PC Zombie pathing against wood spikes.

[Slingblade2040]

Seems like putting down wooden spikes on stairs or between doors blocks the zombies path and messes up their pathing. So they just start beating on walls or pillars. 

What is the point of making traps if these zombies avoid them? Even making a bunch of wooden spikes the zombies will do their best to avoid them if there Is a clear path with spikes blocking them

 

[Vaeliorin]

You have to put them into the ground for zombies to path on them regularly, but they break so quickly that I never use them outside of putting them on my roof for the first couple of Bloodmoons to deal with the vultures.  And I never use the metal spikes, it's just a waste of resources imo.

I still miss the old wooden log spikes.  It was nice to have at least some passive defenses that didn't break pretty much instantly.

 

[theFlu]

Seems like putting down wooden spikes on stairs or between doors blocks the zombies path and messes up their pathing. So they just start beating on walls or pillars. 

This is true. If you still want to deploy some, knowing that already contains the answer; since the zeds consider the spikes a block, design their path so that they'll try to use the spikes to walk on, not through. For example, two blocks deep ditch, with one spike at the bottom; zeds think they can walk across the ditch on the spike, fall thru the spikes and take damage. Once the spike they're standing in breaks, they'll try to climb up the next one, jumping on all the spikes down there. (They might not see the spike as a full block, which might make two-high ditch too high.. experiment first! )

Then again, the spikes are relatively weak in less-than-insane difficulties; I barely use any. The occasional screamer trap might use some, but usually by the time I worry about screamers, I have a turret to take care of them...

 

[Riamus]

As mentioned, spikes should be placed into the ground for best results.  But I just drop them around certain points of my base, like corners, for use against screamers who come visiting.  They'll walk into them going around a corner and die.  I rarely bother with them on horde night.  And I rarely even bother with them any other time.  Often, then only time I place spikes is for the challenge, so I end up with one at a corner of my base.  There are far better defenses available.  Of course, spikes are extremely cheap, so aren't really a waste to use if you're short on resources and just need a bit of extra help.

 

[Slingblade2040]

This is true. If you still want to deploy some, knowing that already contains the answer; since the zeds consider the spikes a block, design their path so that they'll try to use the spikes to walk on, not through. For example, two blocks deep ditch, with one spike at the bottom; zeds think they can walk across the ditch on the spike, fall thru the spikes and take damage. Once the spike they're standing in breaks, they'll try to climb up the next one, jumping on all the spikes down there. (They might not see the spike as a full block, which might make two-high ditch too high.. experiment first! )

Then again, the spikes are relatively weak in less-than-insane difficulties; I barely use any. The occasional screamer trap might use some, but usually by the time I worry about screamers, I have a turret to take care of them...

The thing is why hasn't this been fixed? Kind of a big problem if zombies purposely avoid traps and it breaks their pathing due to bad coding or whatever by the devs. 

Just seems lame to need to dig a hole and put spikes it in like some kind of Scooby-Doo villan.

 

[theFlu]

The thing is why hasn't this been fixed? Kind of a big problem if zombies purposely avoid traps and it breaks their pathing due to bad coding or whatever by the devs.

Well, it's not like one of the options is massively better than the other. They're an actual block, so zeds "seeing them and trying to climb over them" is in a way a more realistic approach. For some configs, like "I just slapped traps randomly everywhere", them being invisible would be more user-friendly, sure, but I don't see zeds not trying to walk through them as a real problem; they avoid every other block just the same.

But overall, I think it's mainly a feature of the pathing AI; the AI seems to work with melee collisions. This is admittedly guesswork, but... When they changed the Arrow Slit block to allow for proper pathing, they gave it a melee hitbox along the center. I don't think they'd have done that unless it was necessary. From there, the spikes need a melee hitbox (to remove) and that needs to work with both the pathing and axes. The shape of the spikes is going to look something like a half-block to the pathing.

And in parts, it's still one of those things that was landed on at some point and potentially on a long "fine tune this later" -list. It's also on the list of "I don't think we should be out of beta yet", but that's a personal problem ..

 

[warmer]

Seems like putting down wooden spikes on stairs or between doors blocks the zombies path and messes up their pathing. So they just start beating on walls or pillars. 

What is the point of making traps if these zombies avoid them? Even making a bunch of wooden spikes the zombies will do their best to avoid them if there Is a clear path with spikes blocking them

They all have engineering degrees and know the path of least HP. That is the issue you are dealing with from my experience. If you make it much easier to tear your base down, than to get throuth the front door, they will tear it down.

Hatches flipped up are great for slowing them down. I put those on my hallways

Leading to the front door. It keeps them from being able to run and slows them down and forces a jump. Spikes are not that useful, because once they break all the way through to your walls, the rest will follow that path of least resistance. It's best to make a good long straight corridor or walkway you can fight from. That has been the most successful, non exploit based design I've seen used often.

 

[Riamus]

The thing is why hasn't this been fixed? Kind of a big problem if zombies purposely avoid traps and it breaks their pathing due to bad coding or whatever by the devs. 

Just seems lame to need to dig a hole and put spikes it in like some kind of Scooby-Doo villan.

If you saw spikes, would you walk through them or around them?  There's nothing really wrong with zombies avoiding spikes that they can see.  You just have to design things so they have no choice but to walk through them, or to "hide" them by placing them flush with the ground (a block deep) or by using them in a pit trap.

 

[Uncle Al]

Putting spikes just below ground level isn't about hiding them, zombies don't avoid spikes, but it is a good strategy for another reason.

Zombies see spikes as 'the same as any other block' so if you put a (one high) line of spikes down, zombies will go over the spikes, taking damage in the process. The problem is that as soon as one block of spikes breaks, going through the gap in the spikes is now an easier route than going over the spikes, so all zombies will funnel through the gap.

If you dig a one block deep trench and fill it with spikes, zombies will see that as flat ground, and walk over the spikes taking damage. Now, though, when a block of spikes breaks, that spot is seen as requiring a step down and a jump up, which is a longer route than flat ground, so the zombies will funnel over the remaining spikes until pretty much all the spikes are destroyed.

The reason the OP was having spike difficulties is that using spikes on stairs and in doorways doesn't really work. On stairs the zombies will see the spikes + stairs as a two high wall, which is higher than they can jump, so they look for another route or go into destroy area mode. Similarly, a single spike block is viewed by the zombies as blocking a doorway like any other full single block would, so they won't walk through the spikes.