0.41.3362 - Monsters Behavior

So, this is one of those updates that has a lot of work done “under the hood” which doesn’t result in much visible changes.

Handling of Marks (things monsters attack with), Actions and monsters’ AIs has been significantly reworked. Now first of all we can pass parameters to all of those from the game data files, which first of all allows easily tweak most parameters of how the actions are performed. Second it simplifies adding new kinds of monsters behavior, and adding more complex monsters behavior than regular “see player? Attack”.

This work is far from “completed” - it’s rather a good start than the finish line. As many actions while can use this feature, don’t use it yet and still use “hardcoded” parameters. But it’s a good foundation for future improvements.

Of course it’s boring to have some work without visible results :) So we also have something fun:

A “Trapper” enemy who makes use of a new AI feature by having own behavior. This non-aggressive monster will roam around the map and put traps around from time to time. It’s not too strong and will most likely die from a stealth attack with most weapons. It’s a rare monster which starts spawning at lvl. 14 and patroling at lvl. 26.

A “Stun Shooter” enemy especially effective against nude target. It’s shooting homing tranquilizer darts which can either (with 50% chance) stun player character for 1 second or drain 20 stamina. Wearing clothes is a very good protection against those as they just ricochet away.

And finally a big bug with projectiles behavior was fixed. Before they disappeared if their owner died or even just changed action. Now as normal projectiles they’ll continue flying in their direction until they hit wall or target.

Full changelog:

• Refactor: Action now can have unique data
• Refactor: Marks now can have unique data
• Refactor: Monsters now can have unique AIs
• New monster: Trapper: leaves traps arond the dungeon (14 -> 26) [Test of new AI behavior :D]
• New monster: Stun Shooter: fires homing projectiles that can stun or drain stamina on nude target (12 -> 24)
• Support for homing projectiles
• Projectiles do not disappear with monster’s death/change of action
• Reduce memory usage by images
• Monsters can stop patrolling at a specific depth (no more too weak enemies on high depths)
• Avoid redundant checks in data loading sequence (tiny optimization)
• Remove unused LCL library dependency
• A bit faster Living Suit attack: 1.1 -> 1.0 seconds delay
• Reduce Full Suit protection 98% -> 92%
• Amulet of Freedom reduces stamina cost for dash roll 30% -> 50%
• Fix log for movement speed penalty