Topic: Get out of the way!

[Ronin RedFox]

Submitted By InsanityBringer.

[SaladBadger]

I thought this one would require a little explanation, due to the setup.

in the D2 HAM, each boss object has a special flag set, which gives its behaivour and other settings. The ones from D1, however, lost most of their abilities, or so it seems

In a unreleated matter, I at one point loaded up level 20 in devil to see how the boss of that level would chase you, because a few looks through the source indicates that this couldn't be set by the boss flag. I saw its AI type was set to station. Out of interest, to see what it would look like, I replaced it with the level 27 boss from D1, keeping the AI flag the same.

So then I battle it. Everything seems normal. The boss is only chasing me, but not doing anything special. Then I leave the room, trying to eliminate a few extra enemies, not making any note that the boss has just started to loop its noise, you know, in the style of the original one.

And on my way to the back of the arena, there it was. It turns out that depending on what the AI type the boss is set to, it can actually gain some of its old behaivours. It can only do the noise loop and teleportation (without cloaking though), however.

All in all, a interesting find, but even still, the original bosses cannot be 100% replicated in D2, due to removal of features (Enemies can only be knocked off of a boss, not spawned like they are in D1)

and the screenshot is kind of interesting on its own, anyways

[D2Disciple]

Interesting find. I've never played much with D1 bots in D2... But I do know that in D2 levels that do include them, they tend to be slow, inaccurate, and often stupid. Maybe it just takes some prodding to get a D1 bot to behave properly. 

[SaladBadger]

Hmm, I should hunt down the D1 robot data and compare it to the data found in the D2 HAM file. Mabye they did cripple the bots a bit.

[Scyphi]

I know Deidel's experimented with this in D2X-XL, and has come a long way, but still doesn't have it quite perfected just yet. Some of the D1 bots still behave like their D2 counterparts instead of what they should behave like. 

I know you can get some weird things to happen when you mess around with bosses in D2 too much. This may have also been due to the mod I had been using at the time (I think it was either a much earlier version of D2X-XL or the original D2x) but there was this level I was playing that had a boss robot, and after battling him for a little bit, I left the room to refuel, resupply, that kind of thing, only to find that the boss robot had followed me out of the room. Literally, he had used his cloak/teleporter thing and had jumped into a whole new room, intercepting me as I happened to move through. After watching this for a little while longer, I realized it was a mere coincidence that the boss appeared where he did, but he had the ability to jump to any room in the whole level, presuming he had enough room to be there. I didn't even think it was possible until I played this level. 

[PyroJockey]

Now THAT would make a cool level! 

[D2Disciple]

I agree. What about a level much like the Chain Reaction secret level in D2, except with an invincible boss that follows you? Throw in some switches and add some puzzles and a few 'Bots and you could have quite a level.

Dang! Now I wish I were able to actually do something with DLE-XP instead of create some cool geometry then not be able to texture and light it properly! 

[SaladBadger]

Oddly enough, a few D1 bots in D2 are actually improved from the original. Check out the fusion hulk -- It appears to lead its shots a lot better than before.

[Scyphi]

Yeah...but it lacks it's trademark sound and most of the paranoia that went with it. That was what made the bot so cool, y'know. How scary it was... 

[PyroJockey]

Yeah, they pretty much castrated this boss in D2 as well as the level 7 boss.

[SaladBadger]

Hmm, I'll have to apply my tests to the Level 7 boss at some point. Probably after I finish my D2 anarchy level SpaceOrb.

[SaladBadger]

Update: I replaced the level 27 boss in the test level with the level 7 boss, keeping the station behaivour. The results I got were different. The thing started looping it's noise only. I could not get it to teleport at all though. I'm trying with some other AI Flags now.

EDIT:

Yeah...but it lacks it's trademark sound and most of the paranoia that went with it.

That's at least easier to hack in. Just replace a unused sound file with the fusion hulk one, and use a HXM file to set the sound to that. That's at least garunteed to work unlike the stuff I'm trying here with the bosses

[Scyphi]

Yeah, wish the makers of D2 did it.

Ah well, can't have everything in life.

Actually, it's quite likely that they just didn't think they'd be using D1 bots in D2, but ended up doing so anyway, hence why so much of the D1 bots specs were lost in the process.

[SaladBadger]

In my quest to figure out the boss behaviour I poked through the D2X-Rebirth code and in AI.H found these defines...

Code: [Select]

#define BOSS_D2     21 // Minimum D2 boss value.
#define BOSS_COOL   21
#define BOSS_WATER  22
#define BOSS_FIRE   23
#define BOSS_ICE    24
#define BOSS_ALIEN1 25
#define BOSS_ALIEN2 26

#define NUM_D2_BOSSES 8
See that comment that points out the minimum D2 boss value being 21? That could very well be the issue... The D1 level 7 and 27 bosses are given boss flags of 1 and 2, respectivily. And from what I can tell those aren't greater than 21. I'm going to try to get the code up and running sometime soon and play around with this more.

However, what really interests me is the "NUM_D2_BOSSES" define. It says 8, even though only 6 bosses are used and work 100% properly...