Wandering zombies

so just thinking, shouldn’t zombies wander around, instead of staying in one place after spawning? have zeds in the countryside, maybe even herds a la The Walking Dead.

Aren’t there already zombies in the countryside? You can even find them locked in a barn on farms.

true, but those are the only places i’ve seen them outside of towns other then military outposts and labs.

Beehives and fungal blooms have their own versions as well. It’s kinda nice to not have zeds everywhere.

then have them spread out and/or wander more. right now the only reason i ever bother to fortify my base is to keep NPCs from stealing my shit. having herds of 100-200 zombies wandering around the map would force players to either build a strong fortress or stay on the move. also to make it a little less tedious increase the variety of materials needed to build palisade walls, i.e. wire, barbed wire, copper wire, steel chain, OR rope 6 ft.

Making zombies spawn and wander in packs of different sizes has been mentioned.

I think there are plans to improve the zombie AI quite a bit, make them a little more persistent and active. I’m unsure what the plans are, but IMO zombies should ‘hunt’ at night and only remain stationary (as they do now) during the day. ‘Hunting’ would let them wander out of town a bit, wander around towns, move through buildings. Occasionally smash a window or door down of their own accord. Of course they’d move more slowly than when they’re chasing prey.

Hordes will make a big difference. Clearing out a town and thinking you’re safe only to have a huge mass of zombies wander in from down the highway will add so much to the experience. It would force you to react and adapt. Do you try to hold out against the horde? You can’t be sure how many there are. Are your defenses strong enough? Did you put out enough traps? If you flee will you be able to outrun them? Do you have a vehicle? An escape route? Can you lose them in the nearby forest? Or are you just speeding up the inevitable?

Hunting zombies and wandering hordes will make all those traps and construction projects actually worthwhile. It will make camping out in houses and just shutting the curtains a gamble every time you do it. And lead to rude awakenings. And also make it so that cleared out sections of towns can’t be trusted to remain cleared out. Predictability and reliability are what makes Cata a little too easy right now. Gotta change things up.

They’ll be adding new zombie behaviour sometime. Not sure when, but I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a mechanic to repopulate cities and suchlike after you’ve depopulated them, zombie swarms etc.

Yes this is something we definitely want to happen, and ASAP at that. It’s just that we have some infrastructutre-y things that need to be sorted out first.

What would zombies wonder about, I wonder.

LOL.

[quote=“pingpong, post:9, topic:2681”]What would zombies wonder about, I wonder.[/quote]spelling fixed.

Zombies are figuring out if this lump of walking meat smells good.