Re: taviana working loot spawns in all buildings

Posted by DayZ_SP on Nov 08, 2012; 7:32pm
URL: http://kodabar-dayz-daizy-single-player-forum.163.s1.nabble.com/taviana-working-loot-spawns-in-all-buildings-tp893p905.html

Here is a quick breakdown of some of the things that make porting DayZ to custom maps kind of a pain:

1) The Randomized Player Spawn System

This is just a built-in function, but what it requires for a SP conversion is a server-side version of the mission file with the correct spawn markers, so the SP game knows where to spawn you. You can add your own, but why bother when A) they're already done, and B) custom made ones would not reflect the ones online, obviously.

2) Loot Spawning System

Like the Random Player Spawn system, it's a built-in function, but the problem is when a map has custom buildings along with standard ArmA 2 buildings found on the stock maps. This is what takes the most time when porting a map so it works with DayZ if the modders want to provide a complete DayZ experience.

They have to manually add the custom building classes and IDs into the configuration files, so they properly spawn Zombies and loot. Then they have to play test the loot balance as well. They don't want one custom building spawning the AS50 for every player, nor do they want another custom building spawning nothing but a zombie and a can of beans, either.

This process is just for porting a normal MP map to MP DayZ. The whole process becomes compounded when porting an MP map to an SP environment because now a lot of the online elements have to be simulated.

Thankfully, Zed Hunter & Unknown have given us what I consider the best (and only!) DayZ SP modules currently available: The ability to place AI Bandits, AI Survivors and approved DayZ Vehicles & Weapons on any custom map with minimal effort. It's more than appropriate their mod is called "DaiyZ" because this is the core functionality of what it brings to the standard DayZ mod: AI units that mimic online play.

Using these basic set of modules (found in maps 42b and on), you can take any DayZ version e.g. Taviana, and add MP features by using the built-in 2D editor and placing simple triggers around the map for the things you want to happen when you come across them. A perfect example is when you go to a church and two AI Survivors spawn. Same thing if you go to Devil's Castle; AI Bandits will spawn. Go to Cherno, or Elektro and hopefully a vehicle will spawn in the industrial areas, etc.

The only real drawback to the current AI system... And this is because of how Rocket coded DayZ and not how ZH and Unknown do things... Is there is no way to make all parties see everybody else as a threat like they do online.

A typical order of threats usually goes Player -> Zombie -> Bandit -> Survivor and it loops back to the player. Due to Rocket's restrictive coding, it's only one way with AI e.g. AI Survivor -> Zombie; AI Bandit -> Player, etc. And even the basic AI Survivor -> Zombie threat had to be "hacked" in by me and that was for a previous & buggy version of the game, unfortunately.

I feel the importance of what ZH and Unknown did for this mod should not be overlooked, IMO.

What they did is provide a solid set of modding tools that can be used on almost any map as long as you have the original MP mission file with the correct spawn points. It then just becomes a question of time, patience and a little know-how to get things up and running for a fairly accurate and robust SP experience.