Contents

• Monster special attacks
  • Special attack selection logic
  • TODO
  • Adding special_attacks to monsters
    • Old style array
    • New style object
    • Combination
  • Hardcoded special attacks
  • JSON special attacks
    • bite
    • Grab attacks
    • gun
    • "spell" Monster Spells
    • "leap"
  • Monster defensive attacks

Monster special attacks

Monster creatures in C:DDA not only can do simple melee attacks, they have a wide array of attack-type actions.

Depending on the intended effect, these can be valid use_actions for tools and weapons, hardcoded special attacks, any normal physical attack or even spells. Also, depending on the kind of attack, these can be cooldown-based, conditioned or occur on death.

Special attack selection logic

On each action the monster evaluates each special attack in alphabetical order, attempting to trigger each attack that is not in cooldown in turn until one is found whose preconditions are met or the monster runs out of candidates. This means "Early" attacks with low, or especially zero cooldowns will trigger very frequently unless they have preconditions preventing this. The cooldown is not set unless the attack is triggered. Early attacks with low cooldowns can effecctively "starve" later special attacks and even the monster's default melee attack.

TODO

• Descriptions for Hardcoded special attacks could stand to be more descriptive of exactly what the attack does.

Adding special_attacks to monsters

Monster special attacks can be defined either as old style arrays, new style objects, or a combination of both. However, it is recommended to avoid the use of the old style in favor of the new style.

Old style array

Generally hardcoded special attacks are declared this way, although it can also be used for JSON-declared attacks too. It contains 2 elements, the id of the attack and the cooldown:

"special_attacks": [ [ "ACID", 10 ] ]

New style object

It contains either:

• An id of a hardcoded special attack, or a JSON-declared attacks.
• A type member (string) plus a cooldown member (integer or this can be a Variable Object, see the doc for more info.) pair, for partially hardcoded special attacks.
• A spell (see MAGIC.md).

Depending on the kind of attack, it may contain additional required members. Example:

"special_attacks": [
    { "type": "leap", "cooldown": 10, "max_range": 4 }
]

In the case of separately defined attacks the object has to contain at least an id member. In this case the attack will use the default attack data defined in monster_attacks.json, if a field is additionally defined it will overwrite those defaults. These attacks have the common type monster_attack. Example:

"special_attacks": [
    { "id": "impale" }
]

Combination

special_attacks may contain a mixture of the old and new style:

"special_attacks": [
    [ "ACID", 10 ],
    { "type": "leap", "cooldown": 8, "max_range": 4 },
    { "id": "impale", "cooldown": 5, "min_mul": 1, "max_mul": 3 }
]

This monster can attempt an acid attack every ten turns, a leap with a maximum range of 4 every eight and an impale attack with 1-3x damage multiplier every five turns.

Hardcoded special attacks

These special attacks are mostly hardcoded in C++ and are generally not configurable with JSON (unless otherwise documented). JSON-declared replacements are mentioned when available.

• ABSORB_ITEMS Consumes objects it moves over to gain HP. A movement cost per ml consumed can be enforced with absorb_move_cost_per_ml (default 0.025). The movement cost can have a minimum and maximum value specified by absorb_move_cost_min (default 1) and absorb_move_cost_max (default -1 for no limit). The volume in milliliters the monster must consume to gain 1 HP can be specified with absorb_ml_per_hp (default 250 ml). A list of materials that the monster can absorb can be specified with absorb_materials (can be string or string array, not specified = absorb all materials) and forbidden with no_absorb_materials (can be string or string array, not specified = absorb all materials specified by absorb_materials).
• ABSORB_MEAT Absorbs adjacent meat items (maximum absorbable item volume depends on the monster's volume), regenerating health in the process.
• ACID Spits acid.
• ACID_BARF Barfs corroding, blinding acid.
• BIO_OP_BIOJUTSU Attacks with any of the below martial art attacks.
• BIO_OP_DISARM Disarming attack, does no damage.
• BIO_OP_IMPALE Stabbing attack, deals heavy damage and has a chance to cause bleeding.
• BIO_OP_TAKEDOWN Takedown attack, bashes either the target's head or torso and inflicts downed.
• BLOW_WHISTLE Blow a whistle creating a sound of volume 40 from the position of the monster.
• BRANDISH Brandishes a knife at the player.
• BROWSE The monster will eat harvestable foods from BROWSABLE trees and plants when they're in season.
• BREATHE Spawns a breather. Note: breather hub only!
• CALLBLOBS Calls 2/3 of nearby blobs to defend this monster, and sends 1/3 of nearby blobs after the player.
• COPBOT Cop-bot warns then tazes the player.
• DANCE Monster dances.
• DARKMAN Can cause darkness and wraiths to spawn.
• DISAPPEAR Hallucination (or other unusual monster) disappears.
• DOGTHING The dog thing spawns into a tentacle dog.
• EAT_CARRION The monster will nibble on organic corpses, including zombies and plants, damaging them and filling its stomach if it has the EATS flag.
• EAT_CROP The monster eats an adjacent planted crop or CATTLE flagged comestible.
• EAT_FOOD The monster eats an adjacent non-seed food item (apart from their own eggs and food with fun < -20). If paired with the EATS flag, this will fill its stomach.
• EVOLVE_KILL_STRIKE Damages the target's torso (damage scales with monster's melee dice), if it succeeds in killing a fleshy target the monster will upgrade to its next evolution.
• FEAR_PARALYZE Paralyzes the player with fear.
• FLESH_GOLEM Attacks the player with 5-10 bash, has a chance to inflict downed if the attack connects. Also roars menacingly for some reason.
• FLESH_TENDRIL Spawns gangrenous impalers or crawlers, pulls targets close when 4 > range > 1, either flings or grabs them when adjacent.
• FORMBLOB Attacks a neighboring tile, effect depends on the tile's inhabitant: spawns small slimes depending on its speed if empty, slimes players/NPCs, speeds up friendly slimes, heals brain slimes, converts nonfriendly flesh/veggy non-huge monsters to slimes of appropriate size. Decreases in size if it did any of those and its current speed is below a threshold.
• FUNGUS Releases fungal spores and attempts to infect the player.
• FUNGUS_BIG_BLOSSOM Spreads fire suppressing fungal haze.
• FUNGUS_BRISTLE Performs a barbed tendril attack that can cause fungal infections.
• FUNGUS_CORPORATE Used solely by Crazy Cataclysm. This will cause runtime errors if used without, and spawns SpOreos on top of the creature.
• FUNGUS_FORTIFY Grows fungal hedgerows, and advances player on the Mycus threshold path.
• FUNGUS_GROWTH Grows a young fungaloid into an adult.
• FUNGUS_HAZE Spawns fungal fields.
• FUNGUS_INJECT Performs a needle attack that can cause fungal infections.
• FUNGUS_SPROUT Grows a fungal wall.
• FUNGAL_TRAIL Spreads fungal terrain.
• GRAZE The monster eats grass, shrubs and flowers.
• GENE_STING Shoots a dart at the player that causes a mutation if it connects.
• GENERATOR Regenerates health, hums.
• GRENADIER Deploys tear gas/pacification/flashbang/c4 hacks from its ammo.
• GRENADIER_ELITE Deploys grenade/flashbang/c4/mininuke hacks from its ammo.
• GROWPLANTS Spawns underbrush, or promotes it to > young tree > tree. Can destroy bashable terrain or do damage if it hits something.
• GROW_VINE Grows creeper vines.
• HOWL "an ear-piercing howl!".
• JACKSON Converts zombies into zombie dancers (until its death).
• KAMIKAZE Detonates its defined ammo after a countdown (calculated automatically to hopefully almost catch up to a running player).
• LEECH_SPAWNER Spawns root runners or root drones, low chance of upgrading itself into a leech stalk.
• LUNGE Performs a jumping attack from some distance away, which can inflict downed to the target.
• MON_LEECH_EVOLUTION Evolves a leech plant into a leech blossom if no other blossoms are in sight.
• NONE No special attack.
• PAID_BOT For creature with the PAY_BOT flag, removes the ally status when the pet effect runs out.
• PARA_STING Shoots a paralyzing dart at the player.
• PARROT Parrots the speech defined in speech.json, picks one of the lines randomly. speaker points to a monster id.
• PARROT_AT_DANGER Performs the same function as PARROT, but only if the creature sees an angry monster from a hostile faction.
• PHOTOGRAPH Photographs the player. Causes a robot attack?
• PLANT Fungal spores take seed and grow into a fungaloid.
• PULL_METAL_WEAPON Pulls any weapon that's made of iron or steel from the player's hand.
• RATKING Inflicts disease rat.
• RATTLE "a sibilant rattling sound!".
• RESURRECT Revives the dead (again).
• RIOTBOT Sprays teargas or relaxation gas, can handcuff players, and can use a blinding flash.
• SEARCHLIGHT Tracks targets with a searchlight.
• SHOCKING_REVEAL Shoots bolts of lightning, and reveals a SHOCKING FACT! Very fourth-wall breaking. Used solely by Crazy Cataclysm.
• SHOCKSTORM Shoots bolts of lightning.
• SHRIEK "a terrible shriek!".
• SHRIEK_ALERT "a very terrible shriek!", louder than SHRIEK.
• SHRIEK_STUN "a stunning shriek!", causes a small bash, can cause a stun.
• SLIMESPRING Can provide a morale boost to the player, and cure bite and bleed effects.
• SMASH Smashes the target, sending it flying for a number of tiles equal to (melee_dice * melee_dice_sides * 3) / 10. JSON equivalent is "smash".
• SPIT_SAP Spits sap (acid damage, 12 range).
• SPLIT Creates a copy of itself if it has twice the maximum HP that it should normally have. This can be achieved by combining this with ABSORB_ITEMS.
• STARE Stares at the player and inflicts ramping debuffs (taint>tindrift).
• SUICIDE Dies after attacking.
• TAZER Shocks the player.
• TINDALOS_TELEPORT Spawns afterimages, teleports to corners nearer to its target.
• TRIFFID_GROWTH Young triffid grows into an adult.
• TRIFFID_HEARTBEAT Grows and crumbles root walls around the player, and spawns more monsters.
• UPGRADE Upgrades one of the non-hostile surrounding monsters, gets angry if it finds no targets to upgrade.
• VINE Attacks with vine.
• ZOMBIE_FUSE Absorbs an adjacent creature, healing and becoming less likely to fuse for 10 days.

JSON special attacks

These special attacks are defined in JSON, and belong to the monster_attack type, melee attack_type. These don't have to be declared in the monster's attack data, the id of the desired attack can be used instead. All fields beyond id and cooldown are optional.

bite

Under the hood an attack with monster_attack type, bite attack_type - if you want to define multiple separate bites for a monster you'll need to do a proper definition using an id as well. Makes monster use teeth to bite opponent, uses the same fields as "monster_attack" attacks. Monster bites can give infections, and for humanoid enemies (human bodytype) require the target being grabbed. If hitsize_min is undefined it will default to 1 (disqualifying bites on the eyes and mouth).

Grab attacks

Any melee/bite-type JSON attack can function as a grab, which leads to special behavior in addition to the base attack functions: Grabs are not allowed to hit an already-grabbed bodypart, filtered by any effect on the BP having the GRAB flag, instead they will attempt to retarget to another limb. A successful (not-dodged) grab will apply an instance of its grab_effect (which should have the GRAB effect flag) with the intensity defined by grab_strength and will gain the target bodypart's grabbing_effect to facilitate targeted grab removal (see later). The attack's behavior is determined by the grab_data array, using the below variables:

GRAB-flagged effects prevent movement for monsters and characters as well, and might have additional debuffs like every effect. Grab break attempts happen effect by effect on non-attack movement or waiting in place, with the chance affected by limb scores, stats, and the existence of grab break MA techniques. A successful grab removal removes the effect in question from the limb, as well as the bodypart's grabbing_effect from whichever monster has the latter. If all grabs are broken movement is allowed on the same turn.

gun

The monster fires a gun at a target. If the monster is friendly, it will avoid harming the player.

"spell" Monster Spells

Casts a separately-defined spell at the monster's target. Spells with target_self: true will only target the casting monster, and will still be casted only if the monster has a hostile target.

"leap"

Makes the monster leap a few tiles over passable terrain as long as it can see its destination. It supports the following additional properties:

Monster defensive attacks

A special defense attack, triggered when the monster is attacked. It should contain an array with the id of the defense (see a full list below) and the chance for that defense to be actually triggered. Example:

"special_when_hit": [ "ZAPBACK", 100 ]

• ACIDSPLASH Splashes acid on the attacker.
• NONE No special attack to the attacker.
• ZAPBACK Shocks attacker on hit.

EOC attack

Triggers the specified effect_on_condition with the monster as alpha_talker and its target as beta_talker, the attack requires vision of the target.