A way to know # of Z in town

Fenix · 2014-02-28T23:55:33.000Z

I mean, in static generation mode, when it’s possible to secure small town, we (I) need a possibillity to find out # of Z in town.
Something like “hack police console, and find out ~# of citizen in this little happy town”.
What do you think about it?

John_Candlebury · 2014-03-01T00:01:52.000Z

I think it would ultimately be a pretty useless thing to know, and perhaps even impossible to implement if zombies are generated the first time you see them (I think thats the case, but I may be wrong) so its not possible to exactly know the number of zeds with anticipation.

StopSignal · 2014-03-01T00:05:49.000Z

I don’t think so, but only because it would be a powerful data to the player, and finding new zombies is fun
Also, it would be useless, because you could not count them easily unless you were with pen and paper at the side.

But if you were going to use it to know the threat possibility in the zone, then i guess it could be good, idk.
It would be a bit imersion breaking, too.

detahramet · 2014-03-01T00:30:44.000Z

Conceivably it could be implemented with a sign on the side of the road leading to the town that states the town name, and the approximate population. Useful looting info.

i2amroy · 2014-03-01T00:35:46.000Z

Personally I’m against the idea. It’s just too powerful of information and there isn’t any real way you could obtain it in real life (even those “population X” signs outside of many places are never really updated, nor do they account for visitors, travelers, or (especially) refugees/those fleeing the cataclysm.

HunterAlpha1 · 2014-03-01T00:41:33.000Z

And not to mention that the zombies themselves would tend to migrate, following the scent of prey, like in The Walking Dead. Personally I think the reason the Walkers are constantly wandering in herds is because when humans settle down in any sizeable numbers they generate a lot of odor which the breeze carries to the Walkers which they follow, then when they loose the scent they just keep moving in the direction they were going when they lost it.

EDIT: I do know though that the herd that hit them at the farm was set in motion by the helicopter seen in the first season.

detahramet · 2014-03-01T00:44:29.000Z

I said approxamite for a reason.
Then could very realistically tens of thousands in population variance.
Its not reliable info, but it still gives you a general idea of what your going into before you get swamped by a thousand brutes in thongs of remarkably elastic death.

kevin.granade · 2014-03-01T04:15:41.000Z

[quote=“detahramet, post:7, topic:5250”]I said approxamite for a reason.
Then could very realistically tens of thousands in population variance.
Its not reliable info, but it still gives you a general idea of what your going into before you get swamped by a thousand brutes in thongs of remarkably elastic death.[/quote]
THIS, I could have sworn I made an issue to do this at some point…
Anyway, it would be VERY approximate, basically taking the number of domiciles and multiplying by family size, then fuzzing a bit. This is only indirectly related to how many zombies we actually spawn, so it would give you a general idea of city size without being at all precise.

Zireael · 2014-03-01T08:42:39.000Z

Anyway, it would be VERY approximate, basically taking the number of domiciles and multiplying by family size, then fuzzing a bit. This is only indirectly related to how many zombies we actually spawn, so it would give you a general idea of city size without being at all precise.

This is a great idea!

Fenix · 2014-03-01T09:36:32.000Z

StopSignal:

Also, it would be useless, because you could not count them easily unless you were with pen and paper at the side.

I don’t need exact number of Zs, so I don’t need to count killed Zs.
I just need to estimate, is it 2000 of Z, or 1000, or 500.

It would be a bit imersion breaking, too.

Why? All towns have a list with the ~number of the population.

HunterAlpha1:

And not to mention that the zombies themselves would tend to migrate

Why almost all of you didn’t read what I wrote?
I DON’T NEED exact number.
I need ~number, the approximate number of Z’s. I don’t need they migration map or anything like that.
I have two small town near each other. I hacked police console here, I hacked police console there, found out number, put 2+2 in the mind, and voila.

Soyweiser · 2014-03-01T17:46:58.000Z

Isn;t there a value like this in dynamic spawn mode? Might be worthwhile to show that value in the debug menu. So we can at least debug it.

Zireael · 2014-03-01T17:50:16.000Z

Soyweiser:

Isn;t there a value like this in dynamic spawn mode? Might be worthwhile to show that value in the debug menu. So we can at least debug it.

Dunno, and I think the OP meant static spawn anyway.

Sanarr · 2014-03-03T08:10:27.000Z

Maybe some way of implementing it would be usage of binoculars and similar items. Like when your char is sitting on some tree near N-town looking on the streets via scope and getting a message like: “Streets are swarming with undead. There are hundreds of them// Only a handful of undead wander empty streets // etc.”

Zireael · 2014-03-03T09:17:58.000Z

Sanarr:

Maybe some way of implementing it would be usage of binoculars and similar items. Like when your char is sitting on some tree near N-town looking on the streets via scope and getting a message like: “Streets are swarming with undead. There are hundreds of them// Only a handful of undead wander empty streets // etc.”

This is a good idea.

Binky · 2014-03-03T23:40:41.000Z

I think it would be useful in determining how big a city is, especially if we had a better overmap vision/uncovering model and different types of cities, towns, villages and so on. Currently cities are kinda homogeneous, but it’d be really useful if you could see from the road that you had a village with roughly 100 people in it or 2000.

My suggestion would be to cut down on the overmap vision cone (and shorten binoculars a bit) but perhaps give other sources of information. Maps/Satnavs could give you broader information on cities, and signs could also give you information on towns (plus smaller signs uncovering random buildings in towns).

FunsizeNinja123 · 2014-03-03T23:43:11.000Z

Maybe a GPS or a GPS app on a PDA?

HunterAlpha1 · 2014-03-03T23:53:27.000Z

Satellites should still be operational, accessible via radio towers. Maybe even allow us to contact the International Space Station and talk with the astronauts.

Fniff · 2014-03-03T23:57:32.000Z

Maybe in the pre-Cataclysm time, civilians could have been tagged with electronic implants? Wouldn’t be unreasonable in a dystopic society, and you could see the amount of active tags in a town by going to the police station.

HunterAlpha1 · 2014-03-04T00:28:50.000Z

[quote=“Fniff, post:18, topic:5250”]Maybe in the pre-Cataclysm time, civilians could have been tagged with electronic implants? Wouldn’t be unreasonable in a dystopic society, and you could see the amount of active tags in a town by going to the police station.[/quote]That would’ve resulted in a Civil War. I can tell you sure as fucking hell I’d kill anyone who tried to tag me so they could track me everywhere.

Fniff · 2014-03-04T00:48:58.000Z

Who’s saying the civilians were aware of it? Maybe there could be a few documents making mention of installing tracking devices in popular clothing brands or similar to have that nice element of paranoia.