So im pretty new to the game, ive set the mode to Survivor, then disabled respawns in custom sandbox. Im playing in Rosewood and its absolutely relentless. Zombies are immediately replaced with about the same number within only a few days and Ive probably cleared out the main street from the fire station to the church about 10 times now and to the gas station twice.

I started setting myself up in the gated community, cleaned it out, then the chopper came and I hid inside for the day, while they didnt swarm right on the house, the whole neighborhood must have had 100 zombies. So I died, running back though, the outside of the fire station was once again teeming with zombies. It was a little thin from the firestation to the gated community, but there were still a ton just outside the gated community and to the west of the police station.

How much longer before I start seeing results? Did the helicopter event just sweep in a big load and once their gone maybe things will start getting better?

I think there is one other thing that affects zombie population and that's the 'days till peek population' setting, even with respawn off, they will spawn until the maximum population on a certain day is achieved, then you can mow them down and they wont respawn :)

As a side note, the sadistic AI will try and spread remaining zombies around the map, if you want to clear an area I suggest you turn off 'zombie migration'

Hope this helps!

So the initial population of zombies works a bit different than you might think. See, the initial population doesn't immediately spawn once you start the game. It spawns like 25%, begins increasing the number of zombies spawning for the next 50%, then slows down again until the final 25% are spawned in over a number of days.

At this point, you've hit the initial population of zombies the game intended to spawn, and no respawns means from that point no new zombies should spawn in to replace the ones you killed (as the game has a desired population it wants to keep zombies at by default).

Events like the helicopter, gunshots, screams, dog barks can still cause zombies outside the area to migrate into the area tho.

Also, don't forget to save your settings under a different name, if it still said survivor, chances are your settings were not saved and you are playing on the normal difficulty with infinite zombie respawning.

Originally posted by Plazmataz:

So the initial population of zombies works a bit different than you might think. See, the initial population doesn't immediately spawn once you start the game. It spawns like 25%, begins increasing the number of zombies spawning for the next 50%, then slows down again until the final 25% are spawned in over a number of days.

At this point, you've hit the initial population of zombies the game intended to spawn, and no respawns means from that point no new zombies should spawn in to replace the ones you killed (as the game has a desired population it wants to keep zombies at by default).

Events like the helicopter, gunshots, screams, dog barks can still cause zombies outside the area to migrate into the area tho.

Is it subtracting the ones I killed? Or has it all been for nothing? Also, about how long does it take to get to the peak?

Originally posted by Reinforcements:

Originally posted by Plazmataz:

So the initial population of zombies works a bit different than you might think. See, the initial population doesn't immediately spawn once you start the game. It spawns like 25%, begins increasing the number of zombies spawning for the next 50%, then slows down again until the final 25% are spawned in over a number of days.

At this point, you've hit the initial population of zombies the game intended to spawn, and no respawns means from that point no new zombies should spawn in to replace the ones you killed (as the game has a desired population it wants to keep zombies at by default).

Events like the helicopter, gunshots, screams, dog barks can still cause zombies outside the area to migrate into the area tho.

Is it subtracting the ones I killed? Or has it all been for nothing? Also, about how long does it take to get to the peak?

The zombie spawn settings are a little flaky. Even with initial population and population size set to zero (meaning there should be absolutely no zombies at all), you'll still get scattered zombie spawns in a brand new game. Why? Who knows.

It should be noted, that even on the default spawn settings, there are still thousands of cells with hundreds of zombies in them. So across entire game world, with no respawns whatsoever, I wouldn't be surprised if there was upwards of 1/2 a million zombies (or zombie blanks, waiting for a player to enter the same cell as them and initiate the full spawn cycle). And because of the migration settings, the game will keep trying to balance out zombie populations among them all, which can mean dumping the majority of them into urban areas (another spawn setting) when those cells get depleted. So if you're looking to kill off all the zombies, you're probably going to be at it for a long, long time.

Yes your correct its relentless.

Change in advanced zombie options;

Respawn hours from 72 to 168
Respawn unseen hours 16 to 72
Zombie migration 12 to 24 or 48

This allows you to always have zombies respawning yet allowing you to simulate for a brief time your ability to clear a area for anywhere from 3 days to one week. And with the migration changed to 1 or 2 days you dont have the zombies moving to a empty part of the map (the area youd like to simulate you culling) for anywhere up to 1 or 2 days.

as always these settings can be changed per your flavor. However these settings were the ones you wanna look into to remedy your issue

Originally posted by LostSoul:

Originally posted by Reinforcements:

Is it subtracting the ones I killed? Or has it all been for nothing? Also, about how long does it take to get to the peak?

The zombie spawn settings are a little flaky. Even with initial population and population size set to zero (meaning there should be absolutely no zombies at all), you'll still get scattered zombie spawns in a brand new game. Why? Who knows.

It should be noted, that even on the default spawn settings, there are still thousands of cells with hundreds of zombies in them. So across entire game world, with no respawns whatsoever, I wouldn't be surprised if there was upwards of 1/2 a million zombies (or zombie blanks, waiting for a player to enter the same cell as them and initiate the full spawn cycle). And because of the migration settings, the game will keep trying to balance out zombie populations among them all, which can mean dumping the majority of them into urban areas (another spawn setting) when those cells get depleted. So if you're looking to kill off all the zombies, you're probably going to be at it for a long, long time.

The random spawns you get with a zero population are ones that auto spawn with the "stories", ie car wrecks and the like.

Originally posted by Death:

Originally posted by LostSoul:

The zombie spawn settings are a little flaky. Even with initial population and population size set to zero (meaning there should be absolutely no zombies at all), you'll still get scattered zombie spawns in a brand new game. Why? Who knows.

It should be noted, that even on the default spawn settings, there are still thousands of cells with hundreds of zombies in them. So across entire game world, with no respawns whatsoever, I wouldn't be surprised if there was upwards of 1/2 a million zombies (or zombie blanks, waiting for a player to enter the same cell as them and initiate the full spawn cycle). And because of the migration settings, the game will keep trying to balance out zombie populations among them all, which can mean dumping the majority of them into urban areas (another spawn setting) when those cells get depleted. So if you're looking to kill off all the zombies, you're probably going to be at it for a long, long time.

The random spawns you get with a zero population are ones that auto spawn with the "stories", ie car wrecks and the like.

While I'm sure that explains some of them, I've seen plenty just milling around, with nothing happening anywhere within the maximum view distance (from aim mode). No accidents. No randomly abandoned vehicles or what have you. Just standing on a sidewalk. All alone. And this is day 1, within just a few minutes of starting. If there was an associated 'event' which created them, it's invisible, because there's no way the zombies could have shuffled far away enough that it wouldn't be on screen in that span of time.

So I started a new game with Peak day 1, that should stop the spawns i guess? Also changed redistribute hours to 5 days (120 hours). But the option says, "The number of hours that must pass before zombies migrate to empty parts of the same cell." What does that mean for zombies outside the cell? Do zombies not cross cells?

Meta events can make a herd wander outside of any given cell.
but generally the zeds will migrate to empty parts within the cell they are in during the check that makes them move