Why do their swords reach further than expected?
same thing as the drole, poor attempt on my part to discourage shambler dancing. 

I just wrote a whole long rant. and there was an error. 52? maybe? I'm drunk

Basically I love all the monsters. especially Bob. And gugs. though I lament their quakiness due to how much more variety they would have otherwise.

by the way, Necros you are a fucking beast all of a sudden! you're all over func and mapping and shit.
you've totally become the big man on messageboard. 

i just have a lot of free time atm, is all. 

to turn into a quoth discussion?

Descent has that radar ping sound (but on the player side) for homing missiles. It doesn't even hint at the position, I think, just the distance-the nearer the missile, the shorter the beep interval. 

i don't know, i just posted here rather than start a new thread, since the topic is "monsters" it seemed fitting. 

I'm rather conventional so I have a giant apathy against other monsters then the given Quake classics.
I almost gave up playing Quoth because I find them much too hard.

I know it's not fair because they only add a new touch to the brilliant game.
Although I really enjoy making monsters, and my boundless passion for it encounters no end.

Here's an example of Granito, trying to break its blockyness.
Still struggling to get its texture perfeckt disguisable, which is rather a tricky job with all different engines.

http://members.home.nl/gimli/granito.gif 

looks boss. 

I started again on my kascam project.
I would like to have a camera in Quake, that substitute the players sight. So by using an impulse one could see through the camera and inspect the level. By making a stealth walk frame it would be possible to enter places the player couldn't go by its size.
Although its health would be lower than the player.

http://members.home.nl/gimli/kam0casi.gif

Only if is that I'm such a bad script writer. 

Isn't that the microphone, Mike, from the movie version of "The Wiz?" 

@madfox, maybe it is just me but the bottom half of granito looks like it is dry humping a shambler leg or something ... could be the speed of the animation maybe ... umm need another coffee. 

I had the same impression 

This monster is construckted on a 64x64 cube in disguise of a wall. So its shape indeed looks rather clumpy. I don't know what you mean with a humping shambler leg, but if you find it looks like a queer sack: true.

As it has the precise angles to have its stand functions excact, it is rather difficult to change this in the other frame animations.
Chance is rather big it distracts the cube allignment, and then it isn't disguised anymore. 

please increase the granito's health
(2000hp? will help), the last time i fought him, it was too easy 

did we ever discuss the poison headcrab attack mechanic? it's a pretty unique one afaik. 

as a matter of fact, won't I be agony scratching my head after playing the level?

spy, that was the testlevel, indeed rather light, but I had to think of ammu. Once down the cavern the player can't get extra. 

It would be possible to add frames to the player model with a headcrab on its head.
This one for instance.
http://members.home.nl/gimli/trog.gif 

than headcrab 

It keeps on my mind...
Could it be possible to add a headcrab.mdl to the player?
So the sight gets weird between slices of yelly and so desorientates.
I know how to add a weapon, I could add a crab to the playermodel.
But for the view of the player?
v_crab.mdl? 

yeah, that would work, but it would replace your gun (maybe that is a good thing, if you're being face-hugged you can't shoot) 

but if I would like to shoot all blind, isn't there another way?
I can't code my gun to give damage to myself, which makes the headcrab rather undangerous.
Of course the loss of weapon means damage done by other monsters. 

poison headcrap attack mechanics:

if monster further than playersight >fly
if monster range playersight> start swift
if monster near playersight> jump on its head and distores sight with a squeezing sound
if monster becomes player> ask necros for a antidose...

http://members.home.nl/gimli/HEADCRA1.gif 

well, you missed the most interesting thing about the poison headcrabs:
when they hit you, you are poisoned and your health drops down to 1 (regardless of what you had).
over a few seconds, you health will return to it's initial value.

i find it interesting because it manages to be incredibly dangerous but at the same time, not at all overpowered.

i'd like to see this used for monsters more often. not exactly this, but with a sort of build-up of damage where the first hit is not fatal, but follow up hits can be. 

One of the things that balanced the poison headcrab was that when you encountered them, you weren't fighting other enemies at the time(with the possible exception of 1 or two headcrabs). If you're dropped to 1 hp, a single combine with a submachine gun would have frequently been deadly, sometimes with no chance to react to your sudden drop in health. Only facing melee monsters meant that you could easily escape being exposed to damage, as long as you recognised the need to do so in the short term.

You wouldn't be able to combine them with many existing monsters in quake, which is why I wonder if it would be a helpful addition to a boss monster instead. I always think that boss fights should shift between parts where the player need to take the offensive and do damage, and moments where they are forced to play defensive. Especially in quake, where there are no reload times and high ammo capacities, it's frequently the case that even against a boss you are constantly attacking them, which makes the combat quite flat.

While we're on the subject of stuff we'd steal from half-life, I always liked the way the bullsquid melee attacks worked. He had a bite that was reasonably fast and low damage, 10-15 hp. Then he had a tail smash which was a bit slower but did 40-45 damage. However, the bullsquid was coded to only ever use the tail smash if it would be fatal on connecting. Once you realised that, it made things quite intense when you saw it try one, because you knew even though you had moderate health you might die instantly. 

i didn't know that about the bullsquid. from what i remember, i always blew them away before they got close enough to melee me at all. this is actually a shame, because i (and probably other players too) completely missed out on something pretty unique and interesting.

it is definitely an interesting idea to code up a slow execute style attack though and something to keep in mind.

re: boss and defensive play, this is something i've been looking into doing via unavoidable damage. the core of what i've been thinking of is that you have attacks that cannot be avoided but you provided respawning health kits (or if you wanted to make it harded, *non* respawning kits).
it shifts your priorities around between filling up your health and dealing damage. the poison attack, though, neatly creates the same situation, but rmeoves the need for external items, which is nice. 

Sounds like you're describing phases there Preach.

For example

phase 1: damage the tail, avoid eye beams

phase 2: escape collapsing walkway, damage the claws

phase 3: destroy brain, avoid the claws and tail.

Its a nice understandable way of breaking bosses down for both designer and player - I don't think its overused since even the best orchestrated boss fights are based on it.

Inever realised the Bullsquid only pasted you if it was able to. Interesting idea - the final melee attack not being more of the same but something like a finishing move. So instead of clawing until the player is dead the Fiend could do a double overarm swipe.

And Madfox is talking about an enemy that attaches to the player in order to attack, as opposed to an enemy that has a gruesome parasite form (which never affects the player in HL).

Thing is, how would you get it off while it was draining health - jump in water, pick up a med kit?

Poison headcrabs were a good enemy, but exceptionally carefully used. The main thing was the panic ffactor, as opposed to how lethel they weren't. At least in the way they were used.