Why do zombies respawn?

[RIP Val Kilmer]

The developers understand what a zombie is right? A human being that was turned into a mindless creature? So how do the zombies respawn? There are so few survivors on each map, and yet if I drive to an area and clear it then drive away and return, all the zombies have come back. In a game where ammo is a precious commodity, why would you do that? Maybe make the game areas 1/2 the size so 60% of the game isn't traveling to a mission, and then you can make zombies so they don't respawn. Give us a sense of cleaning out the area before we move on. Just some thoughts from a person playing on gamepass.

[Rune]

There are things they certainly could do to improve the immersion and the sense of clearing them out, not to mention improving the respawning system in general since it can be quite aggressive, but for me the point of respawning zombies is to give us constant fear while scouting, looting and doing missions. If they didn't respawn it would be very easy to just use a car, drive backwards into them and clear out an enitre map without ever having to fear for our survivors. I understand that it's more realistic if they didn't respawn, but it's first and foremost a game, so I think them focusing on a gameplay loop is the better choice.

[RIP Val Kilmer]

Just make the zombies do more damage to a car. All the damage in this game is already very "gamey" and unrealistic. A real car can be un-usable after hitting a person at medium to high speed once, and you can just plow through zombies like they are crepe paper. And yet a chain link fence stops the car dead in it's tracks!

[-Singularity-]

Zombies not respawning would make for a very boring game. The map would be empty way before you finished it.

[Granch]

Originally posted by Agent Pothead:

Just make the zombies do more damage to a car. All the damage in this game is already very "gamey" and unrealistic. A real car can be un-usable after hitting a person at medium to high speed once, and you can just plow through zombies like they are crepe paper. And yet a chain link fence stops the car dead in it's tracks!

Have you played on lethal difficulty? The car takes a lot of damage + sudden spawn of zombies under wheels = a lot of obscene expressions.

[WarBucks]

agreed, sounds like someone should have the action slider to lethal! You can at least give it a try

[DasaKamov]

Originally posted by Cue Slide Whistle:

The developers understand what a zombie is right? A human being that was turned into a mindless creature?

Er, what does that have to do with respawning?

Zombies are an endless horde that can never be wiped out. That's the "rule" of every zombie fiction ever made, after all.

[Protectron]

Having finite zombies to a certain degree is the number one thing to improve the game. Everything would be better when they aren't spawns - most importantly it would make it a point in and of itself to kill zombies because then you would clear the area of that one for ever. As it is now, killing zombies for the sake of killing zombies is a waste of time (other than being fun I guess).

The the whole main mission of this game is a failed attempt at creating a sense of actually fighting back against the zombies.

Of course, the zombies being persistent would make a car that got one under it so that the driving wheels are off the ground useless for the rest of the game unless you could dislodge it with another vehicle. Now the corpses eventually disappear.

Some kind of "re-seeding" event would be possible, and a big enough map could have towns and cities big enough to actually support thousands of zombies and it all makes sense. The maps as they are now have houses for maybe 500 people in them, at best. so where does the endless swarms of zombies come from?

[kelsobluebane]

Originally posted by DasaKamov:

Originally posted by Cue Slide Whistle:

The developers understand what a zombie is right? A human being that was turned into a mindless creature?

Er, what does that have to do with respawning?

Zombies are an endless horde that can never be wiped out. That's the "rule" of every zombie fiction ever made, after all.

Doesn't mean they can't be the first developers to design a game where humanity re-establishes itself. Maybe you could liberate the USA over a series of maps culminating in capturing Washington. If the game was good enough you could include every state capitol, that's a lot of scope for paid DLC. Then you could capture the rest of the free world in future games.

[Ihateeverybody]

Originally posted by DasaKamov:

Originally posted by Cue Slide Whistle:

The developers understand what a zombie is right? A human being that was turned into a mindless creature?

Er, what does that have to do with respawning?

Zombies are an endless horde that can never be wiped out. That's the "rule" of every zombie fiction ever made, after all.

Eh?

Night of the Living Dead? Pretty sure they were'nt an endless horde in either version. I know the Remake culminated in a Zombie Hunt and Purge.

Regarding the Game: I wish they would go to a spawn mechanic where the plague hearts generate or animate the zombies (so many per day). The way it is now, the more PHs you take down, the more zombies and freak appear. It would be awesome if it could account for viability of the bodies (whole or partials can be re animated). But we are just not there in terms of Tech.

[RIP Val Kilmer]

Originally posted by DasaKamov:

Originally posted by Cue Slide Whistle:

The developers understand what a zombie is right? A human being that was turned into a mindless creature?

Er, what does that have to do with respawning?

Zombies are an endless horde that can never be wiped out. That's the "rule" of every zombie fiction ever made, after all.

Wut. Zombies are made of people. The majority of people in these events die to non zombie attacks, which means the amount of zombies is always less than the amount of population in an area, that's just the way math works.

[RIP Val Kilmer]

Originally posted by Ihateeverybody:

Originally posted by DasaKamov:

Er, what does that have to do with respawning?

Zombies are an endless horde that can never be wiped out. That's the "rule" of every zombie fiction ever made, after all.

Eh?

Night of the Living Dead? Pretty sure they were'nt an endless horde in either version. I know the Remake culminated in a Zombie Hunt and Purge.

Regarding the Game: I wish they would go to a spawn mechanic where the plague hearts generate or animate the zombies (so many per day). The way it is now, the more PHs you take down, the more zombies and freak appear. It would be awesome if it could account for viability of the bodies (whole or partials can be re animated). But we are just not there in terms of Tech.

I'm pretty sure Oblivion had full agency NPCs and bodies that don't disappear back in 2002, so I'm not sure it's a tech problem. Except they are using Unreal Engine, which is kind of ♥♥♥♥ for any permanence.

[DasaKamov]

Originally posted by Cue Slide Whistle:

The majority of people in these events die to non zombie attacks

Citation needed.

[RIP Val Kilmer]

Originally posted by DasaKamov:

Originally posted by Cue Slide Whistle:

The majority of people in these events die to non zombie attacks

Citation needed.

What? You think in a collapse of society level event that most of the people die to the event, and not to the other human beings? Are you new to Earth or something?

[-Singularity-]

Originally posted by Cue Slide Whistle:

Originally posted by DasaKamov:

Citation needed.

What? You think in a collapse of society level event that most of the people die to the event, and not to the other human beings? Are you new to Earth or something?

Nah, hes right.

[RIP Val Kilmer]

Originally posted by -Singularity-:

Originally posted by Cue Slide Whistle:

What? You think in a collapse of society level event that most of the people die to the event, and not to the other human beings? Are you new to Earth or something?

Nah, hes right.

Not in any way, shape, or form. You can model zombie transmission using the same techniques you can model any other pathogen transmission.