Monster behaviour with polearms

[hxy]

I'm playing a polearm user and i run into this gang of gnolls wielding polearms in a corridor.

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The first guy stops with one square to spare and we duel. The remaining gnolls sit and wait.
Is that the intended behaviour?
I know orcs and such will try to move around you so that more of them can try to hit you.
In this case the first gnoll can move ahead so that the second one can do something, but it doesn't seem to be happening with these gnolls.

[Azrael]

"Don't see the point"?
I've noticed this as well, and though I've always counted it as a blessing that the gnolls aren't ALL attacking me at the same time, I agree that this is something that should be fixed. Enemies that come in bands should fight as a band, not as individuals.

[Utis]

As far as the particular point of gnolls with polearms is concerned, I personally don't care in either direction; it doesn't seem terribly important to me. But as for the general point: Whether monster AI "makes sense" should be less important than whether it forces/enables me to make tactical decisions.

I mean, it's a game, not a probabilistic subterranean explorations simulator. Otherwise "health" shouldn't be something that you can spend and restore like petrol in a car. And can we really imagine that in reality somebody could grab a knife, enter into urban warfare and succeed in killing everyone in the thousands single-handedly, because he's "levelling up" on the way? Oh, and about magic ...

So, for instance, if enemies that come in bands should always fight in bands, then they would also always stay together in bands. Any tactics aiming at breaking them apart would become null and void and the mindless rush would become the only tactics.

I mean: Fighting in corridors? If I were a member of a pack of gnolls, I'd wait for that sucker hero to come out. If he doesn't, I'd send half of my band around to get him from the other side. Or even better: since he refuses to come out of the corridor, I have cornered him. So I would send somebody downstairs for reinforcements, a hill giant or two, for instance.

[snow]

I've said this before but:

Sometimes bad AI is better than good AI. Possibly some of the worst additions to the game so far are how centaurs arc around corners or now enemies flee when they can't reach you over water: such things either remove tactical options from the game (the arcs) or add absolutely nothing but tedium (the fleeing). If you want gnolls to be harder then make them hit harder or something: don't remove movement tactics so that blindly tabbing is just as effective as clever movement and use of environment.

If you want "smart AI" just have all orc priests smite every turn. There are some games that good AI can add depth to and some games that good AI can take depth away from. Crawl is easily in the second category.

[XuaXua]

To do Orc priests correctly, limit them with a regenerating piety bar and apply it effectively.

Also, since players do it, centaurs should shoot at point blank range.

[Sandman25]

I've said this before but:

Sometimes bad AI is better than good AI. Possibly some of the worst additions to the game so far are how centaurs arc around corners or now enemies flee when they can't reach you over water: such things either remove tactical options from the game (the arcs) or add absolutely nothing but tedium (the fleeing). If you want gnolls to be harder then make them hit harder or something: don't remove movement tactics so that blindly tabbing is just as effective as clever movement and use of environment.

If you want "smart AI" just have all orc priests smite every turn. There are some games that good AI can add depth to and some games that good AI can take depth away from. Crawl is easily in the second category.

The problem is that players feel guilty for exploiting AI "stupidity".

[Utis]

To do Orc priests correctly, limit them with a regenerating piety bar and apply it effectively.

Also, since players do it, centaurs should shoot at point blank range.

There should be sneaky monsters who stab the player sometimes after hitting '5'.

[Azrael]

Yeah, the closest I've come to guilt is when I forced one incestuous psychotic elf twin to kill another one. Then I remembered they were incestuous psychotic elf twins, and I felt better.

[pratamawirya]

I hate threads like this the most.