Can someone explain "gamestage"?

[sbangs007]

I think its the time of week in the game.

However It appears that player level also dictates how hard the blood moon hordes are, is that correct?

I had some character trasnfers from expermental server over to the A16 new stable and they were higher level then normal for the first day 7 bloodmoon and we almost got handled cause our defensses were not quite up to par for the horde we got hit by.

So this makes me wonder if what I said is true regarding player level, if you have a player level 60 with a player level 1 at the same base on BM night.. will the hordes be of mixed type and difficulty?

[SBGaming]

Game stage is made up of a number of factors, including those you mention.

Amount of Time Spent in the game will increase your game stage.
Your Level will increase your game stage

I believe number of Zombie Kills will also increase your game stage.

With that said:
Recent Deaths will lower your game stage

The composition of Bloodmoon Hordes I've heard is based on the average of the top 5 players in the game, so if some higher level players join, then the Hordes are going to be tougher than if they hadn't, whereas a high level player will find Hordes not as tough if a bunch of fresh characters join the game.

[sbangs007]

Originally posted by SBGaming:

Game stage is made up of a number of factors, including those you mention.

Amount of Time Spent in the game will increase your game stage.
Your Level will increase your game stage

I believe number of Zombie Kills will also increase your game stage.

With that said:
Recent Deaths will lower your game stage

The composition of Bloodmoon Hordes I've heard is based on the average of the top 5 players in the game, so if some higher level players join, then the Hordes are going to be tougher than if they hadn't, whereas a high level player will find Hordes not as tough if a bunch of fresh characters join the game.

Ok great clarification, thanks much.

[Kunovega]

It's explained in the gamestages.xml

The short version:
gameStage = playerLevel + playerLevel * (daysSurvived * daysAliveDifficultyBonus + gameDifficultyMultiplier )

Here's a sample from the xml, or you can just open it and read the rest

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die\Data\Config

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--

Game stage spawning: All game stage spawning starts with a "Spawner" which is a named object referenced in the code
or other data (like POIs). The spawner itself contains all of the gamestage information for that particular spawner.
Examples: BloodMoonHorde spawner, or a large POI spawn, or a POI spawn that contains football players.

Each spawner defines a set of game stages. An individual game stage defines the actual spawning and spawning progression
for that specific stage. The game stage number is an estimate of "difficulty", higher game stages should be harder than
lower game stages.

<spawner name="BloodMoonHorde">
	<gamestage stage="1">

		// Starting spawn stage is in this first entry.
		// It will spawn up to 300 zombies, but only 8 can be alive at any one time due to performance reasons.
		// Zombies will be spawned from the ZombiesNight spawn group defined in entitygroups.xml
		// (Optional) The duration of this stage is 1 game hour, after that game hour the next spawn will start OR the spawning will complete
		// if there are no more spawns.
		// (Optional) Interval is a delay in seconds between the end of a spawn group and the next one
		// If we have a use for it this could also trigger a stinger sound.

		<spawn group="ZombiesNight" num="300" maxAlive ="8" duration="1" interval="60"/>

		// After 300 zombies have been killed this defines a kind of "station keeping" mode
		// where there will be one zombie sent to harass the players until sunrise.

		<spawn group="ZombiesNight" num="9999999" maxAlive="1"/>
			maxAlive is now per player, not per party
	</gamestage>
</spawner>

The code will use the highest stage that is less than or equal to your computed stage.
There is no cap on gamestage. If you feel like defining a stage="5000" - go nuts.

The gamestage is calculated once, when the "event" occurs.
When the blood moon rises the game considers nearby players as "a party" and figures out the accumulated gamestage.
This gamestage will be in effect for the duration of the event.
If players log in later or drop out, such as during the blood moon event, the gamestage will not change.

- - - - - - -

There is a metric which maps a player or group of players to a game stage number.


daysSurvived : This is a running total, kept for every individual player, and low-capped at 0.
				Every 24 hours GAME time 1 is added. On every death "daysAliveChangeWhenKilled" is subtracted from the total.

gameStage = playerLevel + playerLevel * (daysSurvived  * daysAliveDifficultyBonus + gameDifficultyMultiplier )

So if a player was level 10 and survived 4 days playing on the Nomad Difficulty when the game stage points are calculated the game stage points would be the sum of
gameStage = (Player Level 10) + ((Player 10) X  (Days Survived 4 X .1 + Nomad Difficulty Multiplier .2))
The total would be 10 + 10 x .6 or 16 game stage points

Now this mainly shows how weight is applied when calculating the gameStage of a party of players:

		gameStage = 0;
		weight = startingWeight;
		foreach (player in partySortedByPlayerLevel) {
			gameStage += (player.level*(1+(player.daysAliveDifficultyBonus*0.1)+GlobalGameDifficultyBonus)*weight;
			weight -= diminishingReturns;
			if (weight <= 0f) {
				break;
			}
		}

- - - - - - -

Which gameStage list of spawn groups is actually picked and "ran" if it calculates a GS of 15?

It rounds down.

At a GS of 15, the <gamestage stage="14"> is used.

At a GS of 14, <gamestage stage="12"> is used.

- - - - - - -

There is a console command: forcegamestage
	This will force a gamestage for testing.
	The calculation will not run at all but you jump directly to the spawn set for this stage.
-->

<gamestages>
	<config
		startingWeight ="1"
		scavengerGameDifficultyBonus="0"
		adventurerGameDifficultyBonus="0.1"
		nomadGameDifficultyBonus="0.2"
		warriorGameDifficultyBonus="0.6"
		survivalistGameDifficultyBonus="1.0"
		insaneGameDifficultyBonus="1.5"
		daysAliveDifficultyBonus="0.1"
		daysAliveChangeWhenKilled ="2"
		diminishingReturns ="0.2"
	/>

	<spawner name="WanderingHorde"> <!-- These will wrap around at 50. -->
		<!-- Will probably have to undo that later. Rev 19924 /19944 -->
		<gamestage stage="01"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS1"	num="15" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="02"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS2"	num="15" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="03"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS5"	num="16" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="04"><spawn group="ZombieDogGroup"		num="05" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="05"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS1"	num="16" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="06"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS2"	num="15" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="07"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS4"	num="16" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="08"><spawn group="VultureGroup"			num="05" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="09"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS8"	num="15" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="10"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS11"	num="17" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="11"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS14"	num="13" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="12"><spawn group="WolfGroup"			num="04" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="13"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS7"	num="15" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="14"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS10"	num="17" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="15"><spawn group="ZombieBikerBarGroup"	num="16" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="16"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS13"	num="17" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="17"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS18"	num="17" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="18"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS22"	num="18" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="19"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS27"	num="16" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="20"><spawn group="ZombieDogGroup"		num="08" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="21"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS16"	num="18" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="22"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS19"	num="16" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="23"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS23"	num="17" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="24"><spawn group="ZombieGhostTownGroup"	num="16" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="25"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS31"	num="17" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="26"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS36"	num="15" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="27"><spawn group="VultureGroup"			num="09" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="28"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS41"	num="18" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="29"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS27"	num="16" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="30"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS31"	num="20" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="31"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS35"	num="18" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="32"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS46"	num="18" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="33"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS52"	num="21" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="34"><spawn group="ZombieDogGroup"		num="12" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="35"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS58"	num="19" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="36"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS70"	num="17" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="37"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS40"	num="19" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="38"><spawn group="ZombieAnimalsGroup"	num="07" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="39"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS44"	num="21" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="40"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS49"	num="19" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="41"><spawn group="WolfPack"			num="08" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="42"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS64"	num="21" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="43"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS76"	num="17" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="44"><spawn group="ZombieSoldierGroup"	num="21" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="45"><spawn group="scoutHordeStageGS82"	num="20" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="46"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS54"	num="24" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="47"><spawn group="VultureGroup"			num="10" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="48"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS59"	num="20" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="49"><spawn group="feralHordeStageGS64"	num="16" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
		<gamestage stage="50"><spawn group="ZombieBearsGroup"		num="04" maxAlive="30" duration="09"/></gamestage>
	</spawner>

	<!-- <group name="S_Default_XS" emptyChance="0.5" decoyChance="0.2" decoy1hpChance="0.5">

	1. emptyChance:	the chance of the entire sleeper VOLUME having no zombies
	2. count:			after emptyChance has been checked, the total number of SLEEPERS spawned is determined by the count
	3. decoyChance:	determines how many OF the spawned sleepers will be DECOYS
	4. decoy1hpChance:	determines how many OF the spawned decoys will be ONE HIT POINT DECOYS

	Full hit point decoys:	Will never wake up due to sight/sound events. Will wake up if attacked.
	1 HP decoys:			Will never wake up due to sight/sound events. Will die instantly if attacked.

	The gamestage for a specific sleeper volume can be adjusted up/down in the volume settings, not here.
	-->

	<difficultyModifier name="easy" amount="150"/>
	<difficultyModifier name="medium" amount="300"/>
	<difficultyModifier name="hard" amount="500"/>

Note: fastest way to get into the game files, from your library choose launcher instead of start after you start the game. Then tools, open game folder

[Patouski]

@OP:

Open your Data/Config folder in the 7 Days to Die base folder. Find "gamestages.xml" (or any otehr .xml file), open them with Notepad++ and READ all of it.

All the information needed - is found within those files. Gamestages... items... heat... perks! You name it, all the information is in those files.

People should really use the human trait called "curiosity" and explore. One's much wiser if one's own curiosity gained him knowledge!

All the games I play - I make sure to look on how they work. So moddable games such as 7DTD or Starpoint Gemini 2... or even Unturned or Skyrim... I get a good feel of how to improve on its gameplay, or to cheat my way to greatness! FUS ROOOOOO.... D'oh! Yeah, modding can cause some D'oh moments, but knowing what makes the game "tick" and then go "toc" - helps when dealing with hardships within the game (ie: BM hordes or Wandering Hordes... or RNG Loot systems).

[sbangs007]

Thanks to the both of you, good info and yea, good idea.

Cheers

[UK(TZO)Saint]

In the gamestages config i've found a list of gamestages for a "sleeper horde", i've also found wandering hordes and feral hordes, scout hordes. Now i have a fairly confident understanding of what the wandering, feral and scout hordes are. But what is the sleeper horde?

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by UK(TZO)Saint:

In the gamestages config i've found a list of gamestages for a "sleeper horde", i've also found wandering hordes and feral hordes, scout hordes. Now i have a fairly confident understanding of what the wandering, feral and scout hordes are. But what is the sleeper horde?

sleepers are what spawn inside of buildings

buildings have random spawn points predesigned, but what actually shows up on each point is random based on gamestage, they can be empty spots, pre-dead (which you just punch and they fall over with loot), or of whatever type the gamestage allows for that location

[UK(TZO)Saint]

Ah I see, thank you very much.

[Steeldre]

Hello guys!
Im would to ask you guys anyone know what exectly means these configs if i change stat amounts.

startingWeight ="1"
scavengerGameDifficultyBonus="0"
adventurerGameDifficultyBonus="0.1"
nomadGameDifficultyBonus="0.2"
warriorGameDifficultyBonus="0.6"
survivalistGameDifficultyBonus="1.0"
insaneGameDifficultyBonus="1.5"
daysAliveDifficultyBonus="0.1"
daysAliveChangeWhenKilled ="2"
diminishingReturns ="0.2"
Thanks!

[DthBlayde]

Not sure the DaysAliveChange or Diminishing Returns, but the others are the difficult modifiers. The degree at which that affects overall difficulty, Im not sure of the formula, but it plays directly into the Gamestage calculations.

The short version:
gameStage = playerLevel + playerLevel * (daysSurvived * daysAliveDifficultyBonus + gameDifficultyMultiplier )

per Kunovega's earlier post.