Need feedback on mob vision range

Game Talk The Lab
1

Ok, me and Kevin have basically been re-doing mob senses.

The way it worked before was mobs could see you pretty much to infinity.(Well, max range of the grid which was 60 tiles away.)

Kevin has fixed up smell to behave better, and sound to take priority over smell, and I am working on a specific vision range per mob.

Keeping in mind a “house” in Cataclysm is ~20 tiles across for scale, how far should things see?

Right now I am working on the assumption that a zombie in a moderate state of decay will obviously have reduced vision, a heavly decayed zombie will have a limited range of vision, and a “fresh” zombie will have a normal range of vision.

So the player’s chance to notice mobs is based on light level, and I am planning on tying it into perception stat.

2

I like the idea of being able to see a monster before it sees me, would be interesting to see what you could do with silenced rifles, like sniping zombies w/o them noticing you.

3

That actually works now :stuck_out_tongue:

The way it stands right now, and this is just a general test until we can tweak it.

Assume Average Eyesight range to be 30 tiles away from the player.

Regular Zombie
20 tile range(Slightly degraded vision)
Fresh Zombie
30 tiles(Same as Human)
Brute Zombie
20 tiles(Because it helps with balance)
Decayed Zombie
10 tile range(Extremely decayed eyeballs)
Soldier Zombie
10 tile range(Riot gear reduces vision)
Scientist Zombie
40 tiles(Sharper senses)

Wolves Dogs and cats, cougars
40 tiles(Animal Senses)

There are others I added in, but testing will tell if I should reduce it or not.

Dont forget when testing, Zombies CAN track still by sound and scent. So even if they cant see you, they will move towards you sometimes because of other factors.

Also, Light level affects this. If its completely dark, they cant see crap if they already had a 10 tile vision, except what is right in their face about 5 feet away.

4

I think children-z should be on par with Normal Zombies (20), because while they would be “fresh”, they are small and we can assume they took more damage than adult zombies during the zombie process (be it either via a bite or a disease)

But if they are weak, then maybe keeping their site at 30 would balance them more.

5

[quote=“Tase, post:4, topic:310”]I think children-z should be on par with Normal Zombies (20), because while they would be “fresh”, they are small and we can assume they took more damage than adult zombies during the zombie process (be it either via a bite or a disease)

But if they are weak, then maybe keeping their site at 30 would balance them more.[/quote]

I definately nerfed them so… I will see how it plays out.

The sight thing is nice in testing so far.

You can see zombies before they agro on you, giving you a chance to sneak around and slip past them.

6

Neat, now we can stealth.

7

Daytime vision doesn’t bother me much, but I primarily run fast characters who have an easy time getting zombies off their tail. However, I think we need some more enemies that can see in the dark. Nighttime simply feels so much safer than daytime because of how you can go through town and loot completely unnoticed. The only real weakness is it can be kind of a pain in the ass if you haven’t revealed the area in advance.

8

This is CZS, so the only thing you are gonna see with night"sight" is wolves and cougars and cats. Maybe dogs…

9

I actually have some problems during the night, running into a random zombie and ending up getting a dozen after me following my scent.