charon productions

Let`s agree on that a zed mission just sucks if there is an abrams or other tanks inside or at least with very limited ammo and fuel, maybe even highly damaged. The LAV25 is really good to get the team into a hot zone to rescue survivors.

@Nemesis and Aelin: Good points! I guess i will make them surround the tanks too. They will perform attack animations, but those wont do any damage to the tanks at all. @RasdenFasden: Some answers are given in this thread already. http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1481563&postcount=171 http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1473521&postcount=61 http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1473784&postcount=70 About the spawning module, sure it can be written. Right now the whole thing is more focussed on a single incident of infection and it`s rapid spread across the island. So the objective is containment or eradication of the infection, which is hard enough with the infected units when they have enough civilians around to infect.

What else should it be dependent on? Anything of a more complex nature , non-hard-coded to recognize humans would create huge lag on a per unit check basis.

Remain? CZM was not based on knowsabout. I cannot tell if silenced weapons will draw attention in general. Some tests showed unfortunately that knowsabout is bugged. I have seen a group of 10 infected run by 1 meter next to a human and in TroopMon2 i saw no many times no knowsabout-value change at all or it went to 0.051 ! So initially 1.5 was the value to use, if knowsabout would work as intended. But since it does NOT, the critical knowsabout value had to be set back to >0 to prevent zombies from standing next to humans without attacking them while still necessitating them to at least having spotted the humans and not just run straight to them like in a lame "domove getpos target" script.

@Tobie: It would be even better if it was more easy to import custom animations into Arma2, then this could get really awesome. Too many threads about the same mod is against the forum rules. I would open a new thread for this, but i am uncertain if the moderators would appreciate it. Alpha is currently going on. If MP compatibility is made sure,then the Beta phase starts. Script optimization is going well, all scripts are close to beta stage already.

I am not sure what to do with tanks. Naturally the zombies can`t attack the crew if they have everything shut. So should they surround the tank anyway and try to reach the crew even though they will never make it? That way they are also much worse targets for the gunner. Or should they completely disregard all tanks and just wander around looking for cars and humans? The good news is that they can be run over by vehicles, for some reason vehicle collision check is still active which is weird. Mission makers should make tanks a very rare thing to keep the balance hehe.

There are 2 factions of undead: The infected and the zombies. The infected run pretty much all the time really fast and move like humans. (28 days later, Dawn of the Dead Zack Snyder) The infection spreads over the island very rapidly that way. Easier to kill than zombies. You need less of them to be an opposing force for the players. The zombies move like original Romero zombies with the (still) TCP animation. I would use other animations exported from maya, but the arma2 skeletons have different selections and i don`t know how to re-assign them for Arma2 and there is no real animation tool for arma2 nor did BI supply sample infantry models (yet). They need a few more shots to be killed. They will also look more decomposed in their textures. You need many of them to be an opposing force due to their slow movement. So the mission maker has 2 choices what to use.

Great Mod, cool models ! Looking forward to it!

Works pretty well now, only the gunners are attackable, not the pilot. Maybe i`ll do the cargo too, its a bit harder to find the right seats next to the door. It`s scary sitting in the chopper when they are scratching the windows :D <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OQPm_mX0mc&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OQPm_mX0mc&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Zombies will attack vehicles now and damage them slowly Cars will be damaged until shortly before they burn and made immobile. AI only crew will be dragged out of cars. For player crews, it`s up to the player to decide if he wants to get out and join the crowd when the vehicle is disabled :devil: Tank vehicles are considered safe. An idea would be to infect the cargo of trucks slowly, because zombies could get easily on there. Static weapon crews are also attacked. The car thing was something not so properly scripted in CZM, now it is much more to the point. When the zombies get too close to an MH-60 then the doorgunners can be infected or killed by the zombies. When the gunner turns into a zombie in mid air, he will attack the rest of the crew (imaginarily) and the chopper will crash land. Working on location-connected triggers now that secures camps. These locations should be included in the zombie groups choice of possible human locations during their search. Ideally, they would not enter as long the gates are closed. Just hard to find a handle for those gate doors on map objects concerning their animation selection names and so forth.

There is no fx machine built into arma, the sound engine is as raw as it can get. The echo/reverbs are already in the samples. You would have to use entirely different magazines in CQB situations for the sounds to be different, there is not simply a parameter that can adjust that (should i say unfortunately hehe). Can`t wait for this to be released too, highly anticipated ! Sounds almost too real hehe.

Hmm, theoretically you could import such a model, if you`d find a way to rig the skeleton and have your own custom rtm animation files for it. Doubtful though that anyone who hasn`t a commercial interest and is skillful enough would spend hundreds of hours to create something like that. The BI tools are not versatile enough to easily create your own animated models. Looks cool though from the picture ;)

That is pretty much right how it is done in my own collision script. Only problem is map objects that have no class in cfgVehicles like walls,fences etc. I have no idea how to detect those. Checking for ALL objects is a big no-no, because this takes forever, because it would return insects and stuff like that too. With big buildings it works pretty good when their current movement path intersects the bounding box of a building, they will just follow the leader again.

No this is not exactly what i said. I talk about zombie model collision detection (their GEO LOD), the fire geometry LOD works that means that they can be shot while doing any animation. The absence of any move command that is so simple that it just moves a group member to a location without any enemy checks and without bugging the AI of that unit is what makes it difficult. However i have made a couple of tests with normal vanilla units (no addons) and they sometimes do wander right through walls into houses even without any custom animations. So a rectangular trigger that kicks them out is a must on any safe house, if it is utmostly important that no zombie just wanders through the wall. It would happen with any unit, soldier, civilian. It`s the borked Geo LOD detection of the game. So i am considering trying the fast units, checking for building collisions, only thing is they would pass through trees and shit, but at least they would come across somewhat convincing and not just standing around. Since safe houses MUST be protected with triggers anyway no matter what unit you use, it looks like the only way.

@RAINF: The problem is their body passes through everything, even other zombies. There is simply no collision detection active when you move them with sheer animations. I have even tried sick shit like setvelocity(ing) an object that has collision detection active to detect walls, but that means one additional object per zombie plus that object will change its position relative to the body easily. So its just not the ideal solution. Another Arma2 bugger (actually this bug exists ever since) is that domove does not work with groups. Well it does, one might say, but i have made countless tests with troopmon. If you issue a couple of domove commands even if you wait until the units are ready, then they will end up just standing around with their own broken micro FSMs that one can`t switch off. And MoveTo does not work on individual grouped (!) units at least in my tests in contrast to what the wiki says. So basically you have the leader of the zombie group attacking stuff and the other group members will be in formation behind him, but out of melee range unless randomly they will run into a civilian that just happened to stand there. Well enough, the infection spreads, but it looks a bit strange. I am trying to figure out for days how to move individual group members out of their formation position to a specific target position WITHOUT using the useless domove command. Setvelocity kills (?!) infantry instantly when used onto them, setposing them looks bad. The whole thing does work only without broken AI when no domove commands are issued. All in all, i really have to conclude that in Arma2 there is pretty much no core AI improvements compared to Arma1. Okay they lean around edges and look for cover, nice feature, but in it`s elemental functions AI functionality is still so incomplete. A really nice feature would be a total disableAI "FSM".

@Das Attorney: Thanks man. Unfortunately the workaround is too much of a risk of wall passing and slows stuff too much down. It`s hard to fix with a script what the engine should do, but on the other hand it`s not made for chasing units exactly. So i see no way around little stand stills at the moment, because for sure folks wouldnt wanna take into account very slow scripts due to collision scripting. And the scripts are already doing a lot.

Does anyone know if the walls that are in Chernogorsk are defined in cfgVehicles? Or are they map-objects that can`t be accessed with scripting commands? I have tried to find out the type with : But that returns nothing. Any ideas? Thanks, Charon

Well this collision thing is extremely critical, i have seen all kinds of stuff wander through walls in this game. To efficiently block stuff you would have to check so much data that the game would slow down, thats why walls thinner than 30 cm pretty much dont pose any resistance to AI, i guess BI chose test intervals of 30 cm. To make really sure for critical barriers, i will make an invisible barrier addon support that just setvelocity [0,0,0] anything inside it´s bounding box.

It indeed is I have now basically scripted the collision check with objects rather than leaving it to the engine, so they dont pass through entire houses like ghosts anymore. Just needs to be smoothly integrated into the rest of the script which is a bit hard.

No dont think its about the framerate, it`s probably a config thing. I need to track down what makes the difference. The same model is used, just hiddentextures assigned. EDIT: It seems that it is exactly the stand still workaround that affects the collision detection, so one day of work for nothing hehe. So hard choice : Idiotic movements or no collisions ;) EDIT2 : Just working on an insane workaround for the workaround, tests look promising so far.

I had the idea to infect animals too. Is a bit complicated because they are agents and belong to no side, but could be done somehow i guess. Will put it on the todo list. It also necessitates movement animations for those animals. The idea behind this mod is to offer all kind of "Undead" foes. So the fast moving infected is one, but there is also the plan to implement a "zombie faction" that move just like good old "Night of the living dead"-style, but with custom animations, that look more catchy, because i am not so convinced by TCPs animations (just for the purpose to use them on zombies that is, otherwise his animations are awesome). One really annoying thing is that the barricades will be useless. :( :( :( There is a carefully spoken MAJOR bug in the collision detection of civilan models/AI. I have seen them run through entire houses without being blocked by the walls. First i thought that could be an error in my config, but then i tested it on in-game editor placed civilian priests and they do run through walls, fences etc. as well. I really hope that BI will fix that in a future patch. If they don`t, i might have an idea to write an invisible movement blocker or something that does the job. EDIT: Hmm, just tested that again on human vanilla-civilians and they do get blocked by some house walls. So i wonder what screws that up during the inheritance process, need to look into that. So my previous assumption about vanilla-BI-civilians is probably wrong, so no blame on them for those.

After many more hours of experimentation i have found a promising method to override the Micro FSMs. It is really scary, they overrun you like in the modern "Dawn of the Dead" or "28 days later" with no more stoppings and standing around while approaching you. Need to tweak that a little bit more, then i can make a preview. @Rainf: That is a funny idea, no guns hehe. Couldnt have imagined such a mission before you posted it ;)

@RAINF: Exactly i have spent countless hours trying to get rid of that. It is Arma2`s micro FSMs that calculate the path or check for whatever and in that time they stand still. Anything AI related in Arma is always messy, that`s the big weak spot of BIS AI engine (It has to be mentioned though that excellent AI programming is rocket science and has to fit in a desktop CPU) The optimization of the scripts that i am working on right now is that there is minimal execution time on the move scripts, so the 3ms Arma2 script restriction does not kill the whole flow.

No funky scripting from your side required. The addon itself is o.c. highly scripted. Like you said: You put the "UNDEAD" module on the map, 1 zombie, as many humans as you want and lastly the player(s). That`s the minimum requirement. If mission makers desire to move the zombies themselves with scripted commands or waypoints there will be a global variable to disable their pathfinding for the time they are moved (If that should be anywhere else than they would naturally look for prey)

Limited to one city that is exactly what this does. One infected unit placed in the city and the rest wil become infected pretty soon and hunt every human AI/player units on the map as long as they know anything about them. That means you are safe when you manage to hide in the forest where there is no infected around. They will preferably go to the cities to search for humans. Civilian, unarmed AI units will also run away if another civilian in their vicinity is being attacked. This is more realistic, but also a bit harder for the infected to catch them ;) However the Ambient Civilian Module has a few disadvantages concerning the spreading of the virus across the whole map. From what i think it constantly produces new civilians when the first ones are dead and the zombie script only issues the command to search other towns when the town they are in is entirely without humans. It is maybe possible to script a hunting squad script that just send one group out to infect other towns while the others go on hunt the town they are already in. Until now this has not been implemented because it is more scriptology than it already is. Also the civilians are "invisibly in their house" for some time. I have scripted already that they are no valid target as long as they are inside their door vehicle. You can put that to 100% outside though.