What is Cepheus Protocol?

Where other zombie games in the genre have asked "How will you die" (Project Zomboid), Cepheus Protocol dares to ask "How will you survive". Giving you the tools of a recently created new branch called CERC its now your job to tackle how to handle the spreading Pangu Virus. We are dedicated to continuing to work with our community to keep refining Cepheus Protocol till its a true gem. It should be noted that while we embrace critical feedback it should be given in a manner that is respectful and conductive of actually having a conversation. I.E Don't say X is Bad fix it. Say X is bad because of X,Y,Z . Then we can start to have a meaningful conversation. It should be noted naturally all suggestions cannot be implemented but we will keep them in mind for a possible addition in the future depending on scope budget etc.

Vehicle AI Progress

Development Update from Jun 13, 2024 https://youtu.be/6zz49hElQa8?t=1032 In the past we have gotten feedback about how our vehicles were lackluster or for a better word "Crappy". Last Thursday we transitioned the engine to 5.4.2 to take advantage of the latest Chaos Destruction(Production Ready now) and Chaos Vehicle changes. Today i will be presenting the progress we've had in the last week R&Ding the new vehicle physics and adjusting as needed. A lot of time went into learning how Chaos vehicles operate and how to write an AI that understands things like steering, throttle and a break to accurately navigate our growingly complex world.

What is Chaos Vehicles?

https://youtu.be/-lkEOEEKYD0?t=63

What is Chaos Destruction?

https://youtu.be/u3ktiewcLpo?t=32 Note: we will not be allowing full destruction but like mentioned in the last update on Youtube partial destruction in the terms of street lights, fences, walls etc. Preplaced assets in the world to make areas like the center park in Treasure Island far more dynamic so vehicles and explosions can affect the world.

Day 1 of Chaos vehicles:

https://youtu.be/iAr8f14BjLQ

Day 2 of Chaos vehicles:

Still very much a work in progress. We are still writing a brand new vehicle AI using Chaos Vehicles from the ground up. Its certainly not plug in play in any capacity. We are effectively starting over from scratch for Vehicles They still struggle deciding when to turn so we are boasting their turn ratio more when the system detects they need some "arcade" level of control to allow them to make tighter turns. Arcade level dynamic turning will not be allowed in Operators that are controlling a vehicle directly btw We hope to wrap up the basics of turning accuracy/general movement with a single unit in the next 24-48 hours(Mondayish) https://youtu.be/ZNpZcWiNCg8

Day 3 of Chaos vehicles:

-Improved (though not yet fully fixed) angling 'too far ahead' of next move waypoint -Turn assist improvements at higher speeds for more reliability -Improved (though not flawless, sometimes it can bump into things in this move) obstacle avoidance -Better brake logic Still needs improved reversal logic, proper handling when starting up a move order in a difficult spot, better 'prediction' of upcoming sharp turns, and more improvements to obstacle avoidance. https://youtu.be/l0gqf7HD9f8

Day 4 of Chaos vehicles:

Predictive braking improved and considerably more functional Obstacle avoidance improved (though far from perfect) 'Forward adjust' for determining 'face location' reduced to better account for more accurate braking/turning The improvements here result in cleaner movement, though: "Braking Speed" is too low. Need to investigate how to dynamically determine what speed would be good for turning (you can see on the long straightaway that we go too slow for awhile) The more accurate adherence to the 'move waypoints' results in some other issues where obstacle avoidance has to assist Obstacle avoidance has some shenanigans still, though Some of the movements are cleaner, resulting in other issues being 'surfaced' that need fixing. Going to be doing more studying to fix this up further, but an example of what's going on: https://youtu.be/hggSi5WZyEA

Day 5 of Chaos vehicles:

Improvements to minimum speed for turning sharp turns and very sharp turns Improvements to obstacle avoidance to be considerably more reliable while also not fighting existing turn logic Today had a lot of time spent working on some other resources in prep for making the system more modular and so forth, though still got in some time to improve obstacle avoidance and minimum speed. Results speak for themselves! https://youtu.be/QlLoQ8b7uYs

Day 6 of Chaos vehicles:

-Obstacle avoidance tweaked: =Tries to better account for direction we need to go, rather than just obstacle relative to front of vehicle =Slight 'angle adjust' for obstacle detection trace in direction we want to go (instead of purely forward) Not drastically improved, but better able to handle more obstacles. Far from perfect, but a step in the right direction! A lot of dev time is still going into some of the 'framework' or R&D rather than the actual behavior, which is why the behaviors don't improving as quickly as in the first three days: we're still working on this, rest assured! https://youtu.be/6QI7DcCj3MQ

Day 7 of Chaos vehicles:

Been awhile since the last visual update, but we have been working on it! The 'less visible' side of the work has been integrating the AI into Unreal's own pathfinding systems - which comes with benefits such as allowing the vehicle to dynamically re-path for example. For something more visible: been working on improving obstacle avoidance, and (subject of the GIF here) with Dimitry's help both 'bumps in the road' and incline-handling have been greatly improved! https://youtu.be/o30E12V81JE https://youtu.be/mpwK0Er_OYw

Day 8 of Chaos vehicles:

Another update! (also timelapse, sorry, file's too big if I don't) -'Predictive' braking logic: the 'cyan sphere' in the GIF represents about where we'll reach a good 'turning speed' if we start holding down the brakes. You can see that when the sphere reaches a turn, the vehicle starts to slow down to ensure we'll be at a good turning speed when we reach it! -More obstacle avoidance improvements Doesn't handle everything perfectly, but is also better equipped to deal with situations where it ends up stuck. Plus (though not in the above GIF) is equipped with some basic 'reverse when stuck' logic, too. https://youtu.be/W75KPCA_fKI

Day 9 of Chaos vehicles:

A non-timelapse one (though had to drop the quality to make it fit)! -Some basic reverse logic works when starting up move orders, for 3-point-turns and the like -Obstacle avoidance uses a bit more logic and tracing to try to figure out the best way to turn (instead of just going off of 'which side is the obstacle on') -Obstacle avoidance 'steering' is reduced at high speeds (to avoid spinning out) =And obstacle avoidance checks go 'further out' at high speeds -Some other obstacle avoidance bugs/issues were ironed out, too https://youtu.be/5p2-W6F1VY0

Conclusion:

This concludes the last week of progress we've had on the vehicle. We will continue to tweak and R&D the vehicles as they stand till they are perfect. As seen in the last video(Day 9) turning needs some adjustment and some corrections are still needed before we scale up the tests with multiple vehicles and start implementing a custom "avoidance" system to stop vehicles of differing move orders from crashing into each other when possible. The Development update video linked above will have further details. After all of this is implemented we will convert all current vehicles to this system and implement the Abrams, MLRS and Bradley to officially start the CERC/Doctrines card outlined here. https://cepheusprotocol.notion.site/Cepheus-Protocol-31f1b25ce00148d6844825f4a0c0bc08?p=633fd2afddcd45df9fcf351b62e73647&pm=c