Humanoid enemies in Wake have most of the same abilities and limitations that the player does. This includes being able to pick up objects on the ground to use as weapons against you for melee or thrown attacks. Like the player they will block or use slash, thrust or heavy attacks and are impacted the same way the player is by object weight, stats, effects and properties. The goal is for it to feel similar to facing off against another player similar to Dark Souls NPC invasions.
Enemies can cycle between the following states:
Idle
Hostile
Suspicious
Idle
While idle, the enemy may do one of the following:
Play a random idle animation (Sitting, gazing, yawning, standing, etc.)
Walk around within a radius of their spawn point
Search for a nearby weapon and pick one up if found
An enemy will become suspicious if they take damage or if they see the player but not long enough to fully notice them
Enemy “sight” cones depicted above in debug mode. If the player stands within the cones’ volume they will start to be detected.
Suspicious
While suspicious, enemies will:
Play a “looking around” animation
Move towards a series of target locations as they search for the player
Pick up a nearby item in anticipation for a fight
While idle or suspicious an enemy is utilizing it’s “sight” (pictured right). If the player is within the yellow cone, the enemy’s suspicion will increase at a moderate speed until they notice the player and become hostile. If the player is within the red cone, the enemy will notice them almost immediately.
The enemy needs line of sight (LOS) with the player to see them. If there is anything with a collider between the enemy and player, the enemy cannot see them
Hostile
An enemy is hostile when it has noticed the player and is engaging them in combat.
While hostile the enemy will perform the following actions based on various factors:
If the enemy does not have a weapon it will flee while searching for one and picking it up
If the enemy is holding a weapon it’s behavior depends on the type
If it’s a thrown weapon it will try to establish LOS, aim and throw it at the player
If it’s a melee weapon the enemy will charge toward you and try to attack you or block your attacks
Enemies can react to your actions. If you duck behind cover they may stop mid throw and try to re-establish LOS before attempting to throw again.
The chance of an enemy blocking versus attacking and the amount of time they spend blocking is determined by an aggressiveness stat that varies by enemy type. When an enemy attacks it will be a chain of one to three in a sequence out of three possible chains so you never know how many or what type of attack is coming.
Design
NPC designs use the same character creator system the player does. Therefore most pieces of clothing/hair that an NPC has will be available to the player as an item. Learn more about the character creator by clicking here.
