enZombies - More Zombie Variations

[ErrorNull]

lol, its funny seeing the zombies being knocked back by the wandering trader. Saw the trader in the downtown of city while I was in godmode. Just bam! Zombie goes flying. 

hehe yes. zombies better not mess with those wandering traders.. for now. at least until alpha 21 when the traders will be able take damage and die....

Hey EN, since there is a lot of silence here since a few days, I thought of reminding you that you need to look your screamers look evil (If possible) and I have a suggestion for your Z group. A devil looking big Z, throws a chain at the player and pulls the player towards him. I dont know if it is possible though. 

oh like this?

unfortunately the uma archetypes i use the create the zombies only has available what is already built into the game. so since there are no chain weapons in 7 days, i have no such weapons to add to the zombies..... . oh and yes, i'm looking into more screamers that can look scarier. have you seen the Queen Athena zombie @arramus made recently for his Snufkin zombies mod? look very cool. you can use that as a screamer.

First off, love the mod, all the creative names, and sending zombies flying. Besides when I send them off the roof and out of the quest area at least. Gotta pull my punches there.

lol yeah you gotta watch that. i've been looking into ways to reduce the super soaring effects and seems like there might be at least some way with the explosives. unfortunately it may be a dead end with most other weapons.

The only other issue I've run into is that neither the biome bosses nor the final boss will spawn for me when attempting to manually spawn them.

the biome and bosses and final boss is actually not ready for showtime and not assigned to any spawning code. but those hand items (referred to by your errors) do exist and you should be able to manually spawn them in DM mode via F6 menu. i'm currently able to spawn those bosses in ok. do you have any other mods that make any changes to the items.xml file?

 

[Numairus]

I just tried to spawn them again through the F6 menu and got the object reference error. I removed all mods and did a fresh copy of enZombies to remove any chance of me meddling around and messing something up. You said the items.xml file, I can see the boss hand items in the entityclasses file, but only the businessman and scientist boss hands are in my items file. I have version 2.7 of the mod and version a20.6(b9) of the game. I'm assuming the hand items are supposed to be in the items file and it's throwing errors at me because the zombies are trying to spawn in with non-existent items?

I just went to the main page and saw that version 2.71 is out. I downloaded that, verified that the hand items are in the items file, and I can spawn in the bosses now. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction to figure that out.

On an unrelated note, is there a good discord around for general modder questions? I'm interested in doing a bit of modding and I'm sure I'll run into some issues.

 

[ErrorNull]

I just tried to spawn them again through the F6 menu and got the object reference error. I removed all mods and did a fresh copy of enZombies to remove any chance of me meddling around and messing something up. You said the items.xml file, I can see the boss hand items in the entityclasses file, but only the businessman and scientist boss hands are in my items file. I have version 2.7 of the mod and version a20.6(b9) of the game. I'm assuming the hand items are supposed to be in the items file and it's throwing errors at me because the zombies are trying to spawn in with non-existent items?

I just went to the main page and saw that version 2.71 is out. I downloaded that, verified that the hand items are in the items file, and I can spawn in the bosses now. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction to figure that out.

On an unrelated note, is there a good discord around for general modder questions? I'm interested in doing a bit of modding and I'm sure I'll run into some issues.

awesome yes, the v2.71 will do it. Guppy has his well known discord server. i ask questions there all the time.. and it's where pretty much most all the modders hang out and do their work. i'll dm you an invite.

 

[Huie]

Hi ErrorNull, I've met a problem in which all raid quests show no distance and other information (for example, the distance is 0.0m, and there's no exclamation point on the map).

Hope you can see my reply and maybe enlighten me somehow.

 

[ErrorNull]

Hi ErrorNull, I've met a problem in which all raid quests show no distance and other information (for example, the distance is 0.0m, and there's no exclamation point on the map).

Hope you can see my reply and maybe enlighten me somehow.

thanks for letting me know. a few things to check:

- when you load the game do you see any warning or error messages?

- were you able to play the raid quests ok during some earlier time?

- what mods do you have that load after enZombies mod?

- if you are able to share the quests.xml from your configsDump folder, that could also give us hints on what is wrong. the configsDump folder is located here:

on Windows - \AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie\Saves\NAME_OF_YOUR_MAP\nameOfYourSaveGame\ConfigsDump\quests.xml

 

[Huie]

thanks for letting me know. a few things to check:

- when you load the game do you see any warning or error messages?

- were you able to play the raid quests ok during some earlier time?

- what mods do you have that load after enZombies mod?

- if you are able to share the quests.xml from your configsDump folder, that could also give us hints on what is wrong. the configsDump folder is located here:

on Windows - \AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie\Saves\NAME_OF_YOUR_MAP\nameOfYourSaveGame\ConfigsDump\quests.xml

I thought I may know the reason.

First I thought it's the mod problem, but even after I delete all the mods and re-download the game, the problem still exists.

Just now I guess maybe it's the map? Cuz my map is not default but made by other modders, in which many new prefabs exists.

And it really turns out in the new map, the problem occurs, but it won't happen in a default map.

thanks for letting me know. a few things to check:

- when you load the game do you see any warning or error messages?

- were you able to play the raid quests ok during some earlier time?

- what mods do you have that load after enZombies mod?

- if you are able to share the quests.xml from your configsDump folder, that could also give us hints on what is wrong. the configsDump folder is located here:

on Windows - \AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie\Saves\NAME_OF_YOUR_MAP\nameOfYourSaveGame\ConfigsDump\quests.xml

But I remember back in A19, everything ran fine even in a un-default map.

 

[ErrorNull]

Cuz my map is not default but made by other modders, in which many new prefabs exists.

And it really turns out in the new map, the problem occurs, but it won't happen in a default map.

i see. does the new custom map have traders? maybe my raider quest is having issue with how the traders are setup in the new map. but you're right, if the issue does not happen on the default maps, then it could be related to how the custom map is setup somehow.

 

[AndrewT]

ok why is it that i cant road kill enZombies with the vehicles

 

[Numairus]

The UMA zombies didn't get the collision with vehicles added to them like normal zombies. Gonna have to jump out and whack them.

Is the final boss supposed to be harder than the others? It seemed rather easy to me, but that could be because of mods that I'm running. I have extra healing and armor. In terms of HP though the wasteland boss seems to have a lot more. Haven't poked around the files yet to verify any of this.

 

[ErrorNull]

ok why is it that i cant road kill enZombies with the vehicles

yea it's a shortcoming of the UMA system unfortunately. below are other bugs with UMA type zombies that i listed on my main mod page in case you weren't aware:

• UMA zombies fly amazing distances when struck with a powerful attack. Their physics seem to be more 'floaty' compared to the vanilla zombies. This also results in the occasional zombie getting stuck into nearby walls and bars when explosions and powerful attacks send them rag-dolling overhead. To some this is a bug, to others this is a feature.
  
• UMA zombies do not collide with player vehicles whether driven or parked. So the zombies will simply walk right through them. This behavior does not occur with the abandoned POI vehicles that litter the landscape. UMA zombies interact with them like normal. When zombie vehicle collision was added to the vanilla zombies, the devs did not add that feature to the UMA system.
  
• UMA zombies don't get shocked when walking into electric fence traps.. not really, at least. It seems that if they are knocked down while on the fence, they will occasionally get shocked! Stun batons behave normally and shock the zombies just fine.
  
• UMA zombies do not show the crawling animations when they crawl through the 1 bock spaces. The ability for zombies to crawl through 1 block spaces is fairly recent, but the devs did not implement that update for the UMA system.
  
• UMA zombies appear to cause a 'micro-freeze' or stutter in the game each time a set number of them are spawned. This was not the case (or it was very insignificant) in Alpha 19. The number of zombies that trigger this stutter seem to range from 5 to 8. Thus, while exploring POIs and encountering sleeper zombies, or fighting through horde night, there will be a short stutter when every 5th to 8th UMA zombie is spawned in. The severity of the micro-freeze might depend on your system specs, but it's not completely certain at this point.
  
• There is a NullReferenceException error that can occur when sleepers are spawning inside POIs. Majority of the incidents are occurring during trader Clear or Fetch quest, and can sometimes even result in a sleeper zombie being spawned invisible - which can be a vanilla or UMA zombie. They can still be killed with traps, grenades, and turrets, and with the right mods installed you can sense their location when crouching. So far, these NRE errors seems to be intermittent and not tied to a specific POI or zombie type. If you encounter this NRE error please take a screenshot, or send me the log, with the POI name and if the error was repeatable later at the same POI. This will help with investigating further.
  

Is the final boss supposed to be harder than the others? It seemed rather easy to me, but that could be because of mods that I'm running. I have extra healing and armor. In terms of HP though the wasteland boss seems to have a lot more. Haven't poked around the files yet to verify any of this.

the biome bosses and final boss is not complete yet, which is why they do not spawn in the game. you're welcome to experiment with them in dm mode, but their attack strength, attack effects, HP, Experience, body loot, body harvest items, buff effects and special weapon buffs are not implemented yet. these will change once they are ready.

 

[Numairus]

Ok, I wasn't sure if they were finished and just not implemented or still a work in progress. I was considering making a quest chain (or multiple) for my server to kill each biome boss then the final.

 

[Ganeshakw]

Hey EN, these single single Zs, like Zulk, Queen Athena, Dimond Something etc ; cant they directly be a part of Enzombies team rather than creating patches for them ?

 

[ErrorNull]

Ok, I wasn't sure if they were finished and just not implemented or still a work in progress. I was considering making a quest chain (or multiple) for my server to kill each biome boss then the final.

that's cool. you're welcome to do whatever to the xml and put them into your own quest chain. once i'm done with those bosses, i have a specific sequence for players to encounter, defeat, and loot them for materials to progress to the final boss.

Hey EN, these single single Zs, like Zulk, Queen Athena, Dimond Something etc ; cant they directly be a part of Enzombies team rather than creating patches for them ?

those mods are not my creation, and i only create patches for them so that they can spawn using my own biome rules and allow optional body harvest. other than that, i don't touch any of the those zombie characteristics, like HP, XP, attack strength, or what not. when i keep them separate with a patch, it makes it easier for players to choose which zombies they want (and don't want) and only install the patch they use. otherwise they will need to ask me to create special versions of enZombies for whichever combinations zombies they want or don't want. it also makes it easier on me so when the original mod author updates their mod and makes changes to their zombies, i don't need to constantly duplicate those change inside enZombies code if i had combined their code with enZombies. the player just downloads the latest version of that original zombie mod, and can use the existing patch that i have for it.

 

[Ganeshakw]

Understood. 

 

[ErrorNull]

may have went a bit overboard on the new farmer zombie variations.. but still need to add 8 more. will explain further later, but just know that barns and farm POIs will be more interesting from here on out...... 

 

[Numairus]

You don't have to be lonely, at FarmersOnly.

If we're using the Darkness Falls mod can we just toss in the patches for the enemies that it includes? It has spiders and the behemoth at least. Not sure what else since I haven't played it or dug through the files yet.

Do the UMA zombies work like the server side vehicles where it spawns with the model of an existing asset, attaches a new model, then hides the original?

 

[ErrorNull]

You don't have to be lonely, at FarmersOnly.

If we're using the Darkness Falls mod can we just toss in the patches for the enemies that it includes? It has spiders and the behemoth at least. Not sure what else since I haven't played it or dug through the files yet.

Do the UMA zombies work like the server side vehicles where it spawns with the model of an existing asset, attaches a new model, then hides the original?

all the zombie mod patches in my "Patches" section have not been tested with Darkness Falls, so it's possible will result in some errors or unexpected behavior. i would like to make a patch for it in the future though. DF appears to be a very popular overhaul mod.

the UMA zombies do not use any of the vanilla zombie 3d meshes (like for boe, darlene, soldier, screamer, etc). instead, it constructs the zombies from the UMA body mechanics that players use to create/customize their player avatars. as a matter of fact, if you go into the player profiles screen, you will actually see all the UMA zombies listed there which you can choose to act as you player avatar. and so all the clothing, skin and body shape variations you see for the UMA zombies are simply existing different combinations of player assets (hair, skin, clothing) that are re-colorized or resized. then those completed 'zombies' borrow the built in zombie animations and AI to act as zombies.

 

[Numairus]

Ah, so they're Frankenstein zombies. I sometimes have issues with server side vehicles not replacing the base mesh properly and I was wondering if the invisible zombies were the result of a similar issue, but it doesn't seem like it.

I've been running Sorcery on my server and I'm about to wipe it and run Darkness Falls in addition to Sorcery. After a short look into the files it looks like the names of some of the creatures were changed which means the patches wouldn't work on them any more. I've been going through and slowly, but surely making mods play nice with each other. So far I've been doing it mostly by editing files directly and commenting out parts that throw warnings due to DF changing things just so I can clean up the piles of warnings you get when you throw 100+ mods together.

 

[ErrorNull]

Ah, so they're Frankenstein zombies. I sometimes have issues with server side vehicles not replacing the base mesh properly and I was wondering if the invisible zombies were the result of a similar issue, but it doesn't seem like it.

I've been running Sorcery on my server and I'm about to wipe it and run Darkness Falls in addition to Sorcery. After a short look into the files it looks like the names of some of the creatures were changed which means the patches wouldn't work on them any more. I've been going through and slowly, but surely making mods play nice with each other. So far I've been doing it mostly by editing files directly and commenting out parts that throw warnings due to DF changing things just so I can clean up the piles of warnings you get when you throw 100+ mods together.

sounds like fun.  one suggestion is to create one mod that loads last on the stack, and then aggregate all your tweaks into that mod.... instead of making the changes directly within each individual mod. that way it's so much easier to keep track, and when a particular mod releases a new version, you don't have to try and redo whatever changes that you did directly in that updated mod. your special last-loading mod will likely keep working without much changes.

 

[ErrorNull]

enZombies v2.8 Progress:

26 new farmer zombies are now completed. add that to my existing 5 farmer zombies and that totals 31 farmers. this should now be adequate to provide enough variety to the farm and barm POIs out there.

these farmers were designed for 3 different scenarios:

- farm workers, spawns outside in the fields or in the barns. can wield farm tools like hoes, shovel, buckets, etc.

- farm dwellers, spawns inside the homes. empty handed residents.

- farm brutes, stronger farmers that spawn primarily near the main loot/stash rooms. big and wields weapons.

they will also often carry farm related resources as body loot - like seeds, crops, clay, and small stones.

at this point, pending tasks are creating the feral and radiated versions, actually adding them into all the spawning groups (biomes, wandering horde, screamer horde, sleeper POIs, bloodmoon horde, etc), adding unique names to the localization.txt, and finally customizing all the prefab/POIs to spawn in these new farmer groups.

i have also been busy making my enZombies code more modular and efficient so i can pump out a higher volume of zombies more frequently in the future. hese farmer zombies are the first batch in my plans to add populations of themed zombies into existing POIs - like shop worker in stores, wait staff in restaurants, students in schools, experimental freak zombies in laboratories, etc.

Biome Bosses Progress:

my biome bosses have been put on the backburner, until alpha 21 is released.

their entity code will be completed and functional for v2.8, but they will not spawn in game on their own. you can manually spawn them in creative mode or as server admin of course to test them out. the reason is that currently i do not want them to spawn randomly in the biome wilderness without consideration to player level/gamestage, since these bosses will be tough. as an alternative, the existing XML will only then allow me to integrate them into the existing horde groups (like screamers, sleeper zombies, bloodmoon horde), which are gamestaged. however these bosses are not appropriate for these scenarios either. alpha 21 will make new xml code avail to allow me to create my own gamestaged spawning groups. this way my bosses can spawn only within specific biomes, outside in the wilderness, and only when players reach a certain level/gamestage. stay tuned!