Request for information surrounding complex monster behaviors
Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 8:51 pm
I apologize in advance if this information exists in other threads, but I didn't see anything concise that touched on all of the topics. A little personal background, I've been doing maintenance/fixing up some MudRev dats for about 5 years now to help me learn my way through editing and how everything works (I also have a formal programming background). I'm now at the point where most of the "problems" are fixed and I'm finally ready to venture forward into adding new content. I'm very much comfortable and familiar with different abilities, spells, items, textblocks, yada, yada.. but what I have not touched hardly at all (other than fixing or tweaking a few) is MONSTERS.
I understand how to set up monster attacks and the basics, but what I'm interested in is more of the complex behaviors such as groups, spawning, type, etc.
Here are the group options provided in NMR:
Lair
Wanderer
NPC
Living
Random
Guard
{Group #}
Arena
Angel
Quest
Other
I'm guessing that most if not all of these have hidden/special functions.
I've been told that the Wanderer group will roam across groups, but as I understand it no monster will ever cross a map.
Lair is for spawning monsters, but you can also have a placed NPC so why is there also an NPC group?
I've been told Angel will despawn if they lose their target, though the targetting algorithm is something else I know nothing about.
Guard causes monsters to attack evil players no matter what, even if they are set to alignments such as Neutral or Good that would otherwise typically not attack an evil player. Also causes the weird pacing behavior.
I know nothing about the others nor whether what I stated above is accurate.
We also have Type:
Solo
Follower
Leader
Stationary (this one is pretty obvious)
I assume Follower and Leader have to do with when the leader follows a player the followers follow that leader monster, if its in the same group maybe? but that's a complete guess. Anyone know how this actually works? I'm thinking of warlock bandits and the such with the example I just painted.
Also, if you know anything about maximum MR on a monster and if the Antimagic allows it to increase beyond typical max like for a Witchie or if there are limitations, that'd be good to know. Similarly, with BSDef, is there some sort of rough formula here that if you know a players BSAccu you can figure out what you would want to use as a BSDef value to make it reasonable hard to hit? If anyone can shine any insight around that at all, also appreciated.
Can you do anything with the create spell beyond summon other monsters? I tried and wasn't having much luck. Just curious if anyone succeeded.
I've noticed some things like healing spells on monsters have no impact if added as a between round spell but if you add a healing spell as an "attack" spell for the monster, it actually does heal the monster. Does anyone have information around what sorts of things do/don't work in the between rounds spells for monsters buffing themselves? I suspect a lot of it has just been for show, as dark priest is an example of a stock monster with a between round heal that would have never been doing anything ever but adding some dynamics to the game.
I also read in another thread that monsters only check to remove spells every 6 rounds, can anyone confirm this is accurate?
I can confirm via testing that a monster will not swing at a single player more than 6x in a round even if it possesses the energy to continue swinging (if that is the only player in the room), however if a second player enters the room, the monster effectively gets a second round of 6 more swings that seem to actually almost process as a separate round (it has the option to change target, or swing 6 more times at the player who couldn't have been swung at 12 times until the 2nd player entered the room.... this monster does have 2000 energy/rnd, so that could be coming into play here and I believe it's typo Solo.
This gets into monster targeting. Does anyone have ANY information on how it works? I've heard rumors about charm having some impact, etc. Obviously most monsters you can attack-last and they will allow you to tank, however the weird dynamic behavior above somewhat allows you to create monsters that circumvent this in a very spam-riddled way. Another thing I noticed is that it seems that you can only have a monster protected by one other monster. I tried making a monster guarded by 2 other monsters and it actually caused it to stop working entirely.
Finally, getting into adding the monsters to the rooms themselves....
What is the Delay for? Does anyone know if there is any way to semi-control the "random" spawns in an area?
For Room Type:
What is Arena? Does it do anything? (The Arenas are actually Collisseum)
Same thing about Hotel, Jail, Library. Do these have ANY known function?
Also, has anyone experimented with trying to spawn monsters inside an Arena (Collisseum)? I know obviously a placed NPC or textblock summons would work, but curious if you can get actual monster areas to happen in an Arena setting, similar to maybe some sort of Quest tournament area or something.
Mostly on a tangent here but is there any information on how heavily your illumination affects your accuracy? Is there a cap or is it just diminished rewards or is it just a flat penalty for dimly lit, cannot see, etc? I know some monsters use Illu -9999 (aged earth dragon blind globe), so I'm guessing it's some tiered system or a flat penalty like the encumberances.
Also, what causes monster loading? There are monsters like hanging tree that most people don't even know have 4 spawn rooms, but he seems to almost exclusively spawn in the same room every time. However, if you lower the regen and kill him more often, he'll start showing up in the less known rooms. Similarly, other monsters on MudRev have special NPC rooms but spawn as part of "normal" rooms instead. Is it because those room#s load first? Any theories here? It's fairly consistent that they're almost always in one spot versus another -- even with "roaming" NPCs (where they have multiple placed locations but limit 1 monster) -- they seem to have a "favorite" spot.. i.e. something gets hit first in the database and says yep they are gunna load in this room since it's available and since it always processes the same order? Also, does anyone have any clue how the game tracks limited monsters with respawn times that have a limit > 1? (Scarecrow)
Anything else I missed that you think will be helpful to me or ANYONE trying to decipher all of these complex behaviors and actually design something instead of just jamming stuff in blindly, just say it, ask it, let's build this thread up from what we do know! If you've heard something but aren't SURE, please try to state as such, since it's still helpful to know the theories and what might be worth testing.
I understand how to set up monster attacks and the basics, but what I'm interested in is more of the complex behaviors such as groups, spawning, type, etc.
Here are the group options provided in NMR:
Lair
Wanderer
NPC
Living
Random
Guard
{Group #}
Arena
Angel
Quest
Other
I'm guessing that most if not all of these have hidden/special functions.
I've been told that the Wanderer group will roam across groups, but as I understand it no monster will ever cross a map.
Lair is for spawning monsters, but you can also have a placed NPC so why is there also an NPC group?
I've been told Angel will despawn if they lose their target, though the targetting algorithm is something else I know nothing about.
Guard causes monsters to attack evil players no matter what, even if they are set to alignments such as Neutral or Good that would otherwise typically not attack an evil player. Also causes the weird pacing behavior.
I know nothing about the others nor whether what I stated above is accurate.
We also have Type:
Solo
Follower
Leader
Stationary (this one is pretty obvious)
I assume Follower and Leader have to do with when the leader follows a player the followers follow that leader monster, if its in the same group maybe? but that's a complete guess. Anyone know how this actually works? I'm thinking of warlock bandits and the such with the example I just painted.
Also, if you know anything about maximum MR on a monster and if the Antimagic allows it to increase beyond typical max like for a Witchie or if there are limitations, that'd be good to know. Similarly, with BSDef, is there some sort of rough formula here that if you know a players BSAccu you can figure out what you would want to use as a BSDef value to make it reasonable hard to hit? If anyone can shine any insight around that at all, also appreciated.
Can you do anything with the create spell beyond summon other monsters? I tried and wasn't having much luck. Just curious if anyone succeeded.
I've noticed some things like healing spells on monsters have no impact if added as a between round spell but if you add a healing spell as an "attack" spell for the monster, it actually does heal the monster. Does anyone have information around what sorts of things do/don't work in the between rounds spells for monsters buffing themselves? I suspect a lot of it has just been for show, as dark priest is an example of a stock monster with a between round heal that would have never been doing anything ever but adding some dynamics to the game.
I also read in another thread that monsters only check to remove spells every 6 rounds, can anyone confirm this is accurate?
I can confirm via testing that a monster will not swing at a single player more than 6x in a round even if it possesses the energy to continue swinging (if that is the only player in the room), however if a second player enters the room, the monster effectively gets a second round of 6 more swings that seem to actually almost process as a separate round (it has the option to change target, or swing 6 more times at the player who couldn't have been swung at 12 times until the 2nd player entered the room.... this monster does have 2000 energy/rnd, so that could be coming into play here and I believe it's typo Solo.
This gets into monster targeting. Does anyone have ANY information on how it works? I've heard rumors about charm having some impact, etc. Obviously most monsters you can attack-last and they will allow you to tank, however the weird dynamic behavior above somewhat allows you to create monsters that circumvent this in a very spam-riddled way. Another thing I noticed is that it seems that you can only have a monster protected by one other monster. I tried making a monster guarded by 2 other monsters and it actually caused it to stop working entirely.
Finally, getting into adding the monsters to the rooms themselves....
What is the Delay for? Does anyone know if there is any way to semi-control the "random" spawns in an area?
For Room Type:
What is Arena? Does it do anything? (The Arenas are actually Collisseum)
Same thing about Hotel, Jail, Library. Do these have ANY known function?
Also, has anyone experimented with trying to spawn monsters inside an Arena (Collisseum)? I know obviously a placed NPC or textblock summons would work, but curious if you can get actual monster areas to happen in an Arena setting, similar to maybe some sort of Quest tournament area or something.
Mostly on a tangent here but is there any information on how heavily your illumination affects your accuracy? Is there a cap or is it just diminished rewards or is it just a flat penalty for dimly lit, cannot see, etc? I know some monsters use Illu -9999 (aged earth dragon blind globe), so I'm guessing it's some tiered system or a flat penalty like the encumberances.
Also, what causes monster loading? There are monsters like hanging tree that most people don't even know have 4 spawn rooms, but he seems to almost exclusively spawn in the same room every time. However, if you lower the regen and kill him more often, he'll start showing up in the less known rooms. Similarly, other monsters on MudRev have special NPC rooms but spawn as part of "normal" rooms instead. Is it because those room#s load first? Any theories here? It's fairly consistent that they're almost always in one spot versus another -- even with "roaming" NPCs (where they have multiple placed locations but limit 1 monster) -- they seem to have a "favorite" spot.. i.e. something gets hit first in the database and says yep they are gunna load in this room since it's available and since it always processes the same order? Also, does anyone have any clue how the game tracks limited monsters with respawn times that have a limit > 1? (Scarecrow)
Anything else I missed that you think will be helpful to me or ANYONE trying to decipher all of these complex behaviors and actually design something instead of just jamming stuff in blindly, just say it, ask it, let's build this thread up from what we do know! If you've heard something but aren't SURE, please try to state as such, since it's still helpful to know the theories and what might be worth testing.