Curse

Andy06r · Jun 28, 2005, 03:32 PM // 15:32

I was playing with all hences earlier yesterday with a guild mate and I noticed that we kept on getting killed for no apparant reason at all.

And then I noticed that when my health was 20/450 that I lingered for 10 seconds without being healed before someone turned and shot me.

While I laid as a corpse, I decided to watch Alesia, who was doing all she could to heal people and i was watching health bars. She seemed to be healing noticeably slower and that was why I died. Upon resurrection, I got isolated and killed again and being an early death, I watched her again.

What I found got me thinking.

Alesia heals people CONSTANTLY...she heals people who are over 3/4 of their life...she heals people between combats when they are regenerating naturally...and she does this all the time.

What does this do? When someone reaches a critical health state, Alesia has wasted all her mana healing people that don't need to be healed yet, and she cant save you from death.

So would it be possible to add a script that PREVENTS alesia from healing people who have over 2/3 of their health or something? I think that Alesia does an acceptable job for an AI, but I feel the way she is programmed doesnt let her save someones life who is on their death kneel because it makes her have poor energy management.

Jawz Swordthane · Jun 28, 2005, 03:41 PM // 15:41

I couldnt agree with you more....she should definatley tank more, and heal less. Matter of fact maybe she should'nt heal at all..........

Andy06r · Jun 28, 2005, 03:46 PM // 15:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jawz Swordthane

I couldnt agree with you more....she should definatley tank more, and heal less. Matter of fact maybe she should'nt heal at all..........

thanks for reading more than the thread title

FrogDevourer · Jun 28, 2005, 03:48 PM // 15:48

Where do I sign?

If a couple more of AI flaws could be fixed I'd be a happy soloer:
- Henchmen can't resurrect/retreat properly. They keep attacking until it's 1v1492350, then they try to resurrect someone who'll be killed in 3s. Result: wipeout.
- The henchmen positioning is very weak. They stand still in poison and lava, and they blindly run away from warriors without trying to avoid the next group of foes. Result: they aggro 234424 enemies instead of moving in the right direction.

I won't talk about the suicidal tendency of warrior henchmen or I wouldn't stay polite.

Jawz Swordthane · Jun 28, 2005, 03:53 PM // 15:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy06r

thanks for reading more than the thread title

I did read the entire thread, Alesia does not heal enough. There are problems with the Henchie's AI but Alesia healing too much is not one of them.

Epinephrine · Jun 28, 2005, 04:08 PM // 16:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jawz Swordthane

I did read the entire thread, Alesia does not heal enough. There are problems with the Henchie's AI but Alesia healing too much is not one of them.

No, healing too much is a problem; moreover, it is inefficient healing. She heals at the wrong times, and doesn't always address whatthe group needs.

Alathys Tylderaan · Jun 28, 2005, 05:09 PM // 17:09

She needs hex and condition removal

Aalric · Jun 28, 2005, 05:12 PM // 17:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy06r

I was playing with all hences earlier yesterday with a guild mate and I noticed that we kept on getting killed for no apparant reason at all.

And then I noticed that when my health was 20/450 that I lingered for 10 seconds without being healed before someone turned and shot me.

While I laid as a corpse, I decided to watch Alesia, who was doing all she could to heal people and i was watching health bars. She seemed to be healing noticeably slower and that was why I died. Upon resurrection, I got isolated and killed again and being an early death, I watched her again.

What I found got me thinking.

Alesia heals people CONSTANTLY...she heals people who are over 3/4 of their life...she heals people between combats when they are regenerating naturally...and she does this all the time.

What does this do? When someone reaches a critical health state, Alesia has wasted all her mana healing people that don't need to be healed yet, and she cant save you from death.

So would it be possible to add a script that PREVENTS alesia from healing people who have over 2/3 of their health or something? I think that Alesia does an acceptable job for an AI, but I feel the way she is programmed doesnt let her save someones life who is on their death kneel because it makes her have poor energy management.

I don't understand a word you talk about. I take henchies all the time and I've noticed that she NEVER heals. She is the most useless person in the world. I have left healing up to her a number of times, and each time it has not paid off.

So maybe they should write a script that actually allows her to heal.

Darkest Dawn · Jun 28, 2005, 05:16 PM // 17:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Epinephrine

No, healing too much is a problem; moreover, it is inefficient healing. She heals at the wrong times, and doesn't always address whatthe group needs.

I agree. Her heals, and even her attempt to res can come at really bad times! Not always, but in sustained combat she can choose poorly.

Story one:
I was being pounded one time by some Jade Scarabs, and she chose to heal someone with 3/4 life left while I was down to 20%. Well, I died, then it set a domino effect in which we all died! The bad thing was that the one she healed was no longer in the fray and would have been fine.

Story two:
I was running with henchies to the Ascelon settlement where the beloved Tengu are. Well, my party got wacked except for me. So I retreat and come back after a minute when things died down. I use my res signet to get the healer. First thing she does is run to the nearest body, before I can react, and tries to res this fallen henchie. Of course by doing so she immediately agros around 6-8 Tengu who very quickly pwn us.

For general questing, the henchies are fine. However, for manouvers that require tact and finesse, they are lacking in aces.

stumpy · Jun 28, 2005, 05:18 PM // 17:18

i was under the impression that these drones had endless mana ... thats why orion keeps his firestorm on all dead targets and alesia heals uselessly. In fact the only drone I come to like is reyna cause she dies last and never really is targetted ... but does do her job of shooting various arrows.

Darkest Dawn · Jun 28, 2005, 05:21 PM // 17:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by stumpy

i was under the impression that these drones had endless mana ... thats why orion keeps his firestorm on all dead targets and alesia heals uselessly. In fact the only drone I come to like is reyna cause she dies last and never really is targetted ... but does do her job of shooting various arrows.

ROFLOL

Did you watch the movie "Home Alone?" Remember when the bad guys would loot a home and flood the house? The one dude called their "team" the Wet Bandits.

Well, Orion has a similar fashion statement he likes to leave after a battle. In a peculiar display of falling fire, he announces the end of the battle!

noblepaladin · Jun 28, 2005, 05:27 PM // 17:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aalric

I don't understand a word you talk about. I take henchies all the time and I've noticed that she NEVER heals. She is the most useless person in the world. I have left healing up to her a number of times, and each time it has not paid off.

So maybe they should write a script that actually allows her to heal.

If you pay closer attention, she tries to heal anybody who has any damage at all, If i have 500/510 hp, she would heal me. So basically she never has any mana at all. After beating a group of enemies, everybody in your party tends to be somewhat damaged, but none of you need healing, by the time you walk to the next group the natural regen would have healed everybody up. However, she wastes 30-40 energy healing everybody, then when you get to the next battle... no energy remaining, no healing at all, which is what you observe. Also, when she has some energy, which tends to be the case when you walk 5 seconds to the next group, she tends to try to heal you after you are hit once for 5 damage. Big waste of mana for 5hp heal, so by the time you are down to 2/3 health, she is already out of mana. Now we scream wtf, where's the heal? So it's not that they programmed her not to heal, but they programmed her to heal inefficently so she has no energy to heal when it is needed.

As for Orion, which somebody else brought up, I don't understand why he likes to cast spells after an enemy dies and not in battle.

EDIT: Before going into a larger battle, it's best to wait until everybody is at full health and then wait a few more seconds for mana to regenerate. This usually isn't that big of a deal with human players since they don't waste their energy on the last remaining enemy in the previous battle or on casting spells after a battle when there are no enemies, but mercs do (Claude sometimes even sacrifices his health...). Try observing the mercs after a battle is over, look at them waste all the energy that they regain on healing each other. It's no mystery why they can't heal you when you engage the next group.

smitty-gw · Jun 28, 2005, 05:42 PM // 17:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkest Dawn

ROFLOL

Well, Orion has a similar fashion statement he likes to leave after a battle. In a peculiar display of falling fire, he announces the end of the battle!

LOL ! That was the funniest thing I read all day. Too bad its SOOO true.

Thanks for that, really. * wipes tears from eyes

ComMan · Jun 28, 2005, 07:13 PM // 19:13

The problem isn't that she runs out of mana (I actually don't think she can) it's just that her priorities are all messed up. She won't rez until half the party is dead, instead of doing so as soon as someone falls, and she won't heal someone who's mortally wounded if whoever she's already healing is still under attack.

However, I still finished most of the game with her help, so I don't mind.

Deathlord · Jun 28, 2005, 07:16 PM // 19:16

I'm not sure about healing slower, but actually just improving her AI so that she heals the person with the least Health. She'd rather heal herself from 90% to 100% rather than another ally from 10% to XX. I understand the theory that slower healing might help her out, but I'm going to have to go with just alternating her healing targets.

Sallythekiller · Jun 28, 2005, 07:39 PM // 19:39

Maybe this is just arenanet's way of nudging us into playing with real people. Or with the eternal shortage of available monks, maybe they just want us to play monk primaries. Maybe its good for business somehow. Maybe the tibetans who power the bicycles running the server work harder when there's and abundance of monks.

Porkchop Sandwhiches · Jun 28, 2005, 07:43 PM // 19:43

Alesia should just be a smite monk

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deathlord

I'm not sure about healing slower, but actually just improving her AI so that she heals the person with the least Health. She'd rather heal herself from 90% to 100% rather than another ally from 10% to XX. I understand the theory that slower healing might help her out, but I'm going to have to go with just alternating her healing targets.

On a serious note I agree with that :P

Alathys Tylderaan · Jun 28, 2005, 08:39 PM // 20:39

When you notice that she's not doing anything, it's because she already used all her mana spam healing when your team took 1% damage

Porkchop Sandwhiches · Jun 28, 2005, 08:46 PM // 20:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alathys Tylderaan

When you notice that she's not doing anything, it's because she already used all her mana spam healing when your team took 1% damage

Meh I always take the cultist for a reason

Dreamsmith · Jun 28, 2005, 08:55 PM // 20:55

I'm pretty sure the problem is, she is pretty much perpetually out of mana. She throws a lot of heals out unnecessarily, and then later throws out 5 mana heals timed out at roughly how long it takes to regenerate 5 mana. She doesn't resurrect until over half the party is dead because she never has the 10 mana to do it, as soon as she has 5 she's healing again. Eventually, though, pretty much everyone is dead, at which point she has no one to heal, and THEN she finally gets the 10 mana she needs to resurrect you just in time to be killed instantly...

Quote:

Originally Posted by noblepaladin

As for Orion, which somebody else brought up, I don't understand why he likes to cast spells after an enemy dies and not in battle.

He can't do that, actually. The reason why he appears to do it is because Firestorm has a particularly long casting time. You can kill most of the monsters in this game in the time it takes to cast Firestorm. So he targets a live monster, starts casting, you and the rest of the party kill the monster during the short eon Firestorm requires to cast, then fire rains down in a final show of power over your dead enemies.

(It's only the fact that monsters are too stupid to move that keeps Firestorm from being the worst spell in the game, rather than merely one of the worst...)