Zombies Always on the Roads?

[tickletank]

As most of you veterans are probably aware, Apocalypse Mode isn't exactly shy about putting zombies in the streets, especially in high-population areas. I get that. What frustrates me is driving through the large stretch of lonely highway between Muldraugh and Westpoint and consistently having to slow down to dodge the never-ending supply of zeds. Since there's almost nothing on that road between both towns, I'm not sure why the devs spawn so many zombies in that area. So, to get to the point: does anyone know of any mods or even sandbox settings that lessen the amount of zombies in desolate areas such as this? Even with the population set to "urban focused" it still spawns a ridiculous amount of zombies in the middle of nowhere between those two towns. If there were businesses lining the roads or abandoned cars everywhere it would make more sense, but there's almost nothing in that large expanse of ghostly highway. I'm all for zombies being in areas and POIs that players would want to visit, but it would be nice to just drive the quiet, unpopulated sections of the map without looking like a skier in a slalom! lol.

[DeadRabbit]

I play on 3.0 amount of zombies (idk what game setting that is but that's what it is under advanced) and I've never noticed too many zombies on highways, Even in places where I makes sense, like the road between muldaugh and Rosewood where there's a massive pileup, there are no zombies. Only place I see a LOT of zombies on the highway is on the road to Louisville, which makes sense because tons of people would have flocked there for protection from the military.

[tickletank]

Hmm, that's strange. I'll have to make a video and post it so people can see what I'm talking about. It's weird that you're not seeing zombies even in the pileups. I wonder if something happened to the distribution with the newest update.

[Mr C.Folt Scruff]

Yep can relate i once thinking zombie is thin here on highway so i bring my long range rifle , to thin out the horde for easy travel.
After shooting for a while zombie come in droves from nearby woods so yeah maybe they tried to migrate that's why road is very populated sometimes.

[DivineEvil]

Don't know. Under standard modes, sombies spawn around urban areas (i.e. around any buildings), and my experience reflects that. If there are zombies on the highway just means there's some sort of housing or enterpise close to it. Otherwise they're pretty much empty, and enabling the camera shift when driving solves the problem of seeing and avoiding them ahead of time.

[pRaX]

I'm gonna claim this is due to most road/street tiles being considered urban on a technical level.
It's really annoying...

[tickletank]

Originally posted by DivineEvil:

Don't know. Under standard modes, sombies spawn around urban areas (i.e. around any buildings), and my experience reflects that. If there are zombies on the highway just means there's some sort of housing or enterpise close to it. Otherwise they're pretty much empty, and enabling the camera shift when driving solves the problem of seeing and avoiding them ahead of time.

I wish my experience reflected that as well, but I guess it's just not in my cards. I also use the camera shift-while-driving technique, but it doesn't help much when you still have to slow down to 20 MPH to take the tiny sliver of open space they sometimes leave you. It just means you see the roadblock a tad bit earlier. Still, it's good advice that some people may not be aware of (since I think you have to hotkey it in the options menu), so thanks for bringing that up.

So in conclusion, it seems I'm the only one having this problem...and hey, that's a good thing! The next time you guys are cruising the mostly empty back roads think of me. I'll be doing the speed limit while wincing every time the newest batch of woodland spawns smacks my fender!

[BioPhreak]

What is odd is I have notices if you are driving fast, the zombies like to walk to the path of your vehicle and 'stop' in the road intentionally so you either hit them or have to swerve.

I agree there seems to be too many just wandering by empty roads miles away from towns.

[Quineloe]

Originally posted by DeadRabbit:

I play on 3.0 amount of zombies (idk what game setting that is but that's what it is under advanced) and I've never noticed too many zombies on highways, Even in places where I makes sense, like the road between muldaugh and Rosewood where there's a massive pileup, there are no zombies. Only place I see a LOT of zombies on the highway is on the road to Louisville, which makes sense because tons of people would have flocked there for protection from the military.

Some roads are empty, some roads are absolutely swarming on standard apocalypse pops. There's no rhyme or reason to which is which either. There's also an enormous amount of zombies on the road along the Ohio river when you drive to riverside even though there is absolutely *nothing* there on half of the way.

[Quineloe]

Originally posted by DivineEvil:

Don't know. Under standard modes, sombies spawn around urban areas (i.e. around any buildings), and my experience reflects that. If there are zombies on the highway just means there's some sort of housing or enterpise close to it. Otherwise they're pretty much empty, and enabling the camera shift when driving solves the problem of seeing and avoiding them ahead of time.

That just doesn't explain some of the very populated highways such as this stretch here:

https://map.projectzomboid.com/#0.2591969435171042,0.07505544411208877,123.25617259669093

The highway there is swarmed on roughly 2/3s of the way to the small hamlet all the way to the abandoned factory in the north. Zombies on both sides, zombies on the road, literally hundreds in many different hordes for easily 40-50 seconds of driving at high speed. The small town doesn't explain it as it's too far, the abandoned factory with the vandalized houses doesn't explain it (as those themselves are zombie-free). They're just there for no reason.

[tickletank]

Originally posted by Quineloe:

Originally posted by DivineEvil:

Don't know. Under standard modes, sombies spawn around urban areas (i.e. around any buildings), and my experience reflects that. If there are zombies on the highway just means there's some sort of housing or enterpise close to it. Otherwise they're pretty much empty, and enabling the camera shift when driving solves the problem of seeing and avoiding them ahead of time.

That just doesn't explain some of the very populated highways such as this stretch here:

https://map.projectzomboid.com/#0.2591969435171042,0.07505544411208877,123.25617259669093

The highway there is swarmed on roughly 2/3s of the way to the small hamlet all the way to the abandoned factory in the north. Zombies on both sides, zombies on the road, literally hundreds in many different hordes for easily 40-50 seconds of driving at high speed. The small town doesn't explain it as it's too far, the abandoned factory with the vandalized houses doesn't explain it (as those themselves are zombie-free). They're just there for no reason.

Thanks for confirming that I'm not the only one experiencing this. I guess all we can do is hope that the devs will take a long look at spawn zones/chunks once they have most of the game firmly in place. Until then, it's definitely something I can live with (and have for about 800 hours). It would just be nice to speed through the empty countryside to move between towns faster, but even if you clear all the wreckage along the way, Apocalypse Mode will likely just spawn/migrate more zombies to that area (if you try to clear them out). Oh well...still one of my favorite games ever.

[Dropdeadfred]

It always amazes me how many people don't want zombies in their zombie apoc game

[DarkFaceGlow]

They are re-enacting Woodstock. Drives me crazy too.

[pRaX]

Originally posted by Dropdeadfred:

It always amazes me how many people don't want zombies in their zombie apoc game

Well, can't speak for the others but that's not my issue with this behaviour.
Like I said, I'm convinced this has to do with road/street tiles being considered Urban on a technical level.
When you drive around in the outskirts and you can tell the zombies are spawning on the roads as soon as the cell is loaded, gravitating towards the middle of it while there are almost none off the road.. it's just blatantly in your face game'y.
You literally see them pop into existence and brainlessly start walking forwards towards the center of the road tiles because it's very likely that is the first thing that's loaded in their behaviour/scripting.
And guess what you are driving on.
Resulting to driving on the first tiles right next to the road and observing this... sorry but it feels just lame, artificial and immersion breaking.
I'm not the kind of guy who feels empowered or really smart about himself "beating" gamey situations like this... and the game sadly has these kind of things in droves.
Luckily it's not enough to ruin the entire game for me.

[cf777]

I am also a veteran and this is normal zombie behaviour in PZ. The game cant calculate all zombie movements all over the map because there are thousends and thousends of zeds and this would slow down your computer performence. I am not a native english speaker but let me explain this. On roads that you frequently use all the zeds move toward your last position where they saw you and once u are out of specific range they just stay there idle till you come back. Means when you driving all time the same road over and over again you will notice that the roads will become full of zeds. U can experiment with this behaviour just driving near the road u will engage the zeds next time at the position u have been driven and can use the road again drivin full speed by. My tip is...when the roads become to full just lure the zeds far away from the road using your car signal. U should lure them far away or behind some trees so that they dont see you next time while driving by. Killing them will lead them to respawn and bother you again so better luring them somewhere deep into the woods.

[Quineloe]

Originally posted by Dropdeadfred:

It always amazes me how many people don't want zombies in their zombie apoc game

You seem to be in the wrong thread, as no one actually said that.