

- #Fighting the monster within full
- #Fighting the monster within code
- #Fighting the monster within plus
The only caveat is that once the enemy is dead, it may instantly be resurrected to its full strength, which may be worse than before the arch-vile attack. For example, it may be wise to wake up a demon-spitter as late as possible.Īlthough arch-viles can only single-sidedly infight another monster, this can still be useful for the player: first, the opponent is being damaged. Each is easily capable of dispatching the player, but with quick maneuvering the player can actually cause one to accidentally hit the other, starting a lengthy and entertaining fight that inevitably results in one killing the other, but not before being severely injured, making it much easier for the player to finish the job.Īnother advantage is that causing infighting will not alert peacefully waiting monsters like using a weapon does. This level happens to feature two of the most powerful enemies in the game (a spiderdemon and a cyberdemon) in the same room. This is allowed by the unusually high player-versus-monsters speed ratio in Doom engine games that grants the player the ability to maneuver around groups of monsters with more ease than in other first person shooter games.Īrguably one of the most prominent examples of this strategy can occur in Doom II MAP20: Gotcha!.

The easiest way to do this with a large group of mixed monsters is to run in a circle several times around the group, which will almost certainly start an infight due to stray projectiles. Causing many monsters to destroy or seriously damage one another greatly reduces the burden on the player's resources. Monster infighting is an important tactic in levels where ammunition is very scarce, such as those of Alien Vendetta or when recording speedruns, especially in a restrictive category such as UV Tyson. From v1.5 onward, the hitscan routine is replaced by a simple distance check and direct damage. Demons and spectres retain this behavior in Atari Jaguar-based console ports, including those for the PlayStation and Saturn, leaving infighting between them possible. Before v1.5 of the engine, A_SargAttack (the demon attack routine) used a short-range hitscan attack. However, Hank Leukart's Official Doom FAQ states that misdirected melee attacks do happen and can trigger infighting. Aiming is not involved and therefore hitting another target by mistake is impossible.
#Fighting the monster within code
The source code reveals that melee attacks are impossible to misdirect the damage is directly inflicted on the target if it is within range. This concerns enemies such as Doom's demons and spectres Heretic's gargoyles, golems and sabreclaws Hexen's ettins, centaurs and stalkers and so on. Monsters that are melee attackers cannot initiate monster infighting by mistake. Code-wise, this is handled by a flag attached to the boss mobjs. Hanged Commander Keens do not have an attack mode of any sort, so they can neither provoke other monsters nor retaliate when they are damaged by projectiles.Īlso, in Heretic and Hexen, no monster will retaliate against "boss" opponents who accidentally strike them outside of the mass infighting detailed below. (This was not kept in PlayStation/ Sega Saturn Doom and Doom 64.)

Pain elementals, whose attack is carried by proxy monsters, cannot provoke other monsters, but will still turn on attackers if provoked.īarons of Hell and Hell knights have an immunity to each other's projectiles coded onto their mobj IDs. Arch-viles are easy to distract, as, unlike other monsters, their lack of a targeting threshold means they will always switch target when hit. This does not stop arch-viles themselves from targeting and damaging other monsters, though.

Monsters damaged by an arch-vile's attack will never retaliate because there is an exception in the source code that prevents other monsters from targeting them. Lost souls, being projectiles themselves, can damage other monsters found on their attacking path, likewise causing these to retaliate.
#Fighting the monster within plus
Monsters that have inaccurate, repeating, or blast-damage attacks ( zombiemen, shotgun guys, heavy weapon dudes, Wolfenstein SS officers, mancubi, arachnotrons, spiderdemons and cyberdemons) are particularly likely to cause infighting.Īny monster that fires projectiles (the previous plus imps, cacodemons, revenants, Hell knights, and barons of Hell) can be maneuvered into doing this. 6.2 Mass infighting in Heretic and Hexen.1 Monsters capable of causing infighting.
