I noticed immediately, even when crouch walking, infected will hear me through walls and further away than they normally would. Something odd going on for sure.
I didn’t get a chance to test at night time but this was during the day during my play through.

Its not about nigh time but in general, new patch broke the zombies again, they are way too aware now, sneaking on them to perform a stealth kill is almost impossible if it's not raining. They spot you throught walls and sees you from way too far.

You can see this beeing discussed on RD https://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/1d3zlpl/zombies_are_broken_now/

Yep, also noticed even when crouch walking with trainers on Zeds go to alert status from miles away with a single crouch step. Assuming there broken atm as that's very extreme, basically sneaking or stealth kills rendered impossible. Hope this feedback helps

In T181655#2615355, @Falkenheim wrote:

Its not about nigh time but in general, new patch broke the zombies again, they are way too aware now, sneaking on them to perform a stealth kill is almost impossible if it's not raining. They spot you throught walls and sees you from way too far.

You can see this beeing discussed on RD https://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/1d3zlpl/zombies_are_broken_now/

Actually this makes total sense. I was caught in buildings surrounded a few times since the update by zeds. I did my ussual trick of going prone away from the windows and waiting for them to calm but they stayed agro the entire time or youd hear them reagro over and over.

I also noticed this while playing on another person's server. Zombie alertness seems to be very high. Even crouching I was getting aggro from other 40 meters away (not sprinting) with buildings between me and them

The infected being able to hear doors open and hearing you through walls is intended?

I can also confirm that zombie hearing is not affected by rain. They are aggroing from much further away. If this is an intended change to zombie behavior, can you confirm?

it's fairly evident the Infected are much more aware of players and noise - it's nice to see them reacting to doors being opened (which was in patch notes some versions back, but didn't seem to really work back then).
I was able to sneak attack a fair number in broad daylight by crouch walking on grass with hiking boots, and even some other terrain - but they are definitely MUCH more aware than 1.24.
Our players are really only bothered by this because infected behavior is still janky as hell. - being hit from yards away, being hit when the infected isn't facing you, stuttering around (our server performance is excellent but yes this is desync), new warping through doors
I think if BI could get much better consistent behavior from Infected most of the complaints would subside.
As some of our players put it - I'm doing everything right and still being hit - it's frustrating.

I like that they are more aware now, but some scenarios don't make sense.

• Even when I'm completely still in a house, they'll keep doing the "huh" sound and keep re-aggroing.
• Infected hearing me walking indoors through multiple walls.
• Their night time vision seems to be better than mine, because all I see is pitch black but they somehow can see me.

And they seemingly react to door opening sounds. Okay... but can we please stop slamming the doors? Can I open/close them slowly like a rational person would?

In T181655#2616238, @JerryK wrote:

And they seemingly react to door opening sounds. Okay... but can we please stop slamming the doors? Can I open/close them slowly like a rational person would?

😅😅 I've been asking in the community for this for over a year.
The way I see the mechanic functioning is, either you're crouched, or holding ctrl when clicking to open a door.

PVZMoD has these features for a while. Crouch opening is supposed to be quieter to zeds.

Intentional or not, I think it's strange that the developers aren't noticing a difference, unless I'm misunderstanding Geez' reply.

As others have stated, the AI itself isn't really in a state to be ramping up the sensitivity to this point. It just results in frustration and being punished despite doing the right thing. I'm assuming there was a reason the developers intended to "focus" on the AI last year, despite walking that back later on. They feel cheap.

I have my doubts this was intentional, though. It seems like they are ignoring the existence of visual obstacles.

In T181655#2615957, @Geez wrote:

Hello everyone.
We have tested this on our end but we were unable to find any issues.
Regards,
Geez

lmao oh ok everyone is just mistaken i guess

In T181655#2616337, @sanguine00 wrote:

Intentional or not, I think it's strange that the developers aren't noticing a difference, unless I'm misunderstanding Geez' reply.

As others have stated, the AI itself isn't really in a state to be ramping up the sensitivity to this point. It just results in frustration and being punished despite doing the right thing. I'm assuming there was a reason the developers intended to "focus" on the AI last year, despite walking that back later on. They feel cheap.

I have my doubts this was intentional, though. It seems like they are ignoring the existence of visual obstacles.

This just some typical moment where you realise that the devs aren't playing at their own game. It was noticeable on the first mins of testing the new pacth on an official Cherna server and became more and more solid throughtout the days that came after the release.

At this moment it is very clear that Z awarness is not at it was prior to the patch. They spot you inside a building while you are crouched and barely moving and them being in the street dozens meters away from the building, stealth killing is now very inconsistent and most of the time they will hear or see you way before they are reachable.

In T181655#2615957, @Geez wrote:

Hello everyone.
We have tested this on our end but we were unable to find any issues.
Regards,
Geez

Dude, you guys have obviously not tested anything at all if you are unable to notice or detect any differences or issues. I am telling you now that you are wrong Geez. Very wrong, tell them to test again or test harder. The zombies are broken Geez. Do you understand that the zombies are broken yet Geez? Make sure you tell somebody, and if they say that there is no issue. Tell them to their face that they are wrong.

Hello again.
Just to clarify.
The infected hearing has been increased for this update. This has been intentional decision by the devs.
Regards,
Geez

Change. It. Back.

In T181655#2617757, @Geez wrote:

Hello again.
Just to clarify.
The infected hearing has been increased for this update. This has been intentional decision by the devs.
Regards,
Geez

We do however hear your feedback and we are currently looking into possible improvements.

In T181655#2617950, @Geez wrote:

In T181655#2617757, @Geez wrote:

Hello again.
Just to clarify.
The infected hearing has been increased for this update. This has been intentional decision by the devs.
Regards,
Geez

We do however hear your feedback and we are currently looking into possible improvements.

Well my feed back is that it is extremely disingenuous to leave such a major change out of the patch notes, play it off like nothing for a week, tell everyone there's nothing wrong when we are all telling you there is, and then backtrack to say it was an intentional change. There is still isn't an optic for the VS-89 after weeks of feedback, and I can't play on official server without encountering a cheater. Frankly, I do not believe Bohemia hears or acts on most of this feedback at all, and it is growing increasingly frustrating to be asked to help the devs and leave feedback when most of it isn't being taken advantage of or is being ignored. I have been providing feedback, bug reports, cheater reports, advertising this game amongst my friends, and this the first time in these 10 years that I refuse to have Bohemias back. I will not recommend this game to anyone until I feel like Bohemia is treating this game with as much respect as I have given it and Bohemia over the years. No betrayal in-game could compare to some of the development mistakes and marketing mistakes Bohemia is has made in recent months. All of it could be fixed by just looking at the feedback on this tracker. Geez, either you aren't doing your job or the people you report to aren't taking you seriously. Is there anybody else from Bohemia looking at this feedback tracker?

In T181655#2617950, @Geez wrote:

In T181655#2617757, @Geez wrote:

Hello again.
Just to clarify.
The infected hearing has been increased for this update. This has been intentional decision by the devs.
Regards,
Geez

We do however hear your feedback and we are currently looking into possible improvements.

You can improve it by reverting what you did. I’ve not seen one person who has liked this change. Leave the AI until you actually get around to reworking them. Stop making sneaky changes and not including them in the patch notes.

"The infected hearing has been increased for this update. This has been intentional decision by the devs."

@Geez Thx for this information.

But why was it not mentioned in the changelog?

I think it is not tweaked well. I can not steath kill anymore.

Why change infected awareness when it was working properly ? I've thought that infected finally felt balanced when it comes to awareness, and then you guys change it to something that nobody asked for. Not a cool move imo.
The good old saying : don't fix what's not broken...

things like infected navigation, movement, animations, attacks, death animations... sure yes, need improvement. But infected awareness ? not it imo.. I'd love to see the rollback on this.

In T181655#2617757, @Geez wrote:

Hello again.
Just to clarify.
The infected hearing has been increased for this update. This has been intentional decision by the devs.
Regards,
Geez

With all my respect and appreciation, this is not right; this is a change no one asked for, wasn't mentioned in patch notes, and was denied at first when reported and tested, then a week later acknowledged. It was quite obvious by the first 5 minutes of playing that either there was a bug or something was missing. I repeat, with all my respect for you Geez, the developers and Adam Francu, this is not right. As someone wrote above, the infected were quite well-balanced after years of changes back and forth and It was thrown away.

@Geez

In T181655#2617757, @Geez wrote:

Hello again.
Just to clarify.
The infected hearing has been increased for this update. This has been intentional decision by the devs.
Regards,
Geez

Not really sure why such a fundamental change to the game was excluded from the patch notes. Unless I am missing it, no one has even bothered to edit the notes to add this apparent change. For the change itself, it is too much. Zombies need to stay at the level they were in 1.23. Zombies have always been more frustrating to deal with than fun. They have always been buggy and inconsistent in behavior. You guys got to wait till you rework them from the ground up to make any significant changes to them. At the absolute bare minimum you need to make them not be able to hear and see players through walls unless you are full sprinting or get rid of there chance to make you bleed. You could also just make them super frail and die to 1-2 melee hits if you want them hyper aware. We lack any reliable means to distract them, so maybe even that would help. You got to make a trade off somewhere or revert them back to 1.23.

Leaving it out of the patch notes was likely just an attempt to get pure feedback without preconceived notions. I can kind of understand that, as long as they accept the feedback.

In T181655#2618337, @sanguine00 wrote:

Leaving it out of the patch notes was likely just an attempt to get pure feedback without preconceived notions. I can kind of understand that, as long as they accept the feedback.

Or just proof of how disorganized they are

Please can you just change Zombies back to how they were. This is a terrible change that clearly the vast majority of players do not like.

One of the things I really wish DayZ had was the ability to be stealthy.

Zombies having ESP has been a complaint for years.
Their hearing before the change was enhanced more than it should have been.
Walking in houses without line of sight should not agro anything more than 1 meter away, and even still, it should not know your exact location.
The AI should go into a searching mode, roam around, even wander away looking for you for xx seconds.

AI improvements that would be nice to see happen.

• Reduced hearing
• Reduced vision, ESPECIALLY at night.
• Ability to distract, Currently throwing items works against the players best interest 90% of the time.

Game play issues

• No mechanic to escape a hoard that has cornered you. Until there is a shoving mechanic, getting stuck behind 2-3+ zeds will ruin most of your clothes, most likely KO or kill your player if you don't have a melee that is not affected by weapon raise.

Faster, better hearing/vision doesn't always mean harder. It's more of an annoyance than fun.

New Mechanics that would be fun. (And exist in some mods already)

• Door bangers, This adds fear
• Slower but more powerful, The officer zed initially gave us fear to avoid, Having more levels of zeds to deal with that aren't the same behavior of (Smack, Smack, pause, Smack) The biggest fear here, is messing up the block timing and getting the 100% cut chance.
• Faster, but vision is more impaired
• AI attacks you with items! Let them pick up pipes, stones, throw mud!

Thanks you for listening to my Zed talk.

Yeah, more aware zombies are cool, but it would be even cooler if they were realistic and in accordance with the general gameplay. Full detection at night breaks playability, and more sneaky actions should be implemented to better match fully aware zombies.
Have a nice DayZ

Just to clarifying why their is so much frustration around zombies. Dayz overall feels very good and has seen some crazy improvements over the past 10 years. One of the major immersion breaking things still around is the zombie AI as their movement and interaction is very buggy. You can’t really fight them indoors because the blocking mechanism always requires you to walk back and they ultimately bug you into any asset. If you are more than one person they switch aggro in a non logical and comprehensive way. Your buddy is 30 meters away and you Aggro a zombie and it still runs to your buddy then switches back. Zombies circle jump over a fence 5 times before actually reaching. When you try to trap them inside houses they often can’t find a path in and run around the front door several times. When you get shot at a close range I often find myself getting chased by several zombies while the person shooting doesn’t have any zombies on him although he was only 5 meters away from me when he shot and his sound source was much louder then the impacts of the bullets.

These are just a few examples why zombies are very frustrating to interact with. Over the last year their has been a great amount of changes to the zombies for example increasing their dmg to clothes, chances of bleeding and detection radius for military zombies. There haven’t been any improvements to how zombies actually work though. They are still buggy and the most broken mechanic in game right now and despite planning to fix them in their 2023 roadplan, the devs decided to not do that. In the 2024 roadplan there hasn’t been any word about it. Instead things are getting reworked like sound of weapons, medical system and many other things that no one really asked for. So clearly there are resources to work on things. But the devs ignore to work on the zombies which would be the last major annoyance you can find in game. Instead they make the interaction more frustrating, they are not transparent as why they won’t fix the AI and to top it all off they even increase their detection radius to a crazy amount which completely breaks a core mechanic and all off this without notifiying the community about this change. Then the community says something is wrong, this is denied for a week and in the end you backtrack and say it was intentional.

If you or any person at BI ever don’t seem to understand why people are frustrated about zombies then please read this post. I love this game so much but man the lack of transparency, understanding and uprightness considering the whole zombie AI is a huge disappointment. Dayz 2 isn’t anywhere close on the horizon, there is a new map coming out, the game is nearly 10 years old now and main core mechanic of what makes this game Dayz is still a broken mess which the people responsible for don’t fully comprehend and even make the interaction more annoying without telling anyone.

Either fix the AI or leave them alone but what you are doing right now is embarrassing.

In T181655#2617757, @Geez wrote:

Hello again.
Just to clarify.
The infected hearing has been increased for this update. This has been intentional decision by the devs.
Regards,
Geez

I wanted to apologize to you Geez for being heavily assertive and commanding when interacting with you previously, however I would like to know, providing you have the time, if any of the people in-charge of making these decisions are aware of the negative feedback and outcry to revert the change? And would it be possible to update the patch notes to accurately reflect the changes made to the game?

Agro locked on someone whom left the PD quite a while prior. Ignored the 2 players still inside.

https://clips.twitch.tv/CovertOilyAlligatorAMPTropPunch-WoZAWGHuGI9a38cC

In T181655#2618916, @778 wrote:

In T181655#2617757, @Geez wrote:

Hello again.
Just to clarify.
The infected hearing has been increased for this update. This has been intentional decision by the devs.
Regards,
Geez

I wanted to apologize to you Geez for being heavily assertive and commanding when interacting with you previously, however I would like to know, providing you have the time, if any of the people in-charge of making these decisions are aware of the negative feedback and outcry to revert the change? And would it be possible to update the patch notes to accurately reflect the changes made to the game?

The dev team is definitely aware of the players feedback on the current infected changes and as mentioned previously, we are working on improving the behaviour to resolve the problems that came with the change and are being reported by the community. Unfortunately I cannot provide any comments on the patch notes.

Yes... actually the "ugliest" fact of this whole affair is precisely that the change was not put in the patch notes and then denied for a long time. In my opinion, this is a serious incorrectness towards the players.
But...
Are we sure that it really "was wanted" and didn't "happen by chance" and you don't know how to fix it?!? And that's why you denied it until too many players intervened to continue denying it any longer?

@Geez sorry for being impatient, but when can we expect the hotfix ? It's been so long since we've started complaining about this.
And pretty much everyone is extremely annoyed by it. The game has become so frustrating, especially for the new players on Livonia and Namalsk. The another additional problem is that Infected again make you bleed too often when they hit you with the first hit. was that also intentionally changed ? Out of 20 infected, 12 were first hit - first bleed. This was already implemented some patches ago, and the feedback was overwhelmingly negative so it was reverted or it was a bug ( I don't remember anymore). Why bring it back again on top of absurd awareness ?. You basically can't shoot, extremely hard to stealth kill, can't talk in-game because the moment you do it, the whole infected village will be upon you. Prior to this change, Infected felt really good damage and awareness-wise. Pathing and big variety in death animations is what needs work imo.

Cheers !