Zombie Skills/Feeding Groan
Feeding Groan is a zombie skill which allows the player to notify zombies within a variable radius of blocks as to the presence of survivors at the player's location. Feeding Groan is a child skill of Memories of Life, and is the prerequisite skill for its narrow variant, Bellow. Like all zombie skills, Feeding Groan costs players of all character clases 100 Experience Points (XP) to purchase.
Overview
Zombies with Feeding Groan, when in the same location as standing survivors, inside or outside, have the option to Groan for 1 Action Point (AP). Upon groaning, the player receives a message based on the number of survivors present (variants are listed below), and issues forth a groan of variable range. The range, in blocks, that a Feeding Groan can be detected is equal to the number of survivors present when the groan is produced, up to a maximum of 6 blocks. Any zombie standing outside within range will receive a message directing them towards the source of the groan. Zombies inside a building will only hear groans made directly outside that building.
Feeding groans are a ubiquitous facet of zombie play, being a prerequisite for the spawning of Corpse class players, as well as being one of the few in-game notices to be detected by a player whilst a dead body.
Since the December 2005 introduction of Feeding Groan, two updates have directly affected its use—in March 2006, the ability to recognize groans from members of a player's group was added, which marks the relevant groans as familiar; whilst in July 2009 players were given the ability to distinguish between groans made from buildings that are barricaded or have closed doors, and those with open doors, with groans made from "sealed" buildings being described as muffled. The latter update only applies to the building's status when the groan was produced, not when it was heard.
Other "tags" which affect groan notices are distant groans, and low groans. The exact mechanics of the latter are not known as present (though believed to be connected to groans made with smaller numbers of survivors). The "distant" tag, however, appears to be based on range and strength—zombies standing at the furthest range possible to hear a groan will hear it as being distant. For example, a zombie making a feeding groan in the presence of three survivors will cause zombies three blocks away to hear a distant groaning.
Feeding Groan Messages
The message received by groaning zombies, depends on the number of survivors present and on whether or not the zombie is inside a building. The following list gives the different messages received.
- You have no instinctive reason to groan. (There are no survivors here) (0 survivors)
- You murmur at the lone survivor in front of you. (1 survivor)
- You give a low and unsteady moan. (2–3 survivors)
- You give a deep and echoing groan. (4 survivors)
- You graagh threateningly, your call echoing out into the streets. (5 or more survivors, indoors)
- You graagh threateningly, your call echoing through the empty streets. (5 or more survivors, outdoors)
Groans are heard by others as:
- You heard a loud and low groaning X blocks to the <direction>.
- You heard a loud and low groaning from somewhere nearby. (If the groan comes from your current location)
- You were aware of the sound of a distant groaning X blocks to the <direction>, and felt hungry (Seen only by level one zombies)
See also
- Bellow, a narrower but more powerful Feeding Groan
