[Done for V0.39] Monster AI

[cowsmanaut]

I was going to post this under the bugs topic about beholders. But it expanded and I figured it would be better here..

is it possible for you to up their (beholders)AI, as you have others?

So that they can "think" about their spells.. clearly the ability to cast a spell let's you assume they are intelligent. However throwing ZO spells at anything but a door is not very smart.

the other things is that they will kill their buddies as well if they're in the way of you.. any chance of expanding their 'target descrimination'? For that matter expanding the simulted attitudes of monsters. Between mindless, intelligent, agressive, passive, or/and cautious. Hit and run tactics we use, communal hunting (like a pack of wolves that try to get all around you), or even protecting an exit/item(as in you have to get past me to get such and such(stone golems?))

I mean nearly everyone who plays RTC has played DM at one point, and most likley completed it. Making the monsters more intelligent would be an optimal choice rather than simply increasing the numbers in the dungeon. After all part of what made DM so great was the respect you gained for each single monster... rather than hordes. Though when there were packs of them like the worms or rats you ran like (heh) well, a rat

[Rick]

Perhaps the easiest way to solve the spell problem is to add an "from" variable to the spell. If the monster hit by the spell is the same kind of the monster who conjured the spell, nothing happens to it. (Unless of course, the from is YOU Have you tried blasting afireball to an adyacent wall in front of you? 200 damage!)

This would make things interesting, like making beholders attack demons and such. Hey... thinking about the AI, i remembered the game DOOM. Why not let the enemies pick a target? If an enemy is hit by another, change its target and let em kill themselves ON PURPOSE.

So while they're fighting among themselves, this can give you time to run away.

Now a simple solution for the spells, would be that the enemy, just BEFORE throwing a spell at you, checked if there was no obstacle between you an it. (A door, a wall, or another monster). If it's a door let it use the zo spell automatically. Yes, AI would be a great thing to do for RTC.

Now if you REALLY want AI, you could give dodge capabilities to monsters. Like if you're about to smash him with a fireball, the monster dodges it automatically. Or they can set up an AMBUSH(Muahhahaha). Well this has to be thought, i can't think of some screamers or worms using advanced military tactics

[Guest]

It's possible to throw a fireball into a wall and SURVIVE? Wow. Even the last time I tried it, with a high hitpoint party and a LO power level, the caster died...

Did you have any fire or magic shields up when you did this? Is it repeatable? Can you give me a procedure?

-As Always, Strictly Anonymous

[beowuuf]

LO fireballs from a high ranking mage are more powerful than LO fireballs from a starting one..if you let a starting spellcaster lob a fireball at a wall, a high party should survive
And yes, fireshields do make a lot of difference
I've taken no damage from the 'what is underfoot...' shooters on level 9 with a decent fireshield cast

It begs the question why you'd want to survive doing this though...it doesn't gain you much (any?) experience, vs say letting a creature constantly attack you instead

[George Gilbert]

Done for V0.39 (the bit about monsters using their attacks more intelliegently that is).

[Lunever]

Great! BTW: While monsters did use their spells more intelligently in 38 than in 37 (being re-enabled to shoot through portculisses and Zo doors), strangely though the 4 wizard's eyes in that small 2x2 room in the eastern part of Level 05 didn't Zo their door despite being attacked by poison bolts and arrows through it, and even shot at each other. The other wizard's eyes in that level though behaved properly, Zoed doors and shot lightning at the party only, so I don't know what's the issue there, maybe the AI gets confused by that narrow space there.
Maybe it's already fixed now by the general AI imprrovements for 39.

Also monsters seem to react quicker to a quickly stepping forth-and-back party, striking back at least occasionally, which makes toe-to-toe-combat far more realistic (having monsters attack over a half-tile also helps, albeit it looks strange sometimes). Wizard's eyes shot properly at a forth-and-back-stepping party too, so all in all, it's already much better than 37 and I'm really looking forward to 39.