PC Zombie Counts and Options

Hrm, so if there's a way to capture console output I might be able to script dynamically updating the game preferences to that ever increasing BloodMoonEnemyCount for some fun times. I like the idea of the amount increasing predicated entirely on GS as opposed to the player based caps. Maybe something to tinker with on the list with trying out some of the game changing mods like Darkness Falls and Ravenhearst for our next game.
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Well that may not be necessary, since each gamestage has its own maxAlive cap which scales. Set your BloodMoonEnemyCount as high as your potatoes can handle (subject to the concern SylenThunder raised) and then let gamestages.xml manage the increasing wave size on bloodmoons. Here are the first several levels (the game will choose the entry with the highest gamestage less than or equal to your GS).

<gamestage stage="1"><spawn ... maxAlive="3"


<gamestage stage="2"><spawn ... maxAlive="3"


<gamestage stage="4"><spawn ... maxAlive="4"


<gamestage stage="7"><spawn ... maxAlive="5"


<gamestage stage="10"><spawn ... maxAlive="6"


<gamestage stage="13"><spawn ... maxAlive="6"


<gamestage stage="16"><spawn ... maxAlive="7"


<gamestage stage="19"><spawn ... maxAlive="8"


<gamestage stage="23"><spawn ... maxAlive="9"


<gamestage stage="27"><spawn ... maxAlive="11"


<gamestage stage="31"><spawn ... maxAlive="12"


<gamestage stage="35"><spawn ... maxAlive="13"


<gamestage stage="40"><spawn ... maxAlive="15"


<gamestage stage="44"><spawn ... maxAlive="16"


<gamestage stage="49"><spawn ... maxAlive="17"


<gamestage stage="54"><spawn ... maxAlive="19"


...


<gamestage stage="287"><spawn ... maxAlive="89"

So for example if you have an eight-potato Alienware monster machine (with the rutabega accelerator) you could set your BloodMoonEnemyCount to SylenThunder's maximum recommendation of 90 and you'd have scaling horde wave sizes all the way up to GS 287. After that, you'd hit your cap of 90.

That should be true for all of the hordes controlled by gamestages.xml (wandering hordes, POI/sleeper hordes, etc.).

 
The real problem here is sleepers being introduced in a16. Sleepers caused the 7D2D designers to think sleepers is an ok substitute for random, roaming zombies in the general world. This caused TFP to focus time/energy on improving sleepers instead of working on better performance of the existing open world zombie CPU cycles.

Sadly, seems doubtful 7D2D will ever return to the day of old with lots of random, roaming zombies because the current design chiefs of 7D2D thinks the sleeper system is an acceptable for a "challenging" world.

 
The real problem here is sleepers being introduced in a16. Sleepers caused the 7D2D designers to think sleepers is an ok substitute for random, roaming zombies in the general world. This caused TFP to focus time/energy on improving sleepers instead of working on better performance of the existing open world zombie CPU cycles.
Sadly, seems doubtful 7D2D will ever return to the day of old with lots of random, roaming zombies because the current design chiefs of 7D2D thinks the sleeper system is an acceptable for a "challenging" world.
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I agree in part and I don't like how it 'seems' to have become an "Either/Or thing" as of late. I want them both. A decent Zombie presence in the streets, and in the buildings. Just modding and upping the biome spawns, isn't a solution either.

I don't want to have gobs of zeds wandering around in the wilderness, just to make the Town's and Cities feel more dangerous.

I hope they come up with a good middle ground at some point.

Decent amount of the Sleeper Zombies for the prefabs.

Decent amount of Zombies wandering in the streets, with some Bandits.

A small presence of zombies in the wilderness, but mostly the Animals and Bandits, providing the player enough action, while traveling between, Town to Town, City to City.

Just from my perspective on how I would like it is all. I am sure there are differing opinions though.

 
I agree in part and I don't like how it 'seems' to have become an "Either/Or thing" as of late. I want them both. A decent Zombie presence in the streets, and in the buildings. Just modding and upping the biome spawns, isn't a solution either.I don't want to have gobs of zeds wandering around in the wilderness, just to make the Town's and Cities feel more dangerous.

I hope they come up with a good middle ground at some point.

Decent amount of the Sleeper Zombies for the prefabs.

Decent amount of Zombies wandering in the streets, with some Bandits.

A small presence of zombies in the wilderness, but mostly the Animals and Bandits, providing the player enough action, while traveling between, Town to Town, City to City.

Just from my perspective on how I would like it is all. I am sure there are differing opinions though.
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1000000000000000010000000000000000020% agree

and maybe in some prefabs like Poopy pants daycare there could be at least 1 screamer.

 
Just modding and upping the biome spawns, isn't a solution either. I don't want to have gobs of zeds wandering around in the wilderness, just to make the Town's and Cities feel more dangerous.
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For what it is worth, comments in the XML imply that cities/hubs are no longer treated as separate spawn areas (not saying this is a good thing), and but so if you increase "biome" spawning you do also get the same spawn levels in cities/hubs.

That is, it's not just "gobs of zeds wandering around in the wilderness", it's "gobs of zeds wandering around everywhere".

Not quite the fine-tuning you're asking for, I know, but at least the cities do become more dangerous.

 
For what it is worth, comments in the XML imply that cities/hubs are no longer treated as separate spawn areas (not saying this is a good thing), and but so if you increase "biome" spawning you do also get the same spawn levels in cities/hubs.
That is, it's not just "gobs of zeds wandering around in the wilderness", it's "gobs of zeds wandering around everywhere".

Not quite the fine-tuning you're asking for, I know, but at least the cities do become more dangerous.
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Probably the way I worded might have caused the confusion. Wilderness zombie spawns = Biome zombie spawns.

Yeah, I already up them. An Okay thing for the meantime.

 
For what it is worth, comments in the XML imply that cities/hubs are no longer treated as separate spawn areas (not saying this is a good thing), and but so if you increase "biome" spawning you do also get the same spawn levels in cities/hubs.
That is, it's not just "gobs of zeds wandering around in the wilderness", it's "gobs of zeds wandering around everywhere".

Not quite the fine-tuning you're asking for, I know, but at least the cities do become more dangerous.
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Something else to keep in mind is that not all of the comments in the xml are up to date with the current version of the game. I use them more as a guideline, and then test to find out how it's really working.

 
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