Olfactory Screamers

Description

Alternative system to the heatmap that turns screamers into cunning, long-distance scent trackers.

In 7 Days to Die, screamer spawning is determined by the heatmap system, which depends on:

• How much noise you make
• Activity at your base (crafting/smelting queues)
• Literal heat sources (torches, campfires)

This mod introduces a new system that is fully independent from the heatmap, and is instead tied to the smell system that was reintroduced in v2.5.

Olfactory Screamers are cunning hunters that track survivors over long distances. Once survivors are found, screamers don’t simply strike: they stalk them first until they have an advantage. Such situations are:

• When you are cornered (indoors)
• When you are outside at night
• When you have leg injuries
• When you are fatigued
• When you use a bedroll (7 Days of Insomnia compatibility)

This makes their appearances both less predictable and more intense. Hunger, thirst and infections are NOT considered, because a screamer striking while you are dying of any of those things would not be fun at all, would it? It can still happen by chance if any of the other criteria are met though, so please don’t hate me too much if it happens.

Note: If screamer spawns seem way too unpredictable, keep in mind the game is hard-coded to drop roughly 80% of the attempts to spawn the screamer with a pure-XML approach, so only 1 out of 5 attempts make it through (even without mods, this is simply how the game works).

 Avoiding screamer spawns is not as hard though: simply keep that smell counter as low as possible for as long as you can.

100% XML, fully server-side, EAC-friendly, and also compatible with pretty much everything. Can be installed or uninstalled at any time.

This mod was designed to be used together with No Heat Generation and my older Byteblazar’s Screamers, but I’m releasing them separately for modularity. Using all three simultaneously is recommended if you got bored/tired of screamers and you want to try something a bit more exciting.

Credit to sharplittleclaws for the original idea.
Credit to myself for expanding on the idea and implementing it.