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Updated Zombie AI
Hello fellow survivors!
This week, we're extremely proud to discuss some fantastic new updates to the zombie AI. As a few of you have noticed, there’s one rogue zombie chilling on top of a shipping crate in Campos – I believe a few of you have affectionately termed him ‘Fred’. Some speculation went out regarding his new and interesting animation – well, you were right, we’re bringing in sprinting zombies!
Now, within each zombie spawn, we’ll have a variable percentage (at the discretion of the designer) of zombies that spawn with the ability to sprint. These undead guys and gals have variable radiuses at which they’ll begin sprinting at the player, and variable sprint durations and speeds, as well as variable cooldowns on said sprint.
Suffice to say, it’s going to be difficult to predict 
Additionally, to really spice things up, zombies will now flank the player, zig zagging left and right, as well as bull rushing. These behaviors are quite complex – for example, the flanking is based on a segmented path based on Bezier curves, and the bull rush is only triggered depending on player and zombies health, as well as proximity.
Check it out!!
What’s next?
Call for Help!
Our AI coder is currently working on the functionality for Zombies to yell out to each other and trigger additional attackers that you must defend against. Not every zombie will be able to do this, however. There will be a random chance for each zombie to yell out and if you attack this zombie you better have the ammo to take them out or run for your life!
Zombie Swarms
Along with Call for Help our AI coder is also working on Zombie’s that will function as a group and move to attack the player as this massive group. You won’t be able to solo melee these guys, so put your bats and Machete’s away (before you poke someone’s eye out)! You’ll need a group or a whole lot of ammo to take these guys out.
That’s all for this week, tune in next time for more information!
Have fun and stay alive!
