Editing Blood Moon Horde (section)

=== The Full Details ===
==== The File Where it Happens: Gamestages.xml ====
The configuration file which controls Blood Moon Horde spawning is gamestages.xml. Here is an example for Game Stage 59 which we will walk through. Each <spawn ... /> line identifies a single wave of the overall horde.
 <gamestage stage="59">
   <spawn group="feralHordeStageGS49" num="84" maxAlive="20" duration="2" interval="29"/>
   <spawn group="feralHordeStageGS54" num="84" maxAlive="20" duration="2" interval="18"/>
   <spawn group="feralHordeStageGS59" num="84" maxAlive="20" duration="7"/>
 </gamestage>
Here is how to interpret the parameters in that block.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Parameter !! Meaning
|-
| stage="59" || Your Game Stage must be ''at least'' 59 for this rule to take effect; the next rule is for GS 64, so this GS 59 rule will apply for GS 59-63.
|-
| group="feralHordeStageGS49" || This identifies the horde group (list of zombies) which will be pulled from for this wave (found in entitygroups.xml)
|-
| num="84" || This is the 'bucket size' for the wave - the total number of zombies that can spawn during the wave (not all at once though)
|-
| maxAlive="20" || This is the ''per-player'' maximum number of zombies that will spawn at once; note that you might not actually see this many due to other restrictions (see below)
|-
| duration="2" || This is the maximum duration of the wave in in-game hours; if you kill the whole wave before 2 hours, the next wave will start after the 'interval'
|-
| interval="29" || This is the time between waves in real-world seconds; if you kill a wave or its timer runs out you will have a breather for this many seconds before the next wave
|}

==== How Many Zombies Could There Be? ====
The total possible number of zombies which can spawn during a Blood Moon Horde can be found by adding up the 'num' parameter for all waves in the appropriate <gamestage> entry in gamestages.xml. In the example shown above, the total number of possible zombies is 84 + 84 + 84 = 252. The actual number of zombies spawned ''at the same time'' will likely be different and the total number of zombies ''actually fought'' might be different depending on how efficient you are at killing them.

==== How Many Zombies Will Spawn At Once? ====
The total number of zombies which will spawn at once - say, in the initial attack on your base - is the ''lesser'' of the following three values.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Value !! Meaning !! Default !! Where To Change It
|-
| Max Spawned Zombies || The game-wide maximum number of zombies that can be spawned in the world (natural or horde) || 64 || console command 'sg MaxSpawnedZombies XX' (SP)<br>serverconfig.xml 'MaxSpawnedZombies' (Dedicated)
|-
| Blood Moon Enemy Count X # of Players || The per-player maximum number of zombies to spawn on Blood Moon (independent of Game Stage or anything else) || 8 || Advanced Game Settings (SP)<br>serverconfig.xml 'BloodMoonEnemyCount' (Dedicated)
|-
| maxAlive for Horde Wave X # of Players || The per-player maximum number of zombies to spawn for a given Game Stage & horde wave || <depends on GS and wave> || gamestages.xml (not recommended)
|}

'''Example 1:''' 
* Single-player game
* Max Spawned Zombies = 64 (default)
* Blood Moon Enemy Count = 8 (default)
* Parameter 'maxAlive' for the horde wave = 22
* Parameter 'num' for the horde wave = 100
In this example, the limiting factor is Blood Moon Enemy Count, so only 8 zombies will spawn from the horde at once. As they are killed, new horde zombies will spawn to keep the total at 8.

'''Example 2:'''
* Single-player game
* Max Spawned Zombies = 64 (default)
* Blood Moon Enemy Count = 32
* Parameter 'maxAlive' for the horde wave = 22
* Parameter 'num' for the horde wave = 100
In this example, now the limiting factor is the 'maxAlive' parameter for the horde wave, which is 22. As Game Stage increases, eventually maxAlive will grow to be greater than the Blood Moon Enemy Count setting (32) and then the limit would be 32 at once.

'''Example 3:'''
* Multiplayer dedicated server game with 3 players
* Max Spawned Zombies = 64 (default)
* Blood Moon Enemy Count = 32
* Parameter 'maxAlive' for the horde wave = 22
* Parameter 'num' for the horde wave = 100
In this example, the limiting factor is Max Spawned Zombies. This is because 'maxAlive' (22) times the number of players (3) equals 66 total spawns. However the Max Spawned Zombies setting is 64, so only 64 spawns would happen at once.

==== Max Spawned Zombies Setting and Natural Spawns ====
At the beginning of a Blood Moon Horde there may be some natural spawns in the area. These spawns ''do count'' against the Max Spawned Zombies limit, and the Blood Moon horde will only spawn zombies until the max is hit, even if this is less than would otherwise be allowed. So in Example 3 above, if there were 10 naturally-spawned zombies milling around when the horde started, the horde would only be able to spawn in 54 zombies (64 max minus the 10 already in the world) to start with. Eventually the natural spawns will time out (or be killed) and pretty much all living zombies will be from the horde spawner.

==== Kill 'Em All vs Horde Wave Duration ====
Each horde wave has a duration expressed in in-game hours. In the example above the first two waves have a duration of 2 hours and the last has a duration of 7 hours. Note that the entire Blood Moon lasts for 6 hours, so a duration of 7 essentially means 'for all the time remaining until 0400'.

When fighting or evading the horde, there are three possible results for each wave:
# You kill all of the zombies in the wave (the 'num' parameter) - in this case the next wave will start immediately after the 'interval' parameter of the wave you killed
# You fight/evade the wave until its duration expires - in this case the next wave will start after 'interval'; any remaining zombies still must be killed or evaded
# You fight/evade the wave until 04:00 - in this case all remaining zombies will switch to normal behavior and you can clean them up or evade them like any other zombie

If you repeatedly achieve result #1, it is quite possible to 'beat' the Blood Moon well before 04:00. After that there will be no more spawns (see [[#Customizations]] below). If you at least achieve result #1 on the final wave, you will 'beat' Blood Moon and spawns will cease. At higher Game Stages this is increasingly difficult as the waves are more numerous and have a larger total spawn amount.