Improve Mob Behaviors, AI, Combat, Pathing a.k.a. Pathfinding

[Poikilos]

For a list of issues tied to kinetic combat, see the kc_modpack tag.

To see an explanation of some game concepts not used by Minetest, see a related article on my website: Kinetic Combat vs RPG-like Elements in Video Games.

Pathfinding or raycasting issues

(split into separate issues)

• Mobs walk/fly straight through walkable nodes. #481 mobs walk/fly straight through walkable nodes
• codermobs: Prevent Mobs from Attacking Through Corners - Can Harm Players But Should not #62 mobs can attack through two diagonally-connected blocks and harm players
• Mobs walk on top of other mobs. #520 Mobs walk on top of other mobs
• mobs appear to be lobotomized, pacing slowly for short distances, stopping every few nodes and staring #558 land mobs appear lobatomized, pacing back and forth then stopping and staring (flying mobs doing it is a separate issue because flying mobs (should) have entirely different pathing to be interesting at all unless whatever algorithm from which they both derive is made far smoother)
  • Flying mobs should soar instead of turning and stopping after only a few seconds #557 Flying mobs (same as issue 558 but for flying mobs)
• Animals don't always face the way they are walking. #560 Animals don't always face the way they are walking.
• Mobs glitch while moving up stairs--They move instantly at each step instead of having a smooth animation. #562 Mobs glitch when stepping up onto a node instead of moving smoothly.
• Mobs keep jumping even when the jump can't succeed. #573 Mob keep jumping even when the jump can't succeed.
• Mobs keep moving toward a small gap even though they can't succeed in moving through it. #574 Mobs keep moving toward a small gap even though they can't succeed
• Mob movement causes "rubber-banding" (mob movement and animation stutters) #484 Mob movement causes "rubber-banding" (mob movement and animation stutters)
• Add Sassy Villagers or Improve NPC Villages Mod #100 Add Sassy Villagers or Improve NPC Villages Mod

Animation Issues

(sub-issues required to fix the issue are indented)

• Blend between animation sequences. #362 Blend between animation sequences.
• Some animals moonwalk. A review of them is necessary. #559 Some animals moonwalk (The speed and possibly model needs to be adjusted so feet match the ground)
• Mob animation keeps resetting. #360 Mob animation keeps resetting.
  • Preserve the current animation frame when the old and new sequence have the same start and end. #561 Preserve current animation frame when changing state, if start and end are the same.
    • object:get_animation doesn't do what the documentation says. It gets the first table ({x, y}, that is, startframe and endframe) #563 API doesn't return the values documented in lua_api.txt

Ideas

The lists in the subsections below are all speculative.

Management (could be used by mods):

• stash mobs - unload them manually and provide a way to reload them #521

Animation Sequences

• intimidation (could be used for special abilities as well)
• crouching
• death

Particles

• per-player or CSM particles for optimization (restrict to player if related to character development [such as skill or item acquisition]?)

Sounds

• intimidation
• death
• Try the new sounds in Adventuretest's fork of PilzAdam's mobs.

Potential Existing Issues

• short animals (such as Giant Panda) cannot go through 1-block high openings even if the opening is on the ground level (possible allow this, and possibly allow climbing for certain mobs)
• A provoked mob that can't reach you (same scenario as above) keeps trying to get to you (maybe they should intimidate instead)
• If an Ent falls on your head they just stay there. You can attack them, but they can't attack you. Perhaps have them jump off and have a delay before attacking instead, so the technique remains but immersion is increased.
• (.net team wontfix) Client-side modification of player properties based on wielded item #8477
• Wrong wielditem scaling for different drawtypes #8281
• [Lua] Default wielditem entity size is inconvenient #7897
• Player emitting light abilities #6921
• Allow changing the angle/position of the “camera” that is used to create the wield image #7140

Post other ideas and issues as comments below. Thumbs up any comments you like (avoid duplicate comments so important ones get more Thumbs up)

[Poikilos]

This pathfinding video for Jordan4Ibanez' open_ai framework: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcvuV2tp4ps
seems to be related to this commit 8 days later: jordan4ibanez/open_ai@bab32b8