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MONSTER ATTRACTOR
Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:07 pm
by THOM
I think I still do not understand what a MONSTER_ATTRACTOR is for.
Can anybody help me???
THOM
Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:46 pm
by George Gilbert
It attracts monsters
Seriously though - that is what it does. If you put one in your dungeon, any monsters that are within their sensory range of it (and have a clear path that they could take that leads to it - i.e. they won't respond if it's behind a wall) will attempt to move towards it.
Nothing more complex than that.
Of course, by selectively activating and deactivating it, you can do some complex things; like the percieved AI of the wolves or shopkeepers in DM-II, but the monster attractor itself is quite simple.
Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:44 pm
by THOM
ahm -
OK thats what I thought - just haven't seen tht you have to specify a monster!!!
Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 5:29 pm
by George Gilbert
- If you don't specify a monster, it attracts every monster
- If you do specify a monster, it only attracts monsters of that type
BTW; forgot to say that monster attractors take the highest priority when deciding where a monster should go (i.e. takes precedence over the party). If there are multiple ones, a monster will go towards the nearest one.
Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 5:53 pm
by Sophia
It seems like with a combination of monster attractors, triggers that rotate/move their triggering entity, and on-movement attack methods, monsters can be made to do almost anything.
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 1:56 am
by R.K.
By the way, what's the usual effective range for these? Referring to dmweb's
creature list, does their range most closely correspond to sight or to awareness?
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:39 am
by George Gilbert
The range is determined by the monster, not the monster attractor.
RTC was written before the Encyclopedia (or more importantly, before any of the monster stats were cracked out of the original game) so uses a completely different system for determining the behaviour of monsters. If you have a look in the RTCEditor as to how a monster is specified you can probably draw some parallels between the stats RTC uses and the ones the original game did.
The idea is that the game "plays" the same, not that the internal mechanics are the same - that said, if you notice any large differences between the two, please let me know.