I love the smell of UnrealEd crashing in the morning. – tarquin
Legacy:ScriptedPawn
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.
Contents
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
Tutorials
Related Topics
- Artificial Intelligence – Super topic on all AI (bots, monsters, NPCs, etc)
- Monster Support – Main topic for monster support
- 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 To Do – Fill in most important functions with brief descriptions. Fill in remaining property variable types. Fill in package name.
