08-14-2004, 05:55 AM
Heiho,
I'm with Wyrm when it comes to the basic function of that 'hreat' number buried in the mpqs.
There are, like Crystalion mentioned, some other things which can cause a monster to wake up and make some decisions.
a) monsters have a radius of awareness
all of us should know, that we can walk very much closer to a Zombie in the Blood Marsh than to a Dark Spearwoman later on, before they wake up to make any decision, this is partly covered via the AI routines in monai.txt, but not completely (I think)
B) regardless of that radius, they wake up when you attack them, the AI routines define their aggression here (that is, if you shoot _one_ arrow as an example, will that attacked monster chase you forever afterwards, or will it fall back in a lurking status after somepaces if you don't attack further)
c) also monsters have a tendency to follow nearby monsters, so if one monster of a given group decides to attack you, its neighbours will at least wake up, if not running along with the one which woke up first. The AI routines also interfere here.
Minions of a Bosspack will shield their Boss, and if you go cautiously nearby a Bosspack so that the Boss itself won't see you but some of his Minions will, you can see them chasing at you and running back without actually doing an attack.
d) there is a construct I've come to know as 'walkable flags', which defines the sightlines and pathfinding routines within a map (I don't know about interferences with a) ), but the essay about that is still in working progress and AFAIK not published yet
e) there are things which can wake up monsters a really _long_ distance away, such as Boewalls, Boneprisons, CO'd or AT'd monsters. Because BW/BP have a really low 'threat' number and monsters have the same as players, threat is not an explanation for an appealing effect on monsters at least two screens away from the appeal reason. Both AI routines and radius of awareness seem to interfere heavily with that.
f) the Rogue is the only player/hireling with a low threat number, and you'll notice that she doesn't get hurt much even when she is very close to monsters. Only surrounded and stuck or in range of area spells she gets some serious damage. It is in fact possible to equip a rogue with no LL at all and she will survive in most maps of the game with her natural regeneration (which is not that high)
g) the Decoy has a slightly higher threat than players/hirelings, but it won't appeal monsters from far away like BW/BP/etc. Most monsters will take the Decoy as primary target, and the Valk will run to the Decoy to protect it instead of running to the Amazon (well, maybe 'running' is the wrong term here ... ^^ )
Despite of all that tidbits it is still unclear why some monsters - especially act bosses - sometimes prefer the 'wrong' target. I have several reports from players, where in a party with a melee and a caster char Diablo, Baal or Meph just focus on the caster /even if the caster hasn't attacked while the melee char already fights the boss/, same with ranged and melee, where the ranged party member hasn't shoot a single arrow yet and is targetted and so on.
There are several theories in the mist of uncertainness about 'they target always the one nearest to them' (which is obviously rubbish), 'they target the one with most life', 'they target the one with most damage', 'they target the one with certain manafe, ene/vita or some other combination' and so on, which aren't at all in any way scientific (that is, all of them are negotiable with simple testing).
Most probably it is just a matter of an AI decision made which is caused by several overlaying triggers, and one trigger is the strongest which doesn't have to be the one which would cause a player decision.
I'm with Wyrm when it comes to the basic function of that 'hreat' number buried in the mpqs.
There are, like Crystalion mentioned, some other things which can cause a monster to wake up and make some decisions.
a) monsters have a radius of awareness
all of us should know, that we can walk very much closer to a Zombie in the Blood Marsh than to a Dark Spearwoman later on, before they wake up to make any decision, this is partly covered via the AI routines in monai.txt, but not completely (I think)
B) regardless of that radius, they wake up when you attack them, the AI routines define their aggression here (that is, if you shoot _one_ arrow as an example, will that attacked monster chase you forever afterwards, or will it fall back in a lurking status after somepaces if you don't attack further)
c) also monsters have a tendency to follow nearby monsters, so if one monster of a given group decides to attack you, its neighbours will at least wake up, if not running along with the one which woke up first. The AI routines also interfere here.
Minions of a Bosspack will shield their Boss, and if you go cautiously nearby a Bosspack so that the Boss itself won't see you but some of his Minions will, you can see them chasing at you and running back without actually doing an attack.
d) there is a construct I've come to know as 'walkable flags', which defines the sightlines and pathfinding routines within a map (I don't know about interferences with a) ), but the essay about that is still in working progress and AFAIK not published yet
e) there are things which can wake up monsters a really _long_ distance away, such as Boewalls, Boneprisons, CO'd or AT'd monsters. Because BW/BP have a really low 'threat' number and monsters have the same as players, threat is not an explanation for an appealing effect on monsters at least two screens away from the appeal reason. Both AI routines and radius of awareness seem to interfere heavily with that.
f) the Rogue is the only player/hireling with a low threat number, and you'll notice that she doesn't get hurt much even when she is very close to monsters. Only surrounded and stuck or in range of area spells she gets some serious damage. It is in fact possible to equip a rogue with no LL at all and she will survive in most maps of the game with her natural regeneration (which is not that high)
g) the Decoy has a slightly higher threat than players/hirelings, but it won't appeal monsters from far away like BW/BP/etc. Most monsters will take the Decoy as primary target, and the Valk will run to the Decoy to protect it instead of running to the Amazon (well, maybe 'running' is the wrong term here ... ^^ )
Despite of all that tidbits it is still unclear why some monsters - especially act bosses - sometimes prefer the 'wrong' target. I have several reports from players, where in a party with a melee and a caster char Diablo, Baal or Meph just focus on the caster /even if the caster hasn't attacked while the melee char already fights the boss/, same with ranged and melee, where the ranged party member hasn't shoot a single arrow yet and is targetted and so on.
There are several theories in the mist of uncertainness about 'they target always the one nearest to them' (which is obviously rubbish), 'they target the one with most life', 'they target the one with most damage', 'they target the one with certain manafe, ene/vita or some other combination' and so on, which aren't at all in any way scientific (that is, all of them are negotiable with simple testing).
Most probably it is just a matter of an AI decision made which is caused by several overlaying triggers, and one trigger is the strongest which doesn't have to be the one which would cause a player decision.