Monster's Mind

[Hardarm]

So.. I've added some PathNodes and an unactive monster. (the enemy suitor from Justine).

Then i found a .nodes file called Potatoe_enemy_suitor.nodes (Potatoe is actually the name of my map, not ingame hopefully ).

I found out that in the main game's map there are LOOOTS of path nodes,
But in the hps file they add only few nodes at the path!

Now i want to be sure, the extra path nodes are for the enemy to come back in case of being far from the last path node reached before he can see me? Because I didn't add anything to reach for the suitor in the hps yet. But a new file has been created... So I shall add a MAIN path for the monster to go through, and add lots of other path nodes in case the monster is far from the last path node that he was on? (He would hit the wall trying to reach the next path node in a linear way, i think) ...
I mean will he reach the nearest path node then the nearest once again till he doesn't reach the main one I ordered him to reach?

This can solve lots of problems with the monsters too

[palistov]

From what I know, you should add path nodes everywhere you want a monster to easily navigate. If you don't put path nodes in a hypothetical hallway (we'll call it hall A), the monster will still move there if it sees the player there. The only problem occurs when the monster turns a corner or moves around an object and there are no nodes to help it patrol back around said corner/object.

Now, a properly path-mapped level will have nodes everywhere a monster can get stuck, and even then some. This will make it so when the monster turns that nasty corner in hall A but loses sight of the player, it will turn to the nearest path node in line with its destination node and move there, using nodes that will give it the shortest path back to its assigned patrol nodes. This is why there are a kajillion path nodes in a given map file, but many of them are unscripted/unassigned. They are just used by the monsters as their yellow-brick-roads back to where they're supposed to be.

If you want to study the AI of the monsters, I suggest making what I call a "sandbox" map. Put a bunch of rooms, objects, doors, closets, nodes, distraction objects, etc and put a monster there. I also use my sandbox map to test scripts and such, but that's another story. Then activate the entity info in your debug tab. It will show all path nodes and draw the monster's (or monsters' D: ) current path(s) with a nice purple line. It will also show a red node, which I believe depicts the place the monster(s) most recently saw/heard the player or any sounds he made.

P.S. don't try and study two monsters at once. It's freaking scary toying with those things.

[Hardarm]

thank you

my map is full of things so I must put at least 300 path nodes

[palistov]

Haha that's quite a few nodes!

[Hardarm]

I'm almost at 400 now

[skypeskype]

Well... Without lots of nodes you cant distract the monster neither. What I mean is that if you throw a book or something somewhere the monster should go and investigate. Without nodes, he will growl and continue his path.