PC How are you dealing with the increased chance of spawning a screamer?

ElCabong

ElCabong

Well-known member
I'm trying to do it by managing how much I burn. I have a fully modded dew collector and my base is lit by one torch. I frequently get a screamer when I boil a lot of murky water, make glue, cook, and run the forge for more than 10 minutes. I think I can cope with it by very carefully keeping it less than 10.

Right now it's not that big a deal but it gets worse.

 
I just changed up how I build my "crafting" base to be more like a horde base. I don't go as overboard as I would with a horde base, but there are now choke points  where I can defend, an area to back up into if it gets worse, and an escape route. And later on there will be electric fence posts, blade traps, and turrets. Basically if I want to craft, I'm not going to let a few screamers stop me.

A version or two ago I ran anywhere from  2 to 4 cement mixers, 4 forges, 2 chem stations, and 1 or 2 campfires for hours on end, for days on end and barely saw any screamers. That was a boring base to be in, and with that much activity I probably should have been attacked multiple times a day 😀

I do like my base coming under attack from time to time, I don't feel like any base in 7dtd should be totally safe. But right now screamers to appear to be a bit too sensitive.

 
I don't use torches, only lanterns. I try to spend little time at the base. The design of the house is made in such a way that I can notice screamers before they notice me. If they noticed me earlier, then I go down and kill the entire crowd.

 
I typically run the forge, chem station, and two cooking fires along with the dew collector and crafting things in the work bench.

I don't try to game the system by limiting the amount of time I am doing work in my base, I expect that screamers may be showing up so I am ready to step outside to deal with them when that happens.

I have had nights where none of them showed up, and other nights where I had to deal with them.  Mostly just through melee, making an effort to take out the screamers first then any ferals / normal zombies before tackling any radiated ones that show up (I am on Day 42 right now in my current playthrough).

This playthrough I haven't done anything to my main base in terms of defense, other than crafting my own doors, putting in shutters in the windows, and upgrading the two first layers to cobblestone if they were normally wood (my current main base is Willy's cabin - sp? - in the forest biome).  I make sure I have my food / water levels at a good point so I don't have debuffs and not encumbered so I can kite the mini-horde if I need to.  

Once v1.0 goes stable, I expect I will start using traps more to help protect my base.  Dart traps I have used in the past when I setup bases in the Wasteland with Feral sense on along with spiked traps.

 
I've had 2 screamers spawn at once when mining, they are annoying, and far to common now. The game needs proper traps as well.

 
Suxar said:
Now there is a break between their appearances, previously they could go without a break.
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I never used to get screamers before though in a21.2 as I knew how to balance my heat generation but now in a22/v1.0 they just come basically non stop and are a real annoyance as they are too common. In fact I don't even get why screamers exist in the first place, TFP was us to run and Gun thats why they nerfed stealth so hard, yet they also wanna punish us for using guns as well? seems really backwards to me.

 
Scyris said:
I never used to get screamers before though in a21.2 as I knew how to balance my heat generation
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When I'm actively building, I can't control it. I need: 2 stoves for cement, 3 stoves for steel, 2 concrete mixers and 1 workbench for cobblestones.

 
I've thought about scattering my Dew Collectors to places like the Intersection down the road from my base, the gate of the Trader, etc. ... places I pass frequently. In this way they either don't produce heat because they're not loaded into the game or there's very little heat because there's only one of them active and only for a short while as I run up, get the water, and then continue on home.

Its when I run a forge for a bit (with a dew collector or two) that I get them and I've been thinking if I don't want any hassle in dealing with a screamer horde I should just run the forge during the daylight when all the Zs are slow. I don't mind fighting hordes in the open at night, but I'm usually equipped for that. When I'm futzing around the base my typical equipment is likely shifted around, and so forth, so either make a defensible base or daytime forges to keep the Zs slow.

 
zztong said:
I've thought about scattering my Dew Collectors to places like the Intersection down the road from my base, the gate of the Trader, etc. ... places I pass frequently. In this way they either don't produce heat because they're not loaded into the game or there's very little heat because there's only one of them active and only for a short while as I run up, get the water, and then continue on home.

Its when I run a forge for a bit (with a dew collector or two) that I get them and I've been thinking if I don't want any hassle in dealing with a screamer horde I should just run the forge during the daylight when all the Zs are slow. I don't mind fighting hordes in the open at night, but I'm usually equipped for that. When I'm futzing around the base my typical equipment is likely shifted around, and so forth, so either make a defensible base or daytime forges to keep the Zs slow.
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I might be wrong, but I think heat builds even if they are in unloaded chunks.  It just is calculated when the chunks are loaded.  Otherwise, I wouldn't ever see a screamer arrive at my base as soon as I return from being gone all day.  If I'm right about that, then you'd still have heat from the dew collectors spread around.  But they stop generating heat when full and if you only have 1 per area, the heat would be spread out so would take longer to generate.  Of course, it could results in dealing with screamers at every single dew collector if you're unlucky versus once at the dew collector "farm".

I'm actually not sure how much dew collectors affect the heat.  I see the screamers appearing when the forge or campfires or chem station are running, but when nothing is running except dew collectors, I haven't yet seen them.  Doesn't mean they won't still appear, of course.  I just find that a turret at each corner of the base aimed to cover all sides will deal with the problem for you.  You might still get some minor damage to walls before they are killed, but it shouldn't be too bad.  Throw in some spikes around the walls and you probably won't have any wall damage except maybe from cops, though they shouldn't spit at your walls if they can't see you.

 
- Build a combined crafting + horde base, even if you don't intend to fight blood moon hordes.

- Locate your base in the Forest biome.

- Mine iron and lead underground only, not too close to the surface with a tunnel leading to your base.

 
I've built an all-in-one base with storage etc. on the second floor and with the ground floor basically being on big concrete block. The only access for zombies to this 'house' is up some stairs and across a tightrope (towards my third floor) where they constantly get pushed off by robotic sledges. It's probably not feasible for a very high number of zombies on horde night but for what I got (12) and for screamers it's more than enough.

I really don't want to worry about heat generation so I'll probably do something similar the next time around.     

 
A few alphas ago I started integrating the horde base into my main base. A small fighting position would normally be enough for the Screamer hordes and a way for the zombies to get to me.

 
In the first few days there aren't more screamers than usual. Only in the mid-game, when you have several workstations and do extensive mining, extra screamers appear. But by then you also have the gear and power to deal with them. Personally, I like the extra challenge (and XP).

Never just mine in a hole without an exit anymore.

 
On a well engineered base? 

It's free XP. 

😂😅😂

Spikes work well early game, but shes not as squishy as she was is she? 

Can't get her before she screams anymore 

😂🤣😂

 
Riamus said:
I might be wrong, but I think heat builds even if they are in unloaded chunks.
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Perhaps, but spreading them out means the heat doesn't grow very high in that area.

Riamus said:
I'm actually not sure how much dew collectors affect the heat.
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blocks.xml , see the HeatMapStrength property...

Burning Barrel = 1

Campfire = 5

Candle = 0.5

Cement Mixer = 5

Chemistry Station = 5

DewCollector = 2

Forge = 6

Torch = 1

Workbench = 5

 
I've pretty much always build my base with a mini hirde tower connected just for screamer hordes. Seeing how I had my first pair show up on day four, I've accelerated how quickly I add the horde tower to the base. 

 
When I hear them I go outside and kill them. If it gets annoying I place junk turrets around. Sometimes I allow them to scream and hope they call in more screamers.

 
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