Iirion Claus
04-02-2002, 10:35 AM
Here's Nikola Mosettig's reply regarding my question about tactics holder. Croteam's support still amazes me every time.....
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OK, here is the juicy stuff simplified.
(I'm writing somewhat from memory, so it's possible that I might miss
something)
You have a tactics holder and a tactics changer. I think we never used a
tactics changer, so let me just explain how tactics holder (TH) works.
TH just holds the tactics parameters, so enemy templates have to point to
it.
There are 3 ways to make your enemies start using the tactics:
a) if they are designed to be present on the level (not spawned), you can
set their 'tactics start on sense' property. Thus they will start the
tactics when they sense your presence (see or hear you).
b) you can set the 'tactics autostart' property on the enemy spawner; any
enemy that is spawned by this spawner will immediately start the tactics
c) at any time you can trigger the TH entity, and all enemies pointing to it
will reset their internal tactics and restart them
You have to know that tactics are time sensitive - as you will see, some of
them have a time damping factor, which means that after some time their
tactics will just 'fade away' - and stop. This is why there is a possibility
of restarting the tactics.
Every TH has several important properties which have to be set properly.
I'll explain each of them:
Type: Damp angle strafe
Behaveour: Enemies run towards the player at an angle (kind of strafing).
They do so for some time defined by the parameters, the angle damps (becomes
smaller), and then they continue their normal straight-into-the-player
behaveour.
Parameter 1: Initial min. angle
Parameter 2: Initial max. angle
Parameter 3: percentage of initial distance to player after which tactics
will become linear (no tactics)
Parameter 4: time dump - after how many seconds the tactics become linear
Parameter 5: defaults to 0.0, this is the absolute distance from player in
meters, which when passed turns off tactics
Notes: Initial angle is a random angle chosen between values of parameter 1
and 2. If those parameters have different signs, the result will have a
randomly chosen sign.
Type: Parallel random distance
Behaveour: Enemies move towards the player by keeping a flank distance from
the line that connects the player and the place where the monster was when
this tactic was started. Got that? :-) They move at an initial angle untill
they reach the intended flank distance.
Parameter 1: Initial min. angle
Parameter 2: Initial max. angle
Parameter 3: not used
Parameter 4: Min. flank distance
Parameter 5: Max. flank distance
Notes: Just like in the previous tactic, initial angle is randomly chosen
between parameters 1 and 2, and similarly the flank distance is randomly
chosen between parameters 4 and 5.
Type: Static random V distance
Behaveour: Enemies run towards the player at an angle (kind of strafing, but
without angle damping). Duration of this movement is defined the parameters.
After this time elapses, the tactics are no longer active.
Parameter 1: Initial min. angle
Parameter 2: Initial max. angle
Parameter 3: Min. strafe time
Parameter 4: Max. strafe time
Parameter 5: not used
Notes: Parameters 1&2 = random initial angle, Parameters 3&4 = random strafe
time
I advise you to start experimenting with tactics by copying the properties
from the TH's in the game. First make sure these work, and then play with
the parameters.
Have fun!
Mos
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---
OK, here is the juicy stuff simplified.
(I'm writing somewhat from memory, so it's possible that I might miss
something)
You have a tactics holder and a tactics changer. I think we never used a
tactics changer, so let me just explain how tactics holder (TH) works.
TH just holds the tactics parameters, so enemy templates have to point to
it.
There are 3 ways to make your enemies start using the tactics:
a) if they are designed to be present on the level (not spawned), you can
set their 'tactics start on sense' property. Thus they will start the
tactics when they sense your presence (see or hear you).
b) you can set the 'tactics autostart' property on the enemy spawner; any
enemy that is spawned by this spawner will immediately start the tactics
c) at any time you can trigger the TH entity, and all enemies pointing to it
will reset their internal tactics and restart them
You have to know that tactics are time sensitive - as you will see, some of
them have a time damping factor, which means that after some time their
tactics will just 'fade away' - and stop. This is why there is a possibility
of restarting the tactics.
Every TH has several important properties which have to be set properly.
I'll explain each of them:
Type: Damp angle strafe
Behaveour: Enemies run towards the player at an angle (kind of strafing).
They do so for some time defined by the parameters, the angle damps (becomes
smaller), and then they continue their normal straight-into-the-player
behaveour.
Parameter 1: Initial min. angle
Parameter 2: Initial max. angle
Parameter 3: percentage of initial distance to player after which tactics
will become linear (no tactics)
Parameter 4: time dump - after how many seconds the tactics become linear
Parameter 5: defaults to 0.0, this is the absolute distance from player in
meters, which when passed turns off tactics
Notes: Initial angle is a random angle chosen between values of parameter 1
and 2. If those parameters have different signs, the result will have a
randomly chosen sign.
Type: Parallel random distance
Behaveour: Enemies move towards the player by keeping a flank distance from
the line that connects the player and the place where the monster was when
this tactic was started. Got that? :-) They move at an initial angle untill
they reach the intended flank distance.
Parameter 1: Initial min. angle
Parameter 2: Initial max. angle
Parameter 3: not used
Parameter 4: Min. flank distance
Parameter 5: Max. flank distance
Notes: Just like in the previous tactic, initial angle is randomly chosen
between parameters 1 and 2, and similarly the flank distance is randomly
chosen between parameters 4 and 5.
Type: Static random V distance
Behaveour: Enemies run towards the player at an angle (kind of strafing, but
without angle damping). Duration of this movement is defined the parameters.
After this time elapses, the tactics are no longer active.
Parameter 1: Initial min. angle
Parameter 2: Initial max. angle
Parameter 3: Min. strafe time
Parameter 4: Max. strafe time
Parameter 5: not used
Notes: Parameters 1&2 = random initial angle, Parameters 3&4 = random strafe
time
I advise you to start experimenting with tactics by copying the properties
from the TH's in the game. First make sure these work, and then play with
the parameters.
Have fun!
Mos
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