Ravage

[haleks 8212]

8 hours ago, corporal_lib[br] said:

all Zeds are Runners or was I unlucky? Lol (are we going to have the "default, slow "Romero´s" zombie?)

 

All zeds are runners for now : having no custom animations, them running looked more natural than walking. That will change once we have proper animations, but I don't know how long it's gonna take - so far it looks like it's going to be one of the more challenging aspects to mod.

As for something like Derelict, I need to take a deeper look a the building damage system, but I don't think it will be as easy as swapping textures this time... ^^'

[survival01 0]

hi i would like to know if you are going to install the npc bandit like in the other ravage arma 3?:)

 

[haleks 8212]

11 minutes ago, survival01 said:

hi i would like to know if you are going to install the npc bandit like in the other ravage arma 3?:)

 

 

Hello, and welcome !

Yes, bandits/survivors will make a come back, although I'm not sure how I'm going to handle their loadouts yet : with the lack of civilian assets, and the complexity of the new systems, it will probably not be as modular as before.

In any case, the focus right now is on creating dynamic spawn systems, first for zeds, and then for human NPCs along with a random loadout system.

 

But I've no ETA on that; that's mostly scripting, and Enforce is a lot more difficult to work with than SQF. 😕 

[haleks 8212]

Hey guys,

 

Tiny update : infected AI is now compatible with waypoints! Should make things more interesting for game masters and mission makers. 😉 

Waypoint handling is vanilla, so infected should behave as expected with any type of waypoint (move, defend, cycle etc). This patch also improves behavior of infected as groups : "team members" now stay and move together (albeit in a rather chaotic manner).

 

A couple of things to keep in mind though :

* Infected move slowly and erratically in their idle state; they do take their sweet time to reach a waypoint at the moment.

* Infected AI pathfinding doesn't use any navmesh at the moment. The vanilla ones conflict with their behavior (it's probably related to them not being able to open doors or perform similar actions); infected will most likely require more micro-management from mission makers as a result.

[EO 11277]

Nice update mate, thanks! It's satisfyingly terrifying to see infected chase and climb a wall to get to you, so cool. Seems they react to flashlights being turned on too which is cool, I switched mine on and instantly regretted it.😅   

[EO 11277]

FYI....although not evident in this picture, but the zombie in front of me continued to visually bleed out like a geyser after being killed.  

[LtMax 0]

..thanks for your good work...but after the update..doesn't work....Error: lack of files.doesn't start more than one mode...you have to delete your mod.it's on xbox...ranch worked...you can use the old version return for xbox ????

[haleks 8212]

17 hours ago, LtMax said:

..thanks for your good work...but after the update..doesn't work....Error: lack of files.doesn't start more than one mode...you have to delete your mod.it's on xbox...ranch worked...you can use the old version return for xbox ????

 

I think there is an issue with mod containing custom missions on xbox at the moment.

Could you share a screenshot of the error, and maybe check if you can play missions from other mods (I suggest loading one mod at a time to test this) ?

[LtMax 0]

5 hours ago, haleks said:

 

I think there is an issue with mod containing custom missions on xbox at the moment.

Could you share a screenshot of the error, and maybe check if you can play missions from other mods (I suggest loading one mod at a time to test this) ?

🤦‍♂️. ...deleted all the mods..installed the game again and ravage..sonflict with the mod..like with the live mod.or capturing the flag..revaluation something.a couple of mods worked like the main script on ai not to download will break everything.... once again I will say thank you for your hard work.👍👍👍👍👍..I look forward to it...survival elements...if it will be possible to launch on xbox...🤞

[haleks 8212]

Hello chaps,

 

Ravage has been updated to version 1.0.2. 🙂 

* Climbing detection for the infected has been vastly improved : they are much more agile and reactive to obstacles, and no longer jump randomly around.

* Their sprinting speed has been slightly reduced to balance their improved agility.

 

With the improved climbing method, infected should be more capable to home in on their target despite the fact they don't really use any pathfinding method (vanilla navmeshes conflict with their behavior). Keep in mind : climbing detection only happens if the infected have a target, they won't attempt to climb obstacles in their idle state, and remain easily blocked when trying to reach waypoints. I might extend the new climbing detection to their idle state, but I need to make sure it won't impact performances too much.

 

Enjoy !

 

[corporal_lib[br] 396]

Awesome update, haleks! One image tells it all
The screech of a zombie climbing up a wall behind me is either spooky as hell and priceless! Reforger/A4 Ravage will be uncanny!

Cheers!

Edit: those extra HUD elements are from stamina bar mod and Overthrow - Bloodshed adds extra goryness to Ravage too 😃

[witchking-0532138bc6bf6b0b 4]

Halek's I have not been too crazy about reforger so far, but I just tested out your demo and I got to say I am now very excited for what you have in the future. I spent probably hundreds of hours on Arma 3 making and playing ravage scenarios and I really think Reforger and Arma 4 will take it to the next level. Thx for all the great work so far!

[ViktorP 1]

On 6/17/2022 at 8:19 PM, haleks said:

 

I don't think a BT approach would fit the situation - we would have to constantly monitor a very specific action, and in any case, some amount of coding would still be required.

A more straightforward and efficient solution would be to override the component attached to door actions (that would be the SCR_DoorUserAction.c file in scripts/Game/UserActions/). From there you have access to detailed information, like how wide open is it or who is opening it. Then you can just plug in your own code to force nearby entities to look at it - and that would work every time a door is opened, be it by players or NPCs.

In fact there is prepared DangerEven exactly for this. I'm not sure how you handle danger reactions. What normal soldiers do is SCR_AIDangerReaction_DoorMovement.
I'm not sure what you are using. From trees here it doesn't seem you are using Utility component. Processing of danger events is done there trough ThreatSystem. So you can write some minimalisitc danger processing even here in your BT and create your own reactions to different things if you wish.

But anyway it's nice to see some real AI mod :]

[haleks 8212]

3 hours ago, ViktorP said:

In fact there is prepared DangerEven exactly for this. I'm not sure how you handle danger reactions. What normal soldiers do is SCR_AIDangerReaction_DoorMovement.
I'm not sure what you are using. From trees here it doesn't seem you are using Utility component. Processing of danger events is done there trough ThreatSystem. So you can write some minimalisitc danger processing even here in your BT and create your own reactions to different things if you wish.

But anyway it's nice to see some real AI mod :]

 

Just to be clear, I haven't written anything about door opening (yet) - I was merely suggesting a solution (not knowing the devs had thought about it already). 😉 

Right now the zed AI doesn't use much modifications outside of BTs - they use a couple utilities for climbing as well as a dummy danger reaction to have them react to gunshots (can't remember why exactly, but I had trouble with the vanilla component).

[haleks 8212]

Hello guys,

 

Just letting you know that I've set up a small discord server for Ravage.

If you want discuss the mod, offer suggestions or are willing to contribute, hop in : https://discord.gg/TA2gzNPx9X

Although it has channels for both Reforger and Arma3, this server is really meant to discuss future iterations of Ravage.

 

The set-up is minimal for now, but expect more channels to come up, especially in the dev area : right now I'm looking for talents in texturing and/or 3d modelling. 😉 

If you're interested, lemme know on Discord so I can add you to the dev discussion channel.

 

Regarding the next patch, it should come with optimisations for the climbing feature, plus a dynamic spawn system : it can be used as a static spawn system (infected spawning at a fixed location), or as an ambient spawner, with infected spawning around players present in the trigger area. One simple tool to fit any kind of scenario, hopefully. 🙂 

[EO 11277]

Cool to see your work being highlighted in the recent Community Radar. 

 

[haleks 8212]

49 minutes ago, EO said:

Cool to see your work being highlighted in the recent Community Radar. 

 

 

Indeed, and right next to yet another great pic by you buddy. 😉 

[haleks 8212]

Spawn Settings Bonanza ! 

 

 

 

Each trigger has its own manager, any number of them can be used to control infected population with their own parameters.

Should be fun to toy with. 🙂 

[EO 11277]

Noice!! 

[haleks 8212]

Well, it's been a busy - and productive - weekend... \o/

 

The spawn system is almost ready; it's difficult to compare with Arma 3 since the games are completely different in their design, but I think it's safe to say that mission makers will have unprecedented control on infected spawning with Reforger/Arma 4. There's just one thing that may need reflection... Right now each trigger spawns its zombies in one single group : if you have 2 triggers set to spawn 50 zeds each, you end up with 2 groups of 50 zeds. Nice if you don't want to clutter the GM UI with hundreds of individual groups, but I'm thinking mission makers may want that to be optional, since it has consequences on their wandering behaviour (zombies do follow their "leader"). Not sure what the best solution is, but that's one final thing to solve before calling it release-ready I reckon.

 

I'm also redoing the BTs completely. While negligible on modern rigs, the infected AI has an impact on framerate - one I want to alleviate before experimenting further. Infected probably won't feel different ingame, but the overhaul should give us enough leeway to spawn more of them without tanking FPS. BTs will be more segmented to avoid redundant tasks and be easier to tweak in the future - incidentally, the overall structure will be more similar to what BI does for the vanilla AI. The AI we have right now was made with a "just make it work" state of mind, the next version should be closer to a solid and sane base to expand upon. 😉 

[haleks 8212]

Tiny SITREP fellas :

 

I was planning on updating sometime this week, but it appears the spawn system needs more work...

While somewhat functional, the first iteration was maybe too ambitious and revealed a couple performance problems that needed solving.

 

Rather than trying to make "one tool for anything", I'm going to focus on "static" spawning first (spawning zombies in a defined location), and later on introduce "dynamic" spawning (zombies spawning around multiple players rather than around a fixed location). Things will be much clearer for mission makers, and also easier to test & develop. I've already eliminated several issues, like micro-freezes when spawning large groups of entities (that was one big pain in the ass in Arma 3, shouldn't be a problem anymore in Reforger), so things are looking a lot better for the dynamic method.

 

I've also finalized the new BT structure; neatly organized, and much easier to monitor and debug. Overall, framerate seems to be more stable : redundancy and excessive parallelism in the BT nodes were causing framerate drops (maybe more noticeable on older computers). Those drops are pretty much gone in basic testing environments, including when all infected are entering the more demanding "rage mode" (when they are chasing and attacking). I've also added a safe-check for melee : it is very demanding, and zombies were using it too liberally, eventually tanking the framerate. I suspect most of the down-voting stems from that very issue, but since users can't comment on workshop items, I'm just guessing, really. 😕 

 

So right now, the plan is to finish static spawning, and update the demo mission to offer some modicum or replayability. After that, dynamic spawning should be a good occasion to showcase the mod with a new scenario. 🙂 

[EO 11277]

Someone's watching....

[haleks 8212]

Hello people,

 

Just letting you know that a fix for the infected will be available this week-end - you may have noticed they've become quite reluctant to chase their target since the last update to Reforger. 👀

The fix will arrive with the new BT (finally!), which should solve a few minor issues; not sure if the new spawn system will be in though.

[haleks 8212]

Ravage v1.0.3 is out !

 

• infected audio tweaks
• improved melee handling
• infected BT overhaul

This is a hotfix update; I'm not 100% satisfied with the new behavior trees yet, but since the game updates broke their movement I decided to push it as it is. There're still remnant errors to fix (variables that don't exist anymore, mostly), but all should work now.

[haleks 8212]

Hello people,

 

Following the latest game update, here comes another hotfix ! 😄

Ravage v1.0.4 :

• fixed infected audio using an obsolete 'amplitude' config
• fixed invalid keywords in the 'linger' BT

 

This should fix any error caused by obsolete entries from the recent updates to Reforger; note that the infected audio needs some balancing to work with the new amplitude configs (they are a bit loud at the moment) - I will take time to fine-tune that next week. 😉 

Some advice if you have difficulties updating the mod (apparently it's a bit broken across the board) : delete Ravage, restart the game and download it again.

 

Have fun fellas !