enZombies - More Zombie Variations

[RAGE PVE]

i may play around with the GoT whitewalkers and Mad Max ideas. loved GoT and mad max series. the trick is whether or not the built-in 7days will have the textures, clothing, and items i can choose from to mimic those styles. since i'm only using UMA elements, i can't create any new textures or items. whitewalkers should be fairly easy as they pretty much are zombies and i can just tint all their textures a bluish white. the mad max style zombies will be fun and challenging.. i'm picturing lots of goggles, blades, clubs, shirtless or lightly clothed zombies, and clothing that's predominantly gray, blacks and browns. too bad zombies can't drive vehicles, or spawn in them, it would be hilarious to see the mad max horde charging you with snufkin server side vehicles.

haha wouldn't it just....but even a horde of mad max zombies will be just crazy fun and that boss being loosly based on the main baddy would be funny!

 

[AndrewT]

here is the rough draft of the first set of biome bosses so far. made some changes and may tweak again down the line. Mr Boe and Ms Stripper included to show size scale. from left to right:

forest biome - freak radiated stag (skinwalker?). charges at you and attacks with antlers.

desert biome - radiated stone elemental. showers boulders with instant knockdown.

snow biome - radiated snowman (should i add a santa hat?). casts a flurry of snowballs that freeze you stiff

burnt biome - radiated fire elemental. sends a barrage of fireballs that bursts into more flames and smoke upon impact.

wasteland biome - radiated metal-infused rocket demo. sends lots and lots of rockets your way..

final game boss: not sure yet...



all biome bosses will have that radiated aura which allows players to easily spot them and keep a distance... which is good, since the radiation will inflict damage if players get too close. ranged weapons are also extremely nurfed against them, which force players into challenging hand-to-hand, or must craft or use the special gear/consumables only obtainable from defeating the easier biome bosses.

the 2nd set of biome bosses will compliment each of these five. i'm thinking about focusing on more flying type enemies..

my idea is a new set of quests for each biome where your tasked with killing several giants of each biome (the giants serving as the bosses minions) which after a few rounds of giant massacres u eventually encounter the boss itself with what you already said ErrorNull all I can say when encountering these bosses have high quality guns and tons of ammo.

 

[ErrorNull]

my idea is a new set of quests for each biome where your tasked with killing several giants of each biome (the giants serving as the bosses minions) which after a few rounds of giant massacres u eventually encounter the boss itself with what you already said ErrorNull all I can say when encountering these bosses have high quality guns and tons of ammo.

i like the idea of boss minions. now how players will actually encounter these minions (as well as my main bosses) themselves is something else that needs to be decided. below are how i see it so far. option 2 and 3 will not be practical for zombies that are very large

1) spawning outside by way of random wilderness spawn, wandering horde, or screamer horde

2) spawning inside POIs by way of random sleepers

3) spawning inside POIs during clear/retrieve/restore trader quests

4) spawning outside during during buried treasure trader quests

5) spawning outside by reading/activating a zombie kill challenge quest

6) spawning outside after open chest from treasure map

7) spawning during bloodmoon horde night

 

[magejosh]

Or, as a suggestion you could look at this other option. PM if you have questions or issues with it and i'd be happy to help.

8.) Spawning via GameEvent called on by buffStatusCheck01 because it noticed you have killed enough boss minions that your xBiomeBossMinionCount cvar is GTE10.

The advantage here is it reacts to wherever the player is, and you can utilize the gave event mechanics to make the boss immortal until all minions are killed or vice versa, and you can spawn random minions to scale up in number relative to GS.

 

[ErrorNull]

Or, as a suggestion you could look at this other option. PM if you have questions or issues with it and i'd be happy to help.

8.) Spawning via GameEvent called on by buffStatusCheck01 because it noticed you have killed enough boss minions that your xBiomeBossMinionCount cvar is GTE10.

The advantage here is it reacts to wherever the player is, and you can utilize the gave event mechanics to make the boss immortal until all minions are killed or vice versa, and you can spawn random minions to scale up in number relative to GS.

hmm that's a very interesting idea. with this method i can still have the biome boss spawn to a specific biome because i can currently force the boss minions to only spawn in certain boimes by way of the random wilderness biome groups. i like the idea. unfortunately, the wilderness biome groups don't scale with GS. however, there are entitygroups that do scale with GS, like the wandering horde (only goes up to GS 50), bloodmoon (goes GS 4000+) and screamer horde (goes up to 5700+). but, these are not specific to certain biomes... which means my snow boss minion might spawn in the desert, or wasteland boss minion will spawn in the forest.   any other ideas you know of that can work around that?

regardless though, i'll look into the buffStatusCheck01 mechanic. i can still create some general purpose minions and bosses that is not specific to certain biomes.

 

[magejosh]

hmm that's a very interesting idea. with this method i can still have the biome boss spawn to a specific biome because i can currently force the boss minions to only spawn in certain boimes by way of the random wilderness biome groups. i like the idea. unfortunately, the wilderness biome groups don't scale with GS. however, there are entitygroups that do scale with GS, like the wandering horde (only goes up to GS 50), bloodmoon (goes GS 4000+) and screamer horde (goes up to 5700+). but, these are not specific to certain biomes... which means my snow boss minion might spawn in the desert, or wasteland boss minion will spawn in the forest.   any other ideas you know of that can work around that?

regardless though, i'll look into the buffStatusCheck01 mechanic. i can still create some general purpose minions and bosses that is not specific to certain biomes.

Oh, no, using a game event you can define as many different game stage events as you want so only the particular minions and bosses spawn at that gamestage, and then you can duplicate the event for each biome. then use the buff that gives the game event to separate out using the biome requirement for the triggered effect which does the callGameEvent and make one for each biome with the biome requirement for that line. If i get some time tomorrow i'll try to write out a template example of the method to better illustrate what i'm trying to say here. I'm not good at explaining my thoughts on these chain event type things. Wait, i have an example sorta, though the hook is buffswhenwalked on it does illustrate the game events well and how to game stage them. 
This mod requires 0-SCore and the 1-NPCXSpiderPack mods to run. But you don't need to run it to look at the methods used in the xml. Now keep in mind you will be calling on the spawning buff/gameevent differently to achieve what you want, but this could at least show the gameevent side of this equation for now. 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TLrl2hwMzwvy14AO8vmoqbOyCrjxCRmF/view?usp=sharing

As for how to hook into buffStatusCheck01 and track cvars for a purpose the best example i can think of is Jaxteller's action skills mod. Though in that case instead of putting the cvar tracker trigger on the items, you would need to put it on playermale entityclass because your trigger needs to be onselfKilledOther with a tag requirment on other being unique to the boss minions. 

 

[dujinyuan]

oh！~god！ I can't take this anymore!~~~~~This Screamer girl is killing me! She screaming~！And here comes another Screamer...Just like that！~They are too many....They will kill me！And i can't do anything ....eh.....hey man...just help...SOS.......Can i just left the Screaming girl alone？

 

[ErrorNull]

Oh, no, using a game event you can define as many different game stage events as you want so only the particular minions and bosses spawn at that gamestage, and then you can duplicate the event for each biome. then use the buff that gives the game event to separate out using the biome requirement for the triggered effect which does the callGameEvent and make one for each biome with the biome requirement for that line. If i get some time tomorrow i'll try to write out a template example of the method to better illustrate what i'm trying to say here. I'm not good at explaining my thoughts on these chain event type things. Wait, i have an example sorta, though the hook is buffswhenwalked on it does illustrate the game events well and how to game stage them. 
This mod requires 0-SCore and the 1-NPCXSpiderPack mods to run. But you don't need to run it to look at the methods used in the xml. Now keep in mind you will be calling on the spawning buff/gameevent differently to achieve what you want, but this could at least show the gameevent side of this equation for now. 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TLrl2hwMzwvy14AO8vmoqbOyCrjxCRmF/view?usp=sharing

As for how to hook into buffStatusCheck01 and track cvars for a purpose the best example i can think of is Jaxteller's action skills mod. Though in that case instead of putting the cvar tracker trigger on the items, you would need to put it on playermale entityclass because your trigger needs to be onselfKilledOther with a tag requirment on other being unique to the boss minions. 

ok this is good. i will definitely need to review those examples.

oh！~god！ I can't take this anymore!~~~~~This Screamer girl is killing me! She screaming~！And here comes another Screamer...Just like that！~They are too many....They will kill me！And i can't do anything ....eh.....hey man...just help...SOS.......Can i just left the Screaming girl alone？

oops yea. be sure to kill the screamers as soon as you hear them, or they can call other screamers too.. and start pounding on your base. don't forget to turn off forges, campfires and other heat sources if you don't need them at that moment. i've been in situations where i got overrun by the screamer horde and it was almost like a bloodmoon horde during the day lol. i would run away from the area and try to just kill off the screamers first.

 

[Guest]

I was 'pinged' in a Rage PVE server Discord message about the bug where entities are spawning as invisible and did some deeper analysis to check for potential issues. It goes as follows:

A client side console popup error while in Shotgun Messiah (factory_lg_02)

2022-07-06T08:59:47 2733.905 EXC NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
2022-07-06T08:59:47 2733.952 INF Discarding NetPackagePlayerStats for entity Id=41459
2022-07-06T08:59:48 2735.058 INF Discarding NetPackagePlayerStats for entity Id=41457

This was recorded and helped with locating where it happened, what volume is operating, and who should spawn.

Group: Zom Utility Worker - Possible 5 to spawn out of 9 waiting.



It appears that 1-2 entities bugged out as the video only shows 4 spawning for this area when it should have been 5. However, the console error infers 2.

The player level was about 57 and under GS100.

This GS group shows a double entry for enUtilityFemale1 where the second one was potentially supposed to be enUtilityFemale2 as per other groups and the corresponding Feral version. That double entry may have been enough to bug things out on this occasion. Fine toothed comb time it appears.

<append xpath="/entitygroups/entitygroup[@name='zombieUtilityWorkerGroupGS50']">
	<entity name="zombieUtilityWorker" prob="0.85"/><entity name="zombieUtilityWorkerFeral" prob="0.1"/>
	<entity name="enUtilityFemale1" prob="0.85"/><entity name="enUtilityFemale1Feral" prob="0.1"/>
	<entity name="enUtilityFemale1" prob="0.85"/><entity name="enUtilityFemale2Feral" prob="0.1"/>
	<entity name="enUtilityMale1" prob="0.85"/><entity name="enUtilityMale1Feral" prob="0.1"/>
	<entity name="enUtilityMale2" prob="0.85"/><entity name="enUtilityMale2Feral" prob="0.1"/>
	<entity name="enUtilityMale3" prob="0.85"/><entity name="enUtilityMale3Feral" prob="0.1"/>
	<entity name="enUtilityMale4" prob="0.85"/><entity name="enUtilityMale4Feral" prob="0.1"/>
	<entity name="enUtilityMale5" prob="0.85"/><entity name="enUtilityMale5Feral" prob="0.1"/>
</append>

 

[Guest]

Additional entries that may require purging, changing, or increasing prob depending on the intention.

Line 43 <entity name="enJoggerFemale5"/>

Line 44 <entity name="enJoggerFemale5"/>

Line 44 <entity name="enJoggerFemale5"/>

Line 100    <entity name="enJoggerFemale5"/><entity name="enJoggerFemale5Feral" prob=".25"/>
Line 101    <entity name="enJoggerFemale5"/><entity name="enJoggerFemale5Feral" prob=".25"/>
Line 102    <entity name="enJoggerFemale5"/><entity name="enJoggerFemale5Feral" prob=".25"/>

Line 218     <entity name="enBusinessman3" prob="1.5"/><entity name="enBusinessman3Feral" prob=".5"/>
Line 219    <entity name="enBusinessman3" prob="1.5"/><entity name="enBusinessman3Feral" prob=".5"/>

Line 421    <entity name="enStripper1"/><entity name="enStripper1Feral" prob=".5"/>
Line 422   <entity name="enStripper1"/><entity name="enStripper1Feral" prob=".5"/>
Line 423  <entity name="enStripper1"/><entity name="enStripper1Feral" prob=".5"/>
Line 424   <entity name="enStripper1"/><entity name="enStripper1Feral" prob=".5"/>

Line 2536        <entity name="enLabCreatureFemale3" prob="1.0"/>
Line 2537       <entity name="enLabCreatureMale3"     prob="1.0"/>
Line 2538      <entity name="enLabCreatureFemale3" prob="0.25"/>
Line 2539       <entity name="enLabCreatureMale3"     prob="0.25"/>

Line 2546        <entity name="enLabCreatureFemale3" prob="0.75"/>
Line 2547       <entity name="enLabCreatureMale3"     prob="0.75"/>
Line 2548      <entity name="enLabCreatureFemale3" prob="0.50"/>
Line 2549       <entity name="enLabCreatureMale3"     prob="0.50"/>

and GS 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200 for this set to Line 2549.

I was not thorough for scoutHordeStage, sleeperHordeStage, and feralHordeStage, and just checked the first line as that is far too much.

Definitely needs additional eyes on this, but a first scan.

 

[ErrorNull]

thanks @arramus and @RAGE PVE for your time in finding these. i'll remove the duplicates for the next update and hopefully that will help in reducing/eliminating these NRE's that result in producing our beloved invincible invisible zombies.

 

[AndrewT]

Actually ErrorNull i got the perfect idea for the mega boss if you still haven't decided on it yet. the final boss should be a huge wolf at x3 size thats void black with the green radiated glow and that should be named "skinwalker" I had this idea because in Navajo legend a heavily decayed wolf is is the most common form a skinwalker takes another good reason for this idea is the fact that the forest biome is the biome most commonly used by players when building bases.

 

[RAGE PVE]

Just an update for this, the problem still persists in the updated file I will try and find the invisible zombie again and when it spawns I'll then try to spawn all the other zombies in just to see what happened, long shot but never know.....the zombie does die however from spikes and one player reported he had to use this method in order to end his quests as it was literally the last zombie, which if pretty concerning as I guarantee most players here would have probably been killed by the zombie instead, you can imagine that frustration can't you at the end of large quest.......overall though this pack of zombies is a gamechanger literally, maybe we get lucky...

If anyone wants to visit a live server running this pack to help bug test and find this gremlin feel free to ping me and I'll send you the deets over, cheers

 

[ErrorNull]

Actually ErrorNull i got the perfect idea for the mega boss if you still haven't decided on it yet. the final boss should be a huge wolf at x3 size thats void black with the green radiated glow and that should be named "skinwalker" I had this idea because in Navajo legend a heavily decayed wolf is is the most common form a skinwalker takes another good reason for this idea is the fact that the forest biome is the biome most commonly used by players when building bases.

sounds like a great idea for a 'final' boss for the forest biome. actually using @magejosh buffs suggestion, i may just create a higher tier of bosses for each biome.

 

[ErrorNull]

HP Settings Mod Added

now you can adjust the HP of every enzombie, vanilla zombie or animal with this settings mod. want to double their HP? sure! want to reduce there HP, no problem.

you can also customize or disable the random variation rage which will apply to all zombies and animals. the current range is 0% to %20, which means that all zombies will receive an extra zero to 20% bonus to their max HP when spawned. you can also use negative values like -10% to 10%. lastly, a range of 0% to 0% will simply disable the HP random variation.

you can download this from the enZombie Settings Add-on link that's part of the "Add-Ons" section of the main mod page. alternatively, here's the direct github download link: https://github.com/ErrorNull0/enZombiesSettings/blob/main/enZombiesSettings10Hp/readme.txt

@RAGE PVE and @arramus thanks for your continued tshooting on the invis zombie bug. here's what we've gathered so far from what i've seen: only occurs during a trader clear quest, while player explores inside the POI and triggers sleeper volumes. at some point, player activates a sleeper volume that is near a 'problem' region or object in that POI -- which then triggers a NullReferenceException (NRE) error. there is a small chance that when the NRE occurs as zombies are spawned from that sleeper volume, that one zombie glitches out and spawns without a mesh, prefab, or some characteristic that's needed to visually display the zombie on-screen. even though melee and ranged weapons cannot hit, it appears the invis zombie's collision box is still intact, because it still paths around objects and can be killed by fire and spikes. this unlucky (or lucky?) zombie can be a UMA zombie or vanilla style zombie. it also appears this invis zombie only occurs in multiplayer and that when it happens, the console also shows messages regarding the discarding of netPackageEntityRagdoll and netPackagePlayerStats for an entity. maybe some genius out there can see another possible cause from these clues we've found so far. meanwhile just in case, keep some spikes on hand while doing those Clear quests!

 

[AndrewT]

sounds like a great idea for a 'final' boss for the forest biome. actually using @magejosh buffs suggestion, i may just create a higher tier of bosses for each biome.

here is the perfect expansion on the idea. after killing the regular biome bosses they have a chance to drop a red quest note that gives the player a 5 level quest towards the final boss of each respective biome. the first 4 levels are simply killing an increasing number of giants from each biome before finally encountering the final boss. and as an upgrade to the reward system i found a mod on nexus that increases the drop chance for all zombies I asked the mod creator if he could make dropping multiple bags work for certain zombies and he said he liked the idea especially for bosses. much like how in other RPG games bosses tend to drop tons of good loot like a fountain.

 

[HeIrAkI]

This addon makes the game so much more entertaining. Love it!

However i notices some strange behavior.

If you path a way for the zombies and block the path but keep a height of 1 block open. Original zombies start to crawl that space and slows down a little to reach you.

The addon zombies just walks through like nothing is blocking the path. (but half the body is within blocks).

Is there a reason or setting for this behavior?

 

[ErrorNull]

This addon makes the game so much more entertaining. Love it!

However i notices some strange behavior.

If you path a way for the zombies and block the path but keep a height of 1 block open. Original zombies start to crawl that space and slows down a little to reach you.

The addon zombies just walks through like nothing is blocking the path. (but half the body is within blocks).

Is there a reason or setting for this behavior?

Hi @HeIrAkI - glad you like the zombies. the ability for the vanilla zombies to crawl through 1 block spaces is fairly recent, and they show the crawling animations as they crawl through which is pretty cool. the uma zombies (most of my zombies use uma) never got that special crawling animation added, since the devs are no longer supporting/updating the uma mechanic. technically, my uma zombies are crawling through the 1 block spaces just like the vanilla zombies, but they don't show the crawling animations when they do so.

 

[HeIrAkI]

Hi @ErrorNull!

Thank you for your answer. Then i know the reason

 

[ErrorNull]

enZombies v2.8 Progress:

the biome bosses as coming along. researching a bit more on buff and trigger events that can hopefully give me better control on how they spawn out in the wilderness. i prefer not to have them just randomly pop up at any gamestage level.

i'm also working on some wandering traders using UMA - so their looks are easily customizable just like the UMA zombies. i never really liked the current stationary trader and trader quests -- as i felt it made the game too easy to power up. randomly spawning wandering traders would also encourage more exploration of all biomes and less incentive to just park a base in one spot and not explore other biomes. as with everything else, these traders will be server side only as well. there's still some fine tuning.. but i'm expecting to have these traders ready along with the main v2.8 update. stay tuned.