Random Gunshots

[celery juice]

Right, I was playing around zomboid raiding houses and stealing stuff when all of a sudden there's a gunshot, a random gunshot.

I did have a pistol on me but it was away in my bag and couldn't have fired.

All of the zombies were drawn to it as a real shot, too. I followed the horde and couldn't find whatever fired the gun although I did find open windows and doors.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any idea what it could be? From what I understand NPCs aren't in the game.

[Xyster]

Yeah. There are also choppers that fly overhead. There are a couple posts about it being just random events that cause the zombies to migrate to new areas etc to keep the game from going stagnate. Although there are no real npc's tied to the gunfire and helicopters etc, you can find dead zombies and altered states of the environment after the event.

[Buntkreuz]

yeap, they are sounds as part of the meta game. Like lets say, the game decides to move some zombies nearer to your position and get them moved so they are more bunched than single targets, the game puts the gunfire sounds at the place. Zombies follow gunshots (even if you shoot its the sam effect as if the game does it), additionally you will find some preparations for it like zombies laying "dead" on the ground (now really dead) or crashed windows.
The chopper sounds are completely just sounds dragging zombies to your location. You cant see an effect through it except that zombies follow the sound.
But to keep you a bit busy. The map of PZ says that there is a house in the woods with "alive inside", maybe you find someone? ;o)

[celery juice]

Thanks guys! I was really curious as to what it was!

Shame it isn't some sort of spooky hidden NPC, though. That would've been cool. :/

[Xyster]

They are going to add NPCs eventually. That's gonna make the game more immersive imo.

[Buntkreuz]

they do, there were NPCs into the game in an earlier version, but i have to say i like the actual sounds/meta game more than the NPCs of the old version. They were boring. They just walked around, sometimes killed a zombie (but not very often), thats it. Nothing more. Sometimes they were in a house, but doing nothing. You also couldnt see any great effect as you can see now. Now you have even the illusion to have NPCs there. Its a cool illusion. It even got you to the point of thinking there were NPCs (happened for me too, i nearly wasted my character after a week of survival to find the NPCs).
If they implement NPCs again then i hope they will be better thanthe old ones. They were just too boring.

[celery juice]

Haha, yeah. I was seriously thinking that there might actually be a guy luring zombies around. I spent my last 3 days following the gunshots and trying to find him ._.

Edit: I'm tempted to start streaming this, would anyone from the forums actually be interested in watching some guy without a mic blunder about, though?

[KromeHWI]

one thing i have noticed is that the shots tend to be more frequent when you are in a high zombie area, and that the zombies are almost always lured in your general direction... for a game that is supposed to be random and natural, this can seem a little "directed." for example, it seems like every time i go into a warehouse there will be an inevitable shot within a few minutes which will lead the surrounding zombies to my location... while this IS more exciting, it can also be a little annoying...

scared the poo out of me the first time i heard it though (i was actually sleeping)...

[Mytheos]

Originally posted by Magikarp:

Haha, yeah. I was seriously thinking that there might actually be a guy luring zombies around. I spent my last 3 days following the gunshots and trying to find him ._.

Edit: I'm tempted to start streaming this, would anyone from the forums actually be interested in watching some guy without a mic blunder about, though?

People would be ravenous for it.

[Mytheos]

Originally posted by KromeHWI:

one thing i have noticed is that the shots tend to be more frequent when you are in a high zombie area, and that the zombies are almost always lured in your general direction... for a game that is supposed to be random and natural, this can seem a little "directed." for example, it seems like every time i go into a warehouse there will be an inevitable shot within a few minutes which will lead the surrounding zombies to my location... while this IS more exciting, it can also be a little annoying...

scared the poo out of me the first time i heard it though (i was actually sleeping)...

I think the devs explained it as being more of a tape job for now to cause zombie migration.

Even with it after you clear out a few hundred Zombies from your area it starts getting lonely unless you go outside your "territory"

[KromeHWI]

yeah, what they really need is to start adding larger migrating herds (maybe after a month or so). just spawn 100+ zombies off the side of the map and have them walk through to the other side! a few might randomly stop to "refill" the areas, but the bulk should just keep walking (unless, of course, they spot you!)... they should rampage through houses they run into as well... it should be like a swarm of migrating locusts leaving desolation in their wake! as they said in the WD, a heard is like a force of nature!

[Mytheos]

I mentioned the idea before of having a a low number of zombies with a different set of AI.

They would wander around instead of sitting still. And zombies like movement, so others would see them and go check out whats going on, and start following them.

You'd need a couple restraints so the whole map didnt end up getting snowballed into a 1,000 zombie horde...but yeah.

[Xyster]

That would be great to run across a herd of zombies migrating together one morning while looking out of your bedroom window. hehe

[Herja]

Originally posted by Mytheos:

I think the devs explained it as being more of a tape job for now to cause zombie migration.

Even with it after you clear out a few hundred Zombies from your area it starts getting lonely unless you go outside your "territory"

It really does get lonely after a while. You spend all this time building up a sweet fortress, but you never get a chance to acually defend it. kinda makes it feel pointless to build up a location, most of my characters are backpackers because of it.

if there were random events that would acually try to force you out of your home then things would get more interesting.

[Xyster]

They need some major event triggers that are very rare and far and few betwen. Something that sounds like explosions. Like someone tried to make a last stand, failed, blew himself up and the small shack he was cornered in which left 10-15 zombies dead, a small fire, smoke, and a massive wave of zombies coming in to see what's been goin on. It might pull zombies out of your area, or make them travel right through it.

I was actually trying to see if there was an item that would constantly attract zombies, like a motor driven air-raid siren hooked up to a car battery or something that could attract mobs for miles. I was trying to see if I could rustle up some zombie cattle into my small fence maze.

[Mytheos]

A gun should work fine if you go off in a new direction and play pied piper for a bit