Subject: Why do monsters attack
From:    The Sheep <sheep@atos.wmid.amu.edu.pl>
Date:    Mon, 12 May 2003 10:21:00 +0000 (UTC)
Group:   rec.games.roguelike.development

I think it could be helpful for designing monster ai, to discuss why
in fact the mosnters will attack.

I came up with several ideas, each of them could be coded separately.

- Pure instict -- monster will attack anything that moves. Man-eating
plants, spiders, snakes will probably act this way.

- Cornered defense -- if a monster is cornered (or thinks it's cornered)
it will try to defend itself by attacking directly.

- Hunting -- if the mosnter is hunting, it will first try to evaluate the
opponent's power, then, if it decides it's worth the risk, it will attack.
If there is another pray that's easier to kill and more tasty, it will go
for it. On the other hand, if something unexpected happends, or the pray
seems to be powerful, the monster will flee.

- Defending terrority -- the mosnter will first try to scare the enemy, and
if that fails it will attack. The size and estimated power of enemy doesn't matter.

- Muggling -- the monster will act as when hunting, only it doesn't want to kill
his enemy. It will probably make it unconscious and take his possesions.

There may be more and more attacking shemes. Any ideas? Ideas on how to
actually implement them?


-- Radomir `The Sheep' Dopieralski To bee or not to bee -- this is the question!