Feral hordes broken in my game

[SmallArchangel]

For some reason feral hordes just don't seem to be working as intended at the moment - at least I assume they are supposed to actually turn up, or be a bit more... impressive than the ones I have experienced since starting my latest game (10.4, naturally).

The first 3 showed up just fine, and did their thing. Day 28 did not, and since day 42 I haven't seen another horde at all - feral or heat-map alike. Only wandering hordes are making an appearance, and not many of them, and I have spawns set to max.

Not sure if it has anything to do with what the user does at all, since I have not changed any settings (in the .ini) or altered the time etc. I've just played. And I'm not nomadic, so they should find me without trouble!

I've restarted many times, and never actually seen a feral horde past day 21 - they always seem to 'break' like this.

[Jᴧgᴧ]

You might have a spider zombie (heatmap scout style) stuck somewhere in the trees, under terrain, etc, and preventing the Feral horde spawn.

You can monitor heatmap levels with F8, you have to have debug mode enabled (dm) then tap it twice.

I've also seen corrupt game installs responsible for this, and reinstalling completely fresh (a special uninstall) did the trick to fix them.

[SmallArchangel]

So I really should kill every spider zed I see?! (Good, I hate those guys).

Thanks for the F8 tip - I will try that :)

Is it possible to re-install without losing my current games? I'd rather only start again along with each update... So I might wait until then if not.

[Jᴧgᴧ]

Yes, you can completely uninstall and reinstall the game fresh, and it will leave your saved games, profiles, etc alone. I'll post the instructions for you - make a backup of your \My Documents\7 Days To Die\ folder just for good measure.

Cleanly Reinstall 7DTD

• Uninstall the game through Steam, then close Steam
  
• Find the 7DTD install folder "\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\Common\7 Days to Die" and delete it.
  
• Edit the registry with regedit, find the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\The Fun Pimps\7 Days To Die" key and remove it entirely.
  
• Run a tool like CCleaner to get rid of temp files, DNS entries, etc.
  
• Find "ClientRegistry.blob" in Steam's folder (\Program Files (x86)\Steam), rename it to "ClientRegistry.blob.old"
  
• Restart the computer
  
• Start Steam and reinstall the game

Normally you could just uninstall through Steam, then reinstall, and it would fix many problems. But this is the "extra clean" install, for a squeaky clean 7DTD.

[SmallArchangel]

Ok, I'll try that, thanks! :)

Heat map is currently at 64%, tellingly hordes are at 0.00% :( Something broke...

[Jᴧgᴧ]

The heat map chunk number won't "fire" off until it hits 100 (each chunk tracks separately), and even then it is a delayed pack of spider zombies sent as scouts. If they never see you, a horde will never come.

[SmallArchangel]

Yes I guessed as much - just surprised it takes quite so long to 'build up' - glad I can check, as I have multiple bases so moving between makes the areas cool down again.

Have re-installed, about to play-test :)

[SmallArchangel]

Nope, ferals still broken. Random hordes notably absent too, now. Hordes still at 0.00%. Heatmap is at 94% so I'll soon see about that one. I get plenty zeds around POI's, but that's about it really - I miss 'em!

Oh well, I'll be pleased to start again come A11 :)

[SmallArchangel]

Ok, further to my last post, I can now report that the heat-map immediately resets after reaching 100%, without spawning any zombies at all, even scouts.

I've been mining and watched it go around about 3 times now, with nothing happening each time. How did I manage to break this so thoroughly??

[Jᴧgᴧ]

The scouts are on a delayed timer, and after that spawn a good distance away from you. They physically walk the rest of the way and it is possible for them to get stuck on the journey.

I re-read the topic and am not sure if you are on a server, or in a single-player game. That will matter.

[Jᴧgᴧ]

Note: If this doesn't fix them, "cleaning" your savegame can help. It's a process that worked once before for someone else with broken spawns, but should only be used as a last resort. Let me know if you want to try it..

[SmallArchangel]

I play SP, sorry I didn't mention before. Also since posting, I've had a heat-horde turn up at my base, but it was much smaller than the others I saw earlier in my game and contained no cops.

Two spider scouts also appeared at my mine, but though they screamed until they drove me crazy no other zeds showed up (the mine is the next chunk over from my base so they have different heat timers).

So sometimes it works, sometimes not. Ferals definitely gone though :( What does 'cleaning' involve, and what is the risk to my save?

Tyvm for your help, much appreciated btw :)

[Jᴧgᴧ]

Cleaning your save won't hurt it, but it does have the side effect of resetting the day back to 1.

Hordes spawned by heat zeds won't ever contain spitters, dogs, or bees, and they spawn in a circle around you.

If spider zeds show up and scream, but a horde never comes, it usually means they never spotted you visually. They have to clearly see you for long enough to trigger the heat horde.

If you want to clean the save, I can post instructions. There is no risk if you make a backup first.

[SmallArchangel]

I will make a backup - I don't mind restarting from day 1 if I can still keep all other progress.

The scouts certainly saw me - I made sure of that (shot one in the arse).

[Jᴧgᴧ]

To attempt to fix the save:

• Locate the save (usually found in \My Documents\7 Days To Die\Saves\Navezgane\ or \My Documents\7 Days To Die\Saves\RandomGen\ folder)
  
• Rename to add a .bad to the folder name. Example a save of Game1 would get renamed to the folder Game1.bad
  
• Create a new game of the same type with the same initial name and the settings you would like to use. Example create a new Game1 named game
  
• Exit the game
  
• Now copy the Player and Region folders from the .bad version of the save to the new save folder. Example, copy the Players folder and the Regions folder from Game1.bad to the newly created Game1 saying YES to overwrite
  
• Test the newly created Game1 save by loading it
  
• If this scenario works you can then delete the Game1.bad folder.

Props to Red Eagle for finding this method to fix some types of damaged saves.

[SmallArchangel]

Great - I will try that, thanks to you and Red Eagle :)