PC What is up with the "Kill Teams"? [Alpha 17 Super Difficult Wandering Encounters]

Yesterday, over two days, we had about 8 wandering hordes. Four of them were dog packs, 12 in each! If we weren't at the skill level we are at, there is no way we could have taken them out. I think that is pretty crazy amount even for our game stage. Can't get anything done, its just zombies constantly.

 
I think the problem is the gamestage is summed up for each and every player in the game. This means that if every player has gamestage 10, with 6 players we have 60, which is enough to spawn irradiated if i remember(someone stated that in some topic). So the more players you have, the quicker the game gets rough, with 2 people getting it 2 times faster, but with 6 you get 6 times faster (6 people contributing).

I think the gamestage should be averaged among all the player gamestage with some additions like +10% for every player (in Diablo3 [is or was] i think it's scaled so every player pumps enemies with 10% and some similar addition to the xp gained). This would make MP plausible, with 6 players on gamestage 10 the average 10 + 60% would be 16. In comparison on gamestage 30 it would be average 30 + 60% = 48.

 
I'm playing solo, restarted for b208, on day 8 i saw a wandering horde mixed with cops - i've had a horde of dogs, and a horde with spider zombies - luckily none of them actually saw me, as in this alpha I'm on a much higher alert and run whenever I hear anything, then I check it out from a distance to see if it's something I want to face or not. Needless to say I kept well clear of the dogs and the cops - unfortunately it was night time in my base when the spider zombies came, luckily though I had spikes down, they tore through them of course, but it did get rid of most of them, so I only ended up with 5 holes in my cobblestone wall!

 
You can also just press "i" to bring up the party/ally window and it lists everyones gamestage thats connected including your own even if your by yourself.
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yes a very welcome change, jc mentioned it, too!

a lot of it all comes down to zombies NOT making the approach noises they should, for a long time now.

very end of 12.5 is when i started playing, and i distinctly remember hiding in a shamway and the freaking massive pitter patter of feet as a horde ran by was one of the single most terrifying experiences i had early game. now and then i catch a shadow of that when i'm looting somewhere, but nowhere near like it used to be.

i'm perfectly happy when a zombie gets a legitimate jump on me because i'm lalalala in my head chopping trees instead of shifting around watching, but i wish the footsteps etc would come back. it's not JUST for the warning factor, there is legitimate ambient creep that it serves, also.

 
Zombie sounds in general are messed up right now. They often don't make any sounds at all, unless they're swinging on you. Makes no sense to see those fat Hawaii shirt bastards basically float over dilapidated floorboards without making so much as a whisper.

 
Yesterday, over two days, we had about 8 wandering hordes. Four of them were dog packs, 12 in each! If we weren't at the skill level we are at, there is no way we could have taken them out. I think that is pretty crazy amount even for our game stage. Can't get anything done, its just zombies constantly.
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You said "we" so this was multiplayer? You get 2 wandering hordes each per day.

Four of your hordes were Dogs, so more than one of you had the same gamestage when the hordes spawned. This makes sense.

Crazy amount for your gamestage? Your gamestage does not affect the composition of these hordes, except randomly.

 
I think the problem is the gamestage is summed up for each and every player in the game. This means that if every player has gamestage 10, with 6 players we have 60, which is enough to spawn irradiated if i remember(someone stated that in some topic). So the more players you have, the quicker the game gets rough, with 2 people getting it 2 times faster, but with 6 you get 6 times faster (6 people contributing).
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Not quite correect.

1. Everyone's gamestage is ordered from highest to lowest. Then the lowest score is ignored.

2. Only the top gamestage in order has a weight of 1.0, all the other gets a diminishing returns multiplier before it is added up.

So for example if three players have GS: 60, 50 and 20....we first ignore the 20, and the 50 contributes only 0.8, giving overall GS of 100 (60 + 50 x 0.8).

This also means TWO players is optimal since one of the players' GS is not contributing to the total.

 
Like half a football team as a horde??? "Genie mac & holy balls!"

I thought the 4 zbears + dogs horde was the worst thing that could get thrown at you, but I'll take that over a doz footballers any day.

The vulture killsquad could be pretty brutal too, at least before B208 since vultures got toned down a little I hear.

I seem to get the bear/dog pack the morning after horde night, when I am outside cleaning up after the party, and usually low on ammo and with a nasty hangover to boot. In A16 for sure, but it's happened to me in A17 as well.

 
Zombie sounds in general are messed up right now. They often don't make any sounds at all, unless they're swinging on you. Makes no sense to see those fat Hawaii shirt bastards basically float over dilapidated floorboards without making so much as a whisper.
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I keep reading this. I don't get it. I can hear zombies coming toward me just fine, even from behind. They make a triumphant "moan" indicating they have detected me and are now heading in. And I am using my headphones, I can also tell exactly which direction they are coming from. Shrug.

 
I keep reading this. I don't get it. I can hear zombies coming toward me just fine, even from behind. They make a triumphant "moan" indicating they have detected me and are now heading in. And I am using my headphones, I can also tell exactly which direction they are coming from. Shrug.
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I'm still 50/50 on A17, but I also have not had a problem with silent zombies. Probably around 100hrs in. Nomad, SP and MP

 
Not quite correect.
1. Everyone's gamestage is ordered from highest to lowest. Then the lowest score is ignored.

2. Only the top gamestage in order has a weight of 1.0, all the other gets a diminishing returns multiplier before it is added up.

So for example if three players have GS: 60, 50 and 20....we first ignore the 20, and the 50 contributes only 0.8, giving overall GS of 100 (60 + 50 x 0.8).

This also means TWO players is optimal since one of the players' GS is not contributing to the total.
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I made some assumptions on information a few people posted on the forums. Didn't really dig into the matter, but in my opinion it is still too much. Even considering your calculations, 6 players with 10 gamestage is 30-40 gamestage (based on the amount of diminish), where my suggestion brings it down to around 10-20. That is ONLY on lower levels, but considering higher ones. On day 14 horde solo i had gamestage over 50, which translates to 6 players on that stage 50 having around 150-200 gamestage in overall compared to 50-100.

Add to that the fact that earlier gamestages have tougher zombies and you got a recipe for murder.

 
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my understanding is that randomly at any time ( day time even ) a horde can spawn and the mechanic directs them to your location. You can see this in the server logs. Usually their a welcome exp bonus. But i have had dogs literally spawn on top of me.. oh the horror!

The good thin with these random Horde spawns is they dont have the "automatically see you" mechanic like the true horde night spawn

 
Yeah, morning of day 2 (default difficulty settings), me and my buddy were getting ready to crack open a house when we got jumped by 9 dogs. That was a blast.

 
Yeah, morning of day 2 (default difficulty settings), me and my buddy were getting ready to crack open a house when we got jumped by 9 dogs. That was a blast.
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That was a wandering horde. You get 2 per day. The composition of them is random. 1/50 chance it's 6 to 12 dogs.

 
I have daily (sometimes 2 or more) wandering hordes. I’ve had 1 dog and 1 wolf horde by day 36. Seems like you’re having bad luck. Or maybe I am? Cause those wolf hordes provide meat and leather! I find it odd that I have daily or more hordes in this latest patch but it allows me a few extra levels per day. So I’m okay with it. Hell im almost level 40 on day 10 because of it.

 
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