Spit/Acid/Bile from Birds, Cop, and Mutated Zombies is too resource heavy.

[Orange Madness]

When a Bird, Cop, or Mutated Zombies spit, there is a spew of an acidic substance that glows [a lot!]. Between the bile flying, glowing, landing, still glowing, and slightly dealing block damage, it seriously puts strain on any GPU, causing extremely high spikes in temperature.

This isn't an FPS problem: it is a temperature flaw for Graphics cards. It has gotten to the point that when Bloodmoons happen, I have to ask my friend to be in their own little corner of the world, that way we all don't burn our PC's---potentially our homes irl---to the ground. It has gotten so bad, we opted to keep the zombie cap on BM's at default, potentially lowering it, but then there is no difficulty.

Large gib piles flying everywhere is fine; Demolition Zombies are also tolerable; even mass swarms of zombies on a screen at once is fine, but FPS tanks: it is the acid/bile/spit that causes so much trouble.

Either during a Bloodmoon or in a POI, we are always on high alert for any of these three potential problems. If we see any of them, we all have to ignore ever single other zombie, just to get rid of these problematic GPU killers, just to survive. We don't care if there are Screamers, Demolitions, or even Wight Zombies: we throw all care to the wind, even at times dying, just to save our systems from Bird, Cop, and Mutated zombies.

I feel that there needs to be a change towards how these acid piles work. Perhaps either a Video setting change under Graphics would help, or perhaps reworking the kit of these Zombies as a whole, maybe removal of the acid/bile/spit as a whole could work. The current state of these zombies in either a single player or multiplayer setting can really hurt hardware, potentially killing it due to extreme strains.

[Tox]

Simple solution:
Reduce the amount of cop zombies.

As of 1.0, the prevalence of cop zombies has increased dramatically (I'm not sure if it's a deliberate change or something that just happened as a result of other changes) and it is unbelievably annoying...

Be it the increase of their prevalence during horde nights, or their increased presence in quest POIs, they're just so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying. Not even necessarily challenging as they die quite easily, just plain ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying; on par with screamers now consistently spawning as radiated duos*.

* Yes, I know, someone already tried to whitewash the claims of radiated duo zombies with a quote from the devs, but that quote did nothing to address the demonstrable fact that the screamer spawns almost always come as pairs of radiated screamers who often scream in backup before they've got LOS of the player; screamer spawn logic is either broken (per the dev quote) or we're being fed lies as to what is expected behavior.

[Orange Madness]

Originally posted by Tox:

Simple solution:
Reduce the amount of cop zombies.

As of 1.0, the prevalence of cop zombies has increased dramatically and it is unbelievably annoying...

...Not even necessarily challenging as they die quite easily, just plain... annoying

I have noticed that their spawn rates are quite high. However, even if the spawning rates are heightened, it is the acid/bile/spit they hurl at the player causes way to much harm to the GPU, even if it is just one.

It becomes a running gag of if one is spotted, one must stop what they are doing and neutralize the threat or shoot it to prevent it from spitting. The real chore becomes when more than one spawns, and all your screen does is bleed yellowish green hue, and all you can do is run away from the splooge and then take out the threat. At times it becomes so annoying when you not only have to deal with just Cop zombies hurling, but also Bird zombies and even Mutated zombies, all at one hurling everywhere!!!!!!!

Originally posted by Tox:

* Yes, I know, someone already tried to whitewash the claims of radiated duo zombies with a quote from the devs, but that quote did nothing to address the demonstrable fact that the screamer spawns almost always come as pairs of radiated screamers who often scream in backup before they've got LOS of the player; screamer spawn logic is either broken (per the dev quote) or we're being fed lies as to what is expected behavior.

The subject of the Scream spawns is up for debate. To be honest, I only see it as an issue if you don't use a Bow archetype or a gun with a Silencer mod; this is when it becomes a prominent issue. However, if you do the POI too fast or alert too many zombies, this too seems to correlate with them appearing.

From my experience, it isn't that bad; really, it isn't bad. Is it annoying if you are caught with your pants down? Yeah, but it adds a further challenge when doing a quest. Think of the Screamer as the car alarm or witch mechanic from Left 4 Dead: you messed up the mission, now you must deal with the consequences! Once solved, you are rewarded with more experience otherwise unobtainable by not making noise or messing up the POI.

[Tox]

Originally posted by Orange Madness:

I have noticed that their spawn rates are quite high. However, even if the spawning rates are heightened, it is the acid/bile/spit they hurl at the player causes way to much harm to the GPU, even if it is just one.

Not to be a reductionist, but, if they would reduce the OTT spawn rate, then inherently you'll have less of an issue with the bile effects, no?

Originally posted by Orange Madness:

The subject of the Scream spawns is up for debate. To be honest, I only see it as an issue if you don't use a Bow archetype or a gun with a Silencer mod; this is when it becomes a prominent issue. However, if you do the POI too fast or alert too many zombies, this too seems to correlate with them appearing.

It really isn't up for debate, though.
Sylen tried to bury it by posting a dev quote about the mechanics involved, but that quote did nothing to address the demonstrable fact that the staggering majority of screamer spawns are duo radiated screamers.
Regardless of what the dev quote says or paints as expected behavior, the amount of people reporting the exact same 'anomaly' of screamers spawning as a radiated pair, is off the charts common and completely condtradicts the dev quote.
Something is incredibly wrong with screamer spawns at the moment if the devs are expecting entirely different behavior.

EDIT:
For reference, this is the dev quote which Sylen posted to "addresss" complaints about the Screamer anomaly: https://steamcommunity.com/app/251570/discussions/0/6320322363294856345/?ctp=2#c6320322718599401512

In practice, though, that quote does not hold up...
It claims that if a screamer does successfully spawn, it should be at least 22 minutes until another one does... yet, almost every time a screamer does spawn, it is TWO screamers and they're radiated... nevermind when they happen to scream in backup despite not having LOS of the player, and the possibility of said backup including ANOTHER screamer...

[Myrkana]

Originally posted by Tox:

Originally posted by Orange Madness:

I have noticed that their spawn rates are quite high. However, even if the spawning rates are heightened, it is the acid/bile/spit they hurl at the player causes way to much harm to the GPU, even if it is just one.

Not to be a reductionist, but, if they would reduce the OTT spawn rate, then inherently you'll have less of an issue with the bile effects, no?

Originally posted by Orange Madness:

The subject of the Scream spawns is up for debate. To be honest, I only see it as an issue if you don't use a Bow archetype or a gun with a Silencer mod; this is when it becomes a prominent issue. However, if you do the POI too fast or alert too many zombies, this too seems to correlate with them appearing.

It really isn't up for debate, though.
Sylen tried to bury it by posting a dev quote about the mechanics involved, but that quote did nothing to address the demonstrable fact that the staggering majority of screamer spawns are duo radiated screamers.
Regardless of what the dev quote says or paints as expected behavior, the amount of people reporting the exact same 'anomaly' of screamers spawning as a radiated pair, is off the charts common and completely condtradicts the dev quote.
Something is incredibly wrong with screamer spawns at the moment if the devs are expecting entirely different behavior.

EDIT:
For reference, this is the dev quote which Sylen posted to "addresss" complaints about the Screamer anomaly: https://steamcommunity.com/app/251570/discussions/0/6320322363294856345/?ctp=2#c6320322718599401512

In practice, though, that quote does not hold up...
It claims that if a screamer does successfully spawn, it should be at least 22 minutes until another one does... yet, almost every time a screamer does spawn, it is TWO screamers and they're radiated... nevermind when they happen to scream in backup despite not having LOS of the player, and the possibility of said backup including ANOTHER screamer...

except the majority are not duo radiated screamers, maybe later game stages when thats the difficulty level but not early on. I havent seen a radiated one yet

[Tox]

Originally posted by Myrkana:

except the majority are not duo radiated screamers, maybe later game stages when thats the difficulty level but not early on. I havent seen a radiated one yet

Bro what?
The server I play on is nomad, so a notch above "normal" but not an extreme jump, and yet my own experience and that of others here on this forum says otherwise; that the staggering majority of screamer spawns are radiated duos even at "early" GS. It's legitimately a joke that the devs claim you'll only see 1 every 22 minutes at best.

I'm not even exaggerating, 9 in 10 screamer spawn events are dual radiated screamers, even at the earliest GS when they become possible.