3.1.0beta monster behavior and a few other things

[tigen]

I'll just throw out a few things I noticed...

1) Sometimes after a monster becomes afraid, instead of running away it steps diagonally adjacent to you. This is if you are in an open room right next to it. I suspect it either is trying to run behind you which doesn't make sense in these instances, or else the AI code decided there was no safe place to go and got confused. I helped fix something like this in NPP so maybe I can help with this too... first I have to get a save game where it happens. The monster AI code is written in an overly-convoluted way IMO.

2) I do have a save game here which shows odd behavior. These snagas will shadow my movements but do not attack unless I give them a free turn. For example if you just walk right and left it does the same instead of just attacking. The second one will come along and they both will do this dance.

http://csua.berkeley.edu/~dcs/angband/movement-3.1.0beta

I am supposedly a trained software developer myself so hopefully I can try to contribute myself to debugging stuff like this. I got the svn sync and will try to find some time.

[tigen]

I think I see the problem with my #2, due to the monster group code. I'll try posting a ticket on the trac system instead of blathering about it here.

[takkaria]

I'll just throw out a few things I noticed...

1) Sometimes after a monster becomes afraid, instead of running away it steps diagonally adjacent to you. This is if you are in an open room right next to it. I suspect it either is trying to run behind you which doesn't make sense in these instances, or else the AI code decided there was no safe place to go and got confused. I helped fix something like this in NPP so maybe I can help with this too... first I have to get a save game where it happens. The monster AI code is written in an overly-convoluted way IMO.

2) I do have a save game here which shows odd behavior. These snagas will shadow my movements but do not attack unless I give them a free turn. For example if you just walk right and left it does the same instead of just attacking. The second one will come along and they both will do this dance.

http://csua.berkeley.edu/~dcs/angband/movement-3.1.0beta

I am supposedly a trained software developer myself so hopefully I can try to contribute myself to debugging stuff like this. I got the svn sync and will try to find some time.

I have no idea how the monster AI code works, so any help with fixing bugs or weird behaviour here is much appreciated. Otherwise, it won't be touched until after the 3.1 series, just because there's plenty of other stuff to be getting on with in the meantime.

[tigen]

I guess the #1 in my post can be due to monsters that have one of the RAND_ flags making it do a random movement sometimes, which could make it step next to me instead of running. That seems like a weird behavior trait to have if something is scared and wants to run away. These flags are on quite a lot of monsters. Ah well.