The Undead Mod

[chrys45 1]

Hi Charon :)

I like you mod. Its great.

I look forward to your Update.:bounce3:

greeting chrys

[colinm9991 20]

Hey Charon, I can't wait!

DayZ is great and everything, but actually...I prefer your mod. The most interesting aspect of a zombie apocalypse for me is the outbreak and human resistance. I love watching the infection spread around the country as civilians get infected then flee to another town...

DayZ captures a story where the war has already been lost, months down the line, whereas your zombies are perfect for creating that initial outbreak carnage. As far as I am aware, this is the biggest element of the zombie genre that is totally missing from all other games.

Carry on!

What this guy said.

And please fix the Zombies hovering/sliding across the floors in your future update :p

[Celastias 1]

The first and best zombie mod for Arma 2!!! I hope that it might be ported over to Arma 3 when that is released, it will be so much more fun with the new ragdoll physics hehe. Can't wait for the new update. :)

[Craig_VG 20]

The first and best zombie mod for Arma 2!!! I hope that it might be ported over to Arma 3 when that is released, it will be so much more fun with the new ragdoll physics hehe. Can't wait for the new update. :)

Agreed on the first part.

Shouldn't be too hard, depending on the changes in how the AI behave.

Welcome back Charon. I've missed you.

[charon productions 10]

The first and best zombie mod for Arma 2!!! I hope that it might be ported over to Arma 3 when that is released, it will be so much more fun with the new ragdoll physics hehe. Can't wait for the new update. :)

It's technically not an update per se. V0.9 was still too buggy like Genesis had to find out too, so it was unavoidable to completely rewrite the entire system for improved performance (about 500%). So actually it's something completely new ...

[Kyle_K_ski 1]

.

There will be. After Gamescom ... ;P

SWEET!!! It's great to hear that you're coming back to your fantastic and highly regarded, and much-used mod!

I've recently posted at the Addon Request thread some ideas that I have for enhanced-zombies (i.e. "e-z"), which are zombies that have specialized attributes and powers. Instead of me posting a detailed post here regarding this matter, I'll simply supply a link instead. You can find the seven e-z's here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?74039-Arma-2-Addon-request-thread&p=2202040&viewfull=1#post2202040

If you're interested in these concepts, please don't hesitate to let me know. I posted a couple of concept designs that I drew, and then I modified some screenshots to approximate the look that these tactically-challenging creatures would have. I simply ran out of time to do a whole host of concept drawings/paintings, so I took a more expedient path that hopefully still does a good job of conveying what's running through this brain of mine. :)

There's one additional zombie-type that's not listed there, due to it not being really "enhanced," that is, with special powers and their more fancy visual effects. What I would love to see in zombie-mods such as yours, are zombies that have become so low on energy reserves, that they collapse onto the ground, looking completely dead, but instead they enter a semi-catatonic state. Their sense of hearing and smell becomes hyper-sensitive, and when a edible creature gets close enough (somewhere between 2-3 m. radius), the zombie "wakes up" and attacks. In a sense, they're zombie-mines. They could be so ravenous, that they're version of adrenaline is exceptionally high, and thus they're exceptionally strong (and perhaps exceptionally fast), thus 1-2 melee hits from them=death.

It would be neat to create some specialized skins for them - something that isn't too elaborate. Some of these zombie-mines were laying around for a LONG time, and thus have various degrees of mold growing atop of them. While a freshly-catatonic zombie would still be hard to see due to the height of the wild grass that surrounds them, the long-catatonic zombies would be devilishly hard to see, due to having the color(s) of the mold(s) growing on them, acting as camouflage.

What would also be neat to experience, are "ultra-smart" zombie-mines. These are zombies that will control their hunger long enough to allow targets to pass by them, and then stand up to attack them from behind. Oh yeah, baby!

Anything that increases the sense of paranoia is a major bonus in my book. :)

I hope that you find this zombie-mine proposal interesting enough to give it a "go," and I hope that the same holds true for the enhanced-zombies as well.

Yours!

:D

.

[araxiel 2]

The documentation says the following:

A pointer to the currently spawned group will be written in the variable

space of the module, to be accessible for the mission maker if he needs

to have a pointer to it for checks etc.

The variable will only contain the group pointer of the currently spawned

group. As soon as a new group is spawned, it will be overwritten with

the pointer to the new group.

Now while I sort of understand what that means, I don't know how I can get this "pointer". How can I get the Id of the group that it spawned? What I basicly want is that the spawn module only activates when the group it spawned is killed.

Furthermore have I the following questions:

• Do Zombies spawn all over the map, or only in your vicinity? I think the former, but some confirmation would be nice.
  
• If I activate the spawner module, does it spawn the first group, and then waits the set time until it spawns the next one? Or does it wait the set time and then first spawns the first group, then waits again, spawns next?
  
• I can manualy place infected (fast) and zombies (slow), but how can I chose which one the spawner places? By the placed module if I understand it right. But is there a way that spawners can place both zombies and infected? Or rather be able to chose which one of the two they spawn?
  
• Zombies use the normal damage system, is there a way to use the ACE wounding system?
  

Edited August 7, 2012 by Araxiel

[charon productions 10]

Now while I sort of understand what that means, I don't know how I can get this "pointer". How can I get the Id of the group that it spawned? What I basicly want is that the spawn module only activates when the group it spawned is killed.

You can retrieve it via the following variable from the module's variablespace :

"CHN_UNDEAD_SM_CURGRP"

So you name your module something like MYMODULE, then it would be :

_pointerToSpawnedGroup =  MYMODULE getvariable "CHN_UNDEAD_SM_CURGRP";

There will be no group handles in the future version due to reorganisation of the addon structure. The group limit has always annoyed me hehe.

Furthermore have I the following questions:

Do Zombies spawn all over the map, or only in your vicinity? I think the former, but some confirmation would be nice.

They spawn either at the position of the spawn module or where you place them as units in the editor on the map.

[*]If I activate the spawner module, does it spawn the first group, and then waits the set time until it spawns the next one? Or does it wait the set time and then first spawns the first group, then waits again, spawns next?

First variant, meaning it first spawns a group, then waits, spawn again and so on...

[*]I can manualy place infected (fast) and zombies (slow), but how can I chose which one the spawner places? By the placed module if I understand it right. But is there a way that spawners can place both zombies and infected? Or rather be able to chose which one of the two they spawn?

The actual undead module (not the spawn module) determines which type of undead will be spawned even by the spawn module.

It is not possible to mix the zombie types due to their different animations and the resulting script differences.

[*]Zombies use the normal damage system, is there a way to use the ACE wounding system?

No, the zombies use the Eventhandler system, so there is no way to achieve that. ACE is for humans, zombies can take a bit more damage otherwise they wouldn't be zombies ;)

[islesfan186 83]

Just curious in in the new update you will add OA units? ie US Army and Takistani Militia/Army/Civilians?

Also, when the zombies are stationary, any plans to implement like a swaying motion instead of them just standing there like pylons? Also when they're just walking aimlessly, have them not have their arms held up, just kind of down and slowly walking around? I believe DayZ has that...although I never played it, just watched 1 or 2 gameplay videos.

Regardless, I'm excited for the update!

[charon productions 10]

Would be too much work to texture all of these now

I am familiar with classic animation, so at a later point i am considering to add some alternate animations.

The priority is to create a killer mod, the details can be tackled later.

[das attorney 858]

Would be too much work to texture all of these now

I am familiar with classic animation, so at a later point i am considering to add some alternate animations.

The priority is to create a killer mod, the details can be tackled later.

Nice to see you back Charon. Always liked your releases :)

[Celastias 1]

but once the undead mod comes back from the dead, we will have to deal with all the people from day Z screaming that this is a cheap knock off or copy, what do?!

[Craig_VG 20]

Well, the Undead mod isn't a mission, it's just the tools to make a mission, unlike DayZ which is both. Still, people will say it is a copy. Heck, I've had far too many people complain to me about trying to copy DayZ with Dynamic Zombie Sandbox, even though DZS came first.

Also, depending on performance, Charon, I will probably use your new zombies for a version of my mission.

Do you plan on using FSMs for zombie control? Or stick with a .sqf method?

[charon productions 10]

Well, the Undead mod isn't a mission, it's just the tools to make a mission, unlike DayZ which is both. Still, people will say it is a copy. Heck, I've had far too many people complain to me about trying to copy DayZ with Dynamic Zombie Sandbox, even though DZS came first.

Well Undead mod and CZM zombie mod for Arma1 before that are out there for ages, so what can i say? :rolleyes:

Also, depending on performance, Charon, I will probably use your new zombies for a version of my mission.

Do you plan on using FSMs for zombie control? Or stick with a .sqf method?

For V0.9 i already had delegated more and more work to "Undead_InRangeMale.fsm" at that time, so by now it is

almost entirely done on state machine level. All effort has been put into increasing performance through code optimization, so

the AI had to be hijacked (even though that is still not 100% possible, in contrast to popular opinion, but the results of tests show something different)

and the group system abandoned. There are also many new features and i got a multiplayer test environment now, so at least the basic

functionality works also for MP now (if anyone cares hehe).

Edited August 7, 2012 by Charon Productions

[jacknorrisuk 146]

Sounds great - I can't wait!

Perhaps all you non-DayZ zombie modders should form a little club. I think it would be fairly easy to capture some of the DayZ fans with just a bit of cohesion - perhaps a dedicated website, some noob instructions etc.

I made an animated film to celebrate DayZ having 1 million users. Charon, just let me know if you think a trailer like this could be useful to your next release!

[skr 1]

There will be. After Gamescom ... ;P

Super!!!! Glad to have you back!

Charon, I don't want to repeat my self but there are definitly some thing I need to ask for.

I saw you were talking about abandoning group system. Does this means that we will be allways limited to 144 zombies per mission??? Please could you change it? At this time I'm playing Armed Assault zombie mod exactly beacuse of the (beacuse in Arma there is infinite amount of zombies) limitation. I simply want high scale infection in a way like jacknorrisuk said:

Hey Charon, I can't wait!

DayZ is great and everything, but actually...I prefer your mod. The most interesting aspect of a zombie apocalypse for me is the outbreak and human resistance. I love watching the infection spread around the country as civilians get infected then flee to another town...

DayZ captures a story where the war has already been lost, months down the line, whereas your zombies are perfect for creating that initial outbreak carnage. As far as I am aware, this is the biggest element of the zombie genre that is totally missing from all other games.

Carry on!

Second thing I want to ask is is it possible to make that when for example policeman becomes zombie he left gun on the floor.

Also, I would like you to know that there is another zombie project at the time so it would be cool to unite powers.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?131466-Infection-(light-zombie-addon)

Well, there is a thread where I actualy sad everything I would like to have in zombie mod so I just postet.

Agree.

I love zombie stories at the very start of infection. All movies, series, games are concentrated on the period after infection, and I simply want story of any man who caught himself in start of infection. Armed assault and Arma2 do this very good. But, there are many handicaps.

This week I played Armed Assault zombies. Personally, I`m thinking to start play Armed Assault, not Arma2. Because, in Armed Assault every new infected and created zombie is in the group of zombie which got him infected, so, there you can create outbreak which count more than 400 zombies, and because of better PC, you can play it without problems. This is thing which I want to be possible in the future Arma2/Arma3 zombie add-ons, possibility to create CITY outbreak, not village.

Also, it would be great that weapon of infected human is going to be left on the ground after he becomes zombie.

This add-on is in alpha version so I can`t talk too much about it, but I`m very happy that there is Arma 2 OA civilian’s zombie skin. This could open new world for me.

I think that zombie mod needs:

- Good city map (not too big but again city, with crowded areas, no open space, like New York)

- Skins and add-ons for ambulance, doctors, firefighters, SWAT, gas masked soldiers etc. - i use fire truck and ambulance, but it isn’t good without skin of firefighter or doctor (not chernarus one)

- Weapons are dropped after infection

- Infinite amount of zombies (maybe... first 143 new zombies are in their own group, and after reaching number of 144 independent, every new zombie enter in group) ==> Most needed

And, yes. I got this idea. Well, charon and others where always saying that there is no possibility in creating skins for add-ons (like gas masked soldiers) because it means more skin work. I was thinking, what about that when a add-on-solider becomes infected and become zombie, game engine simply use his "Dead skin" (skin of him being dead in regular game) for zombie skin. It won’t look so good, but it will be better then US solider.

Well, I can give more suggestions, but I sticked to possible ones. I don’t know how to mod Arma engine, and I`m noob for scripting, so, this are all suggestions. I`m already delighted with great zombie mods! TNX again!

And, sorry for bad english. Combination of my knowledge (it should be high: learned english in kindergarden, elementary, high school and college), google translator, MS word and spell check. I hope it is understandable.

Sorry Charon if this is too much after your return I just hopping that you dont miss something. I also postet some post in this Thread and today i posted Thread for Arma.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?138457-Zombie-sandbox-mission-s

Really glad to have you back!

If you need any help I would like to help you. I'm noob in scripting but I'm ready to learn!!!

[charon productions 10]

Super!!!! Glad to have you back!

Charon, I don't want to repeat my self but there are definitly some thing I need to ask for.

I saw you were talking about abandoning group system. Does this means that we will be allways limited to 144 zombies per mission??? Please could you change it? At this time I'm playing Armed Assault zombie mod exactly beacuse of the (beacuse in Arma there is infinite amount of zombies) limitation. I simply want high scale infection in a way like jacknorrisuk said:

The group system was abandoned exactly because of the limitations. There is no limits now (only your CPU->FPS ofc)

If you want high scale infection, how does hunting ~2000 zombies on Chernarus sound? :cool:

To clean Chernogorsk you would have to kill 600 infected.

The whole island is infected within an hour. So if you like that phase of the outbreak, you will be pleased.

That is the whole goal of the new system. Infected are only a threat by their numbers.

Second thing I want to ask is is it possible to make that when for example policeman becomes zombie he left gun on the floor.

Could be done, civilians can pick up any weapons from corpses. Policemen do get issued pistols as a default too.

The wounded texture thing didn't work when i tried it 5 years ago, sure it still doesn't work.

Edited August 8, 2012 by Charon Productions

[skr 1]

---------- Post added at 00:21 ---------- Previous post was at 00:10 ----------

Oh, yes! I forgot to ask. Charon, do you plan to work on Predator mod??? Yours UNDEAD mod and Predator mod are my top addons for Arma2, I think that I used them in 90% of my missions (ok, with Invasion44 is about 70%).

[charon productions 10]

http://www.scancrit.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/excellent-4689_preview.png

---------- Post added at 00:21 ---------- Previous post was at 00:10 ----------

Oh, yes! I forgot to ask. Charon, do you plan to work on Predator mod??? Yours UNDEAD mod and Predator mod are my top addons for Arma2, I think that I used them in 90% of my missions (ok, with Invasion44 is about 70%).

Hmm, an Arma3 version of the predator mod is tempting me, let's see whenever that alpha is really actually gonna be released;)

[krycek 349]

Hmm 2000 zombies to hunt??Yup I'll like that,I would like that very much(goes to fill up the backpack with grenades and clips).

Nice to hear you're still looking at the Predator mod too,I enjoyed the thrill of the hunt.:cool:

[icebreakr 3156]

Predators in Lingor coop/tvt were one of the coolest experiences in A2 for me ;) couple of nice squadnights.

[charon productions 10]

Hey Ice

Port Lingor to Arma3 and i'll port the predators ;)

[jacknorrisuk 146]

I usually find that the things that need fixing are due to the core Arma 2 actions of units (the way they react, move etc.)

I would love to be able to put down just one 'infected dog' at an unknown location on a fully populated map, and see what happens. Usually, the spread seems to get stunted by zombies standing around not sure where to go next, especially when civilians run into their houses! Also, we need civilians to get scared enough to actually migrate across the map, by foot or vehicle, to help spread the virus!

By the way...I actually loved the way you could actually play as the zombies in the Armed Assault mod after you died. I don't think it was intentional, and it was hella buggy, but it was so cool to be resurrected and eat your fellow soldiers. Anyone else?...

[araxiel 2]

Oh, I've actually got a reply, and by no one less than the mod creator. Nice.

Thanks for the info. Still got this to say though:

It is not possible to mix the zombie types due to their different animations and the resulting script differences.

Ah well, that's a shame

No, the zombies use the Eventhandler system, so there is no way to achieve that. ACE is for humans, zombies can take a bit more damage otherwise they wouldn't be zombies ;)

I mean that the damage the zombie does towards the human is ACE based. So if a zombie hurts you, you can heal yourself and your allies by apply the endorphine and morphine, bandage up, use first aid kit etc.

Other way around would indeed be a bit stupid ;)

But I've got a new question: How does the "[exceptlist] call CHN_UNDEAD_fn_SETMAPINF" work? Doesit spawn undead in every location and/or adds infection mapmarkers?

[charon productions 10]

I usually find that the things that need fixing are due to the core Arma 2 actions of units (the way they react, move etc.).

Yes, the Arma2 engine micro AI is buggy, the AI can not fully disabled and i know that through many tests where it still reacts in a way that it shouldn't.

I would love to be able to put down just one 'infected dog' at an unknown location on a fully populated map, and see what happens. Usually, the spread seems to get stunted by zombies standing around not sure where to go next, especially when civilians run into their houses! Also, we need civilians to get scared enough to actually migrate across the map, by foot or vehicle, to help spread the virus!

Well that zombie standing around thing is a hang up in the unit's micro AI code, some infinite loop problem, that the developers are either not aware of or can't track down (or don't really care about having hundreds of other things to fix first).

Civilians do flee from undead now and react like you would expect from someone seeing his neighbour chopped up :D

Even in V0.84 zombies disregard ALICE house vehicles, which was a problem in earlier version of them standing in front of the door not able toreach the target, so them standing around is the microAI thing.

By the way...I actually loved the way you could actually play as the zombies in the Armed Assault mod after you died. I don't think it was intentional, and it was hella buggy, but it was so cool to be resurrected and eat your fellow soldiers. Anyone else?..

You might like what's coming then ;)

@Araxiel:

But I've got a new question: How does the "[exceptlist] call CHN_UNDEAD_fn_SETMAPINF" work? Doesit spawn undead in every location and/or adds infection mapmarkers?

Hmm i don't recall how far i had this in the last released version. It was supposed to spawn undead.

This functionality will be provided with the new "Apocalypse"-Module. All locations (including user defined locations) will be marked infected and only those in the exceptionlist won't.

It's counterpart is the "Civilian Population"-Module which handles civilians in all locations, sort of like ALICE but more Undead-related.

I mean that the damage the zombie does towards the human is ACE based. So if a zombie hurts you, you can heal yourself and your allies by apply the endorphine and morphine, bandage up, use first aid kit etc.

The problem in getting this to coexist next to ACE is the friendlyfire EH that i had to add for the single player environment, because in a normal battlefield scenario the enemies are usually at a distance,

but i just got killed countless times by my own AI team when the undead came to close, since AI is not convincingly friendly-fire aware hehe.

I 'll try to look into ACE compatibility concerning that because i respect it's popularity/functionality.

Something like branching into the ACE damaged eventhandler script if ACE is loaded could be a solution, if their system works only limited to the eventhandler script, gotta look into that.

Edited August 10, 2012 by Charon Productions