Quick -N- Dirty "Wandering" Hordes

[EkarusRyndren]

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.

[kevin.granade]

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…

[deadmerits]

I don’t want to be discouraging but a can see a few problems not related to coding:

1. 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.’

2. 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.)

[Hyena_Grin]

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).

[deadmerits]

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.

[dwarfkoala]

I’d rather not have the quick and dirty implementation, as it is a hack and hacks are to be discouraged.