PC Is it time for screamers to be removed?

TWORDY said:
Ohh, so now I get it why I had a screamer in tier 3 POI while clearing it with 3 other mates... too many gun sprays. I wouldn`t say that a screamer is a skill issue... framerate drops and stuttering kicks in when too many zeds are being woken up by 3 other party members. Screamer on top of another approaching screamer is an emanation of the heat issue.

Honestly, I have a feeling of being in a serious disadvantage with Perception and Intelligence perk in open areas, especially in a 4 player party squad. Sniper Rifle sucks and doesn`t have a separate class of ammo that would reflect higher cost and effectiveness with a slow rate of fire. When hordes of greens and ferals show up only automatics, shotguns, and perhaps SMGs are being left as a final solution to a problem 😅. Intelect should have a flamethrower or Plasma Welding gun as a range weapon. Melee is not a solution to 15 running and constantly spawning zeds.

Solo is not a problem but it is clear in co-op parties that some of the classes do not hold up to a task or against hectic situations with lots of zeds in the area.
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Well the guns are honestly way to weak to deal with the hp things have later on. They need a 50-100% damage boost at a minimum, melee needs a fairly big damage buff as well. The game combat balance is completly crap atm, enemies have WAY more hp but none of the weapons were buffed to deal with it.

 
too many screamers. simply upgrading my base and a screamer spawns. and another. and another. also zombies are now able to easily break cobblestone walls. not sure how to get through horde night untill i get a cement mixer.

 
Well, I finally had screamers show up.  First as soon as I loaded the game, 2 radiated screams appear and call in reinforcements.  Then right before I exited the game, 2 more radiated screamers showed up and called in reinforcements, including another radiated screamer.  Maybe it is a bit much now.  At least it should only have 1 screamer to begin with and then a chance of another being called.  Right now, it starts with 2.

Not a big deal really.  I'll have to put up some guns to deal with them.  But still a little overkill.

 
Riamus said:
Well, I finally had screamers show up.  First as soon as I loaded the game, 2 radiated screams appear and call in reinforcements.  Then right before I exited the game, 2 more radiated screamers showed up and called in reinforcements, including another radiated screamer.  Maybe it is a bit much now.  At least it should only have 1 screamer to begin with and then a chance of another being called.  Right now, it starts with 2.

Not a big deal really.  I'll have to put up some guns to deal with them.  But still a little overkill.
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I have 3 dew collectors and i got 3 screamers at once. Nothing else running, no shooting, no using iron/steel tools, no torches. Now i can´t tell about the frequency yet, but that seems a bit over the top.

 
Day 4,  ~150 rounds for a tier 1 pipe pistol, ~50 rounds for a tier 4 pipe rifle, tier 2 stone spear, and bone knife. I have been running quest 9/10 but all the quests offered today are over 1.1 km away.   I do some base building around noon after looting a neighbor for leather instead of running a quest.  I show up at my base.  It is on the second floor of an abandoned house with no pathing to the second floor.   I collect water from 4 collectors and toss it into the campfire.    Then built my forge with the leather.   Put down the forge, load in metal and clay, and start 20 minutes of wood.   Immediately I hear screamers.   
My base area is completely enclosed in basic blocks.   No need to panic.   Yet the second scream is a call.   I immediately realized they would not wait.  I leave my base and run around to find the two screamers.   Rifle down one but the second falls into the basement after a few pistol shots.   I catch sight of a third screamer outside of the house.   My path down to the second screamer is blocked by 5 zombies.   I almost get them cleared when another 5 zombies show up.    Screams are coming from multiple directions.   I hear noise from my base behind me.   pop into the base and find three groups of zombies beating through 2 walls.   I start clearing a group and have it down to one zombie before 10 more zombies beat in my door from a third direction.   I am trapped now with 16 zombies coming from 3 directions in a 4x5 room.   One group just destroyed my forge.    I can still hear the screamers the whole time.   
Seems a bit overkill for day 4.  

 
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I get a screamer every single night so far. That's with 2 forges, 2 campfires, 2 dew collectors, and a workbench. Not everything running all the time either. 

It's way more than it used to be. I can definitely think of ways to lower my heat generation. I usually grab my water from the dew collectors when I get home so that starts generating heat again, then I cook it and that generates heat, and I turn yesterday's water into glue so that's generating heat, etc. I like my routine though, and I wouldn't know what to do without my screamer showing up every night now. I've gotten used to it. 

 
Okay -- I made a previous comment where I said screamers were a part of the game and all that, but I hadn't experienced the higher level quests in the current version. Up to this point I had managed my heat easily enough and only summoned a screamer when I had to destroy an iron shed next to my HQ, but I expected that. However, I need firearms if I'm to keep going on quests because there's so many irradiated -- and seemingly firing off just ONE magazine of a silenced AK47 was enough to bring down a screamer on me.

I've blasted my way through infested missions in A21 and though we got screamers it was never that quick. Has something changed in the way heat is generated?

 
Scyris said:
Well the guns are honestly way to weak to deal with the hp things have later on. They need a 50-100% damage boost at a minimum, melee needs a fairly big damage buff as well. The game combat balance is completly crap atm, enemies have WAY more hp but none of the weapons were buffed to deal with it.
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The weapons were not buffed because the armor (and set bonuses) were...  They make the difference.

(current play through an Unspec'd Auto-Shotgun is still clearing ferals with one headshot and clearing radiated with 2-3, with the armor bonuses.  Preacher gloves for the win!)   

 
OneManStanding said:
I've blasted my way through infested missions in A21 and though we got screamers it was never that quick. Has something changed in the way heat is generated?
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They can trigger every 25% instead of only at 100%.  The chance they trigger is lower but you will seem to get them sooner.  It is more that they are coming in pairs of radiated screamers now.  I rarely saw a radiated screamer before 1.0.  Now it seems like that is all there are.

 
i love the screamers in the game....especially when they spawn more and it gets outa hand real fast.... one of the last good things in this game that is becoming a controlled mess...  the sandbox is dying and the whining redditors are getting their way

 
Perhaps there needs to be a cap on how many screamers can show up within a certain time frame... and maybe have the value adjusted by the biome, so that in forest you could have at most, ~5 screamers across N time., but the wasteland might allow 10 screamers in that time frame, still allowing things to get crazy- but having a lid in place so you know, even at worst, there will be an end to the crazy.

 
They have definitely made it easier to for screamers to spawn.  I was just in Hogzilla Ranch, not in there for more than 2 minutes, and fired off about 30 rounds from my AK.  Lo and behold, a radiated screamer spawns.  After 30 rounds??? Are you kidding me???  This was in the burnt forest biome on day 37.  I think TFP went overboard on the screamers for v1.0.  Hopefully that gets adjusted moving forward.

 
30 shots of AK (0.9 "heat") is 27%, so yep, chance to spawn a radiated screamer, or two. I do wonder if anyone there actually does full playthroughs, and not just testing specific things.

 
I feel like this change is aimed at streamers, who love the chaos. Wow.
It's a bit annoying for non-streamers like me.

 
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Riamus said:
They can trigger every 25% instead of only at 100%.  The chance they trigger is lower but you will seem to get them sooner.  It is more that they are coming in pairs of radiated screamers now.  I rarely saw a radiated screamer before 1.0.  Now it seems like that is all there are.
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Nope, you can get normal screamers, as those are the only ones I have seen so far and I now had 4 instances in my current playthrough where they spawned in.  I have not seen a feral or a radiated screamer yet.  For reference, I checked my game this morning before I left for work and I am on Day 20 and my game stage is in the 60s.  Note radiated screamers don't seem (based on the code) to increase the level of the mini horde they spawn in, they are just a bit tougher to take down compared to normal screamers (500 hp vs 150 hp).

 
On my second play through using sledge hammers and as aside from the game being more broken than ever balance wise the screamers have already started showing up just from using 1 forge and a campfire. Thankfully it was like day 4 maybe so it was a normal screamer but with how easier they spawn now I don't want to be on constantly having to baby sit how much heat I produce and will probably stick with traders to get resources since it's sorta easier doing quests and picking the steel rewards and infested for massive ammo surplus.

It's crazy that even after 10 years the balance and enemies are still so messed up. Isn't this supposed to be the big gold release? 

 
BFT2020 said:
Nope, you can get normal screamers, as those are the only ones I have seen so far and I now had 4 instances in my current playthrough where they spawned in.  I have not seen a feral or a radiated screamer yet.  For reference, I checked my game this morning before I left for work and I am on Day 20 and my game stage is in the 60s.  Note radiated screamers don't seem (based on the code) to increase the level of the mini horde they spawn in, they are just a bit tougher to take down compared to normal screamers (500 hp vs 150 hp).
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Like I said, it "seems" like that.  Obviously there are normal screamers.  In fact, I finally saw one last night.  But I saw no screamers at all until I started seeing double and triple radiated screamers.  Which is why I said it seemed that way.  But not that it was that way.

 
Riamus said:
They can trigger every 25% instead of only at 100%.  The chance they trigger is lower but you will seem to get them sooner.  It is more that they are coming in pairs of radiated screamers now.  I rarely saw a radiated screamer before 1.0.  Now it seems like that is all there are.
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Thanks for the heads up 👍

 
I don't remember the screamers and their hordes ever attacking bases.    I tried to despawn one by leading it away from my base.    It never came out.   I went in and found it had broken down a wall and destroyed my torch.    Then, I had several screamers, and a large horde ignored me for my forge.   Well until my forge was broken and I did not last long afterwards.   

 
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