Is it normal for downed zombies have "odd" behavior when reloading a game?

BR4ZIL on 4/4/2023 at 18:53

Hey everyone!

So... one thing that has been bothering me for quite sometime when playing FMs is that all "killed/downed" zombies show odd behavior when i quickload a game.

By "odd" i mean they will no longer be downed, but stuck in a upright position (if you touch them, they wake up again). To add to the creepyness of it, sometimes they will teleport around the map while in this state.

Is this a issue with newdark? or maybe its the older FMs that have this? I have been playing mostly early 2000s FMs.

But seriously, its super creepy to put down a zombie, go about your business on the mission while quickloading and eventually walk back to it only to find an empty room and your "downed" zombie has mysteriously teleported somwhere.

Again i asked: Anyone faced this problem before? Is there a fix?

Azaran on 4/4/2023 at 19:48

I experience that regularly, not sure if it's a Newdark issue though. Also, when they're down, they'll sometimes lift their head to look at you

voodoo47 on 4/4/2023 at 21:33

yes, zombie scripts are made by Satan.

Ryan Smith on 4/4/2023 at 23:21

And that's why I love it. You never know what they'll do. Makes great content, too.

FenPhoenix on 5/4/2023 at 02:08

The lifting the head to look at you thing, at least, is NewDark-specific. It's the behavior where AIs will turn to look at you in a fight, controllable by the "disable_headtracking" config var. Most of the time it's a visual/immersion improvement but it results in zombie weirdness and also once in a while an FM might do something weird that is affected by it. Like Snobs 2, there's a shop with a rotating mannequin that's just a frozen AI, and her head stays still while her body turns. I don't 100% know if that's due to the NewDark head-tracking behavior, but I would assume it probably is.

ZylonBane on 5/4/2023 at 06:44

Quote Posted by voodoo47

yes, zombie scripts are made by Satan.

Maybe a rewrite is in order then. The script that manages inert zombies, ZombieRegen, isn't that big.

Regarding downed zombies staring at the player, seems like just amending the metaprop M-ZombiePossum to add Disable Head Track: TRUE would fix that.

BR4ZIL on 5/4/2023 at 07:21

The "head looking towards the player" is the less problematic one. I really mean the "zombie gets up and possily teleports" behavior.

Is that normal? If you load up... say... "Bafford's Curse", go around town and down one of the zombies, save and reload the zombie will most likely be standing upright, frozen.

If you get out of its sight and save and reload, theres a high chance the zombie will teleport somewhere, still frozen.

This behavior is even more evident in "Having Regrets" FM, in the "Undead" difficulty, theres tons of zombies in the town, any save & reload will cause all downed zombies to behave VERY weirdly.

Stefan_Key on 5/4/2023 at 14:49

Let the zombies look at you!

And I'll add that YOU were staring at them firstly! :joke:

BR4ZIL on 5/4/2023 at 16:46

Now i feel sad i didint specify what the odd behavior is in the title.

Guys, the problem is that they get up and teleport around! Is that tied to the "head turning" problem?

TheRealSlimGarrett on 7/4/2023 at 08:31

Are you actually making the zombies explode or just putting them to sleep? If you make them explode so their body parts scatter then this doesn't happen IME.