Day of Survival - Again.

[benevolentdevil]

 As far as I know Allegri stopped working on his DoS mission/mod for not only arma2 but also Arma3.

  Which is really a big shame, as at least in arma2 , as far as a "mission" goes done with very old Dayz code and arma2 workarounds , is still yet one of the best survival missions I've encountered to date.

 But , it could use some sprucing up.  I've already started.  

 Map Chernarus vanilla.  This means theres no extra buildings anywhere.  ( I'm adding a few here and there, for variety. )
 
 Some of the code is aggravating, how Allegri built the item arrays , it's simple , but while you are playing arma2 tends to only "read" and output about half the items in the generation list.  I'm tweaking that at the moment, as item spawns were even more sparse than 2018 Dayz single player.  I think i've gotten it to spawn more now.

 Some of DoS is "outdated" item wise.  You get a hatchet in the toolbelt, but no option to use it except while standing by a tree.  This isn't "bad" just a very simple scroll action to gather wood,
 I'm not happy with the "hunting knife" though, as it takes up an inventory slot , does not go to the toolbelt. You can't equip it as a weapon.  

 Sometimes in certain places ( like camps) AI enemies can literally spawn right in your face ... I believe this is because , almost all "spawns" are done by finding a "center marker" , and spawned on some form of area activation ... which spawns a temporary marker that "follows" the character. Since you are sitting still at one of these camps ( either untying captured guys, or looting tents ) , it just happens to be right there.  
If I can find in the scripts where these markers are called, i'll add in a minimum distance they spawn away, and a max distance they spawn away.  < But it also happens so rarely , it's low priority atm.


 But what I am attempting to do, is add a good bit of addon content.  I've just not found the correct addon to open up more buildings.  Zero Building code opened up a handful of buildings, but I have played Dayz mod where lots more buildings were indeed opened.  
 I am uncertain anything will spawn in these buildings, but I find it nicer to have more interiors to go in and duck into , and not a lot of basically, " blocks" that look like houses on the outside.

One thing I did notice in testing-play , since all items spawn from the center marker to building positions , it does take a long while for items to spawn in , if you are or start far away from the center.  
I've noted it "populates" the trash stuff first , then starts going through the arrays in order.  
For example, if you start near Elektro ( on the coast, far away from the center of the map) , it could take 20-40 minutes before All the spawns are in.  
There's no real way to get around this , with-out re-inventing the entire loot generation system. And i'm not that good a scripter to do that.
It's best to either , when you spawn in, go to a town thats far away first , or just sit hunker down somewhere for 15-20 minutes then head off to go loot.

Item "respawns" ... wow, this currently is set at 35,000 seconds which is days and days worth of waiting( real life days not game days)  for any refresh of items.  While it helps simulate once buildings are looted , it's gone ...  it also tends not to refresh or cycle through the available item spawns correctly at times.  So there are vital items that might not spawn in at all occasionally.  
 I'm thinking of lowering the refresh rate there to something suitable.  I can see if running DOS as a multiplayer Co-Op ( i fixed that option I think. ) on a server for weeks with-out restarting the server, but other wise serves no purpose in such a long refresh.

  Now onto the game play itself.  

 It's not -that hard- in the beginning usually.  I mean I've started up, and ran into a random patrol in the beginning before I found any gear and got killed quick.  But usually, at first you run into easier to handle AI "civis" armed with low tier weapons, and they are not very skilled.

 As time goes along, it can be much more difficult as more military Ai spawns approach you.

 The Story and Mission itself is where DoS "shines" in my opinion:

 You are a CIA agent ( actually a small separated "team" of CIA agents that was tasked with assassinating a guy named Grisov ( some sort of rebel leader.) for what ever reason, you failed ... got captured and as the game begins you have "escaped" and now need to go scavenge for supplies itself.

 Along the way, you will get this neat "Intel" documents, that will add things to your map task and information screens:
Some will help point to Grisov's location, or things like a car he abandoned.  Many times you'll get a set of coordinates to go check out on the map.  I've found these small camps that way, with Ai bots tied up, if you free them, they join you as help.  ( this is a bit buggy at times , as you free one he joins, and he will shot/kill the next guy you untie, I think because it doesn't switch factions on the new guy immediately.)
  Sometimes it'll lead to more intel.  

Some Intel are actual missions to do.  Like finding evidence on Grisov, or like stated, his abandoned car ( which you can take and use too. ) , other side missions come as well.  Like restoring power by going and repairing generators. ( which I found btw is NOT broken, there are three main areas to go to to finish that quest, you got main generators at elecktro, another spot near berezino , and another ( follow the power lines) near zelenagorsk area.

Some Intel will give you in game crafting recipies too.  You don't have to have the intel to craft if you got the items/know the recipies , but it's a neat inclusion.

 so, all these side missions ( some you gain by intel sheets, and some you get by attaining a Radio.)
I think there MIGHT even be a mission where you gotta go to green mountain and maybe all the radio towers and "fix them" to get radio transmissions.

 Like I said, theres ALOT packed into this little old mission/mod.

I'm just seeking to improve it a bit more now.  

I've mostly been tweaking addon content so far, I'm still looking through my files trying to find the correct ones, but I did add in more buildings that can be placed via editor.  ( Don't worry, i'm gonna re-pack the mod PBO and put it up for download , along with the tweaked mission.
but I have also:

- Adjusted a few Military like "camps" that are found here and there. ( I think these actually become important mission areas later, but not sure.) I found a couple that were placed poorly ( like on hill sides ) , i've moved them around to be "better" visually.
-I added Mozzies 3 of them to the map. One Gyroplane as well. ( these are not needed , but i put em there for flavor... whats "survival" without mozzies in it? )
- I added a handful of ATVs and motorcycles in very remote areas.  These might make it "too easy" to get around, not sure.  I added them, because they are not the best of vehicles to use, and every car i've found in game is so damaged it's on the brink of blowing up. That makes it "important" to go get Grisov's abandoned car of course.  Of course you can fix up these almost-wrecked cars, ect ... but finding a tool-box and parts is no easy task. You literally will get Grisov's car long before you find enough stuff to make anything drivable.  If anything, if the extra vehicles I added makes it "too easy" , one can open the mission in the editor and remove them, or I might cut down on the amount I put in, or remove them myself after testing play throughs.
- I've added a handful of extra buildings here and there ( not many) for a bit of "flavor" in some very bland areas.

 My todo- list :

1- Find the correct Zerobuilding addon that opens up most the houses and buildings.
2- Possibly adding in Airdrop supply locations, or randomized weapon/supply cashes to find/discover.
3- ( this is the most experimental aspect yet ) I'm gonna add in NEWER dayz code addons , see if it fixes the inventory items/inventory use, and inventory to something we know more of.


All in all, I have adored DoS since I discovered it.  It was the first " No-zombie" survival mod I played on Arma2 , and like I said the additional content of side missions, task/exploration , and a proper story-line, and possibly "end game task" to accomplish , have made it worth going back to time and time again, in my opinion.

 Sadly though, Allegri did like most creators/modders, jumped over to Arma3 , and abandoned his projects.  
You can't even download from his blog sight anymore ( something else I intend to remedy, offering the updated version I do of it. )
 Maybe , i'll check about a few map portings as well later on. I believe it'd work with any default Chenarus building maps by default... like Napf for instance.
But we'll see about that later.  One thing at a time first.

 



 

[benevolentdevil]

Ok some progress , but not everything expected:

 What I did manage to accomplish -  
- Almost all the Dayz 1.9.0 Zero buildings are in and work, theres a few ( ones you can open doors in 1.9.0 and enter) that still show up as a basic house that you cannot enter.  

 But - Garage/shed are open.  Quite a few more houses ( both log cabin types) , more military buildings and barracks, the Cammo building/office is now opened too at least.
I did find spawns in a few of these open places , not all of them but a few... so that's surprisingly something.

 I need to see if i messed up the spawn codes for military and for barn loot areas/industrial , as i'm not finding any of these spawns.  well, to be honest, I wasn't finding much before I started messing with lootspawn code. So It may not be me/my changes.  

  What was a setback to my plan?

- I forgot Dayz itself had two things it did AFTER the original Dayz SP mod was used. ( It is also possible allegri didn't build using the dayz code itself, but just some addons to make his mission work.)

 Issue 1- I forgot dayz itself forces everything into multiplayer and is server reliant to run in more "modern" dayz mods.  I had completely forgotten this and when I added updated 1.9.0 code , it did in fact change the inventory GUI to the Dayz GUI , but it did not load the mission properly.

Issue 2- Even in some of the single-player mods posted here, somewhere along the way Dayz code changed the actual survivor skins.  I kept getting an error " vehicle/survivor2" not found.  Which meant the scripts didn't know what to do, nor would start loading the mission properly.

  I swear , units/characters in Arma2 are the hardest things to work with outside vanilla milsim.
First off BIS calls them " vehicles" , which is utterly stupid in the first place. They should be classed, characters, or Units , or PEOPLE not vehicles.  
 Because they , have different parameters than a car/tank does and how they are used in games.
Secondly , I have no idea why one version of Dayz ( older) had different "survivor" units, which are actually just PMC units modded to show up under BlueFor faction.
But I guess they were renamed, or re-classified via Id or something in later versions.  Have no idea why.

Issue 3 i had, ... I'm not certain what caused it ... but today my edited map version, would not run/load the mission properly.  I had adjusted the tents and such as stated above, and ran the mission just fine.  
 After adding buildings , and a few vehicles... I had renamed the mission file , to track where I made changes.  I don't know if it was because I added things to the map , or if it was because I renamed the mission itself.
Further testing on that will be done.  If it's because I added new buildings or vehicles, i'll just remove those parts/options soon.


BUT - as stated above, partial success!

[benevolentdevil]

Yes it seems simply renaming the mission is what broke it. Odd huh?


Fixed that ... I did remove all the atvs and motorcycles , but I left 3 mozzies around the map. In testing, I found a fully armed blackhawk ( all it needed was fuel) , so I don't feel bad about adding a few mozzies.

[benevolentdevil]

 I fixed the spawns now too.  

 Still takes a while for things to populate.

adding buildings did not break anything, though i'm gonna go back and remove some I did place.  I got to thinking if I port to another map , the building placements will not make sense lol.