Storm6436

Sweet. I'd not tinkered around with the guts so I wasn't sure how things were laid out internally. Probably also had a few games where the RNG just loved the rare/very rare stuff, giving me the impression they weren't as rare as they were. Gotta love statistical processes. (Actually, having had to take Intro to Quantum... In Soviet Russia, statistical processes love you!)

And for what it's worth, this mod will *definitely* be added to my "I can't play this game without this mod" list ... once I get enough time I can actually fire up the game without feeling guilty that I'm shirking/skipping out on classwork. The original OGRM was freaking awesome, so I'd like to thank both of you guys for your work. Side note: Granted I haven't dug through the new version yet to see if this is still the case or not, but one of the things that *slightly* rustled my jimmies with the original version as a gun nut was the distribution of weapons -- not that there were too many total weapons/ammo (Having been in the area the game takes place in, I'd wager you'd actually find *more* weapons, if not also more ammo) but more that the total unique number of weapons seemed a bit off. Specifically, I'd expect you'd find a significant number of mossberg 12ga, AR platform guns, and lever actions (or similar enough other designs) before you'd find one of the more "exotic" types, like any of the FN 5.7 stuff. Any plans on tinkering around with relative rarity between the unique weapons/ammo, or finding an easy way for folks to drop stuff off the spawn tables?

Oh definitely. Some of the work I may have done involved helping folks write better detection rules for malicious code. You can't run a REGEX against *everything* that crosses your wires, but there are a lot of times when that's not just the fastest way to find certain things, but really the only way.... so you essentially nest it in back end of a bunch of conditional detection rules so you don't waste a ton of processor time running string searches against innocuous packets. Properly done, Information Assurance was a pretty fun/neat job. The trick is finding a place that does it properly

True. I like C++ to some degree, but I think that's a result of not having to actually code much. That said, I did IA work for several organizations who shall remain nameless, and I've always been able to skim C++, JAVA, etc code snippets and have a good idea what they're doing. Running into languages that embed stuff like REGEX always threw me for a loop. Much hate for regular expressions. There's nothing regular about them

Yeah, I've done some *very* basic poke-peeking at other mods and was originally a CS major my first trip through college... This time around, I'm a physics/applied math dual major, and I just finished my second time taking Intro to C++ Past me is jealous, as my first trip through I did not do *nearly* this well. On the flip side, I spent a decade as a squid between first attempt at college and now. If you have any questions, feel free to pester... I just can't promise anything resembling timely responses given my class schedules and the absolute monstrosity that is 300+ level math/physics courses in terms of classwork.

I'll apologize for dropping a comment without having read page 2 yet... and I'll apologize again for dropping a comment and poofing, but seeing as my time until finals next week is at a premium... *shakes fist at the Physics Gods ... and the chair of the Physics Dept* When you do get the gunsmith profession working, are you planning on allowing wheel/breach guns to jam? Admittedly, revolvers jam *far* less frequently than semi-autos but it's been my experience that when revolvers finally get around to jamming, they're best used as clubs until you can take it to a smith (or take it apart yourself... which is *fun* if you don't have the right tools.) Can't speak for breechloaders though, I've neither owned own nor heard from any of my friends who have owned them about anything jam-related for them. I figure mechanical failure is mechanical failure, and just as the mechanical timing and all the little fun stuff in revolvers loves to hate you, I figure breechloaders should be subject to the same rules of "How bad does the Universe hate you today?" with admittedly even smaller chances due to fewer parts to break/gum up.

There isn't a physical key to pick up. It's not even something you'd be able to grab on a thumb drive. The stuff is transported on special equipment now and can't be exported. It's either on the device or it's not... and a key means you can only talk with things that use the same key (or for key-pair/symmetric pair, the appropriate opposing key) ... add a dash of other complicating factors like crypto cycling frequently and that mishandling crypto is the fastest way to a jail cell a mil member has available to them? Ehhh. Still, you pick up a radio from a dead guy, it might have access to that channel for a day, maybe a week? Depends on the key and if people suspect that key's compromised. Unit gets wiped out in the zombie apoc and they can't sweep the site to recover bodies or crypto gear? Yeah, that key goes to the great digital trashcan in the sky RFN provided the guys *managing* the crypto aren't a bunch of Zeds themselves by then... and even if they are, once that key's timer is up, it goes inop depending on the key type. There are few things more paranoid than the military's handling of crypto. Though, to be fair, it's not paranoia when they actually are out to get you. Edited to add: I have worked with crypto period appropriate to year PZ takes place in.

You're not going to get internal comms from a radio. They never leave the aircraft; they're local wire only, depending on aircraft. As for "hacking" crypto, good luck with that. I'm at the tail end of a physics/math dual major, and add that to a decade as an electronics tech for the Navy who *did* work with crypto, and I'll just sit here and smile at the idea. Joe on the street or even a "decent" hacker is not going to "hack" through military hardware based encryption. Firewalls, servers, etc? Sure. Vector keymat based encryption? Newp.

Eh, it's a bit late for that. I did the "Join the military, see the world" bit first, followed by military contractor. I'll be 39ish if/when I finish, and if I want a PHD I'll be pushing 50. Far more likely I'll content myself with writing science fiction. Got two books done, but not published yet as I'm basically caching them. I can't write when classes are on and folks expect a release at least once a year... so two years I probably won't get much writing done means I should have at least three books banked.

Hah, usually I figure people roll their eyes and move on without thinking it over terribly much. The main reason why I rattled off what I did was because I'd just finished a 300-level physics class on waves, which spent about a third of the class going over sound waves and the oddities of human perception of them. I might have the false impression I'm at least partially informed on the topic, but it was pretty damn interesting and I tend to get carried away with things I think are interesting. I do kinda look forward to finishing this physics degree, I just need to shake this test anxiety.

Eh, not really. Indoor zombies don't bug me one way or the other. Make a little noise outside, whether that's beating an ax against a wall or popping off a round or two, and most zombies decide they like being outside pretty quick... and those that fail to path are generally banging their head against a closed door, making it easy enough to find them without jump scares. The thrust of what I was getting at is that if I'm in the middle of nowhere in a county with a population of, say 20k people... and I'm hold up on a roof because of the horde below. What are the odds that most of those 20k people are going to be in the street below me? Eventually as the horde size approaches the population size (for a given time post-outbreak), it quickly becomes highly improbable that the horde in the street below could even exist. Ie, presuming a short T, for the Horde population to be believable, it can't be above a certain percentage of the general population inside walking distance as defined by time T. Granted, at T increments, walking distance gets longer ... but at the same time... well, I'm rambling now, but I think that's sufficient.

Eh, I'm actually more for leaving gun sounds alone vs what seems the car draw is. But to come up with a rational way to argue one way or the other, one would have to delve into how zombies decide what is "interesting" which would likely then get into a discussion on how the human brain processes sounds and classifies them... meh, not only do I not know most of that, but modern science doesn't know all the answers either. But in my head, the way I see it... (Please note, I'm still waking up and also brain burnt over finals, one of which was a physics final on wave mechanics, so this might be a bit dense ... and sadly, not entirely correct.) In terms of a constant volume, constant production -- look at it in terms of rate of change in sound amplitude (which is logarithmically related to the intensity we hear... but I'm trying really hard to avoid things like fourier analysis here so...) ... a car running at normal RPM emits a certain volume of certain frequencies of sound... and depending on what that RPM is and the style of exhaust used in the vehicle, these are mostly low frequency sounds. Low freq sound is already pretty hard to figure out where it's coming from by virtue of how sound propagates... Add the fact that we have background noise our motor is competing with, and at lower RPMs, not only would I expect the sound to not necessarily travel shorter distances, but it would be less directional. So a car at idle would be pretty hard to echo-locate unless you were already in line of sight and fairly close. Also, remember that background intensity changes over the day/night cycle, so I would expect an idling vehicle be easier to echo locate at night. In terms of sudden increase -- Say you gun the motor... well, higher RPM shifts emitted frequencies to higher regions making it easier to locate ... on top of a sudden increase in sound amplitude which would increase the area the sound is audible over as some function relatable by 1/r^2. In terms of a slower increase -- Putting the pedal down a bit, but not flooring it -- Would necessarily react as a blend of the two above, but is a necessary mode to contemplate given what follows. The above handles a generalization (probably very poor, so I apologize to anyone more informed on the matter for butchering it) of the actual physics involved in the propagation of the sound waves... but that's only half of what we are concerned about. What do zombies find interesting? If we presume that going full Z doesn't magically rewire the brain so much as it shuts down upper cognitive functions... then it stands to reason that the more basic a mental function is, the higher the chance it either gets left alone or is amplified in effect. So what makes sound interesting to us? I would posit that for a sound to be interesting, it must reach one of two thresholds: one of primitive threat detection, and one involving contextual clues. Threat detection is the easiest to model -- sudden sounds demand attention -- our primitive ancestors were both hunter and prey, and a sudden sound might just be the predator you didn't notice. As such, sensitivity to sudden changes in sound would make sense, be it a sudden gunning of a motor or gunshots, or whatever. A droning sound, be it white noise from TV static or a passing vehicle out of line of sight should not necessarily hold a zombie's attention for very long. In the case of gunshots, as far as I am aware both by personal experience and trying to link that to the physics above, albeit sloppily, gunshots carry a wide mix of frequencies and a very abrupt amplitude change.... both of which make them fairly easy to echo locate. And as for contextual clues -- it's generally safe to assume that due to the lack of higher brain function zombies aren't going to interpret words, etc... but it would make sense that even if they couldn't find meaning in the words, the most basic version of this would understand that the sounds emitting from someone's mouth aren't natural (insomuch as they aren't background sound) and as such, were the zombie brain to associate these sounds with food, it would make sense for them to be far more sensitive to spoken word. Where this plays into the vehicle sounds is that I don't particularly see zombies as having any contextual understanding of the sound of a car, so I'd see most of their response being from the threat model, not the context model. Anyway, I'll just shut up now since I feel like I'm rambling.

Yeah, zombies need locational damage. Most of a car impacts I can't see killing a Z... but it's pretty hard to shamble after someone when one of your femurs is in twenty pieces. And the video highlights one of the reasons I don't play on the more dense horde difficulties: If I'm hanging out in a place that had 1k people prior to the Z-outbreak ... and all the neighboring towns are similarly populated, there comes a point where you realize that literally everyone in the county is shambling down the street outside... and that completely blows my immersion out of the water.

Also, Taco, I'd point out there's a difference between "This has to be abso-freaking-lutely perfect first time" and "This is crap. We can't push this." Failing to tell the difference between is mistake. Would I be happy with the vehicle anims and what little they've shared? Who knows. I've done enough software dev work to know when you put out a video, you put the best face forward and try not to show the ugliest of bugs. Especially if you've been bitten over the feature before. And they've been bitten about all sorts of stuff being borked. I mean, I get it, not once in the history of the world has telling someone to calm down ever resulted in them calming down. Same with "Be patient." But there does come a point where one has to either ponder if they're being unreasonable or not, and then accept the consequences of their determination.

Actually, you know know what? I don't blame them. I'm in an odd position as I'm going back to college to finish a degree I tried starting almost twenty years ago... but one of the irons I have in the fire is that I'm about to publish my first book, science fiction... and as an author I *completely* understand the desire to make sure what you put out is good. That's something a lot of the software industry doesn't seem to understand, considering the whole "We'll push crap and patch it later" paradigm used by folks like EA. Customers don't help either when they constantly clamor for a feature that isn't ready, so it isn't much of a surprise that a lot of games are utter crap before the first half dozen patches.