Is there a way to stop, or at least spot, burglar alarms?

[e11]

I just had my first run-in with one of these, as I opened a window into the fire station. I got out of there just before the hordes could converge. Could I have either seen it, or rushed inside to turn it off?
And will the zombies it summoned still be there around the station if I go back in a day or so?

[Nordil(Hun)]

"Walks around the house, checks it all out, looks inside from every angle, window, door whatever. Good. This should be okay. Opens window. WIOWWIOWIOW...oh f... here we go again"
10 minutes later.
"Walks around a house, place seems empty as every Z went for the alarmed house. Does the same routine again. Opens the door WIOWWIOWIOW...ffs..."
Another 20 minutes later.
"2 Story house, knocks on door, walks around, checks the house, looks inside...finds a window that finally opens. WIOWIOWIOW...time to go home and forget about today's looot run".

[Chris!!]

There is no way of knowing if a house actually has a burglar alarm, nor is there a way of disabling it without triggering it. You can at least know that a house doesn't have an alarm if any of the windows or doors are unlocked or busted.

[DavBanjo]

Pretty sure you can turn that off in the sandbox options

[Kaia]

For lvl 4 electrical, you should be able to spot it when a house has an alarm, and for lvl5 electrical you're able to disable it. How about that. make the skill somewhat worth pursuing past lvl 2 :)

[Quill]

Originally posted by Kaia:

make the skill somewhat worth pursuing past lvl 2 :)

There already is though. At lvl 5 you can make lamps use battery power

[Prowler™]

No alarms are random
They also occur on some cars
You can turn it off in sandbox
They are actually very good events and you should keep them on as they let you clear out the entire surrounded loaded region in 2-3 mins and hopping over any tall fence or just walking away keeps you safe.
You can also set fire to the alarmed house and all the zombies will die...if you can remain close by as they burn (fire is not rendered off screen and deal no damage off screen and will only re-appear when on screen)

[Death]

Not in vanilla, however there is a mod that ads that feature to the burglar profession. I don't remember what it's called exactly, but I'm sure you can find it in the workshop.

Edit: I lied. It used to be on the workshop, but it seems to be gone. You might still be able to find it elsewhere though. It's called "Burglars can detect alarms" if you care to try to seek it out.

[Pherdnut]

Maybe just confirmation bias, but In my experience the alarmed houses tend to be more locked up. Like if you've tried 2 doors and 3 windows, maybe be ready to bolt on the decision to break in or try the very last one. Some spaces like storage units can have the doors open and an alarm might still go off.

[e11]

Does the alarm reset after it pipes down?

[Chris!!]

Originally posted by e11:

Does the alarm reset after it pipes down?

No. Once it gets triggered it will never reset.

[PapaSloppy]

Hopped in three houses in a row with the burglar alarm at the start of my multiplayer run the other day, just the dice you gotta roll man.

[ChronoGuru]

Just had my very first game with this.

Started in a house. Went to an adjacent house. Alarm.

Barely escaped with my life.

Worked up the courage to go back. Cleared out the horde, bit by bit as a newbie. Didn't get bit.

Confident in my success, I go to the next building over. Alarm again.

This time I didn't survive.

Guess that's RNG for you. I came looking to see if there was anything I could do differently, there. Guess not much

[Kaia]

Originally posted by Quill:

Originally posted by Kaia:

make the skill somewhat worth pursuing past lvl 2 :)

There already is though. At lvl 5 you can make lamps use battery power

Lol though. I am aware of that, it's just not an actual reason at all. It will always be infinitely easier, less micro intensive and cheaper to use generators to power anything and everything.

So no, there really isn't any practical use for reaching Electrical 3 and above.
Electrical 2 gets you the ability to pick up the deepfryer which has the largest capacity of all the ovens.
Electrical 3 lets you pick up washing machines, but is largely practically useless, since by then you ought to have enough infrastructure set up to not need any of that. But fine if you want to roleplay.

Beyond 3 i honestly see no point.
Alarms suck, but they suck more early game than they do late game, when you would have a higher electrical level, so either way it's a bit meh. My favourite fu from the game is when i trigger an alarm on the first house i try getting into on a new run.

[Warface]

Just wait until the electricity cuts off after 6 months. Problem solved!

[Kaia]

Originally posted by Warface:

Just wait until the electricity cuts off after 6 months. Problem solved!

Electricity shuts off in the first month. Furthermore, you can still trigger housealarms just fine after the electricity is gone. bro