Zombie redistribution?

[Malidica]

I have this turned off on my current save and yet after clearing rosewood and having it be cleared for several months, i went to muldraugh for some combat fun and when i returned rosewood is absolutely infested again... so i don't get it, am i misunderstanding what this option does or is my game bugged?

[Valen Logan]

Sounds like you have zombie respawn on. Redistribution is something else. The AI Director will do periodic checks for empty cells and then attempt to move zombies around to fill those cells.
If you left Rosewood, after clearing it, then there should be no zombies to redistribute. Therefor the only logical explanation is the game spawned new zombies in the unloaded cells while you were gone.

[Malidica]

Originally posted by Valen Logan:

Sounds like you have zombie respawn on. Redistribution is something else. The AI Director will do periodic checks for empty cells and then attempt to move zombies around to fill those cells.
If you left Rosewood, after clearing it, then there should be no zombies to redistribute. Therefor the only logical explanation is the game spawned new zombies in the unloaded cells while you were gone.

Definitely have that off too, i play with very low zombie population and tight rally groups that draw in from maximum distance... using debug i checked and those options are both off, as is voroni noise or whatever it's called...

[Valen Logan]

Could just be a simple case of zombies you didn't see coming into town or being directed there by the AI.
Even with urban focused on there is still some zombies in the woods around towns. Could be when you left town they heard your vehicle and wandered into town to check it out. Happens all the time to me. Scariest thing I have seen in this game is a single zombie standing in the middle of a remote road I have been driving back and forth through for nearly a year.
Another phenomenon that can happen is house spawns. Normally houses are empty until the player gets a clear LOS into the house or you get close enough to it to trigger the interior spawns. This is also when the game decides to spawn any special events inside the house or not.
It is possible to drive down an empty street, trigger the indoor spawns, leave the area and come back to a crowd chilling in the street because that is the last place they saw/heard you.

With out knowing every detail of the circumstance I can only guess the zombies were always there but you just hadn't seen them. Happens to everyone, I myself just assume every zombie I see there is at least 2 more hidden somewhere nearby. Hell, one time I fortified a little office building, moved in and lived in that thing for nearly 6 months before I found a zombie hidden in the roof stairwell. It must have been nearly deaf cause it didn't do anything until I started driving around my beat up work truck and welding barricades on the windows.

[Malidica]

Maybe, but that's why i wanted to understand what these things actually mean and control, so i can gather evidence, IS my map bugged or not? Well for that i need to test, and for that i need to know how it works... were they always in the woods? I really don't think so, i've had some long and loud battles in rosewood many times as i cleared it, cars are set to be loud af and zombies have good hearing... and i can't get past the fact that for months i'd see 2 or 3 zombies each time i went to town only to be gone for 2 days and come back to several hundred...

[Valen Logan]

Lots of unknowns it seems.

Trying to get it to happen again seems like the best way gather evidence. Before committing to a full on experiment double check that you don't actually have respawning zombies on.
Redistribution can move groups around but there is a limit to how far out the AI can task zombies to move.
There is mods out there that let you change the world options in an existing world, be a good way to make sure none of your options have changed. I think you can also do this with debug settings but I don't know how that works.

[Armagenesis]

Did you update your game to 42.17 just now? That's something that will happen if you update an existing save file to a new version. Same goes when you update your sandbox settings from debug mode. Zombies will respawn everywhere even if you turn off respawn and redistribution.

[Malidica]

Originally posted by Armagenesis:

Did you update your game to 42.17 just now? That's something that will happen if you update an existing save file to a new version. Same goes when you update your sandbox settings from debug mode. Zombies will respawn everywhere even if you turn off respawn and redistribution.

Aaaah, there we go, that explains it perfectly... thanks.

[Valen Logan]

Right on, we found an answer.