Dungeon Master Forum

First of all, thank you for making RTC! It's great to play DM again without the instability of an emulator messing things up.

Anyway, I've noticed you intentionally changed the way monsters group. I've noticed this occasionally gives trouble with worms. What happens is: two worms will be on the same tile, but one will be facing me and the other will be facing left or right, which obviously doesn't look quite right since they cover the entire length of the tile when seen from the side

Not a major bug of course but icing on top of a cake never hurts

This has bounced backwards and forwards for a while - the trouble is that if you limit the movement so they can't overlap, then you can easily trap two worms facing different ways since they won't be able to to turn until they leave the tile.

I think until someone comes up with a brilliant yet elegantly simple solution to this the status quo will have to suffice : )

is this elegant enough?


may need annother frame to make it extra purdy and then two more to come around from back again. but it's something..

I think what RTC-Monster-AI needs is not independent individual monster movement solely, but instead 2 new maneuvers, GROUPING and DISGROUPING. If monsters meet at the same tile, they might GROUP, if one of them is trapped or if there is the possibility to trap the party, they should DISGROUP.
All of this would be easier too if monsters would get the possibility to SIEDSTEP and BACKSTEP.

perhaps no one even noticed.. but that is a turned worm.. not a facing forward worm.. if they turn like that then you don't need to worry about them overlaping...

If you could just add one for the other side as well (facing right) then this seems like a simple and elegant solution indeed

Regards, PitD

Can't quite picture this Cow -- how does this help?

Ah, i seeeeeeeeeee, like gambit i didn't get it at first

yes, is is a nice solution - a sideways worm's graphics only takes up one square, not the two it usually does!
Of course the problem now is how do you know which square this graphic should be applid too, or would it only kick in for multiple worms on a tile?

Can't you just have it that Monsters group like they did back on the Atari (dunno whether they did on Amiga and stuff since I never played any of them), or at least just Worms, lol




I can only hope...

cowsmanaut wrote:is this elegant enough?


may need annother frame to make it extra purdy and then two more to come around from back again. but it's something..

Would look a bit silly if you saw two worms together like this, they'd appear to jump around if you moved around them.

You can have the right one sized smaller, so it looks liek they are side by side with one slightly back from the other

But it is still planned that they can move individually ? So one worm could still face you while the other is turned left or right using cows pics or even backwards?

Regards, PitD

I think you're all getting too clever for your own good... There's still the original thread in the archive that has the previous discussion:
http://www.dungeon-master.com/forum/vie ... hp?t=20854

I don't think George will change any of this behaviour, but I still maintain that the simplest solution is to:

*Not allow worms to enter a tile if another worm is present and either of their directions of travel would cause graphics glitches
*When two worms are on the same tile, manage them as ONE entity (as DM did), until one of them is killed

Ages ago I posted an animated GIF of how silly overlayed worms actually looks:

http://website.lineone.net/~matthill/rt ... _pairs.gif

What about George's reply regarding a significant decrease in their attacking capabilities if the code was re-written like you said, Gambit? Or does this just apply to allowing a second worm onlyto enter a tile when the one present on it faces the same direction? Do you by any chance have an anymation of the pain rats ? Can't remember weird behaviour from RTC...

Regards, PitD