Pupaer (improved pupae, not crazy tho)
Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2018 2:25 pm
OK today's source code dump is a simple one. A few years ago I worked on improving the default pupae so it's much more than just cannon fodder. This is the result.
The current pupae has several problems that are fixable but very glaring. These include:
-Bad texturing (green panel) on a hind leg
-Pupae freeze up when attacking upwards or downwards
-Many small obstacles totally prevent them from moving
-Even a very low box or step can totally shield a player from attacks
I've seen way overdone pupae like the red ones in MH maps but they are just unreasonable. You don't need them to be ultra fast and do mega damage/redeemer blast on death. Pupae should overwhelm players by sheer numbers and by being dangerous but not necessarily deadly in smaller numbers. So with this in mind I set out to fix it... and man was it tough to get right.
From the readme:
By placing these monsters into your map you can tweak them upwards in strength slowly from default to allow them to pursue players throughout terrain, up stairs, jump up onto low boxes to reach players, etc. They act and attack much more like swarm insects this way.
Included is the compiled u file, ready to be placed and used by mappers. Source code is also included along with the fixed model (rear leg is correct now). If you are an MH mapper and you use these please playtest so that it won't become frustrating for your players. These incremental increases in the pupae behavior make a HUGE difference in default maps. Once you can't really get away from them by jumping up on something or firing downwards from stairs then it's a whole new ball game. If you doubt this to be true try playing BukieAntFarm after replacing the pupae with these. You'll see what I mean pretty quickly.
Hope someone finds this useful!
The current pupae has several problems that are fixable but very glaring. These include:
-Bad texturing (green panel) on a hind leg
-Pupae freeze up when attacking upwards or downwards
-Many small obstacles totally prevent them from moving
-Even a very low box or step can totally shield a player from attacks
I've seen way overdone pupae like the red ones in MH maps but they are just unreasonable. You don't need them to be ultra fast and do mega damage/redeemer blast on death. Pupae should overwhelm players by sheer numbers and by being dangerous but not necessarily deadly in smaller numbers. So with this in mind I set out to fix it... and man was it tough to get right.
From the readme:
Spoiler
************************************************
New settings in the actor once it is placed on the map. These will be in a new section called "Jumping"...
JumpVelocity -Lunge power/distance. Default is 450ish. Higher number gives stronger jump and longer range.
CanLeapUp -Allows the pupae to leap around much more and leap onto boxes, etc if it needs to get to you.
LeapUpStrength -Leap power/distance. Default is 600ish.
MeleeRangeCheck -Default check for 'is in melee range' Default is 80ish.
Jumpvelocity is the normal lunge attack hop that the pupae does anyway. Setting the pupae to CanLeapUp=True lets it hop and jump much more, especially if it is attacking you or in pursuit. The MeleeRangeCheck is a very different way of checking for attacks that will work for monsters with low collision height and cannot fly. Please feel free to use this class in your monster and adjust it as you need.
Important: If you use this monster and change it's drawscale upwards very much it will screw up the checks. It's best to use a default pupae class for this. Once you reach a certain threshold in drawscale it will pass all the collision checks anyway and the buggy pupae behavior (get it, buggy) will disappear. This monster is for normal to slightly larger pupae only.
************************************************
New settings in the actor once it is placed on the map. These will be in a new section called "Jumping"...
JumpVelocity -Lunge power/distance. Default is 450ish. Higher number gives stronger jump and longer range.
CanLeapUp -Allows the pupae to leap around much more and leap onto boxes, etc if it needs to get to you.
LeapUpStrength -Leap power/distance. Default is 600ish.
MeleeRangeCheck -Default check for 'is in melee range' Default is 80ish.
Jumpvelocity is the normal lunge attack hop that the pupae does anyway. Setting the pupae to CanLeapUp=True lets it hop and jump much more, especially if it is attacking you or in pursuit. The MeleeRangeCheck is a very different way of checking for attacks that will work for monsters with low collision height and cannot fly. Please feel free to use this class in your monster and adjust it as you need.
Important: If you use this monster and change it's drawscale upwards very much it will screw up the checks. It's best to use a default pupae class for this. Once you reach a certain threshold in drawscale it will pass all the collision checks anyway and the buggy pupae behavior (get it, buggy) will disappear. This monster is for normal to slightly larger pupae only.
************************************************
Included is the compiled u file, ready to be placed and used by mappers. Source code is also included along with the fixed model (rear leg is correct now). If you are an MH mapper and you use these please playtest so that it won't become frustrating for your players. These incremental increases in the pupae behavior make a HUGE difference in default maps. Once you can't really get away from them by jumping up on something or firing downwards from stairs then it's a whole new ball game. If you doubt this to be true try playing BukieAntFarm after replacing the pupae with these. You'll see what I mean pretty quickly.
Hope someone finds this useful!