Making a monster incorporeal

[Ghastly]

I'm trying to make a monster appear as though it teleported to another spot of the room by doing teleport fog, making it invisible, completely incorporeal (things can move through it) and invincible, then doing more teleport fog and getting rid of those effects. The Iron Maiden from Quake 4 is a pretty good example of what I'm trying to do.

First off, what flags should I set or clear to make it incorporeal? Second, what would happen if it went back to normal inside of something? and third, what can I do to prevent it from rematerializing inside something?

[HotWax]

You can use +NOCLIP to allow it to walk through walls, but I don't think you can set or clear that on command.

[Ghastly]

I don't want to make it walk through walls, just other actors.

I have an idea as to how to prevent it from materializing inside other actors. I slap +Friendly and +Frightened on it and do an A_RadiusThrust just before it comes in.

[Risen]

I don't know what Q4 is like, but what about actually teleporting the thing around?

[Ghastly]

Ugh, I tried that already for a different monster about 6 months ago and never got it to work. Believe me, this method sounds much more doable. Also, that would only really work with bosses for one specific area.

The aforementioned Q4 Iron Maiden every once in a while teleports away, waits about 6 seconds or so, then teleports in again (you see it right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05N7cOicP70 about 2 and a half minutes in).

I'm leaning towards the +NOBLOCKMAP flag, but for some reason it seems like a bad idea.

[HotWax]

So basically you just need it to disappear for awhile and then reappear?

I think NOBLOCKMAP would be the best solution, actually. It prevents collision with other actors but still treats geometry as solid to the actor.

[Ghastly]

Thanks that works!

But the one thing that makes me nervous about this is that I have no idea what'll happen if it tries to re-block map inside another actor.

[Ryan Cordell]

But the one thing that makes me nervous about this is that I have no idea what'll happen if it tries to re-block map inside another actor.

fusion actor GO.

[Ghastly]

Well, I put on noclip and turned it off in a monster, so now I know what happens (nothing too bad).

However, that won't be an issue, because for some reason, A_Changeflag won't apply +NOBLOCKMAP. I tried A_UnSetSolid and A_SetSolid, but that won't stop attacks from hitting it.

Edit: YES!! Got it! A_UnSetShootable and A_ChangeFlag(Shootable, 1) work (though, for some reason A_SetShootable doesn't work).

[DBThanatos]

not sure if this is would help you much.

---

//===========================================================================
//===========================================================================


//===========================================================================
//===========================================================================
ACTOR LizardTrooper2 7299
{
Health 180
Radius 18
Height 56
Speed 8
PainChance 200
Scale 0.72
MONSTER
+FLOORCLIP
-FRIGHTENED
+DONTSPLASH
AttackSound "dnmonsters/fire"
SeeSound "dnliztroop/active"
PainSound "dnliztroop/pain"
DeathSound "dnliztroop/death"
ActiveSound "dnliztroop/active"
Obituary "%o was killed by a lizard trooper."
DropItem Cell
DropItem Cell 128
DropItem HealthHeart 210
DropItem HealthBottle 64
Damage 4
States
{
Spawn:
NULL A 0 A_SetShootable
NULL A 0 A_SetSolid
NULL A 0 A_ChangeFlag("FRIGHTENED",0) //be able to face again the player
ASCA E 10 A_Look
Goto Spawn+3
See:
ASCA AABBCCDD 4 A_ExtChase(0,1)
Loop
NULL AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 2 A_ExtChase(1,0) //this is the invisible part
NULL AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 2 A_ExtChase(1,0)
NULL A 2 A_CustomMissile("ATT4",0,0,0)
NULL A 2 A_CustomMissile("ATT3",0,0,0)
NULL A 0 A_PlaySound("misc/teleport")
NULL A 2 A_CustomMissile("ATT2",0,0,0)
NULL A 2 A_CustomMissile("ATT1",0,0,0)
NULL A 0 A_SetShootable
NULL A 0 A_SetSolid
Loop
Melee:
NULL A 0 A_ChangeFlag("FRIGHTENED",1) //invisible and running away from player
NULL AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 2 A_ExtChase(0,0)
NULL AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 2 A_ExtChase(0,0)
NULL A 0 A_ChangeFlag("FRIGHTENED",0)
NULL A 2 A_CustomMissile("ATT4",0,0,0)
NULL A 2 A_CustomMissile("ATT3",0,0,0)
NULL A 0 A_PlaySound("misc/teleport")
NULL A 2 A_CustomMissile("ATT2",0,0,0)
NULL A 2 A_CustomMissile("ATT1",0,0,0)
NULL A 0 A_SetShootable
NULL A 0 A_SetSolid
Goto See
Missile:
NULL A 0 A_Jump(128,9)
ASCA E 7 A_FaceTarget
ASCA F 7 Bright A_CustomMissile("DinoBlaster", 34, 7, 0)
ASCA E 7 A_FaceTarget
ASCA F 7 Bright A_CustomMissile("DinoBlaster", 34, 7, 0)
ASCA E 7 A_FaceTarget
ASCA F 7 Bright A_CustomMissile("DinoBlaster", 34, 7, 0)
ASCA E 7 A_FaceTarget
ASCA F 7 Bright A_CustomMissile("DinoBlaster", 34, 7, 0)
Goto See
ASCA I 10 //here begins the telepot phase
ASCA J 5
NULL A 0 A_UnSetShootable
NULL A 0 A_UnSetSolid
NULL A 2 A_CustomMissile("ATT1",0,0,0)
NULL A 2 A_CustomMissile("ATT2",0,0,0)
NULL A 0 A_PlaySound("misc/teleport")
NULL A 2 A_CustomMissile("ATT3",0,0,0)
NULL A 2 A_CustomMissile("ATT4",0,0,0)
Goto See+9 //or maybe to melee to use the frightened flag
Pain:
ASCA A 3
ASCA A 3 A_Pain
Goto See
Death:
ASCA K 5
ASCA L 5 A_Scream
ASCA M 5 A_Fall
ASCA N 5
ASCA O -1
Stop
XDeath:
NULL A 0 A_PlaySound("other/gibdeath")
NULL AAAAAAAAA 0 A_TossGib
NULL A 0 A_CustomMissile("BloodGib3",random(20,50),0,random(0,359))
NULL A 0 A_CustomMissile("BloodGib3",random(20,50),0,random(0,359))
NULL A 0 A_CustomMissile("BloodGib4",random(20,50),0,random(0,359))
NULL A 0 A_CustomMissile("BloodGib1",random(20,50),0,random(0,359))
NULL A 0 A_CustomMissile("LizardCrapHead",random(20,50),0,random(0,359))
NULL A 0 A_CustomMissile("LizardCrapArm",random(20,50),0,random(0,359))
NULL AA 0 A_CustomMissile("LizardCrapLeg",random(20,50),0,random(0,359))
NULL A 1 A_Fall
Stop
Raise:
ASCA ONMLK 5
Goto See
}
}

note: this is a mess because it was done before custom states thing was available, sorry.


I had to give the Fightened flag because for some reason A_Wander while is invisible doesnt work, and A_ExtChase(0,0) makes the monster try to get near the player, which ends in a monster stuck with you if the A_unsetsolid was active and then A_setsolid is called when player and the monster are in the same place.

however, the monster still might get stuck with other monsters as with the player.



DBT

[Ghastly]

A_Wander's a little weird. I was calling it 15 times in a few seconds and it didn't move more than half the time, but I did get it to move with this

Code: Select all

TNT1 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 1 A_Wander
TNT1 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 1 A_Wander
TNT1 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 1 A_Wander

It calls it 105 times in 3 seconds. They move a lot more now, lol.