[2023] Zombies still dig?

Originally posted by HitlerWasTheDarkSoulsOfThe40s:

Originally posted by Jimmy James: Bummer. Thanks. I ultimately just want a safe spot that I can explore from.

I know there's lots of ways to deal with it and you can make the game easy as hell but more options would be nice.

if you're looking for options, you're playing the wrong game. TFP doesn't like people playing outside their questionable vision

TFP literally rewrote huge swathes of the game so people could play outside their vision... The game is so moddable Because of TFP. So, Mod away- Do whatever you want. But the vanilla game and the default settings will be such and so, because that is the intended experience for a new player.

Originally posted by Jimmy James: Bummer. Thanks. I ultimately just want a safe spot that I can explore from.

I know there's lots of ways to deal with it and you can make the game easy as hell but more options would be nice.

More options aren't out of the cards entirely- But TFP are holding off on adding more options at this time because every new option is something new to test and fix and balance and find the 'default' of, and all that good stuff- and that all stretches out the timeline of development even more. They realized the options they currently have area already a bit overwhelming when it comes to testing, and kept it at that until some point in the future when the game is more complete and they can sit down and expand the options all at once.

With that said, There are mods- As I said to the other guy, the game is extremely moddable, and made that way so people could change things they were dissatisfied with. If you don't like digging zombies, make it so zombies do 0 or 1 damage to anything you dont want them to dig through. I remember seeing a no digging/no terrain damage at one point, could prolly find it with a bit of googling.

If your goal is just 'somewhere safe to explore from' you can pretty much do that within the vanilla game- Even a typical above ground house will rarely be bothered by zombies, ring it in a spike moat and repair it once a week or two and you're set. Even screamers are nonexistant to rare unless you have like 10 forges all running at once at all times.

Originally posted by Jimmy James: I get it, and it's neat they allow modding. They've turned off digging before at various stages though and I suspect it'd be trivial to add it as an option back in. There's no balancing to be done with adding an off default game option though, see for example disabling blood moons entirely.

I got my money's worth I guess. I'll go try and find a mod and see if it's worth the trouble.

It's bad design for a sandbox game not to account for and allow players to play how they want. Give people voxel terrain and they will want to live underground. Pick any of the big survival games, except valheim, which doesnt allow for much in the way of settings changes, and you can edit settings to allow for anything.

They've never turned off digging. There was a point when zombies couldn't dig down; But that was because the AI was incapable of doing so, until they changed it because it made logical sense that if they can dig forward, or up, they can also dig down.

And zombies being able to dig down doesn't prevent you from making an underground base any more than zombies being able to dig forward prevents you from making a surface base or that they can dig up prevents you from building on a mountain.

The difference was, when zombies could not dig down, One of these three options had a clear and absolute advantage over the others- Dig down 3 blocks and plop a block over your head, and you were completely and absolutely untouchable, something not afforded by any other method of building at the time.