Zombie Walkers 3.0 Beta

Glowing Zombie bites Piper at Red Rocket

Beta is Underway

Zombie Walkers 3.0 is officially in development as of January 2020. Head on over to the Nexus site and look for downloads under Optional Files if you are interested. Note that this is not compatible with the 2.6.3 (or older versions) and should be used on a brand new game. Xbox and PS4 releases will come later as 3.0 matures.

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/20485/?tab=files

Zombie Behavior

One  area I think I went overboard with the 2.x version is in zombie behavior. The script controlling this is pretty long and complex and handles zombies wandering in groups, heading toward distant sounds, and even searching out human corpses to feed on. All of this fits the theme of course but causes a lot of strain on the engine when dozens or even hundreds of zombies are spawned.

The default sandbox behavior isn't actually too bad and has then slowly meander around there spawn area (in a smaller radius than I'd like). Cranking up the "energy" from 50 to 100 causes them to stand still even less and disabling idle animations (like standing spasms) keeps them moving too.

The other thing I am changing regarding scripts is i'm no longer dynamically attaching a script as a magic effect and instead adding the script directly to the actor via the editor. The script extends Actor and importantly does NOT store a reference to the actor it operates on (since it itself is the Actor). This was done to hopefully avoid zombies from being marked persistent and therefore not unloading as players leave the area. In addition to that, as zombies unload they are marked for deletion if killed which cleans them up faster and avoids another separate background script that periodically checked for dead zombies needing to run.

I am looking at possible creative ways to re-introduce some of the previous behavior but only if it can be done in such a way as to not impact performance (eg. replacing static dead actors with a scene where zombies are feasting on a corpse at spawn time).

Radiation Zombies

The new version isn't going to be simply a re-write with no new features. One thing I did was apply the same overhaul for Feral Ghouls to Glowing Ones. In addition, any time a legendary Feral Ghoul would spawn, a new Zombie would spawn with Feral Ghoul clothing and Glowing One skin! This new glowing zombie irradiates nearby players but otherwise acts like normal zombies (eg. slow walking, infection, etc.)

New Bite Attack

The Feral Bite mod by lifebird64 was incorporated into Zombie Walkers with permission. I used the standing normal bite version and then updated it a bit to make it configurable (on/off), only happen when target is not at full health and then only 50% of the time.

This makes it so it isn't the only attack used as in that original mod, and simulates a zombie needing to weaken/stagger an opponent before the bite. The attack will cripple the targets arm (simulating a shoulder injury) and can cause infection (if enabled).

More To Come

I've already ported spawn replacements and have plans to move on to a more efficient and managed extra spawning framework (to re-introduce not only extra spawns if desired but also settlement attacks and possibly sleep interruption).

Eventually I plan to again take on NPC resurrection and may even make two versions of it so I can finally play around with F4SE and creating human-looking zombies instead of reverting to Ghouls.

Stay tuned and please provide feedback if you participate in the beta!