Area Z (The Zombie server)

[zibou]

Thanks We'r actally working hard on gmap, gun script/gani/gfx

[Tyhm]

Your hordes of the undead are ready. server "test", tyzomonline2.nw
Needs wall detection, square->circle, better damage code

[zibou]

Originally Posted by Tyhm

Your hordes of the undead are ready. server "test", tyzomonline2.nw
Needs wall detection, square->circle, better damage code

??
Nvm, forgot my server,it is down...

[Tyhm]

BS, I ain't lettin' it die that easy.

So how should the mobs of zombies handle walls? If they can't all go through, do they stay out? If they could squeeze through one at a time, do they ooze through? Do the light ones just jump over obstacles? (I can use the shoot command with whatever trick Kingdoms used to place crossbow bolts to launch zombies, I just don't know if the terrain is going to be set up in such a way that this will make sense - if they're jumping from tunnel to tunnel in a sewer, it's kinda weird, whereas jumping over barbed wire fences is scary and cool)

[Tyhm]

Also some thoughts on levels and plot; start the players off with the option of where they start out. If they start at the creepy summer camp at the lake, it fades from black with an NPC soldier shouting "I found another survivor!", giving the player their first weapon and a map, a quick briefing/tutorial, assigning them a cheerleader or a kid or a puppy or something and ordering them to get the civilian to the army base where they'll be safe. The Starting Locations are protected by NPCs, though they only keep the zombies at bay (and execute PKers who come in, shouting the whole time "Oh god, he's infected!" "Stand down! I will shoot!" "Don't break quarantine!" etc.)
The whole map should be full of horror movie sets - the ruins of a city, the abandoned insane asylum, the haunted school, the old textile factory....
And however the player starts, they should get a weapon and an NPC to protect/save in later missions.

I don't know what kind of tiles this server's gonna have though - if it's gonna be Classic style, Era style or Kingdoms style...

For that matter, what kind of zombies they're gonna be: shambling, running, mix; virus, black magic, curse, voodoo...

And should the zombies drop anything when they're killed? I mean, they're zombies. Zombies aren't known for carrying ammuntion. I think it'd be cool if there were depots scattered around the map that you can scavenge for more ammo, bust into lockers, etc; each time you search it thoroughly and it looks like you've got everything, then a week or so later you find another hidden whatsit that wasn't there last time.

Further, how bad should the ammo situation be? Staple of Survival Horror is that you never have a minigun with infinite ammo; you're always down to three bullets left and a zillion zombies - or should it be relatively plentiful, but takes too long to reload mid-battle?

[xXziroXx]

Thym, you do realize his server his offline and that he probably isn't planning on paying for it again, right?

[DarkReaper0]

I'd prefer a world with a finite amount of supplies, where if you lose you turn INTO A zombie.

Last man standing wins or something.

But this wouldn't work so well outside of an events atmosphere.

[Tyhm]

Originally Posted by xXziroXx

Thym, you do realize his server his offline and that he probably isn't planning on paying for it again, right?

Ziro, do you realize it's not and you're not contributing meaningfully to the discussion?

In any case, if his server never recovers I'll have zombies for any servers that want them. No sense letting them go to waste.

Originally Posted by DarkReaper0

I'd prefer a world with a finite amount of supplies, where if you lose you turn INTO A zombie.

Last man standing wins or something.

But this wouldn't work so well outside of an events atmosphere.

I'm working on a clever trick that'll result in anyone who gets killed By a zombie comes back As a zombie. The player's free to respawn as normal, but they'll have to contend with their zombie past-selves. If it goes well there will be a better variety to zombies than your usual "Raccoon city sure is full of identical dead cops" game.

I'm still liking the idea of a game where the recurring goal is "get past the zombies to the food stores, then get back to the base with as much as you can carry; here's enough ammo to get in and get out". Maybe the player drops ammo when THEY die, so you gotta find your old corpse (with limited ammo) to complete the mission. Pretty much anything to avoid coding a "eat to live" system...Kingdoms set a bad prescedent for those kinds of games. ;-D

[xXziroXx]

Originally Posted by Tyhm

Ziro, do you realize it's not and you're not contributing meaningfully to the discussion?

My bad then, I guess I got confused by him saying it was down.

[Tyhm]

SONOFA***** SOMEONE FIX THE PERCENTAGE SIGN PROBLEM PERCENT PERCENT PERCENT!

Nah, it's up. Either he meant it went down temporarily, or he figured it was dead because there's no staff (I'm just helping freelance, I won't be staff nowhere).

But it's definitely up. I got 682 zombies chasing me through a level right now. It lags my CLIENT to hell, but the server says:

PHP Code:

Top 10 of npcs taken most CPU time:
1. 0.024363504 PERCENT localnpc_insomtest_50724151_0 (in level insomtest.nw at pos (12.3, 25.5)) (tyhm_zombie_2)
2. 0.024054417 PERCENT localnpc_insomtest_50724153_0 (in level insomtest.nw at pos (21, 7)) (tyhm_zombie_2)
3. 0.023436578 PERCENT localnpc_insomtest_50724148_0 (in level insomtest.nw at pos (14.4, 40.4)) (tyhm_zombie_2)
4. 0.022746684 PERCENT localnpc_insomtest_50724149_0 (in level insomtest.nw at pos (31.1, 49.8)) (tyhm_zombie_2)
5. 0.021640731 PERCENT localnpc_insomtest_50724150_0 (in level insomtest.nw at pos (14.9, 41.4)) (tyhm_zombie_2)
6. 0.018487769 PERCENT localnpc_insomtest_50724152_0 (in level insomtest.nw at pos (11, 19)) (tyhm_zombie_2)
7. 0.007514857 PERCENT localnpc_insomtest_50723295_1 (in level insomtest.nw at pos (40.6, 36.7)) (tyhm_zombie_2)
8. 0.006851746 PERCENT localnpc_insomtest_50724158_0 (in level insomtest.nw at pos (51.1, 34)) (tyhm_zombie_2)
9. 0.006503621 PERCENT localnpc_insomtest_50724156_0 (in level insomtest.nw at pos (49.1, 15)) (tyhm_zombie_2)
10. 0.00129772 PERCENT Zombinator 


And I ain't even halfway through optimizing...

[DustyPorViva]

It's not a serverside process, it's a clientside thing.

type in : showscriptstats
in your chat bar in the client and then check the scripts tab in F2.

[Tyhm]

Oh, thanks! I wasn't even thinking about the clientside, I KNOW it lags; my point is 682 zombies take up 0.15 percent of of the server, so I could have 454,667 zombies on the server, active, at once. If it's all in the same level, I'd have to put some lowres'ing in (like just having one giant zombie gani that doesn't really swarm so much as stand there saying "We represent 80 zombies right here"...)

[Tyhm]

And since Zibou can't be bothered to post on his own thread about his own server, I'll post the general question:

How about survival Is the goal of the game? Like the game tracks who's survived the longest. Maybe you only progress the game clock by completing objectives - you have to steal some food before it can be Dinnertime, etc, so it really becomes a tracking of how many quests you managed to beat without getting killed...

I'm also toying with the idea of factions, Good v. Evil kinda thing. All the gun-toting soldier NPCs on the server are Good, but if you side with Evil the zombies are your allies...

[Tyhm]

Hm, can't edit anymore. Well, as much as I hate to triplepost -
Terazel came up with a good idea; it's the Outpost's survival that counts. Gather resources up to a certain point, then see which outpost lasts the longest; whichever team lasts the longest gets a prize. :-D

I'm thinking the game will start with the player being asked where they want to start, who/what they want to rescue, let them design themselves and their NPC; then they have to defend that NPC, as Sudden Death happens when a certain number of NPCs have been sacrificed to make more Zombies. Mind, once you get to the fortified outpost defending the NPC and defending the outpost works out to the same thing, and once an NPC's been abducted you (or anyone on your team) have 24 hours of Real Time to rescue them; I'm not sure what happens if another outpost rescues them, presumably they get to have one more NPC and you're off the hook...but if your NPC dies, you lose a significant boost to your stats...

[Tyhm]

Note:
3d terrain + tiles that are supposed to be flat =