Server Down

Hey Papa the server looks to be down.

Sorry guys, had drill this weekend and just got home. I'm looking into it right now.

Doing a reboot. Should be back up in a few minutes.

I still cant find the server.

Patience, grasshopper...

Okay. haha. I'm trying out battle royale right now

Still isnt showing up for me =/

Patience grasshoppers...............................

im just letting you know, incase you tried and didnt know if it was up or not

Ok. Try it now. It should be accessible.

yep shes a workin

Thx for getting server back up Papa. Could the reboot have re-set the AI difficulty? There were Ai heli's again which I hadn't seen in a while. And AI on ground seemed rather 'efficient' again

It shouldn't have had any effect but I can look into it. How many groups of AI did you happen to run across? They are on a more varied scale now, so if it was only one or two groups of AI, you might have just happened to get a few of the more "efficient" ones. If it seems to be a trend over multiple groups, then we might have something odd going on.

Just FYI so everyone can understand the system better, the AI have 4 levels of difficulty. Each level has a percentage chance to spawn in any given encounter. Level 1 are obviously the most likely to spawn, while level 4 are the least likely. These percent chances are PER individual unit. So if you happen upon a group, chances are that 40% will be level 1, 30% will be level 2, 20% will be level 3, and 10% will be level 4. So in a group of 10 AI, you'd be MOST likely to see 4 level 1's, 3 level 2's, 2 level 3's, and 1 level 4. This is, however made more complicated by the fact that the "dice roll" is PER unit. So you could feasibly end up with 10 level 1's. You could also end up with 10 level 4's (although this is HIGHLY unlikely.) Or 5 level 1's and 5 level 2's. Or 3 level 1's, and 7 level 3's.

All that to say, again, if it was just one or two encounters, you might have just gotten the short end of the stick. If it seems that EVERY group is super powerful, like it was before I made the changes, then we might have something weird going on.

I want to keep a little bit of that sense of danger when taking on AI, so that's why I chose to set the system up this way. You never know if the guy you're going up against is a scrub or a pro. Just like real people. But it is still biased towards more scrubs. The best of the best are rare, as it should be.

Interesting, thanks for the breakdown. I did not run across more groups of AI, just seemed tougher. Which like you said could have just been an unlucky 'dice-roll'. Definitely worth monitoring some more before making any changes. Other thing that was strange & made me think it may have re-set was the presence of AI helicopter. I hadn't seen one of those since first few days of server.

I agree it's nice to have AI presence to keep you on your toes

AI helicopters had never been removed. They are just less likely, just like the high level ground troops. When I first put them in, a group of 3 or less AI had a 100% chance to call in reinforcements via helicopter. That's why those first couple of days were a little hectic in terms of helos lol. If you were near a group of AI (even if you didn't know it) and they spotted you, they'd immediately call in a helicopter. Now they only do it 20% of the time, and (if my code works right) this check should only occur once the group has taken over 50% losses. E.g, in a group of 10 AI, after 5 are dead, there is a 20% chance they will call in a helicopter. At which point that helicopter has a 75% chance to have a gunner (otherwise they'd be useless), and a chance to drop up to 3 reinforcement ground troops via parachute.

Also, I wanted to ask (anyone else chime in too, not just hensley) what do you guys think about the roaming AI? There are a couple of ways to look at it.

1: we've got enough real people on that we don't need roaming AI, and should only have missions
2: We still don't have enough real people, and should keep the roaming AI for more challenge/ambiance/variability.
3: We DO have a bunch of people, but we're all friendly and don't kill each other, so we need to keep some more variability, and keep the roaming AI.

I would imagine the last option would be the prevailing opinion.

on the topic of AI, the ones that random spawn after a mission are a bit op in my opinion (also kinda annoying), and i dont like how it seems to happen every time! But thats just my opinion. Also i feel the AI should be turned down for a while to make new players wanna stay. I see it alot that people who join, keep dieing to npc and then leave. Atleast for a bit so they can have a chance to make money and build a base, but like i said its just my opinion.

I really like the roaming AI. I'm all for it. It keeps things interesting. I also enjoy the AI vehicle patrols. It's fun to scout out an area and plan an ambush. If you could add that it would be awesome.

I like having AI around for all the reason others have mentioned. I'm not a huge fan of the Heli's because all you can really do is run & hide unless you have one of the few weapons that could take them down. And if you do take them down, the heli crashes & you get no 'reward'. I like the Vehicle Patrol idea because if you do take them out at least you have vehicle to sell for a reward.

My opinion is AI difficulty is still a bit too hard. I think Dave makes a very good point with their current difficulty scaring new people off of the server. When you play on server for any amount of time there are A LOT of ..... Killed by AI messages coming through. That being said I'd hate to see them be total idiots too. Tough line to walk!

+1 to what Dave said.

I really think that turning down the AI difficulty and nerfing demons a bit would really help with keeping new players wanting to play. Currently, the main spawn towns are just so dense with threats that it can be overwhelming. I was playing as a party of 3 last night and that was difficult enough to try and get somewhat established. I could only imagine that trying to do it on your own as a new player would just be absolute misery and instantly turn me away from the server.

That being said, I do enjoy the AI aspect of the game as it does add a bit of a challenge, so I would not want to see it removed.

Also, +1 to what ExileGlory said as well. The vehicle patrols would allow newer players more opportunities to get a vehicle after they have some usable gear.

Posted a new topic, "Changes to AI." See that thread for specific AI updates.

Yea from the server we came from roaming AI was something extra and it made things a little more interesting. They were fun to attack and be attacked by. I think regardless of the number of Real Players, roaming AI will add a different aspect to the server that I believe we will benefit from.

I'll post this here since we're on the subject, but I can also copy into a new post in Feedback.

My first suggestion is for AI. I think papa added it last night, but just to reinforce, I think we need more roaming AI. They keep things interesting. Imo, more AI patrols, in and out of vehicles. Raise the chance of helicopter reinforcement to 50% and the chance to drop paratroopers 100%. Lower the chance for a gunner to 20%. This gives heli's a sense of danger and the 100% paratroopers a chance for extra loot.

1/?

Secondly, I'd like to talk about zombies.

Obviously everyone is in consensus that demons are too OP. I'm not sure how the mod works, but until they get nerfed can you lower the chance for them to spawn? If so, I think cutting their current spawn chance in half would help. I like they sense of danger they add, but if you're solo and in a closed area, you're pretty much dead. As for regular zombies, is it possible to add more to outside of towns? I don't mean just random zombies in a field, but more so around rural areas. Like the road from Pygros to the Terminal for example. It's not a town, but all down that road there are industrial and residential buildings, gas stations, construction sites. I feel like there should be zombies around some of these. Not necessarily a whole horde, but like two or three in a cluster of buildings would be very much realistic. There's just no risk to looting these places. Run in, wait for loot, pick it up, leave. Overall I'd like to see more zombies added, in and out of towns. And if possible, a small incentive to actually kill zombies. Maybe like 1 rep per kill, or care 10 tabs per kill. I like that they drop loot, but the tabs and Rep would be awesome. I think 1 and 10 are small enough amounts that it won't be too overpowering.

2/?

Thirdly I'd like to talk about missions.

As a whole, the current missions are great. No complaint there. But over the past few days I've been checking out other servers and they have two other features that I really liked and would love to see implemented here. The first one is "clear the town." Im pretty sure it wasn't a separate mod, just script for exile. But what it was is a message would pop up kind of like a mission saying that AI has plundered a certain town. Your goal is to go the town, kill all plundering AI and zombies, and once all the AI are dead, loot crates spawn and the mission is complete. These are incredibly fun missions, especially if you have a group. Lately on our server, Groot and I have just been dumping all our gear, looting whatever we can from a military base, and then going to clear a nearby town. This is the most fun and most intense game play I've ever had on Exile. Pygros was insane. If you could implement the "clear the town" missions, it would give a reason for people to actually go into towns. I highly recommend this mission.

Another mission type I saw is "helicopter crashes." While not as in depth as "clear the town," these missions pop up saying "a prison heli has crashed, go claim the loot for yourself." There are no AI, just loot. It sounds easy but what I liked about this is that it really promotes competitive pvp without being dicks. Get to a heli first? Loot it quick and get out before someone else arrives or hide and wait, lure them in with loot, and take them out. Get there at the same time and have a nice gun fight. This was a lot of fun, as AI gets pretty boring and pvp without the risk of being a dick keeps it fresh.

Also some features of exile that I've seen that I'd like to see implemented is map location, AI radios, and of course the bottom bar (which I think is bugged, yeah?) Map location shows you and your party's location on the map. It's not very Arma-y, but it makes sense if you have a gps. It doesn't take anything from the realism of the game, it was just an incredibly nice feature to have. AI radios are nice as well. What this does is whenever an AI patrol is in your vicinity, a message pops up by the chat box saying that you hear a transmission over your radio, and your radio makes some garbled noises. This was very nice to have with the roaming AI and AI patrols and I'd love to have this again. And of course the bottom info bar and safe zone stuff. I believe papa said it was an easy fix, but I haven't heard anything about it since. If you could look into that again I'd very much appreciate it!

I think that's it! Feedback appreciated guys!

3/3