nicked on 21/10/2016 at 17:16
It's always slightly annoying to me that AIs don't react to contact with the player - i.e. if you're in a corner in the dark, they'll bump right into you and not find you, even though in real life they'd be tripping right over you. You can also run and jump into the back of AIs without them noticing and even land on their heads and bounce off.
So I tried to see if the AI could handle things a little more realistically. Turns out, you can solve this very easily, so I thought I'd share:
1. Edit the archetype for the AI you want - or the base Creature, Animal or Human archetype.
2. Add Act/React > Receptrons.
3. Fill out the settings as follows:
* Stimulus - Touch.
* Min Intensity - 0
* Max Intensity - No Max.
* Effect: Poke object.
* Target Object: Me
* Agent Object: Source
4. Place an AI.
That's all there is to it. Now if you touch the AI, it'll essentially "damage" them for 0 damage, making them go "oof" and get alerted.
Obviously this affects the gameplay, so I guess my next question is whether the extra realism/difficulty is worth it, or if this is likely to just annoy people.
Yandros on 21/10/2016 at 17:26
You don't need to use a receptron, there is actually a property called "Notices player bumps" which you can set on any AI or AI archetype you want, and does basically the same thing. Discussions I've participated in in the past about this generally boiled down to "LGS left this disabled intentionally, probably for a good reason as it has a big effect on gameplay". If you use it, I would certainly make sure players know about it, and there still be griping about it for sure.
nicked on 21/10/2016 at 17:48
Interesting! From a quick experiment - using the receptron is slightly different in that it triggers a low damage AI bark, which the script does not.
Either way, I like the effect.
Might see if I can get it on Expert only, and/or get some beta tester opinions.
LarryG on 21/10/2016 at 19:47
It definitely changes gameplay. I remember fondly slowly pushing stationary AIs from behind so that they would be facing directly up against the opposite wall, making walking about in the area they were guarding much less stressful.
I like the idea of making this more realistic. Yes it eliminates some exploits, but that may be to the overall good. I don't see this as a difficulty driven thing though. I would suggest either do it for all difficulties or none.
marbleman on 21/10/2016 at 20:15
It is used in R Soul's mission A Job Well Done. Guards alert if you bump into them and if they bump into you in shadow. I didn't know about this mechanic, but once I discovered it I actually liked it.
john9818a on 23/10/2016 at 08:34
I tried your example before nicked but I wasn't able to keep from damaging the AI. Maybe I had something set wrong but the AI eventually died.
Kurhhan on 23/10/2016 at 09:13
This should be implemented in all new missions in my opinion. Become a standard feature.
nicked on 23/10/2016 at 17:02
Quote Posted by john9818a
I tried your example before nicked but I wasn't able to keep from damaging the AI. Maybe I had something set wrong but the AI eventually died.
What AI did you try this on? I have it set on the Human archetype. I tried setting a guard to 1 hit points, but I wasn't able to kill him by bumping into him. You could also try the NoticesPlayerBumps script instead if you can't get it to work.
LarryG on 23/10/2016 at 18:26
There are also the metaprops "Touchy" and "SuperTouchy" which you could try. They are under Vulnerabilities.
