Robot Pets Randomly Charging

Heyo,

I'm not sure if this has been happening to anyone else, but it's been happening to me pretty much since I started playing CoV again.

The issue, is that even on flat, open areas, my robot pets (almost always the Protector bots) will spontaneously run across the screen (out of the protection of my dispersion bubble) towards the enemy, and upon getting in Melee range, simply stop and do nothing.

Now, it seems like the pets who run forward are the ones who have the enemies agro at that moment (because the moment they get within melee range, the enemy unerringly kills them with some melee attack), although I can't be 100%.

Now, at first I thought it was a Line of Sight issue, and they were trying to get line of sight on the enemy. This has since been proven to not be the case, since this still happens, even on wide, open/clear areas.

Next, I thought that maybe it was an attack issue. That the robots were attempting to use a melee attack on the enemy. This is also not the case, since they do not attack once they reach the enemy. They simply stand there and eventually die.

Also, when this occurs, the pet(s) in question do not respond to my orders until they have ran up to the enemy. If, in the process of running across the screen to the enemy, I order them to come back. They will speak the conformation, but will continue to run at the enemy.

This is a VERY irksome glitch for me. The sheer number of times I've had my healer bots run at the enemy and die in one swing is ridiculous.

Does anyone know a workaround to this? Or maybe some devs are working on it?

Usually those pets are the ones that zoned with you (new tech). Dismiss the pets and recast them (when you zone in each mish/zone) and they should be more obedient (old skool MM recast upon zone). The won't be any smarter than the previous issues but at least they won't run off as much.

Let me clarity a bit: It is not dealing with the pets that are bugged from zoning. It is in no way associated with that.

The problem, is that Robot pets will randomly take it in their head to run directly at their target, regardless of how clear their LoS is, and then simply stop in front of the enemy. They will not melee, or take any action directly after running at the enemy.

Furthermore, they will ignore all commands given to them while they are running at the enemy, as well as for a second or so after.

So essentially, a pet will randomly run 100 ft to it's target, despite having clear line of sight. While it's running, I will issue it commands to return, which it will give an "acknowledged" response, but will not change it's course or return. Once it reaches the enemy, is will stop, and stand there for a second. Then, it will finally respond to my command, and run back to where it's supposed to be.

Anyone know why they do this?

It's an indication that they are trying to melee their target. Sometimes they take off because all their other powers are still recharging so the only thing they can do is run up to poke their foe in the eye.

Sometimes they run up and do nothing because their other powers have recharged by the time they get to their destination and they've 'changed their mind'.

I have had some similar issues with Robot Masterminding, but I am sure that the problem lies within their coding. The regular Attack Drone can run up to their opponent and give them a good thump to the temple whereas the Protectors have no form of melee attacks at all as this has been replaced by the healing array they have. I am under the impression that upon coding the Robot NPCs', this difference was no specified in their AI and therefore, go in for a smack but get stuck because the code ends there, they can't melee. I have had countless issues where my protectors have run right into melee range, and simply turned around and used the healing power. Which is quite frustrating. Unfortunately all I can suggest for that is changing them quickly to passive so they stand next to you again.

As for the non-responsive commands, I have had that issue with all pets, mainly regarding the attack command. Although I find if I spam the command they do eventually do it after a few seconds, I have just deduced it as connection lag on my end. I hope some of this helps a little but bare with it, MM is a great class to play as but not so good in PvP. You may want to try Mercs or Ninjas if you haven't already, Mercs are extremely easy to keep control of. Good Luck! - Loke

I've found pet response/charging can alter day by day. Eg: 1 day both protbots were charging off, the next day 1 protbot and 1 drone, then the day after the assbot, 1 protbot and 1 drone went charging.

They don't always charge up to the group of mobs you're focused on either. In quite a few RWZ mishes I've done, the pet charges past the attacking group and ranges from the other side. In large cave areas where there are 3 groups of mobs, this action tends to aggro the entire area, and trust me its not fun when running at x8, especially when 2 pets do it simultaneously, going in totally different directions.

And as for commanding them, I occasionally have to spam my macros 5-6 times each to get any response - not sure if this is a latency issue tbh, but I tend not to get that much in the game as a whole.

Sorta glad I read this thread. I just started running a bots/dark and noticed the protbots running up to the mobs and then shooting them. Meanwhile my lil Drones are getting their fuse boxes handed to them and no healing insight other than mine...

So glad it's not just me. Not glad it's WAI...