Dungeon Master Forum

some AI suggestions which have maybe been asked before.

1 - i was having another square fight dance with a mon vexirk in CSBwin when i discovered it was harder than in RTC... because in RTC, monsters just follow your steps and so you can anticipate their moves (which is quite boring finally). in original DM, monsters have a different AI, they can surprise you because they go to another square (on your side, or back to you) ! could it be possible to implement ?

2 - while playtesting sukumvit's dungeon, i was in the screamer/wasps area and noticed that a wasp couldn't group with 2 screamers : it was just waiting behind them while there was some free space for joining them... i know RTC permits a monster to group/ungroup with others from the same race but it seems not possible between different races. i guess it is quite harder to implement because monsters have different sizes, so i'm just suggesting.

note : about monsters group/ungroup feature, i noticed that a single -centered- monster is unable to group with others.. if i put a single mummy on a square but at a corner position, then it will be able to group.

Done for V0.39 (the bit about the problem with centred monsters that need not be not allowing others on to the same tile).

Yes, centre small monsters moving to a corner so others can join them would be good.
I also think that monsters 1 tile diagonal to the party should sometimes sidestep from time to time instead of always moving staight, turn 90 degree and then attack. They are very easy to expect.

While I think that generally independent RTC monster movement is far better than grouped monsters only in FTL, it might be good to allow a dungeon designer to deliberately group 1-4 monsters together so the won't separate, such making kind of units, like enemy parties with 2 spellcasters and 2 fighters, let's say 2 materializers and 2 knights (of course AI would need to be smart enough then to let the knights handle the melee and materializers the shooting, if there's space enough to move about in such a way).