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Enemies

The Enemy component turns any object into a reactive combat NPC: it senses players (and rival factions), chases them, attacks, patrols, flees when hurt, and can be killed and respawn — with no scripting. All of its behaviour runs on the server, so a modified client can neither move it nor fake its hits; every client just sees the synced result.

Quick start

Use Social Scape ▸ SDK ▸ Create Combat Enemy to drop a ready capsule enemy into the scene, then bake a NavMesh and press Play in the Test Player. Everything below is how to tune it.

Set it up

  1. Add Enemy (Add Component ▸ Social Scape/Enemy). It automatically adds Health (its HP + death response) and Network Transform (server-owned position sync) — you don't add those yourself.
  2. Give it a Collider (a Capsule Collider is fine) so players and weapons can hit it.
  3. Bake a NavMesh for the world (Window ▸ AI ▸ Navigation, or a NavMesh Surface). Without one the enemy is shootable but can't move — the inspector warns you if none is baked nearby.

That's the whole setup. The enemy guards its start point until a target comes into range, then chases and attacks.

Faction & targeting

Field What it does Default
Team Faction id, mirrored onto this object's Health. 0 = neutral. Enemies never attack their own non-zero team. 0
Attack Players Whether players are valid targets. Turn off for an enemy that only fights other factions. on

How factions fight: an enemy targets players (if Attack Players is on) plus any enemy on a different non-zero team. Two enemies on the same team ignore each other. Neutral (team 0) is a special case: factioned enemies never treat a neutral enemy as a rival, but a neutral enemy will itself hunt every factioned enemy. Give your monsters team 1, your town guards team 2, and they'll fight each other on sight.

Perception

Field What it does Default
Aggro Range Detects a target within this distance (m). 15
Lose Range Gives up once the target is beyond this. Keep it > Aggro Range so it doesn't flicker in and out. 22
Leash Range How far it will chase from its start before breaking off and walking home. 0 = no leash. 30
Require Line Of Sight Must actually see the target (a raycast) to notice it. Off = senses through walls. on
Line Of Sight Mask Which layers block sight (walls / level geometry). Default
Eye Height Where the sight ray starts, above the pivot. 1.6

Movement & attack

Field What it does Default
Move / Chase Speed Patrol/return speed vs. pursuit speed (m/s). 3.5 / 5.5
Turn Speed How fast it rotates to face its target (deg/s). 360
Stop Distance How close it gets before stopping to attack. Keep it ≤ Attack Range. 1.8
Attack Range Reach of an attack (m). 2.2
Attack Damage Damage per hit (applied and clamped server-side). 10
Attack Cooldown Seconds between hits. 1.2

Stop Distance must sit inside Attack Range

If Stop Distance is larger than Attack Range, the enemy halts before it's close enough and never lands a hit. The inspector flags this.

Damage is server-authoritative

Like every other source of damage, the enemy's hits are applied by the server against the target's Health (or a player). Hitting a player still respects the world's PvP rules for weapons, but an enemy's melee is part of your world's rules and always lands when in range.

Flee, patrol & death (optional)

  • Flee Below HP % — when its health drops under this fraction it runs from its target (and returns to the fight if it heals back up). 0 = never flee, fights to the death.
  • Patrol Points — a list of transforms it walks in order while idle, looping back to the first. Empty = guard the start point.
  • On Death —
    • None — stays down where it died (its Health On Death response still runs).
    • Respawn — returns to its start at full HP after Respawn Delay seconds.
    • Despawn — disappears.

Respawn needs a non-destructive death

Pair Respawn with a Health On Death response that doesn't destroy the object — a Destroy action can't be undone, so a destroyed enemy can't come back. Ragdoll / hide / play-audio responses are fine.

Animation (optional)

Bring your own Animator + controller and name the parameters here — every client drives it from the server's motion and combat beats. Leave any name empty to skip it.

Param Type Driven when Default name
Speed Float Set to the enemy's current move speed each frame — blend idle / walk / run. Speed
Attack Trigger Trigger The instant it attacks. Attack
Hurt Trigger Trigger It takes damage but survives. Hurt
Death Trigger Trigger It dies. (empty)
Respawn Trigger Trigger It respawns. (empty)

Death & Respawn are off by default

Death Trigger and Respawn Trigger start empty so they don't double up with a Health On Death animation. Set them only if you want the Animator (rather than a Health response) to play the death/revive.

Testing

Add the SDK Test Player (Social Scape ▸ SDK ▸ Create Test Player) and press Play — the enemy's server AI runs in the editor, so it will chase and attack you. (In the live game the same AI runs on the game server.)

Known limits

  • A baked NavMesh is required for movement. No NavMesh → the enemy is shootable but stationary.
  • Keep enemy object names unique within a scene/parent. Two enemies with the same name under the same parent share one network identity, so damage and animations can land on the wrong one. (This applies to any Health object.)
  • Enemies spawned at runtime by a script (rather than placed in the world) may not animate until the platform learns their identity; enemies you place in the world always do.

Beyond the component

Enemy covers the common cases with no scripting. For behaviour it doesn't — a custom state machine, a scripted boss phase, your own targeting rules — run a NexusScript on the server with a Server Script so your logic is authoritative and can call Combat.* / Health.*.

Component class names (for scripts and search): SSEnemy.