arramus

In the interests of further enhancing server and client stability and to reduce overheads which members in the community noted can cause lower end systems to suffer, here is a test of the Archon projectile moving over to the same particle effect that the Scorcher has already received. The description of the Archon is that he launches 6 fireballs and this will stick closely to the original concept. Using the current setting of particleeffects/p_onFire, the effect is certainly 6 firewalls and they are in a repeating volley. As thus: Which in turn causes looped warnings, for the client and the server, and has been noted to be detrimental to performance: The alternative setting of particleeffects/p_fire_small as is already implemented to solve the scorcher audio issue appears as: A launch of 6 single fireballs. Which in turn allows for no console warnings. While not critical at present, this seems to be a decent update for the next release. @BubbaJoe is also just tinkering with the Archon's melee settings which, while certainly not his primary weapon, could be tweaked a touch to increase impact performance. Archon's role is generally to sit back, buff his minions, and fire projectiles when appropriate which he does ever so well. However, it would be helpful to just give him a bit more of a fighting chance up close. This mod is incredibly eclectic in nature and incorporates so many wonderful combinations. As such, these things can inadvertently be introduced. The trade off is something incredibly special and the reason for the restoration in the first place. Too good to waste.

I tested both in client host and dedicated server host and could replicate the melee attack limitations. Archon is good when exactly in front of the player at about chest height. His limitations come from when his arc of attack falls outside a 30 degree or so angle from in front of the player. Not only that, but also the height is also an important factor. Maximum melee efficiency comes right in front of the player while Archon's feet are about player chest height. Anything out of that specific location can register a null hit. I think the major culprit is the entity class extension. By switching from entityclasses.xml entity_class name="ZombieArchon" extends="zombieWightFeral" to entity_class name="ZombieArchon" extends="Zombie_Template" as is common for Geist, I could move around Archon and his hits were making better contact from a wider arc. This will bring its own issue of probably needing to make a new Archetype if it's no longer applied to a specific character. Can you also try this initial change to see if it brings a change in the melee range and efficacy?

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.

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.

Just something for the future. xcostum_Villa (by Topminder) is looking superb but after being unable to initiate a fetch quest I took a peek in the editor. It didn't display any satchels or a rally marker although the game could at least set up the rally marker at ground level as it sometimes does. Almost a week with over 60 quests and also getting feedback from other server buddies and this is the only one we've been stumped on.

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. 😜

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.

@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.

@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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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. 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.

Such awesomeness being shared. I wonder if you could utilise the default commented out code for the blimp or built it up from scratch. Either way, this is absolutely delightful.

@h0tr0d@ShoudenKalferas Well, here are some playtesting results. For both fun and serious consideration. Value 1 has a thermite fizzle and spits up pinky purple globules of untextured space slime. Value 2 offers the frag rocket effect with shrapnel tracing. It is very effective. Value 3 is identical to value 1; more slime. Value 4 is our 'beloved' vehicles. Value 5 offer the High Explosive rocket effect with all the subtlety of Duke Nukem. It quickly fades though and is very effective. Value 6 is a blast. It was very effective. The rockets flew through the air with all the grace of a 1970s space movie. Value 7 was an acid bath. Value 27 was just thrown in to see how far this goes but has no impact effect as it hits the tree but this highlights the damage. Probably not assigned to anything. And naturally, 0 is the official no impact effect. And yes, when I cross reference the default items.xml for the rocket launcher the official ammo type is suggested as 5 for both the parent ammoRocketHE and its child ammoRocketFrag. 2 and 6 are also viable but do not appear to be currently utilised in game at present. And the other value correlated for acid for characters with this trait. As I am not so familiar with the xml, I don't know if this can be randomised with 2 and 5 to give a Frag and HE impact effect to further match in game features. There is certainly a probability feature such as when raiding a nest for eggs and feathers with volume and probability for output.

Thank you. Changing just for the sake of changing can create divisions, but changing for the purpose of restoring stability is just good sense. If objects are pushing through walls without context or creating anomalous game physics while in play then this can send the server into a stream of warnings which can ultimately cause instability. It's good to hear this feedback from multiple sources as well to ensure it's not an isolated concern.

Great suggestions, and now that the shark has been mentioned publicly, I'll add to it 1. I also took a tentative peek at the Shark and played with a few file edits and tried to add one more. It's definitely going to need some work. Reducing the scaling back to 1.0 allowed it to be more present but there is an asset which may have been totally removed or received a name change that needs restoring. One thing I learned from Snufkin' code was how to add ambient sound: Adding: <AudioSource name="Sounds/AudioSource_Underwater_LP"/> as a trigger for its idle state was amusing as it swam around in the air with the underwater sound. I also want to see the water mist effect give it a possible fog like shroud appears in the existing code. Needs time....... 2. I didn't touch the exploding car feature for Juggernaut simply because I didn't check any appropriate replacements and just wanted to restore it to Snufkin's original, which is surreal, exploding cars! But yes, alternative debris from the rockets is very realistic and may reduce any yellow warnings and server demand. 3. I noticed that and just as challenging is the Geist. To be honest, I had never played a BM version of this mod until today. The Geist got us both and we had that electric sound ringing in our ears constantly there after. We had to rejoin the server to stop it. Looks like a kill command is needed for looping sounds for end states such as those. 4. Maybe something like <property name="SizeScale" value="1.2"/> for the Cowhead character and hope it doesn't apply for all attachments as well. I for one, look forward to seeing you implement these into your version and share your own creations as well. I'll also tinker some more in the background with sound settings to see if we can find a workaround for loopyness.

The creator of the Quick Hween costume is here with good news. Please bundle up absolutely everything you have done and I'll add a link to the post that Snufkin has linked to in the initial post which contains all the download links for what we have done so far. And if you make a separate post in this thread with an introduction and pictures I can link to it as well. 2 weeks is far too much coding to let it go to waste and server hosts are always crying out for variety. At the moment, the post has: 1. The restoration of Snufkin's Custom Zombies to as close to the original as possible. 2. Slawa's Compilation Zombie Mod. This consists of Snufkin's, Robeloto's, and Slawa's very own zombie creations all rolled into one. There is plenty of room for: 3. h0tr0d's Horde.

I really like The Wrestler and added a little comment in the release post for how server/client hosts can add it to their group file. I tried The Wrestler in the desert at night and it felt really good. The orange glow and the lack of silhouette as well as the almost camouflage effect make it a very ominous encounter. It's also coincidental that The Undertaker is a professional wrestler and The Wrestler and The Undertaker make a wonderful tag team for this nighttime biome appearance. I think this may be a good place for him and will see if anyone adds it to this biome and collect feedback to see if it can be a permanent feature for the future.

I took a look at the original thread for StompyNZ's original and also the efforts you made to restore it. Based on original code and the current default code, it looks like a lot of the syntax in the Buffs.xml has changed from an ID: to naming format and I don't know if the buff effects still exist at all. The UMAController also seems to be an issue if that was implemented based on StompyNZ's additional suggestions. It seems that IDs are specific to certain items and this has caused conflict on recent updates. I saw you were interested in maintaining the speeding lunge towards the player followed by a 20 second detonation if the player escaped, and a low health when it was in its lunge to pick it off. I wonder if customising the bomber to take on more traits of StompyNZ's character would be acceptable. It seems to be a more viable option that rebuilding StompyNZ's character unless experienced coders got involved which doesn't seem to be the case as you have certainly tried :).

Thanks for running it under such an eclectic mix of other mods. If anyone ever asks about compatibility with other zombie mods, this is a great post to direct them to.

If you want to experience as close to Snufkin’s original mod as possible, the arramus version is the one for you. If you want to experience an enhanced compilation containing Snufkin’s original mod, Robeloto’s characters, and Slawa’s own characters all built into one, then Slawa’s mod is the one for you. Best not to run both at the same time as they share identical assets for Snufkin’s mod and things could get very messy. It’s great that they’re only server side and can be switched without causing the clients any pain. All the best with your choices.

After extended testing by our community server administrators and client hosts as well as much support from community modders here is a link for Snufkin's Custom Server Side Z(S)ombies - A19 Stable. https://github.com/arramus/Snufkin-CustomZombies-A19-Stable-2020Nov03 This additional download is just a one layered zip without the github additional folder for server hosts having trouble with that. I added the above one so as not to leach too much from the forum. Snufkin_CustomZombies_A19-Stable_2020Nov03.zip A full Revisions and Readme text file for all changes to make Snufkin's Custom Zombies stable for A19 is included in the Mod. Experienced players who are well versed in zombie control can try the Snufkin Party version of the entitygroups.xml for a more challenging version of Snufkin's Zombies. It increases spawning probability and adds all 15 zombies to a blood moon event which is up from the possible default value of 10. However, it still retains balanced and cumulative advancement to match Game Stage and Level. Add this file to your Config folder and rename it to entitygroups.xml entitygroups_Snufkin_Party.xml The Snufkin's Research Camera ADD ON that requires the above mod as base is not currently fully functional because the update from A18 to A19 caused some of the most important features to no longer appear to work as intended. For example, the progress bars do not show and it is uncertain whether the HP reduction buff is functional. On top of that, multiple external images are not showing up in the Computer Interface. At present, it is not really recommended to use this Add On as it will cause from frustration than fun. However, you are welcome to play with it at your leisure and if you can resolve the issues, feel free to share. https://github.com/arramus/Snufkin-Custom-Zombies-Research-Camera-A19-Stable-2020Oct28 (If you do use this Add On, be aware it has its own entityclasses.xml file which will override the original in the mod to make things compatible. Should you run this Add On and wish to amend Snufkin Zombie features, edits need to be made in the Add On files) There are 15 Zombies in total as follows: Archon, Banshee, Bomber, Cowhead, Geist, Juggernaut, Mantis, Parasite, Psycho, Scarecrow, Scorcher, Siren, Undertaker, Wendigo, and Wrestler. I believe this completes the restoration of this mod as all changes are as consistent with the original as possible. The main mod breaking issues were: 1. AvatarZombieUMAController This appears to have been removed from the default files for how the mod referenced it. As such the one clear entry to it has been purged from the code. 2. Mesh Renaming A number of characters had their properties reformatted to a new naming system. The new names have now been found and replace the temporary names. These values remain identical to the original mod. 3. Buff Entry A single buff entry has been commented out. In fact, this buff entry has also been commented out in the default game files. As such, it may reappear at a later date. 4. Particle Effects A few particle effects were causing mesh/texture warnings upon collision and the audio for projectiles for Scorcher and Geist were being looped from the initial launch location. These were changed to alternative particle effects which has ceased the issue. The Archon also saw his particle effect changed to bring server stability even though it didn't cause audio issues. *The Psycho character had not been implemented into a group but is fully functional. As such he has been added to a group of zombies that spawn in the Pine Forest at night. The Psycho will not spawn during Blood Moon at all unless manually added. This character looks like a psychotic tool wielding doctor who is intent on playing 'tag' with you in the dark. He shares the Pine Forest at night with the Mantis. However, his probability of spawning is higher to balance out his disappearance during the Blood Moon. He'll be watching you... *There is one other character who did not appear in any spawn group. This is a special character who Snufkin originally intended for a Spanish event server. However, he is a very likeable and functional character, and after some testing feels right at home in the desert at night. He is also special because he uses a naming format which is similar to regular zombies and not the custom zombies. If you want to add the Wrestler to your own desert group, or any other group, here is the appropriate command to add to your entitygroups.xml: <entity name="zombieWrestler" prob="0.01" /> for low spawn probability or <entity name="zombieWrestler" prob="0.8" /> to become a regular feature Please be careful to note the 'z' is lowercase. One fun fact is that the spawn group for the desert at night already has The Undertaker. This will be a wrestling tag team biome and probability dictates you will get one or the other...unless the odds unexpectedly bring them both. Thank you to Snufkin for endorsing and supporting this restoration with timely advice when it was needed. Last but not least, so that Slawa's recent updated release doesn't get lost in the thread, all credit to Slawa for releasing an alternative bundled version which compiles assets from Snufkin's, Robeloto's, and Slawa's very own zombie creations into a combined mod. The recent release is two posts above and is updated to v3.0. It offer even more tasty zombies. A direct link to Slawa's post with the link to the download is here INSTALLATION - For players and server hosts who have never installed a mod before If you've never installed a mod before it is necessary to create a mod folder in the main directory or in an area suggested by your server host if they have modified the installation. Simply make a new folder called Mods (with a capital M to reflect standard nomenclature). If you drag the mod folder directly out of the zipped file it can be placed directly into the Mods folder and the game will look in there as you launch your World. If you allow your unzip function to extract the folder, it may make another unnecessary folder and place the mod inside it. This will not be recognised by the game/server if you place it in the Mods folder like this. Please take it out of the extra folder level. The top layer will be a single folder and in the second layer you will see a ModInfo.xml file with or without additional folders depending on the mod. This will become elementary once you've launched a few mods. Does this Mod need to be installed in the server/client host? = YES Do players also need to install this Mod? = NO The magic of this mod is that is only needs to be installed in the server/person who has launched the main environment that others join. It is a technical work of art. Enjoy. 👍

@Slawa Now that's an interesting assortment. Character 1 and 4 look like they could be in their own spawn group and face you like a tag team, 'The gruesome twosome'. Character 3 , the 'Funk Freak' looks like he was infected while giving a performance on the stage and is using his instruments for a different kind of music. And character 2, is just plain scarey. He looks like a cattle rancher with cattle prods in each hand, 'Sparky McGee'.