Does anyone have universal hit-detection code that works reliably? My specific requirements are:

1. It detects any non-spell attack (arrows and melee) on any actor in the cell and returns the ref of the attacker
2. It picks up attacks made by NPCs as well as the player

I know that I can ref-walk and use getSoundPlaying to know who is being attacked, but detecting the attacker reliably seems to be a real puzzle. I also suspect that doing this for NPC attackers will probably have to use a different method than for PC attackers.

I assume that some of the combat mods out there (DR, etc) have solved at least part of this puzzle, but I thought I'd post here before trying to track down those modders individually.

(In case anyone is wondering, this is for a personal project that might turn into a new combat mod at some point.)

I'm working on something like this for OBSE 0019. It would allow you to register a function script as a handler for events like OnHit, OnDeath, etc. Example:

scn FnHandleOnHitEventref attackerref targetbegin Function { attacker, target }  Print $attacker + " attacked " + $targetend

scn SomeQuestScrbegin gamemode  if getGameRestarted    ; handle attacks by any actor on any other actor    SetEventHandler "OnHit" FnHandleOnHitEvent    ; or handle attacks by a specific actor on a specific actor    SetEventHandler "OnHit" FnHandleOnHitEvent ar_Map source::PlayerRef object::SomeActorRef    ; or handle attacks by a specific actor on anyone    SetEventHandler "OnHit" FnHandleOnHitEvent ar_Map source::PlayerRef  endifend

It is still in early development so usage might change, but I don't know of an existing foolproof solution.

Excellent news. I'm looking forward to the function.

Although it looks as though you'd have to set a separate handler for every attacker/victim pair if you wanted to capture the necessary information...

It's starting to look like I might have to go with one of the messy and inaccurate hacks out there already: using sounds, actor position and facing, animation state, etc to make a guess as to who just hit whom.

That's really a shame, since the game engine clearly has a way of detecting and recording the identity of attackers. I wish there were a way to access this data from the CS.

Not really. OBSE passes the attacker and victim as arguments to your callback. The array argument to SetEventCallback optionally allows you to filter for only specific actors; omitting it causes your callback to be invoked every time anyone is hit by anyone else. This means you will know who just hit whom without having to guess.

Aha. I've been out of the modding loop for so long that I never read the documentation on how OBSE functions work (didn't they come in in 0017 or something?) -- I'll go RTFM now

Anyway, that makes me even more excited. Thanks sw!

So is this actually usable with the OBSE 19 beta yet?

If it is, could anyone give some advice on how to use it please?

I'm on the same Hit-Detecting issue, if i track it with sounds (*Hit*), it will detect correctly, however when other actor is hitting the same actor then a misfire occur, the same happens with the health detection method, which in some circumstances will misfire too.

What i'm trying to implement on the game is, every time the player (or an actor with such ability) hits another actor it has a chance to "proc" an effect (Hah sorry for the WoW reference), what i mean with "proc" it's basically some effect happens either to the actor or the attacker. (say, a critical strike, bleeding, buffs, debuffs etc..)

The problems i'm having are the following

1.- The chance occurs like 10 times every Hit, (instead of once only).

Instead of
Player Hits the Actor -> 7% chance to inflict bleed for 60% average weapon damage bypassing armor over 6 seconds -> Player Hits the Actor -> 7% blah blah blah -> Player Hits the Actor...

what happens is
Player Hits the Actor -> chance to proc -> chance to proc -> chance to proc -> chance to proc -> chance to proc -> chance to proc -> chance to proc -> Player Hits the Actor - Repeats.

I tried to give a delay to the ability but, it eventually desyncs, ( if it is a rSomeReference.IsAttacking == 1 or some variant, attacking right, left, powerattacking, etc, it lasts the whole attack animation, this is expected, however animation durations are different for every attack so i cannot add an exact delay )

Sound detection it's basically the same issue, and the desync it's actually worse.

I tried something like

        if player.IsAttacking == 0 && player.IsPowerAttacking == 0 && Delay == 1                        set Delay to 0        endif	if player.IsAttacking == 1 && ( player.IsCasting == 0 && player.IsPowerAttacking == 0 )			set Target to GetCrosshairRef			if ( Target.GetCombatTarget == player )				if player.getdistance Target <= 90 && Delay == 0;                                       Some stuff is about to happen                                        set Delay to 1					endif				endif			endif	endif

But no dice, if you attack and actually stop, (IE, wait for the idle anim) it works, but if you like to press the assault it won't, seems the game is not able to actually tell when the next attack animation started and the last one ended.

Not to mention that since the hit methods misfire, suddenly when the player is finishing the attack animation (Or the hit souns is playing, or the actor's health is going down) but not hitting the actor anymore or attacking in any way, a proc occurs.

Maybe any of you have an idea that i didnt have, if you could share or give any advice i would appreciate it, if the OBSE 19 Beta method is somehow working then if someone could tell me how to implement it would be great...

And of course thanks for taking the time to read this.

The term Proc was coined several years before WoW was even a twinkle in its creators eye's !!! so its not a WoW reference, if anything its an RPG reference as I can remember multiple games MMORPG and RPG alike that use that reference.

The first and Obvious question is why are you not just using a Weapon with a scripted enchantment ? Set the Enchantment to "0" cost and it will never need to be recharged. Hit Detection works 100% as long as you do not One Shot the victim and if you do then who cares who the attacker was. All you have to do is have the script running on the victim to GetCombatTarget.

This is what I do and it works flawlessly, and does not require yet another gamemode script to be always running.

http://obse.silverlock.org/obse_command_doc.html#SetEventHandler, like Scruggsy said he was considering.

Something like this would work:

SCN OnHitProcEventHandlerArray_Var aProcRef rProcFunctionBegin Function { target, attacker }    If attacker.Call CanProc == 0        Return    EndIf    ForEach aProc <- ProcQuest.aProcFunctions	Let rProcFunction := *aProc        Call rProcFunction attacker target    LoopEnd

SCN ProcQuestScriptShort bInitialisedArray_Var aProcFunctionsBegin GameMode    If bInitialised	Return    EndIf    Let aProcFunctions := Ar_Construct Array    ;fill aProcFunctions with ref variables pointing to user-defined functions which will check eligibility (i.e. random percent in your case) and apply effect to target/attacker    SetEventHandler OnHit OnHitProcEventHandler ;object::PlayerRef ;uncomment if you only want to deal with attacks BY the player (recommended for speed)End

You don't have to use arrays or user-defined functions (except for the event handler), but that's my programming style.

Well then, how would I go about doing a script, that applies to every NPC and creature, that does this: OnHitWith by a lute-weapon (let's call it LuteWeapon for simplicity), a sound is played (let's call the sound "LuteWeaponSound")? How about when the lute collides with something when being wielded, I'd need the sound to play then too = Every time I hit something with it, be it either an NPC or a rock!

Oh yeah, excuse me, Picador, for invading this topic you started

For hits on actors: Add a scripted magic effect to the weapon.
Doing hit detection between weapons and static geometry like rocks isn't currently very doable.

@AvanZX: If this is only supposed to apply to specific weapons a scripted effect is your best option.
If it has to apply to any and all weapons, an event handler is probably the way to go.

@RandomSpecification: the event handler script needs to declare the attacker and target variables (both ref).

Indeed, why didn't I think of it before?


Darn!

Thanks

First thing first.

Thanks a lot everyone for the help and advice.

Saidenstorm, for some reason i didn't thought about using a script effect on weapons for hit detection, hah i don't know why, but after giving it a bit of thought i rushed to test it!

So i tried something like this, (Thanks to Appler, for i anolyzed your script to learn about SetNthEI)

short sInitshort sIndexref rCurrWeapref rCurrEnchref rTargetref rScriptfloat fQuestDelayTimebegin GameModeif sInit == 0	set sInit to 1	set fQuestDelayTime to .1	set rScript to aaHitEnScr	set rCurrWeap to player.GetEquippedObject 16	set rCurrEnch to GetEnchantment rCurrWeap	if GetWeaponType rCurrWeap < 4								if rCurrEnch == 0			player.SetEnchantment aaHitDetectEn rCurrWeap		else		set sIndex to AddEffectItem SEFF rCurrEnch			SetNthEIScript rScript rCurrEnch sIndex			SetNthEIDuration 1 rCurrEnch sIndex			SetNthEISName "Hit Detection Test" rCurrEnch sIndex		endif	endifendif	if rCurrWeap != player.GetEquippedObject 16		if rCurrEnch == 0														RemoveEnchantment rCurrWeap		else			RemoveNthEffectItem rCurrEnch sIndex		endif		set rCurrWeap to player.GetEquippedObject 16				set rCurrEnch to GetEnchantment rCurrWeap		if GetWeaponType rCurrWeap < 4									if rCurrEnch == 0				player.SetEnchantment aaHitDetectEn rCurrWeap			else				set sIndex to AddEffectItem SEFF rCurrEnch				SetNthEIScript rScript rCurrEnch sIndex				SetNthEIDuration 1 rCurrEnch sIndex				SetNthEISName "Hit Detection Test" CurrEnch sIndex			endif		endif	endifend

Enchantment!

scn aaHitDetectEnScrshort sDoOncebegin ScriptEffectStartif sDoOnce != 0	returnelse	printc "Hit Detected"	set sDoOnce to 1endifend

So my results so far.

The script runs fine, it detects with 100% accuracy when a hit occurs, now because SetEnchantment works with the object's base level if the player is currently wielding a Steel Longsword and is fighting a Guard (Or the Guard is fighting someone else) hits made from both of them will be detected, however i think by adding a check in the enchantment script effect or two this can be quickly fixed.

RandomSpecification, awesome, thanks i will test it right away!

I never used event handlers before so this is going to be interesting, and you already wrote the script, so i can anolyze it and test it in the CS.

scruggsy, thanks for the advice, i will see what would be best, i think an event handler would be able to detect unarmed hits right?, however i wonder if i would put an use to that, but i could expand the idea to cover unarmed hits as well, or abilities where hits inflicted to the user proc buffs, or debuffs, etc...

Sami_, im glad you found a way to get it working =D

Well there is some testing to be done, thank you very much again everyone for the help and advice