Armed Assault and the Zombie mod . . . AAR.

[ElGuapo]

So, in another thread I mentioned a (new to me) mod for Armed Assault, the CZM (Crappy Zombie Mod). I'm here to tell you, it's anything but.

(note that in this version, I think the "infected" event has been taken out, as it was causing tons and tons of lag while scripts run. I don't think this is a big loss as in most traditional zombie movies, people only become zombies/reanimate after they die . . . so that doesn't really affect the gameplay . . . as all NPCs still reanimate after they die).

After playing around with it a bit and figuring out how things work, I created and played my first mission tonight. It took about 2 minutes to set up and a half hour or so to play. It was bare, bare bones: A town off the coast had been completely overrun by about 150 zombies and a small team went in to take care of them (5 men including me as a sniper and an M113 APC).

It was HELLA fun. We rolled in and started laying waste to the zombies but of course, we started to run out of ammo. I told everyone to get into the APC we had brought along and was firing hundreds of .50 cal rounds into the crowds of undead. Then things started deteriorating. They surrounded the APC when, after we had knocked over some walls and trees trying to get out of there, we smashed into a house and had trouble backing out. They started clibing up over the sides and dragged the gunner out of his mount. (This I really couldn't believe, it was really cool . . . they don't have the animation for this but they do have the animation for the zombies crawling up on things and he popped out of the turret and did the dying animation and fell to the ground).

We finally got free and backed up. In the headlights I could see the zombies eating him and then, right before we left, he stood back up and started staggering toward us!

Finally the fuel gauge started to run out and I decided to park the APC overlooking the town up on a hill. The lights of the APC were shining down on the village, illuminating the horse coming toward us. I wasn't sure how many we killed so far but I estimated about 75. That left around 75 to kill, which doesn't seem like too much but when you start counting rounds and realize not every shot counts, it was a little dismaying.

I told the squad to get in line formation around me. They startedd opening up down the hill as I took solo shots with my sniper rifle. I tried to get as many headshots as possible .. but sniping's hard! Especially in a realistic milsim game like Arma.

The zombies started coming up the hill at us. It became worse and worse at it was now night and the beams from the APC were the only light around . . . outside that it was vauge shapes and movement. My troops started calling out "Ammo out!" and I head and saw them switching to their sidearms. Finally EVERYONE was out of ammo and the zombies kept coming.

I'll admit it. I paniced and went to teh back of the APC to reload. That's when I heard calls out that my men were going down. I finished rearming and raed back to the front of the APC. There were dozens of zombies there, some feasting. I started shooting wildly. Soon enough, my own men were coming towards me. One of them got a bit too close as I hesitated in shooting him and he swiped me. The front of my outfit stained with blood.

I gunned down as many as I could but they were coming in from all sides, albeit slowly. The problem was I was in an open hilltop now, with all sides exposed, and only the beams of the headlights showing me what was in front of me.

I got into the APC and drove down hill to the village. Finally it ran out of gas in the middle of the street. I reloaded and listened to the moans drifting through the night air. A zombie popped into view and I shot it in the head. Then another, and another, and another. I calmly dispatched them and tried to position myself so I wasn't exposed, back against a low wall.

Suddenly I was attack from behind and fell to the ground.

As the "Mission Failed" screen came up, the camera zoomed to an above view where I got to see my attacker eatingg my guts. In a final insult, I reanimated and started staggering around! Oh the humanity!
==============================
I highly recommend this mod. Next time I'm going to add some civilians and resupply crates to get to, and maybe eventually add some waypoints, objectives and such.

The ultimate mission, and this is totally doable in Arma (though I personally don't know how exactly), is to start off in an area with tons of zombies and have to fight your way out then survive in the country. Populate it with several civilian cars, military vehicles, supply dumps, etc. In the supply dumps you could, for instance, have hundred of undead military walking around (they have undead models for every model in the game). In the town have civilians. Have zombies EVERYWHERE, even some in the countryside, so you never know if it's safe.

The beauty of this is that in the editor, you can give any object: vehicles, ammo crates, zombies, other military, whatever a percentage chance to spawn in the mission as well as radius of where it spawns. So, for instance, you could give a dirtbike with a 1/2 tank of gas a 50% chance to be within 200m of the gas station in town. This would truly randomize your experience, as you'd never know what you'd get or where it'd be.

Finally we have a real zombie survival game!

[DoomMunky]

Holy SHIT this sounds awesome.

Also, Guapo, you're doing a real service to the Qt3 community. I just read the first several pages of the epic Xcom AAR and it's amazing. Good on ya.

[ElGuapo]

So I played another mission and it was pretty fun. I just downloaded FRAPS (any other suggestions on free capture software?) and I'll give it a go sometime this week.

I downloaded another mod that gives the game dozens more guns ... so what I have going now is ammo boxes in the beginning I get to peruse my weapons, pick one, then I use a satchel charge to blow them all up. The little mini mission I have (I haven't messed with actual objectives and in game waypoints yet) is a solo rescue mission. There are a variable amount of civilians around the village, from 3 to 5. There is also a 50% chance that a few cars will spawn in some places and a 50% chance that some ammo boxes will spawn, but the ammo boxes have 500m radius distance spawning, so it's a real search in an urban setting to find them.

Bascially, my "mission" for this little scenario is to find any survivors. If they are alive I "rescue" them by confirming they are alive ( I don't know how to make scripts to have them follow me yet). If they are infected, I put them out of their misery. Then I book it to a checkpoint outside of town up on a hill. I've done it 3 times now and it plays out differently each time.

One thing that's kind of a bug/feature is that armor/cars don't protect you from zombies. You can push them out of the way and go real fast around them, but if you get caught up in them they smash through the windows/reach through open portholes and kill you. Kind of annoying but I just roll with it and treat cars and things to get me around, not protection.

[Staff Sergeant]

Where is the epic Xcom AAR? The (SA) Let's Play Xcom sucked, and I want to read one of these.

[spiffy]

I'll have to pick this mod up! I only have the base game though .. you don't need Queen's Gambit? Also, are there scenarios ready to go, or do you have to mission edit?

[ElGuapo]

I have vanilla, so no, you don't need Queen's Gambit. I don't believe there are scenarios ready, but it takes about a minute after you load the editor to make one. the zombies really are plug and play.

There is a 255 group limit per side, so what I did was plop down about 10 individual zombies then make them a "group". Then I just selected them all and CNTL-C, CNTL-V them all over the place. That makes putting tons of zombies in a city quick and also makes them move in packs a bit.

Here's a pack of undead closing in on me. You can choose from about 100 different zombie types/skins/models but I just picked a few of them for now.

[rezaf]

Originally Posted by ~EFG~

Where is the epic Xcom AAR? The (SA) Let's Play Xcom sucked, and I want to read one of these.

ElGuapo recently linked to it in the XCom on Steam thread.
_____
rezaf

[Calistas]

Super El Hotubo! I defo want to see the fraps.

Co-op play would be awesome-sauce, especially if you string a few scenarios together into some sort of briefing.

Hell, you could make a campaign and issue a half dozen scenarios to a selection of volunteers and depending on their results, make followon scenarios. Ahh.. gaming, I love ya!

This almost sounds like the Qt3 dream zombie apocalypse game..

Would it be possible to make some sort of safe stronghold you think? To sally-forth from to rescue fuel, ammo and people? That would be an amusing base for scenarios.

[schurem]

afaik the opflash editor is hugely amazingly powerful. yes you can make no-go zones for the npc's. yes you can make npc's join your group after contact. yes you can make stuff spawn or despawn on certain triggers. you can do everything! the sky (and your programming ability) is the limit!!! muahahaha!

[Calistas]

Jeez, I would love to tut-tuu with it, but I know I don't have the time of the Skilz0r. Go El Guapo, we'll live vicariously through your effort!

[ElGuapo]

Anyone want to buy me FRAPS? :)

Anyway, here is a 30 second video of some gameplay.

[Tim James]

Did you play this single player or with some buddies? I've always wondered if there was any redeeming quality to single-player, or if I can drop into multiplayer games kind of like TF2. It sounds like my kind if FPS sim, but I can't block off 2 hours a night to do a map.

[Moore]

Originally Posted by ElGuapo

So, in another thread I mentioned a (new to me) mod for Armed Assault, the CZM (Crappy Zombie Mod). I'm here to tell you, it's anything but.

(note that in this version, I think the "infected" event has been taken out, as it was causing tons and tons of lag while scripts run. I don't think this is a big loss as in most traditional zombie movies, people only become zombies/reanimate after they die . . . so that doesn't really affect the gameplay . . . as all NPCs still reanimate after they die).

After playing around with it a bit and figuring out how things work, I created and played my first mission tonight. It took about 2 minutes to set up and a half hour or so to play. It was bare, bare bones: A town off the coast had been completely overrun by about 150 zombies and a small team went in to take care of them (5 men including me as a sniper and an M113 APC).

It was HELLA fun. We rolled in and started laying waste to the zombies but of course, we started to run out of ammo. I told everyone to get into the APC we had brought along and was firing hundreds of .50 cal rounds into the crowds of undead. Then things started deteriorating. They surrounded the APC when, after we had knocked over some walls and trees trying to get out of there, we smashed into a house and had trouble backing out. They started clibing up over the sides and dragged the gunner out of his mount. (This I really couldn't believe, it was really cool . . . they don't have the animation for this but they do have the animation for the zombies crawling up on things and he popped out of the turret and did the dying animation and fell to the ground).

We finally got free and backed up. In the headlights I could see the zombies eating him and then, right before we left, he stood back up and started staggering toward us!

Finally the fuel gauge started to run out and I decided to park the APC overlooking the town up on a hill. The lights of the APC were shining down on the village, illuminating the horse coming toward us. I wasn't sure how many we killed so far but I estimated about 75. That left around 75 to kill, which doesn't seem like too much but when you start counting rounds and realize not every shot counts, it was a little dismaying.

I told the squad to get in line formation around me. They startedd opening up down the hill as I took solo shots with my sniper rifle. I tried to get as many headshots as possible .. but sniping's hard! Especially in a realistic milsim game like Arma.

The zombies started coming up the hill at us. It became worse and worse at it was now night and the beams from the APC were the only light around . . . outside that it was vauge shapes and movement. My troops started calling out "Ammo out!" and I head and saw them switching to their sidearms. Finally EVERYONE was out of ammo and the zombies kept coming.

I'll admit it. I paniced and went to teh back of the APC to reload. That's when I heard calls out that my men were going down. I finished rearming and raed back to the front of the APC. There were dozens of zombies there, some feasting. I started shooting wildly. Soon enough, my own men were coming towards me. One of them got a bit too close as I hesitated in shooting him and he swiped me. The front of my outfit stained with blood.

I gunned down as many as I could but they were coming in from all sides, albeit slowly. The problem was I was in an open hilltop now, with all sides exposed, and only the beams of the headlights showing me what was in front of me.

I got into the APC and drove down hill to the village. Finally it ran out of gas in the middle of the street. I reloaded and listened to the moans drifting through the night air. A zombie popped into view and I shot it in the head. Then another, and another, and another. I calmly dispatched them and tried to position myself so I wasn't exposed, back against a low wall.

Suddenly I was attack from behind and fell to the ground.

As the "Mission Failed" screen came up, the camera zoomed to an above view where I got to see my attacker eatingg my guts. In a final insult, I reanimated and started staggering around! Oh the humanity!
==============================
I highly recommend this mod. Next time I'm going to add some civilians and resupply crates to get to, and maybe eventually add some waypoints, objectives and such.

The ultimate mission, and this is totally doable in Arma (though I personally don't know how exactly), is to start off in an area with tons of zombies and have to fight your way out then survive in the country. Populate it with several civilian cars, military vehicles, supply dumps, etc. In the supply dumps you could, for instance, have hundred of undead military walking around (they have undead models for every model in the game). In the town have civilians. Have zombies EVERYWHERE, even some in the countryside, so you never know if it's safe.

The beauty of this is that in the editor, you can give any object: vehicles, ammo crates, zombies, other military, whatever a percentage chance to spawn in the mission as well as radius of where it spawns. So, for instance, you could give a dirtbike with a 1/2 tank of gas a 50% chance to be within 200m of the gas station in town. This would truly randomize your experience, as you'd never know what you'd get or where it'd be.

Finally we have a real zombie survival game!

EMAIL YER MISSION FOR THE LAZY!

I got it working finally. Doesnt this work in MP? We should play.

[ElGuapo]

Originally Posted by Moore

EMAIL YER MISSION FOR THE LAZY!

I got it working finally. Doesnt this work in MP? We should play.

It does work in MP, yes. There is no "mission" right now, other than to survive. But I can email you it. PM me your addy.

I'm actually home today if anyone wants to try this MP.

[Telefrog]

So, is ArmA any good as a vanilla game? Does it come with an editor?

I really liked Operation: Flashpoint, but the reviews I'm reading of ArmA aren't encouraging. There seemed to be a lot of bugs and framerate issues even on high end systms when it first shipped. Have the patches made that better?

[spiffy]

yes, and yes.

Not a polished story game, but if you like realistic military simulation with a robust mission editor, it's a good value for infantry, armor and helo combat..

another badass zombie Armed A vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22SYb...eature=related

[Telefrog]

Originally Posted by spiffy

yes, and yes.

Not a polished story game, but if you like realistic military simulation with a robust mission editor, it's a good value for infantry, armor and helo combat..

another badass zombie Armed A vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22SYb...eature=related

Thanks. As I said, I liked OpFlashPoint, so I'm very tempted to pick this up. However, I was a lot more tolerant of PC game bugginess back then because I had a lot more time for gaming, modding, and tweaking. That's not so true anymore. The reviews I'm reading from the initial version of ArmA sound like everyone was having a lot of issues.

Is it still a pretty buggy experience? Is it optimised well?

[ElGuapo]

Yeah, I'd say it's pretty stable and not buggy at all, really. You have to realize it's military simulator, so the graphics aren't all hot shit and the controls are kinda floaty and wonky. It's not a run and gun shooter and doesn't have that Call of Duty 4 polish. But what it does it does pretty well, and it accepts a hella lot of mods. The mission editor is top notch.

[DoomMunky]

Have any of y'all tried the Zombie Panic mod that's just about to get hosted on Steam? It's a team-based MP game, but I'm interested to see how it plays out in comparison to this.

[Jonathan Crane]

Originally Posted by DoomMunky

Have any of y'all tried the Zombie Panic mod that's just about to get hosted on Steam? It's a team-based MP game, but I'm interested to see how it plays out in comparison to this.

I think Cyranix might have played it the other night on the GWJ server. Perhaps he'll chime in. It certainly sounds cool.

[Mind Elemental]

Originally Posted by DoomMunky

Holy SHIT this sounds awesome.

Also, Guapo, you're doing a real service to the Qt3 community. I just read the first several pages of the epic Xcom AAR and it's amazing. Good on ya.

Seconded. What we need is for someone to kill two birds with one stone and do an XCom mod for this game! Alliance, resurrected...

[eliandi]

The fact that ElGuapo started his scenario with 5 soldiers and a M113 reminds me strongly of how so many games of the old RPG Twilight 2000 started. Just sub out the zombies with being behind Russian lines with limited gas and ammo and it all works. Man that takes me back...

How long did it take for you to create the scenario, or was it bundled in the zombie mod?

[Telefrog]

Well, I went ahead and ordered ArmA Gold. I watched a few YouTube vids of this mod in action and I'm convinced. I need a good zombie fix. All the Source ones I've tried have been cool, but relied completely on multiplayer participation to work.

[ARogan]

Picked up ArmA Gold from gamestop today ($40). Man ElGuapo that was a hell of a convincing OP there. I played enough operation flashpoint in my time so I think I know what I'm getting into. I've always planned to check out ArmA at some point but i guess it just slipped off my radar.

[Moore]

Originally Posted by DoomMunky

Have any of y'all tried the Zombie Panic mod that's just about to get hosted on Steam? It's a team-based MP game, but I'm interested to see how it plays out in comparison to this.

I went into that with doubts, but I like it. It doesnt have the scale of this, but it has polish, and playing as zombies.. well, kind of sucks ass, but it fits.

If my house wasnt wired so shittily I'd have a halloween lan with both of these and movies, but 90% of my wiring is form 1970. And I have friends coming in that dont game, so thats out.

[ElGuapo]

A pic from tonight's single player session . . . Dawn of The Dead!



I fooled around for a few hours tonight and made a single player and multiplayer mission of sorts. To play it, you'll need the mod linked above (and I think the other script mod mentioned in the link).

Anyone know of a free host I can put the files on? They are both really tiny. I'll have to give the briefing/objectives here, since I don't know how to do that in game (there are no triggers or anything, I messed around with them but couldn't get them to work).

I estimate there are about 300 zombies to fight, spread around two towns and the countryside. Ammo caches, vehicles in various states of low fuel, civilians fleeing for their lives, all that fun stuff. I even threw in an opening scene of sorts right at the beginning to set the mood and show you what it looks like when a human gets eaten. :)

Let's get a game together this weekend! Note I have Vanilla Arma, not Gold. Not sure what the difference is.

[Calistas]

No image seen. And damn, it all sounds rather fun!

[Rward]

Awesome!
I'd like to join in some zombie goodness if my ping doesn't kill everything..
I'm busy grabbing the patches and hope to look into making a scenario.

[shift6]

Wow. I seriously wonder if Valve is at all concerned about "Left 4 Dead" in light of a bad-ass mod like this.

[DoomMunky]

Well, I found ArmA for Digital Download, but ack: $40 to play an (admittedly awesome sounding) mod? That's a bit steep right now, dammit!

Do mods work with the demo...?

/hope

Edit: Also there's a $30 non-Gold version at D2D and also on Steam...