Dawn of the Yomies

[5133p39 14]

hi 5133p39,

just a quick question. is there a parameter in the yomie scripts where i can influence the range that determines the yomies "food detection"? I want them to detect the player a little bit earlier, because that would give the yomie attacks a bit more tension when they suddenly come around a house corner or something atm i have to run right by the yomies till they attack me.

thx!

No, there is no such parameter.

The detection is based on the nearTargets function.

[FritzDaKat 0]

Regarding the 144 group limit issue, I've been fudging thru the scripts and was wondering if in the spawn_yomie.sqf the

Quote[/b] ]

_grp = createGroup ySidec;

_grp = createGroup ySidew;

_grp = createGroup ySidee;

_grp = createGroup ySide;

is in fact creating 4 groups named ySidec, ySidew, ySidee & ySide parallel to the _yomie group? If thats the case they never seem to get deleted anywhere and if so this would seem to be why the limit gets reached so soon as more than 144 groups are creatable within a mission, they just cant all exist simultaneously.

I can understand the reluctance to do so as it would further complicate matters in the mp environment but perhaps it could be possible to further divide these groups into sequential sub-groups so as to allow for player 1 in yomie_spawn_1 to kill "_yomie_ySidec1" without having "_yomie_ySidec2" dissapear in front of player 2 when the clear_spawn.sqf is run and deleteGroup "_yomie_ySidec1" gets called. Just thinkin'. Feedback always encouraged.

Still pretty wet behind the ears with C coding & scripting but I just got an old copy of Practical C++ Programming By Steve Oualline (02' which looks like it should help me quite a bit with the strings, functions and formatting.

I'll try modifying something around my logic model, but we'll just have to see how I come along with actually writing script first. Anyone wanna grab the torch and run?

***Edit*** Would likely need to use a flag or true/false statement on each group to check for available groups to spawn into? Guessing.

[5133p39 14]

I am not sure whether this is true (i need to check the scripts), but i think i am using one yomie per group because when there are more yomies in the same group, then the leader of the group is overriding my scripted orders (the random walking, or chasing of targets, etc.).

They also start to communicate (when you hear a zombie saying "ALL, MOVE TO THAT BUSH", it may sounds funny at first, but i think it totaly breaks the immersion).

And more importantly, the yomies are controled by a custom FSM, which stops working, because the leader of the group issues some commands which makes this FSM to stop.

So my questions are:

1. Is there any way to forbid the leader of the group from issuing any orders, so i can control all group members (including the leader) by scripting/FSM?

2. Is there any way to prevent the group members from talking? (solution for #1 could also solve this problem)

...if i would find a solution for these two problems, then it would be possible to spawn more than 144 yomies, and maybe it would be even less resource hungry (not sure about this) because it would result in having less groups than before (right now it is one group for each yomie).

[D.murphy man 0]

I certainly hope you can find a solution to 144 unit cap, may i suggest asking the same question over at OFPEC forums there seems to be a lot more scripting gurus that hang out over there as oppose to the BIS forums that might be able to give you more advance help on scripting issues.

[FritzDaKat 0]

There should really be no need to use less groups, one per group is fine, just remember to delete the group in the same step as you deleteVehicle on the yomie when the script calls to clear the dead, errr, de-activated ones.

As it is now, say 144 groups are spawned, the last 5 yomies get killed and player leaves area.

Then the srv_loop_body_removing runs, removing all the dead with the deleteVehicle command. This still leaves 144 empty groups in play.

I think the key would be to incorporate the deleteGroup command in along with the deleteVehicle command so as to remove both the corpse AND its associated group.

As long as thats done, you will still never have more than 144 roaming yomies But they will continue to respawn as long as a player leaves an area and X # of group slots become available again after srv_loop_body_removing runs with the deleteGroup added.

Mabey not 100% ideal but a replenishable source of 144 Yomies to shoot at at any given moment beats the guarantee of having only 144 targets in a mission.

I'll keep looking into FSM's for now and see if I can theorise some sort of workaround, mabey spawn them as a group within a large placement radius, come up with some alternate "Yomie-sound" replacement-pack for when the leader issues commands

[D.murphy man 0]

Actually fritz deletegroup command is implemented into the body and unit deleting scripts, as far as i can recall when i was looking into the yomies scripts. Thats why i had problems in quarantine in one the earlier versions when using another delete body script. The zombies would dry up after all 114 groups where used. When i switched back to yomies body remove script i had no (and still dont in latest quarantine) problems with the yomies drying up.

The only problem that could occur for example in my mission, is if all 12 player slots are occupied and they are all standing in 12 seperate spawn zones across the map. The players who first enter zones would have yomies spawning (subtracting from the 144 limit) whiles the last few players to enter zones might experience a low amounts or even no zomies at all spawning as the 144 groups are being used else where.

Of course this is perhaps unlikely to happen as players do like to stick together and occupie one zone between them.

[FritzDaKat 0]

yomie_eh_killed.... line 20

My bad.

Not sure how I missed that.

[5133p39 14]

Yesterday i spent some time experimenting how can i spawn more than 144 yomies, and i didn't found any solution yet, but i noticed that AI soldiers commanded by AI leader are having big problems with engaging yomies.

What happens is that under the default conditions, the Leader is telling the soldiers which yomie to engage while not paying attention to other yomies - which results in soldier1 targeting yomie1 while yomie2 is already in process of killing soldier1, then soldier2, soldier3, etc.

During the last test i witnessed how a single yomie decimated whole AI squad, one by one, while the soldiers were trying to engage other, far away, yomies.

I don't know whether this is happening only in the 1.11 beta, or also in the other versions of ArmA.

But when YOU are commanding the soldiers, and you order them to "fire at will", then they are performing much better.

I also noticed, that humwee gunner wasn't firing at yomies when they get close to the car - i thought this was fixed long time ago, but aparently not

[D.murphy man 0]

is there a way to perhaps keep track of how many groups there are for each side, then when the cap is hit for one side, say 144 civ groups, next yomies that spawn are spawed as east groups intill they cap 144, then west, then resistance, etc..

[5133p39 14]

is there a way to perhaps keep track of how many groups there are for each side, then when the cap is hit for one side, say 144 civ groups, next yomies that spawn are spawed as east groups intill they cap 144, then west, then resistance, etc..

Sure, that's possible, and should be more than enough, but i would like to find different solution allowing me to have N yomies per 1 group, because that could help the performance - instead of running one FSM for each yomie, i could run one FSM for each group (while having about 10 yomies per 1 group, it would reduce 10 times the system resources needed to run all those FSMs).

I wouldn't need to ask each yomie what is their nearestTarget, instead i would ask only the leader of the group - because the group shares information (which will result in some yomies attacking you even if they cannot see/hear you themselves, but people wouldn't probably notice).

I could do that even now, but i would have to manage the yomies in some form of arrays instead of groups, and i am not sure i want to make everything even more complicated by adding all the code necessary to manage such arrays, but i probably will if there won't be any group-wise solution to this.

Here is what i will be working on now:

1. making the FSM shorter / less complicated.

2. optimizing the number of FSMs run at one time (maybe currently non-attacking zombies could be controled by single FSM)

3. finding a way to make AI soldiers to target the nearest yomies, to minimize the chance of being killed while engaging yomie 1000m away instead of that one standing right behind the soldier (maybe some config tweaks? i hope so).

...and then, after those optimizations, i can think about how to spawn more than 144 yomies, because last time i tried 100 of them, with 1500m visibility, on SAP Everon (which itself provides more FPS than Sara because its "lighter"), and i could already feel the LAG.

[sparks50 0]

Is there anyway you could incorporate the great new TCP animations with your zombies?

They look so sweet

[maza94 0]

Is there anyway you could incorporate the great new TCP animations with your zombies?

They look so sweet

Another zombie addon have TCP Anims.

[sparks50 0]

Yes but they have crappy pathfinding etc, Yomies is much better

[CyDoN 0]

1. the spawned zombies do not attack me.

2. the only ones that do attack are those that i place on the editor but when they see me the lay down and the only "hit" me if i get close, most of times the just run away from me.

what should i do? i used the guide you got there on the web site, but still...

[andersson 285]

Sometimes when I make a zombiemission they dont attack me. Then I just do it once more or use another working mission as base. I have never figured out why it sometimes doesnt work..

So my tip is to do it all fresh over, or use his examplemission as base for yours.

[5133p39 14]

Sorry, as much as i would like to dedicate more time to the Yomies, i cannot (too much work and life on my hands right now).

I will continue my work on Yomies, but without any promises what and when will be done or released.

To answer to the various complaints that "it's not working", "they won't attack me", and so on:

Read the "docs" section on the website - if you will build your mission accordingly, then there is a 99 % chance that it will work (it allways worked for me).

I don't mean to be rude, i just really don't know how to effectively respond to a bug reports like "they won't attack me", i need more information.

And if you did build the mission according to the "docs", then try to answer these questions, or add more details or include a download link for your mission:

1. Are you using ArmA 1.08 or higher (not tested)?

2. Have you tried it without ANY OTHER addons (including QG)?

3. Any error messages?

[william1 0]

edit:nevermind

[ravenholme 50]

TCP animations are alright, but I prefer the more "28 Days Later" style that the Yomies seem to have. (For example, the best mission that uses the Yomies, Quarantine, wouldn't be nearly as scary/tense if the zombies shambled at you like standard ones.)

[andersson 285]

I havent tried it, not even looked at it yet, but shouldnt the TCP animations work ok with yomies? If they walk they use TCP animations and if they run they do a 28 days/weeks later?

Dont know..

[5133p39 14]

I havent tried it, not even looked at it yet, but shouldnt the TCP animations work ok with yomies? If they walk they use TCP animations and if they run they do a 28 days/weeks later?

Dont know..

i havent looked at it also, but it should be "easy".

The yomies are using their own cfgMoves, so you need to change the animations in some desired classes under this section, and that's all.

...but don't expect me to do that, at least not in the near future - i already made here enough promisses i am unable to keep

[5133p39 14]

Today i was playing with the yomies, thinking what to do about them, what to change, etc., and soon i started to feel really annoyed by the fact that we cant spawn more than 144 per side

(if we join them into group, the FSM controling them will stop working because the leader will take over), so i started thinking, instead of spawning more of them,

can i somehow make them more dangerous so even one single yomie would be really bad news for the player?

And then i got the obvious idea... make them faster.

...so i did. When they are walking around, they are slow as usual, but when they start running, they run twice as fast as they did before.

First i was thinking it will look ridiculous, but fortunately no, instead it looks like really really hungry and aggressive.

Now they are real killing machines! You can't outrun them. If even a small group of yomies spots you, you are dead.

I spawned 25 yomies in 500m radius around me, then i fired some shots into the air and after a few seconds there was one right in front of me - i killed him, no problem.

Then i decided to go inside a two story building, to snipe them as they will be approaching - i got 4 or 5 of them, and then before i was able to turn around to watch the door,

two of them were already there, beating the crap out of me.

What do you think? Should i make them this fast?

It would certainly force players to be much more careful, and instead of spawning hundred of them, you can spawn just 20 and you will still have pretty hard time to survive.

Maybe i should lower the damage they are dealing, to compensate for their fast speed?

[sniper pilot 36]

yeah like make a slow, normal, and fast version

[icebreakr 3157]

Make em half faster and it will probably do

[5133p39 14]

ok, making different speed versions is easy, just the same except few config values changed.

I also tried to make them faster when walking in the buildings - as you probably know, when AI enters building, it's speed is automatically switched to walking instead of running, regardles of their speedMode - the game forces then to switch from "slow*" (running) or "fast*" (sprinting) to "walk*" animations.

I tried to change this behaviour, but i didn't find any magi switch in the config, so i am thinking its hardcoded in game engine.

The only possible solution is to change the walking animations into at least slow running anims - that works, but then the yomies are running even when they should be just walking around.

So i am seeking any help with this.

[5133p39 14]

Now i got an idea:

I could replace the "with weapon lowered" animation states definition with the civilian "no weapon" states, and "with weapon raised" again with civilians "no weapon" except in the last mentioned i will change the walking anims into running.

Then i will give the yomies some nondroppable rifle (so when they die, nobody can take it from their body) with empty magazine (so they cant fire), and this way, when in safe mode, the yomies will be walking, but when they start chasing somebody (they will switch into aware/combat) the walking will be replaced by slow running (and of course they will be also sprinting).

So in theory it should work. When wandering around, they will be walking slowly. When chasing someone outside, they will be sprinting. And when chasing someone in a building, they will be running.

Now the question: do we really want yomies being able running in he buildings, while normal soldiers can not? ...i dont think so :-)