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Jep, its WIP to test. Ressource  and blueprint restrictions will follow:) 

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VA complete overhaul

 

Hi all,

 

figured it is time for an update and outlook.

 

The past few months have been great for the mod as I was able to take on some major milestones.

 

Topics like hosting a dedicated VA server, persistence, base building, crafting, a proper loot economy and a better UI are no longer wishful thinking but either implemented (WIP) features or available through community members Know-how and engagement.

 

It is great to see how a small community of like-minded survival enthusiasts have gathered around the VA project, I am having a blast on discord guys!

 

Much of the progress was enabled by The Dudes merciless testing and bug finding.

 

VD: Update to Steam, I did good, no bugs!

The Dude:...

VD: ?

The Dude:…NO!

VD: ...

VD: Hotfix.

 

He is also hosting the VA Test server which allowed us to test the mod in its intended environment and has provided assets and a HUD out of the blue.

 

Thanks mate!

 

The mods feature list has grown quite a bit and so has the list of issues. However, I also have learned quite a bit again.

 

Hence I figured it is a good time to take the mod, separate all existing elements and rebuild, improve and extend it from scratch.

 

For that I am taking the various scripts, look at them separately, review and optimise and put them together again one by one.

 

For each layer of this rebuild, we will be testing the current version on SP/MP and dedicated to make sure each layer of features is solid, before adding features.

 

The schedule looks as following (no ETA and subject to change) :

 

Phase 1:

 

Equipment categorisation, loot economy, player load out generator, “The Living” features (health, hunger, thirst, bleeding, infection, temperature,…), persistent save system.

 

At this stage, we want a challenging, persistent hardcore survival mod, that should keep you busy by just trying to stay alive. Loot economy and the survival system should go hand in hand so players can scavenge for whatever they currently need. 

 

The loot economy will spawn loot where it makes sense and so the player is forced to search for specific areas/buildings for certain types of loot (military areas, medical facilities, supermarkets,...). 

 

For every danger, there should be a potential solution and the player has to adjust his survival strategy to these dangers (getting into a fight without medical supplies - bad idea.). 

 

"The Living" is the VA life and survival simulation system, I am looking forward to put a lot of time and effort into that simulation. This rework of the mod should push this feature as a priority.

 

It is a large topic but it will include: health, hunger/thirst, body temperature, injury system, illness, Z-Infection, sanity system and possibly more. The priority might change and some of the features might be pushed to a later phase.

 

Phase 2:

 

Base-building, crafting, resources scavenging and refining, tools, workstations

 

A large topic as well. In essence, VA will introduce a resource gathering, refining and crafting/building system. Resources will be available from various sources and should lead the player to hunt for different objects, terrain objects and items spread over a map. Raw resources can be refined by using tools or workstations (e.g. workbenches). Blueprints (that spawn in the world) will likely be the source for player to learn new refining, building and crafting pattern.

 

Phase 3:

 

AI spawners, uniform side restriction fix, persistent vehicle spawner

 

The AI needs to be reworked from scratch. Different types of AI/AI behaviour will be added, from stalkers hunting the player to patrols to scavenger, minding their own business.

 

A vehicle spawn feature will include persistently spawned and saved (to the server) vehicles with repair, maintenance and fuel features. This is a completely new feature and currently just an idea.

 

Phase 4:

 

Site spawners, farming, hunting

 

Review of the sites, optimisations and addition of new type of sites

 

This is far away and while the sites will certainly be reintroduced, anything past phase 2is very likely subject to a lot of change.

 

Live version on Steam:

 

The rework of the mod will be done on a WIP branch of the mod and will not affect the Steam version.

 

I will not push any live updates in that time but will provide hot-fixes to game-breaking issues.

 

Uff, I would have many more details and ideas to share but this post already escalated quite a bit so we stop here. 

 

Join discord if you want to know more! 

https://discord.gg/SAFysz8

 

Cheers

VD

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@everyone just to keep you posted: i am currently working on a own hunger/thirst and cooking system that will be part of the first phase/basic build of VA3. 0. I hope that i can upload a nice showcase video soon. This is part of my goal to have a VA standalone survival system in place for VA in the future. Cheers

Vd

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VA 3.0 overhaul phase 1 - status update Jan. 2020:


General framework:
- changed to a proper functions library
- redundancies removed/general cleanup
- introduced a "hotkey" based action system. One hotkey to situationally execute the right actions (eat, gather, scavenge, butcher animal, farm, refill water,...)
-- additional options for combinations like hotkey + atl/shift/ctr
- added GF earplugs feature
- added GF weapon holster feature

 

The Living feature (survival):
- nourishment system up and running:
-- hunger (to be tuned)
-- thirst (to be tuned)
-- hydration/nutrition loss loop, affected by exhaustion, carryweight, health, activity,...

-- eating & drinking action (to be optimized) 
-- different types of eating effects (quick snack vs. decent meal with well fed bonus)
-- food stats/effects like stamina boni,... (drawing board)
-- dehydration/starvation effects (early WIP)
-- overeating/vomiting added
-- food/drink items (to be further extended)
-- raw ingredients for cooking (to be further extended)
-- cooking (place fireplace/gas cooker or use existing sites, cook in cooking utility placed on fire (late stage WIP)
--- frying sounds
--- extra smoke when cooking
-- gathering of water from wells and ponds / boiling of water (done)
-- utility items added (firewood, gas cooker, cooking utility, bottles,can opener,...)


- gathering feature
-- gather apples from apple tree
--- each tree only has 0 to maximal 10 apples that can be taken per (server) restart
-- gather pumkins from ripe pumkin plants (CUP), max. 2 per plant
-- berries, mushrooms,.... to be added

 

- farming feature
-- planting of pumpkin plants -> growing -> watering -> growing -> harvest (done, to be tuned)
--- requires pumpkins or pumpkin seeds, water, fertilizer, watering, right timing required or plants will rot, random chance that pumpkins are rotten at harvest,..) (WIP)

 

- hunting feature
-- butcher killed animals to get raw meat (WIP)
-- animal live simulation system (not started, drawing board)
-- fishing to be added
-- trapping to be added

 

- Temperature feature (WIP) 

- body temperature simulation based on:

-- gear (gear categorized into light to warm geartypes, need to add default categorization of main mods gear) 

-- weather influence

-- humidity (for, rain, in water, waterproof gear) 

-- nearby heatsources

-- in building/shelter state

-- wind exposure

-- activity

- effects to be added

- a lot fine tuning to be done

 

 

Basebuilding feature:
- same state as VA live version (WIP)
- added tools (hammer, axe, crowbar, knife, shovel, wrench,...) (WIP)
- added ressources/materials (woodboard, wire, rope,sandbags, burlap, burlapsack,....) (WIP)
- included in loot economy (WIP)

 

Loot economy:
- added new/updated building categories and fixed bugs:
-- medical buildings
-- military buildings
-- police buildings
-- custom buildings 1
-- custom buildings 2
-- custom buildings 3
-- civilian buildings (all uncategorized buildings)


- options to customize above (blacklist, whitelist, add elements) (WIP)

 

- each category has a specific loot pool and loot rarity systems behind it (all adjustable) . 

 

- extended loot economy to allow for 3 types of loot spawn:
-- one off world loot (one time loot filling all buildings of a map, no respawning of loot until (server) restart) - > heaviest on fps
-- dynamic one-off loot (spawns only near players but spawned loot will not de/respawn until (server) restart) ( slow build up, easier on fps) 
-- map object based loot (hotkey that spawns loot when looking at viable loot objects such as crates, bag heaps, suitcases,...)
--- objects from vanilla/dlc/CUP/CHR are categorized into different loot groups and may spawn different loot (military objects, food objets, objects that spawn building materials,...
--- can be customized/ is linked to general loot economy settings (WIP)

 

Cheers

VD

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VA 3.0 overhaul phase 1 - status update Feb. 2020:

 

 

1. GENERAL FRAMEWORK

 

 

Hotkeys:

default hotkeys assigned (shift, ctrl, alt combinations are in use as well) for any action that does not require an inventory item, such as;

- scavenging map/terrain objects (e.g. wrecks, crates, baggage heaps,...), hotkey 1

- gathering ressources from map objects (apple trees, firewood, dead animals), hotkey 1

- plant vegetables in greenhouses, hotkey 1

- weapon holster, hotkey 2

- earplugs (in/out), shift + hotkey 2

- open basebuilding menue (early WIP), ctrl+ hotkey 2

 

Look at the object you want to interact with and press the hotkey 1. The system will detect what you are looking at and will execute the adequate scripts (scavenging, gathering, interaction,...)

Some interactions have tool requirements (knife for skinning, crowbar to scavenge boxes,...).

 

 

Inventory Item interaction:

added "double left mousebutton click" interaction with useable VA inventory items such as;

- food

- drinks

- bandages

- injectors

- pills

 

but also items that can be used to craft/create utilities such as;

- firewood to place or fuel fireplaces

- matches to light fireplaces

- cooking utilities that can be placed on fireplaces for cooking

- when looking at a watersource (body of water or well) click empty bottle to refill

 

 

Localisation/language support:

added the base framework for multi language support (e.g. hints, emotes, messages and items will appear in your client language)

 

 

GitHub integration:

best. thing. ever. period.

 

 

2. PERSISTENCY

 

 

added persistency/inidb2, testing WIP but so far, working as intended

saved are:

- player position

- player direction

- player loadout

- player stats (health, blood, hydration, nutrition, infection state, bleeding state, radiation)

 

 

3. THE LIVING (survival system)

 

 

General:

updates related to hotkey/mousclick interaction

added tooltip (how to use) to useable items description text

added new assets (e.g. water canister, salty/dirty/clean/empty version for all liquid containers)

added various crafting and basebuilding material items

updated some assets models

most useables/consumables have multiple "charges", so a bandage might only be depleted after using it 4 times. We are using fake magazines/round count for that.

soundFX updates/new soundFX added

 

Nourishment:

extended and finetuned various aspects of the cooking, eating and drinking feature

 

 

Bleeding:

code rewritten.

added minimum damage requirement per hit to trigger bleeding.

added restriction that avoids that code inflicted damage, clipping damage or fall damage triggers bleeding.

only direct hits from Z's or bullets may trigger bleeding.

added adjustable chance for bleeding (bleedign chance per hit) to actually kick in after a registered hit

added feature that blocks further bleeding triggers for 1 second after a registered hit (even if bleeding is not starting, due to bleedign chance per hit).

this will avoid that damage inflicted by explosions or Z hits, that usually trigger multiple "damaged" Eventhandlers, will trigger bleeding 4-7 times per "hit".

the user setting "bleeding chance" should be more reliable now due to that change.

Before, one hit by a Z could trigger 4-7 bleeding start code and each time it would calculate the bleed change of e.g. 50%, which obviously would much likelier cause actual bleeding in the end, even with low bleeding chance per hit settings.

 

some additonal info about the feature...

 

blood; is a stat 0-100 and it is not equal to health. at 0 blood you are bled out and at 100 blood you are all well. Low blood levels will have a negative impact on you.

bleeding; is the state when you are loosing blood, each bleeding tick will deduct from your blood pool 0-100.

blood gain; is the blood regeneration. Blood is regenerated as long as the player is: alive, not bleeding, not infected, not hungry, not thirsty.

blood loss; is the effect you suffer at low blood levels. While at low blood levels, your blood loss effects are kicking in every 30-60 seconds with various effects depending on your blood levels (visual effects, blurry view, fainting, damage to health, hydration loss, nutrition loss, stamina depletion).

 

stop bleeding by applying a bandage

regenerate blood over time by making sure you are fed and hydrated and not affected by bleeding/infection

restore blood by consuming a blood conserve

fill up a blood conserve by transfering your blood to a empty blood bag (will obviously reduce blood that must be regenerated over time -> word of advise, dont do that in combat!)

 

 

Infection:

code rewritten.

in essence, same process as bleeding.

only hits by Z's may trigger infection.

added minimum frequency cap (infection damage effect frequency is increasing over time, this should avoid that infection effects hit every 0.001 seconds after some time, which causes insta-death).

 

some additonal info about the feature...

 

infection frequency; time inbetween infection effect ticks. the frequency is increased on every tick.

infection effects; visual effects, damage effects, hydration and nutrition depletion, stamina depletion

 

cure the infection by injecting the virus cure

slow down the infection frequency by consuming a anti virus pill

 

 

Health:

added health regeneration over time

health regeneration; restores health every 30-60 seconds as long as the Survivor is not: bleeding, infected, below 80 blood, hungry or thirsty

 

 

Temperature:

feature activated, early WIP and to be tested

 

TL Synergies:

Reading the above, you might note that we try to create synergies and dependencies within the survival system but also between systems.

Survivors will need to take care of their overal state to survive but also ajdust their scavenging and other activities to their needs.

It is all about being prepared!

 

 

4. LOOT ECONOMY

 

 

object based scavenging:

further extended hotkey and object based scavenging

added various categories;

- civilian vehicle wrecks

- military vehicle wrecks

- military objects (e.g. crates)

- civilian objects (e.g. baggage heaps, crates,...)

- food objects (e.g. sacks, market style objects)

- medical objects (e.g. humanitarian supply bag heaps, aid containers, medical vehicle wrecks)

- junk

 

each object category may provide theme adequate loot.

 

Survivors can now interact with a major part of the map. Loot spawns in buildings on the ground, but also map objects may be scavenged now.

 

supported mods; vanilla, DLC, CUP, Chernarus Redux

 

Cheers

VD & The Dude aka @chernaruski

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Vandeanson, thank you for your great mod!

 

Please tell me more about hotkeys, because I understand nothing.

Default hotkey1 - is which one? Default hotkey2 - is which one? Or where exactly I can see assigned hotkeys or change them? I didn't find Vandeanson's hotkey menu or something like that.

 

Thank you! Cheers!

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10 minutes ago, Realthinged said:

Vandeanson, thank you for your great mod!

 

Please tell me more about hotkeys, because I understand nothing.

Default hotkey1 - is which one? Default hotkey2 - is which one? Or where exactly I can see assigned hotkeys or change them? I didn't find Vandeanson's hotkey menu for that moment or something like that.

 

Thank you! Cheers!

Hi @Realthinged

 

This is not an update for the current steam version of VA, but it is a seperate work in progress version. This new version is not yet available for players and will, once finished, replace VA on steam. 

 

It is an update on this announced project:

 

https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/223648-vandeanson’s-apocalypse/?do=findComment&comment=3389791

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These changes promise to be just great.
Is it worth considering an option where the resources necessary for life would be spaced apart from each other on the map. This is necessary so that the search for livelihoods is not too simple, for example, clean water is only in some places, and other sources need to be cleaned with tablets. And the food would not be near clean water. Then there will be no beloved area where you can always eat and drink.
I return to the idea that the player needs to be encouraged to travel on the map so that this journey makes sense. To ensure that the game does not turn into endless searches in the trash, add random quests so that the player needs to move long distances. And it is better to make the player from time to time send on long journeys. Some idea is needed so that it could be, for example, help to a resident who cannot get out of his shelter. From time to time he needs to bring medicine, etc.

 

Google translator

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@B3OP , that's what VA is aiming for.  One way to "encouraged to travel on the map" is making the loot persistent per session. Limited resources in general is customizable , so you can make it as hardcore as you want (me personally like it this way) , @Vandeanson too.
As for "missions", it's planned, not in the nearest future tho.

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And if you play offline, then the next time you enter the game, is this considered a new session?

 

Google translator

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Off line as i singleplayer? If you save you will start at the save. In hosted MP your character is saved but the rest of the mission starts new (like a server restart). 

 

Cheers

Vd

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3.0 overhaul phase 1 - status update April 2020:

 

"Closed Alpha testing has started!"

We have recently started to test the current alpha build of the overhauled VA version.
With this we have now become quite fast in identifying and fixing issues.

 
1. GENERAL FRAMEWORK


Vandeanson's Apocalypse, the survival/sandbox framework:


while reworking VA's features, we keep in mind that although VA will run on default settings as a plug and play mod, the main intend of it is that users can utilize VA as a tool to create their own apocalypse servers and missions and adjust every aspect of it without going into writing code themselves, using the 300+ settings VA offers.
Wherever it makes sense, users are able to adjust VA features according to their own preference. (e.g. Amount of Loot, intensity of survival features such as bleeding or infection, amount of site features spawned,...).

 

CBA Settings:
As we are using the CBA features for our settings, we are revisiting the settings piece by piece for updates and cleanup.

 

Functions Library:

- functions are now set up properly as classes

generally a lot of clenaup and restructuring has beed done, these are internal changes that mostly wont be visible for users, but these allow us to work more efficient and make it less likely that changes in one place will break other features due to proper segregation of code.

 

Hotkeys:
The hotkey system has been replaced and is now SP, hosted MP and dedicated Server compatible.
Hotkeys will no longer seize to work at SP Mission load or restart.
Features activated with hotkeys are now:
- holster weapon
- put in earplugs
- repack magazines
- refill magazines
- Basebuilding


Hotkeys are the Custom User Keys 1 - 20, so you can choose which CUK you want to use and assign your own key combination to it.

 

HUD:
- HUD reworked (style/design)
- Temperature icon added
- sickness icon added
- humidity indicator added
- infection indicator added
- bleeding indicator added
- blood level indicator added
- blood regeneration indicator added
- earplug in/out indicator added
- radiation indicator added (ravage)

 

 

 

2. PERSISTENCY

 

All current features are persistent (where it makes sense).
Basebuilding: Removal of structures WIP
Vehicle system: Vehicle saving and vehicle content saving WIP

 

3. THE LIVING (survival system)


VAs new survival system was and is the main focus of the phase 1 overhaul.

 

General:
The interaction with survival assets has been reworked from scratch once again.
Where players interact with objects in the world, this now happens via "Holdactions":
- scavenging
- gathering
- cooking
- vehicle repair & maintenance

Where players interact with inventory items only, this is done by double left mousebutton clicking such items in your inventory:
- consuming food & liquids
- applying medical items
 
Nourishment:
- clicking consumables will no longer instantly start consumation but will open a holdaction that can be pressed for continuous consumation until the food/drink object is empty/gone.
- added various versions of liquid containers (waterbottles, canteens, water canisters, soda cans) and where it makes sense, different quality (clean, dirty, salty).
- food poisoning from eating raw food added
- bacteria infection added from drinking dirty water

Bleeding:
- fixed some issues with bleeding trigger, bleeding works reliable now
Infection:

- fixed some issues with infection trigger, infection works reliable now
 
Health:
- Splint added that can treat vanilla arma limping feature. Limping kicks in if the legs are damaged
- damage from effects (bleeing, infection, hunger/thirst,....) is now applied to the body only. General WIP rework of the damaging system.
- antibiotics added to cure bacteria and food poisoning

 

Temperature:

- feature activated, early WIP and to be tested
- Temperature HUD Icon added (world temperature)


4. LOOT ECONOMY

 

 Scavenging:
One way to gather items, food and materials can be achieved by searching for crates, vehicle wrecks, bags, luggage or furniture inside and outside houses.
- reworked the scavenging system
- interaction with world objects now happens via a Holdaction (similar like Ravage and Exile)
- 3d MP compatible sounds added. If someone is scavenging a vehicle wreck nearby, you will hear it!
- new holdaction icons added
- different types of objects may yield different loot: (civilian, medical, military, food, material, junk,...)

 

 

 5. VEHICLE SYSTEM

 

Vehicles can now be spawned server sided all over the map.
- spawn locations: on roads and possibly in garages (WIP)
- state of vehicle: random damage, fuel and inventory content (items)
- vehicle repair: wheels, motor, lights can be repaired with respective materials (tires, light bulps, motor parts
- vehicle refueling added
- car battery: battery drains over time and must be replaced,  (WIP), use of jumping cables WIP
- integration in persistency system is WIP
- various items added (tires, fuel canister, motor parts,....)

 

 

 6. ANIMATIONS

Animations are being added:
- eating
- drinking
- more WIP

Cheers

 

VD & The Dude aka @chernaruski
 

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Sounds awesome guys!  Quarantine is a good time to make progress.

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Yo, how'd I miss this? Vandeanson, this mod's looking super sweet! It's got a ton of survival features I've been wanting in Arma for a while, plus dogs and AI camps. Really looking forward to trying this out when I get back into Arma 3!

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Great to hear from you dear @Vandeanson!

 

Amazing progress, your skills have grown faster than anyone I've seen so yours is surely a task of passion!

 

Remember that my multiplayer vDogs have been recently updated with the outstanding help of @johnnyboy and could fit your ULTIMATE SURVIVAL FRAMEWORK mod nicely if you ask me.

 

I am also close to releasing my own ULTIMATE FRAMEWORK but it is a scripts suite to fix and improve many aspects of Arma 3 Vanilla that most players complain about.

 

Anyway, looking forward to your release!

 

 

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On 5/13/2020 at 1:45 AM, LSValmont said:

Great to hear from you dear @Vandeanson!

 

Amazing progress, your skills have grown faster than anyone I've seen so yours is surely a task of passion!

 

Remember that my multiplayer vDogs have been recently updated with the outstanding help of @johnnyboy and could fit your ULTIMATE SURVIVAL FRAMEWORK mod nicely if you ask me.

 

I am also close to releasing my own ULTIMATE FRAMEWORK but it is a scripts suite to fix and improve many aspects of Arma 3 Vanilla that most players complain about.

 

Anyway, looking forward to your release!

 

 

hey mate i totally missed that post! awesome i will check out the updated vdogs tonight.

 

hit me up on discord, i d love to hear about your new framework!

 

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@everyone VA3.0 dev/testing and chill session discord-stream around 9pm cet tonight.

Looking into new or updated eating / drinking / scavenging / vehicle spawner / vehicle maintenance / medical system / hunting and other aspects of the new survival features of the alpha:)

https://discord.gg/SAFysz8

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1 hour ago, Vandeanson said:

@everyone VA3.0 dev/testing and chill session discord-stream around 9pm cet tonight.

Looking into new or updated eating / drinking / scavenging / vehicle spawner / vehicle maintenance / medical system / hunting and other aspects of the new survival features of the alpha:)

https://discord.gg/SAFysz8

 

I am in of course!

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@everyone VA 3.0 dev stream up in 20' - lets come up with neat crafting recipes, finalize the crafting system and fix the crap out of this pile of code we call VA!

 

https://youtu.be/FXepzkIXJrM

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@everyone going to stream some VA 3.0 dev tonight 9.30pm CET. new drinking sys, fixing eating sys and then probably chilled gameplay and testing!

 

link will follow

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A little delayed;) going live in 8'

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Devlog Stream # 6 tonight at 9.45 PM CET:

 

 

Let's make a survival mod for ArmA 3!

 

Episode #6  tech stuff:


Writing new basebuilding sys
Work on crafting sys
placeable persistent tents/crates with storage
bug find, bug fix, bug find...

 

Episode #6   gameplay:
lets find a nice hideout and create a cozy persistent camp using the above new scripts. 
SWEET HOME!

 

Join the VA community on DISCORD:
https://discord.gg/WZXzRNq

 

Subscribe to the old version of the VA mod on STEAM:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1655727065

 

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