[My thoughts on antagonists]

Keep up the good work 

[My thoughts on antagonists]

I agree that we need more "swarm" antagonists. There is no PVE, and the problem I have with just having bandit ai is that whats the point of a mod? play A3. Excellent suggestions on here. Bases are built to be defended. Get rid of the glitching through walls and be able to build bases that will attract a swarm if noisy or too big. Make it all configurable to taste and we have a winner.

[What is the vision, the "Why?" of Epoch?]

All of these things mentioned above are configurable with the DZAI port. Number of antagonists, how good they are, how long till they re-spawn (allowing you to clear an area) etc. 

The antagonists dont have to be Zombies, its just that zombies are the defacto antagonists that fulfill the following criteria:

 

Not a threat in fewer numbers

Will become a threat if left untreated.

Not allow breaks in infested areas, cannot be totally ignored.

Adds a need to be steathy, If you shoot they will come.

Uses up precious resources if you stand an fight.

add danger to resource gathering, are there before you gather.

Melee only, safe at a distance.

 

could be achieved with packs of dogs, mutants, aliens, or to keep the techno theme, run down droids.

But if its not Zombies, why take the Epoch name?

Horror Genre is fine,. Alternatives are fine, just put something pre loot visible and swarmable in?

 

not a whine just a discussion :)  

[What is the vision, the "Why?" of Epoch?]

zombies are fun :P

[What is the vision, the "Why?" of Epoch?]

Im seeing a danger here.. 

The "why" backstory while important, is not as important as the "why" build, gather etc. 

No matter how polished and technically perfect a mod may be, if the world feels empty where is the conflict?

Epoch is going to stagnate and lose playerbase because its empty. Three solutions present themselves immediately (at least to me).

 

1) - cop-out solution is make it PVP. This means that the player base has to be, and remain high or we go back to the empty world. Also brings in the spectre of skill disparity, new player frustration, griefing control etc..

2) - The reason I have been testing at this time, Faces re-work of DZAI, that is a good AI system. However from a mod developer perspective it seems to me to also be a void filled by someone else.

3) - bring back the zombies. Yup. No rest unless you build and defend. Loot gathering is not safe. Make it optional, configurable, whatever. Epoch was, and is still seen to be a Zombie survival game. Zombies. Survival.

 

As an example, look at Keens Space Engineers. Highly polished, technically spectacular, and empty. I gathered, built, but was never challenged. What are the weapons for? Who is the base defending against?

 

Maybe what many were expecting was A2 Epoch pandemonium on a nice shiny A3 engine. A2 Dayz, in the forefront Epoch, has a special place, and is in spirit owned by many who created content, addons, scripts, options etc to make the game tailor fit the needs and tastes of groups of people gathered around a server that was important to them. I take my hat off to those that have picked up the flag, unpaid, and carried it forward. But you are in danger of losing the roots and spirit of what made the game great. Open the bloody thing up for people to contribute, ask permission or collaboration from earlier contributors of A2 systems and addons, and put the bloody zombies back in :)

 

My 5 cents. Not because Im whining, but because I actually care. 

[Spawn Flare help]

nvm got it sorted here:

http://opendayz.net/threads/spawn-sputtering-road-flares-possible.21370/page-2#post-115533

[Spawn Flare help]

Looking for some help in spawning either burning roadflares or launched flares from a trigger.

After looking at it I cant seem to use the createvehicle type spawn, and am not sure how to call the roadFlare.sql at the location of the trigger.

 

Any help would be appreciated.