Dynamically Emmergent Wandering Hordes - Killed player turns into Wandering Horde leader

[warmer]

What if when a player character gets killed, they attract zombies within a given range up to their player level (total in horde) - and that group becomes a slowly shambling player seeking horde.
ie,  Dynamically Emergent Wandering hordes.

Has something like this been done before?

Thoughts/Suggestions/Critique?

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

Not in this game yet, but it does happen in Project Zomboid.

If he becomes a leader you can make him a screamer.

And to add to that I wonder what it would be like if all zombies were potential lesser screamers

The primary raises the big horde, as has been. The lesser if you are fighting it and you don't kill

it quickly and stealthily, it can scream and call in all of the zombies in that area, and wake up

sleepers if you have engaged a poi also.

 

[warmer]

, it can scream and call in all of the zombies in that area, and wake up

sleepers if you have engaged a poi also.

That would be really cool if all zeds including sleepers in POIs within the local chunk were able to be summoned/woken up and then bash their way out in order to get to you.

 

[Riamus]

That would be really cool if all zeds including sleepers in POIs within the local chunk were able to be summoned/woken up and then bash their way out in order to get to you.

The main problem with that is that it makes it very easy to empty a POI to loot it without risk.  It might not help with a clear quest, but a fetch would be simple and scavenging or looting the loot room wouldn't be any challenge.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

The main problem with that is that it makes it very easy to empty a POI to loot it without risk.

Agreed that is the first thing that came to mind. Was getting ready to post this thought.

I can't remember if it was a small mod or a standard function of the game.
It was inspired by world war-z. It would be more visceral now with the
Zombie stumble and fall animations. Especially if a lot of the volume were
coming from elevated areas.

It would have to be a really well planned event though, in order to stay
withing present spawning constraints. 1 The parameters 30 zombies maxalive,
following the hordenight rule. 2 It would need new spawner volume types
that are activated by the event. 3 Must be regulated to not exceed todays
limits or console version would fail. 4 Pooling might be a possible mechanic.

1 30 Zombie Maxalive could be regulated by Biome spawner.

2 New spawner volume type, would be biome spawner controlled, placed in pois
near easier exit points in pois. If not two things will happen. People will
just make noise to kite POI sleepers away, then walk in and loot. After the
onslaught pois would be drained of sleepers making it way easier to pillage.
If these are placed at say a window or behind a broken wall, they are out of
sight so they fit in the spawning parameters, and add to a visual interactivity
with the environment. They would leave poi sleeper volumes intact for normal
engagement. The spawn locations could be controlled by tags, on specific blocks.

3 Volumetric spawn needs regulation, for console and pc. Or it would not be
considered.

4 Pooling to present a continuing spawning mass, without taxing hardware. Plus
it would not interfere with the rest of the assets and events.

 

[zztong]

That would be really cool if all zeds including sleepers in POIs within the local chunk were able to be summoned/woken up and then bash their way out in order to get to you.

It would be cool, but it would also come with a couple of performance problems that would be magnified in multiplayer.

 

[warmer]

The main problem with that is that it makes it very easy to empty a POI to loot it without risk.  It might not help with a clear quest, but a fetch would be simple and scavenging or looting the loot room wouldn't be any challenge.

I don't think that is correct. The second you hit the ! for a quest marker, it resets the POI, ie all the entities/loot containers. They respawn when you double dip on a quest, why would this be any different?

I suppose you could say it makes it easier for a straight looting, but you can do the exact same thing with a couple shotgun blasts and wake them all up. I think you would exclude ambush zombies, since they don't trigger from sounds anyways if I am not mistaken.

Currently feral sense basically behaves like what I am suggesting, but as a player kill vs. follow command. Just repurpose the same coding, but give it a follow goal vs. attack.

It would be cool, but it would also come with a couple of performance problems that would be magnified in multiplayer.

Agreed, you would have to limit the number of player created wandering hordes or this would get out of hand quickly. Maybe only the LAST one is active, and when a new one is created, they just become normal with no goal to find the player.

 

[Riamus]

I don't think that is correct. The second you hit the ! for a quest marker, it resets the POI, ie all the entities/loot containers. They respawn when you double dip on a quest, why would this be any different?

I suppose you could say it makes it easier for a straight looting, but you can do the exact same thing with a couple shotgun blasts and wake them all up. I think you would exclude ambush zombies, since they don't trigger from sounds anyways if I am not mistaken.

If you start a quest and then cause them to all wake up, they would exit the POI, making the POI easy to do.  This might not be a huge benefit to a single player since they'll just follow you back inside (that's still helpful if the POI doesn't offer an easy way off the first floor), but you could stand at one edge of the POI on the ground while someone else gets them to all chase them and they could lead the zombies away while you go inside, so it would be especially easy for multiplayer.

And ZZTong is right that it could cause a lot of performance problems by having so many activated at once.  One reason why there are multiple sleeper volumes instead of just having all zombies in one is so you can limit performance issues caused by having too many activated at once.  There are other reasons of course, but that's one of the reasons.

 

[warmer]

If you start a quest and then cause them to all wake up, they would exit the POI, making the POI easy to do.  

Are you implying all awake zombies move towards the player created horde? I was trying to imply that should behave like a radius effect to feral sense to the zombie created from the dead player. I don't understand what you mean exactly. If you have a player that died and made the wandering horde, well that horde would start at the place of death and move towards the player. If they are actively in a group with you, they will not create any more horde (participants) because the horde radius is determine NOT by the player, but by the dead players zombie, which likely will not be in the same location anyway. By the time they do get to you, they would likely be towing max zed in the horde.

"but you could stand at one edge of the POI on the ground while someone else gets them to all chase them and they could lead the zombies away while you go inside, so it would be especially easy for multiplayer."

You can do this right now can't you? Just makes sure you are sneaking and have your friend kite them away while using a loud weapon. The main issue with this in either case is only YOU can finish the quest if your co op friend leaves the POI zone

I am failing to see what you are getting at aside from the performance issues. You could max lock the horde to your blood moon count. that seems easy enough and is strictly within expected performance overhead. You could cap it to 1 day of game time and also 1 wandering horde per server.

 

[Riamus]

Are you implying all awake zombies move towards the player created horde? I was trying to imply that should behave like a radius effect to feral sense to the zombie created from the dead player. I don't understand what you mean exactly. If you have a player that died and made the wandering horde, well that horde would start at the place of death and move towards the player. If they are actively in a group with you, they will not create any more horde (participants) because the horde radius is determine NOT by the player, but by the dead players zombie, which likely will not be in the same location anyway. By the time they do get to you, they would likely be towing max zed in the horde.

"but you could stand at one edge of the POI on the ground while someone else gets them to all chase them and they could lead the zombies away while you go inside, so it would be especially easy for multiplayer."

You can do this right now can't you? Just makes sure you are sneaking and have your friend kite them away while using a loud weapon. The main issue with this in either case is only YOU can finish the quest if your co op friend leaves the POI zone

I am failing to see what you are getting at aside from the performance issues. You could max lock the horde to your blood moon count. that seems easy enough and is strictly within expected performance overhead. You could cap it to 1 day of game time and also 1 wandering horde per server.

Ah.  Based on what you said in that particular post since you quoted a thing about waking up zombies, I thought you were adding that you'd like to see all POI zombies wake up and go toward a player.  Yeah, that wouldn't be a problem if you're just talking about a horde that was generated.  I think ZZTong thought the same based on his response.