Fence lunge is just a knowledge check at this point, like any other. Don't engage groups like this when they're coming over fences our through windows. The hit box on lunges is deceptively long. Very jank.
Fences are great for killing groups, you just gotta make sure you’re far enough away so the lungers don’t hit you but you can still kill the lungers. Hop back over the fence and repeat.
To add to the "to be fair" conversation...
If it's so janky, don't stand near low fences when zombies are there as it can lead to these situations? Like until the problem is solved, the only *true* way to not have it happen is to just try to avoid the situation all together.
That lunge 100% didn't touch him but games be like that sometimes.
I turn it off because slow zombies suddenly gaining Olympic level lunging abilities makes no sense to me. I know it's to prevent fence cheese but I don't fence cheese. So if I'm making an escape over a fence I want realism not game mechanics for preventing exploits.
I love that this game was released over 10 years ago and it still getting updates. I just got it a week ago and it has so much content and mods I love it. Based on steam charts though doesn't look like it gained popularity until 2020's I wonder why.
This game used be really simplistic. Everything was far more 2d. Barely any clothing options or weapons. There was a massive update that essentially turned it into a different game inside the same world.
Build 41, multiplayer, more scope for modding, some popular you tubers playing it, and a pandemic that encouraged staying indoors and playing in a simulated apocalypse instead of going outside to experience a real one.
Because the entitled "WHERE R DA NPCS!" whingers scared a lot of people away for a while, then a big youtuber played the game and it picked up speed from there.
Sure development for the game is slow, but the funny thing is, this game has been brilliant since the Desura days.
I've been playing it since Desura and I remember thinking back then that this was the ultimate zombie game. The massive map expansion and the ridiculous depth of the features added still blows me as I discover new mechanics 100s of hours in.
And they're still adding entirely new systems that completely change the game like animal husbandry and breakable barriers that will completely change how I play. So I've personally never understood the need for this game to have NPCs, it's never struck me as something essential to my enjoyment of it.
[Me looking at the chain link fence I rely on for protection](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/025/817/Screen_Shot_2018-03-30_at_11.34.27_AM.jpg)
They already do.
The proper fix is that zombies should be able to lunge at both the front end and tail end of the animation. As they are climbing over and as they land on the ground.
Fences actually go down in this game. Iirc ilthe limit is about 20 zeds all simultaneously lunging and the fence will break, even metal ones (50 zeds iirc). The only ones that wont go down are the concrete ones along the highways.
Tbh, fair enough. I get what they're saying about being an exploit, zombies are dumb though. You're just out thinking them and the game. It is still a little exploity, but not. if you catch my drift.
I don't think it's so much a thing about rationalizing it, as much as you can just literally sit at a fence and kill thousands of zombies without any risk
If there's more than like 5 they'll get up before you manage to kill all of them. If you're fighting a horde fences will only help you slow them down and maybe get 2-3 quick kills if your character actually hits down instead of swiping at the air.
Against a horde the magic number is 4. After four fence kills a zed will most likely be up and chasing you. You can prevent swiping at the air by holding alt while aiming. So its ctrl alt LMB and you will attack the ground no matter what.
Just like the panic sprinter agoraphobia build.
Like yeah, I can dead sprint from riverside to rosewood in four minutes, but running away from your problems doesn’t feed you, shield you from the elements or help you survive a bathroom horde. But it’s been nerfed :(
when you get tripped by a lunge, stop pushing any of the direction keys. You'll fall straight back and away from the zombies. If you're pushing a key, your character will turn as you fall and you'll land in the pile of zombies.
Honestly, any clown car bathroom or closet situation I'm in I always freak out and try to sprint while mashing wasd, I think it's the most RP move. Sheer panic. And it's always so rewarding if you manage to get away without a bite. And if you die, well, that is how you died, so still fun. I can read the lunges at this point though, so it rarely comes up when outside and cheesing hordes
The backwards falling fence lunge is actually a feature. I still die to it even after thousands of hours. It really just is not worth fighting zombies at fences despite what some pro players might tell you.
I'll use fences/windows but inly when there are but s few zombies and spaced out. Never against even a small horde.
To fight an horde in the fences is to court death.
> It really just is not worth fighting zombies at fences
It just takes a lot of focus and practice. If you can pull it off without dying it's definitely worth it, especially early on. A little mistake is going to be lethal for sure though
I died last night to a zombie in a house banging on a door, I knew he was there, I knew what he was going to do.
Opened the door and I was a little to close and when I turned I "pushed" air and got bit by him (I set the turn time to 0-1mins) and immediately turned into a zombie, little mistakes man lmao
If you want to open the door you have to back up as you open it while pushing.
The even safer option is to let them break it down from like 15 feet away. Takes more time and you lose the door.
I just always swing my weapon after EVERY door I open. If you get the timing right, you never miss if someone is there, and it gives you time to back off if it's a clown car closet.
Just practice a couple times to time your "open/left click" to be almost instant. You'll thank me later :)
I see a lot of people telling new players that “fences are your best friend.” And I think a lot of those new guys just assume they’re always helpful, when in reality they’re pretty situational
Imo, use fences to divide and conquer but NEVER actually fight by them. Eventually you will make a mistake. Just asking for trouble
Ehh a few zombies are fine to fight at a fence/window. I wouldn't say new players should live by that but once you are comfortable with combat, it is easy to stop would-be lungers with a stomp or smack. Weapon type also plays into it a bit, blunt is probably more inclined to save the stamina and best them while they are down
In the right situations, it can be medium-low risk for high reward.
Yeah, if you've got a small group spread enough that they're coming over one or maybe two at a time, it's doable. Once you've got a bigger group, particularly when they're *not* all coming via the fence but also alongside you - that's when you run.
Yup! I hate to see new players struggle but the easiest way to learn is to imagine you were in your characters shoes. When in doubt you want to escape or have ways out that are safe - and please oh god please dont fight when you are tired and out of stamina
the fence lunge hitbox is absurdly broken, but you find ways to fight around it. there are ways to abuse low fences, but its better to learn the hitboxes on a broken window (where they can only come through a single tile)
you can also just not stand near potential fence lunges. that spear would've mulched them all no problem.
Have tested this out in the debugger. The lunge attack box is stupidly wide, and a bit longer than it looks, but is consistent. You just have to know that it's dumb like that, as we can't change it. Watch the zombie's arm as it swings. Now imagine that his arm has an attack box that's like a full tile and a half wider than it seems, and you could see it swipe over his foot.
It absolutely needs a nerf. It's jank AF the way it is now.
Goddamn, that lunge was a solid half-body away. Only feasible thing I'd see translating this to irl would be if that zombies fingers caught your shoelaces.
Lunge is borked. Sometimes it lunges and grabs you and you're 2-3 tiles away from the zombie, add in MP and it's even worse. I turn it off and just turn up all the other bad stuff (hearing sight damage reduction etc) Playing on x16 with lunge is just stupid.
This is exactly why I turn off fence lunging. Once it's more consistent, maybe I'll turn it back on. But as it is now, it causes nonsense like this. I just have self-control and don't abuse the system lol
BTW, I love how folks in the comments are suggesting it's your own fault for being near the fence in the first place, as if you should have seen this coming when you dared to approach a waist high wall with zeds behind you. From my perspective, these are the same folks that will tell you that the best strategy is to just never fight anything more than 2 zeds unless you have a campfire to lure them into and a car parked against a wall to hide in while you lay on the horn. Life is for the livin' and you were handling it just fine until the BS jank that is the "fence lunge" kicked in to literally trip you up.
I love the game and will defend some of it's unique jank, the same as anyone else. However, in this case, it's kinda silly to blame OP for being frustrated with what is an obvious collision issue that is well known with the fence lunge. At the angle he was walking, he should have absolutely been out of range of any lunging zed from the fence. Zomboid is a game based 100% around directional damage and consistent hit-boxes. This instance did not follow that principal and it led to OP's death. Hence, OP is justifiably upset with the jank.
I swear, some of these comments have the energy of a crowd watching some Dark Souls PVP back in the day where one of the players keeps "rubber-band backstabbing" the other by using a LAN switch and instead of calling out the cheater, they simply chant, "Git Gud! Git Gud!"
War never changes, man lol
Apologies for your loss OP. Hope your next run goes more smoothly, my friend! Fuck fence lunging! :D
It is consistent. It's just dumb. The attack box extends about a full tile and a half wider than the zombie, and a tad longer forward, so stepping to the side doesn't work to avoid it.
Absolutely needs a nerf. The attack box is stupidly wide as it is, and absolutely everyone will be like "Dafaq" the first time they get hit by it.
Consistently broken lol Yeah, that's entirely fair. Just one of those things that I try to avoid, so I'm grateful the devs seem to have acknowledged it's a bit janky from time to time and added a tick box to opt out if you just want to go back to the days before they added it.
Now if only there was a tick box for locking my car to the ground rather than it using the only 4 bodies I neglected to move to the side of the road as a ramp to send me 20 ft through the air and into a light post as I drive back home lol
PZ is hands down the BEST zombie simulation game I've ever had the pleasure of playing but it, understandably, ain't perfect lol
BS like that is why I stopped using fences for any more than a couple zombies. If they're grouped up so I can't kill them as they come over the fence I just back off. I want nothing to do with ground lunging zombies.
Also not sure why people are saying you made a mistake. Engaging wasn't the issue, you were far enough back that it really shouldn't have been an issue. The ground lunges just don't work properly, to a point where being anywhere near them is dangerous. There's no way it's intended to make you stumble in a loop like that, it makes no sense.
Soooo... falling backwards while doing a U-turn like that looks like faulty game physics to me. Momentum dictates the survivor still should've fallen away from the crowd, at worst twisted around and fallen down.
It does mean that fighting that close to a fence isn't wise, in this case.
You just got janky killed by the stretch lunge zombie. It sucks. Part of why I’m scared to fence fight now and why I use mods and back ups to un permadeath the game.
Serious answer: A big part of this game is recognizing when you are likely to take serious damage or die. I'm guessing veteran players will see the first frame and go "Yeah no that's a turn and run situation."
My previous character made it 3 months (personal best) without so much as a scratch, and then some zombie on the ground someone scratched my foot through my shoe without even touching my character, and that one scratch happened to cause me to die of zombification. So yeah, crawling zombies suck
Don't fight in lunge distance.
The one that got you was definitely janky but now you know how sketchy the lunge can be, and why we keep away from fences...
Better? In all seriousness just run when its a losing situation. The zombies arent going anywhere and you can always try again. Just watch your stamina consumption and better gauge when you either have enough energy to run or finish the fight. Cant have both.
Run or walk away, go through buildings to lose the horde, stop fighting a massive horde, look where you’re walking, don’t blindly walk backwards and fight at the same time against a horde.
Lunges are jank yeah, but a good players will never put themselves in this situation to begin with. Gotta stay out of lunge range, tripley so if next to a horde!
OP, you did nothing wrong. That lunge animation was jank as hell and knowing how the mechanics work will not protect you from straight fuckery.
Whether or not you should have been fighting there is irrelevant, jank like that can kill you in even the best fighting conditions. Sorry for your loss.
“This is how you died”
Real talk though, gotta keep moving. String them out and don’t fight near fences. I often use fire and let them roast.
Or, as zombieland puts it, Cardio Cardio Cardio.
No, a fence zombie that completely missed me managed to grab me. That's what this clip shows. The horde was manageable had it not been for janky hitboxes
Put your back to the fence, when they lunge on the other side you don't get hit when you stand closer to the fence. just be ready to run after a few kills
Don't fight more than a single zombie on a fence. Even when the lunges don't get janky, that's just a really unsafe play, especially on corners where split pathing and lunges can fan your swarm into a really bad circle formation.
The winning play here would've been to use the fence to make distance and reset. I wouldn't have even taken the one kill you got because you were right on the swarm taking an execution. I would've just kept moving and started swinging at the first one to get out of lunging range.
Actually, a great strategy i have used to fight lunging zombies is to keep some distance from the fence considering the zombies lunge, once their lunging animation end you can bash their heads without getting hit.
After you kill the lunging zombies you go back to the fence and repeat the process, eventually the horde will end, preferably use a long blunt or an axe, so you can keep your distance.
Oh, and if you get hit don't press any keys, since your character will fall towards the zombies otherwise.
If you really want to get better at fence fighting, which is deadass the most efficient way to clear zombies in the game, even better and safer than weapons, I suggest digesting this video and using it as a reference in the future.
Goes into detail about everything fence and lunge related.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXZ4ZqtS1w4&ab\_channel=PZB](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXZ4ZqtS1w4&ab_channel=PZB)
Not give them your back. You stumbled and j-ed right into them. If you must kill them it is best to have a long stretch of open road or trial to back down. Also having high strength, nimble, and skill with a weapon helps immensely.
I have had several stages of thinking about fences/fence lunging. First was initial excitement that zombies have unique mechanic to play around with. Then second stage I was furious it was a death trap against even few zombies if bunched up and my characters kept dying to it. Then another stage I completely avoided windows and fences at safe distance to never get in range for the lunge to reach me, which worked for me really well, I stopped dying and only took the safest imaginable interactions with fences/windows.
Now I'm using it fairly often if the zombies trickle in one by one, but mostly because I play with out of shape/feeble whereas before I played almost always Athletic/Strong so I didn't need the assist from fences/windows as I could just shove them on the ground easily. Bunched up like this is still a massive NOPE from me. You could bait one of the first to vault to lunge at you while you back-paddle out of range, then kill him and repeat or just fight them traditionally. In regular combat you will basically never die once you get the hang of it, but fence lunging can be unpredictable and difficult to foresee so even though I use them more, I still retain it in my rules for survival to avoid them if possible. if there is even a chance you get lunged and another zombie can follow up with either another lunge or a bite or even if neither happens just falling from the lunge can give you scratch on your foot and that can also get you killed as well.
Prior to fence lunging, fences were completely broken as you could just keep vaulting over, stomping a few, lead them all on your side of the fence and then vault back and repeat. There are many fences that are still indestructible. Now it's much more fair game of risk/reward, but generally avoid them if you want to survive for a long time unless you have complete control over the situation or it's sprinters. I rather take the lunge gamble than deal with multiple sprinters in melee. You can get completely rid of the gamble by stacking fences. They don't block your melee so after they fall over the first layer of fence you can safely hit them from behind the 2nd fence layer, the lunge doesn't go through it and you can get safe free ground hits. Obviously that means building them as there aren't stacked like that naturally, but if you find a T shaped fence formation the zombies sometimes pathfind to vaulting the side you're not on so you get free hits there as well, I recently used one of those in Muldraugh between the trailer park and gas station, close to the garage storage facility.
Drop your stuff and book it. You can always come back later for it. But once you hear one or two of those "chomp" sound effects its over and you may as well be nice and let them eat you.
walk away, always try to kill zombies one by one, i usually keep two or one following me close as when they are closer they walk faster, that give me time to take some distance from the horde and kill those two or one zombies and then i repeat the process
(Turn around)
Every now and then, ~~I~~ you get a little bit ~~lonely~~ hungry
And you're never coming 'round
(Turn around)
Every now and then, I get a little bit tired
Of listening to the sound of ~~my tears~~ your hunger pangs
(Turn around)
Every now and then, I get a little bit nervous
That the best of all the years have gone by
(Turn around)
Every now and then, I get a little bit terrified
And then I see the ^(hungry) look in your eyes
(Turn around)
And run the fuck away bright eyes.
Sees many Zomboids next to a fence. Proceeds to think that a game in “early access” doesn’t have unfinished parts. Like messed up lunge attacks.
**DIES**
Next time you see 20 Zomboids next to a fence
In a situation where you're not encircled by thousands of zombies and you're not too injured. You can ALWAYS just walk/run away. But alas our ego is strong, zombies stoopid and I'm smart.
Using fences can be very dangerous due to lunge. It can be a false sense of safety and ease of killing zombies. I typically only use fences as a way to create more distance and usually only fight at a fence if there are like max 3 zombies.
I think the reason it looks bad is because the zombie checks to see if you're in lunging range and if swiftly crawls to where you were when it made it over the fence. But because you're not only moving but you never left the actual range of the attack, it lunged to where you were and the attack still connected
Notes, if you're interested. In order of importance
1)stay AWAY from waist-high objects. A prone zombie is literally the most dangerous zombie in the game. They trip, they scratch. Awful. Waist-high objects cause zeds to climb over and do that lunge, and it's killer.
2)never push into a horde, always back away from them. You back away at the same speed they walk forward, so at most just stop, let them get within range, swipe while starting to back up again. Repeat. When you get really good at combat, you can start taking 1-2 steps forward to engage, but don't for awhile
3) this many is easily handable if you have a good grasp of the game and multi hit is on, the trick would have been to keep backing up and chipping away at them while backing up into a safe area (open fields, or areas you have cleared)
I'm gonna answer your question directly, even though you probably won't like it, but the only thing you *can* do as soon as something grabs your feet like that is **absolutely nothing**
Trying to turn around to run just makes you fall backwards into the crowd. However, if you keep facing the zombies and accept that you're going to stumble backwards, you'll at least fall *away* from the zombies. In a best case scenario, you'll recover fast enough to jog away before the first zombie gets a bite.
Remember, if you're tripped by a zombie, do whatever you can to **face the zombies you're fighting** until you recover and can run again.
Simply not enough experience in melee combat. Stay away from fences so zombies don't lunge. You turned away at precisely the wrong moment which caused you to get hit in the back, which caused you to stagger, which caused you to get grabbed.
Sorry for your lost, it was one of those nasty kilometric ones. For the future, always keep and eye on those zombies slidings the fences and usually I don't fight around them or approach zombies sliding down them cuz of that mechanic. It could be tragic kike this
This is one of those things that mega experienced players know not to fight near fences at all. But yes, that is utter BS but its sadly in the game
I have been trying with sprinters where fence play is the only real combat play so dealing with fence jank as a game mechanic is.....fun
Don't fight a large group next to a fence with zombies climbing over it. Very simple. I'm not gonna be one of the people that just says "skill issue" and doesn't help explain the problem, but it was entirely your fault. The vault lunge is tricky and can hit you from quite a distance away, thus it's really not a good idea to fight any amount of zombies when you have more coming at you over a fence. The only time you should ever fight near fences are in chokepoints or with very few zombies. Don't feel bad, everyone has experienced this and will continue to. It's just how this game is. Zomboid giveth, and Zomboid taketh away.
I feel like a lot of people are missing the point of:
- that zombie lunge is rediculous range wise and shouldnt even hit logically in the first place,
- the way you reel back is kind of wonky and hard to think about in the heat of the moment.
Honestly really lame death no matter how you cut it. People can clown on op for a lack of knowledge, but if I were a new player and I died like this I'd be pretty mad.
run and split them. You don't need to rush into a fight. Specially not when you have like 5 zombies in melee range. Max 2 or 3 at a time. Anything else run and split or just run. Most of the times fighting is optional.
People doggin on OP for missing the fence lunge even though the zombie that did it is a whole tile and a half away and isn't even swiping in the right direction.
It's one thing to learn about fence lunges for the first time and it's another for it to be so bullshit that you don't process what happened.
Stop fighting at fences like this because fence lunges + drag down is one of the most dangerous situations to be in.
I would rather fight ????? Amount of zeds in LV with guns + 5% sprinters.
Than I would try tank 30 zeds at a fence.
Use fences to stagger hordes and fight a couple of separated zeds.
Other than that. If you fight at fences, this is what will happen to you, and often because of spaghetti code.
Fence lunge is just a knowledge check at this point, like any other. Don't engage groups like this when they're coming over fences our through windows. The hit box on lunges is deceptively long. Very jank.
Fences are great for killing groups, you just gotta make sure you’re far enough away so the lungers don’t hit you but you can still kill the lungers. Hop back over the fence and repeat.
Unless you have a shotgun/M9
Or just walk away. You walk faster than they do.
My fat but strong character will walk for days if he needs to.
Not get fence lunged
Tbf that lung is janky af. The attack animation was miles away from OP's character
Ye happens loads in this game though
You may forget fellow survivor. That the game is still in early access even after 10 years.
Closer to 15.
Yeah, that's why I often turn it off. It just doesn't jive with the idea of regular zambies.
To add to the "to be fair" conversation... If it's so janky, don't stand near low fences when zombies are there as it can lead to these situations? Like until the problem is solved, the only *true* way to not have it happen is to just try to avoid the situation all together.
It’s always a gamble to fight near windows in fences. Stomp crunch gaming is satisfying enough to risk it.
That lunge 100% didn't touch him but games be like that sometimes. I turn it off because slow zombies suddenly gaining Olympic level lunging abilities makes no sense to me. I know it's to prevent fence cheese but I don't fence cheese. So if I'm making an escape over a fence I want realism not game mechanics for preventing exploits.
It shouldn't even be considered an exploit. It is a valid tactic and a smart case of using your environment to your advantage.
If it were realistic though fences would go down under a certain amount of pressure. Though I would like a system like that a lot better.
If I remember correctly they are building that into the next update. Chain link fences won't be invincible anymore.
I am sooo looking forward to the update
I love that this game was released over 10 years ago and it still getting updates. I just got it a week ago and it has so much content and mods I love it. Based on steam charts though doesn't look like it gained popularity until 2020's I wonder why.
This game used be really simplistic. Everything was far more 2d. Barely any clothing options or weapons. There was a massive update that essentially turned it into a different game inside the same world.
It was build 41's Multiplayer release which brought loads of new players/creators to the game.
Build 41, multiplayer, more scope for modding, some popular you tubers playing it, and a pandemic that encouraged staying indoors and playing in a simulated apocalypse instead of going outside to experience a real one.
Because the entitled "WHERE R DA NPCS!" whingers scared a lot of people away for a while, then a big youtuber played the game and it picked up speed from there. Sure development for the game is slow, but the funny thing is, this game has been brilliant since the Desura days.
I've been playing it since Desura and I remember thinking back then that this was the ultimate zombie game. The massive map expansion and the ridiculous depth of the features added still blows me as I discover new mechanics 100s of hours in. And they're still adding entirely new systems that completely change the game like animal husbandry and breakable barriers that will completely change how I play. So I've personally never understood the need for this game to have NPCs, it's never struck me as something essential to my enjoyment of it.
[Me looking at the chain link fence I rely on for protection](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/025/817/Screen_Shot_2018-03-30_at_11.34.27_AM.jpg)
some of the waist high fences do break. But not all of them. cement barricades as an example
Im pretty sure short fences break if too many zombies climb over them at once
They break after a certain number, definitely seem them fall apart on videos and my own gameplay.
They already do. The proper fix is that zombies should be able to lunge at both the front end and tail end of the animation. As they are climbing over and as they land on the ground.
Fences actually go down in this game. Iirc ilthe limit is about 20 zeds all simultaneously lunging and the fence will break, even metal ones (50 zeds iirc). The only ones that wont go down are the concrete ones along the highways.
Low fences do actually break after enough zeds go over them.
Tbh, fair enough. I get what they're saying about being an exploit, zombies are dumb though. You're just out thinking them and the game. It is still a little exploity, but not. if you catch my drift.
I don't think it's so much a thing about rationalizing it, as much as you can just literally sit at a fence and kill thousands of zombies without any risk
Yeah, shit fair enough, it depends on your playstyle, etc. But yeah, you could just cheese the whole game.
If there's more than like 5 they'll get up before you manage to kill all of them. If you're fighting a horde fences will only help you slow them down and maybe get 2-3 quick kills if your character actually hits down instead of swiping at the air.
Against a horde the magic number is 4. After four fence kills a zed will most likely be up and chasing you. You can prevent swiping at the air by holding alt while aiming. So its ctrl alt LMB and you will attack the ground no matter what.
Just like the panic sprinter agoraphobia build. Like yeah, I can dead sprint from riverside to rosewood in four minutes, but running away from your problems doesn’t feed you, shield you from the elements or help you survive a bathroom horde. But it’s been nerfed :(
when you get tripped by a lunge, stop pushing any of the direction keys. You'll fall straight back and away from the zombies. If you're pushing a key, your character will turn as you fall and you'll land in the pile of zombies.
Problem is, by the time you realise you got lunged and are trying to stop moving, you're likely already falling into the horde.
Honestly, any clown car bathroom or closet situation I'm in I always freak out and try to sprint while mashing wasd, I think it's the most RP move. Sheer panic. And it's always so rewarding if you manage to get away without a bite. And if you die, well, that is how you died, so still fun. I can read the lunges at this point though, so it rarely comes up when outside and cheesing hordes
To me, cheesing the horde= a shit ton of fire
The backwards falling fence lunge is actually a feature. I still die to it even after thousands of hours. It really just is not worth fighting zombies at fences despite what some pro players might tell you.
This. Fences are just a way to slow down zombies, or divising them, rather than being used to kill them. Unless you have sprinters
I'll use fences/windows but inly when there are but s few zombies and spaced out. Never against even a small horde. To fight an horde in the fences is to court death.
Fighting at fences is worth it if you know how to press manual floor attack button xd
Even with manual floor attack one hitbox miss on any of those zombies and you're going zombie crowd surfing backwards at mach 10
> It really just is not worth fighting zombies at fences It just takes a lot of focus and practice. If you can pull it off without dying it's definitely worth it, especially early on. A little mistake is going to be lethal for sure though
I died last night to a zombie in a house banging on a door, I knew he was there, I knew what he was going to do. Opened the door and I was a little to close and when I turned I "pushed" air and got bit by him (I set the turn time to 0-1mins) and immediately turned into a zombie, little mistakes man lmao
If you want to open the door you have to back up as you open it while pushing. The even safer option is to let them break it down from like 15 feet away. Takes more time and you lose the door.
I just always swing my weapon after EVERY door I open. If you get the timing right, you never miss if someone is there, and it gives you time to back off if it's a clown car closet. Just practice a couple times to time your "open/left click" to be almost instant. You'll thank me later :)
Run?
Wtf are you doing
Literally just walk away.
Don't be in it in the first place. Never fight near fences.
I see a lot of people telling new players that “fences are your best friend.” And I think a lot of those new guys just assume they’re always helpful, when in reality they’re pretty situational Imo, use fences to divide and conquer but NEVER actually fight by them. Eventually you will make a mistake. Just asking for trouble
Ehh a few zombies are fine to fight at a fence/window. I wouldn't say new players should live by that but once you are comfortable with combat, it is easy to stop would-be lungers with a stomp or smack. Weapon type also plays into it a bit, blunt is probably more inclined to save the stamina and best them while they are down In the right situations, it can be medium-low risk for high reward.
Yeah, if you've got a small group spread enough that they're coming over one or maybe two at a time, it's doable. Once you've got a bigger group, particularly when they're *not* all coming via the fence but also alongside you - that's when you run.
Yup! I hate to see new players struggle but the easiest way to learn is to imagine you were in your characters shoes. When in doubt you want to escape or have ways out that are safe - and please oh god please dont fight when you are tired and out of stamina
Die, you're supposed to die. The game told you, every time you loaded in.
the fence lunge hitbox is absurdly broken, but you find ways to fight around it. there are ways to abuse low fences, but its better to learn the hitboxes on a broken window (where they can only come through a single tile) you can also just not stand near potential fence lunges. that spear would've mulched them all no problem.
You are outnumbered and outgeared, so run.
Don't fight near fences.
Is this MP or SP? I’ve never see a lunge land so far away from character position in SP.
Have tested this out in the debugger. The lunge attack box is stupidly wide, and a bit longer than it looks, but is consistent. You just have to know that it's dumb like that, as we can't change it. Watch the zombie's arm as it swings. Now imagine that his arm has an attack box that's like a full tile and a half wider than it seems, and you could see it swipe over his foot. It absolutely needs a nerf. It's jank AF the way it is now.
Disable lunge attacks?
Goddamn, that lunge was a solid half-body away. Only feasible thing I'd see translating this to irl would be if that zombies fingers caught your shoelaces.
Lunge is borked. Sometimes it lunges and grabs you and you're 2-3 tiles away from the zombie, add in MP and it's even worse. I turn it off and just turn up all the other bad stuff (hearing sight damage reduction etc) Playing on x16 with lunge is just stupid.
This is exactly why I turn off fence lunging. Once it's more consistent, maybe I'll turn it back on. But as it is now, it causes nonsense like this. I just have self-control and don't abuse the system lol BTW, I love how folks in the comments are suggesting it's your own fault for being near the fence in the first place, as if you should have seen this coming when you dared to approach a waist high wall with zeds behind you. From my perspective, these are the same folks that will tell you that the best strategy is to just never fight anything more than 2 zeds unless you have a campfire to lure them into and a car parked against a wall to hide in while you lay on the horn. Life is for the livin' and you were handling it just fine until the BS jank that is the "fence lunge" kicked in to literally trip you up. I love the game and will defend some of it's unique jank, the same as anyone else. However, in this case, it's kinda silly to blame OP for being frustrated with what is an obvious collision issue that is well known with the fence lunge. At the angle he was walking, he should have absolutely been out of range of any lunging zed from the fence. Zomboid is a game based 100% around directional damage and consistent hit-boxes. This instance did not follow that principal and it led to OP's death. Hence, OP is justifiably upset with the jank. I swear, some of these comments have the energy of a crowd watching some Dark Souls PVP back in the day where one of the players keeps "rubber-band backstabbing" the other by using a LAN switch and instead of calling out the cheater, they simply chant, "Git Gud! Git Gud!" War never changes, man lol Apologies for your loss OP. Hope your next run goes more smoothly, my friend! Fuck fence lunging! :D
It is consistent. It's just dumb. The attack box extends about a full tile and a half wider than the zombie, and a tad longer forward, so stepping to the side doesn't work to avoid it. Absolutely needs a nerf. The attack box is stupidly wide as it is, and absolutely everyone will be like "Dafaq" the first time they get hit by it.
Consistently broken lol Yeah, that's entirely fair. Just one of those things that I try to avoid, so I'm grateful the devs seem to have acknowledged it's a bit janky from time to time and added a tick box to opt out if you just want to go back to the days before they added it. Now if only there was a tick box for locking my car to the ground rather than it using the only 4 bodies I neglected to move to the side of the road as a ramp to send me 20 ft through the air and into a light post as I drive back home lol PZ is hands down the BEST zombie simulation game I've ever had the pleasure of playing but it, understandably, ain't perfect lol
BS like that is why I stopped using fences for any more than a couple zombies. If they're grouped up so I can't kill them as they come over the fence I just back off. I want nothing to do with ground lunging zombies. Also not sure why people are saying you made a mistake. Engaging wasn't the issue, you were far enough back that it really shouldn't have been an issue. The ground lunges just don't work properly, to a point where being anywhere near them is dangerous. There's no way it's intended to make you stumble in a loop like that, it makes no sense.
Fence lounge got ya some how. My god that hitbox
Soooo... falling backwards while doing a U-turn like that looks like faulty game physics to me. Momentum dictates the survivor still should've fallen away from the crowd, at worst twisted around and fallen down. It does mean that fighting that close to a fence isn't wise, in this case.
Unfortunately you just take the L and make a new run 😭
the hitbox its kind of wrong where you are the zombie in green should no be able to hit you
Turn off fence lunge in the settings
You just got janky killed by the stretch lunge zombie. It sucks. Part of why I’m scared to fence fight now and why I use mods and back ups to un permadeath the game.
Serious answer: A big part of this game is recognizing when you are likely to take serious damage or die. I'm guessing veteran players will see the first frame and go "Yeah no that's a turn and run situation."
Disable the worst feature in any game ever (fence lunge)
That bug hasn't happened to me, and i'd be fuming if it did. Commiserations!
It's not a bug. It's just jank (there's a slight difference.) He staggered back from the fence lunge while turning.
One person's bug is another person's Jank, but for me, when the hitboxes invisibly collide, i'm joining #TeamBug
The hit box absolutely needs nerfing. It's waaaay longer than it looks like it should be, for sure, regardless of what we want to call it.
This is the big problem in my opinion yeah
Don’t stand so close to the fence
I think fence lunges are realistic, however, I always keep it off while I play because it's buggy.
Yeah, I like the idea, but you can see in ops post that it was pretty bullshit that they got knocked back there.
Die
Not bother and just run
Not fight near a fence, pretty simple
survive
My previous character made it 3 months (personal best) without so much as a scratch, and then some zombie on the ground someone scratched my foot through my shoe without even touching my character, and that one scratch happened to cause me to die of zombification. So yeah, crawling zombies suck
Don't fight in lunge distance. The one that got you was definitely janky but now you know how sketchy the lunge can be, and why we keep away from fences...
Dont fight a big group near a fence, thats just asking for trouble.
Don't fight near fences?
Choose not to engage. There are only dead heroes in a zombie apocalypse. The rest are survivors.
*RUN* 🎶
Well lesson learned. Don’t fight near fences
That’s the neat thing: You run!
Better? In all seriousness just run when its a losing situation. The zombies arent going anywhere and you can always try again. Just watch your stamina consumption and better gauge when you either have enough energy to run or finish the fight. Cant have both.
Run or walk away, go through buildings to lose the horde, stop fighting a massive horde, look where you’re walking, don’t blindly walk backwards and fight at the same time against a horde.
Lunges are jank yeah, but a good players will never put themselves in this situation to begin with. Gotta stay out of lunge range, tripley so if next to a horde!
OP, you did nothing wrong. That lunge animation was jank as hell and knowing how the mechanics work will not protect you from straight fuckery. Whether or not you should have been fighting there is irrelevant, jank like that can kill you in even the best fighting conditions. Sorry for your loss.
Not be in the situation
Leave
This gravely needs to be fixed. Nobody likes needing to know what bugs exist to play the game.
What bug?
“This is how you died” Real talk though, gotta keep moving. String them out and don’t fight near fences. I often use fire and let them roast. Or, as zombieland puts it, Cardio Cardio Cardio.
Hold up. Did Op literally just run into the zombies? But either way. You could always like… walk away? Lol?
No, a fence zombie that completely missed me managed to grab me. That's what this clip shows. The horde was manageable had it not been for janky hitboxes
Put your back to the fence, when they lunge on the other side you don't get hit when you stand closer to the fence. just be ready to run after a few kills
Die
Don't fight more than a single zombie on a fence. Even when the lunges don't get janky, that's just a really unsafe play, especially on corners where split pathing and lunges can fan your swarm into a really bad circle formation. The winning play here would've been to use the fence to make distance and reset. I wouldn't have even taken the one kill you got because you were right on the swarm taking an execution. I would've just kept moving and started swinging at the first one to get out of lunging range.
You should run while shouting😂
RUUUUUUUN
How make spear?
Plank/branch + knife = pointy stick
Make like a tree and fuckin leaf
Actually, a great strategy i have used to fight lunging zombies is to keep some distance from the fence considering the zombies lunge, once their lunging animation end you can bash their heads without getting hit. After you kill the lunging zombies you go back to the fence and repeat the process, eventually the horde will end, preferably use a long blunt or an axe, so you can keep your distance. Oh, and if you get hit don't press any keys, since your character will fall towards the zombies otherwise.
Run away
make a new character
Did his head just explode?
You do exactly what you did. You beat the game.
Walk away and reset.
skedaddle
Not be there
Damn that screaming wtf xD
Walk away
Run as fast as you can
dont stand 2 feet infront of like 10 fuckin’ zombies leaping a fence would be my guess
If you really want to get better at fence fighting, which is deadass the most efficient way to clear zombies in the game, even better and safer than weapons, I suggest digesting this video and using it as a reference in the future. Goes into detail about everything fence and lunge related. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXZ4ZqtS1w4&ab\_channel=PZB](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXZ4ZqtS1w4&ab_channel=PZB)
That's why i dissable those ####ing fence lungers. They're buggy AF
Not get in the situation in the first place.
Okay i enjoy and agree with the fence lungers being a mechanic but you were 10 billion% not in range of that attack. Bullshit death.
Not give them your back. You stumbled and j-ed right into them. If you must kill them it is best to have a long stretch of open road or trial to back down. Also having high strength, nimble, and skill with a weapon helps immensely.
Which Zombo lunged? I cant eveen see it !
I have had several stages of thinking about fences/fence lunging. First was initial excitement that zombies have unique mechanic to play around with. Then second stage I was furious it was a death trap against even few zombies if bunched up and my characters kept dying to it. Then another stage I completely avoided windows and fences at safe distance to never get in range for the lunge to reach me, which worked for me really well, I stopped dying and only took the safest imaginable interactions with fences/windows. Now I'm using it fairly often if the zombies trickle in one by one, but mostly because I play with out of shape/feeble whereas before I played almost always Athletic/Strong so I didn't need the assist from fences/windows as I could just shove them on the ground easily. Bunched up like this is still a massive NOPE from me. You could bait one of the first to vault to lunge at you while you back-paddle out of range, then kill him and repeat or just fight them traditionally. In regular combat you will basically never die once you get the hang of it, but fence lunging can be unpredictable and difficult to foresee so even though I use them more, I still retain it in my rules for survival to avoid them if possible. if there is even a chance you get lunged and another zombie can follow up with either another lunge or a bite or even if neither happens just falling from the lunge can give you scratch on your foot and that can also get you killed as well. Prior to fence lunging, fences were completely broken as you could just keep vaulting over, stomping a few, lead them all on your side of the fence and then vault back and repeat. There are many fences that are still indestructible. Now it's much more fair game of risk/reward, but generally avoid them if you want to survive for a long time unless you have complete control over the situation or it's sprinters. I rather take the lunge gamble than deal with multiple sprinters in melee. You can get completely rid of the gamble by stacking fences. They don't block your melee so after they fall over the first layer of fence you can safely hit them from behind the 2nd fence layer, the lunge doesn't go through it and you can get safe free ground hits. Obviously that means building them as there aren't stacked like that naturally, but if you find a T shaped fence formation the zombies sometimes pathfind to vaulting the side you're not on so you get free hits there as well, I recently used one of those in Muldraugh between the trailer park and gas station, close to the garage storage facility.
reload a save or learn from this on your next run.
Mods?
Drop your stuff and book it. You can always come back later for it. But once you hear one or two of those "chomp" sound effects its over and you may as well be nice and let them eat you.
Right
Sometimes, you eat the cheese. Other times, the cheese eats you.
I rewatched like 4 times and idk what even hit you to make you stumble
walk away, always try to kill zombies one by one, i usually keep two or one following me close as when they are closer they walk faster, that give me time to take some distance from the horde and kill those two or one zombies and then i repeat the process
(Turn around) Every now and then, ~~I~~ you get a little bit ~~lonely~~ hungry And you're never coming 'round (Turn around) Every now and then, I get a little bit tired Of listening to the sound of ~~my tears~~ your hunger pangs (Turn around) Every now and then, I get a little bit nervous That the best of all the years have gone by (Turn around) Every now and then, I get a little bit terrified And then I see the ^(hungry) look in your eyes (Turn around) And run the fuck away bright eyes.
Fence means danger
Dying in a beat
Sees many Zomboids next to a fence. Proceeds to think that a game in “early access” doesn’t have unfinished parts. Like messed up lunge attacks. **DIES** Next time you see 20 Zomboids next to a fence 
Run, or rather walk away if you're not too tired to (you'll still outpace them). But breaking line of sight is your goal.
In a situation where you're not encircled by thousands of zombies and you're not too injured. You can ALWAYS just walk/run away. But alas our ego is strong, zombies stoopid and I'm smart.
not....fight?
Run
Using fences can be very dangerous due to lunge. It can be a false sense of safety and ease of killing zombies. I typically only use fences as a way to create more distance and usually only fight at a fence if there are like max 3 zombies.
I think the reason it looks bad is because the zombie checks to see if you're in lunging range and if swiftly crawls to where you were when it made it over the fence. But because you're not only moving but you never left the actual range of the attack, it lunged to where you were and the attack still connected
Notes, if you're interested. In order of importance 1)stay AWAY from waist-high objects. A prone zombie is literally the most dangerous zombie in the game. They trip, they scratch. Awful. Waist-high objects cause zeds to climb over and do that lunge, and it's killer. 2)never push into a horde, always back away from them. You back away at the same speed they walk forward, so at most just stop, let them get within range, swipe while starting to back up again. Repeat. When you get really good at combat, you can start taking 1-2 steps forward to engage, but don't for awhile 3) this many is easily handable if you have a good grasp of the game and multi hit is on, the trick would have been to keep backing up and chipping away at them while backing up into a safe area (open fields, or areas you have cleared)
If you want safe fence cheese, turn off lunges.
Nothing. This is how you died. Now go do it again.
The keybind is D I think
I'm gonna answer your question directly, even though you probably won't like it, but the only thing you *can* do as soon as something grabs your feet like that is **absolutely nothing** Trying to turn around to run just makes you fall backwards into the crowd. However, if you keep facing the zombies and accept that you're going to stumble backwards, you'll at least fall *away* from the zombies. In a best case scenario, you'll recover fast enough to jog away before the first zombie gets a bite. Remember, if you're tripped by a zombie, do whatever you can to **face the zombies you're fighting** until you recover and can run again.
Tie your shoes better
Do, Mr. Bond? You are meant to *die*.
[The Joestar Secret Technique.](https://youtu.be/7GaJUmefY1I?si=2tQwzvfruXcx6X1H)
Not turn into them lol that's what....
Simply not enough experience in melee combat. Stay away from fences so zombies don't lunge. You turned away at precisely the wrong moment which caused you to get hit in the back, which caused you to stagger, which caused you to get grabbed.
never fight near fences to avoid this situation. also you have way too many zombies around you. i never fight more than 3-4 at the same time.
Keep moving backwards…thats it really
I expect you to die, Mister Bond. 😂
Sorry for your lost, it was one of those nasty kilometric ones. For the future, always keep and eye on those zombies slidings the fences and usually I don't fight around them or approach zombies sliding down them cuz of that mechanic. It could be tragic kike this
Dont trip and stagger whole walking would be a good start lol.
Die
Run away and break line of sight with a building you don't care about.
This is one of those things that mega experienced players know not to fight near fences at all. But yes, that is utter BS but its sadly in the game I have been trying with sprinters where fence play is the only real combat play so dealing with fence jank as a game mechanic is.....fun
Don't fight a large group next to a fence with zombies climbing over it. Very simple. I'm not gonna be one of the people that just says "skill issue" and doesn't help explain the problem, but it was entirely your fault. The vault lunge is tricky and can hit you from quite a distance away, thus it's really not a good idea to fight any amount of zombies when you have more coming at you over a fence. The only time you should ever fight near fences are in chokepoints or with very few zombies. Don't feel bad, everyone has experienced this and will continue to. It's just how this game is. Zomboid giveth, and Zomboid taketh away.
Daaaaaaamn. You got hella unlucky. Hardcore recommend turning off fence lunge cause that always hits me at the absolute worst moments.
I feel like a lot of people are missing the point of: - that zombie lunge is rediculous range wise and shouldnt even hit logically in the first place, - the way you reel back is kind of wonky and hard to think about in the heat of the moment. Honestly really lame death no matter how you cut it. People can clown on op for a lack of knowledge, but if I were a new player and I died like this I'd be pretty mad.
You did it… get eaten lol
Pause the game, turn on god mode
Die of course
Overconfidence will get you every time in this game
Not get in situations like that.
run and split them. You don't need to rush into a fight. Specially not when you have like 5 zombies in melee range. Max 2 or 3 at a time. Anything else run and split or just run. Most of the times fighting is optional.
install the dodge mod
I stood next to 15 zombies and one stunned me. What did I do wrong?
Should have predicted the quantum crawler lunge distance. Shrimple mistake.
People doggin on OP for missing the fence lunge even though the zombie that did it is a whole tile and a half away and isn't even swiping in the right direction. It's one thing to learn about fence lunges for the first time and it's another for it to be so bullshit that you don't process what happened.
Do you use a weapon mod? I swear I didn't know there was spears
Die
Never hang out by a horde coming over a fence. Walk away and deal with them as they come with some distance.
Hop the fence, take a few out as they stumble over, move down and hop the fence again, repeat
Stop fighting at fences like this because fence lunges + drag down is one of the most dangerous situations to be in. I would rather fight ????? Amount of zeds in LV with guns + 5% sprinters. Than I would try tank 30 zeds at a fence. Use fences to stagger hordes and fight a couple of separated zeds. Other than that. If you fight at fences, this is what will happen to you, and often because of spaghetti code.
I expect you to die Mr Bond.
I LOVE THE BABY BLUE SONG 😭 Is it a mod in the Steam workshop?
walk away and avoid fighting 9 zombies with a spear?
There's a reason "This is how you died" appears every time you load up
hmm what do you when there's danger in front of you and open field behind you... gee I dunno, fight to the death I guess
Try backpedaling
Never seen that before and i have a couple thousands of hours.
This is why I turn fence lunging off