Best Zombie Population Multiplier Option?

[Matty1Monopoly]

I think 1 is too many and 0.35 is too few although it feels more realistic (West Point's real life pop is 1,000). I'm debating between 0.75 & 0.5.

Also what should I adjust to stop having zombies spawn right behind me or stop from spawning in bushes/houses that I just walked through?

[Graygan]

It depends on the style of game-play you want. More deadly, less deadly, etc.

As far as "realism"... They're zombies.

If you want a "realistic" role-play reason for more zombies showing up... for respawning... etc...

Kentucky is a land-locked state. There are, roughly, 1 billion people with a direct walkability to Kentucky(counting South America). Over time a LOT of zeds will wander into your area just from the neighboring areas.

Day 1, sure... 1k zeds in West Point. What about Day 28? 4 weeks after the event. Lots of zeds could have wandered in by that point. Even if they're only pulling 1 mile an hour. That's 672 miles a zed could have walked and ended up in your area. That's a radius, mind you. That means any zed from a huge number of large cities could have wandered to you by the zombie max population day.

Theoretically speaking, of course.

[Vinnie]

Just do be aware that Population multiplier is used as a base for Starting and Peak population. This means that if you set BasePopulation to x4.0 and PeakMultiplier to x4.0 you'll get x16 the zombies at peak day, if your respawn options are able to keep up.
I've found it easier to set PeakMultiplier to x1.0 and StartingMultiplier to something less that x1.0 (In my case x0.75) and then adjust the general BasePopulation as needed.
Currently running a chill game with x0.75 BasePopulation, x0.75 StartingMultiplier and x1.0 Peak Multiplier at day 28.
Respawn is set to x0.01 (1% of total zombie populaton) every 24h but only in cells that have not been visited by a player for 72h. Do be aware that this doesn't mean you'll never get any zombies in areas you visit often, because zombies spawned in other cells will migrate into the ones where new zombies still aren't allowed to spawn in.

[KillerKommando]

I've been playing on the following settings: Base = 1, Starting = 0.1, Peak = 2.0, Peak Day = 150, Respawn = off

So far it's been pretty fun. I started in Rosewood. There weren't many zombies, completely manageable start. It felt like all the "normal" people had up and left. By the time the helicopter showed up, there were some hordes starting to form (around 4-5 each).

By day 15 I had traveled to Muldraugh, which was already difficult. Hordes were larger. Every block seemed to have 10-15 of them. I spent a couple days clearing the main road with a few crowbars, then based up in the large warehouse on the North side.

I've now got a forward base set up, and my main base in Rosewood FD is set up as well. Next stop will likely be Raven Creek to see if I can get a semi truck and more supplies. I can hardly imagine how bad eventually getting to Louisville will be..

[AlexSledge]

Originally posted by Graygan:

Kentucky is a land-locked state. There are, roughly, 1 billion people with a direct walkability to Kentucky(counting South America). Over time a LOT of zeds will wander into your area just from the neighboring areas.

I'm not sure you'd see "a LOT" more zombies in Kentucky, even the dead don't want to go there.

I KID!!!

"Realistically" though, like any predator they'd follow their food source using their means of tracking (sight, sound, smell (eventually you will need to bathe in PZ!)) which would lead them away from the 1 guy or gal surviving in Kentucky. One of the motivations behind my always using Urban Focused zombie population. I don't see zombies catching squirrels, birds and rabbits while out in the forest, so there shouldn't be too many there.

I do try and avoid farming/trapping/foraging (just boring to me) or being far out in the middle of nowhere, and tend toward sneaking/looting the populated areas. Current game I'm using a similar ramp up with no respawn as KillerKommando above, with loot respawn on but low & slow, allowing me to continue sneaking and fighting my way around the city scavenging for supplies as long as I can.

Guess that's my long way of saying that you might need to tinker with the settings a bit to determine what is best for your happiness playing the game.

[Matty1Monopoly]

What should I adjust to stop having zombies spawn right behind me or stop from spawning in bushes/houses that I just walked through?

[Reyori]

It has been a while, but:
Set "respawn hours" to 0.
That way there will be no zombie respawn.
Also keep in mind that in this case, if you walk around & load a new chunk of the map, the amount of zombies spawned will be determined by the current population multiplier.
So if you disable respawn & set the "population start multplier" to 0.1 & the "population peak multiplier" to 4 & walk around the whole town early on, it will only ever spawn in the 0.1 zed population.

So if you want a good no-respawn-run, you either learn to deal with a high population from the start, set the "population peak day" to hot very early, or hunker down for the first days so you don't load too much of the map with less zombies.

I like to play with high or insane zombie population, but with respawns off. That way it feels like I actually make progress in the game by clearing out areas. There are always some zombies that migrate in, but it feels much more natural.

[ProtecTron]

Respawns off really hits your world when you play quite a couple of hours... When you return from a dangerous run to your previously cleared "living-zone" you feel it worth it, either that same character or others before him xD. Epic stuff...

My set ups for "realism" and gameplay sits around these values:

Start mult: 0.75 / 1
Peak mult: 2.50 / 2.75
Peak day: 36-60 days
Day lenght: 0:30
Respawn off...
Day activity (slower at night)
Instant Electricity shut down (military cutting off KY from the outher world)

I've tested 3.0 and more on a multiplayer private server and my potato pc lagged a lot. And it didn't look immersive to have sooo many zombies in little rural towns... With 2.50 at peak day, you'll have a huge amount of zombies in big cities anyway...