All Things for Setting Up Monsters

[Kiorga(x2)rd]

Hi. I've been using the level editor and coding Amnesia for quite some time now and there is always one huge part I shy away from, and that is, 'properly' setting up monsters. I say properly in inverted comas because I can set them up to some extent. They spawn, they move around, I can get them to do a lot of things. But where I put path nodes large distances away (i.e. one and the start and end of a hallway, and usually the monster will successfully walk it's length), I see other people, including the original Amnesia levels, putting in stacks of path nodes every foot or so. When I do this, I find the monster stopping for a split second at every node. And I know there is a "wait time" in the script for the node, but I'm sure I have this set to zero each time. I find my monsters often not knowing what they are doing, disappearing or trying to mate with a wall.

Furthermore, I haven't really delved in the proper use of setting up large quantities of similar scripts. And what I mean by that is, if I create twelve path nodes for a monster, I'll copy the code twelve times. But where the original Amnesia levels have hundred of path nodes, they don't have hundreds of lines of code to describe them. How do they set this up?

As you can see, I don't really understand how the monsters are suppose to truly work. I have made this thread because I'm at a point in the development of my custom story where I can no longer have my monsters that are suppose to be patrolling a square corridor section, disappearing after one lap. Thank you in advance for your help. And one last thing, if anyone can put a little extra in the explanation of how the water lurkers are suppose to move through their environment, I'd be much obliged. This is another thing I need to sort out, my water lurker doesn't know what the hell he is doing, I want him to act the way they get him to in the vanilla game.

Thanks.

[Your Computer]

This may help in your understanding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWPU6frXm...8&index=19

[Kiorga(x2)rd]

Okay, thanks for that. That answered some questions and I now have a rough way to have my monster patrol.

Thanks.


I've got it set up so that upon arriving at each path node, the monster collides with a script that activates the next one. This way he is looping in his patrol infinitely. Which is good, but it still isn't the method that is used by the original Amnesia game. I still end up with lots of copied code and often after chasing the player, he finds it difficult to get back on track. And I'm still clueless as to the water lurkers.

[Your Computer]

The video covers enemies repeating patrol without the need of collision techniques. If the monster finds it difficult to find its way back to the path node it left before chasing the player, then chances are you don't have enough path nodes in the environment.

As for lurkers, they too rely on path nodes to get around. However, you don't tell them to move to a path node. They simply head towards the nearest path node where the last sound that they are capable of hearing was heard.

[Kiorga(x2)rd]

Ah. So with water lurkers you can just throw them in and the path nodes, and they'll do the rest? No script to tell them how to function?

But like you say, I do need to tell the grunt which path to follow in the script? So let's say I have 100 path nodes, is there an easy way to link all of them to the grunt?

[Your Computer]

Yeah, water lurkers don't require any scipting if all you're looking for is the same effect as in the original game. And as i said in the video, you don't need to add every single path node in between the starting node and ending node to monsters of the grunt type. So long as the nodes are connected to each other the monster should not have any issues going from point A to point B. The only exception is when the monster is turning corners; you'd want to add the node in the middle of the intersection to the monster. You can check if the nodes are connected by enabling entity info from the debug menu in game.

[Kiorga(x2)rd]

Ah yes! Fantastic, everything makes sense. I've got it to work perfectly. You are indeed a good man!

My path nodes were mostly connected, but a few weren't. How do you connect them in the editor?
Oh, and why does the patrol nodes in that video say "Run" in the animation type? What does that do?

[Your Computer]

My path nodes were mostly connected, but a few weren't. How do you connect them in the editor?

I'm not sure of how close they have to be exactly to each other, but i tend to maintain a standard of about 2 meters apart. In the level editor you can specify that in the field labeled "Snap sep." to help ease the process of organizing the path nodes.

Oh, and why does the patrol nodes in that video say "Run" in the animation type? What does that do?

Technically, that is supposed to specify the animation you want the game to play at the node for the monster. However, the game is either too dynamic with the monsters or that parameter is simply ignored or not implemented, or perhaps my assumption of that parameter is false. Either way, an empty string may as well be placed there, but for me as the developer of the custom story i, therefore, (may) use it as a personal reminder of what i intended for that moment in the story.

[Kiorga(x2)rd]

Well thanks again, everything is working fine!