Monster attack order?

[pseudopseudonymous]

If there's two monsters who can attack me, how do I know in which order the effects will hit me?

So for example if I'm using a shield, which get reduced block chance every time they block a hit, how do I know which of two creatures of equal speed will hit me first? If one is very strong and one is very weak that's an important consideration.

Or if there's an enemy with torment and another enemy with crystal spear, how do I know which will act first if both are used?

[Siegurt]

If there's two monsters who can attack me, how do I know in which order the effects will hit me?

So for example if I'm using a shield, which get reduced block chance every time they block a hit, how do I know which of two creatures of equal speed will hit me first? If one is very strong and one is very weak that's an important consideration.

Or if there's an enemy with torment and another enemy with crystal spear, how do I know which will act first if both are used?

There is a specific order in which they act, but it isn't directly observable by the player, the list of monsters that could act is in a semi arbitrary order (i believe it is the order in which they were created)

It should be the same from turn to turn though, so if you have observed both act, that should remain accurate.

[VeryAngryFelid]

It should be the same from turn to turn though, so if you have observed both act, that should remain accurate.

Was energy randomization removed in trunk?

[pseudopseudonymous]

If there's two monsters who can attack me, how do I know in which order the effects will hit me?

So for example if I'm using a shield, which get reduced block chance every time they block a hit, how do I know which of two creatures of equal speed will hit me first? If one is very strong and one is very weak that's an important consideration.

Or if there's an enemy with torment and another enemy with crystal spear, how do I know which will act first if both are used?

There is a specific order in which they act, but it isn't directly observable by the player, the list of monsters that could act is in a semi arbitrary order (i believe it is the order in which they were created)

It should be the same from turn to turn though, so if you have observed both act, that should remain accurate.

cool, so it's random. I can work with that

[Siegurt]

It should be the same from turn to turn though, so if you have observed both act, that should remain accurate.

Was energy randomization removed in trunk?

Energy randomization only applies to movement.

[VeryAngryFelid]

Energy randomization only applies to movement.

So if I am attacked by two monsters, then I haste myself,retreat a bit and wait for those monsters to get adjacent, can the order of attacks change?

[Siegurt]

Energy randomization only applies to movement.

So if I am attacked by two monsters, then I haste myself,retreat a bit and wait for those monsters to get adjacent, can the order of attacks change?

Well, sort of, one of them (or both) could fail to attack, which through a certain light might be considered a change of order. If they both get an attack they should attack in the same order each time

[njvack]

Do all monster attacks take the same amount of time?

[Siegurt]

Do all monster attacks take the same amount of time?

No, it's also not really appropriate to say monster attacks "take time" at least not in the sense that players do.

If I am remmebering correctly, how it works is, the player does a thing, that thing takes X time, each monster has a supply of time energy, and every time the player does something X is added to the monster's supply of time energy.

After every time the player acts, the game looks through all the monsters to see if they have enough energy to act, if they do, they take their action and subtract the amount of energy that action took (some monsters have different energy costs for attacking and moving, and moving has a slight randomness to it's cost)

Once there aren't any monster's with sufficient energy to act, it's your turn again.

The thing is the order in which the game checks to see whether monsters can act doesn't change, so it doesn't really matter how quickly they act, if two monsters act in the same turn, they will act in the same order relative to each-other, it doesn't matter at that point how quickly they act.

Speed is a measure of how frequently a monster gets to act *relative to the player* but has no bearing on the order in which monster actions occur relative to each-other.

[njvack]

OK, so when you say a monster could fail to attack, you're meaning that in one player turn, two monsters might both have energy to attack, but on the next turn, only one of them might (say, one monster takes longer to attack than the other one does)? So even though both monsters get checked in the same order, the order in which they actually attack may differ from turn to turn?

Thinking about how time is implemented in something like crawl makes my brain funny. Like, man, what is time, really? It's like, whoah, I am tripping all the balls

[Siegurt]

OK, so when you say a monster could fail to attack, you're meaning that in one player turn, two monsters might both have energy to attack, but on the next turn, only one of them might (say, one monster takes longer to attack than the other one does)? So even though both monsters get checked in the same order, the order in which they actually attack may differ from turn to turn?

Thinking about how time is implemented in something like crawl makes my brain funny. Like, man, what is time, really? It's like, whoah, I am tripping all the balls

Well, i meant more like say you have two monsters a and b, on the first turn, both attack, and it goes a then b, then on the next turn only b can attack, so it does, then on the following turn only a can attack, so it does, then maybe on the following turn both can attack, so it goes a,b again.

Overall, the attack sequence went a,b/b/a/a,b perhaps giving the appearance of changing attack order, but the sequence within a turn is consistent.