Overview§
This page is the result of the work of several people. It contains the data extracted from the creature descriptors found in graphics.dat item 559.
Please go to Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back Graphics.dat Item 559 for the documentation of these descriptors and credits for people who helped decoding the data.
Definitions§
This section describes each column in the data table below.
- Creature name DM / CSB
- The names of each creature as found in game data files (Dungeon Master for Amige 3.6 and Chaos Strikes Back for Amiga 3.5). All names are provided in English, but French and German names of Dungeon Master only creatures are nowhere to be found and indicated with ???
- Creature View Index
- This is an index in a table from item 558 (Bytes 0833-1156 - Creatures graphics definitions). The values are identical to the creature numbers, but this is not mandatory.
This value uniquely identifies a creature type. - Attack Sound Ordinal
- If this value is 0, the creature does not have an attack sound. Otherwise, the value - 1 is used as an index in the ‘Creature attack sound definitions’ table.
- Size
- Defines the size of the creature on the floor. Value 0 means there can be 4 creatures per tile (like Screamers), value 1 means there can be 2 creatures per tile (like Worms) and value 2 means there can be only one creature per tile (like Dragon). Value 3 is not used.
- Side Attack
- The creature does not need to face the party to attack. This flag is set only for creatures that have the same image for all sides. It affects their attack frequency because they don’t need to turn to face the party before attacking.
- Prefer Back Row
- The creature will tend to stay in the back row while other creatures will step up to the front row when the party is near and they want to attack.
- Attack Any Champion
- If this flag is set, the creature can attack any champion in the party, even the ones in the back.
If both ‘Prefer back row’ and ‘Attack any champion’ flags are clear, the creature will move to the front row of its tile. In other cases the creature has a 25% chance of moving to the front row. - Levitation
- If this flag is set, the creature can pass over pits without falling.
- Non Material
- If this flag is set, the creature is non material. These creatures ignore normal attacks but take damage from the ‘Disrupt’ action of the Vorpal Blade. If the creature is not immune to fire, Fireball and Lightning Bolt damage is divided by four. All missiles except ‘Weaken Nonmaterial Beings’ pass through these creatures (this is hard coded). These creatures can pass through all doors of any type.
- Height
- Height of the creature. This value is also used to define how to animate a door that is closed upon the creature:
- ‘0’: the door is not animated and stays fully open. The creature still takes damage.
- ‘1’: the door is animated from the top to 1/4th of its size. This applies to tall creatures like Mummies.
- ‘2’: the door is animated between 1/4th of its size to half of its size. This applies to medium sized creatures like Screamers.
- ‘3’: the door is animated from half of its size to 3/4th of its size. This applies to small creatures like the Worm.
Notes: This value is ignored for non material creatures and the door always closes normally without causing any damage to such creatures.
Projectiles cannot fly over creatures, even the small ones.
- Drop Things
- If this flag is set, the creature will drop some items when it is killed.
- Keep Thrown Sharp Weapons
- When this flag is set, the creature can absorb some items when they are thrown at the creature (like the Mummy). The list of items that can be absorbed is hard coded in the program (Arrow, Slayer, Poison Dart, Throwing Star and Dagger). If a thrown item is not absorbed by the creature, it falls on the floor (it is never destroyed).
This is not linked to the ability of the Giggler to steal items in champion hands which is hard coded. - See Invisible
- When this flag is set, the creature can see the party even if it is under the effect of the ‘Invisibility’ spell.
- Night Vision
- When this flag is set, the creature can see the party in darkness because it ignores the sight range reduction caused by low light levels in the dungeon.
- Archenemy
- When this bit is set, the creature never takes any damage (health is not decreased), it can teleport up to two tiles away, it ignores the effect of ‘Freeze Life’ and it cannot move to a tile containing a Fluxcage.
- Invisible on magic map
- When this bit is set, the creature does not appear on the magic map when using the ‘Oh Gor Ku’ spell. This is only used in Chaos Strikes Back versions where the magic map is present, that is all versions except the Atari ST versions.
- Additional
- This value is used to define if new mirrored and scaled images should be generated for the creature. Possible values range from 0 to 3 but only values 0 and 1 are used in the games. Value 1 is set for all creatures where the ‘Flip Non Attack’ flag is set.
- Flip Non Attack
- When this flag is set, the creature front image is periodically mirrored horizontally for animation. This flag is also used in the code that manages creatures behavior.
- Side
- The creature has a side graphic.
- Back
- The creature has a back graphic.
- Attack
- The creature has an attack graphic.
- Special D2 Front
- If this flag is clear, use the front bitmap to draw the creature at D2 when viewed from the front.
If this flag is set, use the next flag to determine which bitmap to use to draw the creature at D2 when viewed from the front - Special D2 Front Is Flipped Front
- If this flag is clear, use dedicated bitmap to draw the creature at D2. This is never used in the games and was not fully implemented.
If this flag is set, use the flipped front image to draw the creature at D2 when viewed from the front
- Flip Attack
- When set, for each attack, the attack image is displayed either normally or mirrored.
- Flip During Attack
- When not set, the attack image is displayed both normally and then mirrored during a single attack.
- Maximum Horizontal Offset
- Defines the maximum horizontal offset range to display the creature graphics. The exact value is randomly chosen in the range.
- Maximum Vertical Offset
- Defines the maximum vertical offset range to display the creature graphics. The exact value is randomly chosen in the range.
- Movement Ticks
- This is the number of clock ticks (1/6th of a second) per movement, defining the movement speed of the creature. This is the minimum of time required between two movements. If the value is 255 then the creature cannot move at all.
- Attack Ticks
- This is the number of clock ticks (1/6th of a second) per attack, defining the attack speed of the creature. This is the minimum amount of time required between two attacks.
- Defense
- This is the resistance to damage including Dispell on non material creatures.
- Base Health
- This value is used to compute the health of a new creatures as detailed on Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back Creature Generators.
- Attack
- The base value for computing how much damage a creature’s attack will inflict.
- Poison Attack
- The amount of poison inflicted when the creature successfully hits a character.
- Dexterity
- This value represents the difficulty for champions to hit the creature.
- Sight range
- Maximum number of tiles between creature and party needed to see the party. This applies only if the creature is facing the party. This value is affected by the current light level in the dungeon (the value is halved for each level of darkness).
Note: the sight range of the Black Flame creature was decreased in engine versions 3.1 and above (from 4 to 2) - Hear range
- These values are present in all versions. Engine versions before 3.1 do not use them at all. Engine versions 3.1 and above use it when the party stands next to a creature that cannot see it.
- Smell range
- Maximum number of tiles between creature and party needed to detect and “turn” towards the party, perhaps to shoot a projectile. This applies even if the creature is not facing the party.
- Attack Range
- Maximum number of tiles between creature and party needed to perform a distance attack (cast a spell).
- Attack resistance
- These values are present in all versions but never used.
- Fear resistance
- Used during tests to see if a creature group decides to flee after at least one member of the group was killed, or when the party uses War Cry, Calm, Brandish, Blow Horn orConfuse. With a value of 15, the creature is never afraid.
Note: the fear resistance of several creatures was increased in engine versions 3.1 and above (Giant Scorpions, Couatl, Materializer/Zytaz, Water Elemental, Lord Chaos, Red Dragon, Lord Order, Grey Lord). - Experience
- This value is used as a multiplier to compute the experience earned by champions when killing the creature.
- Intelligence
- If this value is greater than or equal to 10, then the creature will not step into a teleporter if its destination is on a level where that kind of creature is not allowed. If the value is less then 10, the creature may enter such a teleporter and would then be instantly killed upon arrival at the destination.
Note: the developers probably designed something more complex with this value, but it is only used as a flag in the code (by comparing the value with 10). - Magic resistance
- These values are present in all versions but never used.
- Fire resistance
- Resistance to Fireball and Lightning Bolt explosions. Value 15 means the creature is immune.
- Poison resistance
- Resistance to magical spells involving poison. Value 15 means the creature is immune.
- Behavior update after attack ticks
- The amount of time while the attack graphic is displayed.
- Non attack aspect update ticks
- Used for creature graphics animation. Probability of left/right mirroring and slightly changing its screen position when the creature is in front of the party and not attacking. Value 15 means there is no animation.
- Next attack aspect update ticks
- Used for creature graphics animation. Probability of left/right mirroring and slightly changing its screen position when the creature is attacking the party. Value 15 means there is no animation.
- Wound Probability Feet
- Wound Probability Torso
- Wound Probability Legs
- Wound Probability Head
- These values are used to compute the probabilities of wounding champions
- Attack Type
- The type of attack that the creature performs. See Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back Attacks and Defenses
Values§
Legend:
✓: Yes, True, Set
✗: No, False, Clear
(a) applies to the versions:
- Dungeon Master for Atari ST 1.0 English (1988-12-08, no version number visible)
- Dungeon Master for Atari ST 1.0 English (1988-12-11)
(b) applies to the versions:
- Dungeon Master for Atari ST 1.1 English
- Dungeon Master for Atari ST 1.2 English
- Dungeon Master for Atari ST 1.2 German
- Dungeon Master for Atari ST 1.3 French
- Chaos Strikes Back for Atari ST 2.0 English
- Chaos Strikes Back for Atari ST 2.1 English
(c) applies to the versions:
- Dungeon Master Demo for Apple IIGS 1.4 English
- Dungeon Master for Apple IIGS 2.0 English
- Dungeon Master for Apple IIGS 2.1 English
- Dungeon Master Demo for Amiga 2.0 English
- Dungeon Master for Amiga 2.0 English
- Dungeon Master for Amiga 2.0 French
- Dungeon Master for Amiga 2.0 German
- Dungeon Master for Amiga 2.1 English
- Dungeon Master for Amiga 2.2 English
- Dungeon Master for Amiga 2.2 German
- Dungeon Master for FM-Towns 2.0 English
- Dungeon Master for FM-Towns 2.0 Japanese
- Dungeon Master for PC-98 2.0a Japanese (version 2.0 visible in dialog boxes, contains DMSTART3.EXE)
- Dungeon Master for PC-98 2.0b Japanese (variant, version 2.0 also visible in dialog boxes, contains DMSTART4.EXE)
- Dungeon Master for X68000 3.0 Japanese
(d) applies to the versions:
- Chaos Strikes Back for Amiga 3.1 English
- Chaos Strikes Back for Amiga 3.1 English, French, German
- Chaos Strikes Back for Amiga 3.3 English, French, German
- Chaos Strikes Back for Amiga 3.5 English
- Chaos Strikes Back for Amiga 3.5 English, French, German
- Dungeon Master for Amiga 3.6 English, French, German
- Chaos Strikes Back for FM-Towns 3.1 English
- Chaos Strikes Back for FM-Towns 3.1 Japanese
- Chaos Strikes Back for PC-98 3.1 Japanese
- Chaos Strikes Back for X68000 3.1 Japanese
- Dungeon Master for PC 3.4 English
- Dungeon Master for PC 3.4 English, French, German
Hardcoded abilities§
Hardcoded abilities are defined in the game engine itself and not in data files. It means that you cannot edit the data files to give these abilities to other creatures or to remove these abilities from the creatures defined in the code. Of course this could be done by hacking the code itself, but this would not be an easy task.
The ability of Gigglers to steal items from champions’ hands is hardcoded.
Any creature can walk through illusionary walls if it saw you doing so (depending on its sight range). [Tested by Adamo]