Pet AI Potential

I'll pose it here as a question:

Couldn't the melee/range pet thing be solved by removing attacks?

For example, almost all the ranged thug pets have Brawl. Wouldn't removing Brawl eliminate them moving into melee range since they no longer have an attack that requires them to move into that attack range?

Of course this doesn't apply to Demons or Beasts, (The Dire Wolf has both ranged and melee, same with pretty much all the Demon pets) but you get the idea.

So sad that so many people, or so few (depending on how you look at it), want MMs to become OP.

First of all, MMs are original villains. There are no hero bosses...just heroes and superheroes...and since villains always lose in the end, they all need to have some type of weakness, lol.

Fixxing these so called problems they might as well make all stalkers' attacks AS's...all controllers' holds 10 secs...all scrappers' attacks critical 100%...etc.

A Mastermind is a boss, not a Master Controller (which would be sooo OP)...and NO boss gets everything they ask for from their employees/minions, lol.

BTW, it is just a game...have fun.

I didn't know there is a "stay" command for pets? I know there is goto, follow, dismiss...

Is "stay" the same as "goto, passive"?

I can't believe I just found out today that there is a "Stay" command. lol All I know is I use Goto, passive a lot when I want to reposition my pets (to avoid explosion, to avoid aoe, etc).

I've never used "stay". I use "follow, passive" all the time when I try to speed run past something.

I guess if "stay" still doesn't stop pets from running in, then there's really not much point.

Wow, so much logic fail in this post, where do I even being dissecting your errors.

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Originally Posted by Awesome_Clawsome So sad that so many people, or so few (depending on how you look at it), want MMs to become OP.

No one is asking for MMs to be OP, we are asking for them to function as advertised.

Something I might add that is very important since they are now paid for (and $15 at that).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Awesome_Clawsome First of all, MMs are original villains. There are no hero bosses...just heroes and superheroes...and since villains always lose in the end, they all need to have some type of weakness, lol.

Aside from the fact that we can now start MMs as heroes, what you are saying is that all the original Villain ATs should suck. Yeah, that's balanced.... NOT!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Awesome_Clawsome Fixxing these so called problems they might as well make all stalkers' attacks AS's...all controllers' holds 10 secs...all scrappers' attacks critical 100%...etc.

Do I really need to explain all of your logical fallacies in this statement?

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Originally Posted by Awesome_Clawsome A Mastermind is a boss, not a Master Controller (which would be sooo OP)...and NO boss gets everything they ask for from their employees/minions, lol.

As has already been pointed out, an MM isn't like your boss at work. This boss will shoot poor employees, not write them up.

Aside from that, not all of the MM henchmen are "hired". Robots are built, and if I built my robots I'd damn well make them work the way I want them to. Necro and Demons are magically bound to you.

I'm not here to play an incompetent super. If my spells/tech aren't working the way I want them to, I'd redesign them.

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Originally Posted by Awesome_Clawsome BTW, it is just a game...have fun.

Love to have fun, this is the best game on the market at the moment. That doesn't mean it's without flaws.

Now imagine for a moment (since you obviously have such a fertile imagination as to come up with the list of bogus garbage above) if Scrapper/Brute/Tanker attack powers would sometimes fire off a random, weaker attack, and using that attack would cost you 1/7th of your HP.

Can you feel the rage that would be generated in those forums? They'd probably melt down the forum server with all the angst.

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Originally Posted by Jibikao I guess if "stay" still doesn't stop pets from running in, then there's really not much point.

Yeah, Stay and GoTo mean "if you feel like it, and don't see a shiney".

'Stay' is merely 'Goto-where-they-are'. It has the same weakness that Goto does, in that the pets still can decide to move away on their own (running into melee, avoiding ground effects, etc.)

Which is working as intended.

Aside from a few AI quirks, Masterminds generally CAN control their henchmen, it's just that they need to anticipate all the weird ways in which pets behave. It's less directly commanding the henchmen as it is working with them.

For instance, the "Stay" command is merely a specific instance of the "Go To" command, and as far as I can tell, is only a convenience command so you don't have to pick a location manually. Both goto and stay will overwrite henchmen "intentions," but only for the duration of the movement or, in the case of stay, not at all. Once the henchmen have carried out the command, their internal AI will take over. If they have a target, they will proceed to attack it. If their AI compels them to close in on the target, they will do so. The only way to keep them from moving is to set them to passive.

Henchmen AI works on commands very similar to what you can give them, which is why Mastermind orders don't seem to get carried out sometimes. Sadly, none of these commands give us control over range, so if a henchmen is adamant about using an attack which he believes he needs to be in melee for, you can't stop him. You don't pick range, you don't pick attack choice. That said, you CAN force the henchman to rechoose his attack by interrupting his orders with your own. I believe a goto command will force the henchman AI to pick an attack all over again, which will usually reset range, at least for a while.

One notable exception is the Medic from Mercs. The Medic has an AI quirk which makes him think his heal is melee-ranged, causing him to approach his target to use it. The problem is that "his target" is the enemy the Medic is shooting at, so he'll approach enemies to heal allies from range. Have you noticed how despite having a melee range of 7 feet, critters will still run into within 5 feet of you to melee, even if they're already within melee ranged? That's kind of the same thing - where the henchman thinks he needs to be to use a power and where the power requires him to be don't always match.

The Mercs Medic, however, is also a good example of a character who doesn't use a specific power until a specific condition is met. The Medic doesn't heal unless an ally loses more health than the heal recovers (which can cause problems of its own by letting henchmen get killed when they're "not hurt enough"). If it's the henchmen wanting to use melee attacks that causes them to approach, then it's a case of having to bound the use of those powers to specific circumstances, such as distance to target.

I'm not saying the Mastermind henchman AI is perfect, but a lot of the time it can be managed. Or, if you don't want to, you can do what I do, which is to let your henchmen go into melee and follow them there. I'm not sure how this works in iTrials, but it seems to work for me in regular content.

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Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I didn't read all of this thread, but I will say that the AI can be annoying sometimes, however manageable nonetheless as another poster mentioned. Knowing these limitations means you can play to accommodate them, which is what I've done.

Now, what REALLY bothers me to no end is when certain AOE's and psi attacks cause my henchmen to run around crazy. At any other point I feel I have full control, but ironically, caltrops drives them wild.

It's bad when you're fighting a group, with 3 other groups in somewhat close proximity, and they run around attracting those other groups. Talk about chaos and annoyance.

But other than that, I have no real issues to be honest. Masterminds take a lot of work to play. If it was simply a matter of point and click and watch all the magic happen.....well that'd be pretty darn boring.

I always thought that we should have complete control over our henchmen. Under the Advanced Option, there should be the option to toggle what powers we want them to use, and how they should engage an enemy (ranged/melee/whatever works). This way, players can choose how involved they are with their pets. Would also be nice if we could set at what point, any henchmen that could heal, should heal a fellow henchman (1/4, 1/2, 9/10).