How do I make a stationary boss start moving while still showing as stationary until then? Why can’t my stationary boss move after I change their AI?
First of all, this question assumes that you’ve installed the patch for nullifying movement range display for stationary enemies, which comes automatically with SkillSys and can also be installed standalone. If you haven’t, please do so, it’s one of the most essential quality-of-life patches in the community.
Now then, at this point you probably know that the stationary movement range display patch checks for the AI4 field being set to “do not retreat/boss AI”. With the patch, this sets the stationary unit’s mov to 0, causing their attack range to properly show them as immobile when checked. If you want them to start moving on a later turn, all you have to do is change that AI setting. Simple, right? Here’s the catch: the vanilla “change AI” command, despite having a slot for an AI4 value, can’t actually change AI4, only AI1 and AI2, and even if AI1 and AI2 are changed to be aggressive, stationary AI4 still nullifies their ability to move with the stationary move range display patch. To fix this, use the Set Unit Status patch to overwrite AI4 instead.