Heart attackers have trouble finding a spot to attack from

[AdamPlenty]

They'll wander around pillars instead of just going straight to a free spot.

They can also end up wandering around the heart endlessly, trying (and failing) to find a spot, even if there are several free spots.

[Loobinex]

Can you share a way to reproduce the infinite no-attack thing?

In any case, most likely related to the size of the soul container.

[AdamPlenty]

Can you share a way to reproduce the infinite no-attack thing?

In any case, most likely related to the size of the soul container.

I just tried my method again, and was again able to reproduce it. I spawned 9 level 1 Barbarians next to my Dungeon Heart. 2 of them kept wandering around it, while the other 7 attacked it. It seems that no more than 7 of them can attack the heart at a time. There were clearly several free spots for the remaining 2.

[Loobinex]

ok yes, I would expect 8 or 12 creatures to fit around the heart, but it is exactly 7. Don't know why.

[AdamPlenty]

Isn't there a limit on how many mêlée creatures can attack another creature? Could that be related?

[Whurrhurr]

iirc combat in (vanilla) DK, melee creature maximum is 4v1 (excess melee units who want to attack a unit that is already being attacked by 4 units will sit back and jump up and down)

the most amount of melee units you can have attacking a heart should be 12 (3 units for each side of the dungeon heart) as that is what would be consistent with vanilla DK behavior.

[AdamPlenty]

That fits. This is currently looking like a pathfinding issue; the attackers seem to be constantly moving into position, but never reaching one on which they realise that they can actually attack (even though there are free spots), so they just keep moving around the heart indefinitely.

[AdamPlenty]

It seems that the size of object SOUL_CONTAINER is one piece of the puzzle, but only one piece. It's currently 768, 768, but changing it to 512, 512 (as it was earlier) solves the moving-around-the-pillars issue, but does not completely solve the creatures-cannot-find-a-spot issue (though there's still a significant improvement). If it's too small, attackers get totally stuck for some reason.

[Loobinex]

In the melee_combat_move function and its subs, there is several hard coded numbers. I think it pays to make these relative to the size of the target.

[Loobinex]

the most amount of melee units you can have attacking a heart should be 12 (3 units for each side of the dungeon heart) as that is what would be consistent with vanilla DK behavior.

I tried, DK1 had 11 dwarves attacking the heart, also having this issue where it does not fit fully. I do agree that 3 on each side makes sense, but we do not have to look to restore old dk1 code.

[AdamPlenty]

the most amount of melee units you can have attacking a heart should be 12 (3 units for each side of the dungeon heart) as that is what would be consistent with vanilla DK behavior.

I tried, DK1 had 11 dwarves attacking the heart, also having this issue where it does not fit fully. I do agree that 3 on each side makes sense, but we do not have to look to restore old dk1 code.

So, this is, strictly speaking, a Since-1997?