Pets and Monster AI

[Red Squirrel]

Ok, here's how it works now (well always has, just tweaked it a bit)

If you are playing a tamer normally, like they were meant to be played, you can pretty much skip over all of this and continue playing as this won't affect you much, if at all.

If however you send your pet and stay back and hide behind a wall or generally out of the pet's sight, a few things happen:

1: special "points" get accumulated on that actual pet, when they reach a certain number they continue to rise, but the damage done to your pet slowly increases. This is very randomized. The longer you are away from your pet, the higher this damage will be. The points also keep rising until they hit a certain cap.

If you return to your pet, the points will gradually drop and so will the damage. At one point in time it will reset and go back to normal - but you need to be in sight.

2: Pet loyalty will start to drop but it will never hit the point where it will go wild, however if you let it go all the way through then spam commands it may go wild. Vetting your pet actually helps restore loyalty. Food also has greater effect if your pet is at full hp. The quantity of food also has effect on how much loyalty is restored.

3: Your pet will start ignoring what it is fighting, if someone else keeps the monster busy. It will literally screw off. This is a benefit in some situations as 1 and 2 wont apply anymore. This takes about 2 minutes to take effect.



A few other things to note.

As per OSI: Monsters randomly target switch. They do it way less here but they still do it. As a tamer, if you get close enough to the monster, it actually will not target you as much, if ever. In fact this is a great advantage over melee dexxers as if someone is hitting they'll get switched to instead. So if you're vetting your pet, you should be fairly safe. However some bosses are not as forgiving, and some have area attacks, such as any mob that uses necro.

Just remember, its just a game, and it's meant to have challenge and to be fun. Unpredictability is an element that adds more fun to a game.

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[Mosin]

brilliant idea red

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[Death]

Actually, I think part of the problem with the AI was not explaining some of the rules for it such as proximity. I'm sure 90% of the players did not know that target switching occured less if you were close to your pet.

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[jrhather]

I hate how my daemon forgets its guarding when I invis.

I only invis to get the mobs to target the daemon instead of me, but when I do that he forgets to guard me afterward.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:3413, old post ID:21887

[Death]

I hate how my daemon forgets its guarding when I invis.

I only invis to get the mobs to target the daemon instead of me, but when I do that he forgets to guard me afterward.

So you're telling it to guard and it's losing its previous command when you're going invis? I'm not sure if Red intended it to work like that or not but it seems a little off.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:3413, old post ID:21890

[Red Squirrel]

How long are you invising for? You got about 2 minutes before the pet reacts to it, if its less then that then it may be a bug I'll have to look into it.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:3413, old post ID:21895

[jrhather]

How long are you invising for? You got about 2 minutes before the pet reacts to it, if its less then that then it may be a bug I'll have to look into it.

I do this at Tokuno champ. I grab a mob of MoBs to follow me and then I invis until they all attack my daemon, I poison strike or wither them until they die. Its at this point that my daemon follows me and refuses to attack anything that isn't attacking him. Until i say all guard again in which case, he gets to work.

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[Kenji]

Cool idea

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[jrhather]

Cool idea

Works best when you can summon a darkfather

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[Lumpy Pickle]

alright i struggle with the ai my tamer gets blown up standing next to my aw things are constantly changing to me while standing there if it has 3 things on it 2 of them will lock on me while my aw kills the one
wearing a luck suit sacrfices the resist and being a tamer sacrifices the skills you need to really to be able to defend yourself well

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:3413, old post ID:22666

[jrhather]

alright i struggle with the ai my tamer gets blown up standing next to my aw things are constantly changing to me while standing there if it has 3 things on it 2 of them will lock on me while my aw kills the one
wearing a luck suit sacrfices the resist and being a tamer sacrifices the skills you need to really to be able to defend yourself well

The retarget is why my tamer only come out of the stables to help my magenecro kill a supreme. Compared to other servers, taming here sucks in the way that you have to play attentively. I'm getting swiftly bored of UO, I like playing a game with only one hand while watching TV or chilling with friends. I can't do that here because of the retargetting, I can never relax on a hunt unless I'm hunting friggen mongbats.

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[Death]

alright i struggle with the ai my tamer gets blown up standing next to my aw things are constantly changing to me while standing there if it has 3 things on it 2 of them will lock on me while my aw kills the one
wearing a luck suit sacrfices the resist and being a tamer sacrifices the skills you need to really to be able to defend yourself well

K, the lock on timer might still be too high in that case then. There was also talks of reducing the chance of re-targeting with more hostile units in the area (Not sure if this was actually implemented though). We'll check it out again and make some adjustments if it's still too harsh. In the meantime, use invisibility potions, invisibility spells and scrolls to break the target.

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[Death]

Compared to other servers, taming here sucks in the way that you have to play attentively. I'm getting swiftly bored of UO, I like playing a game with only one hand while watching TV or chilling with friends. I can't do that here because of the retargetting, I can never relax on a hunt unless I'm hunting friggen mongbats.

You have to play attentively with all classes, why should taming be different? Those poor mages who get reamed if they aren't pummeling something with spells and keeping a distance. Retargetting is part of the game, official servers have it along with advanced AI.

Players just had relaxed gameplay for so long that they got used to it and abused the mechanics (IE: Barracoon exploit where people would stand on the ledge and fire away spells. Then OSI gave him basic magery skills).

Not to say that casual gaming isn't fun and sometimes it's good to "chill" out in the game but not everything in game should be an unnecessary grind fest or a simple "place my pet on this monster" or "fire arrows at this monster while I make sandwich". Why play the game if you're not actually taking the effort to play it?

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[Lumpy Pickle]

i actually enjoy playing my tamer here i just hate i cant hide behind a wall or somthing because lady sabrix teleported from the swamp and is gonna chase me if i get close to my pet
i think the ai is to high to cause malific and all the magery spiders in dread horn teleport over all the walls and try chasing me to the sparkle!

there needs to be a nice medium for tamers right now vet is useless and its extremely hard to stand near your pet not hidden

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:3413, old post ID:22675

[Death]

i actually enjoy playing my tamer here i just hate i cant hide behind a wall or somthing because lady sabrix teleported from the swamp and is gonna chase me if i get close to my pet
i think the ai is to high to cause malific and all the magery spiders in dread horn teleport over all the walls and try chasing me to the sparkle!

there needs to be a nice medium for tamers right now vet is useless and its extremely hard to stand near your pet not hidden

The named spiders are purposely harder than their regular counterparts. After all, they're the paragons of ML. Their AI is quite high (Malefic and the destructive force that is Virulent being the nastiest buggers). They hurt, realllly bad. If you have no resists, they will gladly remind you about it. Any magery boss is hard as they know how to utilize their magic. I would say it's not so much their magic power but more their intensity being too high (How often they cast magic).

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[Death]

Okay, Red, you have to move that damn edit button, that's like the 7th time I've accidently edited a post. Either that or at least provide some kind of "undo" or differentiation so you can actually see that you're editing or quoting lol.

Sometimes that is *why* I play UO, to me its fun watching my hiryu rip through blood elems, while I stand behind it and heal. On Demise, that's easy to do and you have nearly nothing to worry about, here you might be able to chew through one like that before the next one simply ignores your pet and chews you.

That's why everyone and their brother has a tamer on demise. Ever try meleeing a paragon skeletal dragon? It's damn near impossible. You need either an archer or a tamer to survive the best pvm. If you head into blood dungeon, tamers like mad. Gaunt goes BALISTIC without a tamer. "We need a tamer! We need a tamer!!!" as some poor soul lures a dark father.

Mining used to be my go-to for that, but, well, that's been ruined too. Can't mine in Ilsh, a paragon will eat me. Can't mine at all, because I need a highly specialized character to kill the goddamn bronze and copper elems that spontaneously erupt to annihilate me. I love mining just about anywhere else because you don't have to worry that at any minute you're gonna be killed by some retarded elemental.

I think it seriously blows when I can't have a straight mule. I HATE having to make a pvm char take mining JUST to get ore. FFS I can't even get sand safely.

Try conflagaration potions and invisibility potions against elementals. Conflag and hide and watch em burn. You can also load up your mule with some armor so that they can survive a blow from the elementals. Then let your mule mine and keep the sound on so you can hear the elementals. Keep your eyes opened and glance at the screen every now and then.

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[jrhather]

Okay, Red, you have to move that damn edit button, that's like the 7th time I've accidently edited a post. Either that or at least provide some kind of "undo" or differentiation so you can actually see that you're editing or quoting lol.

Sometimes that is *why* I play UO, to me its fun watching my hiryu rip through blood elems, while I stand behind it and heal. On Demise, that's easy to do and you have nearly nothing to worry about, here you might be able to chew through one like that before the next one simply ignores your pet and chews you.

That's why everyone and their brother has a tamer on demise. Ever try meleeing a paragon skeletal dragon? It's damn near impossible. You need either an archer or a tamer to survive the best pvm. If you head into blood dungeon, tamers like mad. Gaunt goes BALISTIC without a tamer. "We need a tamer! We need a tamer!!!" as some poor soul lures a dark father.

Mining used to be my go-to for that, but, well, that's been ruined too. Can't mine in Ilsh, a paragon will eat me. Can't mine at all, because I need a highly specialized character to kill the goddamn bronze and copper elems that spontaneously erupt to annihilate me. I love mining just about anywhere else because you don't have to worry that at any minute you're gonna be killed by some retarded elemental.

I think it seriously blows when I can't have a straight mule. I HATE having to make a pvm char take mining JUST to get ore. FFS I can't even get sand safely.

Try conflagaration potions and invisibility potions against elementals. Conflag and hide and watch em burn. You can also load up your mule with some armor so that they can survive a blow from the elementals. Then let your mule mine and keep the sound on so you can hear the elementals. Keep your eyes opened and glance at the screen every now and then.

Before your update I would camp spirituality shrine and farm the elems that would pop up. Now all I seem to get is copper and bronze elems and they friggen hurt.

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[Death]

Before your update I would camp spirituality shrine and farm the elems that would pop up. Now all I seem to get is copper and bronze elems and they friggen hurt.

That's not out of the ordinary as the veins were reworked so that it's not as wonky as before. That being said, the chances of getting a lower ore (Such as dull copper - bronze) is a higher possibility.

Also, the elementals that reflect reflect a portion of damage. If you're EO1 with an elemental slayer, that's going to kill you. Use a less damaging weapon or an attack that's not reflectable.

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[Lumpy Pickle]

i do hate wasting a slot for a lumberjack miner who cant do a crafting skill because he does have to have a fighting skill but i do enjoy being able to get a ele kill it and getting a ton of ore or wood i do like that makes the resource gathering go alot faster and its alot more fruitful

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[solarsea]

The retargeting AI is kinda crap now (no offense)
When it retargets to myself (I'm playing a tamer) it locks on poor me until I'm dead or out of sight. As it's retargeting me it should retarget back the pet too

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:3413, old post ID:24566

[Death]

The retargeting AI is kinda crap now (no offense)
When it retargets to myself (I'm playing a tamer) it locks on poor me until I'm dead or out of sight. As it's retargeting me it should retarget back the pet too

Invisibility potions and invisibility spells will work. Normal monsters don't always lock on (Some monsters such as bosses will though as they know who the weakest person is). The idea is to break the target. This can be done in 2 ways:

1) Distract it via another opponent damaging it or running out of sight. They might lose interest in you or take notice in the other guy damaging it. This is not always effective however.

2) Use invisibility to hide and break the target. Wait till the target is lost and the monster decides it likes your pet again. Use magery, scrolls, potions, etc etc. Another good idea is to get some secondary defense on your tamer so you can defend yourself in case you are targeted. Carry around potions or scrolls or use bandaids or magery to heal yourself (Or any other suitable healing method). I would also recommend sacrificing luck for resists. Resists are more important than luck.

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[solarsea]

Resists are more important than luck.

Hm, could I get a specific comparison of the loot with say 200 luck & 800 luck for AoV ? (number of mods & intensity comparison). And let us not forget artifact chances too.

As for suitable defense - i have such, but it ain't much of a help when a monster hits me for like 70

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[Death]

Resists are more important than luck.

Hm, could I get a specific comparison of the loot with say 200 luck & 800 luck for AoV ? (number of mods & intensity comparison). And let us not forget artifact chances too.

As for suitable defense - i have such, but it ain't much of a help when a monster hits me for like 70

luck only has a chance to bump the loot quality but runuo's formulas for luck are poorly designed and don't really hold much of a candle (Such as their loot in general).

Luck's only really important for artifact chances and chances to find special items on monster corpses (Masterpiece resources, parrots, other special items that don't always pop up).

Once the loot system is redesigned to aov's liking, we will be looking into ways of giving luck a larger impact in Ultima (More impact on loot quality and bonuses).

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[LordWolfX]

You know, maybe im not right in the head, but i would think a dragon/mare combo would stand a better chance vs a paragon skelly dragon lewl

for that matter....

If youve ever gone to skelly dragons in doom on demise, and seen me there, youd know that a Hiryu isnt jack shit compaired to 9 animated skeletal dragons, 2 hiryus, and a reptile slaying bow

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[dprantl]

Please, no more talk about tamers wearing resist suits instead of luck suits. One of the main points of a tamer is to wear a luck suit. Tamers use their pets as their weapons *and* defense. This is not an argument anyone can hold because a tamer has to dedicate three 120 skills to it. It sounds like the target switching is still way too high. Even bosses should not do this so much. So you say a tamer can also have other skills that make them... well, not a tamer? Then what's the point really, may as well make a mage or dexxer.

The point of target switching is to keep the tamer alert and not just sit there and vet their pets while watching TV and eating at the same time. And if that's the main point, why should a boss switch targets constantly and almost immediately? It's really retarded when the boss is continuously running after a tamer and their pets are continuously running after the boss, like in a circus or something. Eventually the tamer dies of course. Or he runs around the corner, invises and their pets start to lose loyalty and get more damage. Move into view again, and instantly the boss chases them again. It really is a stupid dance. Any mob should have a chance to switch targets maybe once every 20 seconds or so AT A MINIMUM.

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