A Few Problems With a Custom Ally

I'm having a few difficulties with a custom ally I have made that I could really use help with. He's a DB/WP Tanker (one of my own heroes) and... he doesn't really attack. I tried changing him from fight defensive to fight aggressive, and he attacked a little more on aggressive (but not much, and it was completely random).

I haven't noticed allies doing this much in other missions I have played. They'll do some odd things, but not attacking isn't one of them. Is there any way to figure this out? Do I need to tweak some settings? I had him as an EB with "hard" settings for offense and defense (tweaking him down to a boss, as the EB was way too strong) when he wasn't attacking much.

Also, does an ally HAVE to spawn in with a surrounding mob? I would like my ally to join somewhere at the start like Statesman/Imperious does at the start of the last ITF mission, but it seems like there HAS to be a surrounding mob. At least from the settings I can see. Let me know if this is inaccurate.

Any help you could give would be much appreciated, thanks!

---

Guide: Tanking, Wall of Fire Style (Updated for I19!), and the Four Rules of Tanking
Story Arc: Belated Justice, #88003
Synopsis: Explore the fine line between justice and vengeance as you help a hero of Talos Island bring his friend's murderer to justice.
Grey Pilgrim: Fire/Fire Tanker (50), Victory

The AI is a bit wonky as far as melee characters go, for whatever reason. What limited personal experience I've had seems to indicate that giving them Flight alleviates it somewhat, although that might just be the placebo effect. If you want to ensure that your companion is entirely reliable, giving them a ranged attack set might be best.

---

Set the surrounding Enemy to Single. I forget the exact wording of the setting name, but you want Single as your choice. This will make your Ally stand there waiting for you.

Unfortunately, due to map spawn placement points, you can't guarantee he'll be the first thing you come across.

---

If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.

Black Pebble is my new hero.

I changed an ally (custom critter) to a ranged attack set (Fire blast/invul tanker) and now she goes slightly nuts. Almost fusionette ish. She'll run off a good 50 feet on her own aggroing groups, but kicking butt. But she doesn't fly at all. She is a ground pounder, so not sure if thats relevant or not.

---

Well, shoot. I hope they fiddle with the AI for them some, as it is rather annoying. I'm not even sure what sets him off for fighting, either. Sometimes he'll stand right next to me when I'm fighting something, other times he start slicing and dicing right away. The other ally I've seen in an MA mission has SS, and he did better, so I wonder if it's partially a problem with Dual Blades or something.

As for how he spawns in, single is the setting, eh? I'm remembering that was in there now, but I didn't seem to think it would do that (thought it would spawn a single enemy, but just spawning the ally makes sense).

Thanks for the help, all. If anyone else has some info about melee characters as allies and/or Dual Blades with them, toss it out. I really would like to make this ally work decently.

---

Guide: Tanking, Wall of Fire Style (Updated for I19!), and the Four Rules of Tanking
Story Arc: Belated Justice, #88003
Synopsis: Explore the fine line between justice and vengeance as you help a hero of Talos Island bring his friend's murderer to justice.
Grey Pilgrim: Fire/Fire Tanker (50), Victory

Based on what I'm hearing both the tanker & blaster NPC's seem to be doing exactly what the Dev-created NPC's generally do in Dev-Created content: not much.

So based on that, I'd say "Working as intended."

NPC's are basically for comic relief anyway, or to absorb the alpha strike. The only problem comes from the success of the mission being linked to the survival of the NPC.

---

Why do I do do do things I do
Nobody was ever there for me to talk to
Once I was youngster, pure and true
Now I'm running with a sick, sick crew.

The problem seems to be that allies don't use the same follow command that players do, presumably so that they aren't right on top of you while following you. Their follow puts them a larger distance away.

That works out ok for following the player, but once they spot a hostile enemy in range of them, they use the same follow-type command to run towards this enemy. But this follow command puts them too far away to melee, so once they reach their destination, they're out of melee range.

Them being nudged around, or the enemy moving towards them, will put them back in to melee range. Generally though your melee allies are going to be stood about ten feet away from their target, staring intensely.

I haven't (personally) noticed any improvement with flying allies, but one thing flying allies will do differently is randomly clip through geometry and either fall out of the universe, or remain buried up to their waist in the wall.

---

Well, this is weird. I put my ally on single, and I had a bunch of issues with it. First off, his greeting text fired off when I entered the mission, but he was nowhere near the entrance (even though I have front selected for his location). I'm not sure, but I think he was not spawning in for a the first few times I reset the mission and tweaked things.

He seems to be showing up consistently now, but a ways from the entrance (probably because I also have a patrol set to front in this particular mission), so I have no idea why his greeting text is playing when he is so far away.

Anyway, he seems to do better with attacking when I put his offensive set on "Easy." Not sure if I quite like that, but he seemed to attack more than when he was on "Medium." Not sure if that's unique to the Dual Blades set or not.

itsMu, with this ally, he is usually in melee range (about the same distance from the mob as me). He just sits there. Other times he attacks. Other times it looks like he's continually activating Heightened Senses (it's power activation emote is the character looking around, or the "lookout" animation, I believe)... he'll sometimes even do it mid-attack.

Sometimes the trick seems to be moving a bit so the ally has to move with you and the target, and that pushes him into action. *sighs* I think I'm going to have to learn to be satisfied with at least a little action on my ally's part, due to the shortcomings of the AI. I wonder if adjusting sets for custom enemy's/ally's toggles to be auto would help with some of this behavior. I recall Castle saying the AI has difficulty with toggles.

---

Guide: Tanking, Wall of Fire Style (Updated for I19!), and the Four Rules of Tanking
Story Arc: Belated Justice, #88003
Synopsis: Explore the fine line between justice and vengeance as you help a hero of Talos Island bring his friend's murderer to justice.
Grey Pilgrim: Fire/Fire Tanker (50), Victory

A slight work-around for a lazy melee NPC AI is to have the player jump over the target so the NPC follows you and gets closer.

But that's entirely based on the player's gaming style, not anything you can do as a mission author.

---

Main Hero: Chad Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1396 Badges
Main Villain: Evil Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1193 Badges
Mission Architect arcs: Doctor Brainstorm's An Experiment Gone Awry, Arc ID 2093

-----

I have the same issue with my DB/WP flying ally!

She's based on one of my characters, and is an optional ally placed to help with an EB fight. And she sucks. She'll stand right next to the guy I'm trying to kill, and smile sweetly, and look bored. Its supposed to be her at the beginning of her career, so she's not supposed to be an uber fighting machine... but she should pitch in!

---

Altoholism isn't a problem, its a calling.

60+ characters, 5 years, 3 50's.

Seems like it's a tanker/scrapsassin defensive set AI problem. Repeatedly activating toggles rather than doing attacks.

I remember pet AI complaints, by the devs, that there is no way to diversify what powers a pet uses, that part of the reason they pet recharge nerf had to be made, was, when other powers are recharging faster, AI will always use the power that just came back up. So if you give your ally a set with a toggle power or activatable power that recharges faster than attacks, expect 70% of the time to not see any attacks.

---

[ QUOTE ]
A slight work-around for a lazy melee NPC AI is to have the player jump over the target so the NPC follows you and gets closer.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, I've found that you have to get the enemy to move; once the ally is in a given range of the enemy, it tends not to move, even if you change your own range to the ally. Getting the enemy to move is sometimes fairly easy, but it does make spamming immobilization a losing proposition.

---

And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines

<QR>

Other weirdness:

*When you have multiple MM allies, only one of them summons pets (at least if they all share a primary)
*mms with kin secondary don't buff nearly as reliably (or possibly at all, mine never sb'd me) as those with controller primaries or defender secondaries.
*mms with sonic secondary don't appear to ever use the individual bubble buff

---

Guides: Dark Armor and IOs | SS/DA | Crabbing | Fortunata

[ QUOTE ]
*When you have multiple MM allies, only one of them summons pets (at least if they all share a primary)

[/ QUOTE ]

I haven't seen this problem at all. I have an arc where the first mission is to rescue elements a WW2 platoon of American Soldiers from the 5th Column. I have six ally rescues, the subjects of which are all Mercenary/Martial Arts MM's - when rescued, they summon their minions in fine style, even resummoning when minions die.

---

The Scrappers' Guide to Dark Melee | Kheldian Binds and Strategies

[ QUOTE ]
Actually, I've found that you have to get the enemy to move; once the ally is in a given range of the enemy, it tends not to move, even if you change your own range to the ally. Getting the enemy to move is sometimes fairly easy, but it does make spamming immobilization a losing proposition.

[/ QUOTE ]

That seems equivalent to what I have seen. When I get the enemy and ally to move, the ally starts to attack. I guess we're getting a taste of the dev's position with this... Castle has been vocal about how wonky Lady Jane, the Bruiser, etc. can be. Not that that makes me feel much better.

---

Guide: Tanking, Wall of Fire Style (Updated for I19!), and the Four Rules of Tanking
Story Arc: Belated Justice, #88003
Synopsis: Explore the fine line between justice and vengeance as you help a hero of Talos Island bring his friend's murderer to justice.
Grey Pilgrim: Fire/Fire Tanker (50), Victory

The problem with the Ally AI is that they will often walk up to the enemy to a certain distance, but stand just outside their own attack range. Ever tried to hit an enemy when you were too far away? Yeah, that's basically what he's doing. I have the same problem with one of my own arcs.

Try setting it to Ranged, anyways. I haven't messed with it much, but it seems to only give the AI a preference to ranged attacks over melee ones. Since DB doesn't really have any ranged attacks, that's not really a concern. But, the way the ally moves (or doesn't move, in regard to the Ranged setting) might help it to attack more by relying on the enemies. Kind of like luring the fly into the trap.

As for the text firing off as soon as you enter? That's because the objective is completed as soon as you enter, because there are no longer any enemies for you to defeat to complete it. If it's a big issue, I'd suggest just leaving the ally with an easy mob.

Hope this helps you at least a little. I should have probably messed with the Ranged AI setting a little more before suggesting it, but if you're in a pickle, it can't hurt to try something new, right?

---