Monster Behaviour in Darkness
issueid=108 04-06-2010 01:49 PM
Ancient Member
Number of reported issues by JellySlayer: 114
Monster Behaviour in Darkness
Many monsters are sitting ducks under cover of darkness

Discussed a bit under the "Bolting Invisible Monsters" bug, but I thought I'd make this a separate one since the two effects aren't quite the same...

Bug is that essentially monsters that cannot see under darkness will not fight back if attacked by the PC in any way if both the monster and the PC are in darkness. As a result, many powerful monsters can be killed without any risk, including shopkeepers, the great water dragon, and the snake from beyond. The only situation under which the monster will fight back is if the PC leaves the darkened area, or they panic and there are no other possible places to move other than the square the PC is standing on.
Issue Details
Issue Number 108
Project ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery)
Category Unknown
Status Fixed
Priority Unknown
Affected Version Unknown
Fixed Version ADOM 1.2.0 pre 7
Milestone (none)
Users able to reproduce bug 5
Users unable to reproduce bug 0
Assigned Users (none)
Tags (none)




04-29-2010 12:00 AM
Senior Member
Probably not a bug, but a major balance issue. Related is how many strong, boss monsters are vulnerable to blindness, paralysis, etc. Basically, rather than having any clever play or skill to defeat these big bosses you can make the fight trivial with a toss of a potion.

I don't think ALL boss mobs should be immune to these effects, but they shouldn't be so weak against them; the Great Water Dragon could sometimes attack randomly in the darkness, some strong monsters could be vulnerable but more resistant to blindness, etc.

(Bleh, can't delete -- this is posted as a separate issue at http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=121)

04-30-2010 01:02 PM
Ancient Member
I don't agree so much about bosses, but I do agree the darkness behaviour is flawed.

A good fix would be to make monsters in darkness move randomly (and of course if they bump into you, they would get an attack on you). It would make darkness more realistic, and it would keep its strategic value for getting away of tough monsters but wouldn't let you kill overpowered monsters without risks with low level characters.

05-01-2010 03:02 PM
Senior Member
Darkness should work similarly to blindness, and in both cases, there should be three behavioural elements for those affected by it (as opposed to those that see in darkness or are immune to blindness):

1. A tendency to keep going in the direction they're going unless given reason to do otherwise (like being attacked, running into a wall, reacting to a sound, etc).
2. If attacked, will attempt to attack back in the direction that the attack came from. Similarly, if hearing a sound, will move towards or away from it, depending on the sound. If it's a wall that is blocking, choose a random new direction to move in.
3. If walking into the location of another creature without being attacked, the attack should be slower than normal. In this case, if the monster walks into the PC at the right time, it should merely bump into the PC first ("Something bumped into you"). If the PC gets to move before the monster is able to attack, the PC can move out of the way. They shouldn't be two separate steps, however.

The ability to have some sense of which direction an attack came from in darkness should also be available to the PC. Perhaps a dark "?" symbol could be placed for that turn in the location that an attack came from. It wouldn't be persistent, though, and would disappear on the next turn.

12-10-2012 05:05 PM
The Creator
Fixed. It was a very stupid oversight.

12-10-2012 05:21 PM
Ancient Member
Quote Originally Posted by adom-admin
Fixed. It was a very stupid oversight.
What is the new behavior, if I may ask?

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