[The Smushening 2021]

==Starring==
@GE Magic as GE Magic
@Doctor Delerium as Crimson Casserole and Darkvolt Devil
@TVowels as Full Stop aka Pep Talk
@cyberlynx as Crosshawk
@Force Redux as Mechanista
@CU Krow as Krow and The Camera Guy (like, not a character, just the guy with the camera)

==Music==
12 Days of Christmas by Reliant K, Goatee Records
Instrumental by https://youtube.com/@ChrisMakesMusic

If you like it, drop by the ol' YouTubes and drop a comment with your @handle to let us know you were there!

[Is Bot AI busted?]

3 minutes ago, ZorkNemesis said:

It looks like you're standing in Caltrops.  If I had to venture a guess, Caltrops have a "fear" effect that causes entities to flee the damage patch.  I believe MM pets are also subject to this effect and the bots are attempting to escape the damage between attacks which would explain why they're scattering now.  That doesn't explain invisibility or perception behavior but would still make sense for Caltrops or similar attacks.

It was Knives of Artemis on that map, so Caltrops was definitely in play, but the fact that the behavior occurs with any AoE, and any hard or soft CC, suggests there's something else causing it to happen. I've seen my bots get choked by a gas cloud and then immediately scatter once I break the Hold effect with Faraday Cage, for example.

[Is Bot AI busted?]

 

 

 

This screenshot was taken after about 30 seconds of my pets completely ignoring the Follow command. This behavior seems to occur with any persistent AoE, but especially when the AoE includes CC of some kind. Enemy invisibility or perception debuffs on the pets also seems to trigger this behavior.

I've been gone for a few months, but I've been keeping up with patch notes, and I haven't seen any deliberate changes to pet AI since the wave of fixes i27 initially brought with it. I have also observed, rarely, that the bots will run into melee range, despite having sufficient recharge and endurance to remain at range. This behavior is clearly a recent development, and is a regression to pet behavior prior to the i27 fixes.

 

I chose not to post this as a bug report right away, because conversations I've had in-game suggest it doesn't seem to be a widespread issue, and I'm unsure how to collect meaningful data for a bug report of this nature to begin with. Mainly, I'm posting here for other MM players to keep an eye on their pets' behaviors to see if we can identify whether it's specific to Bots or if other pet groups are behaving the same way.

[Homecoming Code of Conduct Update - May 13th, 2021]

5 hours ago, JayboH said:

Since it has been several pages, I want to reiterate:  You should not stream this game on Twitch.  It is directly against their Terms of Service, which can lead to punishments including bans.  They have enforced this in other games before.

 

I know that several will continue to do it, and it's probably unlikely that anything will happen, however it is against their ToS and I want people to be aware.  I assume NCSoft would need to get Twitch' attention in order to pursue, which isn't likely, but you might as well not take the risk.

 

This risk is completely mitigated if the possibility of HC getting the rights is actually somehow true.

You've said it a couple times now. I get that you're trying to be helpful here, but I think it would be more helpful if you also included your recommendations on which platforms might be more lenient.

[Bots/X Mastermind, what would you consider the strongest secondary?]

/FF is also pretty good, back when I stopped playing it was troublesome getting everyone bubbled up, but other than that, it was very hands-off, which can be both a blessing and a curse as the bots are also fairly hands off, so FF does allow the option for tighter microing and use the bots knock effects more effectively and even their hitboxes as a form of control, but can easily become stale; it also lacks debuffing options.

 

It's worth noting that bubbles now hit all nearby allies with a single cast, so potentially less micro'ing, and more staleness, but far more effective.