A16 - Tin'sMod: The Dying Lands.

[zootal]

I found a cheap trick to reduce the constant zombie attacking for those that don't like it. I simply nerf the move speed of ferals. They move much slower, they don't run you down as fast, and because it takes longer for them to get to you (and get killed), you don't get new hordes spawning all the time. Look into entitygroups.xml, find the lines for Ferals, and change their speed from .043 to some smaller value. if you want to seriously nerf them, change to .0043. Normal zombies remain untouched, but the ferals will no longer run you down on a regular basis.

For those brave souls out there, this is what I do:

$file = file($dir . 'entitygroups.xml');
$out = fopen($dir . 'entitygroups.xml', 'w');
foreach ($file as $f)
{
   // If Feral is in line, change prob 0.043 to 0.0043
   if (strpos($f, 'Feral') > 0)
       $f = str_replace('0.043', '0.0043', $f);
   fwrite($out, $f . "\r\n");
}
fclose($out);

WARNING - this nerfs them to the point of survival no longer being a challenge. It is also not thoroughly tested and can totally screw the file. Make a backup of the file, and consider using a number larger than 0.0043 because this very seriously nerfs them. I have not yet found a good balance of run speed that keeps you from being overrun all the time, to being stupidly easy.

 

[Dragontear]

Sleepers are spawned via blocks I believe - checked the blocks.xml and saw 'Sleeper laying down/sideways/sitting', so they could be made to spawn in a low probability, either on the streets, or in wilderness, or just corpse blocks, giving the impression of... well, already-dead things laying there. Will have a glance at that and adding cars later today perhaps, as before, currently the town streets appear empty.

As stated, you're under no obligation or expectation Tin, doing grand so far, always more stuff to work on.

 

[Tin]

Sleepers are spawned via blocks I believe - checked the blocks.xml and saw 'Sleeper laying down/sideways/sitting', so they could be made to spawn in a low probability, either on the streets, or in wilderness, or just corpse blocks, giving the impression of... well, already-dead things laying there. Will have a glance at that and adding cars later today perhaps, as before, currently the town streets appear empty.
As stated, you're under no obligation or expectation Tin, doing grand so far, always more stuff to work on.

heh its all cool!

I am always tweaking or thinking of things to tweak. Iv'e made actual blocks before that spawn zeds but atm it just doesn't work well (or at least how I tried it). An issue I think you might run into is that the sleepers need a Volume attached via prefabs. Another issue will probably be you won't be able to set the volume trigger size far enough away from the players to stop them from magically appearing before their eye's.

Who knows, I just may have not done it in a way that was pleasing and you and others may find the solution

In no way is their any one way to do things so I'm always open for being shown new ways to do things. I hope you tweaks produce the results you want.

 

[gpcstargate]

I found a cheap trick to reduce the constant zombie attacking for those that don't like it. I simply nerf the move speed of ferals. They move much slower, they don't run you down as fast, and because it takes longer for them to get to you (and get killed), you don't get new hordes spawning all the time. Look into entitygroups.xml, find the lines for Ferals, and change their speed from .043 to some smaller value. if you want to seriously nerf them, change to .0043. Normal zombies remain untouched, but the ferals will no longer run you down on a regular basis.
For those brave souls out there, this is what I do:

$file = file($dir . 'entitygroups.xml');
$out = fopen($dir . 'entitygroups.xml', 'w');
foreach ($file as $f)
{
   // If Feral is in line, change prob 0.043 to 0.0043
   if (strpos($f, 'Feral') > 0)
       $f = str_replace('0.043', '0.0043', $f);
   fwrite($out, $f . "\r\n");
}
fclose($out);

WARNING - this nerfs them to the point of survival no longer being a challenge. It is also not thoroughly tested and can totally screw the file. Make a backup of the file, and consider using a number larger than 0.0043 because this very seriously nerfs them. I have not yet found a good balance of run speed that keeps you from being overrun all the time, to being stupidly easy.

THEN Why even play the mod .. just play Vanilla

 

[Tin]

So I have a question for those that are trying the mod out..

How would you all feel if the zeds got changed to Ghouls instead? Not a Big difference but makes more sense to me with the setting.

Thoughts?

 

[dreamdancer]

I thought of a hacky way to up the city danger level without having to make the wilderness more nasty...

It would involve a bit of mucking about to get the values right, but you could make pavement generate heat. Since cities have a -lot- of pavement, each block would have to be only a little bit of heat, but if you got the values right, you'd have screamers wandering around cities the cities. To make that a little less horrific, you could lower their vision stats a bunch. Screamers having x-ray vision the way your base zombies do is pretty terrifying anyway, and might not be ideal, and having them do the circle dance isn't as much a concern as having the normal zombies do it. This would also make building a base inside the city itself fraught, as adding forges and such on top of the baseline heat of the city would make screamers spawn even more frequently.

Though, I do not know what effect that would have on cpus having that many heat sources. Alternatively you could dig into all the city spawn pois and include a hidden 'foundation' block that generates heat. That'd be a bunch more work though.

If you do include this, I might suggest upping the frequency of wilderness POIs, as playing your wilderness nomad style on higher difficulties seems pretty much guaranteed to result in starvation as the game is currently set up. I tried your suggestion of just going slow, leaving the starting area cautiously, and clearing the zeds as I go, and I starved. Hunting deer is practically impossible(as chasing them results in lots of attention), and there just isn't enough food lying around to keep one alive unless you luck out and run into a -lot- of boar.

 

[Tin]

I thought of a hacky way to up the city danger level without having to make the wilderness more nasty...
It would involve a bit of mucking about to get the values right, but you could make pavement generate heat. Since cities have a -lot- of pavement, each block would have to be only a little bit of heat, but if you got the values right, you'd have screamers wandering around cities the cities. To make that a little less horrific, you could lower their vision stats a bunch. Screamers having x-ray vision the way your base zombies do is pretty terrifying anyway, and might not be ideal, and having them do the circle dance isn't as much a concern as having the normal zombies do it. This would also make building a base inside the city itself fraught, as adding forges and such on top of the baseline heat of the city would make screamers spawn even more frequently.

Though, I do not know what effect that would have on cpus having that many heat sources. Alternatively you could dig into all the city spawn pois and include a hidden 'foundation' block that generates heat. That'd be a bunch more work though.

If you do include this, I might suggest upping the frequency of wilderness POIs, as playing your wilderness nomad style on higher difficulties seems pretty much guaranteed to result in starvation as the game is currently set up. I tried your suggestion of just going slow, leaving the starting area cautiously, and clearing the zeds as I go, and I starved. Hunting deer is practically impossible(as chasing them results in lots of attention), and there just isn't enough food lying around to keep one alive unless you luck out and run into a -lot- of boar.

hmm I usually am able to survive 24 hrs without needing to eat xD you must have been doing a lot of resource gathering. meh my play style is definitely not for everyone.

I think the last time I tried to add heat to a block you needed something to activate it in order for it to work right. I also tried to set a heat property on zeds themselves but that did work either.. I might need to revisit trying it again for the block. maybe a walksonBuff or something?!? either way good thoughts imo.

 

[dreamdancer]

Huh. That's curious. I got the impression that torches generated heat just by existing....?

- - - Updated - - -

Ah, they use the class TorchHeatMap, which contains the code for regular heat generation.

 

[Tin]

Huh. That's curious. I got the impression that torches generated heat just by existing....?
- - - Updated - - -

Ah, they use the class TorchHeatMap, which contains the code for regular heat generation.

pretty sure the player needs to place them in order for it to start generating the heat map.. I could be wrong as like I said, I didn't mess with it much.

I'll play around with it again though maybe I can get it to work..

 

[Dragontear]

Mucking about with the biomes.xml, to add random stuff to the streets, having fun re-generating new worlds, takes so long. XD Not a matter of me being displeased, not at all, as you say, throwing ideas and feedback around.

Would it be okay for me to dump the street additions as a suggestion? So far it consists of lower-probability undamaged cars, and the damaged/broken car variants, rubbish-decor blocks, ZedGoreGenericZeds and a much lower chance of spawning the six types of wood-spikes, more damaged variants are more common, relatively speaking, as well as some random tat you'd expect to see on the road.

In addition, would love to somehow have all the (blockontop) grass that is sprouting from the road, to have dirt or gravel blocks beneath, more detail and gives more of a 'degraded' impression to the road. Secondly, I rather like the look of the country roads - asphalt with gravel or dirt on the outsides, would like to do the same for town roads out of curiousity.

Last edit-related idea-thing, given all the Zombie types, Sleepers, Ferals, Fodder, Leaders, etc, what might you think about a 'Crawler' class? Rather than only the 'Steve' zombie, crawler variation of each zombie model, slowest, weakest type, much less vision range/radius, and either begins making noise/swiping at a closer range, or doesn't flail about, making them quieter? Represents the most degraded zombies that haven't found shelter to Sleep, that have simply collapsed somewhere.

 

[dreamdancer]

pretty sure the player needs to place them in order for it to start generating the heat map.. I could be wrong as like I said, I didn't mess with it much.
I'll play around with it again though maybe I can get it to work..

Yes and no. Yes, they have to be player placed torches, but no it doesn't require player placement. There are 2 separate torch blocks(just like there are 2 separate burning barrel blocks). One that shows up in POIs and has no heat, the other that spawns from player placement and has heat. And picking up the POI version actually gives you the other version(the code for that is obnoxiously hard-coded to only have a few specific options in terms of "try to pick up object a but instead get object b").

<block id="351" name="wallTorch">
<property name="CreativeMode" value="Dev"/>
<property name="Class" value="Torch"/> <!-- no effect on the heat map -->
<property name="Material" value="wood_weak"/>
<property name="MaxDamage" value="1"/>
<property name="StabilitySupport" value="false"/> <!-- build restriction -->
<property name="IsTerrainDecoration" value="true"/>
<property name="Shape" value="Ext3dModel"/>	<property name="Texture" value="293"/>
<property name="Mesh" value="models"/>
<property name="Model" value="Lighting/torch_wall" param1="main_mesh"/> <property name="HandleFace" value="South"/>
<property name="ParticleName" value="torch_wall"/>
<property name="Place" value="TowardsPlacerInverted"/>
<property name="OnlySimpleRotations" value="true"/>
<property name="CanPickup" value="true" param1="torch"/>
<drop event="Destroy" name="torch" count="1"/>
<property name="Group" value="Basics,Building"/>
<property name="DescriptionKey" value="torchGroupDesc"/>
</block>

<block id="1351" name="wallTorchPlayer">
<property name="Extends" value="wallTorch"/>
<property name="CreativeMode" value="Player"/>
<property name="CustomIcon" value="wallTorch"/>
<property name="Stacknumber" value="50"/>
<property name="Class" value="TorchHeatMap"/>
<property name="HeatMapStrength" value="1"/>
<property name="HeatMapTime" value="1200"/> <!-- str1, t600, f5 = 2.5; str1, t900, f5 = 4; str4.05, t1200, f15 = 4.05-8.1; -->
<property name="HeatMapFrequency" value="15"/>
<property name="DescriptionKey" value="torchPlayerGroupDesc"/>
</block>

 

[Tin]

Mucking about with the biomes.xml, to add random stuff to the streets, having fun re-generating new worlds, takes so long. XD Not a matter of me being displeased, not at all, as you say, throwing ideas and feedback around.
Would it be okay for me to dump the street additions as a suggestion? So far it consists of lower-probability undamaged cars, and the damaged/broken car variants, rubbish-decor blocks, ZedGoreGenericZeds and a much lower chance of spawning the six types of wood-spikes, more damaged variants are more common, relatively speaking, as well as some random tat you'd expect to see on the road.

In addition, would love to somehow have all the (blockontop) grass that is sprouting from the road, to have dirt or gravel blocks beneath, more detail and gives more of a 'degraded' impression to the road. Secondly, I rather like the look of the country roads - asphalt with gravel or dirt on the outsides, would like to do the same for town roads out of curiousity.

Last edit-related idea-thing, given all the Zombie types, Sleepers, Ferals, Fodder, Leaders, etc, what might you think about a 'Crawler' class? Rather than only the 'Steve' zombie, crawler variation of each zombie model, slowest, weakest type, much less vision range/radius, and either begins making noise/swiping at a closer range, or doesn't flail about, making them quieter? Represents the most degraded zombies that haven't found shelter to Sleep, that have simply collapsed somewhere.

hehe you can change anything and suggest anything you want it's all good. I'm actually in the midst of make some substantial changes to the entities themselves. You can even take this mod as a base and build off of it if you so like. All I ask is a small recognition if you end up releasing it but even that is up to you and I won't hold no grudge.

These are all xml just edits so I don't hold any claim to them. If you do release it give me a shout and I'll put a link to your creation based off of this.

Unfortunately you can't at this time make the city streets like the country roads, it's just not an option through the xmls.. I've tried a lot of different ways to do so ..Of course that could also mean I just didn't find the secret way of doing it either

- - - Updated - - -

Yes and no. Yes, they have to be player placed torches, but no it doesn't require player placement. There are 2 separate torch blocks(just like there are 2 separate burning barrel blocks). One that shows up in POIs and has no heat, the other that spawns from player placement and has heat. And picking up the POI version actually gives you the other version(the code for that is obnoxiously hard-coded to only have a few specific options in terms of "try to pick up object a but instead get object b").

<block id="351" name="wallTorch">
<property name="CreativeMode" value="Dev"/>
<property name="Class" value="Torch"/> <!-- no effect on the heat map -->
<property name="Material" value="wood_weak"/>
<property name="MaxDamage" value="1"/>
<property name="StabilitySupport" value="false"/> <!-- build restriction -->
<property name="IsTerrainDecoration" value="true"/>
<property name="Shape" value="Ext3dModel"/>	<property name="Texture" value="293"/>
<property name="Mesh" value="models"/>
<property name="Model" value="Lighting/torch_wall" param1="main_mesh"/> <property name="HandleFace" value="South"/>
<property name="ParticleName" value="torch_wall"/>
<property name="Place" value="TowardsPlacerInverted"/>
<property name="OnlySimpleRotations" value="true"/>
<property name="CanPickup" value="true" param1="torch"/>
<drop event="Destroy" name="torch" count="1"/>
<property name="Group" value="Basics,Building"/>
<property name="DescriptionKey" value="torchGroupDesc"/>
</block>

<block id="1351" name="wallTorchPlayer">
<property name="Extends" value="wallTorch"/>
<property name="CreativeMode" value="Player"/>
<property name="CustomIcon" value="wallTorch"/>
<property name="Stacknumber" value="50"/>
<property name="Class" value="TorchHeatMap"/>
<property name="HeatMapStrength" value="1"/>
<property name="HeatMapTime" value="1200"/> <!-- str1, t600, f5 = 2.5; str1, t900, f5 = 4; str4.05, t1200, f15 = 4.05-8.1; -->
<property name="HeatMapFrequency" value="15"/>
<property name="DescriptionKey" value="torchPlayerGroupDesc"/>
</block>

hmmm I still want to say you need that actual action from the player of placing the torch for the heat to start generating and it can't gen heat if it's loaded through the initial world building. all we can do is find out xD

 

[dreamdancer]

Adding this code to asphalt makes cities spawn hordes... continually. Have you changed the heat event to spawn a horde directly instead of screamers...>?

<property name="Class" value="TorchHeatMap"/>
<property name="HeatMapStrength" value="1"/>
<property name="HeatMapTime" value="1200"/> 
<property name="HeatMapFrequency" value="1"/>  <!--  Note I set frequency to 1 here as a proof of concept -->

 

[dreamdancer]

Oh, no, nvm, they were just seeing me instantly and spawning hordes for me.

Yeah, so, making asphalt generate heat -does- work by making them TorchHeatMap class. Figuring out good numbers for it might be tricky, but it's a viable option. But if you go with the option, turning down the sight values on screamers is probably going to be a requirement, because having them randomly roam -and- have x-ray vision -and- summon really scary hordes would be... a bit much.

 

[Tin]

Oh, no, nvm, they were just seeing me instantly and spawning hordes for me.
Yeah, so, making asphalt generate heat -does- work by making them TorchHeatMap class. Figuring out good numbers for it might be tricky, but it's a viable option. But if you go with the option, turning down the sight values on screamers is probably going to be a requirement, because having them randomly roam -and- have x-ray vision -and- summon really scary hordes would be... a bit much.

oh nice! you can lower the scale down to like 175 (ish) and that should allow you to sorta sneak around and not be as noticeable. Might need to play with it to find the sweet spot but should do the trick.

 

[Dragontear]

As you asked about Ghouls; Not to speak for anybody else, personally used to the threat being zombies for so long as it were.

To be honest, more interested in potentially adding to The Dying Lands then advertising my own stuff. To wit, tried the Sleeper blocks, as you say no function without a volume, they all spawn using the same model and don't react nor do they take damage, so genericzedgore it is.

Contained in the spoiler below is the mini-mod I flailed at for 'biomes.xml' (copy/pasted whole section, thinking it'd be easier to find out where it goes by showing the whole section), additions are at the bottom if you wish to have a look at it, and see if it can contribute. It currently affects just 'Road concrete' for the main roads, including those within towns, and for some reason, also affects small paths going to the little wilderness poi's. Balance wise, it does boost the amount of scrap metal, so that is something to be considered.

Spoiler

<!--poi name="Road Concrete" poimapcolor="#3a3020" prefab="road_concrete" surfaceoffset="0" /><poi name="Road Asphalt" poimapcolor="#272f48" prefab="road_asphalt" surfaceoffset="0" /><poi name="Road Gravel" poimapcolor="#806f52" prefab="road_gravel" surfaceoffset="0" /><poi name="crossing" poimapcolor="#f6ff0f" prefab="street_crossing" /><poi name="Water" poimapcolor="#0063ff" prefab="water_7_wide" surfaceoffset="0" /-->

<!--<poi name="Water" poimapcolor="#0063ff" blockname="water" ypos="56" old water set method/-->

<!--<poi name="Water" poimapcolor="#0063ff" prefab="water" ypos="56"/>-->

<poi name="City Asphalt" poimapcolor="#3d3f47" blockname="gravel">

<decal texture="0" face="0" prob="0.0001"/> <!-- 0 == 500 -->

<decal texture="1" face="0" prob="0.0001"/> <!-- 1 == 501 -->

<decal texture="2" face="0" prob="0.0001"/>

<decal texture="3" face="0" prob="0.0001"/>

<decal texture="4" face="0" prob="0.0001"/>

<decal texture="5" face="0" prob="0.0001"/>

<decal texture="6" face="0" prob="0.0001"/>

<decal texture="7" face="0" prob="0.0001"/>

<decal texture="8" face="0" prob="0.0001"/>

<decal texture="9" face="0" prob="0"/>

<decal texture="10" face="0" prob="0"/>

<decal texture="11" face="0" prob="0.0001"/>

<decal texture="12" face="0" prob="0.0001"/>

<decal texture="13" face="0" prob="0.0001"/>

<decal texture="14" face="0" prob="0.0001"/>

<decal texture="15" face="0" prob="0.0001"/>

<blockontop blockname="lootStreetHelper" prob="0.00005" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="randomCarsHelper" prob="0.00005" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="tire" prob="0.00035" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="rock01" prob="0.00035" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="rock02" prob="0.00035" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="rock04" prob="0.00035" rotatemax="4"/>

<!--blockontop blockname="potassiumNitrate" prob="0.02" offset="-1"/-->

<blockontop blockname="treeBrownGrassDiagonal" prob="0.0045" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="treePlainsGrassDiagonal" prob="0.0045" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="treeForestGrassDiagonal" prob="0.0025" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="treeTallGrassDiagonal" prob="0.0025" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="treeDesertShrub" prob="0.0006" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="treeDeadPineLeaf" prob="0.003" rotatemax="4"/>

[DT Street-Additions]

<blockontop blockname="cntCar03SedanDamage1" prob="0.0015" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="cntCar03SedanDamage2" prob="0.0015" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="randomCarsHelper" prob="0.0015" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="shoppingBasketEmpty" prob="0.00025" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="shoppingCartEmpty" prob="0.00025" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="garbage_decor1" prob="0.0015" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="garbage_decor2" prob="0.0015" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="garbage_decor3" prob="0.0015" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="hubcapNoMine" prob="0.00035" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="ZedGoreGenericZeds" prob="0.0004" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="trapSpikesDamage1" prob="0.000025" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="trapSpikesDamage2" prob="0.00005" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="trapSpikesDamage3" prob="0.0001" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="trapSpikesDamage4" prob="0.00015" rotatemax="4"/>

<blockontop blockname="trapSpikesDamage5" prob="0.0002" rotatemax="4"/>

[DT Street-Additions end]

</poi>

 

[EadTaes]

This is the first time I try instaling a mod. How do you install this?

 

[dreamdancer]

I was thinking to also reduce their sightrange and scale, as those are the traits that result in the weird x-ray vision effect.

Tinkering with values... HeatMapStrength of 0.05 and frequency of 15, flying above an intersection, causes a 15 minute(real time) wait between screamers showing up, but causes 7 full turn-overs of the heat map at that 15 minute mark, spawning 7 screamers, each one capable of spawning its own horde.

O_O

hmm......

 

[dreamdancer]

Setting the strength to 0.01 seems to work to summon 1-2 scouts per X time where X is the frequency(in minutes). Messing around with MapTime will allow you to choose how much you want the effect to be cumulative with workstations. Having a very low mapTime will have the heat generated by the asphalt drop off again very quickly, with the result of tending to drop the heat back down to 0 every time the streets summon a screamer, ditching any excess and basically not acting cumulative with workstations at all. Having a high number will cause the effect to stick around and be functionally additive with workstations, so that screamers will potentially pulse both with the street timer and with the workstations.

 

[Tin]

This is the first time I try instaling a mod. How do you install this?

download the file in the OP and save.

It will come in a zipped format, so you'll need to unzip or extract it.

To extract:

Make a new folder on your desktop and place the zipped you got from the download in it.

<rightclick> on the file. It will give you a few options.Pick the extract here.

This will unpackage the file and give you the folders you need to replace in the vanilla game. a [config] [prefab] and [uma texture] folder

With the mouse click the left button and drag a box to highlight the 3 folders you need.

Then use the right mouse button and select copy.

Go back to were the game path is on you computer. usually in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die\Data

then when you get to data open that up, you'll see the 3 folders you need to replace.

<RightClick> in an empty pace (probably just off to the right of the file and select paste.

Once that's done exit out of everything and start a new game.

If you need additional help I can try to word things differently and be a bit more precise. GL and enjoy.

-or-

And highly recommended! Use the 7d2d mod launcher:

https://7daystodie.com/forums/showthread.php?48537-The-7D2D-Mod-Launcher-A-Mod-Launcher-for-7-Days-to-Die

A little bit more to get it set up but really easy to experience the other mods as well.

If you have an issue getting that set up post in it's thread and the creator or some other helpful person can walk you through it