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In a recent discussion on this thread, the topic of whether or not zombies eat only fresh human bodies came up and I made a suggestion for sandbox. I thought I'd ought to put it here to so people can discuss any aspects of it without derailing the other topic further.


 


New sandbox setting: Pickiness!


 


Picky - Only eats fresh human corpses


Less Picky - Eats any human corpse it can find, fresh or stale.


Not Picky - Eats any corpse or meat it can find, human or animal, fresh or rotten.


Omnivore - Will eat any food it can find, vegetable, human, or animal, fresh or rotten.


Progressive - Starts Picky, but later becomes Less Picky, then stops at Not picky.


 


Sounds nice?


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Well... The different settings would certainly have drastic effects on game play. If zeds eat all meat, they'll hunt animals and reduce their numbers significantly, making hunting more difficult. If they eat all types of food, they'll hunt animals AND eat foods you can forage, meaning that finding food in general is even more difficult.

 

It could also cause different effects on distribution of zeds as they start spreading out into the woods and other surrounding areas to eat whatever they come across they consider food.

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Well... The different settings would certainly have drastic effects on game play. If zeds eat all meat, they'll hunt animals and reduce their numbers significantly, making hunting more difficult. If they eat all types of food, they'll hunt animals AND eat foods you can forage, meaning that finding food in general is even more difficult.

 

It could also cause different effects on distribution of zeds as they start spreading out into the woods and other surrounding areas to eat whatever they come across they consider food.

Exactly! Wouldn't that be fun?

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To be honest it does sound pretty fun, however eating food you can forage does sound like a stretch unless they have good cognitive abilities. I can't imagine a walker opening a cupboard, grabbing some crisps and then opening said crisps.

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To be honest it does sound pretty fun, however eating food you can forage does sound like a stretch unless they have good cognitive abilities. I can't imagine a walker opening a cupboard, grabbing some crisps and then opening said crisps.

I meant like eating plants and vegetables that can be eaten like berries or anything the player grows.

 

What you're thinking of is scavenging, not foraging.

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Actually according to the dictionary definition, foraging can be applied to things such as looking for crisps as foraging is looking for food. Scavenging is about searching for non food items or feeding off dead or decaying matter. An argument could be made to say that crisps are basically dead potatoes, but by common usage I don't think many people would refer to crisps in the same way they would a rotting potato and language is defined by usage.

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I try not to be too pedantic, because zombie games are all fictional anyway. But here we go, put on my pedantic hat:

 

PZ is heavily influenced by the zombie survival guide style lore. In the ZSG, zombies would go for any kind of animal that attracted their attention as readily as they would go for a human. They're attracted to noise. Importantly though, eating is instinctual, rather than to provide sustenance.  Once the prey stops moving, they wander off in search of other moving things. Eating is only secondary. They are not stalking animals for food, they don't actually have to eat. If consumption was the primary goal, then the zombies would likely not reproduce with such vigor-- something has to be left to rise again!

 

Animals are quite adept at staying well away from zombies. Just like you would have difficulty catching a deer in the woods with your bare hands, the zomboids aren't going through the woods exterminating the deer population. They're even dumber than a human trying to strangle deer as they are just following sounds. Zombies are essentially harmless by themselves, unless they getcha by surprise, its when they are in groups that it gets hairy.

 

In short, its the noise and movement that is attracting them to the animals, not an actual desire to eat. Theres the ol' story about the zombie who ate so much his stoumach exploded, and he just kept eating and stuff was just falling out of the hole in the abdomen.

 

So, in short, I think a pickyness setting misses the mark of actually creating a new gameplay dimension. THere is a mod that turns the zombies into superhuman vampire monsters that actively hunt after dark.

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I try not to be too pedantic, because zombie games are all fictional anyway. But here we go, put on my pedantic hat:

 

PZ is heavily influenced by the zombie survival guide style lore. In the ZSG, zombies would go for any kind of animal that attracted their attention as readily as they would go for a human. They're attracted to noise. Importantly though, eating is instinctual, rather than to provide sustenance.  Once the prey stops moving, they wander off in search of other moving things. Eating is only secondary. They are not stalking animals for food, they don't actually have to eat. If consumption was the primary goal, then the zombies would likely not reproduce with such vigor-- something has to be left to rise again!

 

Animals are quite adept at staying well away from zombies. Just like you would have difficulty catching a deer in the woods with your bare hands, the zomboids aren't going through the woods exterminating the deer population. They're even dumber than a human trying to strangle deer as they are just following sounds. Zombies are essentially harmless by themselves, unless they getcha by surprise, its when they are in groups that it gets hairy.

 

In short, its the noise and movement that is attracting them to the animals, not an actual desire to eat. Theres the ol' story about the zombie who ate so much his stoumach exploded, and he just kept eating and stuff was just falling out of the hole in the abdomen.

 

So, in short, I think a pickyness setting misses the mark of actually creating a new gameplay dimension. There is a mod that turns the zombies into superhuman vampire monsters that actively hunt after dark.

I think someone on the team said at some point that the zombies wouldn't go after animals and infect them or something like that.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I would love this as a mod. But TBH i wouldn't want it in the normal game. It would make for some very interesting game play to have zombies eating  animals, berries, and your unprotected tomato plants :) The zombies can smell and it would be cool if you cooking attracted them not because you are making noise but the fact they smell the food.

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I don't like the sound of zombies sitting in the garden eating fruities, kind of make them less bad ass  :-D

And I don't see a zombie entering a kitchen, opening the fridge and go... "Sooooooo.... whaat haaave weeee heeeerreee... Caaaaaaaaaaaake!".

Nor opening tinned cans. They have no idea to except food in those.

 

Meat however, wouldn't it be cool if they could tear up furniture to get to meat.

 

Or even more so cool, using meat as bait for traps and such???!?!

 

About the deer, as said they are too stupid to go hunting. If a deer is unlucky to get itself in the middle of a horde I definatly think the zombies should try to chase it down and possibly surround it.

 

Maybe it can become a feature that if the zombies cover the whole forrest then deers and animals will travel outside map, leaving the hunter the need to clear the forrest for the animals to come back.

 

Back to topic.

 

 

...

...Once the prey stops moving, they wander off in search of other moving things. Eating is only secondary. They are not stalking animals for food, they don't actually have to eat. If consumption was the primary goal, then the zombies would likely not reproduce with such vigor-- something has to be left to rise again!

...

 

Are you sure?

Zombies do smell the living in most zombie lore. Not sure about this game thou but I'm pretty sure they can smell you... Right???

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They can smell if your bleeding I believe.

And no zombie will ever chase down an animal.

And you forgot an option to turn this setting off.
And while I am fine with this option since I had means of sacrificing others to escape.

I don't get why people say they don't "eat" you. When you die in game even after you fall down dead they are still tearing you apart. Maybe not eating but people only want the eating part because of the distraction it can be.

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in most lore I came across, zombies eat / try to eat all kind of living organism consitsting of meat, tendon, muscl and bone. 

plants they let go, rats and birds and deer and human they try to sink their teeth and fingernails into.

 

so I think with hunting as  planned and confirmed feature, zombies would walk after deer and rabbits and such. they would never get them of course, nevertheless they would keep trying. 

 

in the book world war Z (which s WAY better than the movie) they mention a zombie digging relentless into a sand dune only it saw a squirrel or something escape int the sand....it just kept digging... because nothing else got to ther attention...

 

its the same instinct to move after something that was seen / smelled and heard and was alive that creates hordes... one zombie sees something and starts walking towards it. others follow because where he´s going something sure must be there... i mean he knows whats cooking right ? and eventually you have hundreds, if not thousands just walking, until they see / smell / hear something that is even more interesting... 

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  • 4 months later...

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