rijackson741 wrote:
I haven't weighed in on this yet because I haven't had time to try it out. I'll give you a heads up on what I will look at though (probably over the weekend), and that's how well the new features "play" with the existing features and dynamics of the game. So in the case of messing with flee chance, how will that play with the existing Evasion skill? Currently there is a base 20% chance to flee, and each level of Evasion cuts that by 5%. That makes it a useful skill, even with only 2 or 3 levels (and of course with 4 levels, you always get to flee). If you decrease the flee chance then you nerf the Evasion skill. That doesn't rule out doing it, but if you are going to nerf an existing feature of the game, especially a skill that players have put points into, the benefits have to outweigh the losses.
I'm not sure but you might be misunderstanding me.
I think the 20% is the chance to
not flee, which is why when evasion decreases it it makes fleeing easier.
When I say "decrease flee chance" I mean "make fleeing harder" and not easier, so I think the evasion skill will be much more useful.
My biggest concern with ranged weapons is that, unless I misunderstand something, static monsters are defenseless. They can't move, so they can't chase you, so you can just stand somewhere safe and kill them from a distance. Maybe I'm wrong about how that works though, so I wasn't going to say anything until I had a chance to try it out.
Well currently, in the version I'm working on, I made monsters non-static by default And they will move towards you. If the path is blocked then they flee away to get out of your range.
If you want them to be static you have to specify values other than the default.
And considering that the monster behavior seems more accepted by zukero, I think there will be no problem with static monsters, as ranged weaponry will definitely not be added before monster AI.
I also added three new monster properties and set them to what I think are good default values, and of course can be changed for each monster. If these changes becomes mainstream then you can even use them in ATCS.
Here are the following properties individually and at the end I'll discuss the possible combos.
Line of sight
If you want the to monsters be static like before then you have to decrease their line of sight to 1 tile. Then they won't follow either inside our outside combat. It's currently at 200 so no chance of not seeing you.
hp flee threshold
If you want monsters to not flee (either inside our outside combat), you decrease their "hp flee threshold" to 0.
Currently the default is 0.2 (20% hp). Like the other two properties this can be changed to each monster in their data files.
rage-distance multiplier
During combat, monsters will not stop following you if you're within their line of sight.
But outside combat I limited them to a number of steps.
The current default for "rage distance multiplier" is 1.0 which means after combat ends (and you flee) they'll follow you for a number of steps equal to the distance when you first attacked them.
So if you attack them once and flee, and stand still, they'll walk until they're
exactly in your old position and start attacking.
Making the rage-distance multiplier equal to 10.0 means that if you attack with the +5 range weapon then they'll follow you for 60 steps! That's one hell of a cat and mouse.
To make monsters static summary. Making the rage-distance multiplier 0 (from 1.0) means they don't follow outside combat. If line of sight is 1 (from 200) then they don't follow at all. Make hp flee threshold 0 (from 0.2) then they won't flee.
Possible combos
Dogs can have rage-distance multiplier of 3.0 because they can track you better. So even if you hit them with melee then they'll follow for 3 steps after combat.
Peaceful creatures like rabbits and deer can have a flee hp threshold of 0.99 so they flee easily. "Things" like zombies and demons can have threshold of 0 so they're like kamikaze.
As for line of sight, well if you want to make a living tree monster that doesn't respond to attacks (can be just cut down for wooden logs and berries) you should set line of sight to 0 and you will have what is basically an inanimate, unmoving object with an HP bar.
You'd also want to set the hp threshold to 0 too or else the tree will get up and run for its life!
Of course we can already create inanimate monsters in-game by making their max AP 0. Both work.
Think of the quests that can now require you to chop 10 trees and return to the lumberjack!
The cupboards that can be "stolen" by smashing them open!
Boulders in the road, blocking your path, that have immunity to most attacks.
Little stones scattered in a forest and one of them hides a secret path.
Harvesting berry bushes and tomatoes. Destroying someone's furniture?
Monsters are going to be so damned far from static, it won't be even funny.
P.S. Currently if you attack monsters from outside their line of sight they don't flee until their Hp is low.
This is why I set it to 200, so they they always come towards you. I'll be fixing it today I think. They should flee if they can't see their attacker.
I'll probably add a "fear multiplier" that determines how far they flee from unseen attacks before they calm down again.
