Noise Makers, Aerosol Bomb Use

[Upsilon2514]

Has anyone used one of the two? I've only made the noise maker, but once a zombie sees you there's nothing else that will distract them. I don't know how good the range is either, I've never bothered to make another one. I would like to see a change in zombie behavior, like how the noisy pipe bomb in Left 4 Dead would always attract the horde regardless if they already saw you.

I've been thinking of setting up traps with noise makers, along with remote pipe bombs set in place for dealing with hordes. I've only ever used molotovs. I just kite them around until they are in one group and light them up. From there I just walk around and lead them into more fires until they turn to ash. As for the aerosol bomb, I'm not really sure. I rather just kill them really, but if I played with stronger zombies I might consider it an option, if it even works that is. Gathering all the materials, plus the fact I need the engineer occupation to use the good ones is what drives me away. When a simple molotov does all the work, requires no skills/occupation and it's easy to come by.

Any players out there use any other tactics for dealing with hordes? You know, besides the usual molotov and emptying 300 shotgun shells.

[Pafka]

You can get in a car and spin backwards, mowing down any approaching zombies without them being able to make you stop (Except its a really really thick horde). Then you can make a campfire or even multiple and lure the horde across them and wait them to burn to ashes. I dont use bombs either, they are expensive, pretty inefficient and dangerous to the player. Noise makers do just have a noise radius of 14. That means its more quiet than just shouting. That makes them pretty useless too. The mod "Louder Noise Maker" makes them louder to a radius of 40 tiles. I use this mod and it makes them far more effective at kiting and luring zombies to a trap (Fire, car etc). I highly recommend this mod.

[DarkFenix]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2629676638
That adds a new 250 radius noise maker you can craft. Genuinely practical for rounding up a real horde, albeit still not on par with a vehicle siren or house alarm. Same guy has also modded in bigger bombs you can craft, the largest of which is extremely powerful... but crafted from some absurdly rare items.

[Upsilon2514]

Originally posted by MontyPKE:

You can get in a car and spin backwards, mowing down any approaching zombies without them being able to make you stop (Except its a really really thick horde). Then you can make a campfire or even multiple and lure the horde across them and wait them to burn to ashes. I dont use bombs either, they are expensive, pretty inefficient and dangerous to the player. Noise makers do just have a noise radius of 14. That means its more quiet than just shouting. That makes them pretty useless too. The mod "Louder Noise Maker" makes them louder to a radius of 40 tiles. I use this mod and it makes them far more effective at kiting and luring zombies to a trap (Fire, car etc). I highly recommend this mod.

Hope Indie Stone doesn't forget about their existence and actual make them viable without modders having to do it for them. 14 tiles vanilla, really? That sucks. I'll check out the mod and DarkFenix's recommendation as well.

[Kaldrak]

I've always had this plan in the back of my mind for an engineer run. Lay remote bombs with triggers around an emergency vehicle, then activate the siren and hide nearby. Wait till surrounded and detonate.

BOOM.

It's an amusing plan that requires too much set up and you could just light campfires around the vehicle instead. Much safer and less recourse intensive.

That being said, I have thrown the bombs at crowds of zeds. Last time I tried it I discovered that you cannot throw over tall fences, even if you've built stairs up to them. Game acted like it's a solid wall for throwables, going up to infinity. Luckily it was just an aerosol bomb, but it almost killed me. The pipe bomb is damn dangerous. Be careful using that thing.

[Upsilon2514]

Originally posted by Kaldrak:

I've always had this plan in the back of my mind for an engineer run. Lay remote bombs with triggers around an emergency vehicle, then activate the siren and hide nearby. Wait till surrounded and detonate.

BOOM.

It's an amusing plan that requires too much set up and you could just light campfires around the vehicle instead. Much safer and less recourse intensive.

That being said, I have thrown the bombs at crowds of zeds. Last time I tried it I discovered that you cannot throw over tall fences, even if you've built stairs up to them. Game acted like it's a solid wall for throwables, going up to infinity. Luckily it was just an aerosol bomb, but it almost killed me. The pipe bomb is damn dangerous. Be careful using that thing.

Seems more dangerous to the player than zombies, it only does 17 explosive damage with a damage fall off of 14, the rest of the damage is fire over time. With an explosive range of 7 tiles. I read a lot of about, just never bothered to try engineer. I could probably kill around the same amount of zombies with a box of ammo I would've had to sacrifice to make a single pipe bomb. I always go with burglar anyways, it's my favorite since I mostly play solo.

[VANGUARD]

It seems motion sensors can be attached to noise makers.
Maybe one can use this as an alarm system instead?
For one it alerts you to the presence of zombies and in addition it occupies the intruders' awareness, pulling them to a spot away from critical points like your door.
In this case you wouldn't want the thing to be too loud, so a radius of 14 would be fitting.

[Undefined]

Motion sensors seems like it makes more sense for PvP to protect your base or booby trap hot spots for loot. Trip a noise maker, deal with the zombies. Trip a bomb, get dealt damage. The smoke bomb is the only one that makes sense to use against zombies.

With that said, I've yet to use one of these traps because I've read about them and they all seem like crap.

I was genuinely interested in remote controlled noise makers, but all hope was lost when I saw the range for both the noise maker and the remote.

I plan on looking into mods that buff them a bit.

[Upsilon2514]

Originally posted by Sceadugengan:

It seems motion sensors can be attached to noise makers.
Maybe one can use this as an alarm system instead?
For one it alerts you to the presence of zombies and in addition it occupies the intruders' awareness, pulling them to a spot away from critical points like your door.
In this case you wouldn't want the thing to be too loud, so a radius of 14 would be fitting.

14 tiles no, I'd be happier with 30 or more, enough keep the whole block busy, if even. 250 like the mod Fenix recommended is an absurd range, I wouldn't want to provoke that many. Voip voice distance is 10 to 100 tiles, I personally lower it 10 to 50. If the noise maker was less than or around 50 tiles that would be just peachy.

[Upsilon2514]

Originally posted by Undefined:

Motion sensors seems like it makes more sense for PvP to protect your base or booby trap hot spots for loot. Trip a noise maker, deal with the zombies. Trip a bomb, get dealt damage. The smoke bomb is the only one that makes sense to use against zombies.

With that said, I've yet to use one of these traps because I've read about them and they all seem like crap.

I was genuinely interested in remote controlled noise makers, but all hope was lost when I saw the range for both the noise maker and the remote.

I plan on looking into mods that buff them a bit.

Yeah, they're pretty bad from what I've seen. I wouldn't mind experimenting with them. Indie Stone should make them more useful without the need of mods would be great. As of now, I just go in guns blazing and burn the whole place down. Does a better job than tinkering away with electronics and hardware store supplies. Hope that changes in B42 with the new crafting and so on.