Zombie AI

[Num47]

I think the actual boredom from most if not all zombie open world survival games stems from the lack of an adequate amount of zombies in the actual world. I hope STN will be able to anticipate on this fact!

True but sadly it's also down to own opinion, I agree myself the more zombies the better but also would not want it to-be a constant grind, becasue it's a game and people do want to see results from playing and not just constant zombie killing... I know it's crazy but some people would even prefer STN without zeds it's that good a survival game alone, I imagine that myself.

But I think the day/night spin or angle they have is a good way to balance this... Only thing similar would be Dying Light and people love that...
Daytime they are fewer in numbers and "docile" and you have time to compose yourself and deal with problems logically... Night time comes they are larger in numbers and more "agressive" so it's either stand and fight or run and hide until morning... perfect mix of wax on wax off.

Then throw in an interactive world to the mix...
I doubt people will be getting bored, maybe at first but remember Rule #1 Cardio... just have the stamina to keep up with them until the end and don't get eaten by zeds along the way

 

[Templar]

Running from zombies should be worked out well then. In DayZ for example there is no way to shake them. Which ever corner you jump into, or alley, or anything, the zombie AI will keep hooked on you, to an unrealistic degree. In Dying Light they worked this out quite nicely with an awareness meter of the zombies, so if you would hide they would lose sight of you. By the way, Dying Light is a good example of hordes done right in adequate amounts in my opinion!! Also I might add the Steam game Contagion, but that game has way smaller maps than Dying Light for example.

 

[DemoCar82]

I'd agree that sheer number of zombies has always been an issue in my eyes.

There has to be a good balance between the game just being a grind, and having not enough threat. To some extent a zombie apocalypse would be a slow grind a lot of the time if you were truly trying to survive. Which should be during the day, the meticulous searching for stuff you need, reinforcing stuff, preparing for night should all be the grind part of the game IMO. The night should be hunkering down if possible and if not, you're in for a real bad situation.

Night, zombies should be plentiful and aggressive enough to make it 90% impossible to survive I think. You should "scramble" enough right off a spawn, and for several nights just to survive at all. And even later, when you've got traps, fortification, proper weapons and ammo, you should still be pretty threatened if you make a mistake at night and alert zombies.

The zombies need to be a priority to avoid and prepare for... however, open world games need a wide range of stuff to do and things to find/craft. Once this is balanced, epic...

 

[Templar]

I'd agree that sheer number of zombies has always been an issue in my eyes.
(...)

Hehe, in ArmA 3 they used to call it a ''walking simulator'' if there were too few zombies in the map, which is a cynical yet rightful derogatory name for a zombie open world survival game with too few zombies lol. Because you would just be walking all the time for miles, without coming across any serious threat.

 

[DemoCar82]

Hehe, in ArmA 3 they used to call it a ''walking simulator'' if there were too few zombies in the map, which is a cynical yet rightful derogatory name for a zombie open world survival game with too few zombies lol. Because you would just be walking all the time for miles, without coming across any serious threat.

Well between DayZ Mod (mostly Origins and Epoch mods), and DayZ S.A... I've got likely 1600ish hours or so in. So... I will definitely agree that it has become a walking simulator, although, the Mod... especially the 2 mentioned above, gave a lot of depth and I probably had some of the funnest gaming ever with friends playing those mods. S.A. is a grind... without much to grind for at all... I tried to give DayZ a heck of a shot hoping it would turn into what I wanted, and I will admit as janky as DayZ is... it is graphically gorgeous and I like how the character handles when playing... other than that, until now, it is a huge let down for me as a zombie apoc. open-world survival game.

 

[Templar]

Well between DayZ Mod (mostly Origins and Epoch mods), and DayZ S.A... I've got likely 1600ish hours or so in. So... I will definitely agree that it has become a walking simulator, although, the Mod... especially the 2 mentioned above, gave a lot of depth and I probably had some of the funnest gaming ever with friends playing those mods. S.A. is a grind... without much to grind for at all... I tried to give DayZ a heck of a shot hoping it would turn into what I wanted, and I will admit as janky as DayZ is... it is graphically gorgeous and I like how the character handles when playing... other than that, until now, it is a huge let down for me as a zombie apoc. open-world survival game.

The vital part, the essence to make any zombie open world survival game succesful, is the zombies. Without them, you have no horror, no apocalypse, no true survival!

 

[Polyrhythm]

Left 4 Dead never had any problems with a lot of zombies on the screen at once.

 

[DemoCar82]

The vital part, the essence to make any zombie open world survival game succesful, is the zombies. Without them, you have no horror, no apocalypse, no true survival!

Totally agree.

Have you ever played Project Zomboid, I'd like to see zombie numbers like that, but it would be tough IMO.

 

[Templar]

Left 4 Dead never had any problems with a lot of zombies on the screen at once.

Left 4 Dead has small maps which frees up alot of memory and processing capacity for the computer to use, allowing the zombies to be rendered in such big quantities.

Totally agree.

Have you ever played Project Zomboid, I'd like to see zombie numbers like that, but it would be tough IMO.

Nope, I have been thinking of purchasing it for a while now, but I was saddened to see the developers kind of put the game on the back burner as other than the upcoming vehicles update there were no significant changes to the game for years now. (Judging from alot of user reviews) Still I would like to buy it, as it seems it is the best overall zombie open world survival experience for now. There is also How to Survive and How to Survive 2, which I never gave a chance yet, which are on my potential purchase list. Judging from Youtube videos it is able to have a decent amount of zombies on screen at once so it's looking pretty nice. Nothing special though. No idea how big hordes can actually get into these 2 games.

If only the STN devs come up with some fancy novel technique to make more zombies in the world, oh boy would those STN copies be sold like hot cakes.

 

[Dr. J]

I've no idea what we'll get when the game lands. It will be a learning experience for all of us. The Devs, the mods, the team at allgamer and everyone here in this fantastic community.
The number of zombies, the game mechanics, the number of servers, just about everything is up in the air right now. [That's my own opinion].
But I've enjoyed being on this journey with you all.

 

[DemoCar82]

I was saddened to see the developers kind of put the game on the back burner as other than the upcoming vehicles update there were no significant changes to the game for years now.

I've owned PZ for several years and seen substantial and pretty consistent updating/additions myself. Plus you can tweak anything you want and install mods also. Regardless, they do a fine job with zombies IMO.

 

[Templar]

I've owned PZ for several years and seen substantial and pretty consistent updating/additions myself. Plus you can tweak anything you want and install mods also. Regardless, they do a fine job with zombies IMO.

Ah sweet I might buy it then, just to kill time until STN alpha releases... The actual big horde of slow zombies formula does work as can be seen in PZ, only because of technical limitations it is very hard to implement in a 3d current gen video game. Such a shame

 

[ld-airgrafix]

I've owned PZ for several years and seen substantial and pretty consistent updating/additions myself. Plus you can tweak anything you want and install mods also. Regardless, they do a fine job with zombies IMO.

I wanted to mention PZ but didnt want to sound like a fanboy haha.
Best zombie survival game to date

 

[DemoCar82]

I wanted to mention PZ but didnt want to sound like a fanboy haha.
Best zombie survival game to date

I wouldn't be ashamed to be a fanboy of PZ.

Go to their Steam store page and scroll down until you find "Reviews" that they advertise for the game, should be 3 of them I believe.

 

[ld-airgrafix]

I wouldn't be ashamed to be a fanboy of PZ.

Go to their Steam store page and scroll down until you find "Reviews" that they advertise for the game, should be 3 of them I believe.

You dont understand, i mention pz every second post i make haha

 

[DemoCar82]

Well... I thought it was awesome you said almost exactly what I said, and they use on their store page.

The zombies in PZ, along with being able to tweak their setting to fine tune the scenario you want to build, are perfect IMO. Factory settings they are classic Romero zombies.

I think a2z with the night zombies being more aggressive should put a little heavier push on survival, and that is awesome, because there has to be a way to make up for sheer number of zombies like PZ has, if that is achievable to any extent STN will have made an awesome, REAL zombie apocalypse game... others have tried damn hard and failed. I think STN will be closer to what a lot of us have been looking for. Fingers crossed!

 

[Templar]

Well to put it blunt, how many zombies can STN display on screen right now?

 

[ld-airgrafix]

Well to put it blunt, how many zombies can STN display on screen right now?

And would players accept lowering graphics and/or content to allow for more zombies?

 

[Darkstar 影]

I honestly keep with the mindset that nighttime making zombies more of a threat is fine. In the day, you see a zombie and its no big deal, walk around it, just stay out of its range. Now imagine its nighttime and you cant see for sht. You hear an extremely eerie screech and out of the void of pitch black you see a blood-covered undead leap from the shadows and begin attacking. I think moments like that will be what stakes this game as great, since you will be literally afraid of when the night falls. And in these situations you don't need extremely massive hordes. Remember the first video FrankieOnPC made for this? Go to the end of that video and look at the horde outside his house. It wasn't massive in numbers, but if you are outside and see that at nighttime, you SHOULD be afraid.