Suspicious opened drawers?

[Springheel]

Drawers and cupboards left open will alert guards and other NPCs to your presence, so it’s wise to shut them once you’re finished stealing from them.

 

That's neat. Could we do that in TDM? Setting drawers to shouldbeclosed would cause inappropriate barks and reactions (commenting about an open door and searching right next to it doesn't make sense for a desk drawer left open).

 

Is there a way to use the "something suspicious" behaviour instead?

[Bikerdude]

Don't see why not, we should be able to apply the "shouldBeClosed" "0/1" arg to drawers.

[Springheel]

we should be able to apply the "shouldBeClosed" "0/1" arg to drawers.

 

but,

 

 

Setting drawers to shouldbeclosed would cause inappropriate barks and reactions

 

What I'd prefer is the "Hmm? That's not right." reactions AI have to suspicious things like ropes.

[SeriousToni]

If you put loot in it then you can set the alert level to the loot inside (which should be taken by the player after opening). Or will this also trigger the ai if the drawer is closed again?

[Springheel]

If a guard is wandering around and they find a desk with all the drawers pulled out, or a wide open chest, they should probably react. A reaction like, "Huh? That's not right." and a bumping of their suspicion index would be appropriate. Having them treat it like missing loot--"Hey, we got a thief!!" might be a bit too heavy (although appropriate if there's actual loot obviously missing).

 

So I'd like to have a suspicious marker that is only activated if the player leaves drawers/cupboards/chests open. Is there an easy way to do that?

[RJFerret]

You can alternatively use the absence_noticeability (sic) spawnarg, with appropriate radius if necessary. Vocalizations will be "we've got a thief" and the like rather than door related.

 

(A "hmm, that's not right" doesn't seem suitable to someone riffling through your drawers.)

[Obsttorte]

Applying a visual stim to the drawers and simple increasing the ai alert level might work, as I think the ai don't use situation-sensitive barks if alerted via script. This would need to be tested, though.

[Springheel]

You can alternatively use the absence_noticeability (sic) spawnarg, with appropriate radius if necessary. Vocalizations will be "we've got a thief" and the like rather than door related.

 

(A "hmm, that's not right" doesn't seem suitable to someone riffling through your drawers.)

 

It would be in a low-security area. If a guard walks through the barracks and notices a couple chests left open, I don't think they should immediately whip out their weapon and start searching for a thief. It's possible some guard just forgot to close them. But they should comment on it and be more suspicious.

[RJFerret]

Well, now we are getting out of your specified "easy". The "absence_alert" spawnarg let's you specify exactly how much you want their alertness raised: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Alert_%26_Suspicion_Triggers#Controlling_AI_Reactions_to_Missing_Objects

 

Of consideration would be their prior alert state, what alert state you'd want them to result in, and whether you want their alert to build upon seeing the situation repeatedly. There's another spawnarg which dictates how frequently they should react, or only once. There's also another that let's you specify a random factor to their noticing or not.

 

Note, in all circumstances there must be enough light for them to visually be able to see the drawer/whatever.

[Springheel]

Well, now we are getting out of your specified "easy". The "absence_alert" spawnarg let's you specify exactly how much you want their alertness raised:

 

I forgot about that. That makes it a bit more useful, though I still don't think the barks would be appropriate.

 

But for sake of argument, how would you do it so that it fires if the drawer is open, but not if it's closed?

[RJFerret]

I forgot about that. That makes it a bit more useful, though I still don't think the barks would be appropriate.

 

Wouldn't the vocalizations relate to the level of agitation? If you set them within "idle", you'd get nothing special. I don't know what vocalizations relate to observant and suspicious personally, although I'm sure I've heard them. The default (if their alert was zero to begin with) puts them into "searching", you'd have to make it higher to result in "agitated searching" exclamations.

 

But for sake of argument, how would you do it so that it fires if the drawer is open, but not if it's closed?

 

Um...err, sorry but...not do anything I'm afraid, it only fires if the drawer is open. (You can even define how far open with a couple different spawnargs, per that wiki link.)

[Sotha]

Could it be a generic "something is wrong" system. At present, if the mapper used moveables, the player could totally ransack a room: topple tha chairs, throw papers and books to the ground, douse candles and toss them on the floor. The room clearly looks robbed, but the AI doesn't much care.

 

It would be cool if the AI could somehow react to stuff like that, making the player need to put items roughly as they were or out of sight.

 

The same system could replenish "shouldbeon 1" candles. The AI would pick them up from the floor and relight them.

[Springheel]

Wouldn't the vocalizations relate to the level of agitation?

 

Not to my knowledge. Absence stims always use the "we've been robbed" barks.

 

Um...err, sorry but...not do anything I'm afraid, it only fires if the drawer is open. (You can even define how far open with a couple different spawnargs, per that wiki link.)

 

I see values for how far you can move something...are you talking about that? It might work for drawers, I suppose, but how would that work for rotating doors like chest lids?

 

It would be cool if the AI could somehow react to stuff like that, making the player need to put items roughly as they were or out of sight.

 

Yeah, the system already can handle that, but the reactions from the AI won't always sound right if the "notice missing" barks are used.

[RJFerret]

Not to my knowledge. Absence stims always use the "we've been robbed" barks.

 

I've wanted that full alert in the past, but sadly I just tried lower absence_alert levels to hear what would result, and it doesn't seem to be functioning as described. :-( The AI went to full searching with "gone!?" or "who dares rob..." exclamations like you say. So I even tried 0.1 and same thing (this with an AI initial_alert set to 0). My impression now is absence_alert isn't working.

 

...how would that work for rotating doors like chest lids?

 

Via binding an object to the lid, such that the origin of the testing object moves outside of it's bounds upon lid rotation. (Note, since chests are often put in dark areas, the area needs to be lit for AI to see.) However there I'd probably prefer the "that shouldn't be open" reactions from "shouldBeClosed", which is also simpler.

 

PS: ShouldBeClosed has failed for me on dresser drawers (despite having removed all clipping). It's worked on chest lids happily though.

[Springheel]

However there I'd probably prefer the "that shouldn't be open" reactions from "shouldBeClosed", which is also simpler.

 

The barks are tailored specifically for doors though. Some would work, "Who left that open?" but others would sound funny "Maybe the wind blew it open?"