Snukfin's Server Side Z(S)ombies

[Guest]

Thank you for taking a look, as you say most of the code don't work today, especially the buff. An alternative version of this mods bomber with more of StompyNZ functions is probably the easiest way to do, anyway Im only experienced tweaking/modify existing xml, and have really no idea how to make anything new.

This has been applied to Snufkin's Bomber which is utilising the same exploding cop principle as the suicide bomber.

Applying the original archetype values from the original creator gets the cosmetic look about him.

Replacing the buffs.xml barrel entry with this entry from the game default files and a body placement value from Snufkin's settings gets something, but it may not be as pretty as you hoped because that particle looks like it changed over time.

<triggered_effect trigger="onSelfBuffStart" action="AttachParticleEffectToEntity" target="self" particle="p_onFire" local_offset="0,.1,-.2" local_rotation="0,0,0" parent_transform="Spine"/>

It's something from nothing though and you've definitely waited a long time for something and can now tweak to your heart's content.

Once again with updates, the issue was a change in syntax and formatting. All the best in there.

//3) Was looking for the sound played for scorcher b/c when I killed him the sound remained attached to that spot, even after the corpse was gone. This is usually the case with the looped .wavs.//

Anyone find a fix for this yet?  The sound in that spot after I kill him is a little annoying. 

EDIT: This is also looping the Geist sound.

Thanks Bisawen. There's a similar comment a few posts up and it's way up there on the list of to dos. Geist killed me earlier and the sound followed my player whereever I went after respawn... Now that was annoying and I had to leave and come back again.

 

[BubbaJoe]

Are you all consistently getting the Scorcher and Geist sound loop issue? I just tinkered around with them for a bit and was unable to reproduce it.

 

[Guest]

4) Maybe make the cowhead dude bigger so the skull doesn't look like a kid wearing his dad's hat which is too big.

I tested scaling the Cowhead and while he does scale up, so does his floating distance from the ground and he looks odd as he walking on air.

The alternative is to scale down the Cowhead skull if it's hard to get that looking right. I looked for an attachment scaling command for buffs and can't find one in default files or online. I also looked in the block files for the Cowhead to see if it can take a broad scaling property which would impact every instance though.

<block name="decoCowSkull">
    <property name="Extends" value="decoEntityPolymerMaster" param1="RepairItems"/>
    <property name="Material" value="Mrubble"/>
    <property name="MaxDamage" value="100"/>
    <property name="Model" value="Entities/OutdoorDecor/cowSkullPrefab"/> <property name="HandleFace" value="Bottom"/>
    <property name="FilterTags" value="fdecor,fother,ffurniture"/>
    <drop event="Harvest" name="resourceBone" count="1,4" tag="allHarvest"/>
</block>

Are you all consistently getting the Scorcher and Geist sound loop issue? I just tinkered around with them for a bit and was unable to reproduce it.

I shall test some more on this. Scorcher occured just locally on a client SP, while the Geist occurred on a dedicated server.

 

[Robeloto]

Great work arramus for getting Snufkins zombies mod to work with A19!

@Snufkin, I know I have praised you before for this mod. But please let me do it again.

Your imagination for making custom zombies exceeds mine. I think they are more than amazing! I also have one question for you and that is if I can borrow 2 zeds from yours to mine? I will credit you of course everywhere, even in the xml. I am completely in love with Archon and the Geist. I understand if you don't allow it and then I will only use them on my private server.

Oh, and have a wonderful day!

This has been applied to Snufkin's Bomber which is utilising the same exploding cop principle as the suicide bomber.

Applying the original archetype values from the original creator gets the cosmetic look about him.

Replacing the buffs.xml barrel entry with this entry from the game default files and a body placement value from Snufkin's settings gets something, but it may not be as pretty as you hoped because that particle looks like it changed over time.

<triggered_effect trigger="onSelfBuffStart" action="AttachParticleEffectToEntity" target="self" particle="p_onFire" local_offset="0,.1,-.2" local_rotation="0,0,0" parent_transform="Spine"/>

Tip: If you switch the "p_onFire" particle to "p_fire_small" the console will not spam yellow errors when they hit the ground. They aren't as beautiful, but that is one solution atleast.

 

[Guest]

Tip: If you switch the "p_onFire" particle to "p_fire_small" the console will not spam yellow errors when they hit the ground. They aren't as beautiful, but that is one solution atleast.

Great tip Robeloto and thank you. This may be exactly what the effect needs and will make @xxx73's day as this has been a long process to restore. I can't speak for Snufkin's opinion of course, but Slawa has compiled some of your characters, Snufkin's characters, and some self created characters into a Custom compilation mod with full approval.

 

[Guest]

Tip: If you switch the "p_onFire" particle to "p_fire_small" the console will not spam yellow errors when they hit the ground. They aren't as beautiful, but that is one solution atleast.

Once again, thank you for the tip. This particle fits the concept very well and is closer to the original.

With a few tweaks, the flame has been rotated to trail the bomber and has also been moved down to match that starfish exhaust region. It is ever so slightly away from the body as well to give it that licking effect. However, all this is purely experimental as @xxx73 will have the final say.

Here is the code and explanation.

buffs.xml

<triggered_effect trigger="onSelfBuffStart" action="AttachParticleEffectToEntity" target="self" particle="p_fire_small" local_offset=".3,0,-.2" local_rotation="270,0,0" parent_transform="Spine"/> <!--Robeloto's Tip-->

local_rotation="270,0,0"  - The 270 reflects degrees around the point of origin on a horizontal plain. The attachment was initially coming from his side.

local_offset=".3,0,-.2" - This reflects moving slightly down the spine to the starfish and also a negative value to draw it slightly away from the body.

entityclasses.xml

<property name="Explosion.ParticleIndex" value="5"/> <!--Rocket Particle Exploding / 6 was default-->

This just adds a 'little' more Kaboom.

A few pictures to demonstrate the effect. What a coincidence to be located here.

 

[xxx73]

hehe great work @arramus
Im following your work on old bomber from StompyNZ and I like what I see, any chance you will release this fun guy when done?

 

[Guest]

hehe great work @arramus
Im following your work on old bomber from StompyNZ and I like what I see, any chance you will release this fun guy when done?

Of course, you are welcome to have these files right now. No need to wait

He is still built into the larger mod with all the other characters at the moment. For the future he can be separated as a single entity and renamed so he doesn't conflict with other mods. The only changes I made are as mentioned above. Are you good to:

- Separate him as a standalone.

- Rename all the relevant areas.

- Apply all of StompyNZ's previous assets?

Maybe giving him a totally new name would work.

 

[Guest]

@h0tr0d @BubbaJoe @Bisawen

Attempting to isolate the issue with Scorcher and Geist's looping particle sound at their initial projectile activation point has been a real test...

The first approach was to compare Geist, Scorcher, and Archon, as Scorcher and Archon share the same fire particle, whereas Geist has the electrics. Archon was working just fine, in my case, and I couldn't spot any anomalies. However, changing Geist and Scorcher's particle effect has worked for me.

For Geist, changing from:

items.xml

<item name="ammoProjectileGeist">
    <property name="Meshfile" value="particleeffects/p_electric_shock"/>

to

items.xml

<item name="ammoProjectileGeist">
    <property name="Meshfile" value="particleeffects/p_electric_shock_small"/>

has seen a positive result with the sound not looping. However, going from full on concert electrics to only touching an electric fence on the farm, well maybe weeing on it, has been a bit of a step down. BubbaJoe suggests this isn't an issue and I wonder if this is related to our rigs/set up environment.

For Scorcher, changing from:

items.xml

<item name="ammoProjectileScorcher">
    <property name="Meshfile" value="particleeffects/p_onFire"/>

to

items.xml

<item name="ammoProjectileScorcher">
    <property name="Meshfile" value="particleeffects/p_fire_small"/>

has seen a positive result and actually looks decent. With all the recent changes, it's quite possible these particles got revised and introduced further issues. I hope you can apply this code to your own items.xml files and report back your own attempts. If you could see if the Archon is OK and not causing a loop even though it has the particleeffects/p_onFire property it would be helpful. I shall also test this new setting with Archon as see how it looks.

 

[BubbaJoe]

@arramus So awesome you've taken the initiative with fixing all this stuff. Glad to see everyone working together to build on an already great mod! I just wanted to comment real quick on the noise looping issues, in case it came across that way I wasn't trying to imply it wasn't happening for people as obviously your ears are much more knowledgeable than I am. I was just sharing that I couldn't get it to happen on my end. I'm away from the computer with 7D2D at the moment, but here shortly I'll check the xmls I have to compare them with what you've shared above to see if I notice anything different. The version I'm running is kind of a Frankenstein's monster at this point between some older code from Snufkin, some older and newer code from Slawa, and then some brand spankin' new code from you, plus a fair number of amateur edits by yours truly, so it's hard for me to make 1:1 comparisons without having the xml in front of me. Figuring this stuff out is a great learning experience for me though and I'm glad to see everyone engaging with it in this thread!

Edit:
So I had a chance to compare our items.xml files for the Geist and Scorcher and it immediately became apparent why we were experiencing different things. For the Geist we had entirely different effects from the outset, where it looks like yours was originally:

<item name="ammoProjectileGeist">
<property name="Meshfile" value="particleeffects/p_electric_shock"/>

Mine is:

<item name="ammoProjectileGeist">
<property name="Meshfile" value="particleeffects/p_torch_wall"/>

So our Geist projectiles look very different. This probably explains why I wasn't able to reproduce anything with the Geist. Now, as for the Scorcher, what I found there is that the version I'm running is the same as your changed Scorcher effect, that is:

<item name="ammoProjectileScorcher">
<property name="Meshfile" value="particleeffects/p_fire_small"/>

So we now share the same Scorcher particle effects, though our Geists are still much different. Either way this would explain why we were having much different sound experiences. I believe, but I am not positive, that the Geist effects in my version are the results of Slawa's reworking of the Geist projectiles, so credit goes to Slawa for that if so. I've tweaked the Geist a lot since originally getting the mod, but never touched the particle effects for them as I thought them slinging electric fireball bombs all over the place looked cool.

I've tested your updated Archon quite a bit as the people I play with have wanted him/her? spawned in a lot for them to get murdered by, and so far no sound issues there.

 

[Guest]

@BubbaJoe You went far and beyond with your methodical checking and put a lot into clarity. It looks like this type of change is a known issue and Slawa has implemented in using a preferred method. I also know Roboloto uses the alternative fire particle as he suggested it for another zombie which has flames railing behind him.

The small electric particle has lost some zap but still applies shock and it will work as a temporary fix until otherwise. Archon is very special in that the particle doesn’t cause the same issue and no need to change what isn’t hurting. I’ll add a patch and get these released. 

The additional change will be for the Juggernaut projectile to change from vehicle debris to regular rocket effects. I tested him a lot while inside a building and as he attacked from outside, based on feedback, and in confined spaces any vehicle debris was quite invasive and upset the game physics with warnings. A lot for the server to calculate and cause for potential crashes.

For the future, it would be nice to know the cvars for the particles and projectile impacts to set any looping to false and turn off collision with the biome terrain so they don’t interact. For now, these patches will at least keep stability and reduce gameplay annoyances.

 

[BubbaJoe]

The additional change will be for the Juggernaut projectile to change from vehicle debris to regular rocket effects. I tested him a lot while inside a building and as he attacked from outside, based on feedback, and in confined spaces any vehicle debris was quite invasive and upset the game physics with warnings. A lot for the server to calculate and cause for potential crashes.

After reading your initial post about the Juggernaut projectiles I did some playing around with those as well. I definitely agree with your findings on the vehicle debris, not only were those throwing the most warnings in the console, players were reporting the biggest hits to performance on their end too. After some solo testing I opted for Value 6 on the projectiles and that's probably what we'll stick with. It's nice that such a small tweak adds so much customization! We're also running Slawa's "Baby Juggernaut" which we've assigned different values for, mostly because on our server we've turned the big Juggernaut into a mostly indestructible death machine that can level entire POIs in short order, so testing these tweaks via the Baby Juggernaut has been easier for the players to handle.

 

[Guest]

Updated to Snufkin_CustomZombies_A19.2b3_test_2020Oct08 with stability in mind.

Here is a link for the update.

https://github.com/arramus/Snufkin-CustomZombies-A19.2-b3-2020Oct08

This has also been added to the thread post linked to from the opening post by Snufkin.

This update has 3 changes for issues and a potential issue.

1. items.xml - Scorcher
name="ammoProjectileScorcher"

Changed the following property to a comment and updated it to an alternative particle effect to avoid looping audio at the point of origin when the first instance of a projectile was triggered.

<!--property name="Meshfile" value="particleeffects/p_onFire"/-->
<property name="Meshfile" value="particleeffects/p_fire_small"/>

Just catching the tail end of the regular streaming barrage. The flow has a higher density.



2. items.xml - Geist
name="ammoProjectileGeist"

Changed the following property to a comment and updated it to an alternative particle effect to avoid looping audio at the point of origin when the first instance of a projectile was triggered.

<!--property name="Meshfile" value="particleeffects/p_electric_shock"/-->
<property name="Meshfile" value="particleeffects/p_electric_shock_small"/>

The effect in game is a subtler plasma state.



The effect is just as devastating and causes player shock.



3. items.xml - Juggernaut

Changed the following property to a comment for the time being as this can cause potential issues when a player is being attacked while inside a building in a confined space as the Juggernaut is on the outside. It can lead to debris passing through solid walls. The explosion particle has changed from vehicle debris to the standard rocket blast.

<!--property name="Explosion.ParticleIndex" value="4"/-->
<property name="Explosion.ParticleIndex" value="5"/>

The effect of these changes for server hosts is as follows.

Pre-change using Scorcher as the test subject.



Post-change



Thank you very much to members of the community for your valuable feedback and tips/hints/advice as the pooled effort brought a quicker turn around on a tentative fix.

 

[Guest]

After reading your initial post about the Juggernaut projectiles I did some playing around with those as well. I definitely agree with your findings on the vehicle debris, not only were those throwing the most warnings in the console, players were reporting the biggest hits to performance on their end too. After some solo testing I opted for Value 6 on the projectiles and that's probably what we'll stick with. It's nice that such a small tweak adds so much customization! We're also running Slawa's "Baby Juggernaut" which we've assigned different values for, mostly because on our server we've turned the big Juggernaut into a mostly indestructible death machine that can level entire POIs in short order, so testing these tweaks via the Baby Juggernaut has been easier for the players to handle.

Yes, something like that on lower end systems may be all it takes if calculations get a touch overwhelming.

You went for 6! I love that effect. And that's the beauty of this mod, server/client hosts can tweak the xmls to fully customise the experience and there will always be someone here to answer questions while they build their knowledge. If I knew how to randomise 2, 4, and 6, I would.

 

[BubbaJoe]

Just as a question for arramus and everyone else. Is anyone else having issues with the Archon not using its melee attack very effectively? What's happening is the Archon is aggroing a player and descending toward them like normal, but it just sort of twitches around their player model and really ineffectively tries to melee them. Most of the time it never even manages to hit them with melee, it just kills them via its projectile attack (used at close range) instead. I tried increasing the range of the melee attack for the Archon as I had tested this with good results on the Siren and the Geist, but it doesn't seem to be changing the Archon's behavior. I understand it's part of the core zombie AI to zero in on a player's exact position, even if the zombie has a projectile, but the Archon seems to be doing this to the exclusion of using its melee. Trying to figure out if this is something wonky I've done or if other people are experiencing this.

 

[Guest]

Interesting. I shall spend some more time checking on this as it hasn't been a priority so far but is an important game feature. The only major comparable points between Archon and Geist seem to be the character they extend from and given model type and Archon's probability to retreat when hurt.

 

[Taylorsd]

I through the Z's into Ravenheartst and Holy@#$ 

I love the additions and you showed me that new entities can be created without throwing in new models. I just hope someone with more experience adding new Zombies puts something together

 

[Snufkin]

@RobelotoYou are totally free to use them as you like
--
I haven't checked the code in quite a bit, but the Archon was intended to act as a support zombie in the Bloodmoon (I was inspired in the Archvile from Doom, that besides being able to set you on fire could also revive enemies). I never tried that exhaustively and with the buff shenanigans of the game I wouldn't be surprised it didn't work. I remember if buffed the damage resistance of zombies in a certain radius.

 

 

[h0tr0d]

Just as a question for arramus and everyone else. Is anyone else having issues with the Archon not using its melee attack very effectively? What's happening is the Archon is aggroing a player and descending toward them like normal, but it just sort of twitches around their player model and really ineffectively tries to melee them. Most of the time it never even manages to hit them with melee, it just kills them via its projectile attack (used at close range) instead. I tried increasing the range of the melee attack for the Archon as I had tested this with good results on the Siren and the Geist, but it doesn't seem to be changing the Archon's behavior. I understand it's part of the core zombie AI to zero in on a player's exact position, even if the zombie has a projectile, but the Archon seems to be doing this to the exclusion of using its melee. Trying to figure out if this is something wonky I've done or if other people are experiencing this.

Yes you are correct. 

 

[Guest]

...the Archon was intended to act as a support zombie in the Bloodmoon (I was inspired in the Archvile from Doom, that besides being able to set you on fire could also revive enemies).

Interesting. Yes, I can recall the Arch-vile would sit back in the background and attempt to prologue its own existence while acting as the healer. We would specifically have to take him out to weight the odds back in the players favour. The addition of the Archon's potential to retreat adds to that trait and extends his presence. He is a cool support character and with the concept in mind has more of a background role while the frontline Z take on a very aggressive role.