Curse

Perishiko ReLLiK · Apr 24, 2005, 08:03 AM // 08:03

Anyone really know the "aggro" sequence, or a way to determine who the monsters are going to attack...? I happen to find it quite enjoyable how sometimes they'll smash right after our healer and other times they'll try to take out our tank... but i dont understand the way they have them attack.

p.s. anyone else love getting ambushed and watching your team die, just because it's incredibly fun, and sometimes funny to see people run around franticly not knowing what to do?

TheSaint · Apr 24, 2005, 08:16 AM // 08:16

Seems to me they go after the one that is closest, doing the most damage or a healer... so ya.. I have no clue either... lol

My main character is a W/N and I tank, and they seem to love ganging up on me!

Sin · Apr 24, 2005, 08:20 AM // 08:20

They seem to go after healers and elementalists, but the criteria or reasoning, haven't a clue. One thing that drives me nuts is I'll pick hunters shot and they will stop moving as the arrow hits (thus no "bleeding" effect), attack something close, if nothing close they then start moving again to whatever they were gonna run to. By the way, they only stop when I am gonna hit. If it is a "dodge" they keep coming. I found this really cheap but also really challenging. I had to wait for them to target more closely before using hunters if i wanted it to be effective, or so it appeared. The Ettn's were notorius for this.

Spooky · Apr 24, 2005, 09:09 AM // 09:09

Typically, if several targets are within the same aggro radius, monsters will go after whomever has the lowest AR. This is why you'll often see them ignoring a Warrior to go straight for the casters if they make themselves available targets. Now, this isn't always a bad thing, you can sometimes make some pretty clever use of this - I remember quite a while back, Freyas was running a Mo/W with Healing Seed that would intentionally get the enemies to aggro on him so he could tank it.

I'm not entirely sure of the mechanics involved in them acquiring a new target, because it seems a little random. Usually if you're being focused on, and you run around your group, monsters will often give up and focus on someone else. This may be because another player blocks their pathing, and that causes them to attempt to remove the obstacle, or it may be because they're pretty indifferent about their human-hate and will just go after whatever makes itself available.

FrogDevourer · Apr 24, 2005, 10:03 AM // 10:03

Here's my shot at understanding the AI targetting system:
http://sof.game-server.cc/index.php?Page=safecasting

Xellos · Apr 24, 2005, 10:13 AM // 10:13

I always thought the way of tanking in PVE was to have casters/range to stay back for a bit, have warrior/tanks engage, then casters/range come in. That way, they should from well at least my experience, stay on the target. Of course, when there is only 1 warrior, and there's like 3 minotaurs or something, if your caster is like mid-range, they will spread off and attack. But if your at wand range, I'm fairly sure they don't try.

Burodsx · Apr 24, 2005, 01:18 PM // 13:18

At the start of battle they will go for the closest target.
If that target doesn't run, then they will mass that target until they die.
If that target runs, they'll follow until they get closer to the team.

After that they seem to be more selective.

Most the time I think they go for Healers, Supporters, and Weak AL's first thing.

I'm sure it's safe to assume monsters have different AI so for the most part it's really hard to tell who will be attacked mainly.

FrogDevourer:
I disagree with the comment on getting less loot by being a support character. I've been in a group where a person goes AFK and did NOTHING. That person still got an equal share of loot.

Freyas · Apr 24, 2005, 02:03 PM // 14:03

As Spooky said, Armor Level seems to be the primary factor in monster aggro- they'll go for the lowest armor character that they can see. This can be manipulated by having low AL characters(casters) stay well behind the tanks, so that when the monsters attack, they see only the warriors, and start attacking them. Target switching by monsters happens for a variety of reasons- more intelligent enemies(generally humanoids) seem to periodically look for weaker targets, and if they see one, they'll break off of their current target to attack the weaker one. This seems to be even more pronounced on ranged targets- often warriors will stick to their target much more- ranged attackers can and will switch to easier targets within their range quite easily. Some intelligent enemies will also look to switch targets based on enchantments- if your tank gets a healing enchantment like Healing Hands cast on them, intelligent enemies will look for a new target. Unintelligent ones(generally non-humanoid creatures) will usually just keep attacking their target until the target is dead or starts running away.

If the player that is currently being targetted by a mob moves out of their attack range, they'll generally look for other targets, and will often change to the weakest target that they can see at that time. Ranged enemies will usually switch targets if they miss their current target 2-3 times in a row, either via a stance or from dodging their arrows/projectiles. Caster enemies also switch targets a lot, based on what's going on- if a mob has an enchantment removal skill, they'll switch targets and remove an enchantment if anybody within their sight range has an enchantment on them. If they cast hexes, they'll switch to a target without the particular hex they're wanting to cast and cast the hex on that player(and usually attack them until they switch targets again: ie to cast another hex). If the enemy has interrupts, they'll often switch targets when they see someone casting a spell.

The other thing I've noticed that can affect who is targeted by an enemy is their ability to attack easily. If a warrior is wanting to attack your healer, if your tank stands in between the warrior mob and the healer, the mob will generally attack the tank if he can't easily get past. Ranged enemies will refrain from targetting enemies that they don't have line-of-sight for their attacks if there is an enemy that they can hit with line-of-sight attacks. Thus, you can get enemies to attack your tanks if the tanks stand in front of the enemies to prevent them from getting past, and casters can often cast from safety using non line-of-sight spells if they stand around a corner, or behind an obstruction.

As for my Mo/W, I really liked that character- it was my main character at the time that they changed Healing Hands and Healing Seed, but got retired at that point, as healing hands became elite and healing seed became castable only on others- before that, I could do extremely well keeping my teammates alive by running around with a bit lower armor than my teammates and being able to keep myself alive through most everything with defensive skills and enchantments.

Adaria · Apr 24, 2005, 04:37 PM // 16:37

My BF and I play all the time together and he is a Warrior/Elementalist, he barges in and gets the attention then I attack, yet they go past him and attack ME, being an Elementalist/Monk kind of does that...

The AI seems to LOVE to cling to me but not him, its very annoying because he has to run back to me and help me while I can barely attack unless its an area effect, and forget about Heal Area, I didn't realize it healed enemies too until this week, very aggrevating...

Ander Deathblade · Apr 24, 2005, 05:35 PM // 17:35

something I've also noticed is, as a warrior, when you charge at foes, like the annoying Skeleton Rangers, they will take you under fire. If you run around them and attack from behind, taking out the rear guard and sweeping to the front, they will not take notice of you and I found myself able to sweep up groups of skeleton Rangers without experiencing the degen and unavoidable death that comes with henchie only monk.