[TvT/FFA/CO-40] Dynamic Zombie Sandbox

[Craig_VG 20]

Sounds good, hopefully the update will revive this mission.

A Inv44 version would be very interesting,

WW2 weapons are awesome.

It needs reviving? :O

Yesterday it was the number 2 server! :D

Nazi Zombies \o/

And, bobtom, did you fix those problems ?

Will you add savage scripts ?

The problems listed above are indeed fixed.

This looks great. My housemate just bought a new PC so we've been playing A2CO and I might have to give this a shot.

Does it still work on other islands just by changing the mapname in the folder link and recompiling?

Also, I've fooled around with some of my point-to-point travel zombie missions using Inv1944 weapons and it's pretty fun. Only problem is that it requires the (IMO) massive 1944 mod.

You don't even need to depbo it, just change .takistan to .utes or something on the pbo file.

I'll work on the I44 version when I'm done with this version.

Refresher Script Update

After some testing yesterday, the refresher script indeed successfully increases the longevity of the mission. We only tested with about 5 people, and it was scary.

For those of you playing TAW version or any other version who are used to never seeing any zombies and just PVPing the whole time.

You won't be able to have time to PVP anymore.

:D

Hordes

Random groups of 20 zombies spawn once and a while. You don't want to run into them. They scary. Really scary..

Work continues.

-Craig

[colosseum 34]

Hey there Craig,

While playing with I44 enabled I get massive lagspikes as a listen server host. I have a feeling it has something to do with the total conversion nature of the mod.

Will give it a try with I44 disabled tomorrow. So far I really like what you've done. Roommate and I start together and do the sidemissions whenever possible. Great stuff.

[tonic-_- 53]

It needs reviving? :O

Yesterday it was the number 2 server! :D

The problems listed above are indeed fixed.

You don't even need to depbo it, just change .takistan to .utes or something on the pbo file.

I'll work on the I44 version when I'm done with this version.

Refresher Script Update

After some testing yesterday, the refresher script indeed successfully increases the longevity of the mission. We only tested with about 5 people, and it was scary.

For those of you playing TAW version or any other version who are used to never seeing any zombies and just PVPing the whole time.

You won't be able to have time to PVP anymore.

:D

Hordes

Random groups of 20 zombies spawn once and a while. You don't want to run into them. They scary. Really scary..

Work continues.

-Craig

5 People and it kept it fresh? I can see this will be a lot better then before. In my studies of testing zombie counts per km, aggro, etc I have noticed with 4+ on any count stresses the server so badly it gets boggled down. Glad to see you're making improvements, already changed my output on it and already got me interested in finishing my modifications for a scavenging system :)

[vake 10]

Thanks for such a great mod! I'm really liking the post-apocalyptic feel to it!

Quick question regarding preferences, though. I am trying to run this on a dedicated server, and I am not seeing the preferences that others keep mentioning. Do I have to log in to the server from my client machine (through ARMA 2 Multiplayer) in order to change these preferences, or do I need to manually change the files on the server before launching the server .exe to customize the settings?

I am trying to change the number of zombies/cars to reduce lag. I got the dedicated server up and running just fine and everything was working great - the game just started lagging very badly due to so many zombies chasing me around!

Thanks!

EDIT: Disregard! I figured it out. Launched the dedicated server, joined the game and logged in as admin to change the parameters. Set the zombie/vehicle spawn count much lower than default and the mission ran great with just me on! I've played on Tonic's server, and must admit I like the way the construction is set up as well as the gun shop. It makes it a lot more interesting when you can find and pick up objects, as well as steal objects from other people once your find their compounds (glad he disabled the ability to move the gun shop, though). ;)

Edited March 9, 2012 by VAKE

[Eckhart 10]

Love this mission; the random aspects are excellent and the easy install makes it much easier to play with others. Spent a ton of time on it so far and foresee myself spending much more!

That said, I have suggestions/complaints. (As if you don't have enough people suggesting and complaining..)

I really love the get-to-da-choppa mode, but without the goal icon it's too difficult to find and, with it, too easy to complete. I'd love to see some multi-objective adjustments for it; for instance, say, have the player(s) retake an overrun US base and, once there, discover the possible location of the extraction chopper. Maybe half the time they get to the coordinates and there's the chopper, but the other half there's nothing, and another side mission (like the US airplane crash one) needs to be completed to get another set of coords, etc. This would make chopper more interesting and less of a get-a-car-and-drive-to-win mission.

I have an issue with side missions, as well; the side mission enemies never spawn until you're waaay too close to the event - in the case of the crashed US plane, the spawning badguys appeared from thin air and killed me instantly from a previously-empty space roughly 15 feet in front of me. It'd be much more enjoyable if the side mission-triggered spawns appeared when the side mission was assigned instead of when you get close, or at least when you get 1,500m or so out from them. The close spawns have rendered several attempts at long-range attack inadequate thus far, and it sucks to think your goal is clear only to get close and die to spawns.

I'm really looking forward to future improvements, adjustments and additional game types. I find the default survive-indefinitely mode to be fun but, without a main goal to complete, every mission ends in failure with no driving force outside of side missions. The third type, survive for 30 minutes, is better, but 30 minutes seems like an awfully short amount of time to have to survive - I usually do about 30 minutes of driving alone just to get to side missions - I'd love to see the length of time be configurable.

Also, I'd love to see equipment (bandages, nightvision, etc) spawn in vehicles along with weapons; this could be done by vehicle type, with NV and other supplies spawning with military vehicles, and bandages spawning in ambulances, etc.

Also, I've had one bug; sometimes, setting Start with Map to 'No' still spawns me with the map.

Long-winded, for sure. This is definitely one of my favorite missions released thus far - the pervasive randomness makes replaying the mission repeatedly a blast - thanks for the mission and I look forward to future developments!

[tonic-_- 53]

I kind of got bored of loading the mission and seeing the logo so I got a decent snap shot lastnight and did some effects via Photoshop and converted it to paa if you're interested Craig.

Image PAA file:

http://armafiles.info/img.paa

[Craig_VG 20]

Mmmm Looks good!

Another suggestion I got was to use this picture: http://i.imgur.com/9kKR0.jpg

and someone posted this one on ModDb: http://www.moddb.com/mods/bobtoms-arma2-missions/images/dynamic-zombie-sandbox-artwork#imagebox

I'm not really sure which one to choose. :confused:

---------- Post added at 02:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 PM ----------

Has anyone been able to get the construction module to work with respawn? I keep having issues with it...

[tonic-_- 53]

Mmmm Looks good!

Another suggestion I got was to use this picture: http://i.imgur.com/9kKR0.jpg

and someone posted this one on ModDb: http://www.moddb.com/mods/bobtoms-arma2-missions/images/dynamic-zombie-sandbox-artwork#imagebox

I'm not really sure which one to choose. :confused:

---------- Post added at 02:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 PM ----------

Has anyone been able to get the construction module to work with respawn? I keep having issues with it...

Personally I would not use the Construction module, do like I did. Use R3F Logistics and dynamic spawn objects. Construction module is horrible... Add to the feel of a sandbox and have them scavenge for materials, etc. But for those that do like it.

I think something like this may work, has to be initialized at mission start. Also need to sync the module to the JIP clients as well as there are a lot of JIP issues in the mission but this may work. Not tested.

player addEventHandler["MPRespawn", {_sync = synchronizedObjects _this select 2; _sync synchronizeObjectsAdd [_this];}];

The most common issues is bandages not sticking with respawn, JIP clients have no bandages, etc. Also if you want I can send you some code I did to the sidemissions to enable JIP markers for JIP clients if a sidemission active. Also did you receive my PM? If you need the files for the gunshop let me know :)

Edited March 11, 2012 by Tonic-_-

[mawendt 1]

Craig,

Probably right now the things that need fixin' are:

1) Zombie dispersal/aggression

This can probably get fixed easy by

* changing the spawn locations to be based on the player, rather than towns or everywhere

* driving the loop to be player based, rather than zed based - 25 loop checks by an MP for any zed, rather than 2500 loop checks by 100 zeds for a any player; it would still trigger a zed action, it would simply originate from a player relationship location rather than a zed location relationship.

* extending the aggrogation to 1000, always

* despawning/removing zeds not within 500m of a player

* keeping a zombie level of no more than 5 zombies per player, average, with an absolute limit of no more than 150 zeds

The loop requirements in the time allowed lock up the zeds when there are too many... the zeds are looping each player, so when 100 zeds are on the map with 25 players, there are 2500 loops being done by zeds each 3 sec - when other activity (such as fires burning, bullets flying, lot of mp movement) happens, it chokes the loops and can only get 2000 or so done.

When 200 zeds get on the map, and you have 25 players, more than half the zombies never get to do a loop with 5000 being required - after a certain point it goes back to zed #1 without ever hitting zed #100 or so... If the zeds were 3 per player then there would me no more than 75 zeds and 1800 or so loops as oppose to 2500... then the server can handle it. I think I read somewhere what the number of calculations per second was, can't remember exactly, but memory naggs at under 1000 per second, which includes rendering, bullets flying, vehicles moving, explosions, fire, etc...

Two ways to fix it:

The way to really do this is to have the zeds spawn based on players in a group, one group per player, with a random 3 to 20 zeds per group, at a random time (so that there will never be one group per player at once) essentially staggering the logic demands. The zeds don't all track a player until the group leader is within 30m... until then only the leader tracks the player, with the other zeds doing a more or less dummy follow the leader. Leader dies, next zed in the group take over. When leader is within 30m, the rest of the group kicks into individual attack mode.

You can even despawn groups, and use one zed as a place holder until a player approaches close enough (say, 500m) and respawn the group if you wanted to go that direction (instead of removing groups completely).

The second way, maybe easier to recode, is to drive all the loop checks for an enemy from the player - if player is within 500m of a zed, then kick in the zed targeting scripts for all zeds within 500m of player... rather than have all the zeds chek all the time, have the players trigger it. Either way would be less proccessing requirements.

Maybe a fixed trigger based on location (each town, for instance) with a random chance of a horde being there (5 sec wait, player precense detected, spawn 30 zeds random directions, attack nearest players) just to keep them on their toes.

In the end, though, the zombies gotta be tweaked some how to remain agressive when 25 players get on the server.

2) Time sync with server, so everyone has the same day/night schedule

This has got to be an easy fix - a server side push that updates the time along with the weather ever ten seconds or so. Its so annoying when some players are in total blackout while others its high noon.

3) Extend the Dynamic Vehicle Spawn Script

Use your same script to spawn construction stuff at random (barriers, barrells, empty boxes, etc). Figure out how to spawn stuff in a container in a house (its doable, I'm reading up on it). Break up the random spawns as civBuildingInside, civBuildingOutside, milBuildingInside, milBuildingOutside... so that military related stuff stays around military areas, and civ stuff is found around civ areas.

Getting stuff to spawn inside a house adds a whole new demand to scavenging, security demands, and an opportunity to spawn zeds while people are mucking about in towns. Towns become valuable resource points, ad made to be dangerous by random zeds and competing players. Create 'Armorys' at a mil base requiring an engineer 30 seconds to break down the door, maybe requiring explosives... while needing his team to provide security to keep zeds and other players off his back... with the prize being military grade weapons. Could do the same for a 'Police Station' having civ weapons (pistols, shotguns) or "Hospital' having bandages and food...

4) Randomize mission spawns, mission goodies, and mission times

Mission spawn locations could be extended toward map edges rather than all around the middle. Its a big map. Might be better to spawn military bases out in the edges and make people hunt for them rather than even mention it as a mission.

The base itself can be randomized - there are several bases you can use, including repair and resupply. If you spawn, randomly spread, 1 to 5 military/medical bases around the map, at game start and just have them there never listing as a mission - it'd be more fun, I'd think.

The c-130 crash could be changed to an unidentified air crash, and use any one of the air wrecks randomized... just to mix it up. You can use the same framework of the crash mission to have a truck, hmmv, or damaged/out of gas light armored spawn out in the desert with a box of goodies. And a squad of agressive AI spread out protecting it. This mission type can be 'reused' at random, once an hour...

Mission goodies rght now are ammo/weapons crates. Randomize the crates and contents, maybe a fuel pallet instead of a crate, or create a medical box with 200 bandages.... when food gets added, put that in the mix... maybe even a small cargo container with randomized construction stuff like H-barriers, sandbag walls, statics, etc. Make it 30 seconds to open the crate - whilst zeds and agressive players are on their way. Not knowing what you're fighting over under pressure is like christmas morning.... it can be exciting or disappointing.

Mission times are all at once, or over lap, and are sequential.... randomize the spawn sequence, and time from 10 to 15 min.... it spreads the game scenario out to two hours of moments of hot competition interrupted by planning and base building. Mix up what happens so that its not expected. Maybe get rid of the side-mission warning completely, spawn it, and let players stumble accross it. Maybe change to 'side mission tip off' to a note found on a dead body, or scrawled on a wall, that tips off only that player who finds it when he is within 3m (adding the info to his personal notes list). An aircraft crash could be preceeded by an aircraft going down, or a flash occuring once at the crash site - players would the know something went down in a particular direction, rather than an exact location.

Minor changes would make the side missions replayable, reusable, every half hour to keep the challenge and competition level up.

I like the helicopter mission in Tonic's version - he's got it nerfed a bit too much, in most players (and mine) opinion. The helicopter type could be randomized, and maybe to completely un-nerf it a sidemission requirement could be 'find the parts to fix the fuel leak', which is a small box that has to be brought back to the chopper and installed by an engineer. That chopper could be valuable, targeted by anyone who doesn't have one, and fun -now its just a noob bleeder. Anyone who really wants the chopper dies getting something thats a hassle, not a benefit.

#1 and #2 in my opinion are critical. #3 and #4 would boost the mod up to the next level.

Other than that (sweet baby Jesus, is that all?) people are addicted to it, although its more of a tvt apocolypse server, mostly. Get those zeds in and people may be more apt to team up than team against. There has to be, at some point, such a threat level that people have to work together or get eaten by zeds in order for it to be a true zombie mod.

Final thought: look at this, and maybe add it?

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=13616

I put this in my personal version and it added a level of stress - could i fix a flat before i was mobbed? And it added an additional scavenge element. Though it'd have to be tweaked to cover all vehicles.

Cheers, whiskey

Edited March 11, 2012 by mawendt

[colosseum 34]

What island do you guys normally play it on? I usually do Lingor but recently switched to Chernarus and encountered a lot of problems with the escape helicopter spawning on top of a mountain but clipped into a bunch of trees.

Also, it seemed like the escape helicopter spawned within 500 meters of our starting position. I know it's random but it felt way too easy!

[vake 10]

Personally I would not use the Construction module, do like I did. Use R3F Logistics and dynamic spawn objects. Construction module is horrible... Add to the feel of a sandbox and have them scavenge for materials, etc.

...

Hey Tonic, I've played on your server and I like the way the objects are spread all over the map randomly. I've set up my own server and am messing around with this mod; I would like to focus more on the post-apocalyptic theme than the zombies due to lag (though I do want some zombies roaming around to make people keep their guard up). I'm using R3F as well, but have no idea how to make the objects spawn randomly across the map (using Takistan), so I created an abandoned logistics factory with objects there for people to load up. Can you share any pointers/references that might help me with making the objects spawn randomly through the map instead of manually placing them in static locations?

[tonic-_- 53]

Hey Tonic, I've played on your server and I like the way the objects are spread all over the map randomly. I've set up my own server and am messing around with this mod; I would like to focus more on the post-apocalyptic theme than the zombies due to lag (though I do want some zombies roaming around to make people keep their guard up). I'm using R3F as well, but have no idea how to make the objects spawn randomly across the map (using Takistan), so I created an abandoned logistics factory with objects there for people to load up. Can you share any pointers/references that might help me with making the objects spawn randomly through the map instead of manually placing them in static locations?

Mine isn't dynamic, it's static as I don't care for zombies on other maps other then Zargabad because they're just to big but you could look into DVS to do it. (Dynamic Vehicle Spawn).

[Craig_VG 20]

Vake I have done this for the next version with R3F dynamically with DVS.

[mawendt 1]

Just a heads up -

Tonic's version RC15 last night had two sessions in a row where zeds were in the 200's and still were fairly aggressive - whether there were tweaks made or whether it was the luck of the draw I couldn't say. That was with about 20 players. So IF changes were made, they seem to hav been for the better.

Still not the ravenging, unstoppable hordes we dream of, but better. whiskey

[vake 10]

Vake I have done this for the next version with R3F dynamically with DVS.

I look forward to it!

I've added some transport helicopters to my Takistan version. They're all at static locations. I've thought about adding the helicopter vehicle types into the vehicle spawn code, but want to limit the number that spawn (though random locations would be great). Any chance of copying the current script to spawn vehicles randomly and changing the vehicle types to helicopters and repair/refuel/rearm trucks and have two different parameter settings when creating the game to control the number of regular vehicles that spawn and the aircraft/support vehicles separately?

[colosseum 34]

Played this today with some guys online, using my computer as a listen server.

11 players, two of which managed to find military vehicles (one a HMMWV with an Avenger and a UAZ with DSHKm). Those two drove to Devil's Castle and cleared it out, then set up shop. They then placed a map marker reading "SAFE ZONE". As we all invariably headed there, they stopped every new arrival at gunpoint and demanded all their bandages. Those who didn't comply were shot... needless to say this wouldn't stand, so a group of us got together and attacked them (by now their group had grown to 5 men all well-armed), and we ended up barely being able to kill all of them before a JIP guy drove up in a civilian car trailing about 50 zombies. During the resulting firefight we all died.

It was hilarious. Thank you craig.

[tonic-_- 53]

A few suggestions that I would like to see before you release the newest version.

It would be nice to see the mission be more TVT, and it seems I am the only one that hosts a TVT styled mission where each faction communicates with their own team via Blue coms, It would be nice if you were to add a parameter to make it Co-op (which is what its like now) and TVT where each faction isn't put into the same group side which is Civilian, another option is to enable or disable the GPS functionality. I personally don't like it neither do a large player base. The GPS locations on the map basically marking where someone is.. isn't that much fun. Leaves no room for factions to setup bases, etc. And adding the option to let it be TVT or co-op (The grouping thing) doesn't effect the zombies need to eat you alive like the comments say in the sqs & sqf file. It holds no impact over the zombies they still react the same.

Just a suggestion, It would be quite annoying editing those when each version is released through the scripts :P

And I know most of that is from the original scripts by Celery for his Zombie campaigns, I am also glad to see you're going to use R3F for the building system instead of the default BIS Construction module which is flawed in a lot of ways.. A side note that was pointed out to me is to edit the following file.

R3F_ARTY_AND_LOG\R3F_LOG\objet_deplacable\deplacer.sqf

Line 115 to:

_objet setPos [getPosATL _objet select 0, getPosATL _objet select 1, getPosATL player select 2];

So that objects may be placed on building structures.

[ErikPutz 1]

Hey, any news on v95? Been saying 100% complete at devheaven for a while now, but have not been released yet.

So I'm just wondering what's going on? ^^

Why isn't it released yet and when do you plan on releasing it?

Can't wait for this version, seems like it will be really epic.

[DooM4MR 10]

Hi,

I tried to play it on Arma 2 free v1.11, on dedicated server on my pc,

we spawned in the air then falled down and killed, no zombies at all, options wasn't working for example when friendly fire set to off I can kill players etc.

what is the problem:confused:

how can I fix this?

thanks.

[Owennerd123 1]

For some reason, the Takistan version of this map works perfectly, but when I try and play the Chernarus map, none of the parameters work, no zombies spawn, no cars spawn, NOTHING works! I play Chernarus all the time on other gamemodes, so that isn't the problem. I own combined ops and I would REALLY love Chernarus to work, anyone have any ideas?

[Craig_VG 20]

Guess what time it is........ZOMBIE TIME

Dynamic Zombie Sandbox .95 Release

Overview

Today I have another slice of the zombie pie to deliver. Zombie sounds have been completely redone, zombies should never stop spawning now. I added more parameters. R3F logistics were added. NVGs and more.

What's Added?

I really like this version. :D

###

I decided to use celery's way of spawning hordes, which is more efficient.

Large hordes now roam the map searching out players.

Zombies don't stop spawning, and every chunk of time the zombies refresh themselves so the mission doesn't bog down.

R3F logistics were added, you can now tow vehicles and move objects in vehicles to make yourself a base. Objects spawn randomly in towns like cars do.

The Vanilla A2 version was fixed. Weapons are found in boxes instead of cars, I had to do this because there is no "addWeaponCargoGlobal" command for A2

NVGs were added because of popular request

I removed Construction as it was causing issues and R3F does a better job IMHO

Improved startup stability, instead of multiple scripts, now it is one big script, weapon choosing has been optimized.

And the zombie sounds have been completely redone. :D

A new loading screen was made by tonic!

ChangeLog:

Roadmap found at Devheaven

Bug #28817: (Dedicated) Escape helicopter task: missing location marker on all but 1 player

Bug #28836: (Dedicated) Escape helicopter task: ending doesn't trigger

Bug #28975: (Dedicated) Start with other players-parameter: players spawn inside wall

Bug #29104: Arma2 Standard Edition Zombie Bug

Bug #29110: Massive lag at horde task and base task

Bug #29681: Players started in a building in chernarus

Feature #28991: Flush the mission of zombies

Feature #29143: New sound files

Feature #29677: R3F logistics - Movable objects and towable vehicles

Feature #29678: Add NVGs

Task #28990: Construction module removed.

DOWNLOADS:

CO version (Flagship version):

Requires patch 1.60 of ArmA 2 Combined Operations. No other mods/addons required, works with ACE

Dynamic Zombie Sandbox V.95 CO

OA version:

Requires patch 1.60 of ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead . No other mods/addons required

Dynamic Zombie Sandbox V.95 OA

A2 version: - This version works now, weapons are found in boxes in towns, enable ammo box parameter

Requires patch 1.10 of ArmA 2 or ArmA 2 Free. No other mods/addons required

Dynamic Zombie Sandbox V.95 A2/A2F

All 3 Versions in one .RAR:

Dynamic Zombie Sandbox V.95 ALL

Thanks to:

SRU team, thanks for the ideas and the testing - http://www.sruclan.net/

Dethorath - Helped a lot with sounds and testing

Tonic - Told me to abandon construction, and made the new Loading screen!

VVC team

Loyal players

Everyone who hosts the mission

Celery for making the zombies!!

Edited March 26, 2012 by bobtom

[tonic-_- 53]

I hate to say it but, this is not working on a actual dedicated environment. Not a single zombie will spawn, works fine if you're hosting it yourself but does not spawn zombies nor does R3F work in a dedicated environment. I've tried the default mission pbo on two different servers various maps and it won't spawn them. Can anyone else confirm this issue?

And this would be the CO version.

Edited March 26, 2012 by Tonic-_-

[giorgygr 61]

I hate to say it but, this is not working on a actual dedicated environment. Not a single zombie will spawn, works fine if you're hosting it yourself but does not spawn zombies nor does R3F work in a dedicated environment. I've tried the default mission pbo on two different servers various maps and it won't spawn them. Can anyone else confirm this issue?

And this would be the CO version.

True :(

[tonic-_- 53]

Far as I can tell the issue is somewhere in startUP.sqf

Where most of the files have been merged into one I can't really find out where the issue is at inside startUP.sqf :\

Also I didn't know why I didn't noticed this but I did make a booboo on the R3F Object player

It's actually:

_objet setPos [getPosATL _objet select 0, getPosATL _objet select 1, getPosATL player select 2];

:P

Edited March 26, 2012 by Tonic-_-

[Craig_VG 20]

OKay, sorry guys. I'll fix it when I get home and hotfix it. My bad for forgetting to test right before release. (I dedi tested only a few days before, but something must have been changed...)