Whilst using the Arcanum Bonus Maps partial conversion to run some
other maps I noticed a strange but most amusing ‘bug’ if you like.
Not always, but on occasion, some of the monsties were friendly.
They would follow you around and attack non-friendlies even of the
same ilk i.e ogre on orge. It’s created a few s**** and giggles as
you find yourself backed up by a shambler and fiend and a horde of zombies.
Also quite amusing was if you didn’t hear the monster alert sound you can’t be sure
if it’s going to attack or simply obediently wait in front of you until
the off.
I’ll record a demo.
In “The Forgotten Sepulcher”, there is a fisherman ogre; do not know though if you would count it as a friendly monster.
The fisherman Ogre original was a NPC. It was harmless and was seen as a failure not reacting to the player’s attention. You could say it was a failure to react anyway while fishing, but in seapulcher it has a hostile behaviour.
Monsters are not unfriendly, they were made so by humans.
I have to break it down a bit:
You mean, NPC as in an RPG game - or NPC just to denote that it was an animated entity of some sort, not controlled by the player?
That sounds sad. Was there any bug of sort?
It has a hostile behaviour once you trigger it, but if left alone, I guess it just goes on fishing?
Well, not often in ‘Quake’ do you see anything which does not attack the Ranger on sight, so anyway, it is a perk.
Well, hungry wild animals also are not unfriendly, even to one another.
Y’know, victims, are we all.
In spite it isn’t subject to the toppic, which I think in this case was well found!
You tripled me four times…, agent? /P
FishingOgre : NPC not shootable object - eyecandy.
It was not a bug but on purpose.
You can see it as a perk. Only perk is one monster left in the end count.
The only animalism I see is the lust for territorial view. Even if I have to kill for it.
[quote=Madfox]In spite it isn’t subject to the toppic, which I think in this case was well found!
You tripled me four times…, agent? /P
FishingOgre : NPC not shootable object - eyecandy.
It was not a bug but on purpose.
You can see it as a perk. Only perk is one monster left in the end count.
The only animalism I see is the lust for territorial view. Even if I have to kill for it.[/quote]
I would kindly ask you to make that more intelligible, because I got lost between the lines.
I’ve uploaded a demo of the friendly monsters curiosity in ‘arcextra.zip - Arcanum Bonus Maps’
It is not an actual arc map as the ‘bug’ didn’t occur in those.
You’ll see what I mean by friendly - they seem to react like ‘horn’ monsters without the horn 
Darn it !!! You’ll need map w1m2.bsp to play the demo. Get that here - https://easyupload.io/02t6rm
and place the map in the arc maps folder and playdemo monsters
@‘theFALL’, I find the instructions rather unclear.
Maybe you could just record a short video, showing how those “friendly monsters” do behave and link it?
Sorry yeah - it all got a little convoluted in the end.
Link on its way.
Link to vid - crappy quality to keep size down -
@‘theFALL’, that was impressive! I had legitimate cognitive shock when the shambler and the fiend did not attack the protagonist right after they turned to face him. Those new “friends” seem to react very swiftly to any hostile presence, but I assume they automatically recognize potential allies and do not engage in battles with them? It is handy that they also do not get triggered with “friendly fire”. Neat altogether, but I doubt every kind of monster should qualify as a potential ally. Some passages typical for the protagonist to overcome, would also be undoable for definitive majority of “friendly monsters”. It is inevitable to loose them somewhere and somehow.
@triple_agent
Ha Ha! Yeah, you can be reasonably sure they are on your side if they have attacked other
monsters but it is also the case they may have been involved in crossfire so that moment
they turn is quite interesting. They do indeed react very quickly - so much so that they will
crack on fighting each other even when the player is not in the same area.
You just simply hear them at it.
It seems very random which monsters are friendly. For instance the zombies at the start
of the map were player foes but entering the lower area 2 monsters were friends while all
others foes. So, it is not a case of the monsters seeing
the player and deciding their allegiance - it seems preordained in the map.
Indeed, triggers can be an issue as you would have to kill the friendlies to progress or
they simply get in the way. Using the wand can often knock them to a lower
platform or off a cliff etc.
Also, another interesting thing - fighting monsters of the same type.
Link - vore on vore. https://easyupload.io/ecatu7
This has happened with most monster types
but I’ve yet to see a shambler on shambler fight, possibly because they are
somewhat rarer in twos.
@‘theFALL’, that was fun to see. One could think about a map, the theme of which, would be monster management. Like the ‘Lemmings’ of sort, only ‘Quake’ style, if that makes sense. The player would be equipped just with a tool allowing to manage monsters through environmental obstacles, without having the possibility to personally engage in combat. That would be hard to make, though, I guess.
@triple_agent
Glad you found it fun.
Yeah totally understand what you mean.
Get 5 monsters to the finish line, as you say, through environmental obstacles.
Or 10 monsters must survive till final teleport.
Yes, quite a challenge and way beyond my skills, but I’m sure the mappers
I enjoy on a regular basis would create some ingenious maps.
Bit more fun - https://easyupload.io/sijt07
Vore allies - quite a sinister mob (if that’s the collective term)
Zombie allies - made me chuckle, bless 'em
Mmmm another interesting twist.
In this map all monsters were player foes, but in this clip
you can see that ‘same’ monsters did a bit of infighting.
[quote=theFALL]Mmmm another interesting twist.
In this map all monsters were player foes, but in this clip
you can see that ‘same’ monsters did a bit of infighting.
https://easyupload.io/1ah11c[/quote]
Yes, as far as I remember, monsters of higher rank, did not infight with one another.
I have a reflection of sort. Game design, in great deal, is driven by technological advancement. Art, in turn, is required to make sense of the tools the technology offers, particularly for the case of human appeal. Technology leads the trajectory, but it is the art, that builds the road.
We have a technological tool, which is the option to make some monsters friends or foes to the protagonist. Now it should take some artistry to think on how to make the best of it, in terms of the range of assets that ‘Quake’ does offer. I mean, how to give it a suitable narrative depth.
Yes, thinking about it, that is true. The lower grunts did take offence to being hit.
The creatures above didn’t.
It does create an extra dimension of gameplay which
I would very much like to see explored. Half Life 2 comes to mind when
one has allies who can fight and heal etc.
As Quake’s world is so fantastic, allowing huge environs, the range of opportunity
do seem pretty vast. ‘Suitable narrative depth’ - yes, the question indeed.
grunts are unique in that they’ll in-fight amongst other grunts, the other monster types will never intentionally attack another of the same type (by classname, so monster_ogre-vs-monster_ogre_marksman is the other exception to the rule).
I’m not sure what sort of a statement that makes when army grunts are more stupid than their dogs - or zombies for that matter.