[SP] Warping Plague

[Rydygier 1317]

File updated:

 

- reviewed code responsible for controlling autonomous turrets. Since it seems not as reliable, as used to be (something wrong with spawned AI doWatch targeting), from now on turrets operate under vanilla AI control, only with some boost as for near targets knowledge. Sensors may have weaker reflexes now, but these turrets are supposed to be makeshift anyway. Turrets are relatively cheap to construct (100M) but they consume ammunition: 1 unit per shot, which is the main limiting factor here. Still, I'm thinking about finding "turret parts" during regular looting as another requirement to construct such a turret. 

 

- also changed way, the turret is dropped after taking it to the desired position. Now should be easier/possible to put it, say, on the second floor of some building. Placing it in the balcony entrance stays risky anyway, these positions seem glitched somehow - units tend to stuck in swimming animation sometimes there. 

 

[Rydygier 1317]

File updated:

 

- Effective dose will be daily decreased to emulate natural radiation level reduction in human body over time. There's no universal value in reality, it was assumed ~1 Sv/year, which gives ~3 mSv daily. This value will however decrease with effective dose level, when above 500 mSv to emulate radiation impairing life processes in the body, so for doses > 500 mSv daily decrease rate will be lowered in non-linear manner. There's also some stochastic fluctuation;

 

- Now scripts try to simulate shielding effect of the objects and the soil itself. It is rather heavy to calculate (various LOS checks), but hopefully will be OK. Still, it's simplified. Some simplification was unavoidable or important to reduce amount of calculations each cycle. For example I see no way to measure exact amount of certain material between the player and radiation source, so bounding box rough estimations was used instead. Smallest dimension determines estimated thickness. Simple material determination by checking object name for key words like stone, concrete, metal or wood helps to determine material density factor (exact values guesstimated). This is refreshed once per ~5 seconds, same as dose rate value. 

 

In practice player may notice, dose rate will drop if he hide from the radiation source behind something, preferably something concrete or metal. The bigger dose rate, the bigger drop (it's an effect of stochastic nature, thus the drop is proportional). 

 

This reduction isn't calculated for distances above 1000 meters. 

[Rydygier 1317]

And here some visualisations showing, how terrain shape and map objects affect radiation strength around the source (the player unit). Big, prominent red - shielding < 25%, smaller orange < 50%, smaller yellow < 75%, smaller green < 90%, smallest blue: > 90%. 

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Rydygier 1317]

File updated, most new stuff require more testing though:

 

1. Introduced simple, procedural "quests" that may appear if we talk to town inhabitant marked with green exclamation mark. Each should point an area, within which special lootable house will be marked in green. Loot from such building should be 10x more rich, but vicinity will be guarded by gang members. One quest at once, one quest per person and only one quest per day is possible. Requires testing. 

 

2. Introduced side plot with new opponent character - Marcus. Marcus may appear sometimes and engage player with sniper rifle from afar. Marcus can be killed, but if player manage to gather enough data (random chance each day equal current data level), Marcus may be turned ally, that may help during The Fittest attacks. Plot introduction and progress via Daily Reports. Requires testing. 

 

3. Testing optional support of MBG Aliens Ground Forces mod. If game is running with this mod, aliens from it will be used as warper creatures and guardians. Otherwise old way is used. 

 

4. Daily report window divided into two bookmarks: one with actual report (numbers mostly) and another, with new events like discoveries, messages and such. 

 

5. From now on constructing a turret doesn't require any materials, but rather "Turret parts", that may be found during looting. Requires testing. 

 

6. Civs should be immune to damage caused by falling and such auto-inflicted wounds. Requires testing. 

[Godis_1 63]

Hi Rydy. This is a great scenario and I'm looking forward to what it will become. However, since the recent version I have a weird problem. Nothing too bad, but weird. The ambient sound seems like being played as a loop that stops every few seconds for a short moment, and exactly then all the plants, grasses and bushes stop moving, until the sound continues. It's only a second or so, but it's weird. I don't know if this might be happening due to a mod I'm using, but it didn't happen in all the prior versions, as I can remember.

 

Edit: I Just figured out that it happens every time when the enemy marker moves on the map (this/these red markers that appear near enemies potential location around the town. THis might have something to do with a script I guess.

[Rydygier 1317]

Hi, thanks!

 

Quote

I Just figured out that it happens every time when the enemy marker moves on the map (this/these red markers that appear near enemies potential location around the town. THis might have something to do with a script I guess.

 

That means, it happens every script cycle which indeed would suggest some connection with scripts. But I do not experience that myself. Some questions: Same is happening without any mods at all? Is it happening always or only near anomalies? Was it happening after June 10th update or indeed only after the latest? What's your PC specs (near to minimum Arma requirements or not)? Is that total game freeze, or freezes only background sound and wind?

[Godis_1 63]

I have not tested it without mods yet, but I'm using the same mod list, which I've been using before - and it never happened. It started today when I updated your file. The prior version I've been using was the one from 5th june. I happens mostly when walking through the wilderness, hills and mountains. Actually everywehre as far as I can tell - but inside the town I didn't notice it. I'll have to do some more tests, then I can tell you more.

 

My specs: I5-7600K, 16 GB RAM, Radeon RX590, SSD drive.

 

Oh, and the only new mod I've added to the list is "MBF Alien Ground Forces". Also I've started a new game and didn't continue from my last save, just in case because of changes you did.

 

Edit: There might be a chance that it's because of ACE. I've started using a modified ACE version for SP, and ACE is pretty script intensive. MAybe it's kind of script lag, that I'm experiencing. I will test it again with some mods removed (i.e. ACE).

[Rydygier 1317]

Quote

The prior version I've been using was the one from 5th june.

 

OK, so this may be also due to June 10 changes, which seems more likely (those LOS checks), but this should be limited then to situations, where player is <1000 meters from an anomaly. 

 

What's your settings as for viewdistance/object draw view distance? Perhaps you could test with seriously lowered these two to compare, if this makes any difference. 

[Godis_1 63]

It seems to me that it doesn't matter the distance to anomalies. I was definately very far away from the next one when I noticed this for the first time. I'm playing on mostly ultra settings and get around 80 FPS all the time. Depends on the scenario, but 60 FPS is my minimum.

[Rydygier 1317]

Still, I would check with limited viewdistance/object draw distance, because some scripts rely on these values. If lowering them would make a difference, there's a good chance, reason lies in these parts of the script. 

[Godis_1 63]

All right. Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm using the mod "automatic view distance" with settings 600 min. and 4000 max.

[Rydygier 1317]

In case, disabling mods will not help... Since the issue doesn't occur to me, I can't debug this myself. But if you wish, we perhaps could try do this together this way:

Spoiler

 

1. Download scenario in open form here. 

2. Paste it into documents/Arma 3/missions.

3. Run Arma 3 without any mods.

4. Open this scenario in EDEN and preview. If issue doesn't appear, move the scenario into Missions folder in the main Arma directory and run it via main menu/scenarios. If issue doesn't appear again - well, it is fixed... 🙂 If however it occur in EDEN or via scenarios menu:

 

5. End the scenario, open its folder and open TS subfolder. There you have ML.sqf file. 

6. Open this file in any text editor (may be notepad). Find these lines:

 

		[] call RYD_SCA_Refresh;
		sleep 5;
				
		//[] call RYD_TS_HUDRefresh;
		[] call RYD_TS_LootingRefresh;
		[] call RYD_TS_FightRefresh;
		[] call RYD_TS_WarpDrainRefresh;
		[] call RYD_TS_FastTravelRefresh;
		
		[RYD_TS_PopGroups,1000] call RYD_TS_CachingRefresh

Each "call" line represents part of the script, that is running in 5 seconds cycle. Since the issue appears once per cycle, it is likely, one of these lines is causing it. The goal will be to narrow down that line. To do so, start from disabling all of them this way:

 

		//[] call RYD_SCA_Refresh;
		sleep 5;
				
		//[] call RYD_TS_HUDRefresh;
		//[] call RYD_TS_LootingRefresh;
		//[] call RYD_TS_FightRefresh;
		//[] call RYD_TS_WarpDrainRefresh;
		//[] call RYD_TS_FastTravelRefresh;
		
		//[RYD_TS_PopGroups,1000] call RYD_TS_CachingRefresh

Save and play again. If issue still occurs - let me know. If is gone now, enable again half of them this way:

 

		[] call RYD_SCA_Refresh;
		sleep 5;
				
		//[] call RYD_TS_HUDRefresh;
		[] call RYD_TS_LootingRefresh;
		[] call RYD_TS_FightRefresh;
		//[] call RYD_TS_WarpDrainRefresh;
		//[] call RYD_TS_FastTravelRefresh;
		
		//[RYD_TS_PopGroups,1000] call RYD_TS_CachingRefresh

save the file and play once more.

 

a) If the issue appear again, that means, the cause lies in one of these re-enabled lines. In such case disable one of them back, save, play again etc. until issue is gone - then we know, the last disabled line was the cause. Let me know, which it was. 

 

b) If after enabling that half there's still no issue, then the cause is one of still disabled lines. In such case enable them one by one (except the one disabled from the beginning - HUDRefresh leave as it is), save and play again after each until issue reappear, then we know, last re-enabled line is the cause - let me know, which is it. 

 

 

[VariousArtist 19]

Nice foundations of a mission so far.

 

Is there a way to get the quad fixed? Mine got shop up pretty decently...

Are there other vehicles to find?

Theres no way to take your fellow townsmen with you on an away mission?

Any way to get medpacks?

Why should I stop a raid mission and give them 100 materials when they bring me tons of materials when I just kill them? Makes no sense! 😃

 

Some random feedback:

To me "looting houses" feels too shallow and a time waster. Theres a promise of loot, but instead you just open the door, dip in, next house. Started to get annoyed by it after day 4+.

Too often enemies spawn a few 10s of meteres right behind my back and shot me in the same back. Not cool.

We should get some useful feedback from our guards (e.g. when enemies enter the town and engage citizens)

 

Big problem: When you start to get lots of citizens their overlays start to lag the game badly. We dont need those overlays anyway. Well, maybe for guards, but it would be enough to add markers for the guards on the map.

[Godis_1 63]

17 hours ago, Rydygier said:

In case, disabling mods will not help... Since the issue doesn't occur to me, I can't debug this myself. But if you wish, we perhaps could try do this together this way:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

1. Download scenario in open form here. 

2. Paste it into documents/Arma 3/missions.

3. Run Arma 3 without any mods.

4. Open this scenario in EDEN and preview. If issue doesn't appear, move the scenario into Missions folder in the main Arma directory and run it via main menu/scenarios. If issue doesn't appear again - well, it is fixed... 🙂 If however it occur in EDEN or via scenarios menu:

 

5. End the scenario, open its folder and open TS subfolder. There you have ML.sqf file. 

6. Open this file in any text editor (may be notepad). Find these lines:

 

		[] call RYD_SCA_Refresh;
		sleep 5;
				
		//[] call RYD_TS_HUDRefresh;
		[] call RYD_TS_LootingRefresh;
		[] call RYD_TS_FightRefresh;
		[] call RYD_TS_WarpDrainRefresh;
		[] call RYD_TS_FastTravelRefresh;
		
		[RYD_TS_PopGroups,1000] call RYD_TS_CachingRefresh

Each "call" line represents part of the script, that is running in 5 seconds cycle. Since the issue appears once per cycle, it is likely, one of these lines is causing it. The goal will be to narrow down that line. To do so, start from disabling all of them this way:

 

		//[] call RYD_SCA_Refresh;
		sleep 5;
				
		//[] call RYD_TS_HUDRefresh;
		//[] call RYD_TS_LootingRefresh;
		//[] call RYD_TS_FightRefresh;
		//[] call RYD_TS_WarpDrainRefresh;
		//[] call RYD_TS_FastTravelRefresh;
		
		//[RYD_TS_PopGroups,1000] call RYD_TS_CachingRefresh

Save and play again. If issue still occurs - let me know. If is gone now, enable again half of them this way:

 

		[] call RYD_SCA_Refresh;
		sleep 5;
				
		//[] call RYD_TS_HUDRefresh;
		[] call RYD_TS_LootingRefresh;
		[] call RYD_TS_FightRefresh;
		//[] call RYD_TS_WarpDrainRefresh;
		//[] call RYD_TS_FastTravelRefresh;
		
		//[RYD_TS_PopGroups,1000] call RYD_TS_CachingRefresh

save the file and play once more.

 

a) If the issue appear again, that means, the cause lies in one of these re-enabled lines. In such case disable one of them back, save, play again etc. until issue is gone - then we know, the last disabled line was the cause. Let me know, which it was. 

 

b) If after enabling that half there's still no issue, then the cause is one of still disabled lines. In such case enable them one by one (except the one disabled from the beginning - HUDRefresh leave as it is), save and play again after each until issue reappear, then we know, last re-enabled line is the cause - let me know, which is it. 

 

 

Thx for the detailed explanation. When I get some time, I will test this. I'll just unpack your pbo. I'm still remembering SQF for the most part from the times where I developed my DISWS scenario. I'll be glad if I can help in any way. When I get home I will have a look into the mission files and see how it goes. I'll get back to you then, just give me some time.

[Rydygier 1317]

Quote

 Is there a way to get the quad fixed? Mine got shop up pretty decently...

 

It should be fixed between days. But if destroyed - is lost forever. 

 

Quote

Are there other vehicles to find?

 

Currently no. Not sure, if there should be. 

 

Quote

Theres no way to take your fellow townsmen with you on an away mission?

 

No. The idea is, player is exploring alone. But also adding a comapnion will seriously increase rather substantial CPU load required to calculate radiation exposure etc. (+100% per one additional person), plus some other design complications. 

 

Quote

Why should I stop a raid mission and give them 100 materials when they bring me tons of materials when I just kill them? Makes no sense! 

 

Indeed, indeed. 🙂 Still, depending on final balancing, there may be times, where repelling an invasion, especially without casaulties amongst civilians, may become too difficult, then an option to pay may become useful. 

 

Quote

To me "looting houses" feels too shallow and a time waster. Theres a promise of loot, but instead you just open the door, dip in, next house. Started to get annoyed by it after day 4+.

 

Well, I can add "physical" containers or something like that, similar, as I did in Pilgrimage, but most of the time these will be empty, as most resources to be find are virtual in nature. So this will be just an ornament. Also I would like to avoid this time "casino effect" as, like you said, somewhat shallow way to keep player invested. Still, I'm open to suggestions and if I myself discover better way to make player exploring the map (or better activity than exploring the map), I'll use it.

 

BTW the intent/aim behind Warping Plague project is to experiment in search for new gameplay solutions or new combinations of known gameplay elements with resulting nice, fresh synergy, but there's no warranty of success and is perfectly possible, there's simply not enough potential in this concept or that I'll fail to find the magic hidden in it. 

 

Quote

Too often enemies spawn a few 10s of meteres right behind my back and shot me in the same back. Not cool.

 

It kinda fits these creatures' nature (I mean, they indeed are just appearing from the thin air/coming through from "elsewhere"), but I hear you, I'll try to increase safety buffer. 

 

Quote

When I get some time, I will test this. 

 

Thanks! 🙂

[VariousArtist 19]

Thanks for the quick reply, Rydygier.

 

If the creatures are intended to spawn "out of thin air" im ok with that. Even with them spawning close to you. Im most "usual arma missions" it is rather a flaw, but if properly implemented I see a good reason for this here. Maybe a way to give chance for "a call" to the player before spawns might happen? Something so he knows this might happen in a moment - a sound, a ghost-O-meter, a kind of geiger counter reading maybe?

 

I dont think loot is a "shallow effect" to keep players invested. Granted its not either "investing gameplay" for sure, and with your background in Pilgrimage I think I understand where you come from. However the exploration/looting aspect needs more meat on the bones.

For a starter less houses with upped gains should be good, so a players isnt forced (or "moticated") to "groundhog-day" 20+ houses every day. Its super repetive. Also, its not exactly needed that all houses are marked as lootable (hovering question mark). I think rather marking fewer as "promising ones" could also cut down on the repetition?

 

And regarding meat to the bones of house exploration I would rather think about more stuff to happen (also in the kind of risk/reward gameplay balance).

- Why not treat found survivors a tad more in the way State of Decay does? Maybe they are mental and attack you, or you actually have to build some trust before the join you. Or they try to blackmail you and/or call in the baddies?

- I havent seen groups of the Fittest in towns - mostly just creatures. I would like to see a chance they could show up  the longer you stay in a town.

- more options to find intel about bigger caches of material? I like the chance of those "special loot houses" - make it more of a hunt for intel to locate them

 

Anomalies

So far it seems that the anomalies are mostly just sitting there in their region and do nothing. Make them mysterious.

- chances that they somehow spawn in towns, making looting impossible.

- add a way to find out how to repel them temorarily from towns?

- more anomalies? Alias is doing a lot of anomaly scripting - this mission begs to implement them (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Di26PjojGI)

 

 

 

[Rydygier 1317]

Hey, thanks! I'll try to use your ideas, some sound really promising in fact, something to think about. 

 

Quote

- chances that they somehow spawn in towns, making looting impossible.

 

From the other hand, if anomaly sits in the town, visually it can be quite striking sometimes. Good thing though - they relocate randomly each day. It's kinda important thing BTW, because player may discover something related to these movements, that opens alternative mission ending (stopping the growth of the zone). 

 

Quote

- more anomalies?

 

Well, from the one side, I intended to avoid going too deep into Stalker direction (not because it's wrong direction, in fact I'm playing Stalker right now, again, just direction explored already by the others), but from the second side, it is inevitable to the extend (too similar context) and an idea of using scripts to get such cool effects is appealing to me, although always prefered to write my own stuff, than borrow from the others - I just like figuring out own solutions. But I must admit, that video is super cool. 🙂

[Arfour 31]

22 hours ago, Rydygier said:

 

It should be fixed between days. But if destroyed - is lost forever. 

 

 

Currently no. Not sure, if there should be. 

 

I'd suggest more vehicles on the island. A destroyed ATV would be basically a reload or mission fail. I wouldn't want to walk around the whole island all the time. Besides, you can find survivors, food, guns, ammunition and enough materials to produce stuff, but the only working vehicle on the whole island is a single ATV?

 

I wouldn't add military vehicles to not destroy the balancing. But some cars or pick ups here and there wouldn't be too bad I guess. If only for immersion. Besides, I get that driving the ATV makes you highly mobile while keeping you vulnerable at the same time. But personally I find driving it rather annoying, at least over long distances. 😏

[Rydygier 1317]

No problem then, I'll think about it. 

 

Meanwhile file updated:

 

- each house has only 30% to be "!". 

- daily limit also divided by 4. 

- but chance for finding a survivor raised x4 to compensate. 

- one not searched house per day somewhere on the map is randomized as "treasure house". It will contain much more valuables and will be guarded/patrolled (statistically at least, still randomized, so may be disappointing sometimes). If previous treasure house is still not checked at next day, it will remain instead choosing new one. 

- common "!" house provides same stuff, as earlier, but also directional information, where too look for a treasure house. This info is visualized on the map in the form of the arc/triangle, within which treasure is located. Checking few distant "!" houses allow to get few overlapping arcs which allows to narrow down the area of treasure house whereabouts to common part of all the arcs. Each arc spread will be randomly reduced depending on number of Scouts. 

- alternatively treasure house can be found just by normal exploration, if you're lucky. 

- treasure house is marked with purple "!". 

- apart from that there are still those locations given to you by townsmen (even more reacher and guarded). 

 

Let me know, if this works, makes any sense and how much it solves repetitiveness problem. 

 

General idea visualised:

 

 

Pointers from three checked houses allowed to narrow down valuable location to Sainte Marie. 

 

More should come next time... 

[Rydygier 1317]

File updated:

 

- to see, how this will work, added some empty vehicles to the map, nothing fancy about them, just 24 cars, random variety of vanilla civilian vehicles, mostly close to the towns (named locations in general). Spawning parameters are calibrated, so it is rare, but possible, that some car may be wrecked at spawn due to collision with a map object. It seems OK, even kinda immersive this way. 

[Rydygier 1317]

File updated:

 

- dynamic warper creatures "from the thin air" spawn now is preceeded by some audio-visual effects (sound, post process, some shaking, temporary refract particles at spawn position) acting like requested warning for the player, that hostiles are about to spawn in near. The closer spawn, the more prominent camera shake, audio and post process effects are. Beyond 1000 meters barely noticeable (such far dynamic spawn anyway shouldn't happen). Audio also gives some idea about general direction. 

[Godis_1 63]

I've tested it extensively, finally. It turned out that I had accidently a mod enabled from an older play session, that I had overseen. Your scenario is working fine :) But thx for your help!

[major-stiffy 280]

Add an autosave when waking up the next day?

[Rydygier 1317]

Sure. It's quite logical and I would do that already, but I save manually that often, I'm totally forgetting, there's such thing. 🙂

 

EDIT: File updated. Autosave occurs just before daily report. 

EDIT2: Moved autosave to the very beginning of "Next Day" passage to avoid some disturbances after loading. 

 

 

 

 

[major-stiffy 280]

On 6/19/2019 at 5:27 AM, Rydygier said:

that some car may be wrecked at spawn due to collision with a map object.

 

Yup.