mawendt

Saw the May 30press release that the team is winding down. Devs - you want to extend the longevity and demand for Arma 3? Three suggestions: 1) Make everything that can be carried or added as a small item able to allowable added to inventory. Yep, there's mods that do it but nothing official. But it should've been part of Arma 3 from day 1. 2) Take all the maps from the previous arma releases and have an official map pack. Heck, I'd pay $20 for official Chernarus or Takistan.The community versions are good, but... an official mod would be better. Go one better and take all the Arma 2 maps and vehicles and have an official mod. 3) DayZ may have made you money, but it is a functional and reputational embarrassment. Get a real, integrated zombie functions,movements, attacks, etc. You want to make a zillion more dollars? Make a challenging AI zombie.

AWESOME UPDATE! What I really like about what Bis has done is they've finally allowed all those small items like screwdrivers, drills, water bottles,food, cans, cameras, pliers to be picked upand put in the inventory! All the things that will really make the simulation unstoppable! Oh.Wait. Sorry.Not done yet. Oh,well.At least I got this cool new van.

Yep. So, risking a ban or deletion, I dredge up the elephant-on-the-server. Complaints by players on what needs to be finished to make Arma 3 complete. Many mods have been created to fill in some of these gaps, yet those things should be integrated into the base simulation. The two big ones, first. ** THIS IS PROBABLY THE BIGGEST PEEVE: Drive all small objects into items that can be carried in inventory. Like - cans of food, water bottles, soda, bandages, defibulater, etc. Really. We do this in real life also. Plus - it adds legs to the game for modders without having to create additional addOns. Anything that is small enough to be be carried, should be carried and put in inventory. And used in some manner, like swinging an axe or hammer or screwdriver or drill. It probably would be easy to drive it down to an inventory item. As a part of the official version. Not difficult. Just saying. ** Another big pet peeve: there are about a twenty buildings I cannot enter, or portions of buildings. Why not TAKE A MOMENT AND FINISH UP THE INTERIOR ACCESS TO ALL BUILDINGS? All buildings. Every building. The whole building. These two things alone would improve the Arma3 environment. And the big list of minor frustrations and discussed wants: 1) One handed pistol animation, with option to hold something else in the other hand.... like a flare, lightstick, or flashlight. Or open a door with something in one hand. Really. We do this in real life. Why not Arma3? 2) Speaking of which, why must I throw a light stick? why not simply activate and hold it? A flare, also. 3) Why not drive all your previous models and maps from Arma 2 into Arma 3, and call it a DLC, making it an official part of Arma3 and not an modder Addon? Heck, there are some quality versions but they are addOns. I'd pay for that DLC. 4) Move some medium objects into a carry animation .... like real life. Half my Army career (other than maintaining vehicles in a motor pool) was carrying stuff from point A to point b.... particularly 5 gal water and fuel cans, ammo boxes, shared carry of heavier boxes, etc. Integrate this, and a supporting slow walk animation into arma - like a one handed carry of the 5 gallon container (free up a hand for a handgun), or carrying two 5 gallon containers one in each hand, or one handed tool box carry, whatever. 5) ummm... shouldn't an under mount grenade launcher be an attachment? And how about a under barrel shotgun attachment M203, M26 and M320? I mean, like - there are spaces for it, where the light attaches. Also - a flechette/shotgun round for the grenade launcher would offer some fun. Light and laser attachment for handguns. 6) and speaking of which... Shotguns? where are my shotties? did the Greeks (or wherever Altis is) skip that bit of technology? 7) Civilian hunting rifle(s). Are they no longer allowed in the near future? Plus... bows and crossbows. What happened to my rock to throw? 8) A bus. I'd like a bus. I want a bus. I need a bus. Two busses. A big bus that sits 40 people, as well as a short bus, for those less than sharp arma kiddies to ride in. And let me shoot out the windows, and exit the back option. 9) Shovel, Pick axe, axe, knife, machete, crowbar, pliers, drill, screwdriver, hammer, sledge - I use all of this in my military career on noticeable occasion. I'd throw in club, baseball bat, and hockey stick (do they play hockey in Altis? they should.) just to be all encompassing... drive the items to use as weapons or tools (ever been stabbed with a screwdriver? Open a door with a crowbar? cut fence with pliers? dig a trench or defensive position or grave or cache site?) so modders could spend time modding a scenario rather than modding supporting items. Plus - a Katana. Everyone likes a good ninja sword. Obviously with supporting animations. 10) Can ya dig it, baby? Not with a shovel, but with some heavy equipment like a bulldozer, back hoe, dumptruck whatever. Berm up a base? Underground facilities, anyone? 11) Military and civilian recovery vehicles - tow trucks, and tow bars. Make it part of the environment. Stuff breaks down, and we don't just abandon it. I could see a tow truck driver in Altis Life, or military recovery vehicle on Stratis. With an articulated towing system, no less. Be great if it articulates as you move... speaking of which: Tow Bars. Where are the vehicle tow bars for combat recovery? We have a mod that tows through 'attachTo' but it is fixed straight not articulated. How difficult would it be? 12) Cows. Horses. Crows. Something in Altis kills all of them off? or did the missing WOMEN take them when they left all the remaining men to turn gay? Ride a horse to battle, or shoot from a horse. Use a horse or cow as pack animals to carry weapons, ammo, supplies. Crows. I miss the crows, circling or feasting off the dead. And the disrupted bird sounds as you moved through brush. 13) Speaking of the fairer sex: women faces and bodies. It's rather sexist to have an environment excluding females. Plus, all your female Arma3 players feel left out. Doesn't the EU have all sorts of laws about this? 14) Civilian Airliners, 737 or something. At least a DC-10. And maybe a couple of small planes. A Learjet. Cessna like prop. Or maybe an A29 Tucano, or a maybe something like a Beechcraft L-23 Seminole with armed military and unarmed civ version. I know, this ain't 'Take on Airplanes' but really... 15) A couple of larger boats, statics - I loved the aircraft carrier, and am excited to get one back in the Jet DLC - maybe a bit smaller combat marine helicopter carrier could also be in order. A little frigate? Certainly a longer civilian container boat. Piracy operations, anyone? And while you're at it, a couple of Oil Rigs. Tell me combat on an oil rig isn't full of coolness. 16) Protective masks and gear, and Hazmat suits. I guess no one would even think of using chem and bio in the solar powered eco-sensitive wars of the future. But I could see modders, and maybe even the environment using CS grenades or worse on each other. C'mon. It'll be fun. 17) Bicycles and motorcycles. Again - did this technology skip Greece, or did the women take them when they left? Bikes are always great fun and used often... and instead, we got go carts. You can make two versions of the motorcycle - a gas one, and an techno-electric one. Maybe even a collectible muscle bike... 18) Where are my hedgehogs? Tire strips/schedders? Roadblocky stuff is great fun. 19) Who misses the floodlights from Arma2? 20) Climbing up and over, and jumping animations. Enhanced Movement mod (I think its called) great idea. Should have been part of the base simulation. 21) Punching, kicking, strangling from behind - basic hand to hand animations, for that mano-a-mano action. Let the abuse begin.

I'd like to see consideration of an official add-on dealing with African operations, desert and jungle like environments, and probable emphasis of French/Foreign Legion military. Since there's an awful lot of low level conflict in the Sub-Sahara (Central African Republic, Mali, Somalia, Niger). Perfect enviro; competition over resources; endless wastes; lousy terrain.

1. Integrated Zombie Module 2. set up unlimited sides/side relations - or at least expand it to 9 sides; allows you to set up competing sides that engage eachother; for instance, if you set opfor to be enemy of civs, both AI civs and opfor should always egage eachother. 3. Expand uniform variety, add winter versions of cloths and uniforms worn based on time of year 4. Pick up/move/drag/load/stack/rotate and destroy any object on map; small items lift and carry, medium items drag, big/heavy items limited to load/unload 5. Add tow chain/tow bar, and maybe a specfic recovery vehicle /flatbed to recover damaged vehicles; allow certain vehicles to tow vehicles of equal size or smaller 6. Integrated Zombie Module 7. Add a player operated bulldozer, bucket loader, and dumptruck to smooth terrain, dig/fill in low terrain, move dirt, clear trees, instead of simply knocking them down 8. Rethink construction to require materials instead of money; Hescos would need a Hesco Kit and a bucket loader to make; pile of sandbags and pile of dirt, and maybe a log pile/wood stack to build a bunker; either scavange or request delivery by air/sea for the materials. 9. AI Civilians 'do' stuff - fix a car, garden, paint house, repair fence, go to market, hang up washing, drink coffee at cafe, sit and smoke on a porch or bench; AI Civilians run in fear into houses/nearest best protection when bullets fly. 10. Increase damage limits on vehicles, or give an option to increase their toughness. It seems to e quite easy to kill a vehicle, armored car or tank 11. Allow option of Tire Change to fix red tires on a vehicle; anyone can do it 12. Option to set up or block up to 9 comms channels; be able to block a channel by side or group or have an 'invititation/acceptance' by the senior leader on the net. 13. Integrated Zombie Module 14. Weather affects stamina, aim, whatever; cold makes you occaisionally shivver; wet makes you occaisionally sneeze; extreme dry causes occaisional cough; AI and players affected. 16. Stuff has real life applications: Fuel Cans carry fuel and water barrells carry water, and may be emptied and refilled; wells provide water sources; cargo boxes/connexes have space to store items. Make the 'eye candy' have a purpose for players, as storage, temporary barricades, replenishmnet of supplies/water/medical, whatever. 18. Ability to make and set IEDs, molotovs, trip grenade/flares with possession of correct materials. Add road flares to items. 19. Injured players/AI are 'gimped' - a wounded leg causes slow movement and limp/foot dragg; wounded arm or head difficulty driving, climbing, increased aiming sway; chest wound difficulty running/breathing reduce stamina; head wound random 'blurring' of vision. 20. Allow container items default storage slots, similar to ammo crates; for instance, a garbage can can have 5 slots, garbage container 20 slots, crate 20 slots, desk 5 slots etc. 21. Did I mention an Integrated Zombie Module....? Spawns Zeds at random, choice of crawler/jumper/stumbler/runner as undead/infected or all of the above. Lets face it: we like military shooters, and we hate zombies. As an option that is integrated into ARMA 3 rather than modded. There was a reason the Undead Mod, DZS, and DayZ are so popular. It doesn't have to be the game, but rather an option for fun. And besides, as we all know.... ... the Zombie Apocolypse IS coming. So lets get ready....

It's more than tweaking the Celery stuff, or editing them. Celery's stuff is loop intensive, and works fantastic for a scripted, linear mission that spawns/despawns at triggers with groups more or less in the same localization. It fails when it has to deal with dispersed targets (players) with zeds randomly spawned over wide areas (4+ sq km, or a 2x2 map) You can fix it by: 1) Dumping the Celery scripts and going to a location or player based trigger spawn that makes it a localized spawn/despawn. This gets rid of all the non-triggered zombies but might provoke spawn lag if too many people are up. 2) Dumping the Celery scripts and rethinking new applications of the BIS FNC group spawn command, with zeds as a parameter. This pushes the cpu thinking back into the purer game logic-thinking rather than leveraging script work arounds. 3) Dumping the Celery scripts and going simplistic 'move to nearest' and 'inflict damage after animation within 2m' script with a sound attachment. This streamlines all the other stuff. 4) Dumping the Celery scripts server-side and go to a client-side performance demand like Undead mod. Worst choice. What drew me to DZS was that it is all server side, and you lose a percentage of interest (particularly from new players) by having them go through the complicated BIS process of implementing mods. (My plug: they should change this to downloading the mod if not on local at time of connection, like other FPS do for maps and mods - then the server searches for availability, crc's it for cheats, and says yes/no for joining the server). What sticks out? Dumping the Celery scripts. Now do not misunderstand my opinions: Celery did a bang-up innovative and talented scripting for what it was - a controlled deployment of zeds with either a very local aggression area or less than six players that generally stick together on a smaller map. Thats not what the unwashed masses want. They want continuous, aggressive zeds with a large online participation - the more zeds and more online players the better. What his scripts cannot do is spawn 200 zeds that loop through 30 players locations in the cpu time allotted, on a 12kmx12km playing ield (144km Chenarus, Takistan, or even a 9x9 Zargabad 81km) with everything else that happens on the map (recalc of player positions, bullets flying, smoke and fire, effects and repositions of moveable objects). You really cannot force this big square peg into a small round hole. Plus, nows the time to make the big change to some kind of simple scripting that will migrate well to Arma3, which will more or less have the same issues with probably a greater graphics demand. Get the fix in now, and make it work without glitch so you can put it up as fast as possible for A3. Great work, Craig - keep the faith on this. whiskey

Yep, I've seen it too - but then, after a few minutes (probably game cycles through the ollision meshes) the zeds are sopped by double walled objects like barriers and barbed wire. The zed mechanics for pathfinding also allow them to walk through walls, since probably the actual collision meshes set on the walls have points set too far apart. The closer the marking points for collision meshes get noticed by the game engine, whlie if they are too far apart the engine seems to skip or ignore them. Most of the medium and big construction items will block a zombie after the game cycles through all the objects... time based on map size, and total number of objects. However, if there are too many the game reaches its limit and goes back to the first objct in its cue - so if there are 500 objects, 200 zeds, smoke, fire, etc. the game might only get to object 366 before its loop says 'enough' and jumps back to object 1. The present set up really only works well on maybe eight players and medium to small maps; it will work beyond that but expect lag in item spawn, picking up and loading construction objects, bullets not immediately killing/injuring, and zombies stuck in a null loop when you start having more players, more zeds, ad more object spawns on a bigger map. How can it be fixed? Gotta reduce the number of objects and ai zeds the game engine has to work through, or make those things that are on the map more effecient in the game - what I mean is, is whatever spawned neccessary? is it doing anything toward game play? or is it just standing/sitting there taking up cpu calculation time by existing? Just my guesses, assumptions, and observation. whiskey

Craig, oh awesomeness of the zombieness... OK - I gotta be blunt: I prefer to kill zombies while competing with live players. And unfortunately, with more than 6 players, .95 is painful. I've paid attention to how aggressive the zeds are at start, and they drop off after ten min or so - they're getting choked up somewhere. Further, there has been an increase in lag during zed spawn. There is just too much going on, and prolly unneccessary goings on. How to fix? streamline the zed tracking and detection loops, remove the 'spawn random' obliviating the zeds-in-the-desert-taking-loop-cpu-time-but-never-attacking, change the zed spawns to be player location/time triggered, despawn when no player is within 500m, aggro at 600m. To start. Zed tracking and detection: don't allow any zed actions unless player is within 600m; despawn at 600m and 20sec no player detected; spawn rand (12) zeds at 500m is player moves less than 50m in 10 sec. Spawn zeds based on player location, not random at towns or everywhere. Or, if you must, for atmosphere, spawn no more than 2 zeds per town as super zeds/wanderers. There is an eirie feeling zipping down a quiet, misty chenarus road and passing an undead just stnding there, or stumbling about. There is nothing but annoyance than to see no zeds for 10 min, then to roll out to the desert and see 20 zombies standing around doing nothing. Look hard at all the stuff Celery has going on - and ditch what is unnessary. BIS released a bunch of FNCs that probably can be adapted that might do what celery produced in a full-blown script, stuff like spawngroup, spawnenemy, randomizations, taskattack, etc. with some creative application, who knows? http://www.ofpec.com/COMREF/index.php?action=read&id=231 Some reduction in the dynamic spawns might improve playability - it seems to me too many goodies contributes to the choking, and doesn't really improve gameplay. its good, though, and a blast to get stuff. however, players end up taking guns and ammo for granted, or have the 'meh' factor when there are tons of vehicles and construction items, no impetous to get a car, any car, and keep it working... reducing the number of gun boxes would make the crates more valuable, and reducing the number of vehicles and construction oportunities would do the same. People might recoil from this idea (Damn it! I WANT my unnessary 30 vehicles parked at my 2 acre unnessary superbase! who cares if i never see a zombie?!) but more items screws playability - zeds should be harassing the player non stop, players should always be running shy of bullets and scavenging or trading like mad, barely able to take a break much less build a base, and running on foot half the time, freaking that it takes 5 rounds to take down a zed, and being disappointed often finding a vehicle undriveable, outta gas, or with no weapons or ammo available. I think if you have 30 players with a constant barrage of 1 to 3 zeds average against each player hitting every 3 to 15 seconds would make it panicky yet keep the deployed zeds to an effective and aggressive 100 or so loop paths. Maybe increase the zed damage requirements so they're a tougher opponent? Add stumblers for atmosphere, splashers that detonate into acid goo having 10m effects, spitters that spit damage 10m away, screamers that cause a 20+ strong horde to spawn in? dunno. (ok - it sounds so left4deadish BUT IT CAUSES PLAYER STRESS AND PANIC). I just can't play v95 cause of the choke up, though v90 still works (to some degree) with lower numbers of people, and people still love v90. Just gotta fix the zed aggression and lag before stepping it up any more notches. Go, Craig! whiskey

Just a heads up - Tonic's version RC15 last night had two sessions in a row where zeds were in the 200's and still were fairly aggressive - whether there were tweaks made or whether it was the luck of the draw I couldn't say. That was with about 20 players. So IF changes were made, they seem to hav been for the better. Still not the ravenging, unstoppable hordes we dream of, but better. whiskey

Craig, Probably right now the things that need fixin' are: 1) Zombie dispersal/aggression This can probably get fixed easy by * changing the spawn locations to be based on the player, rather than towns or everywhere * driving the loop to be player based, rather than zed based - 25 loop checks by an MP for any zed, rather than 2500 loop checks by 100 zeds for a any player; it would still trigger a zed action, it would simply originate from a player relationship location rather than a zed location relationship. * extending the aggrogation to 1000, always * despawning/removing zeds not within 500m of a player * keeping a zombie level of no more than 5 zombies per player, average, with an absolute limit of no more than 150 zeds The loop requirements in the time allowed lock up the zeds when there are too many... the zeds are looping each player, so when 100 zeds are on the map with 25 players, there are 2500 loops being done by zeds each 3 sec - when other activity (such as fires burning, bullets flying, lot of mp movement) happens, it chokes the loops and can only get 2000 or so done. When 200 zeds get on the map, and you have 25 players, more than half the zombies never get to do a loop with 5000 being required - after a certain point it goes back to zed #1 without ever hitting zed #100 or so... If the zeds were 3 per player then there would me no more than 75 zeds and 1800 or so loops as oppose to 2500... then the server can handle it. I think I read somewhere what the number of calculations per second was, can't remember exactly, but memory naggs at under 1000 per second, which includes rendering, bullets flying, vehicles moving, explosions, fire, etc... Two ways to fix it: The way to really do this is to have the zeds spawn based on players in a group, one group per player, with a random 3 to 20 zeds per group, at a random time (so that there will never be one group per player at once) essentially staggering the logic demands. The zeds don't all track a player until the group leader is within 30m... until then only the leader tracks the player, with the other zeds doing a more or less dummy follow the leader. Leader dies, next zed in the group take over. When leader is within 30m, the rest of the group kicks into individual attack mode. You can even despawn groups, and use one zed as a place holder until a player approaches close enough (say, 500m) and respawn the group if you wanted to go that direction (instead of removing groups completely). The second way, maybe easier to recode, is to drive all the loop checks for an enemy from the player - if player is within 500m of a zed, then kick in the zed targeting scripts for all zeds within 500m of player... rather than have all the zeds chek all the time, have the players trigger it. Either way would be less proccessing requirements. Maybe a fixed trigger based on location (each town, for instance) with a random chance of a horde being there (5 sec wait, player precense detected, spawn 30 zeds random directions, attack nearest players) just to keep them on their toes. In the end, though, the zombies gotta be tweaked some how to remain agressive when 25 players get on the server. 2) Time sync with server, so everyone has the same day/night schedule This has got to be an easy fix - a server side push that updates the time along with the weather ever ten seconds or so. Its so annoying when some players are in total blackout while others its high noon. 3) Extend the Dynamic Vehicle Spawn Script Use your same script to spawn construction stuff at random (barriers, barrells, empty boxes, etc). Figure out how to spawn stuff in a container in a house (its doable, I'm reading up on it). Break up the random spawns as civBuildingInside, civBuildingOutside, milBuildingInside, milBuildingOutside... so that military related stuff stays around military areas, and civ stuff is found around civ areas. Getting stuff to spawn inside a house adds a whole new demand to scavenging, security demands, and an opportunity to spawn zeds while people are mucking about in towns. Towns become valuable resource points, ad made to be dangerous by random zeds and competing players. Create 'Armorys' at a mil base requiring an engineer 30 seconds to break down the door, maybe requiring explosives... while needing his team to provide security to keep zeds and other players off his back... with the prize being military grade weapons. Could do the same for a 'Police Station' having civ weapons (pistols, shotguns) or "Hospital' having bandages and food... 4) Randomize mission spawns, mission goodies, and mission times Mission spawn locations could be extended toward map edges rather than all around the middle. Its a big map. Might be better to spawn military bases out in the edges and make people hunt for them rather than even mention it as a mission. The base itself can be randomized - there are several bases you can use, including repair and resupply. If you spawn, randomly spread, 1 to 5 military/medical bases around the map, at game start and just have them there never listing as a mission - it'd be more fun, I'd think. The c-130 crash could be changed to an unidentified air crash, and use any one of the air wrecks randomized... just to mix it up. You can use the same framework of the crash mission to have a truck, hmmv, or damaged/out of gas light armored spawn out in the desert with a box of goodies. And a squad of agressive AI spread out protecting it. This mission type can be 'reused' at random, once an hour... Mission goodies rght now are ammo/weapons crates. Randomize the crates and contents, maybe a fuel pallet instead of a crate, or create a medical box with 200 bandages.... when food gets added, put that in the mix... maybe even a small cargo container with randomized construction stuff like H-barriers, sandbag walls, statics, etc. Make it 30 seconds to open the crate - whilst zeds and agressive players are on their way. Not knowing what you're fighting over under pressure is like christmas morning.... it can be exciting or disappointing. Mission times are all at once, or over lap, and are sequential.... randomize the spawn sequence, and time from 10 to 15 min.... it spreads the game scenario out to two hours of moments of hot competition interrupted by planning and base building. Mix up what happens so that its not expected. Maybe get rid of the side-mission warning completely, spawn it, and let players stumble accross it. Maybe change to 'side mission tip off' to a note found on a dead body, or scrawled on a wall, that tips off only that player who finds it when he is within 3m (adding the info to his personal notes list). An aircraft crash could be preceeded by an aircraft going down, or a flash occuring once at the crash site - players would the know something went down in a particular direction, rather than an exact location. Minor changes would make the side missions replayable, reusable, every half hour to keep the challenge and competition level up. I like the helicopter mission in Tonic's version - he's got it nerfed a bit too much, in most players (and mine) opinion. The helicopter type could be randomized, and maybe to completely un-nerf it a sidemission requirement could be 'find the parts to fix the fuel leak', which is a small box that has to be brought back to the chopper and installed by an engineer. That chopper could be valuable, targeted by anyone who doesn't have one, and fun -now its just a noob bleeder. Anyone who really wants the chopper dies getting something thats a hassle, not a benefit. #1 and #2 in my opinion are critical. #3 and #4 would boost the mod up to the next level. Other than that (sweet baby Jesus, is that all?) people are addicted to it, although its more of a tvt apocolypse server, mostly. Get those zeds in and people may be more apt to team up than team against. There has to be, at some point, such a threat level that people have to work together or get eaten by zeds in order for it to be a true zombie mod. Final thought: look at this, and maybe add it? http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=13616 I put this in my personal version and it added a level of stress - could i fix a flat before i was mobbed? And it added an additional scavenge element. Though it'd have to be tweaked to cover all vehicles. Cheers, whiskey

Craig - I've been giving some thought on making the scripts more effecient. Maybe someone on the thread here can comment. The engine identifies eight sides (West, East, Civilian, Resistance, sideLogic, Friendly, Enemy, Unknown) with stock reactions/relationships among them. My thought is if you assigned all the human players the 'Enemy' faction, then everything should attack them without any unique attack scripting. At that point, all zombies are given an invisible weapon (claw) with a range of 1m, and moving/attack animations accordingly,and no fear - and viola - simple zombie attacking with less scripting. Additionally, if you were to script in any missions, the default for all factions would be to attack the players (end of the world, every man for himself apocolypse style); players would remain free to either coop or attack eachother; any future 'rescue' missions of survivors would be focused on just that survivor element being friendly to the players.... which would be less cpu drag than having some kind of loop for all zombies and enemies. Am I making sense, and understanding the realtionship assignments, here? Alternatively, which I think you might already do (I'm still kicking through the code) is to create a faction (zombie/infected/whatever), and make that faction an enemy to all other factions - which would free up Resistance (which I think Zeds are defaulted to now). Anyone know if thats how these things work? I'll be giving them a try this week. Additionally, rather than spawn infected individually, how about spawning them as groups, which would increase the number of Zeds, and have them stick together on an attack? they'd wander around in maybe groups of three to twenty, and only spawn within 500 m of a player.... otherwise you can 'shrink' (depsawn) the group to a one zombie placeholder to reduce cpu logic demands, pathfinding, etc. I don't know how constant spawn/despawn may impact the game fluidity, looping so much.... but maybe have a timer that if a player stays within a 100m area longer than 10 seconds, or is moving at a Zed's speed or slower, the single placeholder zombies spawn out to their group size and start chasing him. Last, I've been playing with the Survivor/Raider spawn script.... and although I haven't put it in game yet, maybe this script is more effecient: ***** //new raider spawn script by whiskey _raider_count = round(random 6) + round(random 6) + 3; \\spawns three to 15 raiders, //assign potential raiders allowing to be selected at random - might be better to just spawn within a class? //maybe add up to three technical armed vehicles to mix? _raider = ["Ins_Commander", "Ins_Soldier_1", "Ins_Soldier_AR", "Ins_Soldier_CO", "Ins_Soldier_MG", "Ins_Soldier_Medic", "Ins_Soldier_Sniper", "Ins_Villager3", "Ins_Villager4", "Ins_Worker2", "Ins_Woodlander1", "Ins_Woodlander2", "Ins_Woodlander3",]; [[getPos _townpos, _raider, _raider_count] call BIS_fnc_spawnGroup;] call BIS_fnc_taskDefend; //maybe change side or assign enemy status here to engage zeds and players? //maybe script in a random time pause 10 to 60 game minutes, then have them move to nearby town? //maybe script in that they take the town as a base, start collecting weapons, ammo, food; start patrolling; get +1 Raiders per game hour; expand to next town as //they grow to a certain size? //mybe script in a random plant ieds or mines, empty out vehicles, eat a captive (food may be scarce?), set some tires on fire, set a roadblock, whatever //end new raider script **** Just some thoughts. whiskey

First, great updates. Second, I've found I've been playing mostly TAW_Titon's modifications that add R3F Logistics,which I'd been playing around with myself. It's a hundred times better in multiplayer. He's also modded the number of zombies, and other stuff. I hope he's in touch with Craig about them. Third, I'm working through these sidemission things, definitely needing improvement. Although its a struggle, I am attempting: 1. sidemission survivors to work the survivor AI into 'followers' for the first person that recruits them, allowing the player to add them to their group, and direct them to man a gun or patrol a 50m area. Also sets them to 'follow' as a patrol, and rearm on their own when they come to a box. Makes the survivors valuable - right now half the time a player kill them for their guns, and they don't shoot back. mission ends when all survivors are recruited or dead. 2. sidemission crash to change up the banits at the crash site to be rand 3 to 12 in groups of three scattered about the crash site, within 100m, and a couple of technicals. Just has a better feel to it. mission ends when all bandits are dead and ammoboxes have been discovered - and i'd like to see the ammo boxes spawned in the plane, and i'd like to see a transport helicopter (east or west) occaisionally take its place to mix it up. plus, i'd like to see a dead factionally correct pilot, copilot, and gunner. maybe instead of just spawning it as crashed, script it going down accross the sky so players can see it, and have it spawn within 500 meters of the marker, making players search for it. 3. trying to develop a zombie wave script, that when more than two players hang out in a location for more than three minutes, multiple waves of zombies spawn at the games configured preffered visual distance (set at start) from random directions, and charge those players. Particularly painful for those trying to maintain the overrun base side mission, as well as tryiing the strongpoint tactic anywher on the map. 3. sidemission of a redforce or blueforce armor/light vehicle column moving accross map pausing at random towns and fuel stations. They are headed 'home' after deserting their United Nations security mission that fell apart in a zombie over run. They attack everyone, are random 1 to 4 vehicles light armor (bmp, bmd, stryker) and light vehicle (truck, hummv w/weapon, technical) and infantry (up to 3 per vehicle) with capturable supplies if the vehicles don't get blown up. Mission ends when all members are killed or if column leave map. trying the convoy mission from Domination as a base. 4. Sidemission bandits take over a critical town. Rand 6 to 18 Bandits spawn at random map edge location, move to a random town, and set up guard/defensive posture, kill zombies and anyone else that passes by. Mission ends when all bandits killed. 5. trying to set a random spawn of searchlights, barrels, crates, misc items that can be used as ad hoc barriers or support using Craig's random vehicle script. Items can be dragged, carried, and stacked based on weight, and some can be loaded into vehicles for long distance to a strongpoint or camp. I've found if i jam a barrel or crate into a doorway, the zombies and anyone else can't enter until its moved. Alos, spawning an empty weapons rack and empty ammo crate that can be moved allows the option to create an indoor armory out of the way of competitive players. 6. fires. Random burning campfires and burning barrels are placed, Additionally, a player can find a 'wood token' and start a camp fire that lasts up to 1 game hour. Barrels burn until put out. 7. Scavenging from vehicles, get parts to make a searchlight but brings damage of car down 33%, may cause it to get destroyed. Might expand on this for advanced auto repair to scavange tires and generic parts that allow repairing other vehicles to get into the green when repaired. 8. Scavenge statics from vehicles with machine guns and automatic grenade launchers. Despawns the vehicle that has the gun, the spawns the static weapon and an unarmed version of the same vehicle next to eachother, takes rand 30 to 45 sec game time, respawned vehicle loses 25% health and may explode. Maybe also work the reverese allowing a weapon to be mounted - maybe requiring a scavenged acetalyne torch? 9. mission where dead body is found with notes on a out of the way location where a special vehicle is spawned in a random condition from destroyed to perfect with some or no fuel and some or no ammo. maybe a United Nations medical or security rally point (small bases with goodies and lots of zeds). maybe a note about a 'dustoff' helicopter pick up at a certain time rand 4 to 12 game hours away at a spawned pick up point, allowing players to either kill the pilots and security to take the transport chopper for themslves, or to get in the chopper and 'escape' for bonus points or special item. mission ends when pilots and security are dead, or player(s) leave map - but players respawn and continue the game. Or maybe the vehicle can be salvaged with special parts or fuel... stryker mortor, anyone? 10. trying to figure out how to spawn the weapon caches in a house. Each 'open' house has at least four ground floor locations.... maybe make a list of viable houses, and a random spawn to those points? Suddenly you have to start searching houses. 11. I've been experimenting with severely nerfing the ammo severely . 300 STANAGS in an ammo box? Really? Just delivered and forgotten before I found it in the midst of the apocolypse? Ammo restrictions would seem to increase the desparation of the scavange, and maybe cause players to band together a bit more. Trying to figure out if I can spawn an 'ammo reloading' bench with storage that when 3 scavenged items are found (generic metal, chemicals, casings) a player can make ammo of his choice (or maybe case restricted?) 12. i want to get the towing feature implemented from R3F Logistics 13. i'll be trying to improve the 'Horde' mission to be three groups of thirty zombies, for a real horde feeling, and have them spawn at maps edge close together and move to nearest town, hang out for rand 5 to 10 minutes, attack any players that enter town, destroy all vehicles and crates before they leave and maybe some houses, then move to a random next nearest town and do it again. 14. sidemission escort UN convoy accross map. convoy follows first non-attacking player that makes contact, random zombie hordes of 30 or so, bandit ambushes, and mines/ied's spawn as well as other players who may just want to seize the UN convoy vehicles and supplies. Mission ends when convoy reaches map exit point on other side of map. 15. remove ammo from gun vehicles, and store the ammo or rearm other gun vehicles of like munitions (east/west ammo) 16. get the shambling zeds, the 'walkers' implemented. they're just scary in the foogy dark. and scarier when i'm down to my last pistol clip. 17. implement 'shove off' (but stroke) when armed with a rifle or shotgun, 'pistol whip' when armed with a pistol, or 'fist strike' when having no weapon in hand. one hit knocks a zed back and pauses it for 3 sec and does random damage. theres already a but stroke script somewhere - but this would be a real bonus to this mod, particularly when surrounded or out of ammo, or not having enough time for a reload. lotta work, wishful thinkings for a guy just figuring out how it all comes together. but i did get R3F Log working, and some novice spawning of items dynamically. anyone who knows how to do any of this, feel free to share.... whiskey

greets Craig. I guess you're a bit of a celebrity... you jumped into a server today and everyone got giddy. Thanks for the mod - its a blast. And since you asked about improvements, suggestions, and missions... 1) I have been struggling to script Fuel Cans to make fuel and vehicles more valuable. Idea is this: a) Fuel Cans found in the Zombified world, carried by a player in inventory taking up six slots and provide 5 bars of fuel when put into a vehicle through a menu choice of 'refuel vehicle'. Maybe loaded in a vehicle taking up same number of slots. b) empty Fuel Cans can be filled up at Fuel Stations and Fuel Trucks automatically, or from siphoned vehicles through a menu tag of 'siphon fuel' when player is within 1m from a vehicle that has fuel, and removes the amount of fuel available but only up to 5 bars - if vehicle has no fuel then no fuels gets siphoned. c) empty barrels may be filled with fuel, or fuel barrels may be found in trucks or at military bases, police stations, factories, refinerys, airfields, and ports. 2) Generators power up lights in a nearby structure. a) find and load a generator b) move it to a building that has an electrical panel on it c) pour fuel into it, and lights come on in building as well as any light attached to/on the building (flood and spot lights) d) generator needs 1 fuel can of fuel per 30 game minutes, 300 minutes with a 42 gal barrel of fuel within 10m or have a fuel truck to refuel, or have unlimited fuel if placed within 10m of a fuel station. 3) build/unbuild spot lights, move spotlights a) take the two headlamps and wiring from a vehicle, the vehicle would no longer be able to have lights - takes up three slots in inventory b) get a pole from a junk pile, takes up 3 slots from inventory c) move to location that has power, by generator or streetlamp d) menu choice of 'build spotlight', and builds a spotlight e) alternatively, game spotlights on the map can be picked up and moved by using menu 'unbuild spotlight 4) anti-personel mines and trip grenades a) demolitions set up a boobytrap or minefield b) use frag grenades or mines, or modify a grenade launcher round c) emplace by menu 'set boobytrap' d) allow recovery of mines and grenades by menu 'recover boobytrap'; modified grenade launcher rounds cannot be recovered, only destroyed. 5) allow the setting up of impromptu 'barriers' a) drag items such as boxes, benches, tables and chairs and put them in front of doors/entry points. b) allow engineers or farmers to create a barb wire fence or place concertina wire 6) Designated Valuable Locations a) set military equipment to random spawn at military bases b) designate a large building as a police station in a city (not village) that has access to indoors as having an armory with ammo and weapons boxes c)have an armory at military base 7) Activate Raiders a) Random spawn of raider enemie groups 3 to 8 that are competing with players for resources. Raiders will attack or snipe, attempt to capture vehicles and empty them of goods, and strip dead players of inventory. b) Raiders may have a base they operate out of, maybe one group scavenges while another defends. They may have supplies, vehicles, and/or a prisoner for the taking. Raiders also kill zombies, and maybe two different raiding groups may fight eachother. Raiders may be from any faction, for instance, a Russian BMP with driver/codriver and four soldiers or six civilians or a US Army SF team gone rouge. c) raiders would set up road blocks of cars on sertain main roads and ambush, plant mines and boobytraps, and generally heighten the sense of danger. 8) random horde spawns when more than three players are within 75m of eachother for longer than a random amout of time (5 to 15 minutes) a horde of zombies (one group of 5 to 15 zombies per player) spawn randmly in different areas at 500 meters and begin to hunt the players down; when one player dies or gets farther than than 500m, the zombies abandon them and pick any player ithin 500m, otherwise the zombie group is removed from the map. Good used in conjuction with 'bases'. 9) Zombie Cap and village/city clearance Have a set cap of the number of zombies, say 5000 for takistan or 10,000 for Chenarus, or whatever selected by Host. As a zombie is killed, it reduces the number. When number reaches zero, no more zombie spawns. When all zombies killed, a win. As cities and villages are 'cleared' no more zombies spawn there, but zombies spawning elsewhere may move into the town. All villages and towns cleared, a win. 10) Restricted communications. Only if someone is nearby direct communicate with them; on the radio allow group chat only. Radios are in military vehicles, at a base, or are possesed by players. Could be an ongoing mission - find radios for everyone, start scavenging military vehicles, dead soldiers, and military bases. Missions: 1) establish a base any player may pick a spot on the map that has no zombies within 100m and declare it through a menu choice as a 'base'. At a set or random time (game hours later) either helicopters arrive, or if at an airport a transport plane, or if at a port a boat arrives to evacuate all survivors. Bases may be restricted at one base per map, or one base per faction (blue, red, green) or be one for any player. Base is removed when player who sets it up dies. A base when spawned is simply a table with a radio on it, and can be spawned in, on any floor, or on top of a building. 2) random radio calls someone trapped in a building with zombies outside it, random time 5 to 15 minutes to rescue. If successful, an ai is available to bring back to your 'base' that may heal players, fix vehicles, or be assigned to man fixed gun positions, or act as moble local security based on their role. They stay at the 'base' only, and await future rescue. Maybe in conjuction with a base it can be a goal for the players to rescue the most amount of people. Must be standing next to a radio to get the call, or be in a military vehicle that has a radio. 3) Information found on a dead body tells of a cache of weapons/fuel/food/radio/unique vehicle/boat/helicopter/United Nations Medical Camp/Military Camp/whatever. It may be shared openly or the player may hold the information. 4) A player finds a transport helicopter, but it needs parts and/or fuel and a pilot. Parts may be at the other airfield, or another downed helicopter. No pilot or if pilot is dead - mission cannot be completed. Maybe also a special vehicle like a repair vehicle or fuel vehicle has a similar problem. 5) a helicopter or cargo plane is seen crashing - investigate - what is on it that can be scavenged - ammo, food, water, a radio? are there survivors? are they friendly? 6) there is a sniper on the loose, targeting players from a distance. Although he doesn't seem to be a great shot, its harassment. Hunt him down while dodging and killing zombies. 7) Random AI's to be rescued and brought back to base or evac point: Doctor, Mechanic, Soldier, Security, Policeman can do a function within 100m of a designated 'base' while waiting for evac. Other AI can be rescued, but draw food/water/medical demands without providing any services. Points may be given for each AI rescued, or a 'reward' such as a AI assigned to you (doctor/soldier/mechanic) as a permanent base minion, food/water/fuel barrel/generator/medical supplies, fixed weapon/ammunition box, intelligence of the location of a special vehicle or cache, or whatever. The Concepts of Food and Water The food an water concept I saw in a zombie game was a bit demanding. It possibly would be better to start a food and water need but based around demands and points. That would be that the player is not penalized for lack of water or food in gameplay - he doesn't die - but he gets points off his score if he doesn't have food or water charged up. When 'full' it takes a game hour to get to zero,and at zero he loses one point a minute for each status of food or water - maybe he also loses 1% of his original speed for each, also. He must 'recharge' by eating/drinking equivelent to his percentage loss. (If he's at 50% water he needs 50 water points). A well or pool of water would provide unlimited water, a 42 gallon water barrel would have 420 water points, a crate of food 500 food points, a bag of food 160 points, a can of food or MRE 10 food points, a rabbit or chicken 10 food points, a goat 50 and a cow 500. Since food and water is now a diminishing resource, people might compete to get it, and may start hunting or defending a water source. Start a cannibal mod and have people be worth 100 food points... If so, allow trucks to load barrels of water and crate of food, maybe pick up trucks and some larger four wheel drives, taking up 27 slots for a crate (cube 3x3x3), 16 for a bag of food, or 42 slots for a barrel of water or fuel. Using the load command used for ammo crates. Since you already have a spawn of vehicles associated with buildings, you can probably associate food, water, and fuel spawns with certain buildings, maybe even inside. Might also be able to make the same system to create a demand in medical supplies and bandages, spawn random field hospitals or assign a big building in a city as a hospital and players raid it for individual supplies or crates of medical items. The Concept of scavenging and repair Damaged vehicles and radios may require repair beyond common engineer fixing. They may need parts sceavenged from other vehicles. For instance, a hummv loses a tire, and has no spare. You have to get another tire from another hummv, or maybe there might be one lying around at a military base. Same for truck tires and vehicle tires. You locate the tire, maybe off the same kind of vehicle or a military base or a gas station, load it into another truck or pick up truck, bring it to the damaged vehicle, and menu selection says 'fix tire'; same to 'remove tire' for scavanging. Maybe electonic components are needed to fix a radio - scavenge for radio parts. The things I like are the settings you have for number of vehicles, amount of spawn stuff, etc. The only thing I might suggest is an option to spawn more than 100 zeds per km - i know the demand on systems might be a drag if they sawn and remain, but I saw a somewhere an idea that zombies not within a certain distance from the player are removed from the map, lowering processing requirements. For all I know you might do this already, I dunno. Most finally, you are a talented guy, and have done up a unique and favorite mod to many. Even if you didn't do any changes, this mod remains addictive. Thanks. whiskey ... and if you need help, I'll do what I can - I'm a smart guy but still learning this scripting for Arma 2.

Oh. And Zombies. Just for those times I want to escape from the reality of fighting real simulated military and rebels.

If the next Generation is easily and infinitely moddable, it'll go a long way to extending playablity and interest. If modders can easily upload vehicle, weapon, and building models; and if they can easily re-skin (or even assign skins, reusing by a model trigger multiple times); if they can set up schemes and scripts without complication - then ARMA will be on its way to being an unforgettable game. I didn't see mentioned melee attacks - using a knife, sword, billy club, brass knuckles, hand and foot attacks - or even pistol whipping, but stroking, or use of a bayonet. The picking up of a common item found in a house - cutlery, poker, chair or table leg. Just the animiations and key strokes to punch, swing/slash, stab, kick and defend against attacks. How many times have we envisioned a special forces type sneaking up on a sentry and dispatching him quietly? Knife fighting underwater? A knockout blow with the but of the rifle, or desparate stab of a bayonet after ammo is gone? Yep. Armed and Unarmed melee attacks. Ability to import and assign values to models. Ease of scripting. Other than whats been mentioned, those three are about it for me.