Improved Hordes [V1.0]

[Picklefart]

Just experienced an influx of screamers. 

Disclaimer:

this is with adjustment of -1 instead of 16

Density 4x instead of 2x

Min 20 Max 30 instead of Min 1 Max 10

I was only able to snap 2 screenshots before my game became completely unplayable.

I am not sure if those adjustments would have caused all these screamers to appear. I ended up having to do the "Killall" command. Game became unplayable at home base once the zombies would not stop spawning in after 2-3 "Killall" commands. It was definitely interesting to say the least. 

 

[FilUnderscore]

As for others reports of the horde just doing their thing, one thing I noticed in version4 (we haven't added version 5 yet) was similar. Our base turrets would rip into them but never caused them to target thr base. Like they'd run by and as long as they didn't spot a player. They'd keep going (which I'm totally fine with) but if they ran near my base, it would light them up and they wouldn't react to suddenly multiple mp5 and shotgun turrets engaging them. Always found it weird. 

It seems random that the zombies will react to gunfire or proximity. Though it happens outside of the wandering hordes. I had it happen with a cop car alarm as well. The zombies that spawned from the car alarm going off did not seem to 100% react to me some would and some wouldn't.

Looked into it, seems to have been a bug regarding how the AI processes interruptions and was slightly affected by the event distance nerf as well. They seem to be reacting much better in the dev build for next release.

Update on the POI: I've tweaked and improved the detection algorithm, for comparison here is what we had so far (10k pregen map for reference):



vs what's coming:



The yellow squares are individual POIs, I've managed to get up to separating the city POIs from rural/wilderness POIs, and now that's left to do is correctly group the squares to form bigger simpler squares that represent town/city zones.

EDIT: Further update, here's the grouped city zones from the above picture:

These zone outlines will allow the spawning system to deduce the density of these zones by knowing the size and number of POIs within these zones. Still need to test that it works properly in other RWG maps, then I can begin to tweak the spawns within the zones.

Compared to the first picture (2.0.0-alpha.5), the picture above is what it should look like.

 

[wolverine576]

I had to edit the world max spawned zombies <max_world_density>100.0</max_world_density> because i had 544 zombies spawn in the area. Not sure if i had a setting wrong

I was the only one on the server. execpt for the max spawn going to 544, mod seems really good

 

[m4ntic0r]

there is a really annoying stuttering with this mod in a21 latest version 5 (never tried older)

even from the beginning of a new game.

after ~1-2min i have all 2-3sek this stutter.

i tried lowest video options etc.. but its not the problem

same savegame/world without mod -> butter smooth

default mod settings, i did not change anything on mod or game in any file.

 

[FilUnderscore]

there is a really annoying stuttering with this mod in a21 latest version 5 (never tried older)

even from the beginning of a new game.

after ~1-2min i have all 2-3sek this stutter.

i tried lowest video options etc.. but its not the problem

same savegame/world without mod -> butter smooth

default mod settings, i did not change anything on mod or game in any file.

Try reducing the number of threads that the horde simulation uses, https://github.com/FilUnderscore/ImprovedHordes/wiki/Settings#threading

Inside the file:

Mods/ImprovedHordes/Config/ImprovedHordes/settings.xml

Try lowering the horde threads to 2 to begin with.

I had to edit the world max spawned zombies <max_world_density>100.0</max_world_density> because i had 544 zombies spawn in the area. Not sure if i had a setting wrong

I was the only one on the server. execpt for the max spawn going to 544, mod seems really good

Currently a bug with horde populating, expect a fix next update (should be ready in the next day or so).

 

[m4ntic0r]

Try reducing the number of threads that the horde simulation uses, https://github.com/FilUnderscore/ImprovedHordes/wiki/Settings#threading

Inside the file:

Mods/ImprovedHordes/Config/ImprovedHordes/settings.xml

Try lowering the horde threads to 2 to begin with.

This does not change the stutter.

I tried 1, 2 or 8

I dont see any % more cpu load with the mod. only the stutter. fps are ok, the dont drop.

I dont have a "weak" system, 5600x, rtx 3090

With mod every second there is a short stutter, not every 2-3sec, this was wrong.

Without loading the mod no problem, tried it again.

 

[MrSamuelAdams]

What's up with the zombie wandering hordes just booking it and not coming to you even with feral sense? lol

 

[Dragonchampion]

Your upcoming changes have me super excited. I can't wait for your full-scale dynamic traveling horde system.

 

[FilUnderscore]

IMPROVED HORDES 2.0.0-alpha.6 for A21 EXP b317 released.

This is an experimental release of Improved Hordes. If you encounter any bugs/performance issues regarding the mod, report them in the Issues section of the repository with the experimental label.

Download: https://github.com/FilUnderscore/ImprovedHordes/releases/download/2.0.0-alpha.6/ImprovedHordes-Experimental.zip


Changelog



Added

• Feral sense support
  
  If you enable feral sense options for your game, hordes will be able to sense you up to a slightly greater distance.
  

Changed

• Reworked zone horde spawning
  
  Improved the POI zoning algorithm to more accurately determine towns and cities through proper POI clustering.
  
• Also tweaked some parameters to spawn hordes better depending on zone size and POI count.
  

[*]Multi-threading changes

• 
  Slightly tweaked how data between threads is shared.
  

[*]Increased event_interest_distance_multiplier from 0.25 to 0.5.

• 
  This is also in part to fix hordes not being interested in nearby activities.
  
• Additionally, increased the weight of heatmap activities which should make hordes interested much more quickly.
  

[*]Increased max_world_density from 200.0 to 350.0.

• 
  This is mainly so that wilderness hordes can properly populate throughout the world. City hordes are much bigger than wilderness hordes, but there are less of them.
  
• Depending on your world size, you may choose to increase/decrease this number.
  

[*]Reduced roaming horde speeds to be more inline with the game's entity walk speeds.

[*]Increased wilderness wandering horde sleep chance from 0.3 to 0.7.

[*]Increased zone wandering horde sleep chance from 0.3 to 0.5.

[*]Renamed horde_biome_sparsity_multiplier to horde_biome_multiplier.

• 
  Increasing this number will increase the number of hordes populated throughout the world (in zones/wilderness).
  
• Reducing it does the opposite effect.
  

[*]Hordes will now wander around areas of interest for sometime depending on the amount of interest accumulated.


Fixed

• Biome-specific horde population rules not being applied to unloaded chunks.
  
• Horde AI interrupt commands not being properly processed.
  
  Hordes should now be better attracted to nearby heatmap activities.
  

[*]NullPointerException when attempting to fetch previous heatmap event data in chunks.

[*]Screamers not being able to merge with wandering hordes in certain cases.


Known issues

• Horde respawning of same type/number of entities inconsistent.
  
• Entities sometimes frozen in place when sleeping, or the game AI lags behind if there are too many entities spawned.
  

This does not change the stutter.

I tried 1, 2 or 8

I dont see any % more cpu load with the mod. only the stutter. fps are ok, the dont drop.

I dont have a "weak" system, 5600x, rtx 3090

With mod every second there is a short stutter, not every 2-3sec, this was wrong.

Without loading the mod no problem, tried it again.

New update I've tweaked some things to try and reduce this stutter, let me know if it works.

What's up with the zombie wandering hordes just booking it and not coming to you even with feral sense? lol

Been fixed in the latest release.

Your upcoming changes have me super excited. I can't wait for your full-scale dynamic traveling horde system.

This has already been running since the first update, but with the bugged POI detection hasn't really been that noticeable. City hordes should be more balanced now, might need to do a bit of tweaking still but it should be much better now. There are still some things I'd like to add in like horde decay in different biomes so hordes don't get out of hand (size-wise) when moving between them.

 

[laerbn]

Super super interested and excited for this.  My group used this mod last time we played and it was a blast.  The amount of screamers was definitely too much, however, so hopefully the reduced/no screamer mod you had for A20 makes a return.  Thanks for your work on this!  The vanilla game feels lifeless outside of POIs themselves and this mod adds so much more danger to the world.

 

[EpicSpire]

Are the hordes Game Stage locked? like would the hordes that spawn on day 1 be consistant with what a palyer would expect to see on day 1 are is it going to be radiated cops and wights and bikers and crap (just an example). 

 

[FilUnderscore]

Are the hordes Game Stage locked? like would the hordes that spawn on day 1 be consistant with what a palyer would expect to see on day 1 are is it going to be radiated cops and wights and bikers and crap (just an example). 

Yes that is a core feature of the mod. On day 1 unless you go into a harder biome which raises your game stage, you can only expect to see some small and medium sized hordes with basic zombie types depending on whether you enter a city or you’re in the wilderness.

 

[MrSamuelAdams]

with the latest version i'm getting some strange hitching every second or so... only last like a millisecond, but annoying nonetheless. 

 

[MrSamuelAdams]

Also updated to the latest version, unfortunately. getting like 3-4 wandering hordes a day which is super rough and still a bunch are just running right by us even with feral sense on ALL. 

 

[Agame]

Just started using this as I have been looking for mods to spice up the threats in game, as vanilla world feels EXTREMELY empty when you are roaming around.

Anyway I am at day 7 and I have yet to see any hordes, I typed in the 'show horde' command but I have no idea what the info there means. I am running KHA20-DangerousCities mod which is clearly working, maybe it is incompatible with this mod? Are the hordes supposed to spawn in near the player or could they be on the other side of the map and I am just not seeing them?

 

[EpicSpire]

Yes that is a core feature of the mod. On day 1 unless you go into a harder biome which raises your game stage, you can only expect to see some small and medium sized hordes with basic zombie types depending on whether you enter a city or you’re in the wilderness.


 

Great Thank you

 

[FilUnderscore]

Just started using this as I have been looking for mods to spice up the threats in game, as vanilla world feels EXTREMELY empty when you are roaming around.

Anyway I am at day 7 and I have yet to see any hordes, I typed in the 'show horde' command but I have no idea what the info there means. I am running KHA20-DangerousCities mod which is clearly working, maybe it is incompatible with this mod? Are the hordes supposed to spawn in near the player or could they be on the other side of the map and I am just not seeing them?

The hordes are roaming throughout the world and may not be passing by your location very often, if you head to towns you may be able to catch them more frequently. Still working on getting the spawning numbers right.

Also updated to the latest version, unfortunately. getting like 3-4 wandering hordes a day which is super rough and still a bunch are just running right by us even with feral sense on ALL. 

Are you generating any heat or just relying on them to see you? If the latter, this functionality isn't present just yet while I look for a good way to implement it, but they should be reacting to any heatmap activity happening nearby.

with the latest version i'm getting some strange hitching every second or so... only last like a millisecond, but annoying nonetheless. 

Is this still happening as you're playing or only initially, and it wasn't present last update?

 

[MrGrim]

Some friends and I have been using this mod on a private server for a few days now, and overall we're having a great time with it. The world feels much more alive and dangerous now. It's especially great when out and about in the world. Cities are dangerous, the wilderness feels properly infested, and it's a great time. The one issue everyone on the server is having, however, is the hordes are _relentless_ when working at your base. Each person ends up spending 90% of their time at base fighting them off. It's become a losing war of attrition as nobody is able to mine resources and repair fast enough to keep up.

I'd appreciate some suggestions on how to tune settings to maintain that sense of danger when exploring and looting while allowing players at their bases some relief. If it matters, a lot of player bases are in converted POI locations.

One thing that might come into play is that we have feral sense on during the day. We do this because vanilla zombies are so passive that to get any action at all you need it on. We've become so accustomed to it that it almost feels like cheating to turn it off, but perhaps with this mod we should?

 

[MrSamuelAdams]

No heat generated. 

Just was happening... 

We only have one camp fire. 

But was happening in the town and at our base. 

Also the stuttering wasn't happening with the other update. 

Just the latest one. 

 

[Agame]

I have finally spotted a few hordes while roaming around and as someone else was saying they seem to ignore me which is strange, riding around them and even through the group they keep marching somewhere and do not attack.