haleks 8212 Posted March 14, 2020 A few screenshots from the latest test sessions : Spoiler I'm using an old underground vault composition as a test environment (it was originally designed for the F3llout project) - and these guys prove to be a lot of fun in there... It's really cool to see one casually walking out of (or into) a wall, and things can turn to hell very fast. I'm starting to think it's going to be the perfect setting for a MP mode, a little bit like GTFO! No pathfinding problems so far, the only downside with that idea would be the time it takes to create such complex compositions - but if I can come up with a labyrinth generation system (using preconfigured rooms and corridors), we could have a fun little thing to play with... Spoiler Especially with time limited objectives, pushing players to move fast in a place infested with enemies that are very sensitive to movement. I have more tests to run, but I have good hopes for the phantoms versatility as a foe - one that works in environments usually unfit for the regular AI (including good old zombies), like user-made compositions or "Metro" style terrains. Feature-wise I think the first modules are complete for now : Spoiler Technically I could release the mod right now I reckon, but for the life of me I can't make up my mind on the phantoms appearance... Transparent materials work pretty well, but they don't work consistently in Arma : phantoms are sometimes completely invisible when seen against specific objects (that includes vegetation clutter, annoying). On the other hand, opaque materials tend to look kinda bland under daylight, especially without fog, which doesn't feel right to me given the nature of those entities. I'm also half-tempted to work something out with that vault and include a small demo mission after all, depending on the time it's going to take. 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LykosMactire 298 Posted March 15, 2020 Had an interesting idea for makeshift weapon attachments. A civilian FLIR system (using thermal mode 7 for the full spectrum thermal) that is essentially taped to a mount to be a makeshift thermal sight to spot the phantoms 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haleks 8212 Posted March 16, 2020 A few more from the lab : Spoiler I'm in the process of building a first underground complex for an eventual demo, and keep testing the phantoms along... One bummer on the road so far : phantoms are unable to move in compositions that are too high above ground level. That was sort of expected though; I'm going to leave the phantoms as they are and resort to a one level complex for the demo - they do work pretty well except for that very specific limit. That being said, I will probably add proper "BTs" in a future update, if that's doable : phantoms that float above ground and wouldn't need any pathfinding call. Arma has all the animations I need for that, and scripting wise it's gonna be a fun challenge. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EO 11277 Posted April 8, 2020 Edit: Been playing over this little scenario for the last few days, man I love fighting off these guys but their a little to brutal straight out the gate (Damage was unchecked for my squad for video presentation)....a Damage Output setting similar to the Zed module would be a welcome addition. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haleks 8212 Posted April 30, 2020 Hey folks! Some news about the mod : it's still not done. As stated earlier in this thread, I'm eager to release the thing; but as I keep testing and tweaking them, I find the phantoms to be rather underwhelming in their current state... They do work pretty well as far as functionality goes, but immersion-wise it just doesn't click yet for me : their animation set doesn't suit the intended atmosphere, and I think there is work to be done still on the VFX side of things. Now, that last part I'm going to put aside for later (because, gah! particles effects are a pain in the ass); but I've made a bit of progress on the animations. They no longer run around like glorified frantic zombies, they now float around. Just like the BTs from Death Stranding. Thankfully, I think the code is going to be quick & easy to adapt, although their attack sequence might need a do-over. Right now I have a pretty solid proof-concept; but before I go further that way, I'm going to test a few things regarding pathfinding : I really want them guys to overcome the limits regular units have to deal with, and the new script approach I'm using for the animations should lend itself perfectly for the task. Ideally, the "pathfinding" will boil down to a very basic script - there won't even be any "move" command whatsoever, and no need to rely on navigation meshes. In other words, they would float or pass through anything; any place only a player could get to in normal circumstances could be haunted... In any case, whether or not you're familiar with the Patreon previews, I reckon the next iteration will prove to be worth waiting for! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haleks 8212 Posted May 1, 2020 All right, I spent a fair amount of time on this today, and I think I have a good idea on what's feasible with the new approach... So the basic trick behind these floating phantoms is to attach them to something, allowing them to play animations that would normally prevent them from moving. In the current stable version, I use a dummy unit, which works quite well so far, but still limits phantoms to the usual path-finding constraints. I tested a few things to go beyond that, but I've had mixed results with the 2 most promising attempts... - The first one is to have the dummy unit move to its destination at ground level, while constantly adjusting the phantom's altitude with attachTo to match the desired destination. Altitude is the biggest problem, even with commands that ignore obstacles, so simply ignoring it for the dummy's path-finding does the trick. Phantoms can reach any location with that : the top of a player made tower, the summit of a rock formation etc... - The second one would be to attach the phantom to a non physX object, and then move that object around. In this case, we bypass the path-finding process entirely with a simple (well, I wish) script. Problem, in both cases, the phantom's animation is affected and becomes jerky... I sort of expected this outcome with the first method, but I cannot fathom why using a non physX object as an anchor would cause that. I'm going to stick to the dummy unit method, but the phantoms probably won't work too well in complex structures/compositions or unorthodox terrains (metro style). Still, they have less constraints than most unit types (including zombies). I'm going to fine-tune the current system, and most likely produce other SFX (I'm already tired with the current ones), and I think this baby will finally be ready. Even though I had to reevaluate my expectations, it's been a productive day : I now have a solid bearing on how far I'll go with the phantoms, and I can start making more solid plans for the future phases. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haleks 8212 Posted May 2, 2020 That's about the best workaround I can think of for now : 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EO 11277 Posted May 2, 2020 That screenshot makes me feel quite giddy with delight. Very nice work mate! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haleks 8212 Posted May 5, 2020 Hi people! I've uploaded a new preview on Patreon with most of the latest changes. It's already a bit outdated compared to the current dev build, but it includes a WIP script related to path-finding : On 5/1/2020 at 10:28 PM, haleks said: I tested a few things to go beyond that, but I've had mixed results with the 2 most promising attempts... - The first one is to have the dummy unit move to its destination at ground level, while constantly adjusting the phantom's altitude with attachTo to match the desired destination. Altitude is the biggest problem, even with commands that ignore obstacles, so simply ignoring it for the dummy's path-finding does the trick. Phantoms can reach any location with that : the top of a player made tower, the summit of a rock formation etc... As mentioned earlier, constantly updating the phantom's altitude messes up its animations; but right now this is the most solid approach I can think about to have the AI that "works everywhere". It's becoming an obsession; but AI & pathfinding are the most severely limiting factors when it comes to mission/level design, and I really want to provide a foe able to overcome that. Still, that approach works best as far as I can tell, the only issue is a graphical/immersion one... I think I'm gonna stick to it, and resort to a cheap trick : rather than constantly updating the phantom's altitude in a very short loop (causing its animations to become jerky), I will "teleport" him (with fancy VFX that aren't done yet) on a looser schedule. It is less demanding performance-wise and I think it's gonna avoid many headaches. Also, I think I've finally made up my mind on their final appearance, material, texture etc... 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EO 11277 Posted May 7, 2020 (edited) I like the sound of "teleporting" Phantoms. ^^ A few observations from yesterday: Phantoms cast a shadow, I know it's impossible to disable shadows without modifying the models themselves which is obviously forbidden but a shadowless Phantom would be cool. If your prone and there are Phantoms directly above you can't roll way from them, it's like there's an invisible barrier from where their floating right down to the ground. It looks like Phantoms can be caught in the crossfire of another Phantoms attack, or it could be when a Phantom is vaporized, the vaporization can cause damage to other Phantoms, either way it's pretty cool. (you can usually see this during the player death scene....which I see quite a lot with these guys!) I absolutely love sneaking in and around Phantoms when their floating, you've pretty much nailed a Death Stranding experience within the Arma engine. Edited May 7, 2020 by EO added another observation 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haleks 8212 Posted May 8, 2020 13 hours ago, EO said: If your prone and there are Phantoms directly above you can't roll way from them, it's like there's an invisible barrier from where their floating right down to the ground. It looks like Phantoms can be caught in the crossfire of another Phantoms attack, or it could be when a Phantom is vaporized, the vaporization can cause damage to other Phantoms, either way it's pretty cool. (you can usually see this during the player death scene....which I see quite a lot with these guys!) Thanks for spotting the invisible barrier! Should've seen that coming : even though the dummy unit "piloting" the phantom has an empty 3D model, collision shapes in Arma are tied to animations (annoying as hell IMO) - and those dummies use the standard cfgMoves... Good thing I kept a copy of the previous running animations for phantoms; all it took to fix that was to disable collisions on them and force the dummy units to use that animation set. 😉 As for phantoms "vaporizing" each others (or themselves, actually), it is sort-of-but-not-really semi-intended... For some reason I don't get, handleDamage event handlers tend to fail for explosion type damages (which is what the phantom's "surge" boils down to); even the most simple override doesn't work - I am completely mystified by this... The result is that surges eventually end up causing the phantom's death; I didn't dig further into the issue though, I kinda like the idea of phantoms having limited life expectancy once they're active, especially since they are powerful foes. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EO 11277 Posted May 8, 2020 5 hours ago, haleks said: I kinda like the idea of phantoms having limited life expectancy once they're active, especially since they are powerful foes. Yeah man, I personally didn't see this as a bug, more a cool side feature from their "surge" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haleks 8212 Posted May 9, 2020 I think I got the teleportation thing pretty much done... And it doesn't look too bad either : Spoiler It's not really teleportation as I first planned by the way; more like a special state they use to adjust their altitude : it takes a few seconds, during which they're invulnerable but also unable to attack. I've also created a few more sounds for the phantoms and refined their particle effects, plus I don't know how many tweaks. The past few days have been very productive, and I'm confident enough to say that we have a new fun and interesting foe that, finally, goes a tad further than the zombie concept! \o/ The final result is beyond my initial expectations, actually; these guys are now very similar to the BTs from Death Stranding - something I would've deemed unfeasible a couple months ago. The only things they're missing are the visual and audio FX usually produced by BT's footsteps, and the "sink you into the ground" thing... That last bit is out of scope, but the weird footsteps FX could make a good addition... Anyway, although "phantoms 2.0" has delayed things a bit, the release is getting closer and closer... 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LykosMactire 298 Posted May 9, 2020 next thing you know you are going to be making wildlife mods like the sharks. Or that one arma 2 mod with the aligators. Though everything looks great so far keep up the work! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haleks 8212 Posted July 12, 2020 Finally working on the first showcase mission : Hi guys! After a few weeks hiatus, I've resumed work on MyST : all the particle effects are now done and pretty much final. At last! \o/ That stuff is really not my cup of tea, but the results are worth the efforts; I'm especially happy with the new foot steps effects : phantoms now produce that spooky splashy noise Death Stranding players are familiar with while they move around, along with the weird splash VFX. Seeing that black mud bursting out of the ground while something invisible growls right next to you is pretty cool. It also adds more tension whenever the player is being chased by one of them, something that was a bit lacking in the Patreon demos. The first showcase is also taking shape; although I had plans for an underground environment, it will take place on a classic terrain : phantoms in their current state do work best in open spaces (they are largely inspired by DS after all), and setting up a large complex composition is just too time-consuming for now. No ETA still on the first release, but essentially all that's left to be done is the showcase mission, which I intend to make short and sweet, a bit like Ghost Hunters in Ravage, although less action-packed and more tense... 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EO 11277 Posted July 12, 2020 Ooh, that footstep feature is sounding really cool, looking forward to that indeedy! This post makes me happy outwith of the post itself! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haleks 8212 Posted September 7, 2020 Hello people! MyST Concept #6 : Final Stage is up on Patreon! RL problems have slowed things a bit these past few months, but I didn't stay idle either... As usual, this is a "tools only" preview, no playable content. Work on the showcase mission is continuing, with more changes being made to the modules as I stumble upon potential limits while doing so. As indicated by the preview title, we're very much in the final stages before release : from this point, a few parameters might be added or tweaked, but the overall design is pretty much set in stone, as well as everything pertaining to Phantoms appearance and behaviour. Well, I might squeeze in one last behavioural change to the Phantoms (namely, an "investigative" state to transition between their "idle" and "chase" states, something that is lacking for pretty much all "zombie like" AI so far in Arma), but depending on the feasibility, I might as well keep it for later, after the release... In any case, I reckon patrons will be pleased with the updates to both Phantoms and module parameters. One of the new options is called DOOMS, by the way (and required me to rewrite some significant portions of the code, so lemme know of any problems)... 😉 3 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EO 11277 Posted September 9, 2020 Very impressive work, both Phantoms and module params are maturing nicely, they sound amazing! An investigative state would definitely be a welcome feature, currently once they lock onto you...well, it's curtains. One thing to note so far: this error popping up if you place the spawner module on it's own, it goes away when you place down a settings module. Nice to see you back at it man, all the best! 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haleks 8212 Posted September 20, 2020 All right, I think the investigative state is done and ready! It's not a separate state per say, rather a gradual transition between the "idle" and "chase" states : from the player's point of view (and depending on the Settings Module params), it is now quite difficult to tell if a phantom has actually locked onto its target. It might become visible, start getting closer etc, and wander around a bit if the player stops moving soon enough. That forces the player to take a risky decision based on careful observation : do I play possum at the risk of letting them closing in, or is it time to run or fight? It's not pure luck either, there are a few subtle things to watch for in order to know if a phantom actually spotted a target - but I'll let you guys find out by yourselves. 😉 It does make for a big improvement, the hide-and-seek part being much more visceral. The cool thing is that the code remains similar in its approach to the zombie AI from Ravage, so it should be fairly easy to add that feature in Ravage 2.0 and get more convincing zombies, ones that behave a bit like the infected from Days Gone. Now the last stretch : to finish that showcase mission, and find a definitive name for the mod (there's an actual Myst remake coming out pretty soon...). 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EO 11277 Posted September 20, 2020 3 hours ago, haleks said: . All cool things come to those who wait... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haleks 8212 Posted September 29, 2020 Hey guys! Does anyone know if the music tracks from Contact have been added to the base platform? I wanna make sure the demo mission is available to everyone. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EO 11277 Posted September 29, 2020 I'd say yes, the tracks are available to use via Trigger-Effects, just checked running the base game with no mods or optional DLC, I also just asked on Discord and it's been confirmed their too. 😉 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haleks 8212 Posted September 29, 2020 Thanks buddy, that's good news! There's some really cool stuff in those tracks... 😉 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haleks 8212 Posted October 3, 2020 Hello folks! Today is the day, at last! Remnant, previously known as the MyST Project, is now available on Steam Workshop! \o/ This first release includes a short demo mission, as well as two modules : the Phantom Spawner module, and the Phantom Settings module. The OP will be updated soon with detailed informations about the modules, as well as an uncompressed version of the demo mission for the curious chaps. I want to thank everyone who supported me during development : this has been a long journey since the early prototypes, and it wouldn't have been possible without you guys. I hope you'll enjoy this first release! A note to mission makers : although the mod hasn't been tested in MP yet, the code is designed to work in both SP & MP; so let me know if you encounter any kind of issue in your own missions. Remnant v0.1 can be downloaded here : Enjoy everyone, this is only the beginning! 9 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
