Thinking of performance... think of a blood moon hoard of 16 running at your base and approaching your moat at high speeds. As they get to the edge, they all leap in the air like the little ninjas they are to clear your pit of death. First, it would be funny as hell and very entertaining... would LOVE to see that happen. But, what would that take performance-wise to make it a smooth ordeal? Does this voxel game have the ability to handle all the action? I'm honestly asking because I have very little knowledge on modding and what the game can/can't handle. Also, imagine that scenario playing out on a server with 10ish players on... is it realistic?
I don't know. Given my druthers, I'd like many zombie types to have approximately the same
physical abilities as the player. They can't aim and shoot a gun, because that takes human-level intelligence, but they can jump as far as you can. But in cases where AI performance would become an issue, there are alternatives.
For getting across a gap, you could have one class of zombie that can make a bridge, perhaps by using its body or expelling a substance that hardens on contact. The other zombies then use that bridge in their pathing. Similarly, a digger class of zombie could allow zombies in general to get underground, without requiring every zombie you want underground to dig for themselves. One zombie enabling the passage of many should make for easier AI calculations, and also make it more important for players to select targets wisely without resorting to weird stuff like regenerating health radiation.
As for Roland's counterpoint that people will dig wider moats, there is a balancing act here. Namely, the player has to get in and out of the base somehow. Currently you can make a little gap and hop over it without even slowing down. The larger that gap has to be, the harder it is to make the jump. Once it's too big to jump, you're going to have to redesign your base, and in my humble opinion
that is where base design gets interesting. Do you opt for easier ingress/egress for yourself, or better defense against jumping zombies? For either downside, is there a different tactic you can add to compensate?
I'm getting off on a tangent here, but the most fun comes from tactics that are
partially effective. If no zombie can ever get across a gap, that's bad. But at the other end of the spectrum, it's also bad if every zombie can leap unencumbered across any size gap. What would be most fun is if a gap stops some types of zombies outright, while others can get across with some difficulty (they take damage, or take time lining up the jump, or sacrifice their body to make a bridge), while others can get across with no trouble at all (like vultures).
