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Memfis

Monsters not very willing to attack

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Sometimes you place a monster and it seems like he just doesn't want to attack the player at all most of the time. Is this stuff completely random or are there some factors that make monsters more or less willing to attack, like maybe it depends on the distance to the player or the amount of space they are given? It feels like mancubuses are more aggressive in big arenas than on small pillars for example, is that true?

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Aside from retaliation? I don't believe there's any difference with terrain increasing or decreasing enemy trigger happiness. Most of the time revenants seem to launch their rockets constantly when I get out from cover. I only know that arch-vile has limited range, unless you shoot them and give pain.

Now I am too interested in this..

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I think if a monster touches any obstacle like a tree or a line he can't cross because of the height difference, he will walk around a bit before shooting (that would explain less aggressive monsters on pillars), but maybe I just made this up...

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I've noticed this when playing as well. Sometimes it seems the Imp or Rev in question has a vendetta against the player, firing volley after volley. Then other times it seems they just want to wander around, on top of their pillar say, and lazily lob the occasional projectile.

It can be frustrating at times. In one of my earlier maps, many players didn't even notice a Baron on top of a pillar (thus missing 100% completion), because he was simply too timid to fire at the player in most runs.

Mancs, however, do not seem to suffer from this condition.

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Memfis said:

It feels like mancubuses are more aggressive in big arenas than on small pillars for example, is that true?

I think that's true for all monsters. Place them on a really small pillar or in a tiny cubicle where there's not enough room for them to turn around and they'll spend most of their time stuck in the spawn animation, firing occasionally when you pass through their line of sight.

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GreyGhost said:

I think that's true for all monsters. Place them on a really small pillar or in a tiny cubicle where there's not enough room for them to turn around and they'll spend most of their time stuck in the spawn animation, firing occasionally when you pass through their line of sight.

"Spawn animation?" I detect a learning opportunity...

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That's the little "I need to go to the toilet!" dance they do when not aware of Doomguy's presence - also known as their Ready state.

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Pillars and other places that interfere with a monster's motion and force it to "stop in its tracks" and change direction -especially true for faster monsters- tend to keep it busy and slow its attack rate considerably, simply because it has such a hard time finding a good spot where it's not compelled to do pathfinding.

There's even a TNT map (MAP 31: Pharaoh) that has an archvile room where they are forced to constantly teleport between four really small pedestals that disrupt their movement patterns.

Other than that, you can cause outright "reluctance to attack" with specially crafted REJECT tables in maps.

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I once made a map that used self referencing sectors to change the light levels of the monsters vs. the surroundings, and for whatever reason, the monsters didn't bother to attack you unless you were in the sector with them. But stand one or two sectors away, they'd reluctantly walk toward you until they were in your sector and start attacking then.

So yeah REJECT lump I guess. I don't know what that is, what it's for, or how I can manipulate it but I suppose that's the culprit.

and like Zed said, test your map in -fast to see if there are any parts where the monster can't see you from.

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Same thing with monsters touching each other.
I noticed it on "Nuts" wad the other day. I am standing at the edge and there are a couple hundred cyberdemons below me and only a few at a distance are managing to get a missile off in my direction. It is not that they are just shooting another cyberdemon in the back of the head. It seems that they are inhibited.

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