PC Alpha 19 impressions from a long-time player

M

merlinfire

New member
Started back in A8, and after having taken a break after A16, after playing A19 for a couple weeks I have to say things have gotten much better all around.   Most of my major gripes have all been addressed and the game is in a much more fun place than it was just a couple alphas ago which was for me, kind of a low point.  So things are definitely moving in the right direction.

Still had a few questions and/or concerns.  One is that I still can't figure out zombie pathing...zombies sometimes will decide to beat down a 2-block thick steel wall instead of walking through a maze.  i'm wondering if it's weighing the difficulty?  if so, would simply making my walls thicker dissuade them, and encourage mazing?  also, after reviewing the damage after my last horde night, i'm seeing evidence that one or more zombies may have spawned down inside my under-ground mine pit, below the base.  How can i discourage that, beyond my one bedroll and the claimblock?

 
merlinfire said:
Still had a few questions and/or concerns.  One is that I still can't figure out zombie pathing...zombies sometimes will decide to beat down a 2-block thick steel wall instead of walking through a maze.  i'm wondering if it's weighing the difficulty?  if so, would simply making my walls thicker dissuade them, and encourage mazing? 
Click to expand...
So far i understood the pathing, they are calculating "resistance" on every path to the player. "Length" is also a resistance, so if the way through your maze is much longer then a direct path where they just need to hit through 2 blocks, that way might have less resistance.

 How can i discourage that, beyond my one bedroll and the claimblock?
Click to expand...
You can't.

Bedroll is the only way. Claimblock afaik does not prevent random spawns, it only prevents sleeper respawns.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sometimes zombies are intentionally dumb and can't figure out their way around an obstacle. 😃

 
Well, zombies sometimes enter in 'rage mode' and try to destroy whatever is near. When they're in that state they do not care about paths, they just smash.

About the spawns, I remember someone saying that putting 'artificial blocks' as floor block the spawn. Maybe someone can clarify?

 
Gazz said:
Sometimes zombies are intentionally dumb and can't figure out their way around an obstacle. 😃
Click to expand...


Well, that explains why they won't walk ONE block and go through the open gate/missing fence.

(or finish walking down the dratted stairs!)

mumble....

(also explains why they say "Braaaiiinnnsss...."  they clearly don't have any)

😛

 
Gazz said:
Sometimes zombies are intentionally dumb and can't figure out their way around an obstacle. 😃
Click to expand...


Exactly. Thats the way I think of it. Doors throw them off I think. I've seen them pound on a reinforce steel door while I stab them from the other side while standing behind a single wooded block.

 
A % of the Z's will path "random", ignoring all the rules that others follow. So yea, some will always just beat on whatever is handy to beat on.

 
Axonius said:
Exactly. Thats the way I think of it.
Click to expand...
Gazz is saying that some random number of zombies have been intentionally coded by TFP to be "dumb" and not path to the player following the most efficient way. It isn't a glitch in their behavior that we can excuse by coming up with an imaginative justification. Not that it is a bad practice to do that to help one's immersion at times-- but in this case there are going to be some that can path straight to you unerringly through a complex maze--even taking into account pathways you didn't anticipate and others that can't even walk through an open door to get you and will instead just start destroying nearby blocks-- and this is intentional. And it does help to think that some may be plain crazy. :)

 
Axonius said:
Exactly. Thats the way I think of it. Doors throw them off I think. I've seen them pound on a reinforce steel door while I stab them from the other side while standing behind a single wooded block.
Click to expand...
I believe it was mentioned (though I can't recall exactly where) that the zombies see the doors at lower durability compared to blocks.  So if a door has a durability of 1000 and a block next to it has a durability of 1000, the zombie sees the door as a weaker point of egress compared to the block - even though they both have the same durability - note these numbers I made up as a comparison, I am not playing right now and can never recall exact durability (I just remember Iron door > wood door ) 😉

I can also be remembering something from a previous Alpha or just misunderstand the process altogether.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top