Creature Handler Archive
Thread: Pet Damage and AI
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Koichi
Mon Dec 27, 2004 2:11 pm
#1
Pet DMG:
I was noticing last night while testing some of my higher level pets(rancors lvl 70 and 50) that pet dmg is much lower than listed stats.
These pets are supposed to hit for a minimum of 515 max of 550. For these tests i was fighting weak PVE mobs(gleaming lantern birds(35% kinetic | lvl 34) and my pets never hit for over 240(average between 65 and 125). In fact, I can't recall any of my pets hitting anywhere near their minimum dmg against any PVE creature I've fought regardless of resistance. Now I do realize resistance comes into play here since our pets only do Kinetic dmg, but you would think at least a few nice hits (500+) would get through. AS it stands now in PVE, my pets just can't do any real dmg.
PET AI:
All of my pets run away at full health. This doesn't just happen a few times either. For every 10 attacks I command, they'll run away on 3 or more of them. Im not talking running away a little either.. like 200m away. SO many of my fights consist of chasing my pet while shooting the mob thats (chasing it) trying to gain ago and spamming pet follow. Only after i get agro will the pet stay and fight and then many times if he gets agro again its off to the races. Its gets old fast.
Also, getting a pet to stay is near impossible.. Ill spam and spam and he'll stay for a moment then run on up to my position.
---
So i guess my question to the devs is this: Are pets working as intended?
At this point in my chars development:
I'm a better tank than pet (with buffs and comp armor)
I kill stuff just about as fast without the pet as with the pet.
I could be much more powerful if I complemented my pistoleer with say BH or numerous other skill paths.
Now please don't get me wrong, I love being a MCH, however only because it's really fun (when pets dont run). But honestly, if im just grinding I usually just leave my pets in the datapad to avoid the downtime of using the pets.
I dont want the countless hours it took to get MCH to be a waste, but at this point that part of my skill tree seems rather useless for PVE and most certainly PVP.
On my server (Scylla) I would estimate the total number of MCH's to be around 10 or 20 people. I would imagine that these are people just like me that love being able to tame wild beasties and are not all caught up in what template is best etc. However, I feel confident in saying that such low interest in a profession does indicate a problem. If this is indeed how pets are intended to work, then I'll just have to make a choice of being a well balanced character that has the intended power any elite master should have OR just a really neat build thats kinda useless but really fun at times.
Thanks for reading.
I was noticing last night while testing some of my higher level pets(rancors lvl 70 and 50) that pet dmg is much lower than listed stats.
These pets are supposed to hit for a minimum of 515 max of 550. For these tests i was fighting weak PVE mobs(gleaming lantern birds(35% kinetic | lvl 34) and my pets never hit for over 240(average between 65 and 125). In fact, I can't recall any of my pets hitting anywhere near their minimum dmg against any PVE creature I've fought regardless of resistance. Now I do realize resistance comes into play here since our pets only do Kinetic dmg, but you would think at least a few nice hits (500+) would get through. AS it stands now in PVE, my pets just can't do any real dmg.
PET AI:
All of my pets run away at full health. This doesn't just happen a few times either. For every 10 attacks I command, they'll run away on 3 or more of them. Im not talking running away a little either.. like 200m away. SO many of my fights consist of chasing my pet while shooting the mob thats (chasing it) trying to gain ago and spamming pet follow. Only after i get agro will the pet stay and fight and then many times if he gets agro again its off to the races. Its gets old fast.
Also, getting a pet to stay is near impossible.. Ill spam and spam and he'll stay for a moment then run on up to my position.
---
So i guess my question to the devs is this: Are pets working as intended?
At this point in my chars development:
I'm a better tank than pet (with buffs and comp armor)
I kill stuff just about as fast without the pet as with the pet.
I could be much more powerful if I complemented my pistoleer with say BH or numerous other skill paths.
Now please don't get me wrong, I love being a MCH, however only because it's really fun (when pets dont run). But honestly, if im just grinding I usually just leave my pets in the datapad to avoid the downtime of using the pets.
I dont want the countless hours it took to get MCH to be a waste, but at this point that part of my skill tree seems rather useless for PVE and most certainly PVP.
On my server (Scylla) I would estimate the total number of MCH's to be around 10 or 20 people. I would imagine that these are people just like me that love being able to tame wild beasties and are not all caught up in what template is best etc. However, I feel confident in saying that such low interest in a profession does indicate a problem. If this is indeed how pets are intended to work, then I'll just have to make a choice of being a well balanced character that has the intended power any elite master should have OR just a really neat build thats kinda useless but really fun at times.
Thanks for reading.
Message Edited by Koichi on 12-27-2004 01:12 PM
Magincia
Mon Dec 27, 2004 2:27 pm
#2
Honestly I have never had the complete problem you are seeming to have. I have had pet run away with lower ham levels or higher if the pet has a lower courage rate ( a thing which can be seen in DNA , a BE thing). I have had issues where my pets have vanished (right now Talus is my planet of evil.. they vanish all the time).
I wish I had some better answers for you. Does this also happen with any BE pets ??
Magincia
Mon Dec 27, 2004 3:06 pm
#3
I have no idea about the reason for the damage ... unless it has a resist to the type of attack being done. So if the creature has 50% kin and light armor your creature attacking with 500+ will only be doing about 125+ damage... Since Armour reduces damage 50% and the kin resists reduce it by another 50% so only 25% damage is being done.
That might be the reason for the combat log showing the reduced damage...but I still have no answer to the running away issue... unless the Ham bars are not reflecting the damage being taken by your pets.... just another thought.
Will think on it more....
Koichi
Mon Dec 27, 2004 3:07 pm
#4
Yes, unfortunately it happens with all my pets. BE and "Natural" ones. Oh and don't even get me started on my kimo's haha.. those are 10/10 run run run 
...
What you are saying though does make since.. Some of the MCH's ive spoken too have had a few problems but not as many as me with the running.. I even have a screen shot of a level 60 Kimo running(full HAM) away from a baby lantern bird.. :/
I guess it's possible my char could be messed up. It's unrelated but I actually have an ongoing issue with all weapons on vendors showing "Not Certified" even if I am.. That was a real hard thing to get passed in my first month. Finally I just bought one and sure enough as soon as it hit my inventory, it said yes for certified.. So honestly, I would not be surprised if my char is just a special case.
...What you are saying though does make since.. Some of the MCH's ive spoken too have had a few problems but not as many as me with the running.. I even have a screen shot of a level 60 Kimo running(full HAM) away from a baby lantern bird.. :/
I guess it's possible my char could be messed up. It's unrelated but I actually have an ongoing issue with all weapons on vendors showing "Not Certified" even if I am.. That was a real hard thing to get passed in my first month. Finally I just bought one and sure enough as soon as it hit my inventory, it said yes for certified.. So honestly, I would not be surprised if my char is just a special case.
Message Edited by Koichi on 12-27-2004 02:10 PM
Ithilkir
Mon Dec 27, 2004 3:22 pm
#5
In regard to cowardice in pets, it's actually a skin issue, basically the pet and monster need a certain distance apart to fight and the pet will generally move to try and accomodate the monster. This wouldn't be a problem but with the large skins (Kimos, Malkoc etc) the pet and monster need a set distance between the centre points of both animals, but they cant 'clash' over so the pet will back off and turn round to try and reattack with the proper distance between them, and if they still can't get the proper distance it will back off and try again. And of course, the monster keeps on advancing so the pet keeps on backing off.
Joker9125
Mon Dec 27, 2004 7:04 pm
#6
The idea distance thing is dead on and has been an ongoing problem for awhile. I kinda have a theory that pet dmg has something to do with the base to hit rate but I could be wrong. Ok so if your pet was doing its MINIMUM damage of 515 and the birds resists are 35% kinetic ar0 the bird SHOULD resist 180.25 points of damage leaving the toal damage inflicted at 334.75 (515 X .35 = 180.25, 515 - 180.25 = 334.75) however this is not the case. as you pointed out your pets did an average of 95 damage (65 + 125 / 2 = 95). Vert can we please get some dev feedback on this? I know they are busy but say pretty please and they just might take 10 min of there time and look into it.
Hmm another thought occured to me.........Since the damage reduction has been removed from pets in PvP your rancor should do a minimum of 1802.5 damage to a rifleman with no armor on ( 515 X 3.5 = 1802.5)due to the 3.5 damage multiplier (it is 3.5 right?). I think ill log on and test this and see the actual percentage of damge done vs the damage the pets should be doing and see if i can find a consistant percentage of reduction.
EDIT: can somone check my math for me I was never any good at it :sigh:
Message Edited by Joker9125 on 12-27-2004 06:07 PM
Koichi
Tue Dec 28, 2004 1:17 pm
#7
Had a much better night tonight.. I think my dmg reporting was just off for the previous session. Tonight, the same rancors were hitting other rancors and bulls between 240 and 450 on average with the occasional 510 hit.. could be a little better but not too shabby.
In addition, that distance problem sounds like the problem.. SO what i did tonight was match my pets up with the size of the creature i was fighting. Only had a few times where the rancors ran away while fighting other rancors.. Since the kimos are so big though i had no luck with them.. With the latern birds, small pets(cats are good) seem to be the best bet. i'll test that soon because ill need to be getting some more of that lovely herb meat they are spawning on Scylla currently.
Thanks for all the help..
In addition, that distance problem sounds like the problem.. SO what i did tonight was match my pets up with the size of the creature i was fighting. Only had a few times where the rancors ran away while fighting other rancors.. Since the kimos are so big though i had no luck with them.. With the latern birds, small pets(cats are good) seem to be the best bet. i'll test that soon because ill need to be getting some more of that lovely herb meat they are spawning on Scylla currently.
Thanks for all the help..
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