Skeletons in general and in kaesora

Hi,

I've noticed a change in the behaviour of skeletons.

On AK, many skeletons where "blind" all the time. IN other words, they would attack the nearest PC.

In Kaesora in particular (where I lived for way too long), if two or more PC's where in melee range, they would then attack the PC who was highest on the aggro list. If the person who was highest on the hate list backed out of melee range, the skel would simply turn to the next closest PC, even if that PC hadn't done any damage.

This wasn't true for all mobs in Kaesora: the gnashers and wraiths would behave normally.

Similarly, casters could nuke/heal etc and sit freely, without drawing aggro off even the worst tank.

On TAKP, the skeletons in Kaesora in particular, and in a few other zones I've tried, behave as a normal, sighted mob would.

Is this change intentional?

Also, I noticed the doors in Kaesora have all been fixed. ON AK, they were all opening on the wrong side and into the walls. This is a good change and I was happy to see that.

 

Undead behavior like you describe (attacking the closest person, even without hate already) only happens before hate is built up on a mob. After someone builds enough hate on an undead target they behave like anything else. Unless maybe you try to pull the mob past someone that's sitting.

 

Well, that's certainly that way it seems to work now. Was this an intentional change? Or was the default data from p99 used to give life to the mobs in the zone?

Some (definitely not all) skeletal undead on al kabor behaved like they were blind/brainless all the time. In other words: once engaged by at least one PC, they behaved like a rooted mob.

On the pull they would do the weird bathing like skellies usually do. That isn't very unusual.

The behaviour while engaged is the big difference and it was most obvious in Kaesora where you had mixed mobs; the blind ones acting very differently than the others.

The TAKP version has all mobs acting the same way: as intelligent/sighted mobs.

I don't know when this change was initiated on the PC side, but it certainly wasn't part of Al`Kabor.

 

I guess I didn't spend enough time with undead mobs on AK. I didn't think anything was wrong with them here.

 

If say the majority of skeletons on AK were like normal mobs, in fact, maybe all those in Luclin (Ssra caves, grey and UP come to mind) and beyond behaved like any other mob would. The weird blind/dumb ones were actually uncommon.

 

I have never witnessed this "blind" behavior you describe.

H

 

This is somewhat relevant. I know it was like this on AK:

Some NPCs continuously (endlessly) check for players in melee range (not full aggro range) to add to their hate lists even after aggroing on a player. (usually undead)

This used to be much more common in the classic world before Sony revamped all the zones. It's still common in Kunark, undead NPCs, fearplane, and other places. Players who first-aggro NPCs this way will still get the 20 or 25 hate applied when they aggro. The result of NPCs having this ability is that you can train them on to people who did not touch them by running over people if you have very little hate on the NPC. This is very much classic behavior. (see Fansy the bard)

 

I wrote that.

We globally set all undead NPCs to that behavior on TAKP by default. Some of them may get deflagged if they are observed to behave otherwise however.

 

I know for certain the wraith-like undead (both Sarnak and Iksar) did not exhibit this behaviour in Kaesora on AK while all the skeletons did, with the sole exception of the "failed crypt raider". It was a nuisance when I was pulling large numbers of undead.

I need to spend more time in Kaesora on takp when I have playtime available.

 

So I've spent about 5 levels in Kaesora now and there are a couple of obvious differences in how the mobs behave.

I can't speak to the spiders, just the undead and raveners and currently the raveners are accurate in their behaviour.

Overall these aren't a big deal, and levelling is currently easier there than it was before, but if you want to be accurate to Al`Kabor then these should be changed:

1. Wraith-like mobs and Failed Crypt Raider need to flee on low health. Currently they do not.

2. Skeletons models only (except for failed crypt raider) need to aggro on the nearest player as if the skeleton is rooted. This means they will attack A PC when running past on a pull, even if that person is standing. Currently they will ignore a non-sitting person on run-past.

I should also mention that this skeleton behaviour was observable in some other classic zones but not all.

For example: City of Mist skeletons did NOT show this behaviour on AK, while DL skeletons in the main camps and in the Lost Valley did.

I hunted a lot of undead areas on Al`Kabor and I can make a list based on my memory and notes if the devs are interested? It would only apply to Old World.

Luclin and PoP undead had 'typical' undead behaviour and so did those few 'undead' in Velious (ToFS and Thurg)

 

He's right. For example the skeletons in Nek forest used to aggro on the nearest target. I used to train the over the newbie log for laughs about 15 years ago. hahahaha. ahem.

 

Oh and Zombies and Mummys acted in the same behavior.

 

I too remember the "decaying" skels being all mellow and drunk and "hey man, that's whatever man" but every other undead just raging at anything that was alive.

 

I remember not all decaying skeletons were the same. In freeport newbie area, i dont think they would aggro when u got close. But nektulos they would.

 

The melee range aggro check is different than the KoS vs indiff status. I think skellies in many newbie areas are indiff and still are on takp as far as I've seen. I've mostly newbied in Faydwer and they all seemed accurate.