Respawning Non-Bots

[AngryGnome]

Hi everyone I am sub classing SkaarjPupae and Monster Controller for some rats that I made whose only purpose is to wander around the level.(I have a boolean that can be set my the map maker to indicate if they will attack players or not) Since the rats aren't traditional bots and thus won't be using the player start , how can I have an individual rat respawn (after a certain amount of time) after it was killed? I tried adding a GotoState('Respawn') to the Died function that sets a timer and calls Spawn(self.class,,,startLoc,) but it doesn't seem to work. BTW I am running Ut2k4. Thanks

[SuperApe]

While I could probably mention a couple things that would simply answer your question, I feel compelled to go further than that.

There's several unmentioned problems with using UT200x's Invasion Monsters and associated MonsterController. You may have already noticed your rats unexplicably teleporting, always hunting you down, etc.

For that and other reasons, I created Old Skool Monsta Toolz. It gives mappers the ability to simply place creatures without those problems, and then it adds a ton of additional functionality so that you can have creatures Patrol, Ambush, work as a Monster team, etc., etc. (There's also a handy SP/Coop gametype included: OSM Adventure)

In addition, its freely extensible. So, you can create a subclass for your custom rats and pick-and-choose the behaviors you want, out of the 20+ stock creatures that come with OSMT.

And then there's a long list of actors that help the AI along, particular for your question: CreatureFactory.

I highly recommend using OSMT for your purpose. Its free to use, just include OSMT in your map's archive and credit me in your readme.

UnrealPlayground has a subforum dedicated to OSMT:
http://www.unrealplayground.com/foru...play.php?f=172

UnrealWiki has a info base for OSMT:
http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/User:Su...l_Monsta_Toolz

Hope that helps.

[AngryGnome]

Thanks for the response SuperApe. I guess I should have added that this is for the gaming class at my school so I don't think my professor would allow us to use your tools even though they literally do everything that my group and I need for this project in terms of AI. Do you have any general tips on how to get respawning to work? Am I heading in the right direction by adding code to the Died function?

Thanks!

[SuperApe]

I can help with that, but just to humor me, please ask your instructor if using this toolset would be inappropriate.

The thing is, this toolset was primarily designed for budding game designers, so that the technical bits (like respawning, eliminating the problems of the Invasion monster class, etc) are taken care of so that you can concentrate on the design, visuals, animations, textures, gameplay, story, etc. This is precisely what OSMT is designed for and this has been used in several academic institutions for just this purpose, including the Art Institute of San Diego, game prototype class, and several others.

In the real world, game companies do not (always) expect designers and artists to know various scripting or programming languages. So, it would seem odd that this toolset would not be allowed. Unless of course this class is actually a game programming class.

Let me know how that turns out and I'll do what I can to help. I'd be willing to exchange correspondence with your instructor, if you think that would help answer questions one would have.