PC New roaming horde options; A pleasant surprise!

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Daedric

New member
Perhaps I was in the dark about this, but I have to say suddenly seeing a flock of zombie vultures slowly creeping towards my base was an absolute thrill, because I was 100% NOT expecting that, and I had no idea if they accompanied other zombies underneath them.

While they didn't, are there more dynamic roaming hordes now? Mix and matching types? I've had the equally HORRIFYING swarm of dogs that was a welcome (but nightmarish) sight. I did not know about either of those things since I bypassed the experimental versions.

Do these new 'zombie types'  overlap somehow? Vultures being able to accompany a larger horde underneath them ?Zombie dogs + normal horde? That'd be downright horrifying (which is to say, awesome.)  I assume there is a mod for it but was wondering if it's built into the game at later stages or if it can be increased in frequency. (Or is Night Falls mod the over-arching thing I should explore?)

 
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It's complicated. The wandering hordes appear to be controlled by a set of 50 gamestage-scaled spawn groups in the file gamestages.xml. I say "appaer to be" because there is also a daily wandering horde spawner set up in spawning.xml, but I'm pretty sure that is now defunct. I need to test it.

Anywho, here are the first few lines of the one in gamestages. You can see that the "VultureGroup" spawns in at gamestage 08. Note also that these "wrap around at 50" meaning, I presume, that GS51 will use the first line below? With GS1 zombies? I'm really not sure.

<spawner name="WanderingHorde"> <!-- These will wrap around at 50. -->
<!-- Will probably have to undo that later. Rev 19924 /19944 -->
<gamestage stage="01"><spawn group="wanderingHordeStageGS1" num="05" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
<gamestage stage="02"><spawn group="wanderingHordeStageGS2" num="10" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
<gamestage stage="03"><spawn group="wanderingHordeStageGS5" num="06" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
<gamestage stage="04"><spawn group="ZombieDogGroup" num="04" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
<gamestage stage="05"><spawn group="FwanderingHordeStageGS1" num="09" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
<gamestage stage="06"><spawn group="FwanderingHordeStageGS2" num="07" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
<gamestage stage="07"><spawn group="FwanderingHordeStageGS4" num="08" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
<gamestage stage="08"><spawn group="VultureGroup" num="05" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>


So, can you get vultures + other zombies? Yes you can, starting with the GS31 wandering horde group. It's got a small chance of a vulture (it says 0.114 but because of how things are actually calculated, it works out to about a 11.2% chance):

<entitygroup name="wanderingHordeStageGS31">
<entity name="zombieDarlene"/>
<entity name="zombieNurse"/>
<entity name="zombieBoe"/>
<entity name="zombieSteve"/>
<entity name="zombieCheerleader"/>
<entity name="zombieMarlene"/>
<entity name="zombieMoe"/>
<entity name="zombieSkateboarder"/>
<entity name="animalZombieVulture" prob="0.114"/>
<entity name="zombieYo"/>
<entity name="zombieJoe"/>
</entitygroup>


It goes up to about a 2.9% chance for a vulture among the other zombies in the GS70 wandering horde.

 
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I checked the configuration files. It is the same configuration as A18. However the AI of the vultures has changed. While a vulture horde in A18 just circles over one, the vultures in A19 are much more aggressive. In some wandering horde there are vultures mixed with other zombies and there are pure vulture hordes. The most terrifying wandering horde is the zombie dog and zombie bear horde.

There are mods that change the size of the migration horde. Then you have twice or three times as many zombies. Of course you can also change the composition if you want. As for the frequency, I think it is set to once every 12 hours.
 

 
RipClaw said:
However the AI of the vultures has changed. While a vulture horde in A18 just circles over one, the vultures in A19 are much more aggressive.
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Yeah, I notice that they follow me around now. Waiting for me to stub my toe on a cactus or whatever.

 
Well dang that sounds awesome! Thank you for the XML links; where is that document located? I must have been using the wrong one (Is it the one in Appdata?) I may try tweaking that, but it's nice to hear that things do progress to be more horrifying!

Speaking of which- is there an XML feature to remove Demolishers, since they're the opposite of one of the main points of the game? (base building) I'm using a mod, but if there's another way, I can try that.

 
I believe the general pathway to the XML documents you're looking for is:

Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\7 Days To Die\Data\Config

As for the Demolishers, in the past I've used entitygroups.xml to change the presence of zombies, but you'll probably want to wait for someone much smarter than me to comment on that specifically. 😄

 
Daedric said:
Speaking of which- is there an XML feature to remove Demolishers, since they're the opposite of one of the main points of the game? (base building) I'm using a mod, but if there's another way, I can try that.
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You got it right. A mod/modlet is the best way to change the game. They just do the XML edits for you on-the-fly when you start the game. No need to go in and hand-edit unless you're weird like me. If you ARE weird like me, well a) BubbaJoe has the path to your XML go have fun and b) man, restraining orders are a pain, amiright?

 
Awesome, thank you all so much for the direction. Onward to what is most certainly my death!

 
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Daedric said:
Speaking of which- is there an XML feature to remove Demolishers, since they're the opposite of one of the main points of the game? (base building) I'm using a mod, but if there's another way, I can try that.
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you mean feature of  brainless bodyshot spraying when you hear huge dangerous zombie (and demo have very  unique   and loud roars)

200days in a18  with  0 exploded demos :D

maybe like  dunno learn ro deal with game challenge instead whining about being punished for ignoring "tactic"?

its like asking how remove  screamers  after you ignore one screaming for  5 minutes while filling your 52 forges LoL

 
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alanea said:
you mean feature of  brainless bodyshot spraying when you hear huge dangerous zombie (and demo have very  unique   and loud roars)

200days in a18  with  0 exploded demos :D

maybe like  dunno learn ro deal with game challenge instead whining about being punished for ignoring "tactic"?

its like asking how remove  screamers  after you ignore one screaming for  5 minutes while filling your 52 forges LoL
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I'm not saying it's not possible to deal with them; I'm saying their inclusion funnels your potential base builds towards a specific path, the opposite of what a free-build game should do.

 
Daedric said:
I'm not saying it's not possible to deal with them; I'm saying their inclusion funnels your potential base builds towards a specific path, the opposite of what a free-build game should do.
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err nope  since they made blade/dart /fence/spikes not triggering it you are  not limited at all ..the only rule is to not use turrets  or make sure they will be shooting from behind  thats all you are completely free in building your turretless base

the only thing game asks for you is to aim on head for single zombie type and since they are veryr are and  loudly warn you when they are around its close to impossible to accidentaly shot them (  they can be killed before they can explode even if you aim button .. as long as you have solid smg/ak/sniper/vulture/m60/assault and take penetrator perk(they have  60% armorso even  1 point in penetrator increase damage done to them by 25%) ... effectively removing any danger of explosion)

but normaly they go down very quickly if you  aim for head even on warrior

when they explode its punishment for mistake normal reaction is "  oh i suck i need to aim better next time"  instead " omg remove this it destroyed 5 blocks"

also keep in mind

- they are rewarding (50% chance for lootbag)

- they cant 1 hit  steel blocks  by explosion

- they appear only on blood moon

- best way to kill blood moons is to shock them by fence and shot heads ... for literaly everything except spiders and vultures

 
- they are rewarding (50% chance for lootbag)
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Nope, 30%.

<entity_class name="zombieDemolition" extends="zombieSoldier">

  <property name="LootDropProb" value=".3"/>

 
Boidster said:
Nope, 30%.

<entity_class name="zombieDemolition" extends="zombieSoldier">

  <property name="LootDropProb" value=".3"/>
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hmm riiiight  thanksstill they drop bags like candies as compensation for asking you minor ask  .. as shooting them in head

 
alanea said:
err nope  since they made blade/dart /fence/spikes not triggering it you are  not limited at all ..the only rule is to not use turrets  or make sure they will be shooting from behind  thats all you are completely free in building your turretless base

the only thing game asks for you is to aim on head for single zombie type and since they are veryr are and  loudly warn you when they are around its close to impossible to accidentaly shot them (  they can be killed before they can explode even if you aim button .. as long as you have solid smg/ak/sniper/vulture/m60/assault and take penetrator perk(they have  60% armorso even  1 point in penetrator increase damage done to them by 25%) ... effectively removing any danger of explosion)

but normaly they go down very quickly if you  aim for head even on warrior

when they explode its punishment for mistake normal reaction is "  oh i suck i need to aim better next time"  instead " omg remove this it destroyed 5 blocks"

also keep in mind

- they are rewarding (50% chance for lootbag)

- they cant 1 hit  steel blocks  by explosion

- they appear only on blood moon

- best way to kill blood moons is to shock them by fence and shot heads ... for literaly everything except spiders and vultures
Click to expand...
I actually didn't know they were modified to not be triggered by traps, so that changes things quite a bit.

 
alanea said:
the only thing game asks for you is to aim on head for single zombie type and since they are veryr are and  loudly warn you when they are around its close to impossible to accidentaly shot them (  they can be killed before they can explode even if you aim button .. as long as you have solid smg/ak/sniper/vulture/m60/assault and take penetrator perk(they have  60% armorso even  1

point in penetrator increase damage done to them by 25%) ... effectively removing any danger of explosion)
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It is not as simple as you say.
 

The fact that the Demolisher sounds different from other zombies doesn't really help if you have many zombies at the same time that are all making noises and at the same time your own weapon is making noises too. If you only play with 8 zombies at the same time it is different than playing with 32 zombies at the same time.

I have read reports from players that they did not see the Demolisher in the crowd until he started beeping and exploded 2 seconds later.

I have points in penetrator and I use AP ammunition, but still some of them exploded in my base.. That's why I have reinforced my base with steel in the important places so that a single explosion doesn't destroy the whole base. The best thing to do is to use dart traps and blade traps together and not to shoot.
 

 
Daedric said:
I actually didn't know they were modified to not be triggered by traps, so that changes things quite a bit.
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fences/spikes/darts  never triggered them

blade traps changed in a19 to not trigger them

auto/shotgun/scrap turrets  trigger them from front and rarely side  never from behind

new sledge:  magically trigger them from any side

RipClaw said:
It is not as simple as you say.
 

The fact that the Demolisher sounds different from other zombies doesn't really help if you have many zombies at the same time that are all making noises and at the same time your own weapon is making noises too. If you only play with 8 zombies at the same time it is different than playing with 32 zombies at the same time.
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i play on  32  hordes .... demolisher have very unique very loud and long unmissable roar+ mix of sounds   its close to impossible to  " not hear him"  even if theres 30 zombies  spider screamer and  3+ people shooting next to you

TFP actually done great job  in making him unmissable

I have read reports from players that they did not see the Demolisher in the crowd until he started beeping and exploded 2 seconds later.
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yeah  well since is  demo 1/2 block higher than other zombies with only one coming remotely close being biker i highly doubt about this .... unless  you throw all your  32 zombies in  2x2  hole by some ai bug  :D   he takes 5s to explode btw

I have points in penetrator and I use AP ammunition, but still some of them exploded in my base.. That's why I have reinforced my base with steel in the important places so that a single explosion doesn't destroy the whole base. The best thing to do is to use dart traps and blade traps together and not to shoot.
 
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nest is to be crouched before zombies ... in such cases penetrated head cannot  hit button but will aim higher  to demo neck or head

another option is to be  2-3 blocks above seeing clearly all  zombies with no obstructions and have free aim on any heads (only biker  and demo is taller than most zombies... and both have black helmet)

but honestly ap armmo  + penetrator  sniper rifle can kill  demo in  3-4 hits  through  zombies ....killing him before he can explode

 
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