Creating new monsters and their features

[Janis Legzdinsh]

You must move everything from progs/common/ to progs/.

[b0rsuk]

I'm trying to make Imps shoot inaccurately, by adding a random number to their angle. Unfortunately I've been unable to find the implementation of Partial Invisibility - there may be a better way. Here's my try:

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   randangle = P_Random() % 15;
   if (P_Random() % 2 == 0)
   {
       randangle *= -1;
   }

   // launch a missile, 60.0 is tmp -b0rsuk
   SpawnMissileAngle(DoomImpBall, Angles.yaw + itof(randangle), 60.0);


I don't know a good way to find the angle to target. I just took Angles.yaw, but because imps don't look up or down I can only make them shoot horizontally. I can't just use SpawnMissile, because the function requires a target entity.

[Firebrand]

Check A_FaceTarget method inside Actor.MonsterAi.vc .

[Janis Legzdinsh]

VectorAngles()

[b0rsuk]

Ok, no more stupid math questions until I finish going through my high school math books and especially Trigonometry. Meanwhile...

I try to design a custom attack for those cute Hexen ettins, but I fail.
I started by designing an attack in Actor.Hexen.vc:

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final void A_Borsuk() // temporary !!
{
A_TroopAttack() // DooM Imp attack
}


Then I added this line to ettin.txt in Actors:

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ETTN E 1 A_Borsuk


I launch the mod, it doesn't crash (yay !) but no effect when an ettin attacks.

If I just use A_TroopAttack directly in ettin.txt, it works, and it's easy to see because DooM Imps do instant damage in melee.
If I modify one of existing attacks in Actors.Hexen.vc, the effect is visible in game. It's just the my new attack that produces no effect.

What am I missing ? By the way, I tried just using VavoomC function (Thrust(angle, power)) directly in Decorate, but I guess it's not possible - it crashed. Can I only call functions which take no arguments in decorate ? What determines which functions can be used in Decorate ?

[Firebrand]

Have a look at what A_TroopAttack does:

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   // launch a missile
   SpawnMissile(Target, DoomImpBall);


It spawns a Projectile of class DoomImpBall, did you add it to your MOD? If you didn't then the game isn't spawning it because the class doesn't exists or it doesn't has any sprites , DoomImpBall uses sprites named BAL1A0 and BAL1B0, hope this helps you out .

[b0rsuk]

Have a look at what A_TroopAttack does:

Thanks for very fast repply, but unfortunately you're wrong ! I already said A_TroopAttack works if called directly from DECORATE. I know how it works because I already changed imps to be inaccurate (with your help). There's no DoomImpBall to be spawned, because A_TroopAttack first checks for an enemy in melee range. I made Ettins use A_TroopAttack in melee, so it's too close for ball and they scratch me instead. Like I wrote above, instant melee damage happens, as with imps.

Problems start when I try to use my own defined attack (see the post above).
I tried wrapping other functions inside my A_Borsuk(), such as:

PlaySound('BlastRadius', CHAN_VOICE);
dprint("Alamakota");

And it didn't work either.

[Firebrand]

OK then, I've got a second solution, the problem seems to be that the function hasn't been made native for actors to use, making this is really simple, inside 'basev\common\' there's a nativeclasses.txt file, just add the A_Borsurk(); method there, this should make the method native for actors to use . Make sure that A_Borsurk method is declared inside any for the Actor.xx files or it won't work fine, hope this helps you out.

[Janis Legzdinsh]

It seams you forgot to declare it as a native action. Take a look for example at actors/hexen/dragon.txt.