Horde night ladders - Do zombies avoid them?

[kl250d]

Just did a horde night with a mate and we were each on a platform with ladders to allow zombies to climb up to us, but instead they almost entirely ignored trying to come directly to us. most of them went into an adjacent POI that we could jump to with parkour but they couldn't jump to us.

I'm just wondering why they didn't try to get the kill. have they been coded not to climb ladders? They did try knocking down the platforms but because there were two separate ones we could just clear each others but it was a little weird that no zombies really tried to climb up to attack us directly

[esthergray]

They can and will climb ladders if they reach all the way to the ground. Sometimes they are weird though and will see another path as easier.

[kl250d]

the ladders went all the way to the ground, they just sort of ignored them

[James]

If you want the zombies to use ladders then you have to be sure to create a direct path for them to climb. You can do this by making sure the ladder is at least 1 block high from the floor and at aleast 1 block below where you are at. You also have to mindful of the type of hatch you place over the ladder and what you build around it.

Zombies will always to try to get to the same block level as you, and then they calculate the easiest path to get you based on the least amount of hit points (block damage) it would take.

So if your standing on an open platform or only covered by wood, or only one a one block jump. Then the zombies are gonna choose that route rather than trying to beat thru a iron hatch with 5k hit points and other obstacles.

[kl250d]

Originally posted by James:

If you want the zombies to use ladders then you have to be sure to create a direct path for them to climb. You can do this by making sure the ladder is at least 1 block high from the floor and at aleast 1 block below where you are at. You also have to mindful of the type of hatch you place over the ladder and what you build around it.

Zombies will always to try to get to the same block level as you, and then they calculate the easiest path to get you based on the least amount of hit points (block damage) it would take.

So if your standing on an open platform or only covered by wood, or only one a one block jump. Then the zombies are gonna choose that route rather than trying to beat thru a iron hatch with 5k hit points and other obstacles.

there was no hatch on top of the ladder, and the ladder went from the ground level to the platform. should i have cut out the ground level ladder to make them more likely to behave?

getting on the same level makes sense as to why they went to the adjacent POI cause they climbed onto the roof even though they couldn't make it to the platform from where they were

[James]

Cutting the ground level ladder wouldn't matter, no. They will climb the ladder if it went to the floor.

I suspect they went to the adjacent roof and tried to jump because it was the easiest path and they CAN jump 1.5 blocks max--albeit good timing and all that--and crawlers or spider zombies can definitely reach it.

There's also the two player element as well. Some zombies will go after you and some will go after your friend......and sometimes all of them will only go after one. Just something to keep in mind.

[kl250d]

it sounds like my best solution might just be knocking out the front of the building they are climbing up to force them to try climb the ladder

[dawnppelganger]

I tested out platform for horde night and found they prefer stairs or hopping up to you. Another thing that used to work is if you turn a plate block on it's side and place one onto the side of one platform and then turn it facing the other way and place it on the other platform, it fills that two block space between the platforms so they think the two platforms are attached and will try to get to the second platform. ----| |----

[kl250d]

knocked out the adjacent building and it worked perfectly, zombies climbing upwards towards us on each of our platforms on the ladder. thanks all for the help and suggestions