So I got an idea. It’s quick, it’s dirty, and I’m not entirely certain it’s possible. It’s possible for monsters to spawn after x number of days. Is it possible for after y number of days a percentage chance of a “horde” spawning after a notice. For example it’s day 80 and you get a message.
“Something feels wrong, like there’s trouble on the horizon.”
then a day or so later
“The local zombies seem more active than usual.”
another day or so later
“You’re noticing a lot more zombies in the distance than usual.”
and finally
“You see a massive horde of zombies coming! Better dig in!”
at which point the game will continuously spawn zeds just inside the reality bubble for z period of time, possibly aggravated by noise?
It’s not perfect and frankly it’s another “patch” flavor but there you have it.
I kind of hate it a lot. But you know it’s a hack, so I’m not telling you anything you don’t know.
I need to see about digging in and doing it right…
I don’t want to be discouraging but a can see a few problems not related to coding:
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It postpones anyone working on “the real thing” (or rather a map entity that moves from tile to tile and “becomes a hoard” when it reaches the reality bubble) because it’s ‘good enough for now.’
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New user’s may assume that this is “the real thing” and jump to conclusions about what C:DDA has to offer. (As I type this it does seem rather unlikely to be a make or break point.)
On the one hand, I feel like hordes are a necessary effect for the game to retain its challenge past the starting period. On the other hand… I am not sure I would want to settle for zombies literally just spawning madly on some random occasion regardless of where you are or what you’ve been up to.
A horde should really need to come from somewhere. That way you can influence the probability of a horde making it to your doorstep (by systematically clearing out the areas around your home).
Idea. Can we make the zombies continue travelling across maptiles in the last direction it saw a human? Then it’d be like if you ran close by a town on your way back to base… did that group see/smell me go by? Are they headed this way now, even as I repair my outfit eat dinner and prepare for bed?
But the reality bubble… I don’t have an answer for that.
I’d rather not have the quick and dirty implementation, as it is a hack and hacks are to be discouraged.