Monster personalities

Daniel · Post by **Daniel** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 6:45 am

Well, anyone that played Doom has this feeling: some monsters have different "personalities". Arch-Viles attacks you if near than 1024(?) pixels, and any monster fight against him; Mancubus tries to kils the first monster/player that fights against him; Hell Knights/Baron of Hell are friendly monster... So what about allow this attributes into DECORATE lump? It should like this, like some kind of "thing bits":

ACTOR .... (ID)

PERSONAL:
NEARATTACK (like Arch-vile)
FARATTACK (Revenant - if near, follow you and tries to punch)
FIGHTAGAINSTSHOTTER (Mancubus)
FIGHTAGAINSTANYONE (Arch-VIle)
FRIENDLYMONSTERS (monster ID) (something like Hell Knight - Baron)

and more could be added. When I made 99weap mod for ZDoom (xtraweap.wad), I didn't change Revenant, Baron, Hell Knight and Arch-Vile due to their personalities. I changed Mancubus, but he is different...
SORRY I'M A SINNER!

Post by **Enjay** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 6:55 am

Another one, The revenant seems to fire less often when he is some distance away. Presumably this is to encourage him to close in and punch you. However, it can mean him being a bit crap if you modify him via dehacked to have different attacks or be a style of monster that really shouldn't behave in that way. Of course, the answer is to modify something else, but because this is not a well known thing, it can happen without you realising why.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 7:05 am

The only Doom monsters with special properties are:

Arch Vile (has an attack range limit)
Revenant (has a minimum missile attack range so that below a certain distance it comes closer to its target to punch)
Lost Soul (its attack probability from far away is higher than all the other monsters.)
Cyberdemon (significantly increased attack probability)
SpiderMastermind (significantly increased attack probability)

The Mancubus, Baron and Hell Knight don't have any special properties at all and for the ones mentioned above let's see whether Randy has added my solution for this stuff or not. It's quite easy to turn these special properties into actor flags and I'd really like to see it happen.

BTW, Heretic's Gargoyle exhibits the same special behavior as the Lost Soul and a few Strife monsters also have some special attack properties but that's really all which is not yet obtainable.

Daniel · Post by **Daniel** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 7:11 am

Yep, I think it's time to make it "grow up" now... the game would be much more objective into monster editing characteristics. Also Baron and Hell-Knight are friendly: just make the test for yourself: copy them into Imp and Demon, and see how they fight. Arch-Vile and Mancubus are very different when someone attacks them too, I notice that every time I play Doom. Maybe the original Doom source could explain it, but it's clear to me.

When I did Neo Doom mods, I put the zombie missile launcher into Revenant's place, so they won't shot you if near (but if you shot him and he "feels pain", it will shot you at any range - a kind of revenge that looks cool - all from the Revenant's personality)

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 8:45 am

Daniel wrote:Yep, I think it's time to make it "grow up" now... the game would be much more objective into monster editing characteristics. Also Baron and Hell-Knight are friendly: just make the test for yourself: copy them into Imp and Demon, and see how they fight.

That will be available through inheritance. Monsters that are based on another will not attack monsters of the parent class and vice versa (in 2.0.64)

Arch-Vile and Mancubus are very different when someone attacks them too, I notice that every time I play Doom. Maybe the original Doom source could explain it, but it's clear to me.
[/quote]

The Arch Vile has a special property, available through the flags NOTARGET and QUICKTORETALIATE, so some of its behavior is already possible. The attack range limitation, however, is not (yet.)
The Mancubus, however, does NOT have any special behavior at all. This is easy to check if you look at ZDoom's definition of it.

Post by **Enjay** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 8:56 am

Graf Zahl wrote:Arch Vile (has an attack range limit)

Interesting. I didn't know that, but it certainly makes sense. What is the limit?

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 8:59 am

1088 map units.

Daniel · Post by **Daniel** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 9:25 am

so something already got done... I saw that QUICKTORETALIATE flag but I never stopped to check what it means...

Post by **Enjay** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 3:56 pm

Graf Zahl wrote:1088 map units.

An interesting number. I'd have expected something about that distance to use 1024. Around about a 1000 units seems to have been a sensible decision by id though.

I guess that also explains why my railgun snipers based on the archvile never seemed to attck when I wanted them to.