Crouching and Going Prone

Game Talk The Drawing Board
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As the game currently is, all characters are always standing up straight and never move from that position (They don’t even lie in bed, they stand on them with the covers over themselves). In addition to running, I’d just like to add two new movement options: crouching and going prone. They would have several potential applications I can think of of the top of my head:

  1. Tie in with the stealth system that was mentioned to be in planning, once it is implemented.
  2. Hide behind windowsills or stuff like that to close curtains without exposing oneself to the entire zombie-filled street.
  3. Hide behind things in general.
  4. Go prone to reduce damage from explosions.
  5. Take cover from gunfire, make oneself harder to hit.
  6. Lie down on rooftops (with the new and future Z-levels) for better aim with guns and such and to be harder to spot.
  7. Crawl and hide under a car, a bed, a table, stuff like that. (Would also apply to certain enemies, like the Crawling Zombie. They’d be much more interesting if they could hide under cars and surprise grab your ankle or something.
  8. Move after being knocked down without having to take a turn to get up.
  9. Crawl/crouch to avoid smoke or poison gas.

And many more, I’m sure. Of course, there’d be costs to doing so.

  1. Crouching would make one much slower, and crawling even more so.
  2. If they allow one to hide behind waist-high terrain, they’d also reduce sight range, and hide anything behind said cover to them, unless they specifically “peek out” or something like that.
    3)They would also heavily screw with melee combat, making a crouched or prone character nearly useless in melee and makes them far easier to hit and attacks far more difficult to dodge, while making ranged better by allowing one to stabilize the gun and minimizing recoil. Really, you shouldn’t have to fire a Sniper while standing up.
    4)Going prone in the snow would be a sure way to hypothermia.
    5)Getting up from being prone or crouched takes time, which may be precious when you’re mobbed by zombies, and you might even be knocked back down as you’re getting up. And crouching should make one more unstable on their feet, easy to knock down by enemies.
    6)Any number of actions would be impossible while prone or crouching, such as dragging vehicles, etc.

So, what do you guys think about this? Is it something you’d want in the game? I’d be glad to hear ideas as far as how to implement this. Also, is it a feasible proposition, coding-wise?

1 Like
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[quote=“dalenacio, post:1, topic:11085”]2) If they allow one to hide behind waist-high terrain, they’d also reduce sight range, and hide anything behind said cover to them, unless they specifically “peek out” or something like that. They would also heavily screw with melee combat, making a crouched or prone character nearly useless in melee and makes them far easier to hit and attacks far more difficult to dodge, while making ranged better by allowing one to stabilize the gun and minimizing recoil. Really, you shouldn’t have to fire a Sniper while standing up. Going prone in the snow would be a sure way to hypothermia. Getting up from being prone or crouched takes time, which may be precious when you’re mobbed by zombies, and you might even be knocked back down as you’re getting up. And crouching should make one more unstable on their feet, easy to knock down by enemies. Any number of actions would be impossible while prone or crouching, such as dragging vehicles, etc.

So, what do you guys think about this? Is it something you’d want in the game? I’d be glad to hear ideas as far as how to implement this. Also, is it a feasible proposition, coding-wise?[/quote]
I believe the problem with this code-wise was that by adding crouching/prone you’d have to implement a height system which does not currently exist inside the game. What I mean by height is the following:
There’s a table, a cupboard and a bed. They all have a set height. When you’re standing, you can see “above” the three, but when you crouch you’re not able to see through the cupboard, yet the table and the bed remain see-through. So the cupboard now has the same property of a wall (blocking your view) and relative to the objects around you, you “went down” a single mini-z-level. When you’re going prone you went down another mini-z-level and now both the cupboard and the bed have the view-blocking properties and the table is see-through still.

I don’t know jack about coding but I think implementing those mini-z-levels was the actual problem. Perhaps you could just give furniture set flags and tell the game “when I (crouch), (furniture) becomes (opaque)” or “keep (furniture) (see through) when (crouching) and (standing), but make it (opaque) if (prone)”.

Mobs are “universal” between all 3 mini-z-levels (standing, crouching, proning) but they exist on the one you’re using right now, meaning that if you’re (crouching), (cupboard) becomes (opaque) and (monster) can’t see you through it unless it spotted you beforehand. A mob has to exist in at least one mini-z-level. It exists on one if it’s prone (prone), on two if it’s crouching (prone + crouch) and three if it’s standing (prone + crouch + standing). You also calculate the FoV in a way that makes crouching mobs “disappear” when behind a crouch-tall furniture or when prone behind prone-tall furniture at a right angle. Mobs like dogs and cats don’t exist in the standing-level so they are able to hide behind shrubs, and crawling zombies don’t exist in the crouching/standing-level so they have the ability to hide behind beds or under cars.

No idea if any of this is possible and I’m sure I’m not thinking it all the way through, but that’s how I imagine this working.

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Step 1: wait for z-levels
Step 2: Profit by using them to implement all kinds of amazing stuff like height,stance and stealth system. (hopefully the game will still be fast enough to play :P)

4

Noticed earlier whilst in-game the M240 Bravo that I had removed from a Humvee was only usable when near a place to rest the weapon (Such as a windowseal, a piece of furniture, etc)

The option to go prone would be a great addition, especially if it allowed you to prop larger weapons up with your elbow or a bipod.

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[quote=“jcd, post:3, topic:11085”]Step 1: wait for z-levels
Step 2: Profit by using them to implement all kinds of amazing stuff like height,stance and stealth system. (hopefully the game will still be fast enough to play :P)[/quote]

Any idea of when will z-levels be a thing?

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When I get enough time to finish the first stage of 3D vision PR.
After that it’s all downhill - update monster abilities, add roofs to buildings, update monster AI a bit, optimize the incredibly slow 3D vision, fix bugs, and we could wrap it up and call it “working z-levels”.

Currently IRL bullshit (university) is sapping all my time, so I delayed all the major projects (like 3D vision). I may have some time to spare in February.