[experimental build] deadliness of electric zombie

Rorudo · 2013-08-03T20:28:16.000Z

Electric zombie is able to kill any (even absolutely healthy) survivalist with one ranged hit.
Its electric arcs do not fade and if you are paralyzed - you will instantly die.
Don’t you think this is imbalance?

Zarthull · 2013-08-06T02:26:25.000Z

I don’t know what you talking about, in all my runs I have never had a shocker zombie 1 shot me, honestly I find them the weakest of special zombies if you have some walls to block there line of sight

Whitelight · 2013-08-06T04:23:15.000Z

I am confused as well. I routinely punch shockers to death with my fists (krav) now a days with very few problems. Was something affecting your speed at the time? Most of my deaths to things like that are caused by low speed from pain or accidentally wielding heavy objects and trying to melee something.

1942rob · 2013-08-06T17:47:35.000Z

Actually, their shockbeam has a chance to paralyze you for x turns, and then you’re f***'d.

Rivet · 2013-08-06T19:13:45.000Z

I’m guessing OP got paralyzed and then killed before the paralysis wore off.

It sucks, but it’s not terribly common.

Rorudo · 2013-08-06T19:22:19.000Z

Zarthull, Whitelight

Are you playing v0.7.1 or experimetal builds based on current git state?
Do electlic zombie’s electric clouds fade with time in your version of the game?
Have you ever been paralyzed?

[quote=“Rivet, post:5, topic:2532”]I’m guessing OP got paralyzed and then killed before the paralysis wore off.

It sucks, but it’s not terribly common.[/quote]
I lost such a way two promising characters in a row, so I wonder if it’s just my bad luck.

i2amroy · 2013-08-06T19:44:07.000Z

Yeah, just tested the current version. Electric clouds disappear like they are supposed to (and so does paralysis).

Whitelight · 2013-08-07T00:44:45.000Z

I typically play with the latest experimental build (i check for updates daily). The clouds do fade, typically within a few turns of the zombie firing it. I have had characters paralyzed before and I have even died once during paralysis BUT I was low on health at the time and had a lot of pain reducing my stats significantly. If I am not really close to death when I do get paralyzed then I come out of it just fine and finish off the shocker. An important thing to note is when you get hit by a shocker blast there may be an electric arc underneath your character on subsequent turns so if you are not paralyzed by the initial hit then it is a good idea to move to avoid taking additional damage. Prior to realizing this, I died a lot more often to shockers because I would tend to stand in place until the arcs faded instead of looking for gaps and trying to escape. On its own, a shocker doesn’t seem to do all that much damage so I think the primary danger when being paralyzed is if you are surrounded by other enemies with no/damaged/weak armor.

Edit: Although I have died very rapidly (between 1 and 2 turns from full) on several occasions from other things. Particularly enemies with burst fire weapons (turrets, securebots, npcs…). Staying at range helps with that but sometimes you just get unlucky when opening a door right next to one.

drake1storm · 2013-08-07T01:19:51.000Z

Honestly, the deadliest special zombie (for me) is the damned smoker. Killing them is no problem, but the damn smoke absolutely destroys torso health.

system · 2013-08-07T07:41:40.000Z

Electric Zombies aren’t too bad if you see them coming and get ready but one time they truly gave me a one of a kind “OH @$#%!!!” moment that is the hallmark of any great survival horror game.

I was cruising through a new town, mulching zombies, looking for pickles to add to my hoard and I rounded a blind corner -

BOOM! Electric blast, am paralyzed immediately, car is going about 35 mph hour, immediately spins out/fumbles out of control and careens into gas pump which explodes catastrophically. I am somehow not immediately killed but between the shrapnel, the fire, and the smoke inhalation I am no match for the shocker which proceeds to telsa coil me to death. By far my best death…

prytoclasm · 2013-08-07T11:02:01.000Z

drake1storm:

Honestly, the deadliest special zombie (for me) is the damned smoker. Killing them is no problem, but the damn smoke absolutely destroys torso health.

There’s no ‘deadliness’ in ‘Smoker’ as soon as you have a gas mask or anything else with “4” (I think it was four) or more environmental protection over your mouth.

Morrigi · 2013-08-07T15:34:47.000Z

Molotovs work wonders on Smokers. Just chuck one or two into the cloud and you should kill it.

Whitelight · 2013-08-08T02:16:01.000Z

Yeah, even a filter mask will stop the smoker’s smoke from harming you so its not too bad. I would say the zombie that has given me the most problems is probably a zombie hulk… then again I don’t see them that often so all I really know about them comes from those two times they murdered the crap out of me.

i2amroy · 2013-08-10T16:25:42.000Z

Rorudo:

[quote=“i2amroy, post:7, topic:2532”]Yeah, just tested the current version. Electric clouds disappear like they are supposed to (and so does paralysis).

No, they don’t. And they will not disappear until someone of developers will make initialization sm->field_count = 0; before map fields load, for example at mapbuffer.cpp:255 before ‘do {’[/quote]
Are you playing with the latest experimental version? Because that’s what I’m playing on and they disappeared just fine.

Rorudo · 2013-08-10T16:47:38.000Z

i2amroy:

Are you playing with the latest experimental version?

Yup.

(Sorry for russian date labels, here you can see the hash of the latest commit: 6fc622e938caf2391fe4e6d04d148fab4ee3cbba)

i2amroy · 2013-08-12T04:22:03.000Z

Ok, that’s strange then. Just tested it once more with the latest experimental and they disappear just fine. Anybody else still having this problem in the current experimental build?

Whitelight · 2013-08-12T21:50:34.000Z

Like I have said before, I update daily and since this problem was initially reported I have gone through several experimental versions and not experienced this problem. I am not saying that I do not believe that the OP is having a problem, but I am not, however, currently experiencing that problem myself.

Rorudo · 2013-08-13T12:21:14.000Z

Guys, do you know that C++ does not clear the allocated memory? All fields of new allocated structs are dirty by default. They will contain 0’s if this block of memory was never used, but it is not guaranteed. Look at the sources, at least this variable is definitely dirty.
Sure, you may not clear variables in the heap, if the stability is not your goal.

kevin.granade · 2013-08-13T17:44:59.000Z

Rorudo: You are absolutely correct, will fix this ASAP.
Submaps are getting initialized properly-ish when generated, but not when loaded.
Need to pull the initialization out into a helper (or constructor, we’ll see) to make sure this happens automatically.