[2023] Zombies

Originally posted by Hamlet Dies. The End.:

Originally posted by cgwildwolf11: noise will make them find you the more noise you make the more zombies you will bring. to you.

does that include melee weapons or just guns?

If it makes a sound, it can attract zombies. Melee weapons, guns, bows, even just walking around, even sneaking around- It all makes noise to some degree or another. Obviously, a shotgun is going to be much louder than a knife in the dark; But it's still noise in both cases.

Zombies outside a POI will be attracted to that noise and attempt to reach the location at which they heard the noise- If they dont see you, they'll then just start wandering randomly again, if they do see you, they aggro and try to attack you.

Originally posted by Sarcasm: Well, I've been sneaking all cloth armor. POI second floor and am looking at a couple radiated zombies, who do not notice me at all .... outside a wondering yard trash zombie detects me and makes a bee line for me. Yep, that's buggy.

It's not buggy. It's triggered differently. Sleeper zombies in a POI are 'asleep', They're not active and wandering around searching for living beings. The threshold to wake them is different from the waking and wandering zombies outside the building.

I imagine you sleep through a cop siren or other loud noise quite often without ever knowing it, but when you're awake, chances are such noises will catch enough of your attention to wonder what is going on, yeah?

Also, The zombie outside heard you and made a beeline for the location it heard a sound- NOT for you specifically, if you quietly vacate the area, it'll get to that location and then just start wandering again. The sound is a trigger to investigate.

The “feral sense” setting is directly tied to this. If you prefer it be harder for zombies to detect you, then make sure feral sense is off.

Originally posted by ⚜ JOST AMMAN ⚜: I agree. with Weasel here. There's still some buggy behavior that needs fixing for stealth.
I've been advocating for this on the official forums for some time now.

I think they'll do something about it when they finally take a second pass at the sound system and how zombies react to sound, hopefully.

Oh there's a few issues for sure. For example, wakeful zombies don't give a single flying F about vertical distance last I checked- You could be halfway up dishong tower and attract a zombie at the ground floor, as long as it's been spawned.

But, The difference between a waking zombie and a sleeper is not a bug. Weasel's statement here,

Originally posted by Pain Weasel: Comparing that to wandering zombies hearing noise and alerting to you and thinking it is a bug is making a reasonable deduction.

is surely correct- That IS a reasonable deduction. But it's an incorrect deduction/leads to an incorrect conclusion.

It'd be like... like deducing that because a tomato is a fruit it could be used as an ingredient in a normal fruit salad- It's certainly a Reasonable deduction to include a fruit in a fruit salad, But also a very wrong one because a tomato does not belong in a fruit salad.

The things sleeper zombies react to are very different from the things normal zombies do- For the most part, Sleeper zombies don't care about 'Noise'; They care about player proximity and specific stealth checks. This isn't a bug, it's intentional. However, It's not that they dont care about noise at all- It's that there is a threshold that must be met.

For sake of example, Let's say that for sleepers, this noise threshold must reach a value of.. 25-40. It's randomized to simulate light and heavy sleepers. Your gun produces 10 a shot magnified by proximity- From farther away it might get 0.5x, from closer up it might get as much as 4x- A zombie should REALLY wake up if you shoot a gun next to their ear.

So, You shoot twice from a decent distance but not far enough to get reductions in noise made- You've built up 20 noise, if you then don't make any additional noise, this value will fade away after a second or two. So you can shoot twice more..and then a second or two, so you can shoot twice more. A sleeper won't wake up until you hit at LEAST 25. And given the way a stealth player is likely to carefully sweep a room one target at a time and take a second or two to line up shots... suddenly, it seems like the sleepers never wake up from noise, ever.

Meanwhile, You have 'awake' zombies. Awake zombies don't have a threshold- ANY sound that registers above a 0 is going to attract them to approach a location to investigate

Also, To be clear, approaching to investigate is NOT the same as knowing the player is there. If you aren't within visual line of sight on their way or when they arrive, they'll default back to wandering aimlessly around. And yes, This can be used to lure zombies around- You can throw rocks, or shoot the ground near them from far enough away that they can't hear your gun for example. Toss a rock behind a screamer and she'll get distracted and turn around- So you can safely dispatch her without her screaming.


The system works very much properly in this regard. Now, if you want to argue that sleepers should react MORE to noise that they do, sure- Go make a thread and do so. But, the situation presented is not a 'bug'. A reasonable deduction to conclude it is- But still an incorrect conclusion.