Dungeon Master Forum

Before next release I'm thinking again about what could be improved in respect to the monster AI, but before making any suggestions there are a few questions I hope George will answer, because not everything with the monster AI is clear from mere observation of the monsters alone:

1) First Monsters could see through all illusionary walls as if they didn't exist (which made the Dragon Maze a nice challenge). This has been fixed so now monsters only move through an illusionary wall after the party first has moved through. My question is: Does RTC handle this for every monster individually or is an illusionary wall non-existent for all monsters once the party has moved through?
Will a monster see through an illusionary wall when the party has moved through being invisible?

2) First monsters' perception had an unlimited range. This has been fixed now so they only have a perception range of a few tiles. My question is: Do all monsters share the same code of perception or is range individual to certain monsters or species of monsters? Are there different modes of perception like seeing the party, hearing their steps or reacting to other sounds? It would be great to have monsters that can react to the party only by visual contact, being decepted fully by invisibility and illusionary walls and others (maybe worms) who keep coming as long as the party makes sound (moves) and may be detracted by not moving but throwing something against a distant wall...

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I'm reluctant to give too much away about how the AI works; after all it's part of the game trying to find out! However I will say that each monster type has it's own set of rules and will react in different ways to different stimulii at different ranges.

If you have any suggestions as to how to change it from what it currently is, then please let me know.

I hope that answers your question without giving too much away

Ok, even without knowing for certain, whether some of these things maybe are already in the game, here some sugestions:

1) Monsters knowledge about which walls are illusionary should be individually. If there are blind monsters (worms?), they should be immune to illusionary walls. All other monsters should dibelieve an illusionary wall when the party steps through, but only if the wall in question is within their line of sight (range and direction considered) and the party is not invisible. They should also disbelieve it, if they witness (criteria see above) spells or missiles passing an illusionary wall. If there are several illusionary walls in a line, of course (non-blind) monsters should only be able to see through the nearest one when something is passing through, they should only be able to see through the second after they have passed through the first and see again something passing through that second ill. wall. Of yourse if monsters see other monsters pass through an ill. wall, they shoud be able to follow them. If the party fires at a monster behind an illusionary wall the monster should fire back.

If there are monsters that react to sound, they should investigate any sound created in their vincinity, like the impact of a thrown stone for example. So if they are able to perceive vision and sound, the party could sneak in invisible and lure them away by throwing a coin or something.

If the party is invisible but is casting something at a monster, the monster should strike/fire back (with a slight delay), same goes for close attacks. If a monster tries to advance but is blocked by an invisible party for the second time on the same tile, it should attack also.

Now the most important thing: Monsters quickly turning 180 degree when caught by a closing door look indeed very funny, but then, monsters are not supposed to be funny in the first place. I can't imagine some types of monsters doing this, neither a scorpion, whose natural movement af backing away is to move backwards, nor a knight fighting with two swords, who just wouldn't turn his back to his foe when he could take back a step (stepping back and forth is very basic to every kind of swordsplay). Please give them the ability to step back.

Monsters would become more dangerous if they got the ability of lurking behind a corner (if available) awaiting the party (if they have been perceiving the party before they round the corner) instead of just moving aimlessly around or always moving straight to the party when discovering them. This is especially true for monsters capable of attack spells. After initial combat contact they should of course try to close in. It would also be nice if a severly hurt monster would retreat again 'round the next corner (if available) to make a last stand there.
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This is now all done and fully editable in V0.35

Ho, this sounds VERY promising indeed!