Few question about enemy behavior

[Teal V2]

I'm currently making a sub and I wonder about how enemies decide what to attack.

I was using crawlers, husks and mudraptors to test the damage they do to the sub.

Is it normal that those enemies don't cause any harm to machinery, like pumps, battery or anything else?
Seemingly they only aggro for walls and crew.
They not even damage structures when they literally bite it by accident.

I am no expert to wild-life of barotrauma, but I thought those creatures can destroy any systems.

What can destroy systems? Only abyssal creatures?

[Aizuki]

the top priority enemy to attack :
1. people
2. glass wall
3. airlock door

enemy mostly not harming machine and electricity but the leak water inside sub will destroy most your system.

[FourGreenFields]

Originally posted by Teal V2:

Is it normal that those enemies don't cause any harm to machinery, like pumps, battery or anything else?

Yes, normal.

Originally posted by Teal V2:

Seemingly they only aggro for walls and crew.

Doors they damage as well. As well as flares and glowsticks.

They also "aggro" on a lot of other stuff, e.g. turrets with the light on (not normal lights and not searchlights), or active sonar beacons. But practically speaking they just "detect the sub" and then attack walls/doors.

Originally posted by Teal V29:

What can destroy systems? Only abyssal creatures?

EMP. Rare to get hit by it, but black molochs will cause it when attacking you.

[Teal V2]

Ouuhh..
So mostly water damages your systems and not enemies.
Your systems don't get damaged even by the hit of an endworm? So it just passes through, destroying walls and leaving all structures intact?

[FourGreenFields]

Originally posted by Teal V2:

So it just passes through, destroying walls and leaving all structures intact?

Large creatures can't enter the sub. So it hits the edge, destroys structures in an AoE, and leaves items/machinery undamaged (and creatures injured only due to the blunt force trauma they'll likely suffer).

[Teal V2]

Hm hm..
So, let us say.. If we wanted a battery to get destroyed, what options do we have?

1. Condition degradation due to exposed to water
2. Being close to edge of hull when large abyssal creature hits said hull (aoe damage destroys the battery)
3. EMP effects

There are no other ways to damage said battery, is that correct?

[FourGreenFields]

Originally posted by Teal V2:

2. Being close to edge of hull when large abyssal creature hits said hull (aoe damage destroys the battery)

That one won't work. For anything not also dealing EMP damage, that is.

[Teal V2]

Sheesh.
Why is it so difficult to make enemies cause damage to systems.
That way monsters only can render a sub immobile by making it full of water.
Seems I will need to stay with -plan B- to avoid invincibility.
But it would have been better if there had been a way for enemies to destroys systems, like batteries.

[DuckieMcduck]

Originally posted by Teal V2:

Sheesh.
Why is it so difficult to make enemies cause damage to systems.
That way monsters only can render a sub immobile by making it full of water.
Seems I will need to stay with -plan B- to avoid invincibility.
But it would have been better if there had been a way for enemies to destroys systems, like batteries.

Because a lot of people struggle with the game as it is. Most of the damage done to equipment happens by the operators themselves.

Early game, specially for new players, it's not uncommon for the game progress to go into a screeching halt after a few mudraptors flood a compartment which then proceeds to stay flooded and damage all the equipment while the crew scrambles for the next 15-20 minutes.

As the game progresses, eventually creatures stop being a problem and people learn not to set every battery to full charge then set the engine from 100 to neutral. Then you win.

[Bookslayer10]

Originally posted by Teal V2:

Sheesh.
Why is it so difficult to make enemies cause damage to systems.
That way monsters only can render a sub immobile by making it full of water.
Seems I will need to stay with -plan B- to avoid invincibility.
But it would have been better if there had been a way for enemies to destroys systems, like batteries.

Trust me, water deals so much damage to anything it's exposed to that enemies attacking systems wouldn't have any effect. It probably would make the game easier because they would be distracted killing random junction boxes instead of bursting through more doors and completely flooding the sub.

[simsyu]

You can artificially make items damageable through logics.
For example, I made a system that is meant to cut the power source to certain items within a same room while submerged in water. Which is pretty is simple to make with a relay and a water detector.
At least that's one way to look at it.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2950966394

Originally posted by Teal V2:

They not even damage structures when they literally bite it by accident.

I'm supposing that you tried out how monster AI works inside your sub?
Most enemies are useless while not in water, they're suppose to invade your sub while bringing in water.

Once inside your sub they won't actively try to break walls like when outside, they'll only be guided through sight and hearing. The only thing they'll target once inside are living beings, cadavers or doors/hatches depending on the monster AI in question.
So if you want them to bring more water in from the inside then place doors/hatches instead of walls here and there.

[Teal V2]

I was thinking about the manual damage system through water detectors and relays too, but dropped the idea for now. While it might "look like" what I wanted, it would be still not what I really wanted.

To make it simple, I'm making a drone. The drone has 360° vision around its center, so its walls are made out of glass, so turret can see through of it. Hulls are hidden behind the structures, so its little airlock cannot be seen.
Drone pic 1 [i.imgur.com]

When monsters damage the glass wall, it gets damaged and the airlock gets flooded with water, so it sinks after getting to much hit or when the glass wall completely breaks.
But, there is a little compartment with a separated Hull which has the battery in it.
Battery currently only can get damaged by water when either its side glass walls are broken or, when the airlock's walls are broken and water reaches high to reach the battery from below.
Drone pic 2 [i.imgur.com]

Above the battery there is no glass wall nor Gap, so water cannot flow, but you can repair the battery manually as a diver like that.

What I wanted to reach with this, leaving the battery vulnerable to get damaged by attacks, so it gets destroyed faster when is directly hit by enemies.

Currently -as we know it-, it only gets damaged by water. So, when it gets submerged, it rather acts as a countdown, because the rate of degradation is a fix amount while submerged.
This does not give the immersion of the drone getting more and more damaged by attacks, but rather "The drone got its main system damaged and will slowly stop working".

If to use water detector and relays to make systems shut down, I would just trigger events on specific condition levels, but the countdown would be the same thing.
Drone would not get "more damaged" by further attacks. Instead, your countdown just starts (cuz battery gets submerged) and your systems slowly stop working as its condition gets lower.

If enemies cannot damage the battery, then its condition never will get "damaged" by attacks. So you won't experience a sudden drop in condition to give the immersion of "I got hit, drone health decreased heavily!".

I added a little % meter to the wings which shows condition of battery on the left side, while charge on the right side.
When battery is submerged, the condition % slowly decreases like a countdown. It won't get worse by enemies directly biting around the battery's position, hitting it with their faces, etc.

[simsyu]

Knowing that items can be damaged through water, emp, and degradation.
You could artificially achieve this result by using a battery non interactable and a junction box that you'll repair instead of the battery.
Use a motion detector to let electricity go through the junction box when monster are in range so that it'll simulate the attack.
Then until the junction box is repaired, lock by a relay electricity coming from the battery.

This is a sloppy explanation, but there's a lot of steps to achieve this result, so if you don't get this idea through this then I'll upload the idea itself through the workshop.

[Teal V2]

Originally posted by simsyu:

Knowing that items can be damaged through water, emp, and degradation.
You could artificially achieve this result by using a battery non interactable and a junction box that you'll repair instead of the battery.
Use a motion detector to let electricity go through the junction box when monster are in range so that it'll simulate the attack.
Then until the junction box is repaired, lock by a relay electricity coming from the battery.

This is a sloppy explanation, but there's a lot of steps to achieve this result, so if you don't get this idea through this then I'll upload the idea itself through the workshop.

It might be sloppy but I understand what you say.
This might work, actually.

Thanks for the hint!

[simsyu]

Glad I could be of help!