monster_barney
can make a map interesting. Use your entity tool to place a monster_barney
in the second room. Leave all of his properties as default. Run the map, pick up the crowbar and go to Barney. First up try getting him to follow you into the other room with the Use key. If that isn't successful give him whack on the forehead with the crowbar. Now run back into the other room. info_node
Placementinfo_node
s as well as path_corner
s. To get Barney to chase you into the next room, he needs a map. info_node
s provide Barney with a path to follow. Same as you would place a normal entity, place an info_node
at the entrance to the corridor, one in the middle and one at the other end. info_node
s are shown here as yellow squares. It doesn't matter how high of the ground you put them as the game engine always drops them down to 8 units off the floor; what does matter is where you put them. I have placed these nodes just 3 units from each corridor wall. This really isn't a good thing as it is better to place them a minimum of 24 units from walls or any other brush in your map. Included in the download is a small text file that was part of the original Wordcraft tutorials, which includes good information about placement. info_node
s and path_corner
s are not interchangable: the former are used by all monsters that need to act on AI, and move dynamically, while the latter are used to specify movements - Barney will follow the path_corner
s until you bash him, and then he will rely on the info_node
s to hunt you down.] info_air_node
s work with flying monsters like the monster_alien_controller
.
path_corner
spath_corner
entities as though he was checking security. Just place one at each end of the corridor (In their properties name them p1 and p2 and set their next stop targets. In this case p1 with a next stop of p2 and p2 with a next stop of p1). In Barney's properties, change his Target to p1. If you compile the map now and don't move, Barney will be walking up and down the corridor. If you approach him, he will stop following the path_corner
s. All monsters do this to some extent. monster_scientist
s behave in pretty much the same way and you can make them follow path_corner
s or info_node
s. monster_human_grunt
s behave slightly differently. First of all you don't really interact with them, you try to kill them. So the main thing is to decide if you want them to chase after the player. If so, info_node
placement is important (and reading the file included with the example map for this tutorial will save time). A good coverage of info_node
s (maximum 128 visible at any point) within a room will make it impossible for the player to hide. The grunts will attack until killed, or you get capped, whichever is first.
path_corner
s). Checking Gag will shut them up. This means that the player will not know they are around the corner. Checking Prisoner for any monster entity will stop the monster from attacking the player. You can use monsters to activate or deactivate things by entering the name of the target you want to trigger in Trigger Target. There are Trigger Conditions that can be set and are pretty much self-explanatory [Ok, well maybe not, it seems that some of the conditions are redundant. So test each one.] One of the things that can be done is to trigger a monstermaker entity. By using this trigger, the new monsters don't appear until the Trigger Condition is met. Monstermakers are a tutorial in their own right, there is so much you can do with them. If you try them out, just remember to change the Angle of the entity so that the monsters it produces face the player or the info_node
path when they appear. If you don't they will appear and end up looking at the walls, not doing much until the player attacks. monstermaker
entities work. Kill the first monster_houndeye
and watch the fun start. One last note: There are so many things you can do with monsters. Some of them can be used in conjunction with scripted_sequence
s and aiscripted_sequence
s which is outside the scope of this tutorial, but set up a test map, and check out what the different flags and properties of monsters do. It pays to be in God Mode when working with monsters. Remember that monsters that wait to get shot at are boring so get them to do something! And also, too many monsters can ruin the pace of play. You must log in to post a comment. You can login or register a new account.