We've never had more zombies than since a17. It was set to 64 max alive since alpha 1, its 80 something now I think. When we didn't have sleepers there might have been more in the wild but there was never any inside unless a designer hand placed one and he'd break out anyway and die from old age half the time. Having interesting sleepers beats a bunch of guys spinning circles outdoors and no zombies inside at all protecting loot. Now with zombies outside and unlimited zombies inside, there are more zombies than there ever has been.
You're doing it again (comparing apples to oranges to prove a point).
We aren't talking about max alive, that ONLY applies now on horde nights, whereas it USED to possibly apply on city spawns too, (which by the way, since you do allow 64 or 80 for horde nights, *not* allowing it for exterior spawns because of "performance reasons" isn't a great excuse), but you're also saying having sleepers beats a totally unrelated problem of spinning zombies, which does nothing for your argument. Apples and um, I guess cable cars, in that instance. No relationship.
And there aren't unlimited zombies inside, there's 1) the aforementioned maxAlive, and 2) the volume max, since we are taking about at the same time.
I really, REALLY, wish you'd consider keeping the sleeper system for inside, and keeping the aggressive count of zombies in towns on the outside. You'll still never hit the maxAlive to juke the game to not spawn sleepers, and even if you somehow manage it, having 64 (or 80) zombies beating down the walls and doors of the poi you're in to get you is *way* more thrilling than watching them from the next room spawn in, taking a few shots to soften them up, and defeating them because you know they're going to be in rafters and closets.
... And do you know how I know it is way more thrilling? Because horde nights are when you're in a poi and zombies are beating down the doors and walls to get to you. And it's more thrilling.
And before you bring up the upcoming encounter system, while that sounds interesting and all, it won't take the place of coming over a hill and seeing the dead walk the streets of a town or city, dogs patrolling, making you think twice about going into town for the daily loot fests...
City masks will hopefully allow us the honor of actually having to deal with hordes of zombies in your zombie game... Because the 8 we get at a time on horde nights, and the 1 to 8 we get in each volume, doth not a horde make.
