Creature Handler Archive
Thread: Patch 20 Notes: All fixes aimed primarily at creature AI
Thumbs up for the "?" fix. It was just annoying.
Agro on the master if the pet dies? I don't have any problem with this either. In factI remember a time when this was how it worked. Somewhere along the line it stopped and we were all safer for it. Its back now, and wepretty much all know about it. This is a Deal or Delete situation. If you are a CH with just about any other combat prof you are going to end up with the agro anyway so Potato, Pototo as far as I can see.
Pets now have the same agro radius as the master. Again, big whoop. "/tellpet follow" wait a sec or two for ole fluffy to close the distance and then "/tellpet attack" (or whatever command U use for these) Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
As far as pets attacking the lair goes.....I only ever did this when the lair was spent, andI think that the majority of combat flavored CH's learned this during SWG 101 (as was mentioned before). If CH is the ONLY way you have of tapping or finishing off a liar, then yeah you have a bit of a problem here. Understand though that you are the minority andif the "root" of the problem is the bug where pets don't stop attacking, the "Trunk" (to stick with the tree analogy) is your template. We have been living with the CU for a while now and we should all be aware that CH as a SINGLE damage dealing aspect to a template is an express lane to clones Ville. Some may argue against that. Some may even be successful running like this. If so, then congrat-u-friggin-lations, you are still the minority. Only a fix for the non stop lair attack bug is going to take some of the pressure off of these poor peeps.
The ranged pet attack update only sounds like positive to me. I myself don't have any ranged attack pets ( I have a rifle for that) but this sounds like a "fix" if ever there was one.
Stack this up with the new cave and the darts working again all in all it sounds pretty good to this old school CH. Its by no means a complete CH fix, but its a step in the right direction.
We were "nerfed" a year ago, and we adapted...The CU broke both our kneecaps and the STRONG adapted, we even started crawling...This is the first serious attempt to start mending those shattered bones (to stick with the medical theme 
) and if any of you think that this is going to be a quick and easy recovery, then I hope you take disappointment well.
Adapt or Die, Deal or Delete however you want to express it, we will find our niche and I'll be there, will you?
Actually, what I posted about mobs ignoring the creature and hitting you wasnt what i think will happen, its whatactualkly happens on test center.
If your pet fights a social mob, and aggros other creatures, any creature with aggro on the pet that has NOT been hit by it will simply ignore the pet and attack the CH.
That has many consequences for crafters using droids as well as CH and non ch pets.
The issue isnt the pets attacking a lair getting aggro, its aggro the pet gains through adds which wont then attack the pet, but the CH. On a picket lair, that can be 5 or 6 female pickets at level 82 or whatever, and the did that to me from 60m away, without me firing a shot, and with mask scent up.
I haven't tried this yet and assuming this is true, then we are in for tough times indeed.
Has anyone tried this while standing at 65m or more? That seems to be the detect limit of npc mobs.
But on the other hand, the game-breaking bug introduced by this Publish was to crafters (experimentation destroyed), not us, so at least the cream-pie hit somebody else in this round.
Ahh, well that certainly will be anoying then. I'd like to see it back the way it was before the first bug crept in. It was fairly rational. I think the ch should pull some hate, but not as much as a pet whacking on their lair or their buddy. I'll give it a try myself next time I'm on to see if its consistant and if there are some ways to work around the problem.
Off the top of my head the best plan would be to make sure your pets get a hit on each mob you want them to get agro for. Its a hassle but I used to do that farily often when I got aggroed anyhow.
Actually, what I posted about mobs ignoring the creature and hitting you wasnt what i think will happen, its whatactualkly happens on test center.
BTW: for those of you who have only CH combat skills, that still grants you a cert for a number of decent weapons that are perfectly good for tapping and destroying lairs as accuracy dosn't realy factor into lair tapping. I recomend a good rifle due to range. Just pop the lair once and then untarget, its actualy easier now than it used to be if you don't use auto-attack. I do use pets to hit lairs that are spawned out, but that's not realy an issue for agroing. Pets are not a good choice for lair taping, never were.
Nerfed again... The last good CH ability taken away... Time to Respec
SioBabble wrote:
I'm missing something here.
Why would you ever send a pet in to attack the lair? Unless you're hellbent on waking up in a cloning center, why turn a non-social group of critters social on you?
Hmmm. Sio, I don't think you're missing anything. But I think I've misunderstood something (actually I think I was being stupid, but "misunderstood" sounds better). I interpreted the part about pets attacking lairs as pets attacking mobs from the lair, not the physical lair itself. Doh.
I have used my pets to tap a lair, but if the pets won't stop attacking then that's not going to be a viable strategy. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me that the mobs would attack the handler instead of the pet, but there you go.
Since I probably won't make it on today to test all this, I'm waiting for reports from you and Orb and anyone else to see if what Valetman experienced is going to be the norm, i.e. mobs ignoring the pet and attacking the handler. Orwill we still be able to pull single mobs like you did with the npc. So you all get out there and start playing. I'm a busy man, can't wait all day to see what happens
Time to post my experience and it was not pleasant. I used to use my pets to pull a lot. I did not consider an exploit but a crowd control feature.
For my test, I chose huurtons. They happened to be spawned behind my house on Dantooine. They were aggro and low level (24-29) compared to me (CL80). I am MCH and Master Pistols.
I noticed when I told my pet to attack from more than 30m, the pet would run and stop at the 30m mark. This leads to the aggro bug. If you have not experienced it, it is when your pet thinks it is in combat but nothing is attacking it. It freezes and the only thing you can do is have it follow. I think this expires after time but don't get attacked in the meantime because your pet won't help you. I even went so far as to shoot the huurton, my pet was told to attack. That huurton and two other ran past my pet and attacked me. My pet did not move. I can then call the pet back to my side and he will fight thefirst huurton the stop.
My next test was to use a rifle to extend my range. I set my pet to guard. Fired at one huurton. Two aggroed me. My pet stood and watched. GUARD IS BUGGED, it does not work consistently. This should not have been implemented until it was fixed, IMO.
Next test was to move within 30m and have pet attack. Pet attacks one huurton and two other charge straight at me. Yeah, this makes sense. I can see an NPC behaving this way, but huurtons? They are smart enough to know to that my cat is being controlled through verbal commands by me? It would make more sense if the second huurton just becomes aggroed and attacked whatever was closest.
Since I had one in range I tried one more test, I shot a level 80 bol. Since these are not aggro creatures, I was hoping to pull only one. Which I did, with a rifle.
DaBudo
I agree with you that the potential of all pikets coming after the ch will be very hard on the profession. I really dont understandwhy swg is now trying to nerf us in PvEas it is completely unnecessary. It appears devs view pets based on theircl where at fanfest they repeatedly talked about a creature handler controlling a pet with what they described as combatlevel up to 70. However I think they are not fairly evaluating pets because a cl 70 pet is completely different from a combat level 70 npc.
Message Edited by Oggat on 07-19-2005 11:27 PM
Ayup, for sure. What I've been saying since before CU went live, after it went live, what I said at FanFest, and what I'm still saying. I don't think the devs agree with us though
enigma_writer wrote:
DaBudo
I agree with you that the potential of all pikets coming after the ch will be very hard on the profession. I really dont understandwhy swg is now trying to nerf us in PvEas it is completely unnecessary. It appears devs view pets based on theircl where at fanfest they repeatedly talked about a creature handler controlling a pet with what they described as combatlevel up to 70. However I think they are not fairly evaluating pets because a cl 70 pet is completely different from a combat level 70 npc.
Oggat wrote:
I think everyone is missing the point. They are 'fixing' the game (if you can even call it a game anymore) from the top down. That said, weaker chars even weaker elites get rolled over like garbage. Be a gankaboy uber Jedi, multi CA wearing guildy or die alot and call it fun.Add On: And it's still a stupid upgrade. Add it to the dough head lest.CH by default have mask Scent, try mask scent and see if is voids agro to master.I would but I really don't care any more.Message Edited by Oggat on 07-19-2005 11:27 PM
Mask Scent has no effect on the aggro. Everything immediately attacks the CH.