I guess I just need to pay more attention. Would it be possible
for you just to upload a new patch with the growling fix? I have
a sneaking suspicion that it's part of the reason people are
saying the zombies are faster (that most likely includes me) and
missions are harder. I know that I personally listen for the
growls a lot, and their absence (though not noticed) did manage
to kill me off and surprise my other character quite a few times.
----- Original Message -----
From: Jeremy Kaldobsky <[email protected]
To: audyssey <[email protected]
Date sent: Wed, 16 May 2012 09:58:44 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Audyssey] Swamp Rumor control
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
---
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