PC Zombie AI

[retrogamingdev]

Does anyone else feel like the zombie AI is just a little strong in the beginning? Like, wouldn’t it be fun if there was a ramp up in the horde AI over the course of the game?

For example, as it currently is, even on first horde night, you can’t even really rely on things like wooden spike. In my mind, a new game - you should be able to build a simple structure and add spikes around it and mostly be in a good place. The struggle then was getting established.

But, how the AI works is it picks one spot and then hammers on it until it breaks through and that is it. They shred wood and even cobblestone by all hitting the same spot. Your only real chance to have a base that keeps you safe is to be typically in some sort of elevated platform, prefab POI roof, etc.

If the AI wasn’t so coordinated (at first), each zombie sort of acting mostly independent and attacking from multiple places, it would make those types of simple structures and traps actually work. It would feel more natural and open up early game strategies.

Of course, as the blood moons go on, it should get harder - but at a slower pace.

That’s all, just rambling a bit.

 

[Rotor]

If ya need to know the breakdown.

 

[Goofy1314]

Does anyone else feel like the zombie AI is just a little strong in the beginning? Like, wouldn’t it be fun if there was a ramp up in the horde AI over the course of the game?

For example, as it currently is, even on first horde night, you can’t even really rely on things like wooden spike. In my mind, a new game - you should be able to build a simple structure and add spikes around it and mostly be in a good place. The struggle then was getting established.

But, how the AI works is it picks one spot and then hammers on it until it breaks through and that is it. They shred wood and even cobblestone by all hitting the same spot. Your only real chance to have a base that keeps you safe is to be typically in some sort of elevated platform, prefab POI roof, etc.

If the AI wasn’t so coordinated (at first), each zombie sort of acting mostly independent and attacking from multiple places, it would make those types of simple structures and traps actually work. It would feel more natural and open up early game strategies.

Of course, as the blood moons go on, it should get harder - but at a slower pace.

That’s all, just rambling a bit.

Totally agree, would be really cool to see a huge horde attacking my base from all different angles instead of every single one of them attacking the same "weak" point. Their pathfinding is too predictable......... and predictable = boring.

 

[Vaeliorin]

Your only real chance to have a base that keeps you safe is to be typically in some sort of elevated platform, prefab POI roof, etc.

Simply double walling most of your base, while having a spot that only has single thick walls, will allow you to completely control where the horde attacks you from, without being elevated or digging a trench. Throw in some electric fences, and you're good to go for pretty much any horde.

Just make sure you have plenty of ammo. I went through ~450 crossbow bolts for my day 7 horde (and I don't miss often shooting at shocked zombies.)

 

[Goofy1314]

Simply double walling most of your base, while having a spot that only has single thick walls, will allow you to completely control where the horde attacks you from, without being elevated or digging a trench. Throw in some electric fences, and you're good to go for pretty much any horde.

Just make sure you have plenty of ammo. I went through ~450 crossbow bolts for my day 7 horde (and I don't miss often shooting at shocked zombies.)

I thought that might be the case so decided to try an old kill-corridor type base i'd used in the past. All walls 2 blocks thick of conc all around except the fighting position which i left 1 block thick - to begin with on horde night i thought things were working fine until i heard the dogs, they were stacking at one point on the side wall. Dealt with them from up top then realised zombies were starting to attack the same spot. This went on all night and i twice had a bunch of zombies starting to beat on one exact spot at the rear of my base.

With their structural engineering degrees i'm guessing cop puke may have previously damaged those two areas causing the engineers to attack those spots. What's really weird is that not a single dog came to the fighting position all night, every single one of them went for the same exact spot on the side wall, and there were a loooot of dogs! Seems they went to engineering college too.

Now, if all those zombies and dogs had been attacking my base from all sides that would have been cool as hell and made me work harder to deal with them - as they were all stacking in the same spot grenades and mollies made them a breeze to deal with.

 

[Riamus]

Does anyone else feel like the zombie AI is just a little strong in the beginning? Like, wouldn’t it be fun if there was a ramp up in the horde AI over the course of the game?

For example, as it currently is, even on first horde night, you can’t even really rely on things like wooden spike. In my mind, a new game - you should be able to build a simple structure and add spikes around it and mostly be in a good place. The struggle then was getting established.

But, how the AI works is it picks one spot and then hammers on it until it breaks through and that is it. They shred wood and even cobblestone by all hitting the same spot. Your only real chance to have a base that keeps you safe is to be typically in some sort of elevated platform, prefab POI roof, etc.

If the AI wasn’t so coordinated (at first), each zombie sort of acting mostly independent and attacking from multiple places, it would make those types of simple structures and traps actually work. It would feel more natural and open up early game strategies.

Of course, as the blood moons go on, it should get harder - but at a slower pace.

That’s all, just rambling a bit.

Horde nights are intended to be a challenge (though they aren't much challenge once you understand base building). Depending how fast you level up, they can be more or less difficult as there will be higher tier enemies based on your game stage. Being in different biomes also affects that. Being in a higher tier POI will also affect that.

Spikes are just a minor defense and not intended to be a way to "mostly be in a good place." They work to slow down zombies and you'll kill some of the weaker ones, but that's about it. And they break very quickly, so aren't going to last all night. You can survive the first horde night in a wood base, but I'd try to at least get the first 2 rows of blocks upgraded to cobblestone anyhow. That's not really that difficult to do and will make a difference. Beyond that, you just need to learn good ways to design your base to make it difficult for them to swarm you while allowing you to fight them from relative safety. There are many ways you can design a base that will work, and not all are elevated, though that can be a good strategy. You'll just need to learn how to do so. That can be through trial and error (I'd recommend that myself), or you can look it up online and use someone's meta build, or even just ask others for advice.

As long as you can repair the defenses and keep them from breaking in, they aren't hard to deal with. So make sure you are carrying whatever resources you need to do so. Anything that slows them down can be useful (spike traps, electric fences, barbed wire fences, jumps (open trap doors or blocks that require jumping up 1m), etc.) can help to keep you from being overwhelmed. Using a sledge turret to help push them back (or off a ledge if you are elevated) can also help keep them from overwhelming you. In the end, it just takes practice and learning how the hordes work.

 

[zombiehunter]

It's definitely different in 2.5. Before, my go to horde base was a 3-wide, 5-long tower 13 blocks high, with a ramp going up to that height. The Zs would go up that ramp and run across a 12 block long path to my fighting position. This base was rock solid. Cobblestone until day 21, where I would upgrade the bottom 4 or 5 blocks to concrete. Very minimal damage anywhere by the end of the night.

Now, with 2.5, it doesn't work as well. The Day 7 horde took out a few blocks in the tower, but otherwise it was fine. The Day 14 horde took out several blocks, almost taking the thing down. After that, I put plates all around the tower 3 blocks high, and upgraded those to concrete. During the Day 21 horde, with about 2-3 hours to go, all of a sudden my tower is falling down. I was able to finish the horde in the street without dying. After that, I went to look at the ruins. What was strange was all of the plates (3 blocks high) were basically undamaged, yet they took the tower down. How? Do they now hit THROUGH plates??? Otherwise, they would have had to take out the blocks that were 4 blocks high, which I don't think they can.

If they can now hit through plates and take out blocks behind them, that is some major BS if you ask me.

 

[Riamus]

It's definitely different in 2.5. Before, my go to horde base was a 3-wide, 5-long tower 13 blocks high, with a ramp going up to that height. The Zs would go up that ramp and run across a 12 block long path to my fighting position. This base was rock solid. Cobblestone until day 21, where I would upgrade the bottom 4 or 5 blocks to concrete. Very minimal damage anywhere by the end of the night.

Now, with 2.5, it doesn't work as well. The Day 7 horde took out a few blocks in the tower, but otherwise it was fine. The Day 14 horde took out several blocks, almost taking the thing down. After that, I put plates all around the tower 3 blocks high, and upgraded those to concrete. During the Day 21 horde, with about 2-3 hours to go, all of a sudden my tower is falling down. I was able to finish the horde in the street without dying. After that, I went to look at the ruins. What was strange was all of the plates (3 blocks high) were basically undamaged, yet they took the tower down. How? Do they now hit THROUGH plates??? Otherwise, they would have had to take out the blocks that were 4 blocks high, which I don't think they can.

If they can now hit through plates and take out blocks behind them, that is some major BS if you ask me.

It's unlikely they hit through plates. You'd have to show your base for someone to have any idea what happened. I can tell you that I had no problems with horde nights on 2.5. They are working just like previous versions for me. In fact, since I'm playing on 2 hour days, my 7 day horde is roughly equal to a 14 day horde for 1 hour days and we set that up in about 4 game hours because we didn't get around to it earlier and it still held without any problems. It was a combination of wood and cobblestone and the only trap other than some wooden spike traps was a sledge turret.

That being said, there are some changes. One of which is that they the calculations for what blocks to target was adjusted. They previously did prioritize higher blocks, but they do so a bit more now. But I didn't really notice any changes to how my base fared. The only thing that adds more challenge is the addition of frost claws and plague spitters, but those were added before 2.5. Frost claws definitely cause a lot of block damage compared to other zombies if they manage to throw rocks before you kill them. I just about fell through the roof that was only wood because the rocks were breaking through the roof very easily.

 

[meganoth]

Considering one can use any POI as a horde base to save lots of work and materials my first horde nights are quite easy.
Also I don't see advanced zombies like cops before my third or fourth horde night. By then I already have access to lots of cobblestone blocks to make thick walls, and better traps. In my current solo game I started to build a pit at that time so I could make better use of molotovs and explosives, and used a robotic sledge to throw them in.