Predator Mod

[HateDread 13]

You don't mind if I throw some suggestions out to you as I think of them? Feel free to cut them down.

As a pre-point to my suggestions, I wonder;

- When the predator selects a target, is it temporarily stored and/or can be checked/conditioned? I.e. if the target is of 'armoured' type?

[lao fei mao 21]

The Predator rocks, which give me a different feeling.I feel really desperated while crossing a density forest, face such a powerful cloaked enemy.

[charon productions 10]

The Predator rocks, which give me a different feeling.I feel really desperated while crossing a density forest, face such a powerful cloaked enemy.

Yeah its nicely scary hehe.

---------- Post added at 09:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:38 AM ----------

You don't mind if I throw some suggestions out to you as I think of them? Feel free to cut them down.

As a pre-point to my suggestions, I wonder;

- When the predator selects a target, is it temporarily stored and/or can be checked/conditioned? I.e. if the target is of 'armoured' type?

He only selects targets to run up to and attack with the wristblades.

The ranged weapon target selection is left entirely to the engine to save

expensive calculations on the scripting side.

[b00ce 160]

I am pretty busy with the predators and aliens

Aliens you say?

I totally hadn't planned on making them (Mostly because of the scripting nightmare that comes with it.), but DAMN. So I take it there will be the full life cycle? (Egg, facehugger, chestburster, adult?) Will corpses be dragged back to the lair by aliens? Or will facehuggers have to be roaming around? Will the eggs be sensitive to proximity and unleash the facehuggers when an un-suspecting person gets too close? Will the blood do damage? I have too many questions. That's a massive undertaking, and I do not envy you.

Thank you for that extra little incentive to get my stuff done. :D

[charon productions 10]

Aliens you say?

I totally hadn't planned on making them (Mostly because of the scripting nightmare that comes with it.), but DAMN. So I take it there will be the full life cycle? (Egg, facehugger, chestburster, adult?) Will corpses be dragged back to the lair by aliens? Or will facehuggers have to be roaming around? Will the eggs be sensitive to proximity and unleash the facehuggers when an un-suspecting person gets too close? Will the blood do damage? I have too many questions. That's a massive undertaking, and I do not envy you.

Thank you for that extra little incentive to get my stuff done. :D

The scripts are a piece of cake. Setting up the skeleton and animating those things halfways convincingly is the real nightmare.

But concerning the predator, i have inserted a lurking phase into the predator elder attack profile, that will expand the time between the attacks, so a group of humans isn´t wasted that quickly anymore;)

Edited November 27, 2010 by Charon Productions

[HateDread 13]

The scripts are a piece of cake. Setting up the skeleton and animating those things halfways convincingly is the real nightmare.

But concerning the predator, i have inserted a lurking phase into the predator elder attack profile, that will expand the time between the attacks, so a group of humans isn´t wasted that quickly anymore;)

Good luck with them! I eagerly await them, and the hopeful balance they bring (both sides powerful).

And thank you for that change! If you need any testing done, I am happy to help with the new features.

And, what do you suggest binding the user actions to? I.e. the pred functions? Mine are like, WASD, etc, and that obviously activates things as I move around. Was wondering what keys you use?

[charon productions 10]

Good luck with them! I eagerly await them, and the hopeful balance they bring (both sides powerful).

And thank you for that change! If you need any testing done, I am happy to help with the new features.

And, what do you suggest binding the user actions to? I.e. the pred functions? Mine are like, WASD, etc, and that obviously activates things as I move around. Was wondering what keys you use?

I use "I","O","L",","-"." and some keypad ones

[Erratic 10]

I can't believe we have a Predator mod for arma 2! Haha I can't wait ot use it, downloading now. Good work!

[HateDread 13]

Yeah I decided to make user actions 1-8 my numpad keys. Works nicely.

When zooming with the plasma, in the thermal view, the crosshair is lost, so it's near-impossible to aim.

And the plasma has a strange fire trajectory. Can only shoot out to 400m zero-ed? (I.e. no vertical lead), if the ranging feature is to be believed.

About the vehicle situation, what if, when a predator is under AI control, it recieves a 2nd version of the plasmacutter, which is tuned to take on vehicles (i.e. a high damage that would prevent it from hitting infantry with it, but yes to engaging tanks), kind of like having a rocket launcher in the vanilla game?

But, when controlled by a player/human, take away the second version of the gun, as they know how to use the stock plasmacutter against vehicles (i.e. 4 = M1A2 destroyed).

Does that sound more feasible? Again, I don't fully understand the limitations.

[charon productions 10]

Yeah I decided to make user actions 1-8 my numpad keys. Works nicely.

When zooming with the plasma, in the thermal view, the crosshair is lost, so it's near-impossible to aim.

And the plasma has a strange fire trajectory. Can only shoot out to 400m zero-ed? (I.e. no vertical lead), if the ranging feature is to be believed.

About the vehicle situation, what if, when a predator is under AI control, it recieves a 2nd version of the plasmacutter, which is tuned to take on vehicles (i.e. a high damage that would prevent it from hitting infantry with it, but yes to engaging tanks), kind of like having a rocket launcher in the vanilla game?

But, when controlled by a player/human, take away the second version of the gun, as they know how to use the stock plasmacutter against vehicles (i.e. 4 = M1A2 destroyed).

Does that sound more feasible? Again, I don't fully understand the limitations.

I tried to get as close to a no-gravity projectile as possible, but the Arma engine will let every projectile eventually "fall".So the extreme values i used might interfere the silly zeroing feature.

The thermal view in the scope is not actually meant to be a targetting aid.

Was more like a test to get FLIR and PPs work together which fails as i have described already.

[e0s888 10]

Hi Charon,

did you read my pm?

What do you think about increasing predator health (for example: the elder with 140% of base hp)?

But concerning the predator, i have inserted a lurking phase into the predator elder attack profile, that will expand the time between the attacks, so a group of humans isn´t wasted that quickly anymore

Great! :)

[Archamedes 10]

love this, its awesomely implemented. The work and effort gone into this deserves rewards. Are there going to be any motherships in this for instance the quick glance we got in predator 1 (think it was the same ship in predator 2) i also know the mothership in avpr looked very similer if not identical to the mothership in avp2010.

Making a mission using this mod with the colonial marines mod is pretty darned good. Also i noticed a lot of people mentioning that the predator wont attack vehicles. You all need to do your research, all predators from all films never attacked any vehicles be it armoured or civil. They are purely hunters only in for the kill of prey. You wouldn't go on safari hunting lions then shoot the shit out of the land rovers.

[charon productions 10]

love this, its awesomely implemented. The work and effort gone into this deserves rewards. Are there going to be any motherships in this for instance the quick glance we got in predator 1 (think it was the same ship in predator 2) i also know the mothership in avpr looked very similer if not identical to the mothership in avp2010.

There is but it does take some time to model and most of all to texture it, it will be there i a few weeks time i hope.

Making a mission using this mod with the colonial marines mod is pretty darned good. Also i noticed a lot of people mentioning that the predator wont attack vehicles. You all need to do your research, all predators from all films never attacked any vehicles be it armoured or civil. They are purely hunters only in for the kill of prey. You wouldn't go on safari hunting lions then shoot the shit out of the land rovers.

I expressed the same opinion about that a couple of pages back, this behaviour is not observable in movies. But in MP situations where people just wanna fight each other it can occur.

[HateDread 13]

My only mention of it were in particular situations not expressed in the movies - the movies were fully controlled/scripted/directed, of course.

But in this game, we may end up with other situations. I.e. attacking a downed predator gunship with armour that's nearby... or attacking a group of predators, surrounded, etc (basically I'm trying to think of static targets where the predators cannot flee). Would they honestly just stand and die, or would they shoot back at armour? I never expressed my wishes for a Deathmatch scenario, I just wanted to make sure all bases were covered.

But yes, I do understand what you are saying :)

[charon productions 10]

Hi Charon,

did you read my pm?

What do you think about increasing predator health (for example: the elder with 140% of base hp)?

Great! :)

I dont see a reason for doing that.

Shoot an Elder with an M16 for a while and then ask yourself why does a being that still consist of flesh and Blood should take 60+ bullets and bleed like a pig before it goes down?

Some people already think they are too strong.

---------- Post added at 01:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:22 AM ----------

My only mention of it were in particular situations not expressed in the movies - the movies were fully controlled/scripted/directed, of course.

But in this game, we may end up with other situations. I.e. attacking a downed predator gunship with armour that's nearby... or attacking a group of predators, surrounded, etc (basically I'm trying to think of static targets where the predators cannot flee). Would they honestly just stand and die, or would they shoot back at armour? I never expressed my wishes for a Deathmatch scenario, I just wanted to make sure all bases were covered.

But yes, I do understand what you are saying :)

All vehicles except those with a too high armor will get engaged now.

If a mission maker doesnt wanna create a tank against predator scenario then he just shouldnt use tanks at all in the mission.

[HateDread 13]

Alright, fair enough. Point taken.

Anyways, once the module is initialised, I am unable to setpos the predators? Was going to be a major part of a mission. I'm guessing the position is overwritten by the module?

[charon productions 10]

Alright, fair enough. Point taken.

Anyways, once the module is initialised, I am unable to setpos the predators? Was going to be a major part of a mission. I'm guessing the position is overwritten by the module?

The module is actually not active yet. It might be needed for full dedicated server compatibility later.

If you just mean the general script activity, the position per se is not changed by the scripts. You should be able to setpos them no problem.

The thing that is hard to keep is the name reference.

So if you named your predator "Predator1" in the editor he will have a different name once he cloaked. At the moment i dont know if that can be changed. Trying to keep the name, the cloaking was not working correctly (which is a nightmare by itself already) and my main priority is to keep that working okay rather than spending days

to save that name reference.

Edited November 28, 2010 by Charon Productions

[HateDread 13]

Ahhhh, that explains why I could setpos them -before- they cloaked!

Do you have any ideas? Basically, it's an idea for a mission/game-mode, where, when the predator recieves critical damage, he is setpos-ed a certain distance away. When combined with the cloak, it's hard to tell if the humans managed to 'kill' the predator, or he is messing with them (in this sense the predator never 'dies').

Do you know what names the predator is assigned when they cloak? Like, first pred becomes 'CloakedPred1', and so on?

[charon productions 10]

Ahhhh, that explains why I could setpos them -before- they cloaked!

Do you have any ideas? Basically, it's an idea for a mission/game-mode, where, when the predator recieves critical damage, he is setpos-ed a certain distance away. When combined with the cloak, it's hard to tell if the humans managed to 'kill' the predator, or he is messing with them (in this sense the predator never 'dies').

Do you know what names the predator is assigned when they cloak? Like, first pred becomes 'CloakedPred1', and so on?

There is no naming scheme.

You can find all currently spawned predators is the array : CHN_PREDARR

With a bit of scripting you can "catch" the cloaked predator in question.

A cloaked predator has the variable in his namespace :

_cloaked= _predator getVariable "CHN_PREDCLOAKED";

Edited November 28, 2010 by Charon Productions

[HateDread 13]

Pardon my lack of scripting knowledge, but how does one access the array? 'Count' its contents, check each one against the cloaked variable? Not too sure how to, tbh.

Also, when a predator cloaks, uncloaks, recloaks, etc, is the '2nd name' it turns to while cloaked stay the same, or is a new name assigned each time?

[charon productions 10]

Pardon my lack of scripting knowledge, but how does one access the array? 'Count' its contents, check each one against the cloaked variable? Not too sure how to, tbh.

Also, when a predator cloaks, uncloaks, recloaks, etc, is the '2nd name' it turns to while cloaked stay the same, or is a new name assigned each time?

Okay in that case its difficult, didnt know your background.

Well if there is only one predator cloaked at that time and that is the one you wanna find out then you can do it like that:

_candidate=objNull;

{

if (_x getvariable "CHN_PREDCLOAKED") then {_candidate=_x};

} foreach CHN_PREDARR;

if (! (isNull _candidate)) then {hint "This is my predator"};

Your 2nd question, every cloaking process creates a new undefined name.

Edited November 28, 2010 by Charon Productions

[HateDread 13]

Thanks.

At present I am trying to devise a system to teleport the predators away when they take a certain amount of damage (i.e. 0.9 out of 1). I was wondering how you managed to increase the predator health - was it via script?

This may help me figure out how to handle high amounts of damage via script (currently, the script cannot save them fast enough to prevent death, as described here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=110598).

[charon productions 10]

Thanks.

At present I am trying to devise a system to teleport the predators away when they take a certain amount of damage (i.e. 0.9 out of 1). I was wondering how you managed to increase the predator health - was it via script?

This may help me figure out how to handle high amounts of damage via script (currently, the script cannot save them fast enough to prevent death, as described here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=110598).

What is the point of that teleportation?

The predators are all handledamage EH controlled.

Make sure you use "CALL" for your EH, as spawns or execVMs are too slow.

[HateDread 13]

I'm trying to basically replace the idea of the predator dying - in an MP scenario, it would mean that the humans don't know if the predator is temporarily 'neutralised', or is just hiding (the cloak makes it hard to tell).

At present I am using, in the unit (SOLDIER1)'s init (testing on human before pred):

this addEventHandler ["HandleDamage",{[sOLDIER1] execVM "Checkhealth.sqf"}];

And then in 'Checkhealth.sqf':

_unit = _this select 0;

hint "Running";

if (damage _unit > 0.9) then

{

_unit allowDamage false;

hint "PRE-TELE";

_dir = random 360;

_dist = 500;

_unit setpos [(Getpos _unit select 0) + (sin _dir) * _dist, (Getpos _unit select 1) + (cos _dir) * _dist, 0];

hint "TELE";

_unit setdamage 0;

_unit allowDamage true;

};

The unit will die when under high-intensity fire before they can be saved.

[e0s888 10]

I dont see a reason for doing that.

Shoot an Elder with an M16 for a while and then ask yourself why does a being that still consist of flesh and Blood should take 60+ bullets and bleed like a pig before it goes down?

Some people already think they are too strong.

Yeah, you have right about that bleeding pig :)...

I have to say, at night in the jungle they are almost 100% invisible. You don't know from where they will attack. So they are great threat.

But in the daylight you can spot them easier. He can't strafe becasue he is an AI.

30 shots from AKM and elder is down.

As you said, better camouflage is impossible due arma2 limitations, so this is the reason why I asked question about increasing predator hp.

In mp (when one person would be a predator and the rest players play as humans) your mod is great balanced. One predator would easliy kick my ass in 1vs1 situation :D As it should be :)

One question about healing:

Predator must get a certain amount of damage and then script is activating? Or He needs at first to run away from enemy group (for certain distance) after being hit and only then script is activating?

I had a few situations when he deactivated his cloacking device and began to cure himself 5-8 meters from me :)

Only thing I have to check is to play as predator and look how healing script works on ai teammates- it is a great feature!

Edited November 28, 2010 by e0s888