Dragon Fogel
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File: Slayer bug.hold (850 bytes)
Downloaded 40 times.
License: Public Domain

In the attached hold, the slayer starts near a soldier behind a door. He wants to open the door to reach his target, so he sends his wisp there.

However, get Beethro close to him and lead him to somewhere else in the room using close-range manipulation. Now get Beethro far enough away that the slayer no longer uses close-range tactics. The slayer goes for the orb, even when Beethro is close enough to be his target. I didn't test this with a pressure plate, but that probably works in the same way.

Now, there's behavior where Halph and slayers don't recalculate paths unless something gets in the way, and this has been used in published rooms. It's weird but we basically decided to accept it. But in this case, the slayer's path can be interrupted and he'll still go for the orb even if he has a target, and that feels like maybe it shouldn't happen.

Proposed fix to this behavior: in this situation, the slayer will target the orb until he has reason to evaluate another path. At that point, he will not keep going for the orb if he has a path to his current target.

This is a pretty specific edge case that I only found because I was messing with a room idea where a slayer and soldier have a path to each other after a door opens, so even though I know we're wary of changing slayer behavior, I don't think this would break any rooms.

hyperme
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My thoughts for this situation are that if something steps on the wisp and/or the wisp catches something, that should cancel the Slayer's door opening state. The current behaviour feels like an oversight, since Slayers open doors in order to reach something they want to kill. If a valid target is on the wisp, no door opening is necessary.

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hyperme
Level: Smitemaster

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Some demo testing has been done with the change to make Slayers resume chasing if a target steps on their wisp while they are in the door-opening state.

In a pleasant surprise, it appears that only demos in a few rooms were affected:

Tar Ballroom: The Twist: Entrance
Buried Dungeon: Ruins: 3 North
The Twelve Days of Christmas: How to Build a Room: 11 East
The Twelve Days of Christmas: Lazy Architect's Basement: 1 East

All of these rooms had at least one non-failing demo, so it looks like the change doesn't break any rooms. To me, this suggests the change is okay to go through with.

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mrimer
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PR 877 (thanks, hyperme!)