Kallisti Wharf enemies ignore aggro rules, making some duos unplayable

[Kai Moon]

The game has always had an alternative critter AI aiCritterDoCotBehemoth() that lets some critters ignore standard aggro rules and attack targets lower on the aggro list. But that alternative AI was dummied out. And wisely so, as I'll discuss later.

 

Kallisti Wharf, as part of Homecoming's general trend for higher difficulty at lower levels, undummies out that AI, and uses it for Greater Devoured (Kallisti Wharf verison only), and perhaps other critters.

 

I'm sure this was heavily playtested solo and in 8-man teams, where the alternative AI isn't going to cause problems. But dear god it makes certain 2-man teams unplayable. When I joined my friend's scrapper with my corruptor, I had to basically just go afk all mission.

 

This feature was dummied out for a reason. Send it back to the bin.

[Seed22]

52 minutes ago, Kai Moon said:

The game has always had an alternative critter AI aiCritterDoCotBehemoth() that lets some critters ignore standard aggro rules and attack targets lower on the aggro list. But that alternative AI was dummied out. And wisely so, as I'll discuss later.

 

Kallisti Wharf, as part of Homecoming's general trend for higher difficulty at lower levels, undummies out that AI, and uses it for Greater Devoured (Kallisti Wharf verison only), and perhaps other critters.

 

I'm sure this was heavily playtested solo and in 8-man teams, where the alternative AI isn't going to cause problems. But dear god it makes certain 2-man teams unplayable. When I joined my friend's scrapper with my corruptor, I had to basically just go afk all mission.

 

This feature was dummied out for a reason. Send it back to the bin.

Scrappers arent great at aggro management in general tbf and outside of things like Bio, Invuln and I think Rad and a few others, dont have a taunt aura. 

 

Couple questions:

-What level were you both?

-What was his secondary?

-What was your prim/secondary? 

 

Also did you have a coordinator in the groups you were fighting? They are specifically designed to put a mark on and prioritize squishies that focuses all of the mob on them. Also also the AI is specifically coded to prioritize certain ATs depending on the critter as outlined in Cobalt's dev diary of the group and the page overview of the group I believe.

Edited Monday at 02:14 AM by Seed22

[Kai Moon]

There seems to be a misunderstanding here. I'm not asking a question about what happened. I tested it thoroughly, and I posted exactly what happened.

 

It's a previously dummied AI that preferentially attacks whoever's #2 on the aggro list. I don't know how many Kallisti Wharf critters use this AI, but I know at least one does - Greater Devoured. (That might be the only one.)

 

* My level doesn't matter.

* My friend's level doesn't matter.

* My powers don't matter.

* It wasn't a coordinator.

* It wasn't an aggro management issue.

* The fact my friend didn't have a taunt matters - in my tests I confirmed that a taunt overrides this AI behavior - but lots of duos won't have a taunter.

If you still think I'm not 100% accurately describing the issue, I invite you to test it yourself.

Edited Monday at 10:58 AM by Kai Moon

[Seed22]

Those last two bullets are at odds with each other. It WAS an aggro management issue. Your friend is a scrapper so they wont be able to manage aggro well like the tanking ATs. These mobs can be taunted as per usual minus the coordinator shtick mentioned earlier. Also going off Cobalt’s diary, I believe Corrs would appear a bit higher in priority due to how the AI is targetting ATs based on the critters. Hold up a sec I’ll link the article, it may also help a bit.

 

Dev Diary on BWI: 

 

 

That AI flag is interesting but I’m still a bit confused on what you mean by dummying it down? 
This isnt meant to be a hostile post. In genuinely interested in your issue and trying to help

Edited Monday at 12:40 PM by Seed22

[Forager]

What happens if you kill the mob that is attacking you?

[arcane]

Your post seems to be implying to me that you find your corruptor unplayable if it takes any aggro. That would be a you problem and not a game problem. If that’s not what you’re saying, please clarify.

[Psyonico]

How do you know the mob is going for a lower aggro target if you acknowledge that the scrapper doesn't have a taunt aura?

 

To my knowledge, a scrapper without confront or a taunt aura does not create more aggro than a corruptor.

[Uun]

5 hours ago, Kai Moon said:

I tested it thoroughly, and I posted exactly what happened.

Where? If in another thread, post a link.

[Uun]

19 minutes ago, Psyonico said:

To my knowledge, a scrapper without confront or a taunt aura does not create more aggro than a corruptor.

Scrapper has a base threat level of 3, corruptor has a base threat level of 1. Debuffs increase threat level, so a corruptor using debuffs could easily generate more threat than a scrapper.

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Threat

[Rudra]

1 hour ago, Uun said:

Scrapper has a base threat level of 3, corruptor has a base threat level of 1. Debuffs increase threat level, so a corruptor using debuffs could easily generate more threat than a scrapper.

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Threat

There is also the question of who was doing how much damage and how quickly. For instance, I was fighting Jurassik as part of a small league (two or three teams) and we had three Tankers. Those Tankers were doing en excellent job of keeping Jurassik's attention on them rather than everyone else except in my case. The fight was a constant Jurassik attacks me, Jurassik attacks Tanker A, Jurassik attacks me, Jurassik attacks Tanker B, Jurassik attacks me, Jurassik attacks Tanker C, Jurassik attacks me... over and over through out the fight. I wasn't even using Confront and they were spamming Taunt. Because when a PC hits the mob hard enough, the mob goes for that PC.

[srmalloy]

5 hours ago, Seed22 said:

That AI flag is interesting but I’m still a bit confused on what you mean by dummying it down? 

I think they're referring to a common practice in programming when you have a block of code that you may need later, but don't want to be actively run in the current iteration of the program, to comment out the whole block so that it gets skipped when the program runs.

[lemming]

This "might" be related but someone in chat the other day on Everlasting was mentioning a Devoured had a different agro rule

 

"Back from testing, sorry I took a while. Turns out Devouring Earth boss AI will always split their attacks between two targets if they have two targets"

 

Looking at the rest of the chat, I think that is from the OP.