DRL > Requests For Features

Monster reaction to noise

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Game Hunter:
Been throwing around this idea in the "common abuses" thread, but I feel like it could use its own thread so I/we can flesh it out more.

The basics:

- Everything that currently causes noise in the game (firing a gun, explosions, enemy deaths, etc) will produce an actual noise, concentrated at the source of said noise, that monsters can take notice of
--- Noise will dissipate from the source radially, with walls/doors acting as dampeners
- Monsters that notice the noise will change their actions to move toward the source for a period of time and will only return to normal if:
--- They appear at the source without any change in priorities (ie, bored)
--- Time runs out (ie, forget)
--- They cannot reach the source from their current position (ie, annoyed)
- Monsters only react to the most recent noise (that is, they will change their movement if they hear something else)
- Movement toward the source is only specified by a direction and magnitude, so the exact location is unknown (meaning they won't take a point-to-point route, only try to "go left", etc)

That said, there are a lot of consequences for these basic rules. The first, and most important, is that when you start to attack things, all of a sudden a lot of enemies will try to find you out. Pre-fight tactics would then change significantly, as you would try to find a place where enemies couldn't swarm on you. At the same time, you could also throw enemies off by creating a noise in one room and running into another, then picking them off from a safe location as they approach. There are also some gray-areas (Should your yelling while crossing acid/lava create noise? Should the first barrel explosion take precedent over any chained explosions?) that ought to be figured out.

As I mentioned in the previous thread, this would also have uses for melee users. Throwing a knife against a wall would cause a noise at the wall and lure enemies there, presumably while you prepare at a melee distance. Chainsaws create tons of noise and, were this implemented, could have a "revving" alternate fire for the sole purpose of creating noise. I'd like to think noise reactions can be a decent replacement for gift-dropping, and so is part of the reason I suggest it.

With the addition of noise, we can also begin to create items and equipment that reduce or even eliminate noise. The most obvious is a "silence" mod that reduces the amount of noise coming from a weapon, and absorb noise in your direction (like a wall) if used on armor/boots. In the consumable department, "phonon canceler" can remove all noise from the level for a period of time (or in a radius, though that may get complicated). Some weapons will be less noisy than others (laser rifle and blaster would be quieter than bullets or raw plasma, shotguns are awfully loud) and some enemies may be more susceptible to noise than others (or just plain deaf).

Sure, maybe it's complicated, but in a game whose original used noise in a very important way, I can't imagine keeping reactions to noise out of DoomRL forever. I CAN imagine it being a very time-consuming project, however, so simply knowing it has the potential to be "in the works" would be news enough for me.

Tavana:
Rather than simply reacting to ONLY the most recent noise, I think there should be a rank in importance of noises for each creature. For example:
Pistol: +2 importance
Shotgun: +5 importance
Teleporter: +7 importance
Rocket Launcher: +10 importance
Creature of different type dying: +14 importance
Creature of same type dying: +15 importance
BFG: +20 importance

...just to give an idea. Basically, the higher the threat the noise is, the more likely the monster is to check it out. Choosing between a barrel moving noise and a BFG noise? Guess what I'd choose to concentrate on.

In fact, I'd even say that there could be a buffer with each and every noise heard recently for each creature. Hear me out on this: You hear a pistol shot (+X importance), you head towards it. For every step, the importance to you drops (to zero) until you decide that whatever did it would have moved on already (item is removed from the buffer). Then you hear a shotgun blast (+Y importance), and while heading towards it you hear a pistol shot (+X importance). Each creature type may have a different decay of importance for each sound (and I can see some mods really working with this) so you might follow the shotgun sound, but eventually that nagging pistol shot you heard earlier could be a lot more important.

Perhaps a better reason for the buffer idea is this: Hearing that shotgun blast might not be terribly important since you're investigating someone with a rocket launcher, but when you get to around where you heard the rocket explode you're going to want to check out the shotgun's sound since the rocket is a dead end.

We could break it down even further: Some enemies are stupid. No buffer. Simply check the importance of a new noise event against the importance of the noise being investigated. If it's higher - that's what we check. If it's lower, we ignore it. Some enemies are smart - they get a buffer system. Baron's of Hell and ArchViles just got that much meaner. My target dissapeared!?! Why YES I did hear something like someone teleporting nearby me. Let's check it out!

My main problem with this is that without proper care in coding, it could become even worse than the exploit that we're attempting to replace.

Spoiler: Why yes, I am taunting you (click to show/hide)Given that at some point I'd like to see Spectres and partial invisibility powerups in the game, this would be an amazing dynamic to combine.

thelaptop:
I must remind everyone that sound decays inversely over distance and not inverse-squaredly.

Just thought I should put this here in case we forgot how the Physics work...

ZZ:
If you can precisely determine the location of the sound source in the maze, then you have sonic locator or veeery advanced hearing. I suppose that to addition to all being said there should be

a) Area of sound. While some demons have unnatural powers and can calculate the exact square of the sound source, the rest should head to a circle from the sound location. Former humans, having the worst hearing, can only determine was it from the left or from the right side of the map.

b) Level's acoustic level. While in the cave you can precisely hear from where sound is coming, in the maze in could be definitely problematic. Acoustic level could be a complicated calculation that depends from the placement of walls and open space size, or dependent from the level type. If it's big then you can't precisely find the source of the sound, resulting in big variety of places to search (maze level). If it's low, you can almost "see" the location of the sound (caves or hell city).
   

Angles of death:
This would be awesome. You have my vote for this.

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