Invincible AI Drones

[DeathTech]

1. My own private server with no modifications

 

2. 1.4.4.130654 - 0.3.0.3

 

3. When I noticed a drone above me I ran back to the trader spawn safe-zone. I hid for nearly an hour, it did not leave nor seem to ever run out of fuel. So I decided to take pot shots at it. After expending 1 clip I stopped and just kept hovering there. It did not majorly react to me firing at it or moving into sight for small ammounts of time.

 

So I took a steady aim and another two clips. Doing every possibly thing I could to hit it. Then I realised I must have hit it but its just not dieing.

Therefore as an admin I took it upon myself to spawn another 6 clips and keep shooting. It did not die, a little while later another drone showed up. Same results with that one.

 

After a while I decided to see if they were actualy still functional... I stood in plain view, they spawned two squads. I decided to log off then and come here to report this bug because an invincible drone spawning and bunch of soldiers is byond acceptable.

 

4. Drone keeps respawning, I have carried this out a good 10 times now shooting from the spawn. I'm certain that it is 100% repeatable on my default unmoddified server. To be certain before I post this I will see if I can spawn a target lock rpg and try to blow it up. If it survives that, I think its self-explainatory.

 

I am assuming the "spawn trader city areas" "east" "west" and "central" are in some way "protected" towards PK and vehicular damage or somehow by default prevent players shots from actualy doing damage. Or something along those lines. But I am certain the "safety" is not supposed to make the antagonists "AI drones" "AI bandits" invincible aswell. Something must be done to eighter effectively prevent antagonists from entering safe locations or some sort of exeption must be made to allow their demise to occur.

 

I would at current not go as far to call those area's "safe" zones because I have been forced onto the pier in cental by a sapper entering the camp before. And now invincible AI drones that for all I know continualy keep spawning new bandits.

 

PS. Just relogged, drove to the nearest city with my motorbike and waited for the drone to spawn and apear again fired one shot with the same rifle. Succesfully destroyed the drone. I am positive it was immune to my gunfire above the tradercity.

[1Man]

Yes your bullets disappear in safe traders next time go outside and shoot the ground and you will see your boundaries.

[DeathTech]

I could go outside and shoot it but that would entail going into plain view to be detected and then proceeding to get killed by the AI squad it spawns. The matter of the fact is, an AI drone apearing in the trader city makes everyone there blocked in under threat of being shot to death the second the leave the protected zone. That makes it not safe. Infact that makes it an unusable location as you can not safely enter and leave. You have the same threat from other players but atleast other players will get bored and leave.

 

The AI just camp you and kill you if you dare to try to leave. Not to mention it can be used to grief by intentionaly or unintentionaly luring the UAV to the trader city & allowing it to spot you to spawn AI banits willing to kill anyone who leaves the camp. The griefer can then just simply rejoin after waiting for the grunts to despawn and loot the corpses.

 

Something should be done to prevent AI drone from actualy entering the camp. By I don't know. Making the area remove drones. Or relocate them somewhere else. Maybe upon entering the vincinity make them circle the town in a radius that doesn't threaten a players ability to leave without instantly being shot to death.

[1Man]

Well a trick to AI in safe traders is let them shoot because they run out of ammo

[1Man]

Well it's not a bug because that's the point of a safe trader if your scared to die even though you can spawn right back at the trader to retrieve your gear maybe your playing the wrong game.

[DeathTech]

The point is the "safe trader" isen't safe because now you are just stuck or you are certain to die when leaving. Forcing players to lose all of their stuff due to the fact the safe trader is not safe from drones.

 

Plus the fact that players can abuse this system in that way to spawn lots of AI have them empty their guns and then kill them to take their stuff as loot; Entirely bypassing the need to go out there and loot / search towns. Making it the safest exploit to use to get good weapons / clothing / loot off those bandits.

 

I see many problems with this and I can all be prevented by preventing the drones to come too close to the trader city.

[axeman]

They don't appear in trader cities, but they do follow you in..

[DeathTech]

They don't appear in trader cities, but they do follow you in..

Who the ai soldiers? Or the drones?

If you are refferencing the drones I can tell you for certain they still do apear in the trader city. Just let the game send one after you, go to a tradercity and relog, it will return within about 5 - 10 minutes.

 

Repeatedly doing that will cause a glitch duping the problem by actualy using whatever scrip was made to make the drone return after relog on the drone that returned after relogging. Thats also a possible exploit for free electronic components.

 

The AI soldiers definitely can get into the tradercity, aswell as the sapper is able to navigate into it (eventualy). I'm not sure if I'm safe from the sapper's explosion inside of the base. I'm not eager to test it eighter.

 

At one point my friends were making fun of me because I couldn't shoot the drone(now discovered to be invincible since im in a no-shoot zone) & there were about 3 drones above me inside the trader city. While at no point did I leave the city for them to be attracted to me.

[1Man]

I do believe he is right I have seen them go after players that never left spawn for approx 20 mins when they 1st connected

[DeathTech]

I do believe he is right I have seen them go after players that never left spawn for approx 20 mins when they 1st connected

Actualy as far as I can tell antagonists seem to attack random players, as long as someone does an antag chance action somewhere. Anyone can have an antag come attack them. This includes drones being sicked on players whom never left the the traderzone, or possibly even people who are just inside the clone room, only to get mobbed afterwards because other players were already playing the game.

[kresdja]

The point is the "safe trader" isen't safe because now you are just stuck or you are certain to die when leaving. Forcing players to lose all of their stuff due to the fact the safe trader is not safe from drones.

 

Plus the fact that players can abuse this system in that way to spawn lots of AI have them empty their guns and then kill them to take their stuff as loot; Entirely bypassing the need to go out there and loot / search towns. Making it the safest exploit to use to get good weapons / clothing / loot off those bandits.

 

I see many problems with this and I can all be prevented by preventing the drones to come too close to the trader city.

 

"Safe Trader" is a trader you can safely trade with.  You can't be shot and killed by any AI while you are in the little area, so you are safe.  A safe zone is exactly that, a zone of safety.  Beyond that, you are on your own.  No hand holding in the apocalypse.  There are ways to completely remove the "threat" you are oh so scared of, but you're best bet is to find a game more tailored to your care bear desires.

 

Edit:  After reading your OP, Epoch is definately not the game for you. 

[DeathTech]

"Safe Trader" is a trader you can safely trade with.  You can't be shot and killed by any AI while you are in the little area, so you are safe.  A safe zone is exactly that, a zone of safety.  Beyond that, you are on your own.  No hand holding in the apocalypse.  There are ways to completely remove the "threat" you are oh so scared of, but you're best bet is to find a game more tailored to your care bear desires.

 

Edit:  After reading your OP, Epoch is definately not the game for you. 

 

Actualy yes it is the game for me. I quite like dayz and epoch. I don't mind the threat of death when I leave the camp. My problem with it is the possibility for abuse, griefing, mass spawning of gear, and the fact that the "Safezone" is not "Safe" from the ai drones "Attack".

 

Its "attack" creates AI units who carry stuff. Stuff that can easily be taken from them after they waste all of their ammo on something the AI are not programmed to understand i.e "Safe" zones. Not to mention the drone is invincible aslong as that player stays put on his location.

 

I don't mind the existance of drones. I do mind their "attack" hitting me inside a "safe"zone. Aswell as I do mind the trouble it creates for anyone else.

Oh and lets not forget the duping possibility wich would potentialy allow one single malicious player to crash a server by letting the server spawn lots of AI drones & AI bandits.

 

 

Edit: After reading your OP, Epoch is definately not the game for you.

 

Also what is my OP? Because I have no idea what you are on about.

[kresdja]

Actualy yes it is the game for me. I quite like dayz and epoch. I don't mind the threat of death when I leave the camp. My problem with it is the possibility for abuse, griefing, mass spawning of gear, and the fact that the "Safezone" is not "Safe" from the ai drones "Attack".

 

Its "attack" creates AI units who carry stuff. Stuff that can easily be taken from them after they waste all of their ammo on something the AI are not programmed to understand i.e "Safe" zones. Not to mention the drone is invincible aslong as that player stays put on his location.

 

I don't mind the existance of drones. I do mind their "attack" hitting me inside a "safe"zone. Aswell as I do mind the trouble it creates for anyone else.

Oh and lets not forget the duping possibility wich would potentialy allow one single malicious player to crash a server by letting the server spawn lots of AI drones & AI bandits.

 

 

Also what is my OP? Because I have no idea what you are on about.

 

Drones have been in this state since .3.0.1 and I've yet to hear about anybody using them to grief safe zones.  It actually use to be worse, where in the time it took you to sell whatever you could carry from a loot run, there were multiple drones hovering over you.  Drones don't "attack", they are scouts that relay information.  As such, you shouldn't be safe from them.  The AI they spawn in stay outside of the safe area.  Most safe areas have more than 1 exit, so they aren't too difficult to bypass.  And through my previous experiences, if you log out, whatever antagonists spawned because of you, disappear when you leave.

 

The drones aren't invincible, your guns fire blanks in the safe area.

 

The AI carry junk.  Junk that doesn't sell worth a damn and most people don't bother picking up.  One single malicious player can't spawn enough AI to crash a server as I do believe the amount is limited per player in a fairly large radius.  (I believe 3 per player)  And since when was killing spawned AI duping?  Do you not understand what duping is?  It'd be more like farming, and farming drone spawned AI is nowhere near worth the time.

 

 

Your OP is your original post, in which you ran to a safe zone out of fear of a drone. 

[1Man]

I have drones turned way down but still have 5-6 following me but I like them following me!

[axeman]

The antagonists will target other players in the vicinity if they are a more desirable target. It is entirely possible that they are being lead to the safe zones. That said the new persistence could also be having an effect.

 

One question, why do you want to hang out in the safe zones for so long?  

[DeathTech]

The antagonists will target other players in the vicinity if they are a more desirable target. It is entirely possible that they are being lead to the safe zones. That said the new persistence could also be having an effect.

 

One question, why do you want to hang out in the safe zones for so long?  

 

I am assuming you aimed that question at me.

I'm a long time programmer and have also done alot of game testing in my career.

 

By such I have grown to be very experimentive. I was hiding so long in the trader zone to see if those things will run out of fuel within a reasonable ammount of time.

Short answer, no. They do not seem to within a reasonable amount of time.

Long answer:

That first drone was indeed led into the traderzone by me. To experiment.

 

The 20 other drones that found their way to the TZ were spawned intentionaly to hunt me, only me and my friends play on my server so I have a perfect understanding and account of what they were doing when and where.

 

Only one friend was online. He got a drone or two against him. He shot them down by potshotting them from the doorframe of a building.

Those were the only drones. Then I got one who chased me. I tested fuel duration though due to low food / drinks I decided to abort the test and try to shoot it down.

This couldn't be done from inside the TZ, and that was established. I tried to leave without being spotted, the impossibility of that was unfortunately then also established.

I ran back inside. Relogged to get rid of the drone (knowing it would despawn temporairly and so would the bandits).

 

I then logged back in, drove into town, waited for it, shot it down. Then I looted some. When I returned to the base nothing was there.

To be sure I turned on admin vehicle markers. Nothing was there, no AR drones on the map.

 

I went to grab a bite, came back. There was a drone above me.

Assuming a natural delay between me looting and it spawning.

And taking into account now that you said "They don't appear in trader cities but they do follow you in."

 

I would have assumed, yes they do not spawn inside, and I would have assumed the idea was they do not spawn to harras you while you are inside the TZ.

Still, yet they do spawn outside the TZ, and they do fly B-line straight to me to harras me.

And funny enought, my friend and me next day played, I stayed in the TZ he went arround looting and shot down any drones that harrased him.

Yet 2 of them found their way B-line straight to me as if spawned to harras me.

 

On a side note: Earlier today I was looking on the map having done some looting with admin vehicle markers on. I saw a drone spawn and then it was instantly removed.

I dunno if it crashed. I waited a little to see if it would pop back up but it didn't so I went to the location and checked. Couldn't find it. If the devs would tell me they don't spawn when you are in the TZ. And I saw that. I'm assuming the code spawns one, then if the player is detected in the TZ it gets removed again or something. If so that delete code might be at fault. (for spawning drones while in TZ)

 

In the mean time I still don't like the fact one can be pinned down in a TZ by a lowsy drone because you can't take it down or run from it quick enought to avoid being spotted.

I may be wrong though, I spend so much time today sifting through code to try and find a fix for the helicoper selfxplosion I did not feel at looking through any other code.