Trying to make the game more randomized (in specific ways), got three questions.

[FramFramson]

First, a question about vanilla settings. What setting is best in the game to get truly random blood moons, or closest to this? It seems like "range" is only ever additive, though maybe I've just been getting "lucky" on rolls (only + and not -, so if I've put in, say 7-day with 7 days range I've only seen BMs in day 8-14 of the cycle). I don't actually know if that's TRUE, because maybe it's just been weird odds. But regardless... what's the best way I can simulate totally random blood moons? What about a setting of 3 days with 10 range? Or something else? I get that there needs to be some frequency, so let's say I'm looking for something around 7-10 on a very long average, but I absolutely don't want any predictability.

Second, there's a couple mods out there which increase the size and/or frequency of wandering hordes, but is there anyway of making those hordes wildly variable in size? It seems like all the mods just add X zombies as a flat increase, not a variable one. I'd love to see ranges from 3 to 50, or whatever.

Finally, I know a couple mods which remove trader quests entirely, but I don't quite want to go that far, does anyone know any mods capable of making quests very rare? Like 0-2 on offer per trader refresh? (the possibility of 0 quests is important here, not just gating them to a single one).

 

[Riamus]

Yes, if you set bloodmoons to 7 days and then add a range, it won't start until day 7+. Set it lower and increase the range to compensate and you'll get more variety. The greater the range, the greater the variability. Shorter ranges will be more predictable. Of course, if you have a larger range, it could be a long time between horde nights. For example, setting it to 14 days starting at day 3 could potentially mean no horde night until day 17 even if it's possible to get one at day 3. Variability can be nice, but too long between them wouldn't interest me, even if it's just a chance.

Mods should be able to use a random number of zombies in the wandering hordes. Maybe ask the author of one of the mods that increase the wandering horde sizes and see if they can add that as an option, or just tell you what to change.

I enjoy quests, so haven't looked into any mods related to reducing them. Unless it's hardcoded, it should be possible, though. TFP increased the number, after all.

 

[meganoth]

First, a question about vanilla settings. What setting is best in the game to get truly random blood moons, or closest to this?

Set the first value to the lowest possible (I would assume 1, meaning another horde night is possible on the next day). And set the second value to whatever range of days you want. The higher that number is the more random it is. But really large values means you often won't see a horde night for a long time, on average after number/2 days.

 

[8_Hussars]

Finally, I know a couple mods which remove trader quests entirely, but I don't quite want to go that far, does anyone know any mods capable of making quests very rare? Like 0-2 on offer per trader refresh? (the possibility of 0 quests is important here, not just gating them to a single one).

It's a sandbox just give no traders a chance. I like the Survival No Trader mod. Especially if you just want a small set of non-Trader centric quests or check out the standalone Grim Tales mod (It's bundled in the SNT mod).

 

[warmer]

.Second, there's a couple mods out there which increase the size and/or frequency of wandering hordes, but is there anyway of making those hordes wildly variable in size? It seems like all the mods just add X zombies as a flat increase, not a variable one. I'd love to see ranges from 3 to 50, or whatever.

I am a big fan of wandering hordes. There are a few mods that add them in. What I would do is grab a mod and look for the .xml file within the mod and open in notepad.

search for "entity" and you should see a min max number regarding horde population. Some mods base this in gamestage/day, and other do not. Change that to your liking. Some also have a timer regarding how often. you can edit that in the same way. usually its a random chance every x hours of game time.