I'm trying to make NPCs detect enemies using c_scan. This works when there's only one copy of the NPC, but when there are 2 next to each other, they can't find the enemies. This is because c_scan looks for the closest entity, which in the NPC's case, is the other NPC, rather than an enemy.

Is it possible to force c_scan to continue searching further and further if nothing can be found? That is, if this NPC's skill, "Team," is set to 1, then the c_scan finds the next closest thing, and continues searching until it finds something that has Team set to 2. Is that possible?

Thanks.

You can use EVENT_SCAN and for example handles:

#define enemy skill99

void enemy_event()
{
if(event_type == EVENT_SCAN) your.enemy = handle(me);
}

my.event = enemy_event;
my.emask |= ENABLE_SCAN;


...
In your NPC event:

if(my.enemy)
{
you = ptr_for_handle(my.enemy);
...
}

I don't really understand what that does. So, the NPC's c_scan sets of the EVENT_SCAN of the enemy... does that activate enemy_event? What does that do?

Actually, hold on. I made a mistake, I might be able to get it to work now...

EDIT:Alright, it works. Heh, thanks.

EDIT2: Or... not. Now I have a different problem. The NPCs don't detect the closest enemy anymore. Anyone know why that might be? :|

Ah I forgot, you have to do a distance check, of course:

#define enemy_dist skill98
#define enemy skill99

void enemy_event()
{
if(event_type == EVENT_SCAN)
if(result < your.enemy_dist) // result is automatically set
{
your.enemy = handle(me);
your.enemy_dist = result;
}
}

my.event = enemy_event;
my.emask |= ENABLE_SCAN;


...
In your NPC action:

my.enemy_dist = 1000; // your scan range
c_scan(my.x,...)
if(my.enemy)
{
you = ptr_for_handle(my.enemy);
...
}

Ah, nice. Thank you!

Just a little workaround, mayby it helps:
I use c_scan for detecting, too. But also for collecting items, Share Xp, ... in my game. So I needed "different" c-scans. For this I use a gobal variable "indicator".
For every "scan-event" I define a other indicator, eg. int ind_detecting_enemies = 1; int ind_collecting_gold = 2; ....
Before every scan, i set the global indicator equal to the reason I scan: indicator = ind_detecting_enemies;
In the event of the NPC, I check, if the indicator was detecting_enemies - otherwise I would detect them if i collect gold :-)

Oh, that's clever. Although, I'm not really using this for a game, more like a simple "simulation," so that workaround isn't required.

I have another question, though. At the moment the NPC's are getting in eachother's way trying to get to the enemy, so there's often a line of NPC's running at an enemy, while only one can reach them. Can I add a c_trace somewhere in there, so if an NPC can't see the closest enemy, it chooses the next closest?

EDIT: Alright, I tried something out but it doesn't seem to work. After the NPC sends out a c_scan searching for enemies, if it has found an entity, it does a c_trace from my.x (the npc) to you.x (the entitiy it found). This has ACTIVATE_SHOOT set. On the enemy action, I have emask set to ENABLE_SCAN as well as ENABLE_SHOOT.

In the enemy_event function I have it check for both of these.

So, what I'm thinking is, that if the c_trace can't activate the event_shoot, the NPC is obviously not in line of sight, and it doesn't think this entity is an enemy, which would make the NPC search for others. Problem is, it doesn't work.

I put a wall in front of an NPC. Behind the wall there's an enemy that's considered closer. On the side, there's an enemy that is farther away. If this c_trace were to work, the NPC should go for the enemy that's farther away, but it doesn't. Does the c_trace activate the EVENT_SHOOT even if there's an obstacle in the way? What should I do? D:

Quick replies would be appreciated, because I need to get this thing done.

Well, as always, after posting a wall of text I've experimented more and solved the issue. It seems putting EVENT_SHOOT before EVENT_SCAN makes it work.

Yay.