[Suggestion] RPG options and behavior

Vampire

OpenDayZ Rockstar!
I currently run an Epoch PVP server with modified traders that allows Jets, APCs, Tanks, and other very militarized vehicles to be purchased, and use your AI to spice up the players arsennel with weapons they can't get at the traders (like M107's) and it's great, loving your AI.

To combat players simply running over the AI, I have added the RPG7 to their primary guns list, and every few days someone tells a story of dodging an rpg driving down the road, which is what I wanted.

The problem is if you come across these RPG units on foot. On foot they seem to just run around and never fire on the player, and make an easy target for a wanted item.

So I wanted to suggest adding an option to give AI RPG7's (in the settings) that would add them with a percent chance if enabled, but would also give that unit who receives the RPG a primary weapon.

Then of course added logic so that the AI will use the Primary unless they detect a player in their detection/chase logic inside of a vehicle, in which case they would switch to the RPG and use it against the player.

I know this might be too much work for something few people may use, but I thought I would throw it out there.
 
At the moment this isn't possible because the AI rearm script can only handle one primary weapon. While I can likely modify it to accommodate more than one weapon, there is the issue of not every DayZ mod having legitimate RPG weapons. This is an issue because DZAI isn't meant to purely support one DayZ mod over another. It's designed to be somewhat of an omni-mod for 100% compatibility with every past, present, and future DayZ mod.

While I know that AI are perfectly able to carry more than one primary or secondary weapon at a time, I'm unaware if they're able to switch between them. If they are, then it's likely I could add RPG weapons in the future, but this is a huge "if".
 
I'm bringing this thread back up for discussion as RPG weapons for AI is a new feature I plan on adding in for the next update. After having my personal BTR blown up, here is what I learned so far:

  • The AI are perfectly capable of switching between their primary weapon and secondary weapon (the RPG)
  • The AI will switch to the RPG when they spot a vehicle they otherwise couldn't damage with their primary weapon
  • The modifications I made to the AI rearm script are able to handle two weapons
What's next is balancing the gameplay impacts this would have.
  • RPG weapons and their ammo should not be lootable in order to preserve the balance of gameplay - having a flood of RPG weapons on a server means that the number of usable vehicles on servers would go down quick.
  • Each AI group should be limited to one RPG weapon maximum. Reason is that AI would have to switch back to their primary weapons in order to engage on-foot players. The limit would allow the one RPG AI to engage a vehicle while the other unit(s) provide support against on-foot players.
  • RPG weapons should be limited to AI with weapongrade 2 or 3, as it wouldn't make sense to have low-level AI hanging around fresh spawn areas have easy vehicle-destroying abilities.
Any kind of user input and thoughts is welcome.
 
Could you make the RPG lootable an option if you have the RPG equiped AI toggled true?

Also could you make it be randomized from an array of launchers having the RPG be the only entry, so we can add more launchers if we wish?

This would be more advanced settings than what a vanilla server would likely use, but having the option would be great.
 
Having a randomized selection of launchers will be possible. Having lootable RPG weapons is a dangerous idea as it would make all vehicles (player or AI) free kills, so this is not something I'd think about lightly.
 
On my server with players flying Jets, driving APCs and Tanks, I've added launchers to the AI as their primary weapons which is why I created this thread. The AI worked fine with the launchers but I was hoping to get an update allowing them a second primary if they ended up with a launcher to be able to fire on foot troops.

Since the primary array for level 2 and 3 is so large from my config, as I allow almost every gun onto my server, the launchers come up rarely.

Maybe just add it as a true/false somewhere other than the config for advanced users, so that someone doesn't toggle it while being unsure what exactly it does.

I understand how destructive it could be on a mostly vanilla server compared to one like mine.
 
We will take it one step at a time. First, see the impact on gameplay without having them lootable, then go from there. Of course, you could always manually edit out the lines to remove the RPGs yourself until then.
 
This is awesome! My players have wanted more of a challenge so I am working on some AI strongholds at the castles and Green Mountain (have the editor going right now) and was going to start working on getting the AI to have anti vehicle capability. Seems you beat me to it. Any idea on when the first iteration of this update will become available?
 
The earliest time the next update will arrive will be 2 weeks at the earliest as I'm heading off into my final exams next week. The next update will include a bunch of other fixes and improvements which all still need testing, and with Epoch's latest loot table structure change I have just a little more added onto my plate.

So, I would say about 2 weeks from now (1 week of actual working) I will have something "done". Possibly 1 week more to have it "working well". After the hiccups that followed the release of 1.8.0 I will be more focused on making sure that everything works 100%.
 
Awesome! I'm probably at least 2 weeks away from deploying 1.0.3 onto my public server anyway so that works out well. I'm still running I think 1.7 something of the ai on the live server as it is because I haven't had time to update it so waiting until the new version is out works great. If you need some help testing send me a PM.
 
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