Dungeon Master Forum

I noticed you use "special abilities" for the monsters:
1. absorb projectiles
2. can see in darkness
3. Hit by Weaken Nonmaterial Beings spell
4. Levitates
5. Hit by Disrupt attack (Vorpal Blade)
6. Can see invisible
7. Can see in darkness
8. Can pass through wooden and iron doors (but not through porticullis and Ra doors) doors
9. Nearly immune to spells (excepted Weaken Nonmaterial Beings)
10. Can steal items in champions' hands
11. Can only be killed when materialized
12. Teleportation

These flags can be set for each monster:
1. AAS (Can attack from all sides): Monster can attack from front, back and side positions.
2. PBR (Prefer Back Row): Monsters that have this flag set will tend to hang back in the back row, whereas other monsters will step up to the front row when the party is near and they want to attack.
3. AEP (Attack Every Position): This flag allow monster to attack character on every possible position (NE, NW, SE, SW).
<note: if If PBR and AEP flags are not set, or a 25% chance regardless, monster move to the front>.
4. LEV (Levitates): The monster will not fall through pits.
5. NMT (Non Material Monster):
a) Non material monster ignores (walks through) every kind of closed doors (including RA doors).
b) Non material monster can be hit only by vorpal/disrupt.
c) All items and projectiles (except dispell) pass through the monster.
6. 1/4 (Short 1): adds 1/4 to door animation goes farther under a creature
7. 1/2 (Short 2): adds 1/2 to door animation goes farther under a creature
8. DRI (Drops items): The monster will drop a preset list of items, specified in the monster drop editor.
9. APR (Absorbs projectiles): When hit by any item, the monster has a chance to automatically carry the item until death.
10. CSI (Can see invisible): The monster can see the party when under the affect of the Invisibility spell.
11. CSD (Can see in darkness): The monster's visibility is unaffected by the light level of the dungeon (In darkness, monster's sightrange is normally lowered)
12. ATF (Antitelefraglismness): If a monster is moving to a square with an active teleporter that teleports monsters and the destination does not allow that kind of monster then it prevents the monster from entering the teleporter.
(well, this is not really a flag, but I put it into the "flags" table; it`s set when the value > 10)

My propositions for Encyclopedia:

1. I think you could omit "can attack from all sides" ability, because nobody would notice that; in original game, this flag is set only for the monsters wchich has the same bitmap for all sides; so that doesn`t make a difference. It only affects on the attack frequency, because the monster doesn`t need to be turned front to a party to attack them.
2. "Prefer back row" - well, it`s a kind of ability, so you may put it in..
3. "Attack every position" - well, it`s a kind of ability, so you may put it in..
4. "levitates" ability - just like it is now
5. "Non Material Monster" - these are actually three abilities (a,b and c) always set together for the monster - because it`s one flag. You may just notice that monster is "nonmaterial", wchich means that when this flag is set then:
a) monster ignores ALL kinds of doors (see http://www.dungeon-master.com/forum/vie ... hp?t=26963 ) - so the "Can pass through wooden and iron doors (but not through porticullis and Ra doors) doors" description is incorrect,
b) monster can be only hit by vorpal/disrupt and
c) all projectiles except dispell pass through the monster.
6. and 7. - you could omit this IMHO; anyone knows that when a monster is big, the door falls down only a bit; in case of Rive and Zytaz it always falls down (notice that Zytaz isn`t short, but the flags are NOT set - but Zytaz already ignores doors, because it`s "nonmaterial". Flame and Water has "short1" flag set, but it doesn`t affect on them, becaue they`re "nonmaterial" too).
8. "drops items" ability - it is already in a monster`s description
9. "absorb projectiles" - it`s already in a monster`s description
10. "can see invicible" - it`s already in a monster`s description
11. "can see in darkness" - it`s already in a monster`s description
12. "antitelefraglismness" - you could omit that, it`s not very important for the player
13. "Can steal items in champions' hands" - hardcoded; it`s already in a monster`s description
14. "Teleportation" - hardcoded; it`s already in a monster`s description
15. "Can only be killed when materialized" - don`t have idea about this; I should investigate that! if thrue, definitely hardcoded
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There is also misunderstanding with "Hit by Weaken Nonmaterial Beings spell" and "Nearly immune to spells (excepted Weaken Nonmaterial Beings)" abilities; abilities of this kind doesn`t exist - nonmaterial being is treaten as an ordinary item, like apple for example.

3. AEP (Attack Every Position): This flag allow monster to attack character on every possible position (NE, NW, SE, SW).
<note: if If PBR and AEP flags are not set, or a 25% chance regardless, monster move to the front>.