where to begin to solve this problem

[dudeman]

I'm looking for a way to make a cacodemon-like enemy that hugs that ceiling, that is, rises as high as possible almost instantly as it moves around to areas with different ceiling heights. I've looked into ACS and DECORATE, and I've looked at the DECORATE class for cacodemons and some other monsters. I'm not sure if there's a way to do what I want with those scripts alone. It looks like a I would need a code-pointer to the "rise as high as possible" behavior, but I don't know if such a thing exists. It looks like I would need to edit/add to the code the pointers point to. How do I do that? Or in general, where should I start to make this "ceiling hugging" behavior?

I read something in reference to Aeons of Death about "simple, DECORATE-only monsters", as opposed to... ? Is there a more advanced and flexible way to edit monster behaviors than DECORATE? I'd like to get into that, because I'd like to make some monster behaviors very different than the standard ones.

[Jimmy]

You won't get much more advanced and flexible than DECORATE. It's well worth checking out the ZDoom Wiki's extensive documentation on the format.

As to your query, "ceiling hugging" is funnily enough exactly the right phrase, in this case. Add the flag +CEILINGHUGGER to your monster and it should "walk" across the ceiling.

EDIT: Also, unless you're inheriting from a Cacodemon-like monster, you'll need the +NOGRAVITY flag.

[dudeman]

Thanks a lot, that's exactly what I needed.

Out of curiosity, why can't you go under a cacodemon? Is there a way to make it so you can? Maybe this was a limitation of the original doom engine, but zdoom has room-over-room, and you can go under monsters that way, so seemingly there should be a way to go under a cacodemon in the same room.

[Mithran Denizen]

Not being able to pass beneath or above monsters is a Doom limitation, but ZDoom removes this. By default, you should be able to walk underneath a flying cacodemon in ZDoom.

If you are using ZDoom and still can't do so, check your compatibility options to make sure "Actors are infinitely tall" is not set to "Yes".

[Gez]

dudeman said:

I read something in reference to Aeons of Death about "simple, DECORATE-only monsters", as opposed to... ?

It could be as opposed to monsters that also make use of ACS. Doing so is possible but cumbersome.

Alternatively, it could also refer to monsters that are modified from already existing monsters, so the DECORATE code is all that's needed, instead of also having to provide the sprites and sounds.

Jimmy91 said:

As to your query, "ceiling hugging" is funnily enough exactly the right phrase, in this case. Add the flag +CEILINGHUGGER to your monster and it should "walk" across the ceiling.

Does it work correctly for monsters? That flag is meant for projectiles...