Stefan's attitude

What has happened to Stefan?

Is it his hormones, does he have some profound and unresolved personal issues or has he just had 10 pints of lager?

Before the last update he was obedient and restrained. He never ran off alone. He stayed close and backed off when a distant enemy was 'pulled'. He followed targets closely.

But now.... he's off. CTRL+space, CTRL+space I spam: 'Come Back', I shout, 'attack the target', 'stop soloing'. But he doesnt hear. Then he's dead and has aggro'ed 3 angry mobs. 30 seconds later we're all dead... or still running.

I've used hench for the last 3 months without this happening but the latest attempt at Elona Reach (normally not a problem) was near impossible due to Stefan's soloing!

Have A'net tweaked the AI to make it more 'realistic'?

It is cetainly more human and almost entertaining - it's just like being in a PuG! All we need now is for him to start sketching genetalia on the mini-map.

[All we need now is for him to start sketching genetalia on the mini-map.]

ROFLMAO!

Yeah, I noticed that when he dies now he just keeps spamming, "OMFG rez me u n00b!" to Alesia. A definite advance in realistic AI.

And there was me thinking that Stefan just had a problem with me...

Nice to know I'm not being persecuted by the tyrannical little fighter...

hey, man, dont get mad with him just cause some buxom warrior woman has ditched him for a Monk or a Mesmer boy....

Poor guy, he probably has a case of Rurik Syndrome....thats where you rush headlong into fights that you are sure you will get wholloped in, just cause your in the frame of mind of 'lets join the ancestors', or your so hung over from last nights drinking session that death is a blessed releaf from that Charr pounding on your head all the time (something i think Orion often does....i think a res clears your head out...)

just point him towards some lovely lass that you know int attatched or seeing anyone, pass him some Alchemists Blessing (or what we call Alka-selser) and he should be fine...

(and i havent noticed him getting moody last night, so maybe its just started....aw..poor Stefan...Mish will pass you a hankie and steer you towards a nice ranger girl honey, make you feel all better)

He needs to lay off the dwarven ale. I think he has a thing for Alesia and is trying to impress her. He seems to be doing it more when she's in the party.

I'm getting sick of him using his Charge! shout and then running past me. I still prefer him over little Thom though. Little Thom seems to be extremely wimpy to me.

I do find it amusing though that i have never seen stephan use a sword attack, yet he is equipped with a sword. I see him use charge, sprint, power attack, griffon sweep, and healing signet while playing the game.

they shouldn't call them henchmen anymore...
A net should design an elite AI that will follow what you do and be about just as powerful as you, but the only catch is that you have to pay to use them--of course they should keep in the current hormone ridden "henchmen" as well for those looking for a challenge.

Judas: True AI doesn't exist yet...I'm sure the boys over at NASA would be out of work if ArenaNet were to develope it first....and you already do pay the hechman, they get drops when they are out and part of the gold drops are split with them.

This thread probably belongs to the "Off-topic and the Absurd" section...however, it's kind of funny.

Seriosly though, I do have problems with Stefan as well. Now that's a weird piece of AI. He doesn't follow you in everything... and I'm not only talking about the fact that he's always rushing like there's no tomorrow.

Why should he be different from the other henchies?

Stefan, mineral springs! Well gee since they are attacking Ice Imps, I should go attack the one furthest to the back!

One time after Stefan died he dropped from the group and sent me a tell that said "u retart u ned 2 learn how 2 play".

I caught him in Lions Arch spamming 'LOOKING 4 GUILD TO JOIN WITH SWEET CAPE ... NO N00BZ ... REQUIRE OFFICER POSITION'

He kept telling me "You noob! give me that *&^%!! sword drop! You don't use swords. I need it to pwn you!" So I told him it was my uber elite super spectacular max damage sword and he could go suck on an egg... Well in reply to that he went and aggro'd 30 ice imps outside Grotto and took us all to our deaths... while he glitched behind a tree out of reach so we wouldn't res... Lina and Alesia... well lets just say what they called him made me blush.

Oh yeah Stefan had changed.

We doing a quest to kill a certain boss by Grendich Courthouse. I was carefully pulling enemies away from the boss than all the sudden, Stefan came charging after the huge group (including the boss) than he brought the whole group back to my hiding spot and we all died.

Now we need Orion to tank, and we're set for realistic AI

And Dunham should have IW too.

Yup, the AI has become extremely moronic lately ^^

Its very irritating.

I think they've all been hitting the ale...

Did someone go and do Hell's Precipice with henchies, and then take em for a night out on the town to celebrate? Or maybe a dwarven pub crawl?

its his blood pressure from being overweight

I think he needs an armor change ^^

He'd look very cool with FoW armor on.

Heck... they'd ALL look cool!

Maybe he's trying a weightloss program, "Dying to the Oldies", by the Stone Summit Carver Institute of Weight-Reduction by Cleaving.

Or maybe he's trying to practice for his night job as a forge runner, but halfway past the mobs he forgets what he's doing and attacks.

Never had Stefan do that to me and I only play with the henchies.

Now, Alesia, she seems to forget that she isn't a tank quite often. ctrl+space and watch Stefan, the Brawler (his name escapes me now) and Alesia run towards the mobs and ditfully attack them when in melee range. Alesia then sits there and refuses to heal or anything other than attack the mob at close range.

Sometimes when she is attacked she will run towards a large group of mobs (it doesn't appear to be away from danger or towards me or the group - just a bee line towards a group even after the mob aggros someone else, sometimes she will even go after multiple ones way on the other side of the screen). In my last go through the game I died in The Frost gate literally 5 times at the Minotaurs in the very beginning from this, she aggrop three(!!!) groups immediatly (failed a sixth time, cable modem died right after activating the third chain, had to quit that day in frustration)

However, I do have trouble with Stephan deciding that it's just not worth fighting (after all, the enemies are attacking someone else and he's not going to die - and he may get a good drop for no work if we kill everything). No amount of ctrl+space, running around, changing targets will get him to do anything other than stand and watch. Being a smiting monk with nothing in the skill bar to tank (after all I have several tanks out there) this isn't very helpful when they all aggro me, I usually die quickly, though my ranger can live through quite a bit.

Though the most irritating thing is thier refusal to use a res signet on me. They will readily use them on each other, but not me. I can count on one hand the number of times they rezed me before the end of a battle. Sometimes they still act in an organised manner, othertimes they just run around doing anything from each attacking a different enemy to simply running in circles until the die.

I really wish that the scripting language they use for thier AI was publicly editable. Would be neat to just copy/paste better AI from fansites. Plus it would take some pressure from ANET - no one could complain too much about thier AI and no more development or tweaking of it.

Don't get me wrong, over all they do pretty good (and, having been forced to design/write some while in college, I fully understand how hard AI is to write), if the above was the common response then it wouldn't be remembered when they do something stupid, just normal. Plus sometimes it's comical from a RP'ing standpoint and, other than a loss of time on missions, the lack of death penalty keeps me from getting too mad.

I hate not to add to the complaints, although I have plenty about the henchies... I'd just like to say I think I wet my pants multiple times reading through this thread.

I pinked a tear laughing on this one. go AI!

well, maybe if we *could* give Stefan that nice sword drop, and Alesia that healing anhk ect, it would make them a bit happier, make them better players and cut down on Orions bar crawls, which he inevitably takes Stefan and Thom on....

i often think, gee, i cant use that uselless sword, but if i culd give it to Stefan....or that axe to Thom, a healing item focus to Alesia....

maybe others wouldnt, but to be honest, even if i had to carry a scroll that listed everyting i had given to henchies so it would alsways be on them when i took them, carry that scroll with me for ever, couldnt sell it, couldnt drop it or pop it in the stash...i would do it.

so, henchies of Tyria.....Unite, and shout, WE WANT SOME STUFF!
and then let me buy the 'henchmen equipment scroll', and start hunting down good stuff.
and no, i dont want the stuff back i gave befor, just let them trash it. the items in the game are reasonably easy to get hold of, so unless im totally twerped and gave Stefan a flameing sword...it wouldnt matter to me ^^

I've been having alot of issues with the lower level Stefan's for my new char. He simply refuses to attack, just stands there like a n00btard being his fat self.