Difference between revisions of "Legacy:ScriptedPawn"

Revision as of 17:05, 16 December 2005

Note: In UT200x, ScriptedPawn was replaced by a scheme using some other variety of Pawn in conjunction with a ScriptedController, or a subclass thereof.

This class is the abstract base class for UT's NPC "Monsters" (Skaarj, Nali, etc.) Some monsters are treated as a group, for example the BiterFish; these are subclassed from FlockPawn and controlled with a subclass of FlockMasterPawn.

As anyone who has played Unreal I knows, extremely complex behaviour is possible with monsters: they can patrol an area by default, and perform a specific action (such as running to push an alarm button) when they see the player.

This behaviour is set using several other actors that work with ScriptedPawn subclasses.

Related Actors

The main actors you should use when scripting a pawn are the AlarmTag, Patrolpoint and homebase and of course some options in the pawns preferences under the AI and Order property sections. (Please take note that for any of these actors to work you need to pathnode the level first.)

AlarmPoint

An AlarmPoint is an actor that the Pawns react to when they are "startled" – or more simply put when they see the player/players.

PatrolPoint

A PatrolPoint is helpful when you need to make your pawns walk about in an area without looking too alarmed. That helps the pawns to look more life like (They just dont stand around and wait for the player). Look at the "Order-Tab" section below to see how you set the pawn to do this.

HomeBase

This is a wonderful little actor. The Tag of this actor should be the same as the tag of the creatures who are to use it.

When a pawn is hurt or if its just really chicken it will seek its way to its homebase (prefably this is a place out of the way or a place where the pawn can get backup). This litle actor holds the following propeties:

• Extent - Defines how big the homebase is

Known Subclasses

Many of these creatures also appear in the Invasion gametype in UT2004 as subclasses of Monster.

• Brute >>
• Cow >>
• Devilfish
• Fly
• Follower (ONP)
• Gasbag
• Krall >>
• Manta
• Mercenary >>
• Nali
• Pupae
• Queen
• Skaarj >>
• Squid
• Slith
• Tentacle
• Titan
• WarLord

Properties

Some of the property groups are defined in the Pawn (UT) class and then receive extra properties in ScriptedPawn. In the interest of clarity, this page lists all the properties from the groups. We'll copy the relevant ones across to Pawn (UT) later...

AI

AttitudeToPlayer 

Determines the current behavior

•  ; ATTITUDE_Fear : The pawn will try to make a run for it when it sees the player
•  ; ATTITUDE_Hate : The pawn will attack the player
•  ; ATTITUDE_Frenzy : The pawn acts a bit less concentrated with less accuracy. The pawn will fight to the end and never flees
•  ; ATTITUDE_Threaten : The pawn will make hostile motions but will wait for the player to initiate combat.
•  ; ATTITUDE_Ignore : The pawn will ignore the player
•  ; ATTITUDE_Friendly : The pawn wont attack the player and, if possible, will fight the players enemies
•  ; ATTITUDE_Follow : Don't think this one works yet

bool bHateWhenTriggered 

If set to true the pawn will start to hate the player when triggered

bool bIgnoreFriends 

If set to true the pawn will disregard rank of its team and hunt after the player in their solditude

bool bIsBoss 

Looking quickly at the script, it appears this gives the monster extra health & other things too...

bool bQuiet 

The pawn will play no sounds (good for surprise attacks)

bool bTeamLeader 

If part of a team (more on that later) and this tab is set to true the actor will resume command over the rest of the pawns who holds the same TeamTag as this one

HearingThreshold 

I never messed around with this one

float PheriperalVision 

Inverse Cosine of this number determines how far to each side the pawn can see things. So, -1.0 means that it can even see something directly behind it.

SightRadius 

Defines how far the pawn can see

Skill 

Defines how good the pawn is at fighting. This stretches from their aim to the way and speed they move at. The higher number the better the pawn is.

name TeamTag 

see bTeamLeader

Orders

name AlarmTag 

see AlarmPoints

bool bDelayedPatrol 

If set to true the pawn must be triggerd before he starts his patrol. This is done by placeing a trigger and put the tag of the pawn in the event of the trigger.

bool bFixedStart 

Used in conjunction with the Ambushing orders, to allow a pawn to optionally enter the level at an alternate location.

Orders 

According to the script comments, this sets the monster's initial state, and furthermore if the monster changes state it will try and return to the state set here. See the list of states further down this page for possible settings. (how does it react with the Object.InitialState setting? mystery! Why not use Object.InitialState? mystery! ) comment this is for abstraction reasons thus allowing the coders to internally change the orders handling code without having to worry about incompatibilities whatsoever...

name OrderTag 

OrderTag defines the actor on which the order set in the "Orders" tab to be carried out

name SharedAlarmTag 

Multiple Pawns can use the same AlarmTags – set the tag of the alarmpoint in this tab

Functions

(incomplete)

SetEnemy() 

AttitudeTowards() 

CustomFollow Functions

CustomMade Attacks

States

Use these with the Orders property. (question: what happens if these are set with InitialState?) A pawn can have one of many different orders. Note that many of the subclasses of ScriptedPawn add new states, for example WarLord. See state and InitialState for more information on states in coding and mapping.

Waiting 

This is the default state (though it's not shown in the tab)

Patroling 

This with the OrderTag set to a patrolpoint will let make the pawn (you guessed it) patrol

Guarding 

Guarding pawns will guard the actor whose tag is in their OrderTag. They won't go far from the actor they are guarding and they will try to get back to the actor after combat. If their attitude is ATTITUDE_Threatening they will try to make outbursts to scare the player to flee. They will try to remain between the player and the actor they guard. If the player touches the actor the pawn will attack.

Ambushing 

The pawn is waiting on something to happen so they are more alert than regular. They may, according to Epics Unrealtech site, play different Idle-anims. If a Ambushpoint is placed whose tag matches the OrderTag of the pawn they may randomly spawn there. There can be multiple Ambushpoints for the same pawn.

Custom ScriptedPawns

Add your own .u files or how to make origional pawns into new ones here

• Ghosts

Tutorials

• Basic ScriptedPawn Tutorial

Related Topics

• Artificial Intelligence – Super topic on all AI (bots, monsters, NPCs, etc)
  • Monster Support – Main topic for monster support
    • Pawn (UT)/AI Functions
    • AI Scripting Reference
• Monster (UT2004 only) – The parent class for Monster Pawns in UT2004
• MonsterController (UT2004 only) – The Controller class for Monsters in UT2004

Discussion

Icedude: (author)

Erdrik: (contributed to functions) Just setting up, I'll Return with info on Coding custom attributes, ect for new ScriptedPawns. Going from memory right now, when I return I'll have a more orginized setup ;)

SuperApe: Marked up, minor edits.

Category:Legacy Class (UT)

Category:Legacy To Do – Fill in most important functions with brief descriptions. Fill in remaining property variable types. Fill in package name.