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Here's a cool little helper bot I've been working on. It features auto and manual pilot modes, and you can switch your view over to its camera. It also packs some pretty heavy firepower. It can't take a lot of damage, though, so it will automatically go into evade mode if threatened, even when in manual override. Inspired by descent helper bot. This should work with the latest ZDoom development build, doom 1 or 2 and just about any mod (as long as the acs scripts dont collide - I used 550 through 560)

Direct download, about 55k - EyeCam.pk3

Make sure to check your key config, this bot adds a new section.

NOTE: this thing is much more fun in big, open maps. In doom 2, map 12, you can stand totally still when you enter the map and kill most of the monsters with the helper. Also try it in NOTH - pilot the bot on manual and see how long you can protect the marine from the onslaught!

edit - snip

bagheadspidey wrote:Edit - there are some weird lines that block this in the first level of doom 2, can anyone tell me what's going on with that?

Are they monster block lines? I know there is a special line type that you can specify in an editor that will block monsters but not the player.

Edit: This thing is kind of cool! The only thing I don't like is having to bind a bunch of keys to control it. It would be nice if when you went into manual control it automatically used the normal movements keys for the Eyecam. That's probably a limitation though.

Yeah, I thought of that... I tried setting -ISMONSTER but it made no difference, I wonder if there are more flags that identify monsters as monsters to those blocking lines? But I think imps are crossing the same lines that seem to be blocking this thing... it's hard to tell. I really just noticed it so i'll do some tests...

edit - Snarboo, type summon eyehybrid and you can fight one. Check the decorate for a few more "evil eye" enemy variations.

I've toyed around with this more and now I know what you mean, baghead. The EyeCam is blocked by the triangular staircase in Map01. The Evil Eyes also suffer from the same problem. How weird.

Edit: It's a monster block line problem. I agitated the former humans in Map01 and they would/could not descend the last step on the triangular staircase, the same thing that blocks the Eyes. I summoned a hellknight and shotgun guy just to be sure and the same thing happened.

Edit 2: I checked the wiki for more information, and I think the problem lies with this flag: ACTIVATEMCROSS. This flag allows a monster to activate monster only lines when crossing them. This is why a player cannot use a monster teleport. This might effect monster block lines, too.

Not sure, I had a pushable decoration I was messing with the other day and it had no special monster-related flags (ie, it was just a default actor with +solid and +pushable) and it could not be pushed across monster blocking lines (which, fortunately, was exactly what I wanted).

Thanks Snarboo - I tried giving it -ISMONSTER and -ACTIVATEMCROSS (seperately and together) and the line still blocks it =/

off to check wiki...

edit - enjay: weird... could it be a bug? or just an undocumented feature


edit2: +NOBLOCKMONST

Download updated.

Now the question is what seperates a player and a monster? A player can cross monster block lines, so there is something that determines this.

Edit:
^^^
Good find! :)

Excellent, apart from being totally incontrollable!

Puts my autoguns to shame I might add something from this so you can control my autoguns

Edit: I didn't know there was an evade state, it isn't listed in the wiki, does it go to this state whenever a projectile approaches the actor?

Very nice! Though, I sort of have to agree with Toenail's statement of it being near-uncontrollable. Making it use the standard movement keys would make it a lot better, if possible.

I could definately use it for one of my mods, if you don't have a problem with it. It'll still be a long while before said mod would be released.

Snarboo wrote:The only thing I don't like is having to bind a bunch of keys to control it

CaptainToenail wrote:Excellent, apart from being totally incontrollable!

Ghastly_dragon wrote:Making it use the standard movement keys would make it a lot better, if possible.

Not going to happen. The standard movement keys control the player, so this thing's gotta have separate keys. Hopefully the controls on this thing will appeal to old-school doomers; I'm not that happy with the controls either but there's only so much you can do without a mouse. Anyway, it's a remote controlled vehicle so it's not supposed to be as easy to control as just walking around - it is supposed to have a "mechanical" feel to it

OK, home from work and finally had a chance to play with this thing - very cool. The comments about it being hard to control are fair enough - it is - but it is still very cool. I'm sure I've seen the sprite before too - where is it from (Corridor7?).

Yeah, it's a probe from corridor 7. I found this rip on google image search =)

Spoiler:

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Added firing rotations, cleaned up some ugly pink pixels and other tiny details.

I'm thinking about making the eye color green so it can share its owner's palette, but it's not set up for network play yet anyway.

bagheadspidey wrote:Not going to happen. The standard movement keys control the player, so this thing's gotta have separate keys.

Darn. That's probably the only thing holding it back, for me. Even so, marvelously done!

One problem with the controls is that friction does not seem to apply to floating objects. Once you push them in a direction, they keep going until they hit something. This is pretty obvious from messing with the controls on this bot. I don't suppose anyone knows of a way that friction can be applied to floating objects, or a way momentum in any direction can be gradually reduced?

Very cool. Gives me a load of ideas for puzzles...

What would be even sweeter is if you could toggle a hud element to appear, say, in the bottom-right corner, to show a small camera screen from the point of view of the eyebot. Similar to Cutman's camrocket mod.