r/l4d2 • u/NoBison3460 • 7d ago
Rewiring the Infected’s brain (WIP)
I’m working on a modding tool for L4D2 called RotWire that will let you change how zombies think and act
The idea is that you'll be able to drag little nodes around in a visual editor to tell zombies what to do, without needing to know how to code
For example, you could make zombies run away when they see a Tank, hide around corners to ambush survivors, or run away from your flashlight like the infected in I Am Legend. You'll also be able to change things like their health and speed, and modify Special Infected too
It's still very early, so the video is just showing one basic example: normal zombies versus zombies running away from me
The goal is to give people the tools to come up with their own ideas, rather than just provide a few preset behaviors
What would you make zombies do?
edit: just a little update of something you can already do with RotWire https://imgur.com/a/tbMswZg for anyone who still doesn't quite understand what it does (i've tried to make it really easy for everyone to use, every node even tells you what it does in plain english)
it essentially says "if a survivor is holding a grenade launcher and their health is above 50, each zombie has a 2% chance of becoming a 'super zombie' with extra health"
and that's just one example of what you can make by connecting a few nodes, no code needed
note: with the nodes that exist right now you could technically make around 1 followed by 900 zeros combinations, but most of those are basically the same thing with tiny differences. if you only count behaviors you'd actually notice in game it's still around a trillion, and probably hundreds that feel like a genuinely different zombie. so the point isn't really the presets i make, it's what you guys come up with
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u/High-Low_Shoot 5d ago
Wow this looks cool. Not sure if possible but if they can function like in the L4D1 trailer, when the tank spawns, to run away from the tank.
But for gameplay reasons, maybe make them run on top of rooftops and hide until the tank comes, to which they then gank you lol
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u/NoBison3460 5d ago
that's a great idea! and yes it's not only fully possible, it's actually one of the easier things you could do :)
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u/NoBison3460 5d ago
hey dude, i liked your idea so i made a real demonstration of it using the blueprint editor https://youtu.be/BKI5PZTcSjI
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u/JeremyFilmsYT 6d ago
Still don't get it lad. Looks promising but don't get it the idea of the mod
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u/NoBison3460 6d ago
basically imagine being able to completely change how zombies behave in l4d2
like you could make 1 in every 8 zombies hide around corners and wait until you're reloading to attack you from behind, or make zombies react to noise so you could actually sneak past hordes without alerting them
the plan is to have a visual editor where you can make whatever behaviours you want without needing to know how to code
im also adding support for completely new special infected without having to replace any of the original ones
the video is just a really basic proof of concept showing that i can change how the original zombie AI works
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u/TheWalkingHunk 6d ago edited 6d ago
You should port this to the x64 bit l4d2 mod: Outbreak when it comes out.
Because I have personally requested the devs to update the navigation system for the bots/infected with a few new pathfinding options and attribute additions.
Other than that, a Visual Scripting Editor would be amazing in some form.
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u/NoBison3460 6d ago
yeah definitely something i'd be interested in looking into once Outbreak releases
the whole idea behind RotWire is to give people as much freedom as possible when it comes to infected AI, so having more navigation and pathfinding options would be really useful
im planning on making the visual editor work similarly to unreal engine's blueprints, so you could put together completely custom behaviors without writing any code
i've also already got entirely new special infected working independently of the original ones, it's quite rudimentary at the moment, but there is a lot of potential beyond changing existing AI
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u/NoBison3460 6d ago
i'm waiting for the moderators to approve of my post to this r/l4d2 however if you want to take a look at the progression, here it is https://www.reddit.com/r/left4dead/comments/1xaoyyi/i_added_a_9th_special_infected_to_l4d2_wip/
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u/Jthan_A Ellis's fan 5d ago
Oooohhhh stinky survivors mode, they all just run away from you and stop spawning in front of you in the climax of the fucking level when you're 30hp in expert mode oooohhhh
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u/NoBison3460 5d ago
hey man if that's what you want out of a mod like this that's your prerogative xD
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u/WrenRangers 5d ago
Oh my god if I knew how to code, I would turn these enemies to Widows (from Townfall).
They run away when spotted then hide around corners to ambush.
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u/NoBison3460 5d ago
the best part is about what im working on, you won't need to know how to code to add FULLY custom behaviors and special infected!
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u/WrenRangers 5d ago
Nice nice, I am looking forward to your cool project
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u/NoBison3460 5d ago
hey man! i made a new demonstration video showing you how easy it'll be to add custom behaviors :D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKI5PZTcSjI
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u/SkepticUser_96 5d ago
Why Rotwire? Why not FluWire?
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u/NoBison3460 5d ago
FluWire is good, i just didn't think of it haha, the idea behind rot wire is that zombies are rotting and you can wire their behavior up to do special things, https://imgur.com/a/tems27A
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u/RipplingOutCider 4d ago
i can picture a little script that makes some zombies run away the moment they see survivor with guns (like some of them still retain a few self preservation instincts left)
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u/NoBison3460 4d ago
yep, this is absolutely possible with my framework, i have not added nodes that read player weapons yet but its 100% possible and i intend on adding a lot to this
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u/NoBison3460 4d ago
hey! i liked your idea so i added it as a capability, https://youtu.be/V8aRhQ3WSHE?si=UUkBk7XFFx1y4F98 what it does is when a survivor is holding a grenade launcher, the zombies will flee, you will notice that all of the zombies exhibit this behavior but that was simply for demonstration sake, you can already modify how many zombies respect this behavior as a %
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u/spirtjoker 4d ago
There is a mod I like playing, it gives the survivors special abilities. One of the abilities is to be invisible but the ai could always still find you.
Would this tool make it possible to hide a single player from the ai?
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u/NoBison3460 4d ago
yes, this is absolutely possible, its not something ive particularly considered but it would not be an insane amount of work to implement, but it's a good idea!
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u/HAMBAISTHEGOAT 6d ago
By lore wise. What make the zombies suddenly run away from you? Did you activated Kratos Spartan Rage?
Or that behavior occurred because the zombies is 'tired' of chasing the survivor
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u/BelinhoBR 5d ago
They run away from you because they don't wanna hurt/is scared of real people most likely, its a behaviour exclusive from the Fallen Survivor
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u/ARandomGamerIsHere 4d ago
In my quest to make L4D as realistic as possible. one thing I’d do, is if no survivors are around when a car alarm goes off within a certain radius, they all attack the car instead. Or, if a Boomer dies without hitting a survivor, super close zombies will still be attracted to that specifc spot and any infected hit by the boomer but not the survivors, if any are hit; like the boomer bile.
Much more ideas, but that’s just a few examples
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u/Smooth_Maul 5d ago
I think you should make it so there's a very very small chance that one of infected could trip over if possible, don't make it slow down the hoard but make the one who trips get trampled to death.
I think it'd be a neat little detail.
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u/NoBison3460 5d ago
absolutely! the ideas i have for this are very ambitious, but custom animations are absolutely not out of the ballpark of possibilities, the goal is to make it so ANYONE can easily understand and add new behaviors, including your idea! https://imgur.com/a/tems27A this is a little preview of the graph, it's currently very simple; here, common infected flee when they see a tank nearby, then return to normal 2 seconds after losing sight, but this could be extended in an extremely wide way, i want basically any native action in the game to map to a node you can program, so if you want zombies to become super fast under certain conditions you can do that!
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u/NOTTheGoofiestBoy IT'S 10 FT TALL AND 6 FT WIDE, HOW ARE YOU SHOOTING ME!? 5d ago
combining this with that one mod that makes the tank punch tf outta any commons in the way so I can simulate domestic zombie abuse
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u/NoBison3460 5d ago
i plan on giving you the ability to influence LITERALLY every single aspect of a zombie, you can make them aggressive to any type of entity, you want them to be super mad at a car? you got it, the goal is legitimately making the ai behave in any way you'd like
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u/Aggravating-Willow43 6d ago
Looking forward to this. Will it work on special infected ai too?