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

[zombiehunter]

They are a gigantic pain in the ass. Not so much at the base but they are becoming increasingly frustrating on trader jobs. 3 or 4 shots and I've got a screamer horde on top of a clear to manage. And depending on where you are, what tier job and what POI you are at, it could be a 2-3 screamer horde. Anyone else noticing this or is it just my bad luck?

It's not just your bad luck.  I've had that happen many times.  I understand that TFP tried to make the game more challenging but the new screamer horde mechanic, IMO, is just a cheap way to try to make the game more challenging.  The whole thing is overdone.  For example, in my last playthrough, I was on about day 8 or something like that, running ONLY two dew collectors.  Somehow that spawned THREE screamers.  It's overdone and needs to be scaled back some, IMO.  

 

[Walterstj]

I had a screamer on day 1. I've got plenty of hours game time and I was super @%$#ed. I had no workstations, etc. And now with tier 5 jobs, you can't get off 4-5 shots without it drawing 2 radiated screamers, which in turn call in 2 more. It's borderline ridiculous. I get the screamers to avoid a big heat signature but this is just dumb

 

[OneManStanding]

I was spending a good amount of time 50 blocks below that position at the time, which keeps the area loaded ofc - I might've just missed them being active up there while I was mining.

Now that I've placed my heat sources down there (under at least 60 blocks of rock), haven't seen a screamer since..

I'm interested in what you're saying here, but I don't quite understand it. Are you saying that if I keep my heat-generating stuff at rock bottom of the map it won't attract screamers for some reason? I don't know what "ofc" means.

 

[Vaeliorin]

I'm interested in what you're saying here, but I don't quite understand it. Are you saying that if I keep my heat-generating stuff at rock bottom of the map it won't attract screamers for some reason? I don't know what "ofc" means.

ofc = Of Course.  But yes, as I understand it, at least in past versions (and presumably still in 1.0) if screamers couldn't spawn within a certain range of your heat sources, they simply wouldn't spawn.

I imagine if you covered a large enough area with blocks, you could have everything on the surface and still avoid screamers entirely (like you can with horde night, if you really want to.)

 

[theFlu]

Are you saying that if I keep my heat-generating stuff at rock bottom of the map it won't attract screamers for some reason?

I'm not making a certain claim, but it would fit the spawn mechanics somewhat.

What I gather from random observation, no real testing what-so-ever:

1) You produce heat

2) heat randomly calls in screamers

3) screamer tries to get to the block that caused the last heat tick when spawning and attack that, and possibly other blocks in the area

At step  2, when spawning in the screamer, there needs to be a terrain block that is the top-most block of that x-y coordinate available to place the zed there (kinda like it'd crawl out of the ground, probably unintentional thou, just a good way to select where to spawn things in). This will certainly have some optimal range and some max range; no point in spawning them too far, they'd have to tunnel through a few skyscrapers... as long as that max distance doesn't have a top-most terrain available, she can't spawn.

Step 3 .. I'm guessing with the attack behavior, but that would explain my lost campfires, and a couple similar events I've seen on the youtubes...

And ofc is of course, of course, as Vael above already mentioned.

EDIT: so yeh, I'm assuming the min depth to be "safe" is something like 40-50 blocks, from the heat source. But I have no good number; I might give it a test at some point, but not until next week at least...

 

[lord_ahriman]

I'm not making a certain claim, but it would fit the spawn mechanics somewhat.

What I gather from random observation, no real testing what-so-ever:

1) You produce heat

2) heat randomly calls in screamers

3) screamer tries to get to the block that caused the last heat tick when spawning and attack that, and possibly other blocks in the area

At step  2, when spawning in the screamer, there needs to be a terrain block that is the top-most block of that x-y coordinate available to place the zed there (kinda like it'd crawl out of the ground, probably unintentional thou, just a good way to select where to spawn things in). This will certainly have some optimal range and some max range; no point in spawning them too far, they'd have to tunnel through a few skyscrapers... as long as that max distance doesn't have a top-most terrain available, she can't spawn.

Step 3 .. I'm guessing with the attack behavior, but that would explain my lost campfires, and a couple similar events I've seen on the youtubes...

And ofc is of course, of course, as Vael above already mentioned.

EDIT: so yeh, I'm assuming the min depth to be "safe" is something like 40-50 blocks, from the heat source. But I have no good number; I might give it a test at some point, but not until next week at least...

Math is a bit more complicated, because you need to factor in feral sense on/off. TFP could have changed it, but last time I played FS off in A21 screamer spawn would fail at bedrock level. A21 and 1.0 FS on you are just safe over 46 meters/blocks, it means only under a large mountain range. For example, mining under a large mountain range is not a big deal: screamers can still spawn, but never get to me.

 

[GigglingZombie]

i haven't tried placing heat sources down at the very bedrock level in v1, but i certainly did in A21, and screamers (in A21) most certainly found me; don't know if this has changed in v1 as after that i had no interest in being located down at bedrock again

 

[theFlu]

feral sense on/off

Does that change the behavior or just the distance they will hear / investigate you? Spawning should still be limited at ~46?

i haven't tried placing heat sources down at the very bedrock level, but i certainly did in A21, and screamers (in A21) most certainly found me

Hmm.. the topsoil outside my mountain is at altitude +40, standing on bedrock is +3. Being at bedrock wouldn't make me spawn immune there, if lord_ahriman is right about the range.

 

[Kattla]

Screamers entrance to my base.

Motion sensor to start the bladetrap for 30 secs.  It's a bit unaccessible for repairs, but works like a charm. I remove it on horde nights though.

And yes, i can drive the motorcycle across the bladetrap in that configuration , and zombies see it as a valid path.

Or i just hit the 3 key, and have some fun with them in the streets.



And that is one of the ways i deal with screamers.

 

[lord_ahriman]

Does that change the behavior or just the distance they will hear / investigate you? Spawning should still be limited at ~46?

Hmm.. the topsoil outside my mountain is at altitude +40, standing on bedrock is +3. Being at bedrock wouldn't make me spawn immune there, if lord_ahriman is right about the range.

In my experience, it would be distance. That's why I usually mine metallic ores a bit away from mountain range edges. Stone, most of time, it's fine on every kind of terrain.

 

[asmosnuts]

      Screamers are no more annoying than vultures, yes its not much fun when 5 or 6 are beating on you but mostly they are easy to down at distance and rarely cause significant damage. Noise is most annoying!

 

[ammonitia]

It's not just your bad luck.  I've had that happen many times.  I understand that TFP tried to make the game more challenging but the new screamer horde mechanic, IMO, is just a cheap way to try to make the game more challenging.  The whole thing is overdone.  For example, in my last playthrough, I was on about day 8 or something like that, running ONLY two dew collectors.  Somehow that spawned THREE screamers.  It's overdone and needs to be scaled back some, IMO.  

It's just fine the way it is. Well, it could be a little harder honestly. The fact that some people are complaining is a testament that it worked. If you're having trouble just turn down the difficulty or play in creative FFS. 

3 weeks in A19 and not 1 screamer. 2 forges, 2 campfires, 2 cement mixers running almost 24/7. 

The pimps are like my wife, they don't know how to just adjust the thermostat by a degree or 2, they just fling the dial from 1 end to the other.

A19 was very lonely though, although probably because I wasn't traveling far. Although wandering hordes seemed very sparse, luck of the draw I guess.  Having come back to 1.0 It is very noticeable how many more normal spawns there are now (this is a very good thing). 

Yes. More zombies to kill, the better. The last thing we need is another lifeless sandbox game. 

 

[ammonitia]

It's not unrelated. More wilderness spawns mean more zombies in the area where you want to work. Screamers bring more zombies into the area where you want to work. People have been wanting the world to have more zombies. Screamers bring more zombies.

Thanks for asking instead of assuming. No. I'm not mocking. I really am curious. I get that some people don't want to be interrupted by extra zombies while they are trying to get stuff done. But where are the other people who do want larger populations of zombies? I'd think they'd be here in larger numbers praising the increased screamer activity. I would think at least some of them would come to disagree that more screamers bringing in more zombies is exactly what the game needs. It's what you get when you up the spawn numbers in the xml. You often get surrounding zombies coming in to mess with you while you mine, quest, build, etc. And there have been a lot of people modding their game with increased spawn numbers.

So...did I summon you or not....? Thanks for answering on behalf of the target audience I guess.

You're likening the screamer spawn to the F6 spawn and they aren't very similar. You can spawn in a block of 25 of the same zombie in one mass which is nothing like a screamer spawn or you can walk around and spawn singles in different places but that would be super tedious. The screamer brings zombies from different directions in a circumference around you. When in a building questing, they feel just like nearby zombies zeroing in on my location--at least to me. Plus, with screamers you are playing the game the entire time and not pausing play to open the debug menu and then run around peppering the landscape with here a zombie there a zombie yourself. Also, the zombies you place won't have a waypoint in your general direction implanted in their brains causing them to enter the POI and go to the spot where your gunfire caused the heat overload.

Now, in the sense that neither the f6 spawner nor screamers solve the problem of just having zombies existing in dense numbers in the world when traveling around. I agree. But I don't think that lots of zombies existing while you travel is significant to gameplay. You just leave them in the dust. Zombie high density only matters at the location where you plan to be active and sleepers bring them in (potentially).

I think it is pretty stupid to have dense populations of zombies out in the forest. They should be dense in the cities and sparse in the wilderness with occasional herds shambling along. It would be nice to have larger herds than we typically get but putting zombies everywhere out in the wilderness where you are just pedaling past them would be the stupid choice, imo.

Exactly. We don't want The Walking Dead silliness in this game, where the forests were brimming with zombies, even more so than the cities. At the same time, I don't want 7DaystoDie to be like Day Z where NO zombies spawned in the woods.

 

[Vaeliorin]

It's just fine the way it is. Well, it could be a little harder honestly. The fact that some people are complaining is a testament that it worked. If you're having trouble just turn down the difficulty or play in creative FFS.

It's not hard, it's tedious.  Even back in A21 I'd get 5 or 6 screamers a night when I was mining iron/lead.  They're not a threat, they're just an annoyance.

 

[zombiehunter]

It's just fine the way it is. Well, it could be a little harder honestly. The fact that some people are complaining is a testament that it worked. If you're having trouble just turn down the difficulty or play in creative FFS. 

It's not hard.  It's annoying.  

 

[theFlu]

It's not hard.  It's annoying. 

... that's what she said..?

Sorry

 

[ammonitia]

It's not hard, it's tedious.  Even back in A21 I'd get 5 or 6 screamers a night when I was mining iron/lead.  They're not a threat, they're just an annoyance.

Zombies are supposed to be an annoyance. A lot of us want that "annoyance" because it adds life to the game world. It increases immersion. Many players do find it HARD. You are not everyone. When I was mining oil shale in the desert, I was ambushed by two screamers, and before I knew it, I was surrounded by ferals. It was my first death in like a hundred days. I LOVED IT! 

But perhaps these screamers should be made even HARDER? How about their screams being able to summon a pack of dire wolves or a horde of demolition zombies?

 

[ammonitia]

Actually, they're not an annoyance at all. On the contrary, they're a delight. In addition to breathing life (or is it death?) into the game world, they provide me with more loot opportunities. I usually LET them summon in their friends just so I can increase my chances of scoring a blue bag. Besides, zombies are just so satisfying to kill in this game. I've played State of Decay 2, WWZ, Day Z, Dying Light 1 and 2, etc, but none compare to this game in terms of zombie slaying BLISS! I hope TFP bring back zombie spawn sliders so I can crank it all the way up! A screamer slider too would be nice. More zombies PLEASE! More, more, MORE!

 

[asmosnuts]

      The game has never been easier, to the point where very little is any sort of threat. Far rather roaming hordes (proper roaming hordes not the usual "Look at those 3 following each other") Than the far off bandit promise that will turn out just as easy to cheese. Give us Romero hordes rather than agoraphobic squatters!

 

[zombiehunter]

... that's what she said..?

Sorry

LOL.  Nice.