charon productions

@Malick: There is actually an addon that suppresses the excessive radio messages, it has been written by Lester. It inspired me to suppress the Zombies from talking out loud their group commands in whatever language because it sounded odd. The control scripts have just been optimized for maximally fast performance and they are hunting the player down real good and close now. Another preview with the zombies in focus to show some of them: <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlafwSacBHU&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=VlafwSacBHU&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Okay, a first video preview of a zombie mission in Chernogorsk. Scripts are working fine now, the remaining weaknesses are attributed to engine limitations and are therefore unavoidable. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNpSvG5AX9w&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=VNpSvG5AX9w&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Okay, i have searched. No solution found for my problem. I have set up my environment like synide described. I try to binarize an addon that uses the ODOL USMC_soldier.p3d. My issue is that it crashes BINPBO even when i use the unedited USMC_soldier.p3d out of characters2.pbo. Am i missing something to include into my path? I have depboed characters and characters2 inside my namespace ca. I have set binpbo to copy .p3ds directly. Any ideas? Anyone had an issue like this before? Thanks, Charon

Sure, but while signing it you have to decide whether to binarize or not. So i chose to make two individual addons, one that contains the unbinarized ODOL models and the other one that contains all the other data which is binarized. If one actually gives a sh** if an addon is binarized at all.

@Deadfast: Thanks for telling me, there is always areas about this game that one doesn`t know hehe. However the benefit of binarization would be lost when doing that. I will look for other ways, but in worst case it has to be like that )

Thanks kju. The question is how to then transfer that ODOL model to a signed addon after hex-editing the texture-paths without crashing binpbo. I was under the impression that there is only binpbo supporting the signing of keys. The hex-edited model works fine in-game with cpbo(d) version. I am right now trying to find information about moveObject to see what it does.

Thanks for your reply. I was under the impression that excluding the .p3d under options "List of files to copy directly" would NOT binarize it so a hex-edited ODOL can be used. I mean how do all the guys that make re-textured soldier addons include the actual models into their addon? Or do they all use cpbo only to create the addon pbo? Ah maybe they use Arma1 MLOD models and texture those and then binarize those? Since this is what i want to do (re-textured soldier), maybe someone can enlight me on how to proceed then in case of the Arma2 USMC_Soldier model. That model does not have hiddentextures, so it won`t work that way.

@ NeMeSiS & Scrub: Ah i thought those animations were proprietary. Man and woman skeleton are different though, but maybe there is a way to set these up for Arma2 skeletons. Have never done that, see if it works somehow. There is tons of mocap data out there. Hooked a couple of those up to MAYA skeletons when i did some 3D stuff, but not sure if there is any way to convert fbx or whatever format to rtm. @Uglyboy: Every killed human is replaced by an exact copy of it with zombie textures and different config and will then belong to the "zombie side" which happens to be resistance and yes they are inimical FOR everybody (as in considered enemies) and their scripted behaviour is inimical TO everybody.

Okay, i`ll make a video preview later. Island infection now works perfectly. All zombies end up at the player`s position after 3 hours of infecting the whole island of Chernarus (i put him on a roof). Map markers plot the infection zone and time of the incident (can be disabled by global variable too).

That`s not what i meant. You need like 7 body/legs/hands shots to kill one, but only 1 headshot (in 90% of the cases due to engine errors). So the more headshots you score the faster you bring an attacking group down. If you fail to have a good headshot quote then they`ll overrun you. There is a lot of dispute about how many shots kill, so i probably will implement a global variable that determines 3 strengths of zombies/infected. So "weak" means 2-3 torso shots to kill,"middle" 5 and "strong" 7 or more.

Should unarmed human AI try to escape the zombies when they identify them? Maybe also with knowsabout. It looks a bit strange that they just stand there right next to a group of zombies shredding another citizen and don`t try to run. They could try to hide in buildings maybe ? Could be en/disabled with a global variable. Fixed the infection spread script, the stuck AI was due to an unconsidered condition in the script. Now, there is no passive groups anymore. They all hunt and hunt and hunt :devil:

If slow zombies are really so favoured by everybody, it would be no problem to include a slow zombie addon too. Haven`t tested that in Arma2, but in Arma1 it worked.

Well in what i did there, i have not used any parameters that would only work on Chernarus, instead locations and map-related attributes are used to identify towns. So i am certain it works on any map. It will be a module. I don`t want to mess with animations, if there is anyone who is up to making some custom Romero-style animations for this, i can include it as an optional style. Right now they move more like infected and the presence of an antidote suggests that it is an infection. They look a lot like in Zack Snyder`s movie. Not sure if Romero zombie-bitten humans could actually be cured. And at the Romero speed, spreading zombies over Chernarus would take a week. :) It is creating more suspense impho when they run up to you really fast, you need good shooting skills, because every shot MUST be a headshot then or they will rip you to pieces. For slow zombies, only limited ammo creates a challenge, but i think its lame to play a mission where you constantly have to look for ammo instead of firing endless rounds at them.

20 minutes after infection: After a couple of hours: Still some AI-groups get stuck into their own FSMs, no idea how to fix it, if it could be fixed at all hehe. So the infection spreads pretty okay now.

@ReconTeam: It does.

Good point! That is most certainly the best compromise you can squeeze out of the engine to do it with playmoves. I`ll experiment with that too. About the confusion, i believe issueing too many domove commands in a short time confuses the engine and messes up the fsm system too much. Since the Chernarus map is that big, i work with a waypoint-based system that works pretty well and allows massive amounts of zombies because not each zombie is his own group. It has its cons too, they tend to focus on one victim primarily but had it running overnight and they were still running from town to town searching for victims, which is quite satisfying already. They use knowsabout, but the engine had them running by like 1 meter from a human and the knowsabout-value didn`t go higher than 0.05 (!) lol, so it`s set to if they know just anything about a human or not, but at least it`s not the typical lame hunt script that uses the target position directly as a waypoint. They will "smell" which town to go to, but will patrol it until they know anything about someone and then attack.

If BIS had at least a knife attack in the game, then this would be perfect. The biggest problem is actually to get the AI to move close enough to the target to actually perform the attack. Collision avoidance priority prevents the engine from doing that.

Okay Antidote works, usable by player, droppable like a small object. Player and AI can be healed. Medics that have the antidote in their inventory will use it on treated infected soldiers. Infection Timer 7 minutes, changeable by global variable. Bitten AI will turn into zombies after that time, player will die (maybe even continue to play as a zombie hehe) Script infects the whole island of Chernarus in under 2 hours assisted by the ambient civilian module

@scrub: Each weapon`s ammo has different hit damage. So the torso shots that a zombie can take are dependent on the weapon. M4 = 7 shots Sniper rifle = 3 shots Single Headshots are in 90% of the cases fatal. The other 10% are engine errors that prevent the correct registration of the headshot.

It really depends on the weapon, with an MG its easy. Randomisation might be a good idea. So should there be an antidote? I think it`s frustrating if you are bitten by a zombie and know that you will become one of them / die in 5-10 minutes. Why then continue to shoot them at all? If there is the motivation to find the antidote its fun to keep playing. It`s up to the mission-maker to intelligently restrict and place antidotes in the mission or to even provide them in the first place.

I agree. Maybe he is going to model some ?

How many torso shots with a let`s say M4 do kill a zombie ??? This is a very important parameter. If it takes too many then the ammo will be depleted fast, assuming not every hit is a headshot, which is impossible in the course of hectic action. If it is too few, it feels odd. Right now i got it at 7 torso shots with an M4, and 4 with a sniper rifle.

It was BIS idea. The model is called Hooker.p3d ;) The only woman in game with a sexy outfit hehe

What is a zed mod then? Well RPGs do damage to the whole body, so the damage system is in effect normally.

A little texturing effort, to attempt to let units look like Zombies: