Why monsters won't attack the Arch-Vile?

[Gez]

6 hours ago, Li'l devil said:

What's next, you're gonna tell us that the berserk lasts for the entire level?

Or that you can't talk to the monsters?

[Maes]

18 hours ago, GarrettChan said:

Because they want to be in good relationship with the Arch-vile, so the Arch-vile won't intentionally not resurrect them because of the grudge.

 

You know, for a long time I was convinced that Archviles did precisely that, by not resurrecting monsters they killed themselves. I based this assumption on a single game, where an Archvile stubbornly preferred walking over2-3 corpses of monsters it had just killed and attacking me, rather than resurrecting them. It was a single instance, in a single battle.

 

OTOH, if you want a REAL challenge, try figuring out what's going on with the Pain Elemental ;-)

Edited July 22, 2021 by Maes

[CBM]

17 hours ago, Chopkinsca said:

I kind of feel like the archvile is a commander in the demon army. It probably has psychic powers, at least enough to stop any other demons from attacking it.

It is just weird that the archvile will attack any monsters at all.

And how does the archvile choose between resurrection, attack the player and attacking other monsters?

I think I will make sure that the Archvile in GZFreeDOOM will never attack a monster.

Edited July 22, 2021 by CBM

[Gez]

59 minutes ago, CBM said:

It is just weird that the archvile will attack any monsters at all.

Not just that, but it has special coding in that as well so as to always retaliate against the latest monster that offended him.

 

Other monsters have a sort of "cool down" that prevents them from switching target too often. But the flameboi didn't want to hear about any sort of "cool down", apparently in arch-vile culture it's an incredibly rude thing to say. (The polite greeting in arch-vile circles is "die in a fire", if you didn't know.)

[Grain of Salt]

On 7/21/2021 at 8:15 PM, rd. said:

For context: 

 

 

Sensible archvile decides to leave

[Pechudin]

On 7/22/2021 at 6:06 AM, Li'l devil said:

Damn, there are so many urban legends about Doom recently... What's next, you're gonna tell us that the berserk lasts for the entire level?

 

I mean technically Berserk does not last for the entire level, if you are willing to wait for a long time.

[printz]

On 7/21/2021 at 8:23 PM, Chopkinsca said:

I kind of feel like the archvile is a commander in the demon army.

That doesn't hold when how easily the Spider Mastermind, the purported commander of the entire Mars invasion, gets into infighting, usually fatal.

 

Other games, such as Heretic, are more careful to make their final bosses authorities on infighting.

 

Personally I would only attribute the Archvile's behaviour to rigid designer decision, without much rhyme about it. The id designers felt like giving him special status in many ways, in order to create a more intimidating and rare monster, especially as players became more proficient at Doom. All new Doom 2 monsters have something special about them, culminating with the Final Boss. Older monsters like the Baron and Spiderdemon were left as they were, turning into potentially joke monsters, especially the latter (all the times the Spiderdemon appears in Doom 2 are fun easy-kills). I would assume that id didn't want to retcon any of their old monsters, so even though Archviles have infighting authority, Cyberdemons still don't, even though it would have fit. But then, maps like MAP08 or MAP20 wouldn't have worked either!

 

So ultimately, despite what I said above, it may be balance reasons too, not just an arbitrary choice by id... But I don't feel like redacting my post.

Edited July 23, 2021 by printz

[ViolentBeetle]

They know he'll resurrect them eventually and healthier than ever.

[Chopkinsca]

4 hours ago, printz said:

That doesn't hold when how easily the Spider Mastermind, the purported commander of the entire Mars invasion, gets into infighting, usually fatal.

That's simple. The Spider Mastermind is such a slave driver that demons never give up a valid chance to try and take out their oppressive overlord.