Dungeon Master Forum

Asymmetrical monsters look unconvincing if the side view is the same. How hard would it be to extend monsters so they can have 2 different side views?

Also, would it be possible to add several frames for attack sequences? For example, a creature swings an axe -- you want a few frames for the swinging motion, and then the final hit frame. You also don't want damage done until the final frame. This could mean more strategic gameplay as players could step out of the way just in time? I'm sure this is not an easy addition, but it would be pretty awesome

Gambit37 wrote:Asymmetrical monsters look unconvincing if the side view is the same. How hard would it be to extend monsters so they can have 2 different side views?

Not hard. Consider it added for DSB 0.48.

Gambit37 wrote:Also, would it be possible to add several frames for attack sequences? For example, a creature swings an axe -- you want a few frames for the swinging motion, and then the final hit frame. You also don't want damage done until the final frame. This could mean more strategic gameplay as players could step out of the way just in time? I'm sure this is not an easy addition, but it would be pretty awesome

Attack sequences can be animated, but I have a feeling what you want is something a bit beyond this.. something like being able to offset the display of the attack animation and the actual damage being allocated, right? You're right that this is pretty tricky. Right now, a M_ATTACK_MELEE message causes a monster to both begin its attack sequence and inflict damage. I'd have to create two separate messages and create a relatively sane (i.e., something that doesn't require poking around in the depths of monster_ai.lua) way to invoke them, so then all you'd have to is send the "Begin Attack Animation" message and a few ticks later send the "Inflict Damage" message. I'll have to think about this...

Sophia wrote:Not hard. Consider it added for DSB 0.48.

Wow, awesome! I though this would mess up backwards compatibility?

Sophia wrote:I have a feeling what you want is something like being able to offset the display of the attack animation and the actual damage being allocated, right?

Yup, correct

Sophia wrote:You're right that this is pretty tricky....I'll have to think about this...

Yup, I guessed this wouldn't be easy. Don't sweat it, It's only a "nice to have", but if you do ever think it's possible to add, it could be a lovely feature

Gambit37 wrote:Wow, awesome! I though this would mess up backwards compatibility?

Not that I can think of! I added support for an "other_side" view: if it's defined as a bitmap, DSB will use it. If such view isn't defined, DSB will use a flipped version of the normal side view, like what it always does in 0.47 and below. The only way this can break is if someone's defined an "other_side" but not a "side" view, and there's no sane reason any existing dungeon would do that, considering "other_side" doesn't do anything in current versions of DSB.

EDIT: Changed the property name to be more consistent with wallitems.