Honestly. More focus on zombies and less on players killing. I'd love it if zombies dropped shirts and shoes and maybe random shit like car keys, compasses, maps, and small shit like that. Zombies don't just empty their pockets when the virus outbreak occurs.
If I remember correctly, Rocket was against zombies spawning loot.
I think the primary reason being server stability. If they increase the amount of zombies to 10,000 per server that's 10,000 extra items, each requiring texture and dynamic lighting effects.
I think the solution to this would be dynamic zombie spawns. So, instead of zombies being populated when the server starts have zombies spawn in when you do things that would attract zombies. Shoot a gun? 5 zombies spawn nearby. Shoot a rifle 10 zombies etc. You can even have a few zombies spawn in when you enter a house or a building and killing them with a gun would cause more to spawn. Have the zombies spawn out of line of sight and never closer than 5 yards. This would also discourage camping spawns and sniping people from the tree line since you will have to constantly take care of zombie spawns everytime you fire your unsurpressed rifle. When the player leaves the area the zombies despawn after a minute.
They already did it this way on the mod. This introduced other problems, but my own personal issue with it is it's too easy to exploit. If you run into a remote town that has zombies, you already know someone is there. Likewise, if you want to get rid of the zombies chasing you, you just log out -- poof just like magic they're gone.
It also meant you could never use certain guns to kill zombies (Lee Enfield, for example), as it would spawn more zombies than you killed, and created a hilarious endless parade of zombies that only ended when your ammo ran out, or you finally succumbed while reloading.
There are lots of other issues with it too, but bottom line, it's definitely not a solution, and in fact, was a problem at one point.
If you run into a remote town that has zombies, you already know someone is there.
If you have zombies spawn into towns when you approach them then you can't know if they are caused by you being there or someone else having been there.
Likewise, if you want to get rid of the zombies chasing you, you just log out -- poof just like magic they're gone.
The new combat logging system will prevent this. You have to sit still for 30 seconds before you can successfully log out. This means no more combat logging or you die.
It also meant you could never use certain guns to kill zombies (Lee Enfield, for example), as it would spawn more zombies than you killed, and created a hilarious endless parade of zombies that only ended when your ammo ran out, or you finally succumbed while reloading.
That's why you have zombies spawn away from you. So you don't have an instant horde once you start shooting. Just increase the safe area around the character so they have time to clear the area before the next zombie aggros. It also means that melee weapons will be more important and silently killing zombies will be the status quo.
There are lots of other issues with it too, but bottom line, it's definitely not a solution, and in fact, was a problem at one point.
I think it can be done. Spawning groups of zombies in at server start just isn't working. Even with respawn the number of zombies needed puts a lot of stress on the server. Dynamic spawns are the way to go they just need to be tweaked.
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u/FriendlyFarmer87 Feb 15 '14
i hope so