trigger enemies to start attacking

How can I make some grunts not start attacking until a trigger is activated (That being, a mulimanager tagets them or a trigger relay)?

hmm that is pretty tricky. What you could do is have a set grunts with the 'friendly' flag checked and a set without and when the time is right teleport the friendlies out and the enemies in. It would be hard but you MIGHT be able to make it look seamless. Then again somebody might have a much easier answer for you.

There's a friendly flag? I don't have that... And I'm sure I have the up-to-date FGD (HL3x)

might be "prisoner" or "pre disaster" flag or something like that on your smartedit screen, fizscy

Oh, prisoner and gag in flags work.

Well, I gave it a shot, the problem is that you can't choose the grunts face like you can with scientists, and some have masks. So the effect may occationally randomly work.

Is it possible to change flags using a trigger_changetarget maybe (Since the flags run on a value as well that defines which boxes are checked)

No change target is for paths....what you could do is make your grunts on a scripted_sequence with an action like idle# and then I think there is an option in scripted_sequence that turns the AI back on, which will make them start attacking again.

Change target can change any value in the keys tab (Using its killtarget value as the key you want to change)...

I've never seen that, unless if the enemy AI is set to ambush by the scripted sequence makes them not attack until its changed back to default AI

Haven't tried the scripted thing but it sounds interesting.

The simplest way is prolly to put a func_wall_toggle around each grunt, set Render mode to texture and FX to 0. This creates an invisible wall which monsters won't shoot thru. Target the wall with a trigger_once to make it disappear and allow grunts to shoot. The downside is that shooting at the wall will create sparks, players might also be able to kill monsters thru the walls but i haven't tested this.

Jfrys suggestion also sounded like he was on the right track - use an env_sprite with Sprite field set to the grunt model and a monster_maker to create a grunt that shoots. Target both entities with a trigger so that the sprite is turned off and the grunt spawned. Would also need a func_wall_toggle to cover the Sprite grunt to stop players walking thru it.

Theres maybe smarter ways of doing it but nothing comes to mind...

Sprite = 2-d.

As for the func_wall_toggle, wouldn't the grunts try shooting the player through it? If not, I'm ok (Player has no bullet guns until after they start attacking)

A sprite is 2D, but you can set an env_sprite entity to display a model, and it will therefore be a 3D model that is put in game. Not sure if that is still supported by the newest FGD and hammer version though, I thought it was prone to cause crashes though perhaps that can be rectified through some FGD tinkering.

Would one of the cycler entities work instead? I'd blow up Half-Life if I fiddled with the the FGD (I know they aren't connected, but it'd happen anyways!).

Sprite = 2-d.

Like Reno said - can be used for models, not sure if it crashes HL tho' ? Its maybe better to only use the func_wall_toggle as its got less chance of messing up.

As for the func_wall_toggle, wouldn't the grunts try shooting the player through it? If not, I'm ok (Player has no bullet guns until after they start attacking)

i just played around with a little test map and func_wall_toggle works fine - blocks player visibility so grunts don't shoot. Also tried a func_breakable but they see thru that :smile:

cycler_sprite instead of env_sprite should also work ok.

A few posts up you said you couldn't set the face of the grunt, right?

Well, that is possible... Go
into SmartEdit mode, add a key named 'body' and apply a value to it.
The value corresponds with a combination of the grunts submodels. Just
play around with that a bit.

Beer Hunter's answer seems to work the nicest