Domhnall on 20/8/2005 at 12:27
I'm curious if this can script be done:
Based on the # of guards in an area, and on their patrol route, a guard's Alert status will be affected by the # of times he sees his fellow guards. This would be set up on a random timed check. So, according to the route they walk, guard A should run into guard B, say, every 90 seconds. If ~200 seconds pass, he may move to Alert status yellow. If ~500 seconds pass, then he moves to red, and yells to his cronies to get them to red.
The spirit of this script is to eliminate forced ghosting and replacing it with a middle of the road option for those who like the KO. So, if you KO someone, if they are expected to be seen (on someone else's timer) then you only have that much time before they are missed. It could be that the majority of people in a location are intertwined this way so that if you KO several people, soon after the whole place is in a frenzy trying to find their missing comrades.
I'm not needing the script for myself, but would love if one of you other modders were to use this.
ProjectX on 20/8/2005 at 14:54
I think it would be possible if I knew the action that sets an AI into a certain alert state.
Ziemanskye on 20/8/2005 at 15:21
I think they notice if their allies are missing anyway, they just don't make much of it normally.
Maybe a BehaviourModel thing, so you could make them more easily annoyed by that action?
Bumbleson on 21/8/2005 at 21:25
Quote Posted by ProjectX
I think it would be possible if I knew the action that sets an AI into a certain alert state.
That should be
Alertness: Add (or subtract) a fixed total of [Float] alertness (out of 100) to the AI attached to this script. To be found under "AI"
I don't know whether AIs really react on not seeing their comrades for some time.
If they do, then I never encountered that behavior during the whole game. :confused:
A problem you might hit when scripting this, is the absence of a condition like "When I see another AI..." (I may be wrong here, I haven't worked with the script manager for some time).
ProjectX on 22/8/2005 at 07:27
I've tried that before, all it does is make guards enter the alert states more easily. We need a action here that actually makes the guard enter an alert state.
Bumbleson on 22/8/2005 at 23:11
I could have sworn I used that action some time ago to change a guard's alertness. :confused:
Maybe it was "Set minimum/maximum alertness ..." then. Or maybe I'm completely off the track. :p
All I know for sure is that there are way too less conditions and actions, and an action to secifically change alertness state is among those missing.
ZylonBane on 23/8/2005 at 17:56
Quote Posted by Domhnall
So, if you KO someone, if they are expected to be seen (on someone else's timer) then you only have that much time before they are missed.
Neat idea, but fundamentally flawed from a gameplay perspective. For the player to meaningfully interact with this system, they would have to know not only a single guard's patrol route, but the route of every other guard he interacts with, and when. It would be geometrically more complex, to the point of resembling a true chaotic system. The primary focus of Thief's gameplay is manipulating the environment to your advantage (according to Doug Church anyway), but this would render the guard behavior hopelessly nondeterministic from the player's perspective. You can't manipulate what you can't predict.
GlasWolf on 23/8/2005 at 18:50
Quote Posted by Bumbleson
I don't know whether AIs really react on not seeing their comrades for some time.
If they do, then I never encountered that behavior during the whole game. :confused:
I certainly saw it, but as Z says they don't make much of it. It's usually just a comment along the lines of "Hey... shouldn't someone be on watch here?" before going about their business as normal.
Zylon: most of the guards (apart from the city) only interact with one or two others in the course of their patrol. I agree it would be confusing if you knocked out one guard and came back to find an entire garrison on full alert waiting for you, but in a controlled situation it could be workable.
Bumbleson on 24/8/2005 at 12:19
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
You can't manipulate what you can't predict.
Isn't that what we call realism? :cheeky:
I know, I know, nobody would want a game to be *that* realistic :o
ProjectX on 24/8/2005 at 14:02
maybe a feature for expert mode only then?
