enemies communicate target

[ioxu]

Enemies communicate the target with neighbours. Alert neighbours.

[ioxu]

• npc manager class?
  • propagates messages to all registered npcs

edit: no.

[ioxu]

Maybe sensing areas on enemies are the way to do it?

• when an enemy goes into attack state, find other enemy sensing areas that overlap and send a signal or call a method?

Do sensing areas detect the state of other nodes, or do they become eligible to receive notifications from other sensing areas?

[ioxu]

Reverse to idea above, have a self area, and check for others' overlapping sensing areas, and call a method on them.

• an NPC's sensing area is for sensing events and objects, not for deciding who to send a sense to.
• so if a sensable's self-area overlaps NPC's sensing areas, they can sense a sense being sent.

Different sensables

• visible source
• sound source (shooting and bullet hits alert NPCs)
• scent source (like leaving a followable trail of POIs)
• message source (like enemies being able to talk to allies)

[ioxu]

Latest idea

Areas plus signals: NPC communication signal connection:

• npc-sensing area detects when an npc-sensable area enters it and registers to its signal(s). (And de-registers when it exits)
• npc-sensable areas emit their signals.

Cases:

• npcs emit a "hollar" (npc-to-npc message: struct with changed sate, emitting npc object, target, etc)
• npc messages are infrequent

Area-only actions: No signals are connected, and actions only evoked on overlap, and reacted to only once?

• bullet hits emit "sound" (sound message: struct with position, sound object (radius, attenuation, sound type), etc)
• scent emit "odour" (odour message: struct with position, direction, odour object, etc)