SIngularity gets confused in FBZ

[srmalloy]

The Singularity pet from Gravity Control appears to be unable to traverse the portal from the base in Firebase Zulu to the main area of the zone. When this happens, it will lose all pathing logic and continue to fruitlessly batter itself against the portal. I noticed this when returning to turn in Dr. Boyd's first mission; the Singularity remained in FBZ itself, trying to go through the portal, even when I returned to FBZ to find out what had kept it from following me. Despite no longer being on the 'far side' of the portal, the Singularity continues to try to get through the portal:

 

Update: If I zone, the Singularity is transported to the zone with me, but if I leave FBZ through the portal to the rest of the zone, then use the 'fall over the edge' teleport back to FBZ, I will find the Singularity beating against the portal, convinced that I'm still on the other side of the portal and it needs to find a way through, not recognizing that I'm behind it.

Edited March 24, 2023 by srmalloy

[Captain Fabulous]

Pet pathing problems have already been extensively documented.

[srmalloy]

This isn't just a pathing problem; if a pet is unable to traverse the portal in the FBZ base — and there's no other way to get from the base out into the zone proper without taking a circuitous route through the Cascade Archipelago — and, once a character has traversed the portal, the pet is unable to identify the return of the character and resume following, then it forces a resummon of the pet, which can require waiting several minutes for the power to recharge.

 

I believe that MM pets will be immune to this problem, since they already respawn closer if the MM gets too far away, but I will need to test other pets to see if they suffer from the same problem, and whether the problem exists at other teleports separating parts of a single zone, such as inside and outside the Vanguard base in the RWZ; if it's specific to that one portal in FBZ, it  reduces the scope of the problem.

[srmalloy]

Testing with an Earth Control Dominator, the Animate Stone pet goes through the portal from the FBZ base to the zone without a problem. I discovered an unrelated bug in the process; I didn't see the pet immediately after going through the portal, and jumped over the edge to get ported back inside the base. The pet jumped over the edge as well, but it continued running through the air as it fell for about 30 seconds before being teleported back into the FBZ base, where a falling character will get ported within about five seconds. With a Fire Control Controller, the Fire Imps would go through the portal; if I jump over the edge and fall to be ported back to the FBZ base, the imps will jump over the edge as well and run down through the air like Animate Stone until they get teleported after about 30 seconds. Jack Frost, from an Ice Control Dominator, will also go through the portal and exhibit the same 'run through the air' delayed teleport. With an Illusion Control Dominator, both Phantasm and Phantom Army go through the portal, and both exhibit the 'run through the air' delayed teleport.

 

Moving to the Rikti War Zone and summoning both Singularity and Force Field Generator, Singularity goes through the portal from inside the Vanguard base to outside without a problem; the FFG appears to have a delay going through the portal, but ultimately transits the portal . It appears that the issue with the Singularity pet transiting the portal to leave the FBZ base for the rest of the zone is specific to that one portal and to the Singularity pet.

 

[srmalloy]

Update: My Singularity also exhibits the same 'throw itself at the door over and over again, ignoring me completely' behavior if I enter the hospital in Echo: Rikti Crash Site, then exit. Exiting the zone pulls the Singularity along, at which point it returns to following me normally. And it happens with the hospital in Talos Island, as well. It will enter the Talos Vault Reserve, but jams up on the door to the Mutant store if I go inside.

 

Aaaand... the situation becomes clearer. If I wait for the Singularity to catch up to me, it has no problem following me inside stores and hospitals, and will follow me through the FBZ base portal to the rest of the zone. There appears to be a distance limit for the Singularity to be able to recognize that you're using an in-zone teleport (IIRC, that's the way all the doors to stores, hospitals, et al work -- they teleport you to an enclosed part of the map that's the 'interior' of the building), and tries to follow you through the door, but the pathing code didn't 'see' that you went through a door, so the Singularity gets caught in a loop trying to beat its way through the door. It is annoying to have to wait for my Singularity to catch up, because it is enough slower than my character that it falls hundreds of feet behind over a relatively short travel distance, though.

Edited March 29, 2023 by srmalloy

[SuggestorK]

Aaaah that would explain why i dont see it on my grav/kin controller,.. i keep it speed boosted 😁.....

Greetings

[SwitchFade]

Known singy issue... The thing moves so slowly that it will frequently hang on geometry, get lost, be unable to reverse entry/exit points... Unless, kinetics. One of the main reasons I avoid gravity, sadly, the need to either be kinetics or take teleport to move singy around.

[srmalloy]

Yet another data point supporting a need for pets to automatically move at the same speed as their summoners (or the associated run/fly speed cap, for non-teleporting pets if the summoner uses Teleport or Translocation).

[Luminara]

Some testing I've done on some characters might have relevance.

 

On my Bots/TA mastermind, I keep "losing" one or more of my robots.  Every few minutes, a robot would become stuck on something.  It's not in combat, it's not defeated, it's stuck in a wall, or on a chair, or a light pole, or whatever.  I found that the problem was caused by Group Fly.  Every time I have a stuck robot, I turned off Group Fly and the little moron will come running over to me.

 

I've also found that both Singularity and Phantasm were the worst at passing through doorways, such as in sewers, so bad that I'd either dismiss them and resummon them later, or I'd just abandon them and finish the mission without them.

 

On my peacebringer, I noted that summoning Photon Seekers when I wasn't in the middle of a spawn would sometimes cause one to "disappear", meaning only two would make it to the spawn, the third never showed up.  Pretty sure the errant Seeker was stuck on something.

 

I've also seen multiple repots of Voltaic Sentinel driving players mad with its inability to keep up and frequent pathing issues.

 

Flight is the commonality with all of them.  Every pet/hench I've had trouble with, and all of the reports of troublesome pets/henches that I've read, have had flight in common.

[srmalloy]

I allowed for pathing around obstacles by summoning Singularity on the west side of the hill in Talos, up high enough to have an uninterrupted path to the hospital; whether it followed me through the door depended only on whether I outran it to the door and entered, or waited for it to catch up. Broken pathing is a different problem entirely.

 

I wonder if a solution to the door problem would be to teleport your pets to you when you pass through a door, regardless of how far away they are at the time.