Surrounded by Design

I made some changes to the monster movement artificial intelligence. Previously monster would try to move toward the player in the most direct route. If blocked they might try to move vertically or horizontally to align with the player. However this resulted in monsters lining up, and only one attacked the player. That was not realistic. Today I implemented the first part of fixing that.

If the monster is lined up with the player, but prevented from moving toward the player, it will try to go around whatever is in the way. Currently it will only try to go left/right, or up/down. That means there are 3 lanes available to go toward the player: (1) the direct route, one that is left/up, or one that is right/down.

Ideally I would have the monsters keep moving around to get at the player. But I think I have hit the sweet spot for now. I also modified messages in version 0.05 of my roguelike game engine. The messages show up on the right side of the main screen. They also start the first message at the top.

Next I plan to implement unique monsters, weapons, and armor.