Alpha 20 Dev Diary

[wolfbain5 201]

can I have an official response to how far away from a volume you can be before triggering spawns? not just them showing up, but also them being calculated in?

[faatal 1,493]

3 hours ago, wolfbain5 said:

can I have an official response to how far away from a volume you can be before triggering spawns? not just them showing up, but also them being calculated in?

It is 8m in XZ for them to start spawning. Don't know what you mean by calculated in.

[wolfbain5 201]

8 minutes ago, faatal said:

It is 8m in XZ for them to start spawning. Don't know what you mean by calculated in.

thanks. uhm, calculated in, bad wording, but didnt have a better way to phrase. as you drive by buildings, you get near volumes, I didnt know if the game calculates them as you approach to get them ready to render or not. basically hold in memory before you get close enough to render.

[wolfbain5 201]

Another question for @faatal with the drop quests, I can share them with party, and no matter who kills the zed. bear, animal, female, any. they count for anyone on the quest, except dogs. Is this intentional, or something not hooked in like the vultures? are the quest kills meant to be individual the way dogs are, or party kills as all others are?

 

edit: another correction

snake is counted as zombie kill instead of an animal kill

Edited Saturday at 08:16 AM by wolfbain5 (see edit history)

[NinjaMoa 0]

On 3/6/2021 at 1:22 PM, faatal said:

It is 8m in XZ for them to start spawning. Don't know what you mean by calculated in.

What is done for the Y aspect then?

 

The main problem I have found with this is dropping / climbing into another room and having them appear as i do so.

[meilodasreh 35]

12 hours ago, NinjaMoa said:

What is done for the Y aspect then?

Its of course meant "X=horizontal" and "Z=vertical".

You can approach a volume either from any side which is always horizontal ("X"),

and you can make your way through roofs/floors, which would be a vertical approach ("Z")

No reason to distinguish "X" and "Y" in this context.

If you want a volume to be triggered "earlier" when approached from a certain direction (might be useful/necessary for some building/indoor layout to get a certain effect),

then you can just do it by making the volume itself broader/longer.

[hiemfire 191]

2 hours ago, meilodasreh said:

Its of course meant "X=horizontal" and "Z=vertical".

You can approach a volume either from any side which is always horizontal ("X"),

and you can make your way through roofs/floors, which would be a vertical approach ("Z")

No reason to distinguish "X" and "Y" in this context.

If you want a volume to be triggered "earlier" when approached from a certain direction (might be useful/necessary for some building/indoor layout to get a certain effect),

then you can just do it by making the volume itself broader/longer.

y= elevation or height. X and Z are the horizontal coordinates (correspond to width and depth in a 3d graph).

[wolfbain5 201]

I believe the person is asking about  either coming up from above or below it "stairs, ramp, etc" and triggering the volume.

[Jost Amman 328]

19 hours ago, NinjaMoa said:

What is done for the Y aspect then?

 

The main problem I have found with this is dropping / climbing into another room and having them appear as i do so.

I found these nice tips from @Jackelmyer in his thread on POI design:

Quote

TIPS - Sleeper Volumes

 

1. Overlapping volumes can behave funny. But they sometimes are the only way to make your Prefab spawn zombies in a way that makes sense considering a player can come from any direction. I personally found it beneficial to place zombies in key areas that I knew i wouldn't overlap with multiple Sleeper Volumes. Then I had Sleeper Volumes placed overlapping to ensure zombies spawn when a player enters a certain area and they don't get the zombie flashing up in front of them. Not an easy task.
2. Keep in mind that when you enter a Sleeper Volume, there can be as much as an 8 second delay it seems (may vary even more) on when zombies spawn. So be cautious with how tight your Sleeper Volumes are. You may expect a player to have to break down a door to get into a sleeper volume... But what about after they broke down the door and come back to the Prefab a few game weeks later? No door, and they walk right into the room. Delay... zombies pop right in front of the player... ew.
3. Definitely import your Prefab after you've setup your Sleeper Volumes and give it a test run. Things may not behave exactly as you expect it. And they won't behave exactly as you want them. So test it out, tweak it some, but don't go crazy (i did. marginally helped... eh.)
4. IMO less is actually more when placing Sleeper Zombies in regards to how you want a Sleeper Volume to perform. You want to balance how many places you've put zombies, the size of the area that a Sleeper Volume is going to cover, and the Group you're using to spawn the zombies. The Groups are more important than placing a bunch of zombie positions. Out of the standard groups you get to use, note that the Default group types have a *chance* to spawn zombies, as to most all the other groups. Where as the Loot group types are guaranteed to spawn zombies. Play testing is a must!