PC Zombie Counts and Options

Adam the Waster · Jan 14, 2020

That's possible.
A periodic Verifying the Files is good especially if you've played through 18.0, 18.1, 18.2, and 18.3 without cleaning in between. There can be glitches and fragments that get lodged in places the sun don't shine and can have undesired but subtle effects.

ok sweet and it feels fun again

hell even animals are more plentiful. i found 2 wolfs near each other eating a poor spider zombie (it was funny just seeing the spider zombie jump around the wolfs like a grasshopper lol)

rivle · Jan 14, 2020

If you want every zombie to be able to see you from more than 50m away then there is a setting for that. Not everyone wants unending interruptions from zombies

yeah people like me. I often farm in open mines mid+endgame and zombies that interrups while farming are annoying as f...

Roland · Jan 14, 2020

yeah people like me. I often farm in open mines mid+endgame and zombies that interrups while farming are annoying as f...

What?! No, you can’t exist....lmao

rivle · Jan 14, 2020

What?! No, you can’t exist....lmao

Well i do and i think there are a lot other people who just enjoy a18 like me. The problem is people who enjoy the game don’t write much that’s why people like me should probably write more cuz devs read most of the time about people who complain cuz the game doesn’t fit to their personal taste.

As you mentioned we can edit everything as we like that’s why I advise tfp should add more options as before for people who don’t want mess with xml files.

As example I don’t like the slow vehicle speed that’s why I edited the files to make them faster. Maybe there could be options like higher zombie rate or higher vehicle speed for people with a pop up massage that this change will probably make your game unstable and cause lower fps etc. Most people don’t understand that this changes made because they cause bad performance until tfp can make better optimization.

Boidster · Jan 14, 2020

A) They do need to add a slider for zombie spawn quantity and rate. Multiplier from 1.0 to 16.0 or something like that. It would really shut this argument down. If you're not on a potato, move the slider up and go nuts.

B) Tonight I went spelunking in spawning.xml a bit and wrote a modlet in about 30 minutes that increases spawn count and spawn frequency in all biomes. I even added "normal" zombies into the snow biome so it's not just the stupid lumberjacks. There are now zombies all over the place and I really didn't even bump it that much. I can share the modlet if people want to play with it, though I expect there are much more professional modlets out there. It definitely works, but I'm not sure about balance yet.

C) The respawn delay for all biomes except Wasteland is three in-game days (for daytime zombies). If you kill the local zombie, it won't come back for three days, at best. That probably contributes to the very empty feeling after you've cleared an area out. If resetting your files suddenly pops in new zombies, it's probably because it reset the respawndelay timer.

Definitely recommend tweaking spawning.xml if your PC can handle it. Note that I'm on a pretty pedestrian laptop (Core i5, 8GB, GTX960M) and it seemed to handle an approximate doubling of zombies without too much trouble. Standing in the snow I could see four lumberjacks, a stripper, and a business man all within rifle range. Driving through biomes I'd encounter a zombie or animal every couple of seconds, often in groups of 2 or 3. I changed respawn delay on all zombies to 1 day so presumably my game will be like this every day. Dunno if respawn delay can be set < 1, so they respawn every few hours. I should test that.

RestInPieces · Jan 15, 2020

Now you just have to permit yourself.

He just wants you to burn your cpu :/

Adam the Waster · Jan 15, 2020

Yes. Go to the eintityclasses.xmlFind this line for the zeds.

<property name="SightRange" value="30"/>

Change to something like:

<property name="SightRange" value="90"/>

and you will have more than enough coming to get you.

I think someone has already made a modlet for this, not sure.

Either way, its been able to be modded ever since they put in that property in the xml. <- not big stuffing it, just letting you know it has been like that for awhile, and is still viable in A18.x

bro your speaking latin to me. i followed a guide and it was confusing. took me a hour and it didn't work (granted it looked like it was a old alpha but i looked simimaler)

Ghostlight · Jan 15, 2020

So can anyone tell me the exact numbers to change in which files to achieve this?? I want lots of wandering zombies everywhere.

Prisma501 · Jan 15, 2020

So can anyone tell me the exact numbers to change in which files to achieve this?? I want lots of wandering zombies everywhere.

Check the /increased wilderness zombies/ modlet from jax

https://7daystodie.com/forums/showthread.php?94906-JaxTeller718-Modlet-Collection

Cheers

Boidster · Jan 15, 2020

Edit - yes, take Prisma's advice. Unless you want to learn the XML and get into modding, use someone else's modlet. I'm a glutton for punishment so I DIY some of this easier stuff.

Original post below.

So can anyone tell me the exact numbers to change in which files to achieve this?? I want lots of wandering zombies everywhere.

Sure. If you want to directly edit spawning.xml, then look for this section:

Code:

&lt;biome name="pine_forest"&gt;
 &lt;spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="3" time="Day" entitygroup="ZombiesAll" /&gt;
 &lt;spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="4" time="Night" entitygroup="ZombiesNight" /&gt;
 &lt;spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="14" time="Any" entitygroup="EnemyAnimalsForest" spawnDeadChance="0" /&gt;
 &lt;spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="21" time="Any" entitygroup="FriendlyAnimalsForest" spawnDeadChance="0" /&gt;
&lt;/biome&gt;

Simply change "maxcount" to however many zombies you want in each spawning area* and change "respawndelay" downward if you want them to respawn more quickly (in game days). You can change day and night separately and change the hostile/friendly animals too. I upped them all and reduced all of their respawndelays as well (doing this for friendly animals will result in much more raw meat availability, so balance to your playstyle preferences).

*I am not certain how big a "spawning area" is, but it seems to have maybe a 5-10 chunk radius? Assume it's 10 chunks, so roughly 320x320m area. Setting maxcount=4 means at most 4 zombies will spawn in that area. As you drive through a very large forest you will go through many of these areas and each of them can have at most 4 zombies (they can wander into other areas of course). So it's not "4 zombies worldwide in forests"...you will see dozens of zombies as you move through the biome.

I have mine set to maxcount=4 and respawndelay=1 at the moment and it sure feels more like the old console game now. Push it as far as your PC (and you) can handle.

Repeat the above for the next few biomes - wasteland, desert, burned_forest, and snow. If you want a little variety in your snow biome, add this line in there anywhere between <biome name="snow"> and </biome>:

Code:

&lt;spawn maxcount="2" respawndelay="1" time="Day" entitygroup="ZombiesAll" /&gt;

If you want to do it as a modlet, I can help you via direct message if you want (be warned - I am a modding neophyte; I just know how to use XPath, none of the fancy stuff).

Ti2xGr · Jan 15, 2020

I have been playing with the spawning.xml for some days now to get our map balanced per player requests. We have so many zombies in the Wasteland areas, we recommend not entering until later game stages (seriously). I am going to be adding Demolishers to randomly spawn there as well soon. We've bumped up the animal counts per biome as well. The snow and Desert biomes are "safer" in regard to zombie count in general so people who don't want to be "hassled" by zombies build in those biomes while those who want a challenge head toward the burnt forest or wasteland. The other biome areas are somewhere in the middle (Spawn count at 7 (and more animal life) with .5 for a day count (twice a day). We have it set for zombies spawning in the Wasteland 5 times a day and a count of 25 daytime and 35 at night. We capped the overall zombie count at 40 to keep client zombie counts reasonable enough so the lag on blood moon isn't too bad on pretty much any system.

Adam the Waster · Jan 15, 2020

Code:
Edit - yes, take Prisma's advice. Unless you want to learn the XML and get into modding, use someone else's modlet. I'm a glutton for punishment so I DIY some of this easier stuff.
Original post below.

Sure. If you want to directly edit spawning.xml, then look for this section:

Code:

<biome name="pine_forest"> <spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="3" time="Day" entitygroup="ZombiesAll" /> <spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="4" time="Night" entitygroup="ZombiesNight" /> <spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="14" time="Any" entitygroup="EnemyAnimalsForest" spawnDeadChance="0" /> <spawn maxcount="1" respawndelay="21" time="Any" entitygroup="FriendlyAnimalsForest" spawnDeadChance="0" /> </biome>

Simply change "maxcount" to however many zombies you want in each spawning area* and change "respawndelay" downward if you want them to respawn more quickly (in game days). You can change day and night separately and change the hostile/friendly animals too. I upped them all and reduced all of their respawndelays as well (doing this for friendly animals will result in much more raw meat availability, so balance to your playstyle preferences).

*I am not certain how big a "spawning area" is, but it seems to have maybe a 5-10 chunk radius? Assume it's 10 chunks, so roughly 320x320m area. Setting maxcount=4 means at most 4 zombies will spawn in that area. As you drive through a very large forest you will go through many of these areas and each of them can have at most 4 zombies (they can wander into other areas of course). So it's not "4 zombies worldwide in forests"...you will see dozens of zombies as you move through the biome.

I have mine set to maxcount=4 and respawndelay=1 at the moment and it sure feels more like the old console game now. Push it as far as your PC (and you) can handle.

Repeat the above for the next few biomes - wasteland, desert, burned_forest, and snow. If you want a little variety in your snow biome, add this line in there anywhere between <biome name="snow"> and </biome>:

Code:

<spawn maxcount="2" respawndelay="1" time="Day" entitygroup="ZombiesAll" />

If you want to do it as a modlet, I can help you via direct message if you want (be warned - I am a modding neophyte; I just know how to use XPath, none of the fancy stuff).

i tried that i set it to 8 a few days ago and . i had zero zombies and animals. i don't know if there's a save setting ability.

Boidster · Jan 15, 2020

Check the /increased wilderness zombies/ modlet from jax
https://7daystodie.com/forums/showthread.php?94906-JaxTeller718-Modlet-Collection

Cheers

One small point about that modlet - it does not reduce respawndelay which is not a problem, just note that once an area is cleared of the random zombies and hostile animals, it will take 3 days, 4 days, and 14 days respectively for daytime, nighttime, and animals to respawn. If you want the place crawling with zombies and hostiles all the time, mod the modlet and reduce respawndelay.

Boidster · Jan 15, 2020

i tried that i set it to 8 a few days ago and . i had zero zombies and animals. i don't know if there's a save setting ability.

I'm going to assume that by "it" you mean the "maxcount" value? Which biome(s) did you change? All of them? You made the change under <steam install dir>\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die\Data\Config? You can confirm that the settings were applied by checking here (on Windows):

C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie\Saves\<mapname>\<savegame name>\ConfigsDump

The XML in there is dumped there each time you start the game. Changing it will have no effect - it just shows you what the game was using when it started.

There is no save settings - once the XML file is updated, it will be used upon game start. I assume you're not using a dedicated server; if you are it's slightly different. Same file, same edits, just a different file location.

If you made the change in the correct place, next step is to check the startup log.

<steam install dir>\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die\7DaysToDie_Data\output_log__date_time.txt

Adam the Waster · Jan 15, 2020

I'm going to assume that by "it" you mean the "maxcount" value? Which biome(s) did you change? All of them? You made the change under <steam install dir>\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die\Data\Config? You can confirm that the settings were applied by checking here (on Windows):
C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie\Saves\<mapname>\<savegame name>\ConfigsDump

The XML in there is dumped there each time you start the game. Changing it will have no effect - it just shows you what the game was using when it started.

There is no save settings - once the XML file is updated, it will be used upon game start. I assume you're not using a dedicated server; if you are it's slightly different. Same file, same edits, just a different file location.

If you made the change in the correct place, next step is to check the startup log.

<steam install dir>\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die\7DaysToDie_Data\output_log__date_time.txt

i play solo

and this stuff looks so confusing ill just stay out of it unit i find a video on it

Boidster · Jan 15, 2020

...with .5 for a day count (twice a day)

This is great to hear. Your map sounds fun. On first look, the default spawn settings for wasteland seemed very tame. Your sounds more like what I remember from prior versions including console. It was the No-Go Zone until you had advanced weapons and plenty of medkits.

Boidster · Jan 15, 2020

i play solo

and this stuff looks so confusing ill just stay out of it unit i find a video on it

Yeah, I take Roland's point about all of the "settings" being changeable in XML, but I can also understand that finding and editing XML (and reading log files for errors, ugh) isn't everybody's cup of tea. A UI setting will be better (I have faith TFP will add it).

You should try JaxTeller's mod, linked above. For that you just drop the file in your Mods folder and it works. No fiddling required.

Adam the Waster · Jan 15, 2020

Yeah, I take Roland's point about all of the "settings" being changeable in XML, but I can also understand that finding and editing XML (and reading log files for errors, ugh) isn't everybody's cup of tea. A UI setting will be better (I have faith TFP will add it).
You should try JaxTeller's mod, linked above. For that you just drop the file in your Mods folder and it works. No fiddling required.

but i don't even know how to mod

Boidster · Jan 15, 2020

but i don't even know how to mod

Well there is a tutorial on the Wiki, but it's kind of poorly written IMO. There are also a couple of YT videos, just search for "7d2d install modlet". I watched two of them and...well...YT creators need to learn how to teach people, but the information is perfectly accurate.

If you can do these three things, then you can install mods:

1) Create a folder on your hard drive

2) Download a ZIP file from the internet

3) Unzip that file the folder you created

Those are the only skills needed. Specifically for the Jaxteller mod linked above:

1) Create this folder (if it doesn't exist already):

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die\Mods

2) Click the link that Prisma501 gave above; it will start a download of "JaxTeller718_IncreasedWildernessZombiesX3.zip"; save it wherever you want, just make sure you can find it

3) Unzip that file into the \Mods folder you created in step 1

Start your game and you should have x3 the usual zombies roaming around.

Adam the Waster · Jan 15, 2020

Well there is a tutorial on the Wiki, but it's kind of poorly written IMO. There are also a couple of YT videos, just search for "7d2d install modlet". I watched two of them and...well...YT creators need to learn how to teach people, but the information is perfectly accurate.
ok Thank you!

however the modlet is A18.2. i don't know if it would work on A18.3

again thank you.

PC Zombie Counts and Options

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