ZOS/Zombie Outbreak Simulation

[Trapper 0]

Final V1.0 Release

After two alpha and two beta versions, the time has come.

Get the mission at OFPEC

(37MB required addons)

The Operation Flashpoint Mission-Database reviewed and mirrors the mission:

English review

German review

The mission is now also mirrored by Fansn's OFP Mission Database.

In front of the rescue center...

EDIT 06/29/2008:

As all mirrors above aren't hosting the required addons themselves and it has become more and more difficult to find them on the web, I've uploaded the complete ZOS package as a .7z (37MB) at Filefront.

[honchoblack 2]

zombies are not my cup of tea, but your mission does sound interesting to test something new to me

but dont expect feedback to soon, since I am rather short at time at the moment

[Trapper 0]

@honchoblack

I appreciate that, as this mission was also inspired by Dynamic Afghanistan. One big difference is, that instead of many random tasks, it covers one big task that plays out random.

[D.murphy man 0]

Wow sounds cool ill get testing it some time soon and give you feed back. Also if you want i have a script that can make the zombies 'grab' you. In other words when i zombie comes close theres a random chance it will grab you. once it dose a message appears informing you that you been grabed and the player plays the rifle but animation (meaning he cant move) then theres a random chance that you either fought of the zombie or hes eaten you, whiles thats happening it gives the chance for other zombies come in and eat you.

Makes them a lot harder, im useing it in one of my latest missions. Although im not sure how it could be implemented to work for the 'resurected' zombies.

EDIT:

Ah damn i cant download the mission from rapidshare any chance you could send it to me or get a mirror some where else?

[Trapper 0]

Added a mirror to the first post.

@D.murphy man

I'm not sure how this grab would change the mission.

I've based the whole mission around "stay at home" civilians, so the zombies have a chance to find and kill them. How you described the script, I think there is still the need for close distance. But civilians and zombies running across a whole island at the same speed would reduce chances for that extremely.

It's all about simulating how civilians stand no chance over time, within OFP limits and the most possible visualisation:

The civilians wait at villages and fight back the zombies as long as possible with their few random weapons.

If I would give them the ability to run far away, or to the rescue center on their own, no zombie with grap script would have a big chance to grab them. And how would the player find them?

Zombies are extremely dangerous for now, with 2 hits to kill a healthy human. I think this has equal results for (not) surviving attacks.

If I would reduce the damage, for using the grab script, would it take them longer, until they kill 10 not moving civilians one after another? Unfortunatly that would slowdown the "disease spread" and effect the balance.

Maybe you can tell me more about these thoughts after you played the mission with your grap script in mind.

[D.murphy man 0]

well i wasnt really thinking to apply the grab stcript to the civilians but to the player + sqaud members, since the player would be moving around alot and with the current zombies its very easy for a player to avoid them by just simply running past them amd such. Although of course i havnt played the mission yet, and from what it looks like the player will be doing a lot of defending, which means a lot of staying in the same place so maybe there isint a need for such a script after all.

Edit:

Ok just played it for a few minutes, so far it seems pretty good mission althou the convoy full of people got stuck at the town just before the rescue center. Also i kept finding zombies just standing there doing nuthing, then again i supose theres nothing that can be done about that, but apart from these things its a pretty enjoyble mission. Ill test it a bit more indepth later when i got some free time.

[Trapper 0]

Choose open areas, like the ones marked in this image for best evac results...

http://img204.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dxdshot11229095615bw.jpg

(The evaczone selected on the screenshot always worked fine for me at San Alto)

I hope this image will help everybody with ai evacs that get stuck.

The evac script is very detailed, and I'm 99% sure the ai is able to handle evacs in areas like this. Optimal is to have enough space for two HMMWVs turning around when returning to base. Even space for 1 1/2 should be ok. (The second is scripted to hold until the first found its way back)

Also make sure you won't block the evaczone with your men or cars.

If it is still getting stucked, you can always choose a better evaczone after reloading the automatic savegame.

Yes, the whole zombie addon seems to be heavily influenced by overall performance. The slower the missions runs on your PC, the slower the zombie addon gets.

The many targets zombies have to choose from, make them stand around for minutes sometimes. (I've already reduced the targets. Before that it seemed like they wouldn't move for hours.)

Also the resurrection time seems to increase if the overall performance decreases.

I think there will be times, the player will be thankfull for these "bugs"...

One thing I forgot:

As increasing gametime can cause strange things in big missions, better don't use it. - Even if I couldn't find any problems caused by it right now.

[D.murphy man 0]

ah sorry about not making my self clear enough, i didnt mean the trucks got stuck whiles picking up the civilians but they got stuck in that town just just before the rescue center after they where coming from another town up north After they pick up the civilians. They evact the civilians sucessfully from the town and where driving along fine. then after a long while i began wounder where the hell they where so since i didnt get a message that they had reach the base. So i drove towards the rescue center and there they where. just stoped not moving at all in the middle of the road in the small town down the road from the rescue center.

And also i had very good performance on this mission. i didnt notice any frame rate drops at all

[Trapper 0]

And also i had very good performance on this mission. i didnt notice any frame rate drops at all

I'm happy to hear that.

That they just stopped somewhere, is a bug.

If it happens again you can first try to "rearrange" them with your own HMMWVs before you reload. (The evac HMMWVs wont take any damage, as they are in "godmode")

Do you remember, if all four ai soldiers were sitting inside the evac HMMWVs?

[D.murphy man 0]

Yes they all of them where

[Trapper 0]

'New known bugs' section added to first post.

I have no clue about the evac interruptions. Now it happened to me also one time in the mission and I had to load the savegame to continue.

At least it happened near grid HA61 for me. If they happen close to grid HA61 or GA60, this is an old bug. Thought I fixed it completely long ago. But the area D.murphy man reported won't cause this bug.

Finished my mission the first time alive...

Time: 2h 56min

Rescued: 97/164 civilians

(Maximum is 164 not 175 as long as the Tormes evac is bugged)

I was a wimp and concealed dead zombies all the time

[maxwellmurder680 0]

so what weapons and vehicles are available for the mission?

furthermore Id like to see a zombie survival mission where food is required. but thats off topic and im drunk. sorry.

[Trapper 0]

Player controlled force:

Quote[/b] ]Player + 1 Riflesquad (1+9men)

Equipment:

1x Binoculars

1x NV Goggles

10x M9 (Beretta) - you have to add them yourself to ai soldiers

6x M16

2x M16/M203

2x M60

Handgrenades

Vehicles:

2x HMMWVs armed with M240 machineguns

Unlimited ammo, but only at the rescue center.

(Opposing Force starts with only 12 zombies. Sounds easy, doesn't it?)

This mission is not a real survival mission.

It's more a strategic mission of evacuating the last civilians on an island, in a world of the living dead.

Maybe thats make it also intresting for people who say that zombies are no real threat for modern armys.

One infantry platoon makes no army, but resources are needed worldwide in this scenario and you are deployed on an unimportant island (isolated area).

The generals were sure one platoon is enough for this rescue center deployment.

Right now there is enough food. It is the first night after the zombie outbreak and the mission covers the hours of evacuation only.

A group of civilians at Belnuevo Hospital

[Trapper 0]

I would need some more female zombie moans for a less repeating sound scenery.

Any ideas where to find them? (only sound files please.)

The ones of zombiesfx addon are already in use.

[bunkerslusken 1]

I just tried your mission out, and I think it was really well made.

After the first few evacuations gone successfully, I got to one of the towns full of zombies I got a little closer to make sure if they were really zombies or not, and boy was I sorry! I thought, what the heck we've got two HMMWVs with M240 GPMGs on top of them, and they got what, their hands and teeth? So I got a little too cocky, and when I at last got out of the godforsaken town, I had lost three men, had two wounded, and one of my HMMWvs was a mess. I found out to my greatest relief, that it was possible to rearm, heal, and repair back at the base. Very well thought out.

I think it's really cool the way the zombies attack, first just a few, and then a few more, and then about a dozen, and after a while there are masses of them constantly attacking your civilians. And once the virus gets to them, it's almost impossible to stop it from spreading. I found out after a while that you can stop the zombies from resurrecting by Hiding their bodies. At first I thought it was kind of a bug, but then I thought, maybe it's like "Inject the antidote", or "Remove head", or "Jam a pole through body", or something like that, so I could live with it. Makes the mission a bit too easy though...

It takes quite a while for the evacuation trucks to get to their designated evac zones. It is bearable at the beginning, but the towns on the other side of the island is really a pain to hold for all the time it takes for them to get there. Maybe you could make two teams that can be called upon simultaneously, to save some time. At the end I had my squad spread out over four locations, and all I could do was stand by and watch as two of them got overrun while I was waiting for the first transport.

Overall a good mission with great potential, I will certainly play this again!

Edit: Oh yeah, I almost forgot; you should add some music to the mission. Makes for great atmosphere.

[Trapper 0]

Man, thats a good story.

Thanks for the feedback.

Did you know that every spread is started at random?

Just 12 Zombies somewhere on the island and the ai scripted by Scott Tunstall.

It should play out different every time.

Hiding the bodies comes with the nbc unit addon. Even I discovered it only a few days ago. I don't really know what to do about it, as more than a months work was done without thinking about that option.

In someway its realistic. As far as i know the Romero zombies can be killed by fire or destroying/removing the brain/head.

I still lost 1/3 of the island population when playing it safe with hiding every zombie I could.

And if this "feature" wouldnt be there, someone else would tell me "What about headshots or fire? I wan't the possibility to clear the island if I'm good enough!"

One good thing: It's the players decision if he wants a more easy game.

btw: The Farmland NBC units can hide bodies first of all for stopping zombie resurrection.

Best imagine you have to walk close up to a zombie for a well placed headshot whenever you "hide" on.

The evacuation is one of the most complicated scripts. At the moment it's keeping one or two medium bugs.

One more convoy will at least double the bugs, but I will see, maybe...

I know, the last hour of my first survived game (3h overall with "hiding") was a bit boring. Only waiting for evacs and just two last zombie sighted.

But it really adds to those "low on everything" and "maybe i've got to sacrifice those village(s)" feelings, doesn't it?

Also its a good balance weight, as the unexpected hide-option makes the mission easier.

If you're surprised about the exploding HMMWV:

I would like to have them overthrow vehicles in a realistic manner, but for now they just destroy them after 200 bites to simulate that.

A final release will only come with big briefing, intro and outro.

Maybe I put in a switchable backgroundmusic. Cause I don't like playing ofp with music.

[Trapper 0]

Progress:

I've already fixed/added many things for the next release, but not all. Most significant are some changes to the zombie targeting and more equal random zombiestartpositions.

The next version will be harder I think. Everytime I start the mission to edit something, I hear more gunshots in the beginning than in 1st alpha.

D.murphy man, or anyone else who got it: Can you send me this grab script please? I want to know if there's a place for it in the mission.

EDIT: Ok, I've got the script. Thx.

Also I need a little help how to call an action in english. At the moment it's named [ Repair HMMWV Scanty ]. I think thats not right.

What the action does:

If a HMMWV can't move anymore, you are able to repair it on-side. But very scanty as there are no mechanics in your squad. It will only drive again, heavily damaged, so refiting at the base is recommended afterwards.

I don't want tires mentioned, as the action is more like an overall "hotfix" or something.

EDIT: And I'm still looking for female zombie moans.

[D.murphy man 0]

Hm i think the best way to put that in english in the action would be: "Quik Repair HMMWV" or "make make-shift reapairs on HMMWV" or "repair HMMWV on site" hmm cant really think straight at the moment.

[redwolf603 0]

I figure the best way to say it quickly is "Jury-Rig HMMVW Repair"

But thats just my opinion

[Trapper 0]

[ Jury-Rig HMMWV Repair ] made it into the mission.

Sounds very specialistic.

The !COMBAT HMMWV Addon gives me the possibility to select the following textures for the cars:

Division markings

none, 2481i, 1a3cav5, 247cav, 1a16i, 3i221, 1i22i, 1a14ada

Vehicle numbers

a11, a12, a13, a14, a21, a22, a23, a24, a31, a32, a33, a34

b11, b12, b13, b14, b21, b22, b23, b24, b31, b32, b33, b34

c11, c12, c13, c14, c21, c22, c23, c24, c31, c32, c33, c34

d11, d12, d13, d14, d21, d22, d23, d24, d31, d32, d33, d34

Any military advisors around who can tell me which one would fit into the mission?

(Between 4 and 6 HMMWVs + 2 Trucks are deployed with this National Guard platoon. If the vehicle count is too high, imagine some HMMWVs are borrowed from other units.)

EDIT:

Worst case scenario:

Screenshot taken while editing the mission.

After an one hour stresstest, without evacuation efforts, and killing only a few zombies.

That are not all of the 155 Zombies in front of me I guess, but already 2fps.

And it should be 182 alive zombies...

I hope my new changes to the zombiescripts.pbo will track every dead zombie, so automatic deletions by OFP itself wont effect the total count.

[Trapper 0]

I have a short but difficult question on sound editing.

Anyone who knows more about it than just recording and applying default filters/disortion send me a PM please!

I'm still searching for female zombie moans...

(But it looks like they can't be found anywhere)

Some good news:

Inspired by D.murphy mans grab script, I was able to add automated melee fights for the next release.

(Selected) Humans have to fight zombies off if they are longer than 1sec close (2.2m) to a zombie.

Zombies will attack as always, but they are more dangerous because the human is caught in the animations.

If the human carries a rifle, he has a chance of 75% to kill the zombie. If he fails only little damage (33x to kill) is added to the zombie.

Without a rifle the human will punch the zombie and only add the little damage amount.

In other words: Beeing grabed without a rifle is beeing grabed with almost no chance to kill the zombie.

The script gives the player the possiblity to melee-attack any zombie just standing around, too. He just has to get close enough and he will stroke/punch the zombie automaticly.

[Trapper 0]

2nd alpha released...

Updated first post.

Zombies...

[NeMeSiS 11]

sounds interesting, downloading now

[Trapper 0]

Finaly somenone noticed the 2nd alpha version release!

I'm tensed for feedback on it.

[NeMeSiS 11]

heh, its very cool, ran ok on my system (+-15fps) and while saving some guys i suddenly got a great idea! COOP!  

but about the mission, i love it except for 1 thing, not enough zombies, maybe some random spawn triggers for some more zombies? makes walking around the island alot more scarier...  

but the mission itself is alot of fun, and i didnt notice any bugs (yet), except for the stupid OFP AI, but that isnt your fault..