Vehicles and Vultures

[vgifford]

Was watching Neebs Gaming latest video and it got me thinking, If The Fun Pimps are deliberately making the vultures attack vehicles in use, they should give us a way to kill them while IN the vehicle. Its not like you can stop a gyrocopter mid air, get out and kill all the vultures that have aggro'ed on you while flying. Shouldn't said vultures be killed by the gyrocopter's blades?

[SuperMeatBag]

You have to bear in mind, at least part of the reason for the animal behaviour was the perception that players were avoiding blood moon hordes in vehicles. So if the vehicles become powerful against them, it'd defeat their own point/idea/strategy.

[vgifford]

From what I saw in their video, WHY would anyone want to fly anywhere and aggro EVERY vulture along the way and NOT be able to kill them until you land, and potentially have a vulture swarm on you as soon as you exit the vehicle.

[seven]

If it's not blood moon you can fly faster than them and if you get far enough away you lose them. Fast uses a lot of gas though so always keep the gyro topped up.

[vgifford]

Remember a vulture's sight is 70 blocks. So EVERY time you fly, EVERY vulture within a 70 block radius makes a bee line for said vehicle. That could potentially be a very large swarm by the time you are done with your trip. I know vehicles can outrun most zombies, the idea of them INTENTIONALLY aggro'ing a vehicle is a bit overboard. Especially since you cant get out and fight them while 100 blocks in the air.

[saurce]

Nah, I like the fact that vehicles are objectively and functionally useless on blood moons. I'd prefer if vehicles were just actually inert the moment a blood moon starts. Zero engine capability. If you're driving, the car/motorcycle immediately stalls out until horde night ends. If you're flying, you just plummet from the sky and die.

Gives more of a reason to drink Crush and sprint faster than any vehicle in the game anyways. Who needs vehicles to escape when you have energy drinks, college jackets and high performance running shoes?

[vgifford]

I understand the reasoning behind their AI (To prevent people from Outriding horde nights). Its a pretty hard handed method to discourage that behavior. I too like the idea of the Blood Moon just "affecting" vehicles, Hey its Blood Moon, the engines are dead. As opposed to making Long distance travel in a vehicle being MORE hazardous than its worth.

From what I've seen, the gyrocopter is pretty useless if EVERY vulture in the game is going to attack you just for flying in it. At least in ground based vehicles you can get out and kill them.

[JimmyIowa]

Originally posted by vgifford:

they should give us a way to kill them while IN the vehicle.

I think it would be fun, and not too OP, to be able to use small one handed weapons (only) such as a 9mm pistol in flight. Normally you do need both hands to control the gyro, but we could assume you take one hand off the throttle control while holding a pistol. This would mean you lose the ability to accelerate forward while firing a pistol. Which would severely limit how much firing you can do at a time, since the gyro would immediately start losing speed and altitude while you fire. Which would seem like a good check and balance.

Originally posted by vgifford:

Shouldn't said vultures be killed by the gyrocopter's blades?

The main gyro rotor is unpowered and only spins because of the air moving over it. In fact, realistically speaking I'd say hitting a bird as large as a vulture with the main rotor would likely cause an autogyro to become severely unstable, lose a lot of altitude, and possibly crash.

[vgifford]

The ONLY vehicle I see this being an issue with is the Gyrocopter, ONLY because you can't easily get out and kill them. Kinda makes Gyrocopter trips pointless. Every 100 feet have to land and deal with the vulture. Like was said earlier... I could run there faster with less headaches.

[JimmyIowa]

Originally posted by vgifford:

The ONLY vehicle I see this being an issue with is the Gyrocopter, ONLY because you can easily get out and kill them. Kinda makes Gyrocopter trips pointless. Every 100 feet have to land and deal with the vulture. Like was said earlier... I could run there faster with less headaches.

I use a gyro as my main vehicle in every playthough. And I don't have that big of an issue with vultures. In fact I rarely see any. (I don't use it on horde night though.)

And I say this as someone already on your side in this thread about being able to use a weapon. It would be a fun-to-do feature. But claiming the gyro is "pointless" is a very extremely severe hyper-exaggeration teetering on the edge of falsehood.

[vgifford]

I usually use the motorcyle. When a vulture aggros me, I can easily stop, get out, and deal with it. With the gyro, you cant stop immediately and deal with the problem. You have to land first. The time in doing so, repeatedly, for every vulture makes the trip longer than using other methods. Its kinda counter productive. There should be a way to deal with threats while IN the vehicle and NOT having to land every time to deal with them.

[Crazed Possum]

Most simple solution is just to deactivate every single vehicle including the bicycle at blood moon until it's over.

[Jonnson]

The vultures tend to attack when you are distracted, or vulnerable; looting a bag, hammering on a board, harvesting some plants, fighting a zed, chased by dogs, riding in a car, standing there looking at the ground.

Here is a tip. Have a full life bar, a healing device on your hot bar, and a weapon armed. Look for them while you travel. If you see one..look at him. They tend to fly around, or away, as if they are scared to attack. Here is a video of a dozen+ vultures flying around me. As long as I am watching them, all they do is fly around. Soon as I dropped to the ground, and started repairing some blocks, they all attacked me. I dont have that part, as I turned off the record at that point. But you can clearly see they dont attack while I am watching them. Don't confuse this with a static poi spawn that is programmed to attack when it sees you, like in a mission, on the roof. That being said, consider that when you travel fast in a vehicle, looking at whats in front of you, you pass by many vultures, who agro you, and are then emboldened to attack because you have your back to them, and are distracted. In the case of a BM, you have many vultures spawning over and over, so if you drive off, you pull a train of them. When I travel, I tend to stop every once in awhile and get out of the car. Wait, then swat a few down. If I don't do that, I will have 10 murder me. Just like the ground is no longer ours, it is ruled by zeds, while you hide, and try to survive, the sky is ruled by vultures. Stop making yourself vulnerable by flying around for half an hour in a makeshift gyrocopter. There are zombie birds about.

https://youtu.be/tjnx-YNqRvU

For perspective, their is an old movie called "The road warrior" with Mel Gibson. Not the trash remake. Watch the original. That guy with the snake, he is flying around in the gyrocopter that you are flying around in. That is exactly the inspiration for the dev who added this to the game. You are not going to be fighting anything while trying to keep that contraption airborne.

[Jonnson]

Actually, here ya go;

https://youtu.be/7HNRyDt4Vyg

https://youtu.be/wUfzqjwaveY

https://youtu.be/TlIKrtLfWxo

[vgifford]

@Jonnson Fighting the vultures isn't a problem. One good whack and they're done. It's the major PITA inconvenience of having to stop, land and deal with them while flying a gyrocopter that is the issue.

When 5 or 6 have aggro'ed on you, and you land, those 5 or 6 are there ready to attack the second you step out. When using a ground vehicle, its simple. Gyro at 100 blocks up, not quite so easy.

The AI decision to attack should not be a 100% chance of happening. IE: If you aren't bothering them, why are they ALL attacking?

[De Espirit]

It would be far more annoying to have to stop and get out of your vehicle every 300 meters or so to kill 1 bird than it is to make the trip and kill an entire flock all at once. This just seems like you're asking for a solution to a problem you're inflicting on yourself.