Mercenaries MMs Apparently Broken?

I don't know much about Masterminds, but I do know Rikti Drones. Prior to I17, they would quite happily stay wherever they could get a shot at me. Now they close to melee for absolutely no good reason whatsoever. This is great news for my melee characters, but indicative of a larger change to AI that is probably not good overall.

True.
But Controller and Dominator pets behave the same...

I can't count how often I had to respawn my phantams because of this behaviour... Before I17 there was no problem but now you're better not summoning it.

I actually haven't noticed this on my Mercs/Traps, possibly because I tend to keep me and my pets in practically melee range anyway. However I have noticed on my Bots/TA that they started to charge in like idiots.

On the bright side, at least now your Spec Ops are getting use out of their melee disorients?

I'm gonna have to agree on them being broken by i17. I've tried all the MM's with the exception of DS, and originally found that the mercs had -the- best AI in terms of retarded pathing choices and just generally listening to what the hell I tell them to do. Its one of the main reasons I even stuck with it. Ever since i17 came that is no longer the case. Noticing that sudden "random pet wants to just take off in any direction across the zone," behavior again too, that was so prevalent with ninjas.

DO NOT TAKE THE MERCS ON A MAYHEM MISSION.

PERIOD.

Jesus, the idiots closed to melee with almost every car I blew up unless I kept heel-ing them and then re-aggressive-ing them every five seconds. They got killed more times than I can count.

Mercs kept running to Vandal over and over and over again no matter how many GOTOs I did. Yea. Mercs. are broken.

Okay, I think we've confirmed at this point that ALL MM pets, and apparently even some range-preferring enemies (Rikti drones, gunners, etc) have broken AI. That's some major problem underlying the game that goes well beyond my soldiers being stupid.

Can we get some dev lovin' on this? Even if only to acknowledge they're looking into it. How do we get their attention, wave arms and shout and jump up and down? I already did a /bug on it...

There's reports of problems on some controller pets too.

I hadn't had any trouble with my Bots/Storm on some maps, but on others it was just unmanageable. Bots all over the place, leading to enemies all over the place, just couldn't keep them controlled enough.

-Morgan.

Here's an example of enemy mob AI doing the same thing the MM pets are doing -- gleefully running into melee range where before I17, they certainly did not. In this case, Rikti Drones, which would stand and plink away before unless line of sight is broken.

In this case, a brute with a damage aura is able to easily dispatch them, whereas before they'd stand outside and fire, which increased the risk of large group herding.

(Brute in question's my friend and I'm not calling it a ZOMG EXPLOIT, but it certainly lowers the challenge overall, which even my friend admitted.)

Then pull them back when the car gets critically low and send them on a directed attack again after they reach you. Only time my MM pets get hurt by car explosions is if I get distracted by wandering off to kill a fire hydrant, mail or news box...

I've noticed my thugs are more inclined to rush into melee since i17 - before there was the obvious Brawler and Arsonist melee charge, but recently after the first couple volleys of ranged fire most of the Punks and at least one Enforcer are rushing in too. I hadn't said anything until now as I've not been playing the set long and figured it might just be my perception, but I'm seeing it in other areas now too.

Of particular note was a (failed) ITF I just ran where we had multiple attempts at the final battle and consistently, every single attempt, the 3 nictus (nictii?) would move over into melee range of whichever team member had upset them the most rather than only move when Romulus did. Made it really easy to keep Romulus outside the healie nictus radius as it had absolutely no inclination to stay next to him when it could be floating over to a distant teammate. For that to happen now and then isn't unheard of (and obviously a coordinated team can force it, but this team was anything but coordinated), but for it to happen every single attempt without us even trying is not normal behaviour.

I had this problem in a bad way with my bots/ff mm. Pets have always had an issue charging into melee when they're not supposed to, but it does seem to be pretty bad after I17.

Drones, for me, always flew to whatever handy ledge, corner or just damn open sky, and ping me from range, with the equivelant of robotic laughter.
If they are now attempting to melee you with, I dunno, their stabilisers or something, I think something is very borked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I've done two av fights since I17 and my bots insisted on running into melee in both fights. If my Purple accuracy debuff and seeker drones hadn't lessened the av's dmg and accuracy it would have been game over.