Swarm Logic

Formation Movement: Zombies don't just pile up chaotically. The plugin calculates a center of mass (group center) and assigns individual radii to each space so the horde moves as a unit.

• Base Assault AI: If a player takes refuge in their base, the horde will detect nearby structures. Zombies will actively attack foundations, doors, and barricades to reach their objective.
• Ranged Combat & Reload System: NPCs are no longer limited to melee. Human zombies can now use firearms (pistols and shotguns). They feature a realistic reload system: when they run out of ammo, they will take a dynamic reload time based on the weapon's capacity before returning to the attack.
• Boss System (Boss AI): Swarms can now spawn Boss NPCs. These bosses are equipped with rocket launchers and use custom AI to fire rockets with realistic area-of-effect damage, calculated optimal attack ranges, and cooldown mechanics.
• Horde State Machine: The horde intelligently alternates between states:
• Dynamic Patrol: The AI uses a random behavior system with customizable probabilities to run, walk, or stop and observe.
• Pursuit: They pursue the player when entering their detection range.
• Attack: They engage in combat (melee or ranged) and assault structures.
• Shoot Alert: If a player shoots a horde member from a distance, the group will immediately enter a state of alert, locate the attacker, and counterattack.
• Horde Maintenance: If players manage to eliminate a couple of zombies from the squad, the swarm can call for reinforcements and dynamically regenerate casualties to maintain constant pressure.

⚔️🔥 Base Assaults and Advanced Combat Tactics

• Tactical Grenade Use: NPCs can now throw grenades at players. You can configure them to use F1s, Beancans, Molotov cocktails, or Smoke grenades. The plugin calculates realistic physics for trajectories, launch probabilities, and distance limits.
• Smart Structure Assaults: The AI recognizes weapon types. While melee zombies will tear down doors and walls, NPCs armed with firearms will no longer attempt to attack walls in melee as if they had bladed weapons.
• Friendly Fire Prevention: Custom damage mitigation logic prevents zombies from killing each other with their own grenades or boss rockets.
• Configurable Damage: You can precisely adjust the amount of damage (HP) inflicted on structures per hit/explosion and multiply their aggression level.
• Realistic Impact Effects: When hitting wood, stone, or metal, the plugin generates accurate visual and sound effects based on the material.

🎭 Visual, Sound, and Loot Customization

• Custom Appearance & Outfits: Decide if you want classic scarecrows, bandits or rebels, zombified humans, or a mix. Human NPCs feature expanded clothing sets: military, survivalist, worker, raider, "ghost sheet", and the new "Maniac" category.
• Boss Customization: Bosses have unique clothing categories including "Juggernaut", "Tactical", "Demon", and "Scientist". You can also define specific skin IDs for boss equipment.
• Customizable Weapon Lists: You have full control over precise lists defining which melee weapons and firearms can appear on standard NPCs and Bosses.
• Horror Atmosphere: Enable glowing eyes for night visibility, custom zombie sounds, and scream effects on death.
• Full Loot Control: You can disable loot entirely so the hordes are a pure threat, or leave it enabled as a reward. Boss loot and drop rates are fully configurable.

⚙️ Population Control and Performance

As a server administrator, keeping the server stable is a priority. This plugin is designed to be lightweight and handles memory efficiently.

• Memory Optimization: The plugin includes proper memory release routines, clearing grenade trajectories and weapon data dictionaries immediately when an NPC dies. The formation system is also optimized to handle large swarms (50+ NPCs) dynamically.
• Probability-Based Spawn Control: A dice system to decide whether a horde spawns, preventing the map from becoming overrun.
• Horde Limit per Player & Cooldowns: Set a strict limit on simultaneous hordes attacking a single player and define safe cooldown times between attacks.
• Global Limits: Strictly configure a maximum number of simultaneous zombies and hordes across the entire server to protect FPS.
• Smart and Safe Spawning: Uses advanced NavMesh sampling and water level checks to ensure zombies only spawn on valid terrain (no underwater or inside-rock spawns). Avoids heavy global map scans.
• Spawn Cycle: Zombies can be configured to spawn only during specific times (e.g., from 6:00 PM to 8:00 AM) and self-destruct when the cycle ends.

📊 Administration Tools

• Staggered Spawning: Zombies appear one by one with a slight millisecond delay. This advanced technique prevents lag spikes when large hordes are generated.
• Automatic Corpse Cleanup: At dawn (or when the event ends), the plugin intelligently cleans up all swarms and corpses to free up server memory.
• Custom Announcement System: Broadcasts automated chat messages with fully customizable HEX colors and prefixes (e.g., [Zombie Swarm] A massive horde is approaching...).
• Admin Status Reports: Configure automatic notifications for admins regarding active horde status, sizes, and types at set intervals.

🖥️ Server Integration, Commands & Permissions

The plugin offers complete control over the apocalypse cycle. Server Admins (Auth Level 2) have full access by default. The help menu (/swarm help) has been visually redesigned for ease of use.

🔑 Permissions

If you want to grant access to moderators, event organizers, or specific players without giving them full admin rights, use the following Oxide permission:

• zombieswarmpro.admin — Grants full access to all /swarm chat commands.

To grant this permission, use your console (F1) or RCON:

• oxide.grant user <PlayerName or SteamID> zombieswarmpro.admin
• oxide.grant group <GroupName> zombieswarmpro.admin

🧩 Admin Commands

• /swarm status: Shows active swarms, total zombies on the map, and current entity type.
• /swarm toggle: Pauses or resumes the automatic swarm generation on the server.
• /swarm clear: Immediately clears all swarms, zombies, and corpses from the map.
• /swarm reload: Reloads the configuration file without restarting the server.
• /swarm entity [npc_human | scarecrow]: Changes the NPC type in real-time.
• /swarm here: Forces a swarm to spawn exactly at your current position.
• /swarm attack "Player Name": Summons a swarm against a specific player instantly.
• /swarm boss "Player Name": Sends a Boss directly to attack a specific player.
• /swarm cancel "Player Name": Cancels and removes an active swarm attacking a specific player.
• /swarm msg: Broadcasts a custom announcement to all players.

⚙️ Configuration file:

{
"General Settings": {
"Debug Mode (true/false)": false,
"Enable Auto Status Message": true,
"Status Message Interval (Minutes)": 5.0
},
"Broadcast Settings (Admin Messages)": {
"Enable Automatic Broadcast (true/false)": false,
"Broadcast Interval (Minutes)": 30.0,
"Admin Broadcast Message": "This is just an example message (replace).",
"Broadcast Prefix (Label)": "[Zombie Swarm]",
"Prefix Color (HEX)": "#ff6b6b"
},
"Swarm Settings": {
"Zombies Per Swarm (Amount)": 6,
"Max Global Zombies (Total NPC Limit)": 80,
"Max Global Swarms (Limit)": 15,
"Spawn Probability per Player (0-100%)": 30,
"Swarms Per Player (Limit)": 2,
"Maintain Swarm Size (Refill missing zombies)": false,
"Spawn Cooldown per Player (Seconds)": 600.0
},
"Time Settings": {
"Start Hour (0-24h)": 18.0,
"End Hour (0-24h)": 8.0
},
"Spawn Settings": {
"Spawn Min Distance (Meters)": 15.0,
"Spawn Max Distance (Meters)": 25.0,
"Spawn Tick (Seconds)": 0.3
},
"Combat Settings": {
"Enable Base Raiding AI (true/false)": false,
"Damage to Structures (HP per hit)": 15.0,
"Zombie Speed Fraction (0.1 - 1.0 multiplier)": 0.5,
"Player Detection Range (Meters)": 40.0,
"Attack Distance (Meters)": 2.0,
"Formation Slot Radius (Meters)": 1.5,
"Control Logic Tick (Seconds)": 0.5,
"Attack When Shot (true/false)": true,
"Shot Alert Duration (Seconds)": 30.0,
"Zombie Aggression Multiplier (1.0 - 2.0)": 1.5,
"Zombie Health (HP)": 200.0
},
"Grenade Settings": {
"Enable Grenades (true/false)": true,
"Allow Smoke Grenades (true/false)": false,
"Grenade Type (f1, beancan, smoke, molotov, random)": "random",
"Grenade Throw Probability (0-100%)": 5,
"Grenade Throw Cooldown (Seconds)": 12.0,
"Disable Zombie Friendly Fire (Explosions/Fire)": true,
"Min Throw Distance (Meters)": 5.0,
"Max Throw Distance (Meters)": 25.0,
"F1 Prefab Path (Fallback)": "assets/prefabs/weapons/f1 grenade/grenade.f1.deployed.prefab",
"Beancan Prefab Path (Fallback)": "assets/prefabs/weapons/beancan grenade/grenade.beancan.deployed.prefab",
"Smoke Prefab Path (Fallback)": "assets/prefabs/tools/smoke grenade/grenade.smoke.deployed.prefab",
"Molotov Prefab Path (Fallback)": "assets/prefabs/weapons/molotov cocktail/grenade.molotov.deployed.prefab"
},
"Patrol Settings": {
"Patrol Random Behavior (true/false)": true,
"Patrol Run Probability (0-100%)": 40,
"Patrol Stop Probability (0-100%)": 30,
"Patrol Stop Duration (Seconds)": 3.0,
"Patrol Walk Duration (Seconds)": 5.0,
"Patrol Run Duration (Seconds)": 4.0,
"Patrol Waypoint Interval (Seconds)": 25.0,
"Patrol Radius (Meters)": 50.0
},
"Entity Settings": {
"Entity Type (scarecrow, npc_human, random)": "scarecrow"
},
"NPC Human Settings": {
"NPC Human Clothing (military, survival, scavenger, worker, raider, ghost, maniac, random)": "random",
"Ranged Weapon Chance (0-100%)": 30,
"List of Melee Weapons": [
"machete",
"bone.club",
"salvaged.cleaver",
"hatchet"
],
"List of Ranged Weapons (pistols and shotguns)": [
"pistol.semiauto",
"pistol.revolver",
"pistol.m92",
"shotgun.pump"
],
"Enable NPC Human Armor (true/false)": true
},
"Boss Settings": {
"Enable Boss NPC (true/false)": false,
"Boss Only with NPC Human Type (true/false)": true,
"Boss Spawn Probability (0-100%)": 40,
"Boss Optimal Range (Meters)": 15.0,
"Boss Health (HP)": 800.0,
"Boss Rocket Damage to Structures (HP)": 150.0,
"Boss Rocket Cooldown (Seconds)": 5.0,
"Boss Rocket Range (Meters)": 20.0,
"Boss Rocket Splash Radius (Meters)": 3.0,
"Boss Outfit Type (juggernaut, tactical, raider, scientist, demon, random)": "random",
"Boss Custom Clothing List (Used if Type is empty)": [
"heavy.plate.helmet",
"heavy.plate.jacket",
"heavy.plate.pants"
],
"Boss Clothing Skin ID (0 = default)": 0
},
"Visual & Sound Settings": {
"Enable Glowing Eyes (true/false)": true,
"Enable Zombie Sound Effects (true/false)": true,
"Death Sound Prefab": "assets/bundled/prefabs/fx/player/gutshot_scream.prefab"
},
"Loot & Corpse Settings": {
"Clear Corpses in the end (true/false)": true,
"Enable Drop Loot (true/false)": true
}
}

🔷 Support 

If you find any bugs or would like to see new features, please let me know and we’ll gladly find a way to implement them.

This plugin is constantly maintained and will continue to evolve with new smart features, gameplay improvements, and more fun mechanics.

Your feedback helps shape the future of this project.

—Alexprojects