Mob behavior changes I'm not thrilled with

[Kimbere]

I have found that with archer mobs the best course is to not chase them.

They seem to have a directive to "get x distance away from target", but when you chase them they never achieve that and just keep running, often in zig zagging figure 8's.

I've also found that those same archers, if you don't chase them, will often run away, fire a shot, then run right back to you.

This. There seems to be a serious lack of sanity checks in the archer movement scripting now.

 

[Eleazzar]

I'm with you mate.

Madstone Crater is a completely different experience now. The mobs no longer remained focused on you which makes it more difficult to keep attention away from the giants. The third giant used to be the easiest, just grab aggro from the perched mobs then block the tunnel. Now they seem to "give up" on you once losing LOS, and switch focus to the giant. With the first giant, I drew the 4 mobs away and parked myself behind the crystals - then they just "gave up" and made a bee-line for the giant even though he was invisible and they were never in range of him to acquire aggro in the first place (no reapers, no champs).

In general, melee is much more frustrating. Before, caster/ranged mobs would have a more deterministic "avoidance" mechanism, where they pick a new spot and commit to it. Now, they keep running around as long as you keep chasing them, unable to make up their minds (never satisfied with where they arrive). It has turned melee combat into more of a "do-si-do".

Agreed. The casters/ranged just run around, pause for 1 sec then keep running around. Super annoying.

 

[Eleazzar]

I don't know if it is the same issue, but I just ran Impossible Demands. Beat the priestess down till she killed the dragon knight. Immediately went to the door and up the steps. Dismissed the first fire trap. Went to dismiss the second fire trap and there she was running down the hall to attack me. She had run around and up the other stairs that fast and looked like she was moving at 1000 mph (1609 kph).

I have seen this in Von3 a few times. Lightning speed from mobs.

 

[Aragadi]

I did not play very much between U60 and U61, so didn't have much to say on the topic, but today since the update I have been playing on a low-level toon and I have to say mobs are acting SUPER annoying, so are hirelings. I have just dismissed hirelings several times because they were standing around doing absolutely nothing.

The changes in mob behavior are actively making me avoid killing things, the complete opposite of what you supposedly want us to do. When these idiotic things start running in circles I just leave them behind, I refuse to interact with this BS.

Go watch some vampire survivors gameplay and learn how to make mobs your players enjoy killing!

 

[Blerkington]

After coming back from a break, I found the change in monster behaviour very noticeable. It's more frustrating on a melee now as other people have already said. And melee is not really a playstyle that needs even more frustrations and obstacles added to it.

But I found myself wondering if the change was intentional for two reasons. One was monsters were already fairly squirmy and there seems little point making them more so. Are the monsters trying to irritate us into leaving their dungeon, give our aging players heart attacks, or what?.

Another was because of some odd behaviour I would see when leaving stealth. It seemed to take monsters that were already looking for my character much longer to notice him again, with them running around and swinging at the air aimlessly where he had been while I could attack without them fighting back. They were much slower to respond to that change of state. There's also a lot more of that behaviour where one stands still and the others of the group orbit the middle one really quickly.

Either way, it would be nice if all this mad kiting they do now were toned down. I don't expect mobs to stand still to be murdered. What I would prefer is they manoeuvre for some real advantage while also fighting back, instead of having to chase them down while they do almost nothing but run.

I'd really rather not have another run like the multi-minute sesssion I just had trying to kill Solul, the boss in House of Broken Chains, where he would not stand still for even a second. I don't think he hit my character once but his kiting just made whole experience was super annoying.

 

[Drunken.dx]

The one that has been getting me is the bit where ranged mobs will supposedly no longer change position constantly when you try to melee them. To me this actually seems to have gotten noticeably WORSE since the update. Used to be that they would run a short distance, stop and fire, run a short distance, stop and fire, et cetera. Now I have been in many fights where they just don't seem to stop moving at all. It is the difference between being able to melee them down during the intervals where they are stopped, and having to continually chase a spinning top to try to get in an occasional melee hit on the run.

Can confirm it happening even on ranged.
Instead of attacking, ranged keep running around like headless chickens.

Something I find exceptionally irritating...
.
If I just shot something 6 times and did a ton of damage on something, but it's NOT quite dead yet.. it's not going to run at me just to run PAST without swinging, and then attack me from behind... that's just idiotic..
.
But I can have a mob in front of me, I hit a quickened Greater Color Spray, and the entire mob instantly side hops either left or right and completely evades the AOE..
.
... and then gathers back up and charges...
.
wait... wut?
.
have had it happen dozens of times...
.
Also... not being able to shoot something standing behind a stick or post... but it can stand there and unload on me...
.
Critters now using the terrain to evade being targeted... often travelling 5-6 times the needed distance just to stay out of LOS
.
But if it's in point blank range I can't target or hit it....
.

Tell me all these calcs aren't piling on the lag?

This is even worse on bow user.

Target a mob? He now runs around like rabbit on cocaine, switch target, he focuses on you.

And mobs running past me to attack from behind already got my muscle memory to turn around to meet their hitbox. (funny how on bows when you target breakables arc is WIDE, but arc for mobs is SIGNIFICANTLY narrower)

Also noticed that in some quests mobs use... WEIRD... path when running towards you.

 

[Amorais]

Just ran Down the Lane or whatever its called in Eveningstar and the guy you escort also has this weird behaviour. He got a dretch spawn and he just kept running circles round it at light speed constantly.

Mob speed is now seemingly way past the permanent haste they had before and now seems to be permanent Star Trek Warp bubble. It is pretty funny though watching Giants doing an Usain Bolt impression...

 

[Stealthfire]

No, I'm not asking for reversion to the old mob behavior pre red alert changes, but some things do annoy and require changes in tactics.

• Spiders in Arachnophobia no longer chase me so I can line them up and shoot them in the main hall. Pre U60, pull the switch, run, and range.
• The hobgoblins in Yarkuch's War-Plans with the final order no longer run down through the traps, and if one does the traps do not fire. Ranging the casters from below used to pull them. I'm assuming I won't be able to pull Yarkuch and his entourage down to the traps by the shrine in Yarkuch's Last Stand.

I didn't notice a problem in Home Sweet Sewer but I was on a slower toon and didn't do my usual one lap to grab all the dogs and run to the door.

Mostly just grumbling. Grumble mumble grumble.

What annoys me is the Alert mob aggro now where the monsters are faster than players now , no matter your class. This is such a drastic deviation from DND and pen and paper when a player cannot outrun even the slowest monster in the game due to purple alert. I can understand Alert making them more active or coordinated for attacking and even boosting that attack a bit due to alert. But current purple alert is so unrealistic there is nothing to compare it to in DND or any other game/novel/fantasy setting I've ever seen. Its like when Purple Alert goes off the party is transported to the DC universe of the Flash Clone world... Guess what this is not the DC Universe and does not be to be modified to be one, if thats what we wanted we could go play DC games, or if your going to stand by the overclocked mob speed for alert, then give the players on option to loot or develop overclock speed items too. Out of curiosity since SSG loves LOTRO so much do they have the same purple alert system?? Because there sure as heck is no purple alert in Lord of the Rings other games books or movies. So maybe SSG needs to read some old DND manuals, modules ect and see how far they have stepped off the beaten path.. Heres a Solution if you want to target zerger Alert builders have those Hounds from hard core show up and target whoever set off the alert and alert drops when the hound drops. the longer the alert the more hounds pop in and put the speed lvls back to what they used to be. Even this is not DND realistic but its more believable than the whole dugenon becoming Flash land. I can only imagine how the alert will effect pugging on HC making it not worth playing without a static grp.
Would love to see the developers get back to making DND stuff instead of going off on a tangent and creating non DND stuff.. theres so much DND content , mobs. magic ect that could be used to resolve problems or enhance games without having to result to Alert nerfs ect. This does not even address the fact than on HC you get players that join the group and intentionally max agro then leave dungeon or use other tactics that get ppl killed to purple alert on HC is like a Christmas present for griefers!!!

 

[Eleazzar]

What annoys me is the Alert mob aggro now where the monsters are faster than players now , no matter your class. This is such a drastic deviation from DND and pen and paper when a player cannot outrun even the slowest monster in the game due to purple alert. I can understand Alert making them more active or coordinated for attacking and even boosting that attack a bit due to alert. But current purple alert is so unrealistic there is nothing to compare it to in DND or any other game/novel/fantasy setting I've ever seen. Its like when Purple Alert goes off the party is transported to the DC universe of the Flash Clone world... Guess what this is not the DC Universe and does not be to be modified to be one, if thats what we wanted we could go play DC games, or if your going to stand by the overclocked mob speed for alert, then give the players on option to loot or develop overclock speed items too. Out of curiosity since SSG loves LOTRO so much do they have the same purple alert system?? Because there sure as heck is no purple alert in Lord of the Rings other games books or movies. So maybe SSG needs to read some old DND manuals, modules ect and see how far they have stepped off the beaten path.. Heres a Solution if you want to target zerger Alert builders have those Hounds from hard core show up and target whoever set off the alert and alert drops when the hound drops. the longer the alert the more hounds pop in and put the speed lvls back to what they used to be. Even this is not DND realistic but its more believable than the whole dugenon becoming Flash land. I can only imagine how the alert will effect pugging on HC making it not worth playing without a static grp.
Would love to see the developers get back to making DND stuff instead of going off on a tangent and creating non DND stuff.. theres so much DND content , mobs. magic ect that could be used to resolve problems or enhance games without having to result to Alert nerfs ect. This does not even address the fact than on HC you get players that join the group and intentionally max agro then leave dungeon or use other tactics that get ppl killed to purple alert on HC is like a Christmas present for griefers!!!

The speed is crazy. I was in Breaking the ranks and Doom and Vengeance reapers were zerging all over the place and we were unable to touch them. Then after about 10-12 sec they stood in one place for about 3-4 sec and then zerged again. The party wipped except for the one person who was still on his way to the quest.

 

[ACJ97F]

Probably have as much chance of them stopping "fixing stuff" to death, as getting struck by lightning while riding an Aurumvorax home
after winning the Nobel Prize. We hope someday they realize that testing is actually important. People have been asking for a long time
to have updates on the PTS for a week before anything goes live, since we're effectively their QA department, but that would make sense.

The current state of DDO's due to their constant meddling, and is wholly responsible for why so many stop paying and/or leave.