Zombies ignore noise after a while

[PGR-14]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Thought about it, & brains automatically drown out quieter noises after a while. Stuff like generator hums, small waterfalls, & rivers.

Solution you would like.

Zombies could go over to see what the noise is, stay there for a while 'till their brains stop hearing it. If we ever implement noisy rivers & other natural sounds, this'd stop huge clusters of zombies from forming around it.

Also, if we do implement this, there should be a point where after not hearing the noise for a while, it stops drowning it out. Oh yeah, also #75532, unless we want all the zombies in a city to be in one place.

Describe alternatives you have considered.

Not doing it, or making the future implementations silent.

Additional context

No response

[IdleSol]

You can make the parameters “hears the sound” and “sees the sound source” interact.

1. If he hears a sound, walk toward the source until he sees it.
2. If the sound stops, keep the direction of motion. Perform a stop check, based on a random number. Additionally reduce the difficulty of the check each turn. The appearance of a new noise, returns to point 1.
3. If the source of the noise is in sight, then act according to the source of the noise: ignore or attack

[PGR-14]

You can make the parameters “hears the sound” and “sees the sound source” interact.

1. If he hears a sound, walk toward the source until he sees it.
2. If the sound stops, keep the direction of motion. Perform a stop check, based on a random number. Additionally reduce the difficulty of the check each turn. The appearance of a new noise, returns to point 1.
3. If the source of the noise is in sight, then act according to the source of the noise: ignore or attack

That's about what usually happens, but if it's behind a wall, then it'll just keep walking into the wall 'till the end of eternity. This should stop that from happening after a while.

[IdleSol]

But isn't that a positive thing? A dumb zombie hitting a wall trying to get to the source of the noise?

[PGR-14]

Kind of? It makes sense for it to do it for a while, but not forever. Brains unconsciously drown out repeating sounds, & the zombie may just get "bored" & walk away. (Also, side note, should zombies take damage from hitting walls?)

[IdleSol]

But we're talking about a situation where the zombie can't see the source. Why should it start ignoring it?

Assuming that a zombie can start ignoring a monotonous and repetitive sound. Why would it react to it at all? From a real world perspective: that sound was there long before the player showed up, the zombie is already “used” to it.

By the way, how are the sounds implemented in the game? Because I now tried to understand where the zombie will go, with the explosion of two light-noise grenades from opposite sides. So he ignored them. And went only to the shout of the player.

[PGR-14]

It'll go towards the noise if it hears one, unless it already sees a target. They've got tunnel vision for flesh (Or movement).

Fair enough for the monotonous sounds, but if a character is sneaking around a noisy area, it'd make sense for tuned out zombies to hear them less.

[IdleSol]

(Also, side note, should zombies take damage from hitting walls?)

My personal opinion. No damage until they have a limb system.

Experiments. cdda-windows-tiles-x64-2024-08-01-0043 test-trimmed.tar.gz

I built a zombie arena.

Character: cyborg with invisibility. There are 16 zombies in the center, 8 in a row. On opposite sides of the arena, wooden doors are installed. Behind the doors lie turned off sound generators, activated by a red signal.

A red signal is given. After that a second signal is given. Thus, the generator runs for ~3 turn. Zombie distribution:

As we can see, they split into two equal parts.

It's about 7-8 minutes later. Clarification, at about minute 3, one of the zombies triggered the alarm, “there are zombies nearby”. So the character teleported behind a wall. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that most of the zombies are in the left half. Or maybe they were oriented by smell? I don't know. Note to self. There is a damaged door at the bottom. After the zombies heard the sound and walked towards it, they kept hitting the door (possibly the walls as well) for a while. Even though there was no sound. But after a while they stopped. So from the bottom they managed to damage the door, but not from the top.

So I gave it another brief sound signal. Turned it on and then immediately turned it off. This is the result after 10 minutes: The zombies came to the door, and started breaking it down. A while later, they stopped and switched to moving randomly.

I turned on the sound generator to run continuously. This is the result after ~30 minutes. (The generator is still running).

The zombies have broken down the doors. But even though they see the source of the signal, they keep crowding in the same place. And if something should be changed, it is this moment.

But we need to determine the degree of “stupidity” of zombies. If we assume that they are able to correlate the image with the sound source. Then, it is necessary that they ignore such a source in their field of vision. If they are completely stupid, then we leave it unchanged.

Next, I tested the effect of multiple sources. Here on top there are two generators on each tile, and 1 on the bottom.

And here on top there are 6 generators, but 1 on each tile.

Replaced the sound generators on top with super generators:

P. S. Translation features. Sound generator = noise emitter https://cdda-guide.nornagon.net/item/noise_emitter https://cdda-guide.nornagon.net/item/noise_emitter_super

[harakka]

My personal opinion. No damage until they have a limb system.

Zombies are never going to have separate limbs defined.