I don't anything wrong with rpg's at red missions as the red missions are supposed to be more difficult. But I do not agree with rpg's at green missions.
Beginners using green missions for getting better until they are ready for blue and red missions. D o not need to be mauled by rpg's in green missions.
I also don't like the fact that the new ai spawn at some of the traders. The traders should be a safe haven for dealing and doing business.
I am at Randigar's base for right now and whenever I enter the base or leave it or even inside my building I am constantly getting maul and killed right in the base and in my building.
Maybe we should add our own friendly AI to help fend off clusters of enemy AI.
Sounds like you have several things going on here Bova. Here are the responses:
Green and Blue missions, RPGs and you.
Once players figured out that they could drive up to the green and blue missions with their BTRs and would not be fired upon, they did just that. Small arms were no match for the BTR. While I would agree that for the sake of a fun time, they would stand off and shoot the AI with a sniper rifle, or even get up closer if possible and take them on with an assault rifle, that did not occur. Some of the players wanted the loot and did not want to really work for it at all. So, they would ride in with the BTR and run over all the mission AI and then collect. Seemed a bit one sided. So, we added the RPGs to the those missions to try and curb the squishy game.
AI at the traders:
We looked at that option already, making the trader zone a no fire zone. The issue as I recall was Stary. If we made the traders a no fire zone, that would include all the tents at Stary and the long barn. Which means, a player can then check those areas for loot with impunity. In fact we had that very set up early on over at Survival Servers. And we decided that we didn't want the players to collect in the tents with zero risk at all. So, we put in AI and a side effect is that you can get popped while at a trader area. So, a decision had to made..either you allow players to loot at their pleasure, or you have to watch your back while at a trader. Until such time as we can decrease the trader zone, if at all possible, you will have to watch your back, or bring along a buddy if you are going to do some serious trading. I have not had any problems at Bash or Klen. Stary is a whole nuther problem. I solve this by not going to Stary unless I have to for the black market trader and then...I am always watching around me, and make sure you have a radio in your inventory so you may see if the AI focus in on you. Or, like I said, have somebody on overwatch for you.
Randigar's base:
I am guessing you are talking about the base he has built at the northwest airfield. If you are, you need to leave that base as a newer player to the game and do not return until you are more adept at taking out the AI, or at least understand their mechanics better. There is ALWAYS activity up at the airfield, and I mean always. That is not a good place to have a primary "residence" so to speak. So, yes, the AI will stand outside that base and just hammer away at it hoping to get a shot on you. And then once you open a door or gate, they may very well have a shot on you. My advice..find somewhere else to build a small base. It doesn't have to be much. Large enough for several storage sheds, a couple of safes and at most a landing pad or two, similar to Smegga's up near the northeast airfield. Randigar's NWAF base is a good place to plink AI, and store things from a mission undertaken at the West side of the map. Not a good place for a singular base, imo.
Friendly AI:
We had friendly AI before. It was called Sarge AI. Problem was..it is way too resource intensive. The deal with the sarge, which I would prefer if we were able to run it and not affect so many other things, is there were three groups of AI, bandits, heroes, and survivors. Bandits kill heroes. Heroes kill bandits and zombies. Survivors could be either. So depending on what YOU are, that would determine what the AI did. Problem was..for every group of AI we had on the server, they were having to make multiple decisions to attack or not, for every actual player and every player's zombie spawns, every second of the game. Resource hog. And so we found the other version of AI which makes all AI hostile. I look at it like this. It is kinda a pvp environment without actually being pvp. Some like it, some do not. As much as I didn't want it at first, I will say, it keeps you honest.
This should, again, in my opinion, be a little harder of a game than we have made it. There should be a reward to for doing something or for scavenging and braving the risks. This is not minecraft, where building is the name of the game. Ultimately, it is the game that YOU make out of it. It can be as hard or as easy as you wish, depending on what you do. I think we have already slanted the game toward the easy side of things and wouldn't want to do much more to make it more easy.
Thanks for your opinions Bova, I may not agree with them entirely, but, I appreciate your willingness to express them.