Afternoon devs, hope all has been well since you began your long update arc.
I have come to seed an idea which is potentially one of the more universally handy options for the game. I know that it won't be added any time soon, since feature locked right now. But, best to get it in early, eh?
Right now, we live in an age where mappers generally don't respect the size and scale of environments, causing the Overlord to not spawn or cull zombies in a satisfying, effective way at the default settings. This is of course, mostly a skill issue. However, when it has come to more tightly layered maps with multiple floors, we have the opposite issue. Zombies are spawning in places which you're currently not at, and results in less than you'd otherwise expect in the segment you are in. The despawn and respawn system does eventually resolve this, but as base values dictate, they only despawn so many in each tick, and there's a 10 second timeout before it goes through.
I propose at least a conceptual fix. If we can somehow modify the overlord's spawning radius rules (ov_autofill_start/complete_distance, ov_invisible cull and the type) through a mapping entity, where the game defaults to it's current values if left unmodified or not placed (depending on if it's a new entity or added to a critical one) with -1 for defaults, then that can allow mappers, maphackers and more to apply a custom range that may suit a level better. It would also allow the game to reset the values as needed on new map loads, since all maps would include this data.
While this can be achieved most likely through mapname.cfg files, It's an extra step that requires server hosts to manually install, and can be easily modified/lost by clients who may local host instead.
This is not a critical issue by any means, but I personally feel that encouraging a degree of tuning for the maps which just can't structurally be different for it's layout would do a world of good.
An example I'd use it for is to set the invisible cull to a couple hundred units beyond the fog end value, if the fog happens to be that dense, modifying it through the map I/O as events occur, without using point_servercommand to overwrite it manually.
As is, the system does well enough, but I think that'd be a good thing to consider in future. I'm more than happy to just use mapname.cfg to do some of this work to improve stages. If you come up with a more succinct or effective solution, then by all means, it would be a welcome one.
TL;DR, Add autofill start/complete and invisible cull KVs to a mapping entity to improve our ability to work with the overlord on maps. -1 for default game values, auto set this on maps missing the entity. Ability to change it (if valid) with Mapping I/O or VScript would be gold.
Have a wonderful rest of your day, and good luck on pushing that update.
Sincerely
Big Hat Marley
Afternoon devs, hope all has been well since you began your long update arc.
I have come to seed an idea which is potentially one of the more universally handy options for the game. I know that it won't be added any time soon, since feature locked right now. But, best to get it in early, eh?
Right now, we live in an age where mappers generally don't respect the size and scale of environments, causing the Overlord to not spawn or cull zombies in a satisfying, effective way at the default settings. This is of course, mostly a skill issue. However, when it has come to more tightly layered maps with multiple floors, we have the opposite issue. Zombies are spawning in places which you're currently not at, and results in less than you'd otherwise expect in the segment you are in. The despawn and respawn system does eventually resolve this, but as base values dictate, they only despawn so many in each tick, and there's a 10 second timeout before it goes through.
I propose at least a conceptual fix. If we can somehow modify the overlord's spawning radius rules (ov_autofill_start/complete_distance, ov_invisible cull and the type) through a mapping entity, where the game defaults to it's current values if left unmodified or not placed (depending on if it's a new entity or added to a critical one) with -1 for defaults, then that can allow mappers, maphackers and more to apply a custom range that may suit a level better. It would also allow the game to reset the values as needed on new map loads, since all maps would include this data.
While this can be achieved most likely through mapname.cfg files, It's an extra step that requires server hosts to manually install, and can be easily modified/lost by clients who may local host instead.
This is not a critical issue by any means, but I personally feel that encouraging a degree of tuning for the maps which just can't structurally be different for it's layout would do a world of good.
An example I'd use it for is to set the invisible cull to a couple hundred units beyond the fog end value, if the fog happens to be that dense, modifying it through the map I/O as events occur, without using point_servercommand to overwrite it manually.
As is, the system does well enough, but I think that'd be a good thing to consider in future. I'm more than happy to just use mapname.cfg to do some of this work to improve stages. If you come up with a more succinct or effective solution, then by all means, it would be a welcome one.
TL;DR, Add autofill start/complete and invisible cull KVs to a mapping entity to improve our ability to work with the overlord on maps. -1 for default game values, auto set this on maps missing the entity. Ability to change it (if valid) with Mapping I/O or VScript would be gold.
Have a wonderful rest of your day, and good luck on pushing that update.
Sincerely
Big Hat Marley