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Total Members Voted: 31

Author Topic: Zombies in the Bluzone** [[CLOSING]]  (Read 581834 times)

There should be another survivor base somewhere. Not player controlled survivor's though, NPCs - and they're not too friendly. The main entrance to their area can be a makeshift gate or something, maybe debris - but upon arrival you will be shot. Maybe later on in the RP's story, you can somehow sneak in, steal supplies. Somewhat of a stealthy approach. It would be interesting to not only have to worry about zombies (and the military?), but other survivors that aren't as friendly as players, and are essentially "the bad guys."

Yeah but NPCs usually suck, they never do what you want.

"NPC Allies won't do what you want, they're stupid."
Not these kind of NPCs, just ones that are your enemies.

"They're still mindless bots, they won't do much."
Exactly, they won't do much. Just an additional threat. Basically where their group is located, the entrance is guarded by unseen survivor bots - or "sentries" - and upon entering their range, or near the gate, they will shoot you.

"What about the ones that will raid our base?"
It would be a nuisance if this happened frequently, that is why an Admin or even just Knaz, could spawn them whenever. They will just wander around - trying to find supplies - and will shoot anything that they come in contact with. If you're lucky they may have had some goodies on them that you can take.

The enemy survivors won't do much. The raiders will be rare, and will do what you want. They're just simple NPCs, "zombies" with guns. Maybe even a little bit of evented dialogue. Then the ones that guard the gate, they won't have any problems either. They just sit there, and upon a player entering that area, they will shoot them. Later on in the story where our group can try sneaking into their area - maybe even wipe them off the map - where there are other NPCs wandering around, can be worried about later and tested off-server so there are no glitches and the bots don't do anything stupid.
« Last Edit: April 14, 2012, 11:04:14 AM by Awdax »

Yeah no I meant that during fighting they will get stuck on walls and crap and it will ruin the mood of the rp imo.

There wouldn't be a lot of fighting. Knaz could just edit the Standard Bot code so that playetype can't jump, that way the enemy survivors (which will be rare, so problems with them will be rare as well) can't get stuck on high places, or in walls. There are only two types, the "sentries" that guard the entrance to their area, and the rare ones that will spawn in or outside our base, but will either be taken care of quickly by zombies or player survivors.

I actually have experimented with this. A military outpost, infact.
Sort of.
It just had two snipers protecting a sort of checkpoint thing and a couple of other bots that sit behind cover and shoot at you.

There is also a sniper event I need to fix. It was in an older version, where botmod was much more prominent.
An admin-activated event would spawn three bots with silenced SMGs around the survivor base, who would then try to pick off players. They didn't move, jump, or crouch.
Just spawn on the outskirts/in the hilly area and shoot.
There was also a similiar one that spawned a bot with a mortar, too.
I'd never arm a bot with a sniper, raycasting or instant-kill weapon for some pretty obvious reasons.

I'll re-download bot mod and fix up those events.

As for the second survivor base, I've tossed up the idea but I'm just not sure how to employ it properly. The thing with NPCs, is they are very very hard to role play with. Four bots with Silenced SMGs laying down suppressive fire on players is fine, you can work with that, but a whole base run by NPCs could get complicated. I want to keep things simple.

Think about how the military is run in the server:
Sometimes, nothing ever actually happens and players just roleplay it.
stuff! A sniper shot me! Get down!
I've seen it happen a few times and it has always gone really well. Gentoo pulls it off pretty well.
Sometimes, there are bots playing the role of the military. This could take form of ambushes or mortars, where the bots are in obvious locations and are easy to take down. But they spawn in numbers and are more accurate than the player, so they still pose a threat and some challenge. That way you don't feel patronized, but can still have fun.
When they spawn is also completely controlled by admins, so they wouldn't pop up in the middle of a role play. They don't follow an automatic rotation.
When there is a vehicle event, say an apache doing a sweep or a jet doing a quick bombing run- even the occasional UAV doing an area scan -it is controlled by admins. I've done that with Ceist and Electrk, and each time it goes very very smooth. Vehicles never shoot to kill. It's always shoot to miss or shoot to injure. I don't want to ruin the roleplay by sparking a deathmatch.

With a whole base controlled by bots... I don't know... It could just be really, really clunky.
I'll certainly have a quick play with it and get back to you, but until then don't expect to see anything too heavily bot-related in the server.

However, I'll fix the sniper and mortar events. I do miss those a little ;P

Really nice Kniaz, I'm really happy you started hosting this again.

Thanks!
I'd host right now, because I think this is a good hour for you Americans, but it's 1.00AM here and I'm about to go to bed. Just wanted to see if people had anything they'd like to ask or say about the Bluzone before I slipped off.

I'm not american.
Can you host and keep you PC up?

I've been through this a lot, don't want to leave my server un-attended.
I want Bluzone to keep its reputation of a steady, moderated and fluent roleplay.

I've been through this a lot, don't want to leave my server un-attended.
I want Bluzone to keep its reputation of a steady, moderated and fluent roleplay.
Is there any general time when I could expect the server to be up?

Yeah, this is a really great server.

Is there any general time when I could expect the server to be up?
Yeah, this is a really great server.

I'm not too sure, over the next few days I'll write down my average hosting times and convert it for you.
Thanks for the support (:

I'm not too sure, over the next few days I'll write down my average hosting times and convert it for you.
Thanks for the support (:

make one for eastern standard time

make one for eastern standard time

Do you have a specific time zone?
I'll take all your time zones now and update the original post within the next few days of usual hosting times.