I'm pasting this over from Audiogames.net. I've been getting bombarded with messages about zombie growls, zombie speeds, and the difficulty of the missions in 2.5. I have been answering them individually because I thought I had already posted a message about it publicly but I'm starting to think I only planned to write one but never did! Oops!
To set the record straight, zombie growls were not removed. I have no idea why they stopped playing in 2.5 and I am still looking for a way to fix it. The normal growling code hasn't been touched so it has to be some type of internal conflict with something else. I just can't think of anything else I've changed that would have anything to do with the growls. After typing that last sentence imagine me getting an idea and running off for 10 minutes. Now I have returned to continue typing. Well I figured out why zombies weren't growling and it will be fixed for the next update. I guess all it took was for me to stop LOOKING for it and type this message so that my brain could work on the problem from a different angle. It's funny how you'll solve a problem the minute you stop trying to. The speed of the zombies has not been increased. The message in the 2.5 changelog has confused a lot of people and many seem to believe that the zombies are now faster than they used to be. I'll explain exactly what happened. While I was working on what was going to be version 2.4, I was working on a new method for generating the Swamp sounds. One of these would be a feature that will let people boost the volume on one side of their headphones. The idea is to help people who have some hearing loss in one ear. Testing it was tricky because there are so many zombies around so I set a map to have only a single Tyrant that I could listen to as it walked around. I got annoyed because it kept getting too close and I'd have to stop my tests and run away so I added in a line of code saying that Tyrants would walk at only 10% of their normal speed but that their footsteps wouldn't change. So I was able to hear the normal number of foot step sounds but it was taking it 10 times longer to actually get close to me. When I posted version 2.4 I had forgotten to remove that line of code. When I fixed this in version 2.5 it only removed that extra line of code, thus bringing Tyrants back up to their normal speed. None of the other zombies were ever affected and everything is now back to the speed they've been since ancient Swamp versions. smile I've received dozens and dozens of skype messages and emails about the missions. The rumor network for Swamp is a powerful force, and the messages people write me are usually affected by them. Messages start off asking is missions were changed at all. Someone in Swamp will say they think missions were changed, later someone will take that and say they heard missions were changed. Someone asks if there are more zombies so naturally 10 minutes later people are assuring each other that the missions have more zombies and each person heard if from a different source. It's a little funny to see how the rumors unfold, but it is also odd how people hold to them even after I explain things. This explanation got a bit longer than I planned but I was leading in to an example of what I'm talking about. Someone skypes to tell me that it was a bad idea to make the missions harder and to make the zombies faster in them. I explain that the zombies aren't any faster and the missions were never changed. I'm assured that they were because they heard that from so-and-so and they know it's true. I explain again that neither of those things were changed. I'm told "OK, but why did you change them in the first place?!" as if I just said I'd change them back instead of me saying that I never changed them to begin with. ROFL! People are very weird. Anyway, back to my original post. Sorry about that huge side note that got out of control. The missions have not been changed at all. I haven't touched that code in several versions but I even went in to double check just in case. There is still the same number of zombies in each mission as there has been for a long long time. The zombies weren't made any smarter, their random spawns are still the same, and they aren't any stronger or faster. I don't have an answer to why so many people feel they've had extra difficult missions lately, but I can tell you it isn't anything different with the code. I can actually say that with more confidence than I ever could in the past. 90% of the code I've added over the past 3 weeks has been nothing but security fixes so it's very easy for me to remember the handful of things I've changed in the actual game. Well hopefully this will help clear stuff up. I've been short on free time for the past day or two but when I can get back to coding I will try to finish up the next update as quickly as I can. I want to get the growling fix out there soon since people obviously miss it. big_smile lol --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. 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