# Regional Schools are getting a bit out of hand

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/regional-schools-are-getting-a-bit-out-of-hand/14263>\
**Category:** The Drawing Board\
**Created:** [September 21, 2017, 3:47pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/regional-schools-are-getting-a-bit-out-of-hand/14263 "2017-09-21T15:47:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SpadeDraco](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/spadedraco/32/564_2.png) [@SpadeDraco](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/SpadeDraco)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2017, 3:47pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/regional-schools-are-getting-a-bit-out-of-hand/14263/1 "2017-09-21T15:47:56Z")

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I’m not saying that they shouldn’t have alot of zombies in them. I just think that the current spawn rate for them is excessive. I’ve had several of them completely collapse from the sheer number of zombies pushing against the walls before i even had a chance to try luring them out and raiding the place. Regional schools now spawn more zombies than Megastores. They’re basically pointless to raid now because they require 20x the effort of raiding a Mansion or Library instead.

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**Author:** ![DemAvalon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/demavalon/32/1332_2.png) [@DemAvalon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/DemAvalon)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2017, 3:59pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/regional-schools-are-getting-a-bit-out-of-hand/14263/2 "2017-09-21T15:59:58Z")

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I don’t know, most of the zombies in schools are children and regular types which are pretty weak, the reward for raiding a school is a whole bunch of books which I think is pretty good, you can get rid of most of the zombies by just making a 4 wide “road” of nail board traps and luring small pockets of them trough that.

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**Author:** ![John\_Candlebury](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/john_candlebury/32/6437_2.png) [@John\_Candlebury](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/John_Candlebury)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2017, 4:09pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/regional-schools-are-getting-a-bit-out-of-hand/14263/3 "2017-09-21T16:09:49Z")

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I like them as they are, they feel properly apocalyptic.

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**Author:** ![SpadeDraco](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/spadedraco/32/564_2.png) [@SpadeDraco](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/SpadeDraco)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/regional-schools-are-getting-a-bit-out-of-hand/14263/4 "2017-09-21T16:31:11Z")

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> [@John Candlebury](#):
>
> I like them as they are, they feel properly apocalyptic.

I actually have no problem whatsoever with having certain buildings spawn a ton of enemies. The issue with regional schools specifically is that they often contain the books required to craft the gear required to take on an 800+ enemy horde which is what is now guarding those books.

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**Author:** ![Sneaky\_Potato](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/sneaky_potato/32/6599_2.png) [@Sneaky\_Potato](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Sneaky_Potato)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2017, 6:48pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/regional-schools-are-getting-a-bit-out-of-hand/14263/5 "2017-09-21T18:48:32Z")

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Spawn rate could be scaled down bit in exchange i would say that the devs increase the spawnrate of special zombie kids. I don’t even get near schools because i dislike the idea or being chased by 60+ hungry kids.

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**Author:** ![Theundyingcode](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/theundyingcode/32/500_2.png) [@Theundyingcode](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Theundyingcode)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2017, 11:14pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/regional-schools-are-getting-a-bit-out-of-hand/14263/6 "2017-09-21T23:14:02Z")

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> [@SpadeDraco](#):
>
> [quote=“John Candlebury, post:3, topic:14263”]I like them as they are, they feel properly apocalyptic.

I actually have no problem whatsoever with having certain buildings spawn a ton of enemies. The issue with regional schools specifically is that they often contain the books required to craft the gear required to take on an 800+ enemy horde which is what is now guarding those books.[/quote]

I have never raided a school early game. If they are raid-able, I go for libraries and bookstores but, as long as your not stupid unlucky with finding tools, it’s really easy to grind up to nomad gear and a basic vehicle. (I go with a elongated solar powered lootcycle). At this point you can go around until you find good targets. Yes, having the books is still a lot nicer but I’ve never found it necessary.

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**Author:** ![\_k1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/_k1/32/1335_2.png) [@\_k1](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/_k1)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2017, 7:08am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/regional-schools-are-getting-a-bit-out-of-hand/14263/7 "2017-09-22T07:08:56Z")

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![](https://imgchr.com/i/mkxv6)

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**Author:** ![NuG](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/nug/32/7057_2.png) [@NuG](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/NuG)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2017, 12:07pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/regional-schools-are-getting-a-bit-out-of-hand/14263/8 "2017-09-22T12:07:09Z")

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Yeah I thought I didn’t like so many enemies at the schools, but some good points are made here and my opinion has swayed onto the side of leave it how it is. There are a bunch of books there, but I had survivor gear before even going to the school I raided in my current run.

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**Author:** ![Rysith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Rysith](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Rysith)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/regional-schools-are-getting-a-bit-out-of-hand/14263/9 "2017-09-22T18:57:04Z")

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Isn’t there something about how increasing spawn rate actually increases the number of ‘points’ that the game has to spawn zombies with, and that to keep zombie numbers reasonable it tries to spawn more expensive zombies if it can?

That makes me suspect that the issue here is high spawn rates (to force many expensive zombies in the normal case) coupled with restricted-spawn areas (schools, necropolis) that take out the high-point zombies, resulting in massive numbers. Might the solution here be to apply the spawn rate multiplier after the zombie has been chosen so that it works closer to what people seem to expect, and people who want lots of zombies get their lots of zombies without problems like this?

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**Author:** ![Zhilkin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/zhilkin/32/3749_2.png) [@Zhilkin](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Zhilkin)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 7:16am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/regional-schools-are-getting-a-bit-out-of-hand/14263/10 "2017-09-23T07:16:22Z")

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> <https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/master/data/json/mapgen/school_1.json#L154-L164>

Try to lower `density` and/or `repeat` numbers in the file above.

```auto
      "place_monsters": [
        { "monster": "GROUP_SCHOOL", "x": [0, 23], "y": [0, 23], "repeat": [1, 2], "density": 3 },
        { "monster": "GROUP_SCHOOL", "x": [25, 46], "y": [1, 22], "repeat": [1, 3], "density": 2 },
        { "monster": "GROUP_SCHOOL", "x": [49, 70], "y": [1, 22], "repeat": [1, 3], "density": 2 },
        { "monster": "GROUP_SCHOOL", "x": [1, 22], "y": [25, 46], "repeat": [1, 3], "density": 2 },
        { "monster": "GROUP_SCHOOL", "x": [25, 46], "y": [25, 46], "repeat": [1, 3], "density": 2 },
        { "monster": "GROUP_SCHOOL", "x": [49, 70], "y": [25, 46], "repeat": [1, 3], "density": 2 },
        { "monster": "GROUP_SCHOOL", "x": [1, 22], "y": [49, 70], "repeat": [1, 3], "density": 2 },
        { "monster": "GROUP_SCHOOL", "x": [25, 46], "y": [49, 70], "repeat": [1, 3], "density": 2 },
        { "monster": "GROUP_SCHOOL", "x": [49, 70], "y": [49, 70], "repeat": [1, 3], "density": 2 }
],
```