PC Screamer spawn rates a bit high.

Darthjake said:
Well there you go, I don't collapse blocks because the mixers and forges are HUNGRY, but keep in mind that I can use a steel pick on a door with a sleeper on the other side and make 0 noise according to the noise meter.  Repairing the door, that's another story, TFP must hate people who repair stuff, my noise level spikes whenever I repair or upgrade a block.
Click to expand...
That's a different matter, but yeah, everything related to sleepers is pretty crazy. I doubt TFP are satisfied with the way the sleeper volumes work. I sincerely hope they aren't.

 
I bought a level 1 auger from one of the traders and went mining in my iron mine went through 2 tanks of fuel never had a screamer spawn but at my base i am building in the desert i  have 4 forges running smelting stone for cement and got 2 screamers spawn in one night.

 
I live a humble subterranean life at bedrock, where i tunnel to traders and only surface to see my farms, buy stuff, or do missions. What are these screamers that you speak of? Do you not have 50 chests full of iron and other ores? are you not running 100 forges continuously? Embrace your inner dwarf and reject the surface! no one bothers me at the bottom of the world. 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
SenpaiThatIngnoresYou said:
I live a humble subterranean life at bedrock, where i tunnel to traders and only surface to see my farms, buy stuff, or do missions. What are these screamers that you speak of? Do you not have 50 chests full of iron and other ores? are you not running 100 forges continuously? Embrace your inner dwarf and reject the surface! no one bothers me at the bottom of the world. 
Click to expand...
Oh but if you listen to the people saying that living underground is impossible now then you can't be doing what you're doing! :)

 
Krougal said:
Is there anything more dangerous than a zombie bear?

I mean I do feel like I have to go out of my way to get screamers but 3 chem and 4 forges? That's crazy. Lately I run 1 chem, 2 forge, 1 cement mixer and a couple campfires and I feel like I have to run most of them at once to get a screamer but 3 chem alone used to be enough heat for constant screamers. Even in A19 I felt like chem plus anything else threw a ton of heat.

Downtown a lot of firing the auto-shotgun outside seems to earn me a screamer, but I mean a lot, like dumping a few drum mags followed by unloading the AR a few times. Doing it inside the t5 skyscrapers seems to draw @%$#-all though.

The heat used to be much worse, torches drew screamers (well spiders, but the spiders were screamers back then...they also looked like Tom Clark), firing a gun drew screamers, hell farting (not kidding, chili used to make you fart) drew screamers.

You were afraid to make noise back in the day. Those were the days.
Click to expand...
I have found that a pack of zombie dogs coming straight at you is worse than a single zombie bear.   Ugh.  I've had nightmares about that.

I've lived in bases in a19 were we had 4 of each workstation going and screamers did come fairly often, but we had auto-turrets in place to deal with them..

I think the lack of screamers might be because its one of the things they are toying with in terms of coding.   In our big city wasteland base we don't get many screamers (but I have seen one or two this week) but we are under CONSTANT assault, night time being way worse.  The big city comes with so many other issues as well, so much so, that the group I play with is considering making 5 LCB's and spreading them out in the neighbourhood to stem the tide.

 
Slingblade2040 said:
I don't mind more zombies or even massive roaming hordes but mining iron or lead for example and having screamers spawn over and over sucks or sometimes they spawn in other screamers which spawn in other screamers which makes a ridiculous loop only to then go mine and 5 minutes later it repeats itself with another loop.
Click to expand...


I love this. We did indeed find this happening as soon as we got out first Auger going. On one occasion, I had a Screamer scream right at the top if my mine (by which I mean big hole in the ground) and she and everything she summoned fell in beside me. This included 2 other Screamers. I died. But since this mine was right beside our live-in base, we had to deal with it. Any time one of us walked anywhere near that mine all those Screamers down there went off (whatever happened to them needing line of sight to scream?????) and the surrounding area was soon full of 20+ zombies, including more Screamers and multiple Ferals and Rads. Massive surface battle ensued. This happened every time we went near the mine to try to clear it. In the end we had to stand on elevated blocks nearby and throw tons of grenades into the mine from afar to kill them off with setting them off.

I find this awesome. But then we also modded spawning.xml so we have tons of zombies in all biomes all the time, with very short respawn times. We like lots of zombies.

Basically if someone is mining with an Auger, you need to have a guard stand by on the surface to prevent this kind of thing. I look at this as the price of using the Auger. If you are playing solo, then basically the moment you hear a Screamer (you get lots  of warning), then get OUT your mine immediately and deal with it.

Krougal said:
I mean I do feel like I have to go out of my way to get screamers but 3 chem and 4 forges? That's crazy. Lately I run 1 chem, 2 forge, 1 cement mixer and a couple campfires and I feel like I have to run most of them at once to get a screamer but 3 chem alone used to be enough heat for constant screamers.
Click to expand...


We are running 6 Forges, 2 Chem Stations and 2 Cement Mixers more or less 24/7. We get lots of Screamers (I'd say 10+ per night on a 90 minute day cycle), but our live-in base kills them on its own with no action from us, so we ignore them. And for the record we live in a 10 x 10 x 5 Concrete box with solid walls (no windows or slits) and a nearby ramp to jump in the top. This is surrounded by 3 rows of Iron Spikes. Very very simple, but more than sufficient to kill anything wandering by, including Screamers, and they do not scream because they cannot see us. Our main horde-killer base is elsewhere.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
In the past I've tried removing screamers and installed Khaine's wandering horde mod. The idea being that these attacks had a more random feel - which, in my mind, is a lot more dangerous; I fall in to a false sense of security and stop paying attention only to have 30-40 zombies fall in to the mine with me randomly. Or I can have a peaceful time - the point is, I just don't know what will happen. Screamers are just... predictable.

For me, screamers are useful when I need a couple more skill points so I whip out the augur or light 20 campfires in some grotesque summoning ritual and farm them, and their spawned hordes, for xp.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ghostlight said:
Any time one of us walked anywhere near that mine all those Screamers down there went off (whatever happened to them needing line of sight to scream?????) and the surrounding area was soon full of 20+ zombies, including more Screamers and multiple Ferals and Rads. Massive surface battle ensued.
Click to expand...


That sounds awes...

Ghostlight said:
I find this awesome.
Click to expand...


...yes, right, carry on. Note to self: there's plenty of iron in the world, don't mine out the deposit right next to base! :D  

 
Easily avoided mining with a bit of pre work which gets a heap of stone anyways. Using steel tools dig straight down to bedrock from your base. Dig out in each cardinal direction on bedrock until you are under the house next door, keep digging from there until you hit gravel, get the auger out and go nuts. Screamers won't be anywhere near your base.

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