Look... You all can think whatever you want, but i'm presenting information as it was. Maybe there are situations when this tracking isn't as obvious as people may think, it's not like i know everything. I am a curious person and like to experiment, where this IS an experiment - both on seeing how far you can go with not killing zombies and how they react over longer periods of time (most people quickly dispatch Zs and don't care how they act). Some could say it's a form of a challenge (like no armor or no hit runs in Dark Souls). So let me bring some more FACTS of what I experienced and WHY i wanted it like this:
1. You can't simply walk into my built "home", because each time i get inside through the ramp i made, i pick up the wooden ramps and frames. Even jumping isn't possible, because i take the lower frames. It's not a situatin where everything is on ground level with a door - already had that in a POI and everytime i didn't notice the horde outside (or heard) they rammed right into my home through the door (especially at night). Considering my last big WH that followed to my base, i HEARD them try to enter through the ramp, but with it being "shortened" they fell down. So yeah, direct path i took to get in - they knew about it.
2. When i hear zombies around i don't light up my campfire (don't have a forge yet or any other station, it's all by the trader), because that would let Zs sense me. I also move only in stealth, "climbing" to higher blocks (if needed) through wooden ramps so that i don't stomp on the ground falling or jumping to make noise. Stomping on the ground makes enough noise [up to 35 from around 3(walking stealthily)] to gather Zs attention practically every time i did it. Luckily i never got them angry by it to hit the supports. Perhaps doing it multiple times would trigger their attacks.
3. I only watch Zs from my base (entrance point and a small lookout on the other side) if their sounds feel distant. I don't want to aggro them just because they saw me and a minute later say goodbye to all my stuff as my base crumbles beneath my feet.
4. I could put up even the simplest wooden spikes down below, but as my aim is not to kill the Zs, i don't. Walls covering me all around let me sit through the night unhindered. The only way they could sense me is if i jumped, peeked out towards a zombie or performed too loud noises doing anything (even opening the chests make some noise [up to 10 from 1], not to mention upgrading blocks [up to 13 with a single stone axe hit from 1]).
5. Not disabling Zs serves the purpose of having a threat. I'm not aiming to run around and gather materials without a care in the world. I could enable godmode, spawn in items or fly around and wouldn't make a difference. There are Zs all around which sometimes prohibit me from looting some POIs or strictly make it really tough to do. They could also swarm me and if not careful i could die (which i haven't yet on this save) and i had a few close encounters with them, as well as vultures and food poisoning.
6. Lastly, I KNOW IT'S A WANDERING HORDE. Whenever i see a big group appear on the horizon i pull out the console and see exactly how the number of Zs change through the repeated information posted there. I KNOW they get suddenly killed when their time runs out (it shows that in the console)
I'm not underestimating anyones experience in analysing the game, but I DID spend a lot of time on this save trying to play with specific rules and focusing on checking the zombie behaviours. Sure, i could invest 50 more hours, but investing more than 10 doesn't diminish my experience so far. Especially as it's still early game where people tend to avoid big encounters because of lack of good equipment.
And yes, i have experience in dealing with a WH at night with bow and arrows, just like with hitting zombies with arrows from over 50 meters or clearing POIs stealthily one zombie at a time. Doesn't mean i know everything, but that which i experienced, i can talk about.
I think Randomdude's situation is what i described in #1, having a direct path (even through doors) to your location. Unless Zs follow the smell of dirty human, which we leave behind when dragging our butts on the floors...
