New Enemy AI

At the risk of being called a troll by the raving loons, I think it's server position related. I don't doubt that the A.I. is a lot more aggresive but the aggro issues, warping and enemies hitting you from far far far way all point to server lag or position screw ups.

There isnt always rubber banding but there doesnt need to be for it to be lag related. I think the A.I. is working fine, but because the aggro circles/positions arent working correctly, the A.I. won't work as well and so it's giving everyone tons of grief.

Wow, someone is getting way too overworked and thinking up blistering retorts to defend his point. Monster AI being able to follow me for the ENTIRE map of Ice Floe is NOT a server/lag/syncing/routing issue.

U know how i kno? cuz i didnt rubberband, i didnt get hit when i was supposed to be hit, i didnt teleport, the skills i was casting was in real-time, i was chatting in real-time with guildmates(which i shouldnt do when chestrunning there) with no lag time to see my post go up, i had -perf up so i was watching my up-down tranfer rate, and O did i mention earlier? THEY FOLLOWED ME ACROSS THE ENTIRE MAP. lol.

Server syncing issue is when the monster looks like it didnt aggro me but then all of a sudden they're either following me or hurting me. They hurt me when i aggro-ed them, they stopped hurting me when i ran outta there circle, and obviously when i ran them outta my radar. But wait! They still followed me across the whole entire map regardless, in the end of my run, i had 8-10 mursaat pursuing me from a distance around 1-2 cm away from my aggro-circle. Server issue? I hope not, cuz if thats the case, everyone would be teleporting left and right, rubberbanding around, but not the case tho.

Try it for yourself, and tell me thats a servers syncing issue.

Yes, something to remember people: Disagreeing with you != Troll.

Anyway, like I said in my post, I think some of these issues may be 'server position related', like the issues where people seem to be attacked by monsters over an aggro circle and a half away.

However, I doubt the issues with "hyper aggroing", as I will title it, are server position issues. Especially if you're running in the opposite direction the mobs are, like when trying to res and they seem to come from nowhere, headed straight for you. In those instances, it's pretty easy to tell there's no position problems, since the mob is running for a good while just to get to you.

If it was a position problem, they should be right up on you in no time, and attacking you (thus you taking damage/or being hexed, etc.), but appear to be several aggros away. Now that has happened, and that is a position problem. I'm saying what some people are describing here, I have seen, and it's easy to tell that it's definately AI issues... well, IMO.

Also, like I said, this has been around for quite a while. Not new. I have noticed that certain types of mobs, like Corsairs and Kournan Soldiers, for example, tend to have this "AI code", and others don't. It doesn't happen that often for me, but then again (not to brag), near-party wipes don't happen enough for me to tell.

I haven't personally run into the situations described where a mob will chase you for practically the entire zone. I did see that video, and it is funny, but it just hasn't happened to me. That's probably a bug, and it needs to be fixed. I also doubt that's a positioning issue, especially if as you run, you aggro other groups as well. That is a surefire way to tell that the server and your client know exactly where you are.

Try ice floe, use a Mo/R or Mo/W w/sb, run around the entire map, and watch how cozy those mursaat get to u.

Try running ANY area with a large amount of summits gnashers. Watch how long they keep up with u. Try it w/ avicara, watch them use their super rocket shoes keeping up with u when u stacked dodge w/ charge. The list goes on. Just go run around, youll see it.

sorry but i disagree, pvp is player vs player not player vs bot. anet should never have allowed ai into pvp areas because that defeats the essence of player vs player.

therefore, the ai belongs in pve where you face waves after waves of ai mobs. if anet intends the mobs to act intelligently and humanly, then rebalance the mobs in all pve maps. otherwise, the pve of gw quickly becomes frustrating which is the very core of everyone's complaints.

Actually, I believe there does. If you are desynched from the server eventually one of two things will happen -- either you will resynch, in which case you and/or the mobs will be put back to where the server believes them to be (id est, rubberbanded), or you will eventually freeze and/or 007 out.

Presumably to prevent any chance of cheating by playing with the client or datastream, the server is god. If it believes you are in position 'X' and the client says you are in position 'Y', you will be placed at position 'X', rubberbanded, no ifs, ands, or buts. Because of this, any significant desynch is pretty easy to detect.

Minor lag cannot explain the phenomina being observed and major lag would have clear and obvious sysmptoms that are absent. Given that, it's difficult to see how this could be a lag issue and not an AI issue.

Perfectly said; this post alone should be forwarded to the Anet devs. Bugs aside, this is exactly what I am seeing in PvE... it's becoming PvP vs bots with an entertainment value of the same... boring.

Edit: Problem here is that xXa1 is refering to the PvP becoming PvP vs bots, and many are seeing the same game play in PvE - this means, neither is as fun as it used to be... I can only speak for the PvE side, but from what you can read in the forums and read from in game chat, it seems all the game is becoming the same... play vs bots... not fun.

PvP vs bots? Thats what PvE is, mostly, players vs bots. I personally dont PvP, as I dont find myself having any interest in it, so I play PvE, always. I DO find it fun, and am not sure, except by (what Id consider) being highly analytical, delving into the deepest recess of the game mechanics, do people get the ability to make the AI(including new) "easy". Ive had the running away/following from radar range problems occasionally, but it hasnt seemed to make encouters more difficult, just more time consuming, which doesnt bother me too much, as long as it doesnt seem excessive. I also sure as hell havent really found that, redoing a mission(South Shiverpeaks on), it was easy. Its almost always around the same difficulty. A little easier, but never a pushover. The following all over the map needs to stop, as well as reducing the aggro bubble from radar size.

Ahh, but there's a huge difference between "bots" and coded mobs. What we have now is simply "bots". These remind me of wanna-be PvPers in FPS like CS Source... only, this AI is so simple it's more like Quake 3. Run around and avoid getting hit. It would work perfectly if you could attack/cast on the move, but here you can't. So it's a run-around.

A well coded mob for example would act like it is modeled. If it's a vicious looking creature, it should act like it. Right now, everything acts pretty much the exact same... and that is like a poorly coded PvP bot.

More difficult is what I guess I need. Right now it's so boring I'm considering un-installing the thing... and I just bought it... and I even weathered through Pool of Radiance 2 massively unplayable bugs and horrid frame rates... cause it was at least fun to play.

Anyway, yea I'm complaining and ranting... I'm just so bored and would love to be able to play this gorgeously made game.

I've failed kodonur crossroads so many times thanks this retarded AI due to the fact I have to babysit the ******* henches to keep them from leeroying into another god damn mob. I mean I like having better control over them but really I hate having to plant a damn flag with every single mob I fight -_-

*edit* should add I also have to run half-way across the map to break the aggro completely -_-

Make sure you have them set to guard and not attack. Henchmen really run off, even when set to a flag when they are in attack mode. I personally keep all heroes set to guard except for monks that are set to passive.

Heres the difference between AI trouble, and server-sync trouble...
This is not a server-sync problem.

This is a server-sync problem.

My latest weirdness:

Outside in Anjek, approaching a group of tightly packed Kournan Soldiers, 1.5 aggro circles away, the monk sees me and charges. Just the monk. He gets into my group (me +3 hero's) and we kill him VERY quickly (I don't know if he tries to run or not), suddenly, the rest of the group charges me.

Of course, now they are without monk.

This also happened to a group which had no monk, where their elementalist charged me.

*shrug* Me personally? I think there are AI issues, and I think they are tweaking rules on the servers (since there was no update between seeing this behavior and NOT seeing it the day before in the same zone).

But there ARE a lot of server-snych problems going on lately arent there? I was only wrong to say that all the A.I. problems are server synch issues.

Dude I've gotten the brunt of both. Like 25 or so server sync problems in the since NF started and its' really annoying. I've figured out how to avoid it, if I can remember though.

As for the AI, well that story I told and then the priests running right up to my mesmer and just standing there doing nothing. Why in the monkeys would the priest try to run past me? I don't get it. On Istan all the damn Skree's not letting me rez because they come running back it's not a constant occurrence but to often for me.

won't stop Devona Jenkins from running off

Lets just change it back... people will stop complaining.. I truly don't see anyone complaining about this beforehand.

oddly, I've been saying that for weeks. One only has to look back at the posts all over the net (not just here) and see very few people that post like the new AI.

Let's see. Pre-31st "fix"; mild complaints from hard core farmers that had to quickly adjust their builds. Post 31st "fix" - threads all over the net about the AI attempting to act like poorly coded PvP bots; mobs perm-locked on aggro; insta-monk aggro; mob monks running straight into your group from out of aggro range... the list goes on, yet Anet sits with a finger in it's nose doing nothing.

For some of us, the game is now nearly dead as the fun factor of an incredible release (Nightfall) has been completely ruined... I mean, it's no fun at all... in fact, it's flat out boring... look

I've completely stopped using non-hero melee henchies. They're simply not worth the grief now that they default to the "offensive" AI setting.

Yeah, Arkjok ward is hilarious.
I remember running to try to complete The Great Escape, and running into an open area, not seeing any monsters, and then I snapped back a couple of feet and I had 3 mobs running at me that weren't there before.
After dying and ressing myself, I zoned to see if it fixed. It didn't happen again, but instead, pretty much any mob I faced, ran towards me when my aggro bubble was about 1 1/2 - 2 full circles away from the mob.
Corsairs and Kournans are the WORST for this.
I also had an incident (and I think this was just lag) where I was starting off a new Dervish, and I was in Zehlon Reach, trying to fight these 3 warriors for some Sunspear guy, I forget the quest. Anyway, I got to the 3 enemies, they did their little chat thing, my aggro bubble was right on ALL of them, and when their names turned red, nobody attacked me, and I couldn't attack them, yet I could run around freely. So I tried to kill some skales. No dice.
Basically I just ran around Zehlon Reach, running through mobs hooing and hawing and absolutly NOTHING happened.
Contradictory incidences; in one, I get mauled from out of nowhere and then magically spotted though out of the enemies LoS by at least 1 1/2 circles. The other, I apparently entered /godmode and ran around through mobs while nothing happened, so I logged and stopped playing for the night.
I still can't get over how annoying the mobs in the Realm of Torment are either. I just can't catch a break. Fighting mobs there is ridiculous because one minute I'm succeeding and the next another random mob just appears out of nowhere and obliterates my team.
This on top of all the lame ass kiting that all the enemies do.
-Corsair Bosun is directly in aggro bubble.
*"I'm targeting Corsair Bosun"*
- Corsair Bosun stands and does nothing as everyone else engages in battle.
*Sprint at Corsair Bosun*
- Corsair Bosun crouches to attack ............. then flees! Yay!
*Sprint back to aggro group, force Koss to lock onto lame Corsair Bosun*
- Corsair Bosun and Koss engage in a flamboyant game of tag as you and the rest of your team continue to fight the rest of the Corsair mob!
*Corsair Cutthroat changes target from you to Dunkoro to Tahlkora to Dunkoro! Corsair Cutthroat wants to be like his little Bosun friend and engages in a second flamboyant game of tag with Tahlkora! Tahlkora fails to do her job ... because she's too busy flirting with Corsair Cutthroat!*
- Dunkoro tries feebly to heal everyone as Tahlkora engages in her sexual rampage! Tahlkora gets owned!
*Mob finally dies, Dunkoro ressurrects Tahlkora*
- Koss is nowhere to be seen! Hmmmmm.
*Call Koss back to group, 5 minutes later, Koss returns ............. Corsair Bosun follows! Good dog.*

The AI isn't as quite as cowardly as it was a couple weeks ago, at least for me anyways...before the casters would all run away just from having a warrior get near them, now they usually wait till they lose 20% health before they run away. I thought the AI update officially said that monsters will run away when their health is low? I wouldn't call having 80% health left a low-health situation. I do have warrior/ranger/dervish monsters that start running in circles when they are down to about 25% health now and I did not have that before.

I thankfully have not had monsters chase me across the whole map or monsters run straight at me and aggro when I am not anywhere near them, but I do believe people who report they have had those things happen to them. That's just really bad and needs to be fixed right away.

It seems like they are maybe still tweaking the AI, but they have a long way left to fix it so that it is reasonable. And I agree with people who wish the original AI was back, that AI was pretty great compared to the buggy AI we have now. I hope ANet finishes making the AI reasonable soon so that we can go back to enjoying the game as much as we used to.