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Developer Discussions: Alpha 17


Roland

Developer Discussions: Alpha 17  

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  1. 1. Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

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Fataal specifically said any digging zombies would only break blocks below them if their current target was mostly below them. Read the whole post. There is almost always good information in the last half of the post too.

 

That's still going to be an issue if your position is low enough to trigger the behavior.

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They won't even start digging unless they have a clear route all of the way through due to the way a-star pathfinding works.

 

So... do the zombies have ground-penetrating radar as well as GPS?

 

The law of gaming is play ability beats reality every time.

 

Even historical strategy games follow the same law.

 

The law is good, obey the law.

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The law of gaming is play ability beats reality every time.

 

Even historical strategy games follow the same law.

 

The law is good, obey the law.

 

Obeying the law is not always the right way to do things... the holocaust was legally ratified.

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and this is why reality loses to play ability. WW2 sucked on all levels, but some WW2 games are fun.

 

+1

 

I agree completely. Play ability should always win.

 

It may take 6 hours in real life to make item X.

 

A game that makes it take 6 real life hours to make item X is a game I would not play.

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+1

 

I agree completely. Play ability should always win.

 

It may take 6 hours in real life to make item X.

 

A game that makes it take 6 real life hours to make item X is a game I would not play.

 

Progress takes time. Always.

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That's still going to be an issue if your position is low enough to trigger the behavior.

 

It's a feature in an unfinished Alpha that the guy actually coding said he wants to work on but hasn't yet and you know the problems it is going to have? You have no idea how he is going to implement it.

 

I guess with what little detail we have if you have a concrete wall on dirt and then on the inside you dig down 4 or 5 blocks so the inside of your base is lower than the outside and you stand close to the wall they are attacking above then yes it could happen. I wouldn't consider that a bug though. if you designed your base that way, why shouldn't they dig toward you?

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@fataal. I was reading through the AI thread (Holy heck Roland, well done putting that together!). One thing I was wondering is in the Zombie targeting logic. Is depth of blocks considered when pathing to a location, in "destroy mode", and choosing a block target? I don't know the names of the modes you have, but I saw you mentioned a wandering mode that block destruction wasn't allowed.

 

Reason I ask this, is I swear there were some exploit(ish) base build styles that used the Door targeting priority to essentially mess with Zombie AI and Pathing.

 

I'm guessing no, or at the very best, minimal depth and overall health of depth checking at best could be implemented. Just wondering if we're reintroducing behavior that was "resolved" at one point.

 

Thanks!

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That's still going to be an issue if your position is low enough to trigger the behavior.

 

What issue? The question was if you have a ground level base of concrete on dirt floor would the zombies dig under the concrete instead of going through the concrete. The answer is no.

 

If you are in a basement under the dirt floor and the zombies detect you then they from what faatal said they still would probably bash through the concrete and then dig down through the floor once they are almost directly above you. Zombies on the other side of your base wouldn't dig diagonally down through the earth to come at you sideways in your basement. They would move sideways above ground and then dig vertically once above you.

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It's a feature in an unfinished Alpha that the guy actually coding said he wants to work on but hasn't yet and you know the problems it is going to have? You have no idea how he is going to implement it.

 

I guess with what little detail we have if you have a concrete wall on dirt and then on the inside you dig down 4 or 5 blocks so the inside of your base is lower than the outside and you stand close to the wall they are attacking above then yes it could happen. I wouldn't consider that a bug though. if you designed your base that way, why shouldn't they dig toward you?

 

I've written an a-star algorithm from nothing before, I know thoroughly well the problems he will face. There are always issues and exceptions that occur when implementing such systems that you may not have realized while deep in the code. If my gentle prodding helps him realize these issues earlier then I can't see that being an entirely bad thing.

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Progress takes time. Always.

 

Absolutely, always.

 

But in a game it needs to be balanced. It can't be tedious or overly burdensome or it will no longer be fun.

 

People leave games for all kinds of reasons and progression systems/ crafting systems that are so slow that it feels like there is no progress made is one of them.

 

I happen to not mind slower progress. I like Undead Legacy for example, but there is a line and finding that line is no easy task.

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What issue? The question was if you have a ground level base of concrete on dirt floor would the zombies dig under the concrete instead of going through the concrete. The answer is no.

 

If you are in a basement under the dirt floor and the zombies detect you then they from what faatal said they still would probably bash through the concrete and then dig down through the floor once they are almost directly above you. Zombies on the other side of your base wouldn't dig diagonally down through the earth to come at you sideways in your basement. They would move sideways above ground and then dig vertically once above you.

 

Depends on whether the trigger is simply height or the actual angle between you and the zombie. I can see a situation where you nip into the basement to get some fresh ammo and this triggers the digging behavior. Although you've only been below the limit for a few seconds there are now several zombies starting a mining chain under your wall.

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I stand corrected :-)

 

Looks like the OP has their wish, for free. Ridiculously detailed textures and a free high-def texture pack in the works.

 

Oh, don't be fooled; the atlas is 8096, but the largest textures are only 1024... most are 512, with a lot of 256's (and maybe even some 128's).

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Depends on whether the trigger is simply height or the actual angle between you and the zombie. I can see a situation where you nip into the basement to get some fresh ammo and this triggers the digging behavior. Although you've only been below the limit for a few seconds there are now several zombies starting a mining chain under your wall.

 

depends on how deep your basement is... and if theyve got augers, you'll be fine!

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Depends on whether the trigger is simply height or the actual angle between you and the zombie. I can see a situation where you nip into the basement to get some fresh ammo and this triggers the digging behavior. Although you've only been below the limit for a few seconds there are now several zombies starting a mining chain under your wall.

 

I see what you are saying and as you mentioned in your other post there are always going to be unintended behaviors that seep through but faatal has also mentioned that pathing is checked every 10 seconds? So if they started digging down once the pathing check ran they would then reorient on your new position.

 

Worst case is if they couldn't detect you after you emerged from the basement they would keep digging until the memory timer ran out and then they would go out of attack mode and stop bashing blocks altogether. Of course, this could all get buggered up by unintended behaviors that creep out of the code.

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@fataal. I was reading through the AI thread (Holy heck Roland, well done putting that together!). One thing I was wondering is in the Zombie targeting logic. Is depth of blocks considered when pathing to a location, in "destroy mode", and choosing a block target? I don't know the names of the modes you have, but I saw you mentioned a wandering mode that block destruction wasn't allowed.

 

Reason I ask this, is I swear there were some exploit(ish) base build styles that used the Door targeting priority to essentially mess with Zombie AI and Pathing.

 

I'm guessing no, or at the very best, minimal depth and overall health of depth checking at best could be implemented. Just wondering if we're reintroducing behavior that was "resolved" at one point.

 

Thanks!

 

faatal said that the block breaking targets are the three blocks stacked in front of them. Normal priority is 2nd block (at their torso level), 1st block (at their leg level), and then 3rd block (at their head level) and this is modified by weakness of the block. So if you have concrete on the ground wood on top of that and a window on top of that they would break the window and then the wood block and then jump up to walk through that 2-block opening. But if you had wood on the bottom, then window, then concrete they would break the two bottom ones and walk through.

 

It seems to me that the new pathing AI will negate the "Door honey-pot" strategy because zombies won't just go for doors for the sake of going for doors. They will go for the player through the weakest obstruction in their sight range. So they will still choose doors over walls but sticking a door and a gas barrel in a field six meters out from your base isn't going to attract them anymore as those doors are not between them and your brains.

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Israeli forces cannot detect Palestinian tunnels under the border, but yes, zombies can detect you 60 blocks below the surface.

 

What happens if my entrance is a mile away?

 

Maybe you should reread that part in my post about the digging superpowers the player has or about approximation. In reality you would have no mile, no 60 blocks if you dug alone for 1 or 2 weeks. Palestinian forces had an army and machines(?) to work (how long? weeks? months?) and had an entrance faaaar away from the isrealis. The game approximates or shortcuts this "finding the entrance" because it can't (EDIT: or rather doesn't want to) really simulate it correctly. And that is because zombies outside of your perimeter despawn or don't exist at all.

 

TFP use a simple algorithm to make you feel you are in a world of zombies. So they only simulate the zombies which are near you. If they wanted to simulate zombies which could find your entrance holes miles away they would either need to simulate zombies everywhere (good bye to your fps) or maybe actually try to detect your entrance holes and make spawn points around that. Or they could just leave you with the decision to either accept this as an approximation of what the zombies really would do or accept superpowers in zombies too.

 

Intelligence got Saddam, he was not detected by a device. When they make those discoveries it is because of intel, not devices able to find the tunnels. Not even dogs can

 

How do you know? Did they try? Did they train a few hundred dogs for that? Did the dogs have a chance in that scenario? In a city of a hundred thousand people you need to give a dog something from the person who frequents the exit (which is probably not Sadaam himself) or he doesn't know which one you want to find. So did they know who this person was? How many dogs do you need to find a single spot in a city in acceptable time? Was it politically opportune to go into ALL private houses of the whole city with their dogs and sniff every corner?

 

In the zombicalypse the tables are turned exactly around. You have thousands of smell-sensitive zombies running around (well, only the ones near you are simulated, but still they are thought to be there) and they are looking for any living creature, not a specific person. So they are not distracted by other living persons or need a sample of your smell, no, any scent of a living person is accepted.

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I'm looking forward to vertical and horizontal warfare.

 

Walls for above ground bases are vertical, so zombies need to attack horizontally.

Walls for below ground bases are horizontal, so zombies need to attack vertically.

 

So now you and the zombies can be considered somewhat like fighter aircraft.

You can make So. Many. Strategies!

 

That's all I'm saying on that until I can start playing.

 

****Formally Offers to play test the AI in a most serious and business like manner! I will do my best to enjoy myself as little as possible!****

 

You believe me, right?

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I see what you are saying and as you mentioned in your other post there are always going to be unintended behaviors that seep through but faatal has also mentioned that pathing is checked every 10 seconds? So if they started digging down once the pathing check ran they would then reorient on your new position.

 

There we have an exploit. Keep popping up and down the ladder and the zombies will spend all of their time traveling between your wall and their mine, not actually having time to attack anything and giving you plenty of time to shoot them on the way.

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wait, someone used a real-life example about digging and compared it to a game with zombies? sure.

 

also, will there be a boss zombie who has retained a small amount of basic intelligence who can command the other zombies? we need some of those

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Interesting, so if you had a concrete base/wall on ground level with a dirt floor will the zeds just dig under your wall? And with the new pathing are they smart enough to dig a ramp/jump-able ledge to get back up into your base or will they just end up digging a pit to bedrock because they can't get back up?

 

Either way I'm up for the additional challenge.

 

To dig under a wall, they would have to dig 2 blocks down, then the next low/medium blocks x2, then the next medium (chest high) block, then 2 jumps to get out and that is provided there are not upper blocks they would have to destroy. I'm not planning on making them do all of that.

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To dig under a wall, they would have to dig 2 blocks down, then the next low/medium blocks x2, then the next medium (chest high) block, then 2 jumps to get out and that is provided there are not upper blocks they would have to destroy. I'm not planning on making them do all of that.

 

make them farm the mats for steel shovels and have 'em dig and build their own pit base to gank players!

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Oh, don't be fooled; the atlas is 8096, but the largest textures are only 1024... most are 512, with a lot of 256's (and maybe even some 128's).

 

Gold star! I was waiting for someone to figure that out, since I'm not going to point out every little detail with how this stuff works.

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