Dungeon Master Documentation
Monster Artificial Intelligence
The intelligence of the DM monsters is contained almost wholly in a function named ProcessTimers29to41. As the name implies, it processes timer entries of type 29 through 41. The original function was a mass of spaghetti code with gotos all over and even into the middle of 'while' loops and god-knows-what. See Shape of Original AI Function . In an attempt to understand monster behaviour I first decided to unravel this function so that it could be drawn on 2-dimensional paper. As I redrew the function, I rewrote it, often duplicationg code and turning large pieces of it into separate functions (albeit with terrible-looking parameter lists). The results are seen at First Approximation, Second Approximation, and Third Approximation. After each small step I replayed three complete DM games and one rather long CSB game to make (kinda) sure I had not changed the actual operation of the function (I caught several mistakes this way).
Then I began adding some trace code, enabled with the Misc Menu item 'MonsterAI Trace'. The trace is intended to be used as follows:

1. Play a game with recording enabled.
2. Identify some part of the game that contains curious monster behaviour.
3. Edit the recording and enable the AI trace (#AITraceOn-#AITraceOff) during the curious behaviour.
4. Replay the game to get the trace listing.
5. Edit the trace listing to delete all monsters other than the one of interest.
6. Study the trace listing in combination with the flowcharts to see what is happening.
7. Ask Paul to fix the flowcharts, fix the trace, explain the strange nomenclature.
8. Repeat at step 4 until full understanding is obtained.
9. Add a section to this documentation to make the new understanding public.

The entire sequence of steps ought not to take more than a couple of months. Then you can begin studying another curious behaviour. The first thing I wanted to see was how simple movement was accomplished in monsters on a level different from the party level. It taught me several things. See Simple Movement on Non-party level.
Here are some 'sub-problems', starting with the simplest.

- Simple Movement on Non-party level.
- Monsters on same level as party but far away