Behold the Power of Doors

[Dunbar42]

This kind of bugs me. Well, a few things about A4 bug me, but this is pretty silly. NPC opponents, apparently, cannot use doors. I have defeated a number of opponents by using a door...the latest being the creature guarding the crystalline plate in the King's chambers.

 

It works like this: figure out what position in the initiative order the monster goes at; say after your priest is finished. Now just go through the combat round and when your priest comes up, close the door and pass. Have your next character open the door (only takes 1 action point and he doesn't even have to be near it, any of your characters can be) and attack from range. Rinse and repeat until your foe is dead.

 

I also killed the eyebeast you fight really early on (in the demo I think...he's in a cell and you are supposed to talk to him for a quest) using this strategy.

 

NPCs need to have the ability to open doors. Intelligent NPCs should be programmed to open doors and join the fight if they hear a battle going on.

[*i]

Monsters have gotten dumber since the good old days of Exile. At any rate, you could always not take advantage of doors for more of a challenge.

[Ephesos]

Yes... I seem to remember this problem recurring in A1, A2, and A3, with the idiocy climaxing in BoA. In A2, they could at least follow you through a closed door if they'd had a turn to see you.

[Fort]

This is one exploitation that for some reason was introduced in this latest Avernum game. In the previous ones, NPCs still could not open doors, but at least it was not possible to attack and hide behind a door in a single round because you had to be in town mode in order to close a door.

 

The Exile monsters, which could open doors, made things all the more challenging. However, due to engine differences, the ability for them to open doors was sacrificed for the greater flexibility of scripts instead of nodes. Sadly, it is infeasible to allow them to do that again except in very specific situations.

[Dintiradan]

Perhaps a re-write of 'basicnpc.txt' is in order. I wonder how you'd implement it; maybe in attack state, if it can't see the party, it would open the nearest door.

 

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IF I EVER BECOME AN EVIL OVERLORD:

I will not employ devious schemes that involve the hero's party getting into my inner sanctum before the trap is sprung.

[Randomizer]

I miss from the earlier Avernum games where monster NPCs would pick up and use items. Doors are just something else that has been removed to simplify the engine.

[Red_Sage]

I seem to remember in Exile doors making that creepy creaky sound without my being the one to do it. *shivers*

[Ephesos]

Quote:

Originally written by Red_Sage:
I seem to remember in Exile doors making that creepy creaky sound without my being the one to do it. *shivers*

I remember that happening a few times in A2... I think it was in the nephilim fort full of undead. That was creepy.