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I expect this may be due to other henchmen classing as allies in the same way they respond to each other being attacked.
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I met the same problem while there was only one MM (me 
) in the team.
Good idea
1) Size of the Assault Bot:
Not sure if this is an AI issue or game mechanics 
When going through lifts in missions, the Assault bot seems to spawn on top of another minion, which results in 1 or sometimes both being stuck.
2) Giving inspirations to pets:
No real problem with robots except 1 situation but a chronic problem with the Necro set (specifically Zombies).
I have a theory at the problem here (could be wrong). When you use an inspiration, it replaces/is treated the same way as using a power. Zombies and the Assualt bot using the flamethrower have extremely slow attacks, either recharge or animation (possibly activation, which could be the problem too). If you give either of these minions an inspiration and they are mid animation, or winding up for an attack (not sure on exact timing) then the game 'forgets' you have given them one and nothing happens; although the inspiration dissapears from your tray.
When you move the inspirations around in your tray below or on the square of the used inspiration, the one you have just given 'reappears'. Sometimes the game remembers the original insp which buffs the pet at the end of their animation and lets you give the 'reappeared' inspiration to it as well so they get buffed twice if you rearrange the inventory quickly. This in effect dupes the inspiration, but it illustrates it seems to be the pets with long attack animations. I have done this a few times by accident while desperately trying to give my pet an inspiration that it doesn't seem to use.
Ninjas, battle drones and protector bots don't seem to suffer this as they attack soo fast. Try it with a necro mastermind on the zombies and giving them inspirations is a pain!
3) Could be a similar situation to the above, in that pets do not respond immeadiately to commands, if they set off to attack something and you call them back, often they will continue and administer that attack before responding to your command. It's as though the attack is 'queued' and until it is executed, the pets will not respond as your command is queued after it.
I agree with Zap over the burn patch, this causes similar effect, they seem to have a certain distance they want to flee before responding.
That's all I can think of for now, Zap covered most of the others that irritate me
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I expect this may be due to other henchmen classing as allies in the same way they respond to each other being attacked.
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I met the same problem while there was only one MM (me ) in the team.
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Interesting... could there be a holdover from henchmen classing other AI mobs as allies?
Was it a mission where two groups of mobs were fighting and causing actual damage to each other or an object? (rather than just being an animation)
My main peeve is with the medic from the mercenary powerset.
On Passive he does not heal, as expected. However, sometimes when set to defensive or aggressive he will stand well within heal range of a wounded henchman and do nothing. I have seen this when henchmen have been very close to death so if there is a minimum hp a henchman must have before being healed, I've definitely past it. It's important to note that he does not heal AT ALL so it's not because the heal hasn't recharged.
Sometimes, setting him to pasive then back to aggresive or defensive again nudges him to heal, other times this does not work and you need to issue a "goto" command before he will heal.
Other times, no matter what you do he will still refuse to heal.
It's not like he heals for much anyway so a reliable heal would make him less of an annoyance.
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My main peeve is with the medic from the mercenary powerset.
On Passive he does not heal, as expected. However, sometimes when set to defensive or aggressive he will stand well within heal range of a wounded henchman and do nothing. <...>
It's not like he heals for much anyway so a reliable heal would make him less of an annoyance.
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Perhaps an AI solution would be when in Aggressive he concentrates on attacking, and keeps the base AI they have now so they will apply healing and buffs in moderation (overriden by an "Attack my Target"). When in Defensive, they are more diligent about applying buffs and will do this in preference to attacking.
This could also map over to the Protector Bots from the Robotics set.
Great idea.
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They're my henchmen, and should only be responding to direct threats to themselves or myself.
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Actually, I'd like to see a toggle for this behaviour - either defend the team or defend me. Or possibly be able to have them guard at least one other person apart from (or in addition to) me.
The reason for that is that I'm usually teamed up with my girlfriend, and we always stick close together and attack as a team. And I've never had my bots respond yet when she was under attack - figuring out what it is that's firing on her eats valuable seconds.
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I expect this may be due to other henchmen classing as allies in the same way they respond to each other being attacked.
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I met the same problem while there was only one MM (me ) in the team.
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Interesting... could there be a holdover from henchmen classing other AI mobs as allies?
Was it a mission where two groups of mobs were fighting and causing actual damage to each other or an object? (rather than just being an animation)
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I was in a team. We just started the mission, so I was calling and buffing my bots. Someone didn't wait and attacked the first mobs. As soon as the fight began, my bots left me and ran to help him. I tried to ask them to go back (I'm superstitious, I hate to see them without the first buff 
) but they didn't seem to understand.
The solution is to put them in Passive mode and ask them to go back but in this case, the protectors don't want to buff the other pets ... (sorry for my English).
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I expect this may be due to other henchmen classing as allies in the same way they respond to each other being attacked.
[/ QUOTE ]
I met the same problem while there was only one MM (me ) in the team.
[/ QUOTE ]
Interesting... could there be a holdover from henchmen classing other AI mobs as allies?
Was it a mission where two groups of mobs were fighting and causing actual damage to each other or an object? (rather than just being an animation)
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I was in a team. We just started the mission, so I was calling and buffing my bots. Someone didn't wait and attacked the first mobs. As soon as the fight began, my bots left me and ran to help him. I tried to ask them to go back (I'm superstitious, I hate to see them without the first buff ) but they didn't seem to understand.
The solution is to put them in Passive mode and ask them to go back but in this case, the protectors don't want to buff the other pets ... (sorry for my English).
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Yes have to say ive seen this a lot recently,certainly prior to the last patch,but im sure after the patch at xmas.
Noticed this happening both as the only MM in a group and when grouped with fellow MM. Setting the pets to passive doesnt help as they will still wade in even in passive mode with this issue. Using the goto command works it seems but this seems to completley lock up the pet AI and they just stand rooted to the spot even if i set them to aggressive. First time i encountered this was running halfway through a respec tf getting jumped by a nice big bunch of COT,ordering my boys to attack the cot boss to pull agro of our main healer and discovering my boys were frozen half a map away
Setting them to agressive,re issuing the goto command before issueing an attack command seems to work to break this cycle
AI generally could use some tweaks as pets do tend to carry out some bizzare actions at times,one particular example that stands out is my spec ops mercs that will run halfway accross a room in order to rifle butt a boss when they have plenty of time and room to work at range. Medic mercenaries i am sure are insane! AI for medics is all over the place,mine seems to have some kind of crazy death wish,now a standing joke in my SG as to what bizzare behaviour he will get up to next
I've noticed lately that my bots are "all over the place" sometimes, even when I try to set them to passive stance. It often requires multiple "passive" commands before they start to react. And also, in some tunnel-maps they sometimes get lost and start wandering off like drunken buzzards, aggroing lots of mobs. Upon issuing any command they start to zip off in different directions! I swear - it's like hide and seek sometimes with my bots. I have TP friend and must then gather my forces again in that fashion. Btw, noticed this last month or so, am currently lvl 33...
I wish the grave knight would melee more, i think he's better at that. Also, the manual says giving the "attack my taget command" keeps them on your target or, the next target if you switch. When my target dies though i have to pull them back and re-command them or they go for a wander.
My MA IDs:
Fiend Space: 211464
Inspirations:
I have noticed that giving Inspirations to henchmen doesn't always work as intended. If I drag an inspiration unto a specific henchman in the "pet window" it only works on said henchmen less than half of the time; the inspiration vanishes from my inventory but it never has any effect on the henchman.
However, if I take an inspiration and drop it unto the henchman directly (rather than using the window) it always fire off right away.
Very strange methinks.
Group Fly
The problem with people affected by Group Fly falling out of the sphere even when on follow is most likely connected to the power itself - it's an old problem with that power. For some reason the person using the power is moving faster than the ones being affected by it.
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Also, the manual says giving the "attack my taget command" keeps them on your target or, the next target if you switch. When my target dies though i have to pull them back and re-command them or they go for a wander.
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What actually happens is that they revert to their current stance with no designated target. So if they're in passive and get told to attack your target, then they'll stop attacking and start following you once the target you gave them is dead.
If they're aggressive or defensive and near enough to an enemy mob, they'll start attacking it.
I change the bind I have set on Toybox for 'kill that thing over there' occasionally, depending on what I'm fighting. I've got two versions, one for 'ah what the hell, kill 'em all' which is /petcom_all attack aggressive and the other for 'OK, try not to annoy too many things, just kill that one thing over there' which is petcom_all attack passive.
Admittedly the latter only works if you've not applied the final upgrade to the PB's or Drones, or any upgrades at all to Stompy (from the PoV of a Robotics MM) since AoE's are just asking for aggro (and the dual Plasma Blast has a small AoE component tagged onto it, centred on the main target, not forgetting Flamethrower...)
Not sure if that waffle is waht you were talking about or not, but it may be related.
Warning:
The above post may contain Cynicism, sarcasm and/or pessimism. If you object to the quantities contained, then tough.
I haven't had many problems with my bots, apart from one.
I really, really hate it, when one of my bots decides lasers are lame and goes in to use his hammer. This usually results in the bot being wacked hard. It's even more annoying, that I have an AoE heal, and need the bots close for it to work.
Other than that, and occasional "bot is stuck" (for which I have TP friend), everything's fine.
PS. When a bot decides to go meele, then the only thing I can do is set him to Follow mode, and then issue the attack command again. TP friend doesn't work, as they'll just run into the enemy as soon as they're ported.
I'm assuming this applies to all MM's, not just robotics, but anyway.
Oranbega maps. You get to a portal and go through, expecting your bots to follow you through the portal.
Unbeknown to you, your minions advanced pathfinding routines have realised that there is a route to your new position which dosen't involve going through a portal. instead it involves taking a long, meandering, scenic route through various tunnels that *you* don't know about because you've not been that way yet.
So, you go through the portal and unless you realise what's happening, in about 3 minutes time, either all your bots will flatline, or they'll come running to you, full pelt, with some nice new friends for you to play with
If this happens, and you have recall friend, then you need to spend 5 minutes regrouping your bots by putting htem all in stay mode, targeting one, starting RF, and then, while in mid TP, putting the target into follow mode. Otherwise, the idiot damn bot will run back to where you told him to stay through all the aforementioned aggro...
And Tp'ing 6 bots and a force field generator whilst constantly fiddling with action settings is micromanagement taken a little too far for me.
Warning:
The above post may contain Cynicism, sarcasm and/or pessimism. If you object to the quantities contained, then tough.
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Unbeknown to you, your minions advanced pathfinding routines have realised that there is a route to your new position which dosen't involve going through a portal. instead it involves taking a long, meandering, scenic route through various tunnels that *you* don't know about because you've not been that way yet...[snip]
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On the same theme: on certain Oranbega maps with 'random' portals, your pets will end up in a different TP area (because sometimes they do decide to follow you through the portals), and then they aggro the [censored] out of the map and come back to you with a good few corridors' worth of friends in tow.
What's worse is when you're on an escort mission where the temporary 'pet' (which must live to successfully complete the mission)functions on the same AI, ends up in a different, uncovered area, and charges full pelt into a mass of demons and other assorted CoT, leaving you sat jumping through teleporters trying to end up in the same place as your (literally) misguided pets. I guess that in some respects this is better for MMs than other ATs, as our main pets can generally act as a deterrent allowing the temp pet to survive - it's still screwy though, and I still /bug it whenever it happens.
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If this happens, and you have recall friend, then you need to spend 5 minutes regrouping your bots by putting htem all in stay mode, targeting one, starting RF, and then, while in mid TP, putting the target into follow mode. Otherwise, the idiot damn bot will run back to where you told him to stay through all the aforementioned aggro...
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As a non TPer, I find that what works best for me is to retreat some distance with my bots, set them on Stay, and then charge forward through the portal as far as it takes for them to "respawn" next to me. At that point I set them to Follow Me as a group, and all is fine and dandy, with no micromanaging involved.
@Synaesthetix
"Here, take some more bees with you. You may need them."
Union: FU//LoUD
"that Syn is that that" - Mothers Love
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As a non TPer, I find that what works best for me is to retreat some distance with my bots, set them on Stay, and then charge forward through the portal as far as it takes for them to "respawn" next to me. At that point I set them to Follow Me as a group, and all is fine and dandy, with no micromanaging involved.
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I've done that, but the problem with it is there's aggro close by on the other side of the portal and it's only a short hop. If your minions don't follow you in that situation, you're most likely screwed. Especially in a team situation.
OK, so the rest of the team could probably manage, but if that's the case, why am I there at all?
Warning:
The above post may contain Cynicism, sarcasm and/or pessimism. If you object to the quantities contained, then tough.
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I've done that, but the problem with it is there's aggro close by on the other side of the portal and it's only a short hop. If your minions don't follow you in that situation, you're most likely screwed. Especially in a team situation.
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Agreed - if you don't have some kind of stealth power, you're up the creek. Of course, you can always clear the entirity of the map, avoiding teleportals until they're the only place left to go; a decent section of the time, there's usually another route around. That doesn't help for the rest of the time, obviously, but it's a good rule of thumb.
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OK, so the rest of the team could probably manage, but if that's the case, why am I there at all?
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To churn out the exp that much faster when you're not getting stuck in portals? Seriously, I wouldn't expect a half-decent team to fall apart for the temporary lack of one member. People 'plant, such is the nature of the game - this doesn't lead to teamwipes every single time.
@Synaesthetix
"Here, take some more bees with you. You may need them."
Union: FU//LoUD
"that Syn is that that" - Mothers Love
Most of my irritations have been covered.
Bots stuck after going through lifts, used to dismiss and resummon but since I have taken the teleport friend it happens every mission with office lifts as though they are testing me, or really love to be teleported places.
The portal issue another pain especially as they will always bring the aggro when the team isn't quite rested yet. Bots running to melee I can cope with it would be nicer to have the attack from range and attack melee but I guess for that control its the 'I may as well do it myself' approach and become a stalker/brute or corruptor/dominator.
Few new ones, yesterday in Sirens one of my bots went crazy, I told them all to follow me so one of them ran off across the map until he was too far awaya spawned next to me and began the mad sprint all over again, had to issue all my commands to get him to listen to me again.
Shields - My protector bots seem to be getting a bit slack in giving me a shield, and Im not sure if this is because shadow fall is obscuring their view of me, that would make sense and I can live with it if it is WAI. Why do my bots put shields around the seeker drones? they are only going to explode I would prefer my bots to use their shields on me or healing the other bots. They even put shields around dominator pets but not around other teammates, this seems to be a bit ambiguous, I recognise that the singularity is a friendly entity and will give it shields but will not grant shields to other teammates or other teammates henchmen.
Thats all I can think of right now but would definately be nice to get them fixed/changed.
Something I meant to post, but kept forgetting about.
The time delay between something being hit by a pet, and the damage being removed from the something.
It seems to take about half a second for the game to aplpy the damage and display the oh so friendly red numbers abot the target.
I wouldn't mind if it applied to all pets, but on my fire imps, the damage displays as soon as the target is struck.
So, Why are MM pets treated differently?
Controller pets can have multiple different attacks available to them, just like MM pets. The time delay doesn't care how many pets you've got out, it'll still happen with one Battle Drone just as much as with all 3 drones, both PB's, Mr. Stompy and an acid mortar.
Enquiring minds want to know
Warning:
The above post may contain Cynicism, sarcasm and/or pessimism. If you object to the quantities contained, then tough.
Ive noticed that all 3 of my more powerfull pets, spec ops and commando will offten just stand miles away while my mercs are attacking a more powerfull enemy.
The only way to get them into the fight is to command them to come to me and reissue the attack order.
Also my medic if i use the second upgrade on him all he will do is use clear mind, he seems to forget about healing, also with him i tend to find no matter even i put him on defen he will always rush right in be the first to die.
All of them though dont seem to chain attack by that i mean if i say attack my target they will do so then once i change target they will just stand there waiting for the attack order again, i thought they are ment to follow your first command.
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All of them though dont seem to chain attack by that i mean if i say attack my target they will do so then once i change target they will just stand there waiting for the attack order again, i thought they are ment to follow your first command.
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Working as intended - the "Attack my Target" option is a single command - they do not constantly track what you are targetting.
I think the first may just be down to who attacks them first, but the Clear Mind (Stimulant) issue may be fairly important though - I still say that the Medic and Protector Bots (the two henchmen that do have team buffs) should put priority on tasks according to their stance (Aggressive = Attack More, Defensive = Buff More, Passive = Do Nothing)
iv found the the medic has a shorter range attack than the other mercs so with the attack my target command, he tends to be closer than the other mercs and usually takes the brunt of the attacks.
Also iv noticed that when teamed with a bot MM there protector bot bubbles up all the bots, then all my mercs but never puts a bubble on me or other players in the team. This leads me to beleave that there is something in the pet AI that causes all pets on a team to regard each other as one of there own and maybe the cause of the pets running of to with with another MM pets when your now where near the other MM.
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Also iv noticed that when teamed with a bot MM there protector bot bubbles up all the bots, then all my mercs but never puts a bubble on me or other players in the team. This leads me to beleave that there is something in the pet AI that causes all pets on a team to regard each other as one of there own and maybe the cause of the pets running of to with with another MM pets when your now where near the other MM.
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They've formed a union! (No, not the server).
I've always prided myself on keeping my pets on a short chain, but around christmas they seemed to develop another stupidity gene and now they have many more moments of individual madness where they'll ignore heel commands in favour of mooning at some distant boss.
That aside, my only bug bear with my boys is the Jounin's power selection after they're smokebombed... Someone has already mentioned their love of ignoring their massive and really quite shiny sword in favour of the thing that fires HB pencils at the bad guys, but even worse are the Jounin who get smoke bombed and then placate the enemy too.
I'm not invisible enough!
I'm sure by now several people may have noticed a few issues with the artificial intelligence of the henchmen. Most of this may well be inherited problems, but regardless there are problems. Many discussion in the US testify to the fact, but it's about time we did this locally!
Thought we might want to thrash out a few of them - what you've seen heppening, why you think it happens and what you would want to happen instead.
Note that this is for bugs you see in the AI, not for workarounds to said bugs. Also, and this is my pet peeve from the US forums, the inability to select ranged or melee combat for a henchman is not a bug - it is intentional on the part of the developers (so don't list it here!)
So, with all that said let's get underway...
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Ninja Criticals
All henchmen are hard-coded to prefer range or melee. Zombies prefer melee, Drones prefer range for example. This sometimes goes awry and they will behave contrary to expectations. That is normal enough and copeable.
There are times, however, when henchmen should immediately head into melee. Specifically for Ninjas when they use Placate or Hide. Or if Smoke Bomb is used on a Ninja henchman so they can Critical. They should, at this point be forced by the AI to use their most devastating single-target attack that is currently available in melee range. Not throw caltrops, or fire a bow thus wasting the power or ability.
Burn Patch/Caltrop Fear Effect
I'm sure this also has been noticed when a henchman lands in a Scrapyarder Demolitionists Burn patches, or Tsoo caltrop fields. They flee as per a regular mob and stop responding to commands. Awful.
Ideally, they should flee out of the patch then resume their orders. Or, if currently fleeing and issued a goto or follow, to follow that command instantly. The only command they should ignore is a Stay.
Defensive/Follow Team Aggro
This is a new one I've started to encounter when on teams, and usually with Masterminds aboard as well. I can be apart from the team completely, with no mobs nearby but if my team engages some distant mobs my henchmen will suddenly decide they need to get some action too and start heading towards them.
I expect this may be due to other henchmen classing as allies in the same way they respond to each other being attacked.
They're my henchmen, and should only be responding to direct threats to themselves or myself. Under these circumstances, they should just stay put.
Group Flight
Possibly an issue with the power itself combined with the follow AI but henchmen will not keep up with a Group Flying Mastermind if he does not make frequent stops to let the catch up.
A minor niggle, as this can be alleviated by setting a henchman on auto-follow then issuing goto commands for that henchman but annoying nonetheless.
Henchmen should travel at a slightly faster speed than a Mastermind using Group Flight so that they can catch up with the player, and compensate for the decision time that a henchman has before it follows anywhere.
Group Teleport
This Group Travel Power is a nightmare for Mastermind though as currently the henchmen do not get the 3-5sec hover that a player does. This means as soon as the Mastermind starts trying to teeleport into the air rather than along ground level, their henches will plummet.
The appropriate hover time needs to be coded into the henchmen themselves so that this Group Travel is viable again.
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Any others I've missed? Or any observations on the above?