You've created a custom critter with two separate drawn weapons to manage... I'm not entirely surprised to find the critter gets confused.
I am actually surprised the MA editor let you build such a critter to begin with. I thought only one drawn weapon set was allowed on a critter, total.
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
Hmm, that may be it. I assumed that since it let me do so, it would work. That's what I get for taking anything for granted.
Guess I'm just going to have to make a mix of ranged and melee mobs. That would have been so cool if it'd worked.
Huh, I thought you could only have one weapon set per custom critter. o_O
Maybe there's a bug when they have two weapons, and the AI isn't sure what to do. I have had customs attack with ranges, bum rush me, then just stand there for about 5-6 seconds, then use more ranged attacks... even though I know they have melees on them. <_<;;
I just changed their preference to melee, so they'll open with a ranged attack, then melee me.
Of course, now they use a ranged attack, run close, melee me once, then run back and around a corner, if I didn't hit them back. O_o;;
Silly AI. 
Dungeoncleaners! (ID#125715): Slay the Adventurers! Rescue the Monsters! Return the Treasure!
Peppermint Cat-- Lv50 Mewtant Ice/Eng Bls
Well, what happens is I pick AR first, then on the second power set anything that uses two hands is greyed out, but none of the single-handed weapons sets are. Of course, all the non-weapon attack sets are still there as well.
Pep, it sounds like you did the same thing I was trying to do, just perhaps not with weapons sets. I chose melee as preference, then AR, then BS.
The idea was that when they aggroed, they wouldn't be in melee range, so they'd use a ranged attack, then their preference for melee would pull them into melee range. If the player got out of melee range, the idea being they'd pull the rifle out again.
If you mix sets that don't involve weapon draw, or only one involves weapon draw they have less confusion. I played an arc last night where all the minions were AR/MA and they tended to vary it up a bit which made for a nice effect.
Infatum on Virtueverse
I have had some strange issues with the Assault Rifle set in general. Before the melee-patch, I had one specific minion that was an assault rifle/electric melee. She was part of an electric themed set with one story element being the minions are not quite powerful enough to actually project electricity. After the patch, even though I had a ranged preference, she turned into a weakened electric assault. She would use the electric melee's lightning bolt and never draw her assault rifle.
I had to compensate by switching the second power to the electric manipulation set which has just electric fence and charged brawl at normal settings. At least with this the minion actually does her job, and somewhat still fits the theme.
It appears to me, that custom enemies in Mission Architect have this thing against drawing weapons unless they really don't have a choice. Mixing any weapon attack set with a non-weapon attack set seems to get the weapon ignored completely. But non-weapon attack sets (like electricity and energy) seem to mix just fine.
I personally haven't tried mixing two weapon sets (like assault rifle and broadsword). Honestly, I thought it was technically impossible. But if it did work before, it does make sense that it would be broken now. At the very least, the throwing knives power has a conflict with the powers in the assault rifle set which would have the AI choosing between two weapons when it can't properly handle one if it isn't set up right.
I wanted to follow up on this with an update. Raging Bear's suggestion to go to MA for the attacks worked. I had some friends help me test, and if you get far enough away fast enough, the mobs *will* go back to assault rifle. Also, sleeping them (and perhaps holding them, needs more testing) will get them back into rifle mode where they will fire off one or more shots before closing to melee again.
If a player flies or hovers up out of reach, however, the mob will attempt to close by climbing trees, etc, and will eventually run off. I lost track of the ones that did that, so am not sure how long it takes for them to reset into rifle mode.
One thing I notice last night was that if a player is surrounded by mobs, the soldier would stay back at range, using the rifle, until the other mobs were defeated, then close to melee range.
Oh, even though it didn't work in combat, when I chose AR and BS for the powersets, it let me choose custom weapons for each in the costume creator.
Here's the scenario:
I wanted a custom mob that would open with Assault Rifle when aggroed, then close to melee range and use a bayonet in hand-to-hand (aka Broadsword). So, I picked "melee" as combat preference, selected Assault Rifle as primary powerset, and Broadsword as secondary.
(Note that these are supposed to be cannon fodder- dangerous cannon fodder, but not too hard to take down before they tear you up. The Lts and bosses are the ones that are going to finish you off after you're softened up.)
Anyhow, what happens is that the mob, once aggroed, runs up, gets in my face, and... looks at me crossly while in a fighting stance.
Is what I'm trying impossible?