[Responded] artificial intelligence "blackout"

1. Title: artificial intelligence "blackout"
2. Reproduction Rate: difficult to reproduce
3. Blocker? No
4. Details: Today I was in the Gem Graff Mine to get some crafting experience and two times a kobold warrior did not fought back. The enemy simply was keeping hit partole up while I could fight, damage and kill him...the only thing the kobold was doing was to growl while I punched him. I could not recognize a trigger like the usage of a specific skill to reproduce this behaviour and the two kobolds had also two different positions but both were in the first room on entering the mine.
5. Steps to Reproduce: no idea
6. User Specs: SotA.EarlyAccess.Win.64.716.Date.12.19.17

 

12/26/2017 7:40 PM
Title: artificial intelligence "blackout"
Reproduction Rate: unknown
Blocker? No
Details: Same issue in Elysium mines. Reporting to confirm this.
Steps to Reproduce: Random
User Specs:
OS: Windows 10 (10.0.0) 64bit
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz (8) System RAM: 16313
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 GPU RAM: 4060
SotA.EarlyAccess.LIVE.Win.64.716.Date.12.19.17
Area: Novia_R11_Hills01_ElysiumMines
Area Display Name: Elysium Mines
Loc: (-36.5, -10.4, -11.4)
Debug: Tm92aWFfUjExX0hpbGxzMDFfRWx5c2l1bU1pbmVzfHwoLTM2LjUwMiwgLTEwLjM1OSwgLTExLjQwMyl8KDAsIDAuNDk0LCAwLCAwLjg2OSl8NDQ2LjMwMDZ8MzYuMDAxMDh8MTEuMjk5ODI=

 

@Tiina Onir
@Lars von Drachental
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you both...are you guys seeing the same behavior these days?

 

@Lexie - Yes - I've seen the behavior in Ulfheim with the bears and also the Monkeys in the Monkey Room in K'rul. With the bears, sometimes you are fighting one and the combat AI simply turns off. The bear runs back (I assume to it's spawn point) and it just stands there. With the Monkey Room - they come out of their doors and some come straight at you - but occasionally one runs to a location (generally by the spikes between room 1 and 2) and stands there ignoring you. It's as if they simply don't recognize that a player is there.

 

Here's a short video of one of the monkeys in K'rul that Tazar refers to:
The 3 monkeys come out the door and one of them just stands there doing nothing, then suddenly wakes up after a time....
This happens fairly frequently there.

 

I wasn't able to recreate the behaviour in the Gem Graff Mine during the last weekend or today...and the monkey bug is comparable but not exactly the same. The kobolds simply continued their patrol in the tunnel and I needed longer to kill them but they never started to fight back.
Out of my perspective it looks like the bug is fixed.

 

I did some repeated testing of the Monkey Room on the dev server (as more mob UI fixes have been put in here compared to live)
So far, I cannot repro. Each wave attacks me after multiple attempts. I think we finally got this one.
BUT -
If this continues to happen after the next release there may be some sort of factor here I am missing. A spell, an AoE, multiple party members hitting at once- something.
Judging from the video, it almost looks like a willow wisp mezzed him. But clearly that's not the case.
@FrostII

 

Great! I look forward to seeing this one licked!

 

1/13/2018 10:56 AM
SotA.EarlyAccess.LIVE.Win.64.716.Date.12.19.17
Area: RandomEncounter_Plains02/Wolf
Loc: (2.2, 31.8, 6.4)
Debug: UmFuZG9tRW5jb3VudGVyX1BsYWluczAyfFdvbGZ8KDIuMjEzLCAzMS44MDksIDYuNDIyKXwoMCwgMC45OTksIDAsIC0wLjAzNCl8MTgxLjY4MDR8MzEuMzczNHwxMC4zMDYzMQ==

Just recognized a comparable behaviour with an elder wolf in an random encounter.
First he was ignoring me while I fought another wolf next to him but as I hit him he started spinning in circles on the spot and once in a while he moved some steps forward...I think on his patrol route.
Again I could attack and kill him without any fightback.

 

I think the difference in the Monkeys vs. Kobolds is that the Monkeys don't really have a "Patrol Route" - they simply spawn when the room is occupied and attack... but the same underlying "I don't recognize there's a player here to attack" in the AI seems to be the key.

 

I am not sure it could be a spell or AOE. I've seen it in solo/party areas where I know nothing was cast (by a player at least) right after the monster spawned. If you are solo'ing the Monkey Room on a Death Mage and have room 3 open with a corpse-explosion waiting to hit and one simply wanders off, it's kinda obvious (unless it's one of the buffs going? Though I can't think of one that I use that might have this affect.). I'll be looking forward to testing in the new release Q&A.

 

I meant more that the monkey's blackout was temporary and that he started to fightback...but of course this different behaviour could be based on the fact that he has no route...hard to tell.

@Topic
I think if it would be based on a specific spell or AOE it would be easier to reproduce and would happen more often...but maybe a specific combination of different spells could be a explanation why it happen that rare....I'm just poking around in the dark but I would suggest to check in the AI the queries that are defining friend or foe if there is any possibility that an avatar can be seen as "friend" in their view and how often there is a reanalysis of this classification.

 

@Lexie It took me a while to see it again, but I am still seeing this from the wolves at Siquennia Colossus, with the party I had hunting them. (It was happening super-consistently)
Not sure if it's still happening elsewhere, I haven't been mining much lately.

Out of curiosity, are they solving this on a case-by-case basis, or a more general solution along the lines of "make patrols interruptible"

 

Nearly forgot to post it...last weekend I have seen it in Gem Graff Mine again but just once and again in the entrance room. It was the kobold that is walking the long way on the left.
As I recognized it I stopped fighting the kobold and watched what he was doing. Basically he continued his patrol and was walking to the closes point to the entrance, stayed there for some seconds, turned around and started to attack me.
All in all I would guess the "blackout" lasted between 20 and 30 seconds.
So I think I was wrong and it seems to be the same failure as seen with the monkey's.