[SP] Zedland! A dynamic zombie simulator

[dnk 13]

(link is forthcoming)

SUMMARY

This is a dynamic and random zombie simulation on FDF's Podagorsk. It is based off of the Undead Mod by Charon. Currently, it is mostly a large sandbox styled SP mission, but in the future it may become more structured, something along the lines of the STALKER series (but I'm likely done with development now).

Zombie groups of varying composition will spawn randomly throughout southern Podagorsk, as well as marauding bands of civilian resistance, local militia fighters, and Russian special forces. You are not alone, however, as you start with your hunting buddy. As foreigners in this area, however, you might as well be zombies as far as the other humans are concerned. There are some Western blackops teams at work, though, so perhaps you can find and join one of their teams (the black camo'd guys with armalites).

The goal (for now) is to simply survive as long as you can and get off the peninsula. If you want, you can search each "danger zone" for a radio operator. Pick up important reports off of each. Once you have found all 5 operators, you will be eligible for extraction. Check the map for the location. Go there, call in a helicopter, and escape. You will need to overcome hundreds of zombies and armed humans, not to mention your own basic needs of thirst and hunger.

FEATURES

Dynamic zombie/opfor/blufor spawns throughout southern Podagorsk that change between night/day and shift randomly in number throughout both periods.

Dynamic and randomized city zombie spawns when in range of a major area.

Dynamic weather system that changes its probabilities throughout the day.

Fog system that settles in at night (from Fog Script by Rockhount).

Health FX system for deteriorated health.

Sleeping bag.

100+ random ammo crate spawns throughout the map (look in houses/backyards/buildings), each with randomized sets of weapons/supplies.

Hunger and thirst systems.

Sleep ability (includes healing).

Radio options.

Heavily customizable and commented init.sqf variables for those so inclined to personalize their experience.

Randomized starting location and time.

Survivalist approach.

Fuel siphoning for use in vehicles.

EXPLANATION

The primary goal of this mod is realistic survival fun mixed with high replayability. For the second point, heavy randomnization and dynamism mean that each time you restart, things should play out much differently. You can approach the scenario in different ways as well, and the ability to recruit other blufor units to your group (if their group is equal in size or smaller than yours) means you can amass a small army if you want.

You will start with a hunting rifle, a pistol, a watch, food and water (M203 rounds), and some simple tasks. You can progress through weaponry, although finding good weapons can be difficult. Optics are very hard to come by, and THERE ARE NO NVGOGGLES ANYWHERE. Good luck at night... Your first priorities should be to find better weapons, a radio, and a map, unless you start after 3:30PM, then your first priority is to find somewhere to sleep. This can be a challenge with many starts... The last two (maps and radios) will only be found on dead opfor/blufor, and the first generally are found there also, so walking towards the gunfire is generally a sure bet if you're lost. With a radio, you can ask your teammates for more accurate enemy locations (0-0-1), and you can call in to the other blufor squads (0-0-2) to find their current whereabouts. The map is also absolutely essential in finding the missing radio operators, as each task notes where their last gridref was. Once you have this set, you can start building up your assets, finding better weapons and binoculars, fueling up a car, and taking on the radio operator tasks.

FUEL: For the fuel siphoning simulation: you can walk up to any vehicle and select "siphon fuel" in the action menu. This will take up to "1 gallon" (10% of a car's tank) out of the vehicle, depending on how much fuel it has and how full your canister is already. Each vehicle starts with a random amount of fuel between 0 and 5% of its tank. Each vehicle also starts with a random damage amount between 0 and 90%. When you take fuel out or add fuel to a vehicle, there is a modifier for each vehicle type. Cars are 100% normal, whereas pickups will have 200% as much gas in them for the fuel tank size and will take only 50% of the fuel you normally add to them. This is meant to simulate "fuel economy", as pickups and cars in the normal game normally lose gas at the same rate. Now, pickups have "50% economy" compared to cars. Buses and trucks actually lose gas at half the rate of cars, so God knows what BIS was thinking when they modeled this (buses have larger fuel tanks?). The breakdown for this mod is: cars = 100% economy; hatchbacks = 112-125%; pickups = 40-50%; sedans = 80-90%; buses = 30%; boats = 15%; trucks = 20-25%; old motos = 170%; motorcycles = 200%. So, yeah, get a motorcycle or hatchback if you want to conserve gas (and you do). Generally speaking, 10% of a tank should get you about a third of the way across the island east-west-wise.

Oh, gas stations don't work, so don't try. I made a neat little workaround for those, so your vehicle should never refill at one, even if it says it is. Waiting there for 3 minutes won't make the bar go up, but you can try, maybe it will after 10 minutes?

CRATES: For "hidden crates": there are about 150 of these scattered throughout the map. Each has a 20-33% probability of existence. They tend to be in or around buildings, with tons inside of cities. While antidote cases will always be in the same places, all other ammo crates will have their loadouts varied at the map start. They can be "food supplies" (40% prob), food and water; "civilian arms" (40% prob), like hunting rifles, handguns, and shotguns; "militia arms" (15% prob) like AK74s, AK47s, VSSs, shotguns, grenades, and handguns; or "Russian arms" (5% prob), like ak107s, PKs, AK74s, grenades, and handguns. Each box is further randomized with 2-3 guns from their flavor, with random ammunition amounts for each gun.

EXTRAS: You have a sleeping bag for fun. It has no purpose other than immersion. Unpack it and repack it at will. If you forget to repack it, well, go back and get it, you only get one. You can make a campfire anywhere you like. You can also make a trench anywhere you like. Use the action menu. If you have a radio, you can ask your teammates for the nearest enemy that they know about. They will tell you the mapgrid and distance (rounded to the nearest 25m). You can also ask the other blufor teams their map grid locations. You can also call for extraction. Radios are nice. Maps, too. You can ask your squad if they are infected at any time you wish without a radio. You have a lot of time to cure an infection, so don't fret if one is. Look for silver suitcases, they have the antidote. If you get a GPS unit, you can see where all the groups are around you, so long as the groups have at least 3 members (in towns, you will not be able to see all the zombies, as each is its own 1-zed group). You can always see blufor groups, even if they have only 1 member.

BLUFOR:blufor squads spawn dynamically within the AIdist from the player (1300m now). Size is 3-8 members. There is a 17% chance of a squad containing a sniper, otherwise the units are random typical blufor (blackops and woods mercs) with shotguns, m249s, or M4s. Once created, the squad will be given a random waypoint route that generally goes to interesting places, then cycles back. They should go through about 8 different places before cycling back to the start. Opfor does the same. Zombies also, but they go just about anywhere, being that they're stupid.

You can join a blufor group by walking up to a group member and asking in the action menu to join them or to have them join you. You may need to wait some time before the option pops up, as having your computer do constant distance checks with all blufor units eats up a bit of performance (similar reasons underlie long script cycling throughout the mod). Once you join, you alone may leave the squad if you want. If the squad is the same size as yours or smaller, you can ask them to join you instead.

FOOD/WATER: You need both to survive. As your health decreases, you need up to 2x more actually, so stay healthy! If your hunger is over 10%, you will start to see messages in the top right corner every so often. If it gets to 30%, you'll see that you're "famished". If it gets to 50%, you're "Starving!", and hey now you're slowly dying also (at a very slow rate, but it will hurt you progressively worse as you get hungrier). At 80%, you're "Starving to death!", best to eat something, eh. Still, you should be able to last a few virtual days before starving to death. Eating a meal replenishes your hunger by 8.5%. It's set so you should have to eat about 2.5x per day. While sleeping, you don't get hungry as fast.

Drinking is similar: messages appear at 15%, 40%, 60%, and 80% instead. You will die of thirst a lot faster, though, and the rate of death gets faster as you get thirstier. Did I mention that the less healthy you are, the thirstier you get also? Don't worry, though, water is pretty commonly available in hidden crates, and there's a 50% chance that each major town will have a crate full of water in a "central water location". It's unlikely you'll ever die of thirst, although hunger can dog you for most of the game.

Okay, so you're thirsty? What to do about it? Where's the water bottle? Oh, right, your humble modder doesn't know how to make those, so instead you get to drink.... M203 smokeshells! Place one into your inventory, wait a few seconds (20 perhaps), and you'll get an action choice (might have to scroll down the list) to "drink". Do that! Okay. Same rules apply for eating, except with red smokeshells.

Hey, I've got a yellow smokeshell, wtf? You need to cook it, that's raw boarmeat (you shot one and carved it up, didn't you?). Get a campfire going, and cook it (ON THE GROUND, NOT ABOVE IT in a structure, it doesn't work like that, God knows why). Wait a couple minutes, and you can take it off the fire and eat.

HUNTING: you can hunt the wild boars. Actually, you can just walk up to one and take meat from it and kill it silently that way. You get two yellow smokeshells for your trouble (see above). Zombies don't give you meat, but hey, try sneaking up and eating one anyway. They'll appreciate the irony.

FOG: it rolls in around 4:15 and rolls out around 8:30AM. It's a good hint that you need to find somewhere safe ASAP. "Hey, fog means zombie mob." It kinda rhymes...

NIGHT TIME: zombies spawn like mad, and not your fun, lovable walking zombies, no, your running, screaming, sh*t your pants zombies, oh, and large packs of zombiedogs. Did I mention the lack of NVGs? Yeah, hide somewhere before the sun sets. Preferably, somewhere up stairs or a ladder, because the undead suck at those pretty badly (but not totally) (as do OPFOR). Also, opfor spawns SF troops primarily, rather than those fun, lovable civilians practice targets. Between 6:30AM and 7AM, most of the zombies will "disappear" into the mists as the sun rises. So, yeah, just hide. Or, have a lot of fun and see how long you can survive running around the woods at night. At least there's a fairly full moon...

RADIO OPERATORS: find all 5 and you can extract (well, you need to go to the location and call for extraction via your action menu, but same thing. Make sure you have a radio before going to extraction, it's kind of necessary to call in for extraction, they don't have THAT good of hearing, you know). Each is in its own town, each is randomly placed somewhere (on the ground) at mission start (there are like 30 optional places for each, so don't try to memorize them). The task will tell you their gridref, so get a map, it helps A LOT. It's nigh impossible to find all 5 without that. Yeah, I've tried, and there's a reason you get the gridref now... Anyway, walk up to him and choose the "get report" action. Each is a dead USMC squad leader unit model.

HEALTH: as it worsens, you will get some "fun" FX that turn things a bit redder and squigglier and blurrier. K, don't get hurt, that's an easy solution to avoiding this. But, if you do happen to get hurt, there's one option: crying. Wait, no, that's not in the scenario (yet...). Sleeping, yes, that's it. Sleep and regain your health. It's only a bit of health per hour slept, so it may take 2-3 nights to sleep off a severe injury, but it's 12.5% reduction (absolute) for 4 hours and 5% for 2 hours. If you lose the ability to walk, fear not, you needn't restart, just find a cozy spot (nearby) and sleep it off (well, if you've TOTALLY lost your legs, maybe not).

SLEEP: you regain health. You aren't as hungry/thirsty when you do it. It passes the time. After waking up, you need to wait a minute or two to go back to sleep ("Yawn..."). The sleeping bag should help, but it doesn't. You also heal all your teammates.

OPFOR: Like blufor, they spawn randomly at one of dozens of possible spawn locations, between 1300 and about 500m away. Each group spawns at a different location. There are 3 types: "civilians", which are civilians and have hunting rifles, AK74s, shotguns, and handguns, and group leaders have compasses; "militias", which have commanders with AK47s, maps, and radios, and otherwise spawn with AK74s, shotguns, RPKs, and AK GLs; and "Spetznaz" groups, whose commanders have everything you could ever want (including optics + GLs and GPS units), whose medics have antidotes, and which otherwise spawn with SVDs, AK74s, PKs, and AK GLs. These groups range in size from 3 to 8 members. The total number on the map will range from 10-30 usually. They have the same waypoint scheme as blufor.

ZOMBIES: 3 types of groups: walkers, runners, and doggers. At night, 20% dogs, 38% runners, 42% walkers; at day, 52% walkers, 15% dogs, 23% runners. At night, the spawn number quadruples. Apologies to your computer, but it should run alright anyway. They spawn much as do OPFOR and BLUFOR, and all 3 types have their own special spawn point sets. Group sizes range from 4-12, although they've been known to congregate in much larger numbers...

AI LIFE SYSTEM: they spawn within 1300m, and if they leave 1500m they die. After 30min, they are absorbed by the earth. They will live quite dynamically, and if you wander near major crossroads or open areas, you should find yourself regularly surrounded by gunfire. Shooting your gun is a surefire way to have zombies all up in your stuff, as well as opfor, so maybe try to remain unseen and unheard as much as possible... it does wonders for your survival.

TOWNS: once you get within 375m of one, it triggers a zombie spawn event and also knocks down the AI distance to something that will kill off all non-nearby zombies (but opfor remains untouched). Once this is triggered, the script sleeps for 900seconds, and if you never leave the town it won't trigger again until you do and come back again (unless you sleep for 4 hours, then it can retrigger). When triggered, one of 6 scenarios will play out: nothing will happen, some zombies will spawn after a couple minutes (not next to you), many zombies will spawn after much longer (not next to you), some zombies will spawn now, more zombies will spawn now, a ton of zombies will spawn now (we haven't measured them exactly, but we believe 50 zombies is approximately 1 ton, if not quite a lot more). Generally, it's best to kill the fast ones and just keep a good distance from the throngs of walking ones. The types of zombies will be different each time, as will their spawns. Each is independent, so they won't be one large group, although again zombies like to congregate (especially around gunfire).

WEATHER: it's dynamic. Its probabilities change throughout the day. In the morning, it's usually clear or cloudy, in midday, cloudy usually with a bit of rain, afternoons tend to be overcast or rainy, late afternoon is cloudy and pretty, the night is usually clear or cloudy. Highly suggest you try out my skymod, it adds to the atmosphere and you don't need to deal with jerky skiptime lowclouds. You get pretty FX for each type of weather, and this changes based on the time of day as well.

OTHER: you start randomly, at a random place and time of day.

BETA STUFF: As this release is beta, I have included a script that will tell you the number of zombies/opfor/blufor/groups in play regularly. Please, check this to make sure the numbers do not go out of bounds (over 100). Also included are two player actions called "pos" and "posatl". These will create lines in the gamelog telling your position, or position/ATL height/orientation. Again, this will be removed in the final release (if ever). If you find a spot that seems a perfect place to hide a stash, please use one of these commands (if it is not on the ground, use the latter) and send me the note. I will include your stash (if it is appropriate) in a later release in a planned feature.

RECOMMENDED MODS

My "skymod" mod really, really adds to the atmosphere, plus the weather system is designed around it. Highly suggested you use it, especially as the low clouds (which the mod removes) crap up when in fast time (which is activated at 8x in this mod).

Also highly suggested is ASR_AI, RWS, and blastcore. The immersion you will get from the latter two (hearing weapon reports all around you at 800m+, seeing smoke, etc all around) really add to this scenario.

PLANNED FEATURES, WRAP-UP

I had a lot planned, but hey, I'm unlikely to get around to any of it. I might alter the spawning so it ramps up more and starts easier, because as-is the starts can be brutal and short.

THANKS

Huge thanks to the FDF guys for Podagorsk. There's a reason I chose it: it's an amazing map (and the perfect size). Also huge thanks to Charon for his Undead Mod. Obviously, this wouldn't exist without it, and he did a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of the content you'll see, even if his team wasn't included in this mod/scenario at all. Thanks to SchnapsdroSel and Rockhount for their included mods (Desert Mercenaries and Blackops, the Fog Script), they added a lot of immersion to this, again without any direct involvement though. If I forgot an included mod, let me know! The creation process for this has been quite long and drawn out over a few different periods, so my memory isn't perfect.

Current bugs:

None

Current "glitches":

- A random "out of memory error" after 3-4 hours of gameplay (unfixable)

- A civ OPFOR squad spawned without weapons once (fluke?)

Planned features:

- ramping up the AI level over time (or by player weapon) so it's not so impossible at the start

Edited July 24, 2012 by DNK