Fire Walk

Wrapping up the fire system is likely more involved than I had originally thought. Isn't everything?

I was thinking this morning about making mobs flammable. A rat should avoid fire. This affects pathfinding. A rat that is hunting the player is blocked by fire - but how much fire? Should they risk the one square of flames? Should they plan a route that goes all the way around the dungeon to avoid the flames? What if they're actively on fire? Do they still avoid flame? Or suppose they aren't on fire and aren't hunting anything. They should still avoid flames, so they need to be constantly away of it and actively move away from it. But what if they become trapped by it?

I had originally thought that an intelligent entity on fire should just run randomly. But then I thought they should run randomly to squares not on fire - thus spreading the flames and behaving in a more realistic manner. But is it really?

• If not on fire:
  • avoid flames
  • paths to a goal should avoid fire
    • if no path exists, abandon goal
  • if adjacent to flames, move to a tile that is not adjacent to flames
    • if no such tile exists, move to tile without flames
      • if no such tile exists, stay still
• If on fire
  • run randomly to an adjacent tile that is not on fire?
  • drunken walk algorithm?
  • ping pong in straight lines off walls?
  • path directly towards player?

Well, at this point, there not much else to do but start tinkering with AI and pathfinding.