Improving the XML Documentation

[Kiddforce]

As some of you probably noticed the Public Documentation is not complete and at times is a bit confusing, the goal of this thread is to create a list of things that needs to be updated as well as help clarify/fix errors while waiting for the official documentation to be updated.

If you find anything that’s not on this list feel free to comment it so I can add it!
I’ll also keep a temporary documentation here while waiting for the official documentation to be updated.

#Public Documentation

List of errors/pages that need clarification

• Condition Effects list is missing several status effects and is wrong/does not explain how Pet Stasis works.
• Transition List is missing some transitions.
• PlaySound behavior page uses PlaceMap params, it also doesn’t explain how to define sounds.
• Embed page does not give any information about Params.
• Tag page does not give any information about Global Tags.
• ConditionEffectAura behavior page missing ignoreInvisible param.
• CopyDamageRecord behavior page does not explain <KeepDamageRecord/>.
• GrenadeToss behavior page is missing color param.
• ObjectToss behavior page is missing textureSourceId and color params.
• TrapTrigger behavior page has incorrect param name for conditionEffect and conditionDuration, should be condEffect and condDuration respectively, cooldownJitter is also not formatted correctly.
• Shoot behavior page is missing information on defaultAngle with forward.
• Missing enemy projectile properties <FaceDir/> and <NoRotation/>, need explanation of <Magnitude> for <Parametric>.
• Projectile page need more information on <Rotation> and <AngleCorrection>.
• Missing SetTag, ClearTag, SetGlobalTag, ClearGlobalTag, RestoresBreath, RemoveOnEmpty, RemainVisible, OryxTaunt, Taunt and VictoryAtDeath behaviors.

Suggestions

• Add a list of all object ids as they might be required for some behaviors.
• Add a list of all possible XML Tags as well as an explanation for each of them.
• Add a list of all possible terrains as well as their altitude number.
• Add a tips and trick section.
• Add gifs to illustrate behaviors.

#Temporary Documentation

This only contains information that is either wrong on the Public Documentation or not available there!

Condition Effects

Players only:

• Darkness: Visibility decreases to a small area around the player and prevents enemies from displaying red dots on the minimap. All entities outside of the area are completely invisible.
• Unstable: A character shoots in random directions when attacking. Also applies to abilities that require aiming (spells, poisons, etc).
• Silenced: Prevents player from using their ability. Unlike Quiet, Silenced does not deplete the player’s MP.
• Pet Stasis: See pet only effects.

Players and enemies:

Note: While those effects technically work on both players and enemies, the result might differ slightly between the two.

• Nothing: Does nothing. (Mostly used as a default value.)
• Petrify: Can not move or attack, but can still take damage.
• Curse: Take 20% more damage.
• Armor Broken Immune: Immunity to Armor Break.
• Stun Immune: Immunity to Stun.
• Slowed Immune: Immunity to Slowed.
• Dazed Immune: Immunity to Dazed.
• Curse Immune: Immunity to Curse.
• Petrify Immune: Immunity to Petrify.

Pets only:

Effects on Pets currently only work on Projectile by adding target="1" to the <ConditionEffect> tag.

Stasis: Player’s pet is unable to cast for the duration of the effect.

List of Transitions

• playerWithin: A player is within the specified number of squares. This includes invisible players. (distance|number of players)
• noPlayerWithin: There is no player within the specified number of squares. This does not include invisible players.
• exist: There are objects of the specified type in this dungeon. (objectId|amount)
• hasGlobalTag: Transition if this global tag is set.
• noGlobalTag: Transition if this global tag is not set.
• hasConditionEffect: Transition if the creature is inflicted by that condition effect.

Embed

Params

One of the great things about Embeds are params!
Params allow you to replace a value in your Embed with another without having to rewrite it!
This is quite useful for somewhat complex patterns where there is only minor differences between 2 use.

Example:

First, let’s define our Embed

<DefineEmbed name="Shotgun">
  <Behavior numShots="{numShots}" projectileId="0" angle="{angle}" cooldown="1">Shoot</Behavior>
</DefineEmbed>

Next, let’s make a shotgun of 7 shots with an angle of 25, and another of 12 shots with an angle of 15.

<Embed name="Shotgun"><Param name="numShots">7</Param><Param name="angle">25</Param></Embed>
<Embed name="Shotgun"><Param name="numShots">12</Param><Param name="angle">15</Param></Embed>

Ta-da! Our monster now is absolutely unfair, but you now know how to use embeds to their full potential! It might not look like much, but on more complex behaviors it’s incredibly useful and allows you to cut down the amount of line (and work!) by quite a lot!

Tip: Keeping your Embed + Params on one line is useful if you are working with a pattern since every number you need to change will be in a clear column, however in some other situations, indenting it might be a better idea, it’s all up to you.

Tags

Global Tags

Global Tags are tags that are stored on the map instead of on a monster, this means all monster in the same map can detect it.
It uses its own set of behavior/transition so make sure you use the right one!

Behaviors

PlaySound
To define a sound, simply add a <Sound id="x">sound/path</Sound> tag to your monster.

• soundId (int, default 0): specifies the sound

---

ConditionEffectAura

• ignoreInvisible (boolean, default false): whether to ignore invisible objects

---

CopyDamageRecord
Need a <KeepDamageRecord/> tag on Monster you want to copy the damage record from.

---

GrenadeToss

• color (uint, default 0xFF0000): color of throw effect particles

---

ObjectToss

• textureSourceId (string, default empty): object id of which the texture is used for the throw effect (will overwrite particles)
• color (uint, default 0xFFC600): color of throw effect particles

---

TrapTrigger

• condEffect (string, default Nothing): name of condition effect
• condDuration (float, default 5.0): duration of effect

---

Shoot

• defaultAngle:
  • forward (float, default 0): added to the movement direction (30 aims 30 degrees right of the object’s direction, -20 aims 20 degrees left of the object’s direction)

---

SetTag

Effect:
Set a tag

• tagName (string, default empty): name of tag to set

---

ClearTag

Effect:
Clear a tag

• tagName (string, default empty): name of tag to clear

---

SetGlobalTag

Effect:
Set a global tag

• tagName (string, default empty): name of global tag to set
• sendNotification (boolean, default false): sends to all players (used for Davy keys)
• notificationCooldown (float, default 3.0): to reduce traffic
• notificationType (int, default 0): notification type

---

ClearGlobalTag

Effect:
Clear a global tag

• tagName (string, default empty): name of global tag to clear

---

RestoresBreath

Effect:
Restores breath (Used for Ocean Trench Vents)

• radius (float, default 1.0): restore range
• speed (float, default 50.0): restore speed

---

RemoveOnEmpty

Effect:
Removes once empty (Used for Containers)

---

RemainVisible

Effect:
Will always be rendered by the client, can be used to have monsters still shoot for players even when far away

---

OryxTaunt

Effect:
Used for encounters (requires taunts in separate file)

---

Taunt:

Effect:
Send messages to annoy players (requires taunts in separate file)

• listId (string, default self): name of monster to look up taunts for
• broadcast (boolean, default false): whether to yell or just chat

---

VictoryAtDeath:

Effect:
Special Behavior for Oryx only, drops Locked Wine Cellar Portal when it’s Oryx the Mad God 1, otherwise Portal to Nexus

[Xaklor]

now that I’ve finally gotten around to seriously reading this and working with it, I’ve got some additional feedback to go here along with some of the other stuff you’ve mentioned. my list is nowhere near as comprehensive as yours because I can’t know what’s missing in the first place, but here’s what I think needs fixing (including nitty-gritty typos):

typos and other visual oddities:

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/getting-started/design-basics
  the first i in “it also requires a good and detailed design idea!” doesn’t appear to be bolded

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/getting-started/tutorial-your-first-monster
  I believe “note: as you can in the above syntax,” should be “note: as you can see in the above syntax,”

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/xml-guide/states-and-transitions
  shouldn’t the Follow and Wander behaviors, as well as the Flash transition be dedented and on the same indent level as the </State> tag right above them?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/xml-guide/embed-code
  there’s a big space in between offset and angle

errors and unclear material:

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/getting-started/tutorial-your-first-monster
  the definition of <XpMult> (to my knowledge) is incorrect. it states that XP is simply max HP times <XpMult>, however that would mean that the Forgotten King gives 5,384,625 XP. that’s clearly false. XP is actually defined by these two functions: <XpMult> * 195 if HP is > 1950 and <XpMult> * (HP / 10) if HP is <= to 1950. the default value of <XpMult> is also missing (it’s 1.0).

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/getting-started/tutorial-your-first-monster
  the units for <speed> are missing (it’s 1/10 tiles/second, <speed> / 10 is in tiles/second). also another pedantic nitpick: <speed> really is speed, not velocity. direction is controlled elsewhere.

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/xml-guide
  the difference between what <Texture> is and what <AnimatedTexture> is unclear. it mentions that <AnimatedTexture> works better with decimal indexes because they only count the row, but it doesn’t offer an example to help clarify what that means. (<Texture> spritesheets look like this, <AnimatedTexture> spritesheets look like this.)

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/getting-started/tutorial-your-first-monster
  here is states that while projectiles Id’s can be 1, 2, 3 for all monsters, it’s easier to use descriptive Id’s so you can tell what’s what.
  https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/xml-guide
  here it stats that the projectile Id must be an integer number less than 256. I am almost certain the second link is correct, but this contradiction should be fixed

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/xml-guide
  here it mentions the 3 special trajectories: <Wavy/>, <Parametric/>, and <Boomerang/>. anyone who has played the game for a significant amount of time and/or played with pfiffel’s DPS calc knows that all of those do, but for a beginner’s guide perhaps it should be more clear on what they do. <Wavy/> is particularly ambiguous on account of how little it’s used in-game.

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/xml-guide
  <Spawn><Mean>X</Mean><StdDev>X</StdDev><Min>X</Min><Max>X</Max></Spawn>
  How each of those tags directly affects spawn behavior is somewhat unclear. most people who haven’t taken some sort of statistics class don’t know what Standard Deviation is, and those who aren’t that great at math in general may not know what Mean is (I’m sure everyone knows what min/max are). I happen to know what all of those are and even I’m still unsure how those actually affect spawns. I doubt most people (if any) are designing content for the realm itself, so not knowing what exactly these do doesn’t hurt most people, but if it’s going to be included it should be explained well.

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/xml-guide/behaviors-and-buckets
  buckets are introduced here, but aren’t explained in-depth very well. it says that basically, every tag in the same bucket is attempted in order, and when one succeeds the others are skipped. but the conditions under which behaviors fail is unclear. it says that Charge fails if no player is in range, but what does “not in range” mean? what is that range? how can you change it? this is further explained in the “Behaviors and Transitions list” section, but it would be a big help to also include that information in the buckets explanation. another thing that’s a bit iffy for me is the ="movement" following the bucket keyword. is that what’s actually grouping the items in the bucket together? does that word have to be something specific or can it be anything? if that is what’s grouping buckets together, can you have as many as you want? are buckets state-specific (can you use the same name for different buckets if they’re in different states)?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/xml-guide/orders
  the range at which minions will listen for orders is on the page for the FollowOrders page, but not mentioned here. if I wasn’t trying to read everything to improve the documentation I would have skipped over the FollowOrders page since it was “explained” already. I think it should be more clear.

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/xml-guide/tags
  I understand what’s going on here, but there’s no explanation at all. not everyone might be able to deduce what’s happening here like me, and I might actually be missing some minor nuances that can only be figured out if they’re explicitly mentioned.

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/xml-guide/projectiles
  this says that projectile types must be less than 0xFF, but on static.drips.pw:
  
  the XMAS Arrow has a type of 0x209b. I’m guessing the documentation is simply wrong on this one, but why does it say that in the first place? is there something else that must have a type less than 0xFF that’s being confused here?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/xml-guide/embed-code
  where are embeds defined, on the monster itself or on the main <Objects> tree? can embeds be used by multiple monsters? can embeds be nested (one embed using another one in its definition)?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/behaviors-transitions-list/backandforth
  when doing a BackAndForth, does a monster use its starting position as one of the endpoints in this behavior or as the center?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/behaviors-transitions-list/buzz
  if the turnRate and acceleration are both 0, does that mean that the monster will not adjust course or move faster than the speed given? can acceleration take negative values? how far past the player does the buzz take the monster? while under the effect of cooldown, does the monster remain perfectly stationary? does cooling down count as “failing” for the purposes of buckets (for both this behavior and others with a cooldown)?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/behaviors-transitions-list/changeground
  does ChangeGround really only affect a single tile? does this mean that the Void Entity’s room is completely covered in hundreds of invisible entities altering the floor for the death scene?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/behaviors-transitions-list/conditioneffectaura
  what does “condition effect aura” even mean in the first place? I think this is the only behavior that I have absolutely no idea what it does. why does duration have a default negative value? what does a negative value do?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/behaviors-transitions-list/clearconditioneffectaura
  ok I lied, I have no idea what this does either.

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/behaviors-transitions-list/copydamagerecord
  what does “damage record” mean? I assume it takes on the sb percentage of all players who hit whatever you’re copying from, but does that also include damage itself? can this copy off a dead monster, or are the hermit tentacles generators copying this data all the time/really fast right before it dies somehow?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/behaviors-transitions-list/explode
  can explode take two projectiles at once, or would you have to have the enemy use a wide ring of projectiles right before/at the same time as the Explode behavior?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/behaviors-transitions-list/follow
  does a duration of 0.0 make the monster follow players indefinitely?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/behaviors-transitions-list/healzap
  can healing have a negative value? does this damage players? can this actually kill players?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/behaviors-transitions-list/metamorphoseatdeath
  does it matter where in the enemy xml the MetamorphoseAtDeath behavior goes?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/behaviors-transitions-list/objecttoss
  how do you make the ObjectToss use the thrown enemies’ sprite instead of the particle effect? (killer bee queen spawns)

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/behaviors-transitions-list/placemap
  how does one make the used .jm files?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/behaviors-transitions-list/releasespawnatdeath
  same as MetamorphoseAtDeath, does it matter where this behavior put?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/behaviors-transitions-list/shadow
  can Shadow be used to to make enemies “lock on” to a specific player or does it simply not work?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/behaviors-transitions-list/showeffect
  can flashRepeats be set to 0.0 to make it happen indefinitely?

• https://sites.google.com/decagames.com/xml-documentation/behaviors-transitions-list/swirl
  how is Swirl different than Circle? are Pentaract Eyes the only enemies who use the Swirl behavior?

additional questions:

• how do you create enemy AoE blasts like those used in the Parasite Chambers? TrapTrigger only works against enemies.

• how do you make AoE explosions that can affect both monsters and players? currently only the Parasite Chambers’ bomb barrels are the only things to do so.

• I know when players hear “stacked shots” they think of brutally unfair instakill attacks, but is there a way to force two projectiles to go off at exactly the same time anyway? the Stone Caves of Nores 2 uses stacked shot pairs for aesthetic purposes (the second shot involved does nothing).

That’s all I can think of for now, although I think I’m forgetting something. I know I’m asking a ton of questions, but I’d like some answers anyway. hopefully this can make the documentation more non-tester friendly.

I’d also suggest the documentation be broken down into 3 sections: a tutorial of the absolute basics (basically the tutorial that’s already there), an advanced tutorial walking you through a much more complex boss enemy (putting all or almost all pieces shown together on a single enemy, currently not included), and a comprehensive list of all XML tags and what they do (sort of there, but doesn’t come close to including everything). hopefully splitting it into a basic tutorial, an advanced tutorial, and a comprehensive index will make things more clear. I know having a complete list of absolutely everything would help me trying to find help on a very specific thing.

[Kiddforce]

Lots of great questions, I’ll try to answer most of them but I don’t know the exact answer to each of them and I’d need to get back to you later after I’ve experimented with it some more.

• <XPMult> is technically correct for that specific example, for a more broad explanation it would need an additional line stating that the base XP of a monster can not exceed 195.

• Speed in general would need a separate page for it as player speed, projectile speed and behavior speed all use different units.
  For reference:
  Player: tps = 4 + 5.6 * (SPD / 75)
  Projectile: tps = Speed / 10
  Behavior: tps = Speed * 5

• <Texture> is for what we call “object sheets” where every sprite is independent of each other, <AnimatedTexture> is for what we call “character sheets” where sprites are grouped in 5 frames, 1 idle 2 moving and 2 attacking.

• Projectile Ids as far as I know are only ever numbers in the game, so I’d have to check and see if you can actually put anything there or not. (Most likely not.)

• Regarding buckets, what makes a behavior fail is currently not documented which is why you don’t really have that information here.
  You can use any term for the bucket and as far as I know it groups everything together, buckets are not state specific as well. You can have only 1 bucket per behavior, but use an unlimited amount of bucket throughout the monster.

• Projectile types needing to be less than 0xFF is information from a long time ago, ignore it.

• Embeds are definited on the monster itself and can be nested (For example Void Entity’s attacks and center attacks are two different embeds that are used into its moving behavior which is also an embed.) however that has some limit which means you can’t change params from the top Embed and thus limits what you can do with nested embed, it’s mostly useful to not have to copy the same lines 50 times.
  Currently embeds are local and can’t be used by anything else than the monster it’s defined for.

• I’m pretty sure starting point is the center of the BackAndForth, but i’d need to look into it some more.

• Have barely used Buzz so I’ll need to get back to you later.

• ChangeGround only changes one tile yes, Void Entity uses PlaceMap and it’s what you’d want to use for anything other than a 1 tile change.

• ConditionEffectAura is how Marble Pillar, Sewers Liquid (DS Sick) etc… works, it gives a condition effect to everyone around it. Negative value is already on the doc but isn’t explained greatly, it makes it so the effect never wears off (Lab’s green liquid uses it).

• ClearConditionEffectAura simply removes status effect to people around it, the blue liquid in Lab uses it.

• Damage Record is undocumented, so I’ll get back to you later.

• Explode cannot use two projectiles at once, for an example on how to do that, here’s how the Marble Colossus does it:

	<State id="Explode">
		<Behavior effect="Invulnerable">ConditionEffect</Behavior>
		<State id="Wait">
			<Transition afterTime=".8">Shoot</Transition>
		</State>
		<State id="Shoot">
			<Behavior projectileId="17" numShots="45" angle="8" type="auto">Shoot</Behavior>
			<Behavior projectileId="18" numShots="30" angle="12" type="auto" defaultAngle="9">Shoot</Behavior>
		</State>
		<Behavior projectileId="16" numShots="45" initialDelay="1" range="0" dropLoot="true" giveXP="true">Explode</Behavior>
	</State>

• Need to test it, but I believe -1 does make the monster follow indefinitely, you can achieve that behavior by having the cooldown at 0 anyway so it’s not really a big deal.

• Need to test negative heal on HealZap.

• Yes MMAD won’t be triggered if an enemy dies outside of the state the behavior is located in.

• Add textureSourceId=“Monster Id Here” to the ObjectToss behavior.

• .jms are made using an editor that isn’t currently available to the public (although you have probably seen it/versions based on it that aren’t official).

• Never really used ReleasesSpawnAtDeath, but I assume that yes.

• Need to test Shadow.

• flashRepeats at 0.0 will simply not have the flash repeats, what you can do is have the flashRepeats be increadibly high (like 10000 for example), it will infinitely repeat then. That method does have 1 issue, it will continue on even on state transition, but there’s an easy fix to it: simply have another ShowEffect behavior with a flashPeriod and flashRepeats of 0.

• Have not used Swirl a lot, but if you look at the params between the two behaviors you’ll notice they don’t offer the same possibilities. As for other enemies, don’t have access to the entire xml, so sadly can’t answer that one.

• Undocumented behavior called AreaOfEffect is what PChambers uses for the AoE. (It’s quite similar to the GrenadeToss behavior in terms of params)

• PChambers barrels actually use both AreaOfEffect and TrapTrigger at once!

• Simply having the Shoot behavior twice but with a different projectile Id should do the trick.

Hopefully this cleared up some things, I’ll try and experiment on the few things I couldn’t answer, but can’t promise I’ll have the time to do it. If you have some more questions, keep them coming I’ll try my best!

[Xaklor]

still looking forward to some of those answers, my ability to complete my dungeon xml depends on some of those. until then, here’s some more questions:

You can have only 1 bucket per behavior, but use an unlimited amount of bucket throughout the monster.

did you mean 1 bucket per state? or can I only have one bucketed <Behavior>Shoot</Behavior> on the whole monster?

• what happens if you use a puri or holy water while still inside a ConditionEffectAura?

• can you have two “moving” Behaviors at the same time? for example, if you use Move and BackAndForth at the same time will the enemy zigzag in that direction?

• at what point is the turnRate for BackAndForth applied? at each “point” where it flips direction, or over time while moving? if it is while moving, does that make it do this weird bendy wander movement or go back and forth over an arc?

• so does AreaOfEffect look like: <Behavior radius="5.0" damage="120" color="0x00FF00">AreaOfEffect</Behavior>

• is Guill’s “jump” function simply Guill ObjectToss-ing a “new” Guill and then immediately despawning, or is there an actual “jump” behavior? if the jump is an ObjectToss, is there some way to keep track of damage dealt to a jumping enemy to prevent it from respawning at full health after each jump?

• is there some way for enemies to rewrite their own information? for example (and what I really care about): can an enemy change the <Z> tag at will somehow or is it constant?

• can you give a more specific rundown of what “facing” is and what uses it?

• is there a way to restrict a enemy movement to a specific kind of tile? can I use that to make a “string” of tiles that moves the enemy along?

I’m sure I’m still forgetting something, but that’s what I’ve got for now. also, here’s a few enemies I’ve finished using what I can understand. is there anything wrong with these? ignore the “FIXME’s”, they’ll be filled in later.

<Object id="Blaster Artifact 1" type="FIXME">
	<Enemy />
	<Z>0.5</Z>
	<Class>Character</Class>
	<AnimatedTexture>
		<File>SCchars8x8</File>
		<Index>6</Index>
	</AnimatedTexture>
	<HitSound>FIXME</HitSound>
	<DeathSound>FIXME</DeathSound>
	<Size>100</Size>
	<MaxHitPoints>2000</MaxHitPoints>
	<Defense>100</Defense>
	<XpMult>0.0</XpMult>
	<Projectile id="0">
		<ObjectId>Nores Bit</ObjectId>
		<Damage>15</Damage>
		<Speed>50</Speed>
		<LifetimeMS>1000</LifetimeMS>
	</Projectile>
	<State id="Offset1">
		<Behavior numShots="5" angle="20" defaultAngle="5">Shoot</Behavior>
		<Transition afterTime="0.4">Offset2</Transition>
	</State>
	<State id="Offset2">
		<Behavior numShots="5" angle="20" defaultAngle="-5">Shoot</Behavior>
		<Transition afterTime="0.4">Offset2</Transition>
	</State>
	<Behavior bucket="movement" range="0.6" speed="0.4">Follow</Behavior>
	<Behavior bucket="movement">Wander</Behavior>
	<Behavior time="5.0">Decay</Behavior>
</Object>

Blaster Artifact 1 should move slowly toward players if they are within 10 tiles at 2 TPS, and wanders around if they aren’t within 10 tiles. after 5 seconds, it should despawn. it fires shotguns of 5 Nores Bits at players every 0.4s, and fires these at alternating angles aimed slightly to the left and then right.

<Object id="Nores Bomb" type="FIXME">
		<Enemy />
		<Class>Character</Class>
		<StasisImmune />
		<StunImmune />
		<AnimatedTexture>
			<File>SCchars8x8</File>
			<Index>17</Index>
		</AnimatedTexture>
		<Size>160</Size>
		<MaxHitPoints>10000</MaxHitPoints>
		<Defense>0</Defense>
		<XpMult>0.0</XpMult>
		<Projectile id="0">
			<ObjectId>Nores Star</ObjectId>
			<Damage>107</Damage>
			<Speed>20</Speed>
			<LifetimeMS>2000</LifetimeMS>
			<MultiHit />
			<Amplitude>2.0</Amplitude>
			<Frequency>1.0</Frequency>
		</Projectile>
		<Behavior effect="Invulnerable">ConditionEffect</Behavior>
		<State id="Waiting">
			<Transition afterTime="1.5">Exploding</Transition>
		</State>
		<State id="Exploding">
			<Behavior flashPeriod="0.5" flashRepeats="50">ShowEffect</Behavior>
			<Behavior initialDelay="1.0" range="0.0" numShots="36">Explode</Behavior>
		</State>
	</Object>

Nores Bombs simply stand still, flash twice, and then explode. the total lifetime of the Nores Bombs should be 2.5s, and the flashes should appear after 1.5s have passed

super simple behaviors, but I want to be sure I’m getting the simple stuff right before I move on to the more complex enemies and bosses.

[Atrapper]

I’ll help answer some of these.

did you mean 1 bucket per state? or can I only have one bucketed <Behavior>Shoot</Behavior> on the whole monster?

Each behavior can only be part of a single bucket. You can have many buckets throughout each state and can have multiple versions of any behavior (so, if you had 2 Shoot behaviors, they can be in the same bucket).

what happens if you use a puri or holy water while still inside a ConditionEffectAura?

If the ConditionEffectAura is still going on, the status effect will be reapplied.

can you have two “moving” Behaviors at the same time? for example, if you use Move and BackAndForth at the same time will the enemy zigzag in that direction?

Yes.

at what point is the turnRate for BackAndForth applied? at each “point” where it flips direction, or over time while moving? if it is while moving, does that make it do this weird bendy wander movement or go back and forth over an arc?

I actually can’t answer this one. Sorry :c

so does AreaOfEffect look like: <Behavior radius=“5.0” damage=“120” color=“0x00FF00”>AreaOfEffect</Behavior>

Yep. It’s pretty much exactly like GrenadeToss.

is Guill’s “jump” function simply Guill ObjectToss-ing a “new” Guill and then immediately despawning, or is there an actual “jump” behavior? if the jump is an ObjectToss, is there some way to keep track of damage dealt to a jumping enemy to prevent it from respawning at full health after each jump?

I think so, but it’s possible to do it with some XML wizardry: make the original entity go invisible, ObjectToss a fake entity with the same texture that Decays on spawn toward the final location, and have the original entity move to the final location.

is there some way for enemies to rewrite their own information? for example (and what I really care about): can an enemy change the <Z> tag at will somehow or is it constant?

I’m pretty sure it’s a constant, but I could be wrong.

can you give a more specific rundown of what “facing” is and what uses it?

I don’t know much about this, either. Sorry.

is there a way to restrict a enemy movement to a specific kind of tile? can I use that to make a “string” of tiles that moves the enemy along?

Using some buckets and crazy XML, you should be able to do it by having invisible entities spawn over those tiles, having the enemy Protect those entities, while also having the enemy chase players.

<Object id=“Blaster Artifact 1” type=“FIXME”>
<Enemy />
<Z>0.5</Z>
<Class>Character</Class>
<AnimatedTexture>
<File>SCchars8x8</File>
<Index>6</Index>
</AnimatedTexture>
<HitSound>FIXME</HitSound>
<DeathSound>FIXME</DeathSound>
<Size>100</Size>
<MaxHitPoints>2000</MaxHitPoints>
<Defense>100</Defense>
<XpMult>0.0</XpMult>
<Projectile id=“0”>
<ObjectId>Nores Bit</ObjectId>
<Damage>15</Damage>
<Speed>50</Speed>
<LifetimeMS>1000</LifetimeMS>
</Projectile>
<State id=“Offset1”>
<Behavior numShots=“5” angle=“20” defaultAngle=“5”>Shoot</Behavior>
<Transition afterTime=“0.4”>Offset2</Transition>
</State>
<State id=“Offset2”>
<Behavior numShots=“5” angle=“20” defaultAngle="-5">Shoot</Behavior>
<Transition afterTime=“0.4”>Offset2</Transition>
</State>
<Behavior bucket=“movement” range=“0.6” speed=“0.4”>Follow</Behavior>
<Behavior bucket=“movement”>Wander</Behavior>
<Behavior time=“5.0”>Decay</Behavior>
</Object>

<Object id=“Nores Bomb” type=“FIXME”>
<Enemy />
<Class>Character</Class>
<StasisImmune />
<StunImmune />
<AnimatedTexture>
<File>SCchars8x8</File>
<Index>17</Index>
</AnimatedTexture>
<Size>160</Size>
<MaxHitPoints>10000</MaxHitPoints>
<Defense>0</Defense>
<XpMult>0.0</XpMult>
<Projectile id=“0”>
<ObjectId>Nores Star</ObjectId>
<Damage>107</Damage>
<Speed>20</Speed>
<LifetimeMS>2000</LifetimeMS>
<MultiHit />
<Amplitude>2.0</Amplitude>
<Frequency>1.0</Frequency>
</Projectile>
<Behavior effect=“Invulnerable”>ConditionEffect</Behavior>
<State id=“Waiting”>
<Transition afterTime=“1.5”>Exploding</Transition>
</State>
<State id=“Exploding”>
<Behavior flashPeriod=“0.5” flashRepeats=“50”>ShowEffect</Behavior>
<Behavior initialDelay=“1.0” range=“0.0” numShots=“36”>Explode</Behavior>
</State>
</Object>

These both look pretty good to me. Keep it up!

[Xaklor]

but it’s possible to do it with some XML wizardry: make the original entity go invisible, ObjectToss a fake entity with the same texture that Decays on spawn toward the final location, and have the original entity move to the final location.

Using some buckets and crazy XML, you should be able to do it by having invisible entities spawn over those tiles, having the enemy Protect those entities, while also having the enemy chase players.

daaaang, I don’t know if I can pull this stuff off without some sort of visual feedback from a testing server but I’ll give it a shot at least.

also:

If the ConditionEffectAura is still going on, the status effect will be reapplied.

is it reapplied instantly as if it was never gone, or is there a teeny tiny gap where the effect is gone? for example: if I had an enemy with a paralyze aura and a player caught inside used a puri, would they remain stationary or inch forward slightly?

[Atrapper]

is it reapplied instantly as if it was never gone, or is there a teeny tiny gap where the effect is gone? for example: if I had an enemy with a paralyze aura and a player caught inside used a puri, would they remain stationary or inch forward slightly?

I haven’t tried this myself, but hypothetically, there should be a small gap. It shouldn’t be long enough for a player to make it out unless they’re right on the edge of the Aura, though.

[Xaklor]

new batch of questions for the documentation:

• how do you make an enemy invisible? tons of stuff does this already, yet I was surprised to find that there is no mention of invisibility either in the official documentation nor in your own “Temporary Documentation”.

• what does childId work with the Shoot behavior? how is it different from the MakeMinions behavior? what do the other fields on Shoot do when you give it a childId (like angle)?

• is the paralysis immunity condition effect Paralyze Immune or Paralyzed Immune?

• can you add a random element to some fields? for example, I’m guessing Oryx uses a minor subphase that uses a bunch of random transitions to control which phases he goes into, but can you make a Shoot behavior with a random defaultAngle?

• is there a way to make an enemy back up away from a player without using KeepDistance? that also makes them move toward players if they’re too far away, but what if I wanted to only make them back up? I’m almost certain at least one enemy has this behavior in-game already but I forget which

still waiting for answers on the older questions you guys couldn’t answer, Buzz in particular is something I will almost definitely have to use, but I need more information on it. also a double-check on BackAndForth would be helpful.

[Atrapper]

how do you make an enemy invisible? tons of stuff does this already, yet I was surprised to find that there is no mention of invisibility either in the official documentation nor in your own “Temporary Documentation”.

Add this after your <Texture>:

<AltTexture id="1">
    <Texture>
        <File>invisible</File>
        <Index>0</Index>
    </Texture>
</AltTexture>

And change its texture to this one using <Behavior altTextureId="1">SetAltTexture</Behavior>. When you transition out of the state, it reverts to the original Texture/AnimatedTexture.

what does childId work with the Shoot behavior? how is it different from the MakeMinions behavior? what do the other fields on Shoot do when you give it a childId (like angle)?

I’m not sure on this one, but I think childId basically changes Shoot into MakeMinions, but affected by Stun. The other fields shouldn’t do anything at all.

is the paralysis immunity condition effect Paralyze Immune or Paralyzed Immune?

Paralyzed Immune

can you add a random element to some fields? for example, I’m guessing Oryx uses a minor subphase that uses a bunch of random transitions to control which phases he goes into, but can you make a Shoot behavior with a random defaultAngle?

You can’t do this directly, but if you use embeds and a bunch of different states with different embed values, then have a state be randomly chosen, it should work to the same effect.

is there a way to make an enemy back up away from a player without using KeepDistance? that also makes them move toward players if they’re too far away, but what if I wanted to only make them back up? I’m almost certain at least one enemy has this behavior in-game already but I forget which

Just use KeepDistance with and absurdly high distance.

EDIT: If you mean make it go to a certain distance, then stop moving, you could probably make it use KeepDistance with distance being super high, then transition to a second state where it doesn’t move it all once it reaches your desired distance, and have it transition back when a player is closer than that distance.

[Xaklor]

No new questions, just putting up answers you guys have given me in Discord for future reference and for others. Discord has the advantage of getting information faster, but it disappears under new messages after time.

.gif used above

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

I would like to hear back about the stuff I asked about above at some point (Shadow, HealZap, Damage Record, etc.), but most importantly for me would probably be Buzz. so if you only have time to test one or two I’d like to know about that one, especially how far past a player Buzz takes them or how long each Buzz lasts.

[Atrapper]

You know, I have to give you tons of credit for working on XML without even being able to test it. That’s incredibly dedicated! Imo, Deca should bring you into UGC immediately.

[Xaklor]

That’s incredibly dedicated!

honestly, if given the ability to test and run my own xml I might spend a couple days just throwing whatever at it just to see what happens and what minor quirks each tag has. I’m the kind of person who wants to know everything, not just what people tell me is useful.

[Atrapper]

That’s kind of what I did when I started. Even now, I’m still screwing around and trying to figure out cool stuff with XML.

[Rysaw]

is there a way to make an enemy back up away from a player without using KeepDistance? that also makes them move toward players if they’re too far away, but what if I wanted to only make them back up? I’m almost certain at least one enemy has this behavior in-game already but I forget which

I’m fairly certain this could be accomplished with a Follow whose distance to follow to is higher than or equal to the activation range. This should only make them flee up to the activation range.

[Seelpit]

I thought of making a seperate thread, but @Xaklor’s stuff made me reconsider.
These are more questions out of curiosity and will probably never see the light of day, but anyway:

• Is it possible to, besides bullets, also modify the relative position of an AreaOfEffect attack?
• Is it possible to combine a GrenadeToss behaviour and a normal Shoot behaviour with a delay to effectively create a grenade that “explodes” into multiple bullets?

The last question I have is more loot-based, but I have no other place I can think of where to ask this.

• Is it possible to have two 100% chances chained to a threshold, and have them then be randomly chosen between? To be more precise: dealing 70% of an enemy’s HP in damage gives the attacker a 50% chance of getting exclusively item A and a 50% chance of getting exclusively item B, and thus a 0% chance of getting both or neither.

[Toastrz]

Is it possible to, besides bullets, also modify the relative position of an AreaOfEffect attack?

No, as of now that behavior can only originate from the object causing it.

Is it possible to combine a GrenadeToss behaviour and a normal Shoot behaviour with a delay to effectively create a grenade that “explodes” into multiple bullets?

I’m not entirely sure I understand the question, but I believe the answer is no. However, you could use ObjectToss to create an invisible entity which then immediately releases whatever projectiles you want, which would ultimately achieve the same effect.

Is it possible to have two 100% chances chained to a threshold, and have them then be randomly chosen between? To be more precise: dealing 70% of an enemy’s HP in damage gives the attacker a 50% chance of getting exclusively item A and a 50% chance of getting exclusively item B, and thus a 0% chance of getting both or neither.

No, once you’ve passed a threshold, there’s no way to revoke that qualification due to a player reaching a higher threshold.

[Seelpit]

No, once you’ve passed a threshold, there’s no way to revoke that qualification due to a player reaching a higher threshold.

I meant the two chances being chained to the same threshold.
To be a bit more specific: an enemy with 1000 HP that has a threshold of 900 HP. Once a player hits that threshold, that player then has a 50% chance of getting an attack potion and a 50% chance at getting a dexterity potion. The player cannot get nothing nor can they get both an attack and a dexterity potion.
Is that possible, or will this reciprocate the same main answer? _{(aka no lmao seel y’all’s wild)}

[Toastrz]

No, there’s no way to do that at the current time. The drops would need to be listed separately, which means that the player would qualify for both rather than creating an either/or situation.

[Xaklor]

Is it possible to, besides bullets, also modify the relative position of an AreaOfEffect attack?

No, as of now that behavior can only originate from the object causing it.

you could however, have the enemy spawn invisible entities that move into position and then those entities use AreaOfEffect. if it’s for a complex boss battle you could also just have them start in the room so they don’t have to move into position or anything, which would be easier.

I’ve quickly come to the realization that sometimes you have to think outside the box when working with this stuff.

[Mrunibro]

Necroposting time

Is it possible to, besides bullets, also modify the relative position of an AreaOfEffect attack?

AoE attacks are just hacked grenades with a throwTime of 0.

Some time ago the throwTime of grenades (and objectToss) actually became a passable parameter, i.e. throwing a grenade with throwTime 0 and any defaultAngle + range gives a “relative AoE”