Have not played MM in 2 years - AI?

Has the AI gotten better? One of the old issues was that ninjas would hang back and use their ranged wrist shots instead of going to melee for better MA strikes, etc.

Has this been fixed?

Thanks!

Mash

The AI for melee pets has been fixed.. Sadly it makes the Range pets do the same.

There are some AI bugs around now that make your pets not move when you zone. So you need to try to dismiss or go back to the other zone and dismiss and resummon.

Your Upgrade now effects all the pets. So you just need to cast it each upgrade once now instead of 6x.. But they have to all be in range.

If you want to play Ninja or Necro then the latest AI change is good. For all the other sets it's bad, even the newish DS. Basically your pets will make the suicidal charges into melee range to engage the enemy more frequently now, even if they don't have any melee attacks. I personally despise this latest change because it basically screws over the majority of MM players (ranged henchmen types) in order to help the few (melee henchmen types).

Thanks for the replies! Sad that they fixed on thing to mess up another. I think if I saw mercs or robots charge I might just cry...

But I really like necro and ninjas, so the glass is half full I suppose.

It'd be really "nice" if the Devs would add a Grant Power effect to all Ranged Biased Pets which would cause a Fear Aura around the selected target which is specifically intended to "dissuade" said specific Ranged Pet(s) from following through on their "I *must* be STUPID now!" AI programming.

Basically, if a Tier 1 Merc (for example) uses a ranged attack on a target, that target now has a Grant Power of a PBAoE Fear Aura keyed to affect ... Tier 1 Mercs only. You could even borrow the exact same database coding as what is used for Caltrops, except without the Slow or the Damage (obviously), and simply key it for the specific Tier of MM Pet that would be launching the attack(s). So code up 3 Grant Power of PBAoE Fear to Pet Type(s), ie. 1 for each Tier of Ranged Biased Pet(s), and then add that Grant Power to all of the Ranged Attacks used by that primary's Pets. Wash, rinse, repeat for each of the Ranged MM Pet primaries.

S imple.
E asy.
E ffective.

Not being done ...

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

I tried a tactic by putting my pets in stay mode right before i aggroed a group. They still give bodyguard if they're in defensive. But even ordering them to stay, either aggressive or defensive, they'll still throw a few ranged before charging into melee. I would definitely like to see the stay order cleaned up a bit so you can at least force your pets to hold their ground and not charge into melee.

Cleaning up the AI would be even better however i could live with just keeping pets in Stay

Huh. I fall under that back after two years category. So......

Now my bruiser is gonna run into melee like he should have been doing two years ago. AND now all of my other ranged thugs are gonna run into melee too??

It's not just MM pets. I think it's a lot of mobs. I've noticed ranged mobs charging up to brawl me, and my specially created AE blasters tend to run up to melee for no good reason.

That has pretty much been the case since CoH first begun. When Masterminds where introduced their AI was more or less just ported over from regular pet and mob AI. The issues of ranged-oriented mobs loving to get up close and personal has pretty much been a problem since all time.

Yeah I have noticed that the problem is almost entirely absent from Thugs.

I was terrified that my thugs/poison MM would simply have to be retired, but the pets stay out of melee(bruiser and arsonist excepted) for the most part.

The mercs and bots are the chief offenders now. The Protector Bots especially. They should never move into melee...ever!

My ninjas are pretty much ok. I usually put the Oni into melee anyway to take advantage of his sword attacks.

All that said...it is high time that this get some attention payed to it. I still can't believe they can't find someone to do some AI programming after all these years. It's bordering on ludicrous and this is more than a 'slight' problem. It affects all mobs in the game as well.

I don't really have much of a problem with the AI, but commands are fairly wish-wash. There's no huge need to change the AI of all the enemies in the game because to me, it's more or less ok. Ranged-oriented enemies still have hard-hitting melees and can still take just about as much as a melee-oriented attacker.

The problem with pets is that the difference between ranged and melee is far greater than your regular mob. Masterminds are also about tactical planning, the problem is, we try that, but the command system would require you to write out twenty macros to be effective, or it's just not possible. I can order a pet to be aggressive and hold his current location but when I do, that's not what happens, he either runs off into melee after throwing a few ranged attacks or just does n't take an interest in the enemies.

My suggestion would be to pay more attention to cleaning up the command system, make it more robust, make pets do what they're told and allow you to issue orders to other pets like your Force Field generator or Dark Servant if possible. That would make Masterminds so much more versatile and would increase the possibilities that can be done with them, as opposed to just making the game easier.

As a devices blaster, it irks me no end to see my gun drone casually waltz up to an enemy to take their melee attacks as well as their ranged attacks. Voltaic Sentinel, it makes no difference...its invulnerable.

Better commands would help. They don't even need to be that complex. A 'hold position command to be used for ranged pets so that the pet does not move unless it is hit by a fear like burn patch. And a 'close combat' command for melee pets(not that they need it right now).