1) Griefing Zombies. I understand that a human might find an empty base and start trashing things around for fun. It's a common issue in PvP multiplayer base building games but undead are not supposed to be able to experience "fun" or do things "just for the lulz". 


2) Zombies attacking inanimate objects while not provoked. I was not in my base when they arrived. It makes no sense that they would just start attacking anything when they could have easily went around the building and keep chasing the helicopter. Instead they detected those crates and barricades as being player built and decided to ignore the helicopter and start bashing on random objects. 


3) Specific targeting on shelves that hold items. As you can see in the screenshot they ignored the shelves that were empty just to target those that held items. I'm not really sure about this one as those shelves were some of the closest to the entry points. It might just be bad luck.


I play with proper Zombies setting so environnemental attacks are off. Zombies that haven't seen or heard me (because I wasn't there at all) shouldn't just start bashing stuff because they happen to be in the area. 
One could say they decided to investigate this particular house and broke in. Fine. But then once they discover the house is empty they shouldn't just start breaking stuff. They even targeted a random dumpster that wasn't in the way of anything.

 

screenshot_27-05-2021_16-48-47.jpg

screenshot_27-05-2021_17-19-56.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

The "rules of aggressions" are a bit iffy right now.   For example, I used part of an existing house as part of a logwall.  The wall of the house had 2 windows, so I barricaded them.  Zombies just kept destroying the barricades days in, day out.  I ended up destroying the windows and replacing with logwalls and I stopped having any problems. There is no reason why window barricade should cause more "aggro" than log walls, and yet.  I guess part of the reason for the current behavior is to prevent exploits. It can be pretty easy to "cheese" the zombies.

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I've also had mixed results using the setting that disables unprovoked environmental attacks.

 

If I had to guess as to why, I think that perhaps any meta event essentially suspends the setting while the zombies are trying the go in the direction of the sound that attracted them. This leads to them bashing and attacking things much more readily even if it there isn't a good reason to do so. You can really see this if you allow zombies to set off alarms. They will move through in hordes seemingly smashing down every door and window they cross, even if it would be fairly simple to just walk around it, and some indoor zombies bash their ways out. It's like when they are attracted by something they are far less willing to take even minor detours such as walking around a house to get to something on the other side and instead choose to bash their way through and out the other side. That's how it seems to me, anyway.

 

I know I can be inside a decent sized building on the second floor reading a skillbook and a zombie will come and bash on my barricades even though there are literally no sounds or things going on that should attract them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It has always bothered me that they go bashing barricades unprovoked, unless the player or some other event on the opposite side attracted them.

 

However, if the barricade is on the opposite side of the window, and it is bright in the area where the zeds are, they might see their own reflection and be drawn by that, being to durned dumb to recognize themselves. Closed curtains generating the same effect would be kinda cool. Force you to be visible through open windows, or hide and have em bash up anything they catch their reflection on.

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It has always bothered me that they go bashing barricades unprovoked, unless the player or some other event on the opposite side attracted them.

 

However, if the barricade is on the opposite side of the window, and it is bright in the area where the zeds are, they might see their own reflection and be drawn by that, being to durned dumb to recognize themselves. Closed curtains generating the same effect would be kinda cool. Force you to be visible through open windows, or hide and have em bash up anything they catch their reflection on.

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