The zombies number is not important for the payment. Important is that you "see" an approximate number of ONLINE nodes from the LN graph. Something like this
The fact that you get the alert about the zombies is because YOUR ARE NOT SYNCING well, you have a bad connection to your peers. I have explained that so many times, but seems that you do not understand how it works.
To start Zeus will be 3 steps:
first it sync the blocks headers with the neutrino peers
then it download from the LSP the most updated LN graph, is a compressed file not so large.
then it connect with 2-3 LN peers, mostly with the ones you have channels.
You get that "zombies" error because your LN graph is not already synced, it doesn't start if you do not sync first the block headers.
Please review your neutrino peers and if you have a ping more than 200ms - that is YOUR problem. So change the connection, change the peers, leave only 2 max 3 in the list to connect. Do not use Tor, because is totally useless and is only adding more latency (ping). You do not have to reset express graph sync several times. Is totally useless to reset if you do not sync well the neutrino peers.
YOU CANNOT make any reasonable payment if your node doesn't "see" correctly the payment path due to wrong version of LN graph.
If you check your logs you will see exactly what I am saying.
The zombies number is not important for the payment.
Important is that you "see" an approximate number of ONLINE nodes from the LN graph.
Something like this
The fact that you get the alert about the zombies is because YOUR ARE NOT SYNCING well, you have a bad connection to your peers.
I have explained that so many times, but seems that you do not understand how it works.
To start Zeus will be 3 steps:
You get that "zombies" error because your LN graph is not already synced, it doesn't start if you do not sync first the block headers.
Please review your neutrino peers and if you have a ping more than 200ms - that is YOUR problem.
So change the connection, change the peers, leave only 2 max 3 in the list to connect.
Do not use Tor, because is totally useless and is only adding more latency (ping).
You do not have to reset express graph sync several times. Is totally useless to reset if you do not sync well the neutrino peers.
YOU CANNOT make any reasonable payment if your node doesn't "see" correctly the payment path due to wrong version of LN graph.
If you check your logs you will see exactly what I am saying.