Dungeon Master Forum

Just as an experiment, I made graphics for about four new kinds of dragon. What I want to do now is to edit their attacks so that the green dragon spits a cloud of poison, the bronze dragon spits lightning, etc.

Unfortunately I don't know the syntax for the different kinds of attack.

Um... help?

I can't remember if 0.34 fully supports this yet - maybe you will need to wait for 0.35

I assume you've looked at the phantoms example text file? You can actually put RTC.exe in a text editor and then do a text search for attacks, etc

[New - Objects]
ADD MONSTER_PHANTOM CLONES=(MONSTER_GHOST) ICONS=(BITMAP_ICON_PHANTOM,NULL) BITMAPS=(FRONT:BITMAP_PHANTOM,BACK:BITMAP_PHANTOM,SIDE:BITMAP_PHANTOM,ATTACK:BITMAP_PHANTOM_ATTACK) METHODS=(ATTACK_METHOD_FIREBALL_SMALL,ATTACK_METHOD_LIGHTNING_SMALL) SOUNDS=(ATTACK:SOUND_PHANTOM_ATTACK) NAME=(PHANTOM)

As you can see ATTACK_METHOD_LIGHTNING_SMALL etc is what you are looking for.

Sure... it's the "etc." that I'm struggling with.

I can extrapolate the syntax to ATTACK_METHOD_FIREBALL_LARGE and ATTACK_METHOD_LIGHTNING_LARGE; but it doesn't recognise ATTACK_METHOD_POISON_xxx or ATTACK_METHOD_POISON_CLOUD_xxx and I can't figure out how to mess with melee attacks - if indeed you can alter those in any way.

As I said, open the rtc.exe in a text editor and look for the attack_method strings. I cab't remmeber off the top of my head, but there are levels of melee attacks defined. I'm not sure about the poison, but would assume there would be one there somewhere

Followed the above advice and got this:

ATTACK_METHOD_KICK
ATTACK_METHOD_BASH
ATTACK_METHOD_BLOW_HORN
ATTACK_METHOD_WAR_CRY
ATTACK_METHOD_CONFUSE
ATTACK_METHOD_BRANDISH
ATTACK_METHOD_CLIMB_DOWN
ATTACK_METHOD_FLIP
ATTACK_METHOD_SHOOT_ROCK
ATTACK_METHOD_SHOOT_ARROW
ATTACK_METHOD_THROW
ATTACK_METHOD_VORPAL_DISRUPT
ATTACK_METHOD_VORPAL_CLEAVE
ATTACK_METHOD_VORPAL_JAB
ATTACK_METHOD_INVOKE
ATTACK_METHOD_STEAL
ATTACK_METHOD_POISON
ATTACK_METHOD_OPEN_DOOR
ATTACK_METHOD_DISPELL
ATTACK_METHOD_DARK
ATTACK_METHOD_LIGHT
ATTACK_METHOD_SHIELD_FIRE
ATTACK_METHOD_WINDOW
ATTACK_METHOD_SHIELD_SPELL
ATTACK_METHOD_HEAL
ATTACK_METHOD_CALM
ATTACK_METHOD_FUSE
ATTACK_METHOD_FLUX_CAGE
ATTACK_METHOD_FREEZE_LIFE_LONG
ATTACK_METHOD_FREEZE_LIFE_SHORT
ATTACK_METHOD_RUST
ATTACK_METHOD_LIGHTNING_LARGE
ATTACK_METHOD_LIGHTNING_SMALL
ATTACK_METHOD_SPIT
ATTACK_METHOD_FIREBALL_LARGE
ATTACK_METHOD_FIREBALL_MEDIUM
ATTACK_METHOD_FIREBALL_SMALL

I imagine what I want is ATTACK_METHOD_SPIT - but I posted it because there are certainly some very interesting options there!

That list raises some creative possibilities.

This will all be exposed in the 0.35 editor -- apparently.

Yeah, that isn't all the list, because there are monster specific attacks with levels, and that list also doesn't have the pure damage producing attacks such as melee, berzerk, etc

Look for an example somewhere, someone had mentioned specifically the dragon's attack

Attack method spit isn't what you want, it is the fireball attack of dragonspit

Aha! The pure damage producing attacks are supported too.

ATTACK_METHOD_POISON is the poison spell which is what I think would be best for your dragon - you've already found ATTACK_METHOD_LIGHTNING_LARGE for the other one.

The pure damage monster attacks are ATTACK_METHOD_MONSTER_X where X is a number 1 to 7.

Note that you shouldn't have to look at the RTC.exe file in notepad for these - they're all available from the RTC Dungeon Editor!

For your interest, in V0.35 you can create your own attack methods from a combination of a base action, an object and a strength. For example, ATTACK_METHOD_LIGHTNING_LARGE is specified of action ACTION_CREATE_NEW_SPELL, object DUNGEON_SPELL_LIGHTNING and strength 100.

Together with the ability to create your own spells (which is also in V0.35) this will allow you all sorts of possibilities for new attack methods. For example, you might want to create graphics for a blue dragon and an ice spell, then create an attack method that uses these...

Heh, I didn't find them in the Dungeon Editor until you pointed that out.

I'm afraid I'm a computard. It hadn't occurred to me that you might be able to edit creatures in the object editor.

Can I use a Dungeon Spell as a creature attack? If so, how?

Not yet I'm afraid, that capability is in V0.35 (which I'm still working on).