Armed Assault and the Zombie mod . . . AAR

Alright, guys, let’s start seeing those zombie missions…

Cause this is damn difficult. I can set up some serious zombie action, but setting it so you can actually ‘rescue’ the civilians is hard as hell, and involves setting up Triggers and Waypoints and stuff. ElGuapo’s tactic of ‘rescuing’ them by finding them is probably the best solution for now.

I can’t figure out how to make the civilians run along a waypoint, as they seem fairly undisciplined, lying down halfway along their route regardless of zombie presence. Come on, guys, it’s raining out and there are zombies in your fishing village! Don’t take a nap!

Hitting zombies with cars is unsatisfying, too, as they don’t go flying, or even fall down.

Ah, thanks. I probably should have noticed it, but the color scheme on that page makes my eyes bleed.

Damn! That is exactly the kind of tutorial I needed. Thanks!

A few things I’ve noticed about the zombies:

  1. Cars, tanks, trucks, whatever, do not affect them. That is, you cannot run them over or crush them in your tank treads. They can also kill you through the car/tank! Yes, this sucks, but think of tanks/et. al as moving gun platforms. Imagine they reach through the porthole or windows or whatever. You can shoot zombies with big guns, but remember body shots only kill them if it’s a direct hit . . . shooting near them and trying to make the blast kill them only works if it’s close. Try to go for headshot with that 120mm! The best vehicle I’ve found, by far for zombie killing is the Shilka. That thing lays waste, and has an awesome spotlight to boot.

Not to say that a horde of zombies would overrun a well defended position or tank column. Put a tank group down and a bunch of zombies near them and see what happens.

  1. Remember, you must go into the mission parameters and set RACS is friendly to Nobody in order to make the zombies attack everyone. Also, try not to use other “Independent” actors, like RACS soldiers on your map.

  2. Civilians will lay down, run, etc. when their are perceived threats to them. You have to realize this game is primarily a milsim, so the civilian reaction to seeing a threat is to duck and cover. I dunno, roleplay this as shock and fear and panic.

  3. A quick way to place zombies is to make a group. Go into units mode (F1). Double click the map. Select side “Independent”. You’ll see Zombies Slow and Zombies. The difference is that regular zombies move all herky jerky fast. I like slow zombies. Anyway, select whatever model you want from the list on the right, From Zombie 1 to Pilot to Anchorman, whatever. Exit to place him on the map. Select him and CNTL-C. CNTL-V. If you wish to give a variety of zombies, double click to select a new model. If you wish to speed this process up, then use the rubberband (like any RTS) to select both of the new models. CNTL-C, CNTL-V. Exponential zombies!

If you are creating a shitton of zombies, you’ll hit the 255 groups per side limit. In this case (and for ease of placement) it might be easier to create a group and copy/paste that. In order to do this, take, I dunno, 10 or so zombies as created above. Go into Group mode (F2). Select one of the zombies and drag it to another one (ideally, one in the center of your group). Note you are not dragging him, you are dragging a blue line to the second zombie, linking them. This makes that first zombie a group follower of the second one. Keep dragging zombies/blue lines until you have a group. I usually make the group 10 or so (theoretically this means 2550 per map). Now, you can select all in this group (rubberband method) and copy/paste it around the map. Instant zombies, all grouped up nicely. The only drawback to this method, and it’d kind of a big one, is that the zombies will “battle chatter” amongst themselves, i.e. “Human spotted at 50 meters”, “1 is down, taking command”. You’ll even see their lips move. If someone figures out how to disable this, I’d highly appreciate it.

You know, why “release” this thing half assed? I’m going to work on some triggers tonight.

I’ll upload it when it’s ready.

Thanks for the tips, mang!

I ran into a little trouble on the larger island last night when placing tons of zombies. Even though I was under the 250 Group limit, the game seemed to run a hell of a lot slower than it did on the smaller island. I had a lot more zombies than in my game on the small island, and it seemed to get better when I removed half the zombies, but am I missing something?

Of course it stands to reason that the more zombies you have, the slower the game will run, but dammit, I’ve got a burly computer and want shambling hordes!

Is there a zombie sweet spot, or might it be a problem relating to the large map?

I found that grouping them slows things down a bit as it processes the AI for the squad commands . . . so if you can live with less than 255 zombies in a village, you’re better off not grouping them. I think the scenario I created started to bog down on my computer after a thousandish, so I started deleting them. This from the linked Editing Faq:

Skill- Determine AI skill level.
Note: the skill of a unit when inside a vehicle is the skill of the vehicle. If an AI soldier gets into a vehicle, it will use the skill of the vehicle while inside the vehicle.
Note: adjust the skill wisely, because it directly affects the performance of ArmA. Always remember to set the skill of “cosmetic” and “eye-candy” units to 0.

I also read that setting the rank to higher will give the units higher morale. I haven’t really noticed zombies fleeing, but maybe the best zombie unit attributes are to set them all to Colonels, with skill set about 1/4 of the way up. They are supposed to be dumb, tough, no fear shambling dead, after all.

I wonder if zombies need to be any rank other than Private… Dammit, everything requires more testing!

I’m really interested in figuring out how to set up a mission that involves finding civilians, getting them to follow you (which I’m not sure can be done), and taking them to an extraction point.

Another idea would be to have to kill a certain % of zombies, or kill zombies for a certain amount of time until either reinforcements or an escape craft shows up.

Are there any preset missions somewhere? I see a lot of YouTube videos of this mod in action. (Search for “ArmA Zombies” or “Armed Assault Zombies”.) These people have to be making and posting their efforts somewhere, right?

I briefly looked yesterday and didn’t find anything right off the bat, but that doesn’t mean they’re not out there.

What could be cool is to take a pre-existing rescue or containment mission, and just replace all the enemy soldiers with zombies. It’d take some adjustment of the mission parameters, perhaps, but it may be a good shortcut, rather than learning all about how to use the editor…

I downloaded the ‘Quarantine 2.5’ mission which sounded interesting. You start off in a safe area and have to make trips into the quarantine zone to save civilians, kill zombies and resupply a military base. It’s like a persistent campaign in that you earn money to buy better weapons and vehicles with. It’s a fast zombie mod, so be warned.
The beginning is a bit rough- you start off with $1000 and after a considerable jog to the shop you find out that most pistols begin at $1000. Armed with a crappy pistol and about 5 clips, you’re expected to Rambo your way through the zone. Bugger that.
The next thing I did was check out a supply truck for the resupply mission. It had a .50 cal attached to it and suddenly the game was easy. I kill-dozered my way through the zone in the truck, setting the 50. cal to face backwards I’d drive over as many zombies as possible to get their attention. After a short distance I’d jump to the gun and wipe out the conga-line of zombies after me. Some of them would be pitifully crawling after me since I’d presume their legs were jellied from the crash. I got a nice little cash bonus for each one (I’d kill-dozer in areas where a zombie elimination mission was announced). Another good thing was that zombies couldn’t attack you in the truck; so not only was a I good samaritan, I was an invulnerable, .50 cal spitting trucker from hell.
I had a few tricky moments- occasionally I’d find an ammo crate and have to get out and see what goodies were inside of it. Checking out these crates is a real bitch because it locks your view and the interface is clunky. All you can hear is a low groaning noise and you’re panic clicking your way through the inventory trying to loot as much as possible before bolting back to the truck o’ doom.
I eventually reached the military base in the evening. As I approached the main gate I was relieved to see a large amount of guards waiting for me. Well, I thought they were guards. The zombies had overrun the camp and were slowly overwhelming the defenders who did not have enough sense to shoot back. I watched 5 zombies follow a soldier around before swarming him. I wiped out the zombies who penetrated the perimeter and parked the truck, earning a nice $15000 and resetting the camp guards. Then the truck disappeared and I felt very lonely and vulnerable. I hurried over to the flag pole because that is where the mod maker thought would be the most intuitive place to use as a shop. I bought a G36 and ammo clips and noticed the zombie swarm now chewing up the .50 cal emplacements again because the soldiers were still too stupid to open fire. Given the option to single-handedly save the base or look after myself, I chose the Flashman route and ran back to another flag pole, bought a motor bike and high tailed it out of there. Riding through the scrub at night I saw the message ‘The base has been overrun, you may not buy from there anymore’ and patted the fuel tank of my bike, pleased that I’d gotten mine before they got theirs.
The mod is a nice find, Guapo.

I really feel an itch to make a story-based campaign around this. But apathy wins.

Wow, that Quarantine sounds cool.

One thing, Peter … unlike lots of games, soldiers in this game actually have ammo counts. In fact, EVERYTHING in the game has ammo and fuel counts. So the soldiers may have just run out of ammo. It’d be nice to have them “take to the hills” in that scenario, but what can you do. Also, looks like that mod uses a different zombie mod, which may be great for that particular mod, but which alone I found not so good. I played with it and the CZM one is much better. But I’ll def try it out now that there is a good scenario for it.

There is HUGE room for an awesome, all encompassing mod/scenario here. But like Calistas, I just don’t have time.

Here is what I have so far.

Briefing:

It’s Dawn of The Dead, and the undead have overrun two towns on the island. Airstrikes are ordered to wipe out the entire city, but first, the locals want the churches marked so that they aren’t destroyed in the blast. HQ also wants an electrical tower marked so that it’s not destroyed. In order to do this, spotlights need to be turned on in three locations (two churches and the tower). After accomplishing this you will proceed to a fortified position on the high ground held by an infantry team.

Objectives: Marked on your map.

Time: 4:00 AM. Night, with dawn in about 2 hours.

Weather: Clear, possible chance of rain later

Enemies: A ton of zombies. Small possibility of a few enemy soldiers scattered about. Though if they live, who knows if they will be turned?

Assets: At the start of the mission you are presented with several ammo crates. They are there just to include a variety of weapons if you like, and should be ignored afterward for game balance reasons. Basically if you “gear up” at a crate, just assume it’s all used up afterward. Scattered around the countryside are various ammo crates and abandoned cars. Some are locked, some have very little gas left, etc. These both spawn pretty randomly so watch for them.

Secondary objective. There are several dozen civilians scattered around the towns and countryside. If you find them just go up to them and “rescue” them (just assume you’ve rescued them). If they’ve been turned though, beware!

Single Player Version.

Multi Player version. Just has 3 additional team members/playable positions.

(fixed links)

Install to Root Arma Dir\Missions for Single Player Missions, \MPMissions for MP missions.

So for me, that’s c:\games\Arma\Missions

Awesome! I can’t wait play it!

But I feel like a bit of an idiot; where do I install downloaded missions?

(also, your link leads to a url with an extra " on the end of it.)

hrmmmm … I’ll try installing all this over the weekend if I get time. I’d love to give multiplayer a shot. What are you using for voice chat?

I’m running Version 1.08.5163, and when I run the mission it loads all the way then gives me this message:

“You cannot play/edit this mission; it is dependent on downloadable content that has been deleted.vilas_wpn”

Dammit!

I get the same message. I presume we need this

Grr. I put that mod into my AddOns folder AND my Missions folder, and the mission still won’t work. =(

Damn! I thought I deleted all of those crates. I must have missed one.

Yeah it’s this one:

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=612

You should just be able to add it to addons and have it work.

I’m using 1.08.5163 as well.

I gave the mission a run through. The first light was easy- I ran around a corner and ran into a pile of zombies and was able to dispatch them with my pistol. I jumped into a car and then Carmageddoned my way to the second light and was able to get it on. Then it was a quick run up the hill for the third light- either the zombies were still shambling their way up to me or something had distracted them, because it was empty. I then dashed over to the lost squad. It was a bit strange because there was a news reporter and an umblemished, unarmed soldier in the middle of them. I thought that they were maybe lost or recently rescued. Either way, after a little while trying to see if I could do anything with them I gave up. The soldier then walked up to my back and took a bite out of me. Mission over. Damn those zombies and their ability to look normal. Next time, if they’re not pointing a gun, they’re taking a bullet.