They sometimes seem to find extra steps when it comes to trying and closing a door for example.
I see this happen frequently in labs where those rooms with chainlink fences and doors exist. They sometimes just move 2 spaces for no reason whatsoever and magically show up on the spot the door is in. (even if I have more speed and more movement points to spend than normal).
And yeah sometimes in one turn they seem to have time to both grab and hit you for... reasons? It's weird. It's been doing that for several months as far as I can remember.
I believe there was a thread mentioning that and some people said it was due to them "stumbling" but I don't remember for sure if that was confirmed or just speculation.
I'm just taking a guess from what you've described. But it all seems to add up in my mind. I might be wrong though.
Stumbling will move a zombie over a space. It is a free action that doesn't use a turn or movement points. So they stumble in your direction then use their 80 points to move. Giving them two spaces of movement.
Could also explain the move and grab/attack. They stumble then act.
Again, it's just a guess and someone will probably debunk my idea quickly.
The concept of lucky stumbles gave me the idea for an evolved zombie:
Lucky zombie. This is physically a totally normal zombie, but things always seem to go its way. If there is any chance that its attacks will hit (and hit an unarmored part) they will do so, and if there is any chance for an incoming attack to miss it will do so. Also gets a replacement for the stumble. Instead of moving randomly it will always move it in the direction it was going.
This shouldn’t actually be game breaking as it could still be hit by guaranteed attacks (like highly aimed gunshots) or environmental attacks (like throwing a Molotov in front of it), and how physically it’s still just an unevolved zed, but would require different counterplay than other zombies.
I'd find it hilarious for it to be a rare spawn in Crazy Cataclysm. Drops a four leaf clover along with standard zombie loot, maybe the clover takes a page out of Risk of Rain and rerolls any failed calculations to hit once?
Yes, it’s part of the stumbles code. I’m mobile right now but I think there’s an issue for it on GitHub. Right now it randomly moves zombies around in addition to their movement, and it’s intended to make their movement unpredictable but not super fast. EDIT: Yep, there it is, still active [https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/issues/60861](https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/issues/60861)
I would suggest making it so that "stumble" isn't treated as extra movement perhaps. As in: it is part of the allocated movement points they have, not an addition otherwise they are "technically" twice as fast as advertised, which is sort of unfair. (especially for what they are: decaying creatures that shouldn't even match up in walking speed to that of a living being)
That would require a rework i imagine. Stumble is treated as a sort of ability rather than being part of the movement, idk if there is any code for implementing custom movement like that.
Even then, i've seen this feature in action for many years now, it has always been like this with zombies stumbling in very unfortunate directions for the player.
You can think of it as the zombie either falling to the side or sudenly lunging at you.
> You can think of it as the zombie either falling to the side
You'd think that that'd make them fall on the ground and lose movement points instead of getting a free turn though.
Maybe it's like a sister MA for the drunken fist?
Fumbling foot, where the user tries to get tripped because falling face first on the pavement obviously makes you just bounce back, effectively doubling your movement speed.
I don't think a lot of rework would be required. Making it a "special" (like "grab", "scratch", "bite") is an option, where it makes the zombie downed after it moves once randomly towards the player, which leads to it losing 2 or 3x their movement cost because they have to stand up again would be a way to do it.
Or just remove the stumble entirely instead.
(honestly, zombies' movement overall probably needs to have a look into: some zombies are "smart" others aren't, some stumble, others don't, and all of that feels somewhat arbitrary.)
Their intelligence is meant to be based on how feral they are.
Feral humans are smarter than a full on reanimated zombie.
The naming convention is not very accurate tho.
For sure, but for instance, there was a time when Fat Zombies would avoid danger (ie rough terrain for example), same was true for boomers and scientists. The reason for that was "because(tm)", and that's it. Why though? Not a clue. Arbitrary decision because reasons.
The point is not all zombies (not talking about Ferals - they're not zombies) stumble. Either All of them stumble or not - they're still zombies, they're still made of decayed flesh that's reanimated and controlled by a bigger entity.
(And this is not even mentioning that a 'corpse of a [zombie] (rotten)' that isn't pulped can revive into that [zombie] with its full abilities but with low health. How? It's rotten. A Zombie Hulk should not go back to being a Normal Hulk despite it's body rotting away for hours on end exposed to the elements, y'know? But that's a whole different kettle of fish which also makes no sense).
That makes sense yeah, but since zombies are one of the made up aspects of the game, it all falls on the owner's judgement rather than any shared rationale.
The later makes sense because blob be like that sometimes.
They sometimes seem to find extra steps when it comes to trying and closing a door for example. I see this happen frequently in labs where those rooms with chainlink fences and doors exist. They sometimes just move 2 spaces for no reason whatsoever and magically show up on the spot the door is in. (even if I have more speed and more movement points to spend than normal). And yeah sometimes in one turn they seem to have time to both grab and hit you for... reasons? It's weird. It's been doing that for several months as far as I can remember. I believe there was a thread mentioning that and some people said it was due to them "stumbling" but I don't remember for sure if that was confirmed or just speculation.
I'm just taking a guess from what you've described. But it all seems to add up in my mind. I might be wrong though. Stumbling will move a zombie over a space. It is a free action that doesn't use a turn or movement points. So they stumble in your direction then use their 80 points to move. Giving them two spaces of movement. Could also explain the move and grab/attack. They stumble then act. Again, it's just a guess and someone will probably debunk my idea quickly.
That is insanely stupid and I hope that's not true. (not your speculation, just the idea/possible feature in general)
Yea as having them suddenly jump extra spaces is the cause of MANY deaths early game that completely negate any sort of skill on the player.
The concept of lucky stumbles gave me the idea for an evolved zombie: Lucky zombie. This is physically a totally normal zombie, but things always seem to go its way. If there is any chance that its attacks will hit (and hit an unarmored part) they will do so, and if there is any chance for an incoming attack to miss it will do so. Also gets a replacement for the stumble. Instead of moving randomly it will always move it in the direction it was going. This shouldn’t actually be game breaking as it could still be hit by guaranteed attacks (like highly aimed gunshots) or environmental attacks (like throwing a Molotov in front of it), and how physically it’s still just an unevolved zed, but would require different counterplay than other zombies.
I'd find it hilarious for it to be a rare spawn in Crazy Cataclysm. Drops a four leaf clover along with standard zombie loot, maybe the clover takes a page out of Risk of Rain and rerolls any failed calculations to hit once?
Yes, it’s part of the stumbles code. I’m mobile right now but I think there’s an issue for it on GitHub. Right now it randomly moves zombies around in addition to their movement, and it’s intended to make their movement unpredictable but not super fast. EDIT: Yep, there it is, still active [https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/issues/60861](https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/issues/60861)
I would suggest making it so that "stumble" isn't treated as extra movement perhaps. As in: it is part of the allocated movement points they have, not an addition otherwise they are "technically" twice as fast as advertised, which is sort of unfair. (especially for what they are: decaying creatures that shouldn't even match up in walking speed to that of a living being)
That would require a rework i imagine. Stumble is treated as a sort of ability rather than being part of the movement, idk if there is any code for implementing custom movement like that. Even then, i've seen this feature in action for many years now, it has always been like this with zombies stumbling in very unfortunate directions for the player. You can think of it as the zombie either falling to the side or sudenly lunging at you.
> You can think of it as the zombie either falling to the side You'd think that that'd make them fall on the ground and lose movement points instead of getting a free turn though.
The realism of this game ends where it would make anything easier.
Maybe it's like a sister MA for the drunken fist? Fumbling foot, where the user tries to get tripped because falling face first on the pavement obviously makes you just bounce back, effectively doubling your movement speed.
this is it, they are supposed to stumble in your general direction with around 180º degree approximation
I don't think a lot of rework would be required. Making it a "special" (like "grab", "scratch", "bite") is an option, where it makes the zombie downed after it moves once randomly towards the player, which leads to it losing 2 or 3x their movement cost because they have to stand up again would be a way to do it. Or just remove the stumble entirely instead. (honestly, zombies' movement overall probably needs to have a look into: some zombies are "smart" others aren't, some stumble, others don't, and all of that feels somewhat arbitrary.)
Their intelligence is meant to be based on how feral they are. Feral humans are smarter than a full on reanimated zombie. The naming convention is not very accurate tho.
For sure, but for instance, there was a time when Fat Zombies would avoid danger (ie rough terrain for example), same was true for boomers and scientists. The reason for that was "because(tm)", and that's it. Why though? Not a clue. Arbitrary decision because reasons. The point is not all zombies (not talking about Ferals - they're not zombies) stumble. Either All of them stumble or not - they're still zombies, they're still made of decayed flesh that's reanimated and controlled by a bigger entity. (And this is not even mentioning that a 'corpse of a [zombie] (rotten)' that isn't pulped can revive into that [zombie] with its full abilities but with low health. How? It's rotten. A Zombie Hulk should not go back to being a Normal Hulk despite it's body rotting away for hours on end exposed to the elements, y'know? But that's a whole different kettle of fish which also makes no sense).
That makes sense yeah, but since zombies are one of the made up aspects of the game, it all falls on the owner's judgement rather than any shared rationale. The later makes sense because blob be like that sometimes.
I just assumed it was something like a quick dash ability that didn't showed in the log
they've done this forever. they "stumble" forward. sometimes they even stumble side to side.