YAAIT (Yet another AI Thread)

Yes. The particular area I am speaking of has been in Factions for as long as I can remember. But surely if they can fix it from happening here, then it will fix the later occurences as well, that is if it is AI based and not based on the area some how...


Here is a link to the vids:

http://hosted.filefront.com/Livingston7/

View them from the earliest vid # up.

Here is a little run down of the vids:

This takes place at the Jade Brotherhood guildhall area in the Wajjun Bazaar, at the first bridge that connects to it. As far as I know it only happens at this bridge.

I broke down the video as the first one I recorded of the whole thing was 500+ in MB, so I figured it would be better to take out unnecessary bits.

I've also increased the size of my radar so it is clear on the vid.

Gw_6.avi: This vid starts the second my last henchmen dies. You see that as this happens I back away, turn around and run away. They begin to chase me as is normal. I then activate [skill]"Charge!"[/skill], and they brake aggro and start going off in the other direction, also as is normal.

I run a good amount of distance away and stop. They then automatically turn around and start coming for me again, even though I am way out of their aggro range. Now I have had this happen countless times in other places, but I've always considered this a kind of quirk of using run skills to brake aggro, as they kind of force the break, but it doesn't stick until you are very far away or they have returned to their normal area.

I liken it to someone chasing someone who has just jumped into a car and peeled out. Once they hit second gear, you know you ain't gonna catch em, so there's no point. However, if you only drive 20 feet and stop they are going to be right back on top of you.

As I said, this isn't really abnormal, but it does seem that I ran quite a far distance for them to suddenly resume aggro. However, it's the next bit that gets me.

Gw_7.avi: I've stopped the video for a bit as I ran a longer distance away and once more broke aggro to a degree where they stopped chasing me and headed back home even when I was standing still. So this is NOT a case of continuos aggro chasing me down.

As the vid begins I have one of the chasers highlighted. You can see his name off in the distance as they run over the bridge back to where they were.

You can see one of the mobs on the very edge of my radar, but the one I am targeting is completely gone from it. The mob even goes far enough away from me that he no longer shows up as my target. I am standing still the entire time. I could have in fact stayed there for another 5 mins or more, but I didn't want to waste time on the vid and thus increase it's file size. Anyway, as you can see, as soon as I take a few steps closer towards these mobs that are no longer on my radar or even in targetable range, they immediately start coming back for me. I only took approximately 6 steps towards them, and they start coming back for me. Note also that the one mob that had remained on the edge of my radar did not start coming back with the other ones. So I do not believe this is a result of the mob on the edge of my radar "sensing" me. And for those who aren't watching the clips, when I say radar I mean radar, not the white aggro bubble inside of the radar.

Gw_8.avi: Here I am standing in the exact same place as I was when they started across the bridge. The only think cut out was part of their travel across the bridge. You can verify this by the position of the building shadow to my left.

If you are low on bandwidth or have a slow connection you can skip from 7 to 9, as this video only shows a bit of the travel the mobs make from the end of 7 to the beginning of 9.

You can also once more note that the group of mobs that were on the edge of my radar are still stationary.

Gw_9.avi: This shows them on me as I turn and use charge once more. They get in a few shots and then aggro brakes again. However, another interesting thing has occurred. One of the mages has turned and ran only a very short distance after I broke aggro and he then stops, and doesn't follow the other's back. The first time I filmed this there were two that remained...

Gw_10.avi: Now that I have travelled even further back enough to brake their aggro again at a place that was no where near the bridge, and nearly back to where the area begins (which I note that the same thing does indeed happen even if you go back to the very beginning or even further away from the area than that) I wait a good bit of time to allow them to return to their original spawn area, then after hitting the area where I was before, having the Jade guild area at the top of my radar, the mage that was left behind starts attacking me and sure enough the others are on their way back as well. As you can see, when they appear on my radar they are already in the process of coming back for me, so they actually began to come back even before they were on my radar again. And no this isn't a result of the left behind mage either, as they do the same thing even when one isn't left behind, and they had clearly began to come after me before the left behind mage had hit my aggro bubble again.

Let me know if you need anything else to confirm this and I will be more than happy to comply.

Livingston

Though I didnt take the time to watch those vids, i'm sure they are as you said. Hope Gaile see's this post and shows that to the dev team.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, one of the places i've had something similar happen is when farming trolls quite awhile back. I would unaggro some trolls that followed me up to the cave, but if I moved back within radar range of their original spawn location, they would re-aggro and come for me.

It still might be a "sensing" thing, as I dont think its related to which mob you have targeted, but which mob has you targeted. If Im reading it wrong, Im sorry, but thats how Im understanding it.

Great vids, they clearly show the problems that we all have been experiencing

As for video 10 it's normal that behavior, it has been like that since ages. If you aggro one of the foes of a mob you'll aggro the whole mob, and since that mage belongs to that mob it will aggro the whole mob. Now the strange behavior is the mage being stuck there and not returning before with his mob.

No, I wasn't saying that the fact I had one targetted had anything to do with it. Me having that one targeted was simply to show how incredibly far away the mob was when it re-aggroed - so you could see exactly where it was on the radar and see that it even went far enough away to drop out as a targetable mob.

Yeah I know. The mage getting stuck was what I was pointing out. That's why I said that the mob would come back when I hit that point, even if the mage wasn't there. Anyone can easily replicate everything in that vid, it does it with out fail.

Livingston

some AI "problems" can be worked around the running monks are easy to counter, by targetting another low armor target, then get your melee attacker behind the priest to prevent him to flee in that direction. In this way i reduce the kiting by enemy monks dramatically.

The problem that really annoys me is that my monks are running instead of kiting, and that henchies are too aggresive once in a while, ignoring calls or running of to their own agenda, however that makes them "more human"