Monsters should also behave defensively

At one point DarkStarr I think mentioned that there are a bunch of behaviors they want to put in the game. Something I see missing at this point is monsters acting defensively. Except for maybe archers. Overall, they're currently just dumb attack machines.

What I mean by that is, for instance:

--Backing up away from the player -- though not fleeing. This would also be a tactic in packs/groups of monsters. I remember this type of behavior from Diablo.

--If carrying a shield, raising it up for defense; which may or may not use up Focus. A similar thing might be parrying. NPC active skills that use Focus like player skills would be nice, though. DOT attacks (eg. bites that cause bleeding) would also be a good addition that would be used in combination with defensive tactics.

--Fleeing only intentionally to get help. Once the monster finds help, he stops fleeing. This would happen if the monsters gets badly wounded.

--If an archer, using cover to hide.

I'm sure there are numerous other examples.

 

Maybe you kill them too quickly? I, unfortunately have to take my time, and find it annoying when my soon-to-be-dead leather/gold/sword starts to run away from me and back to his buddies before I can go and do the finishing blow.

I'd rather he had remained as dumb as before so I don't have to go running after him or keep watching if he runs too close back to his buddies. But I guess this is progress, so

 

Are you sure you aren't describing what the devs are calling "leashing"? Sometimes if you pull monsters past a certain spot, the game forces them to go back to their original location. That's not really defensive behavior.

The only time I've seen monsters truly run away in R20 is, besides archers -- who are repositioning themselves -- wolves when they have like only a few hit points left. But that's not really the defensive behavior I'm talking about, either. I'm not talking about fleeing. I'm talking about even at a higher health level, monsters acting in a more guarded manner so as to have an advantage in the fight. So backing up, and then coming back in to attack you. It would make fights more interesting.

I don't know if you've been seeing things I haven't.

 

Hmm, maybe it's that repositioning thing then as it does only seem to happen when the hp level goes down. Irritating things, they only go back a bit at a time. Stop, fight and run again, chase again, getting closer to the other mobs.

 

Similarly, AI needs to include a monster's comrades joining in the fray if they're within earshot of your melee. Sometimes I'm fighting an elf and his buddies are just standing there 20 feet away doing nothing. Sometimes they join in, and sometimes they don't.

 

@Budner, sure, though it could also be a bit more refined than that. Lets say some elf is attacking you and doing pretty well, and it doesn't seem like he needs help. I don't know if the others are going to run for help. But when he starts getting beaten badly, he's going to call for it. Also, if two people are on top of him instead of one, he's going to call for a second guy. Also, if its a group versus a group, they're going to try to go one-one-one, instead of just ganging up on one player -- unless the one player is a threat. So I think there's all sorts of intelligent behavior to figure out here.

 

I see your point but the monsters in the game are super evil and aggressive. If we want to be "realistic" I think all his buddies immediately join the fight. It's not like some macho thing where they sit and watch and only help their buddy if he starts to lose. They'd pile on and destroy any threat, asap.

 

@Budner, it would depend on the monster I think.

 

I forgot to point out, one of the reasons it would depend on the monster is also that sometimes its just dumb behavior. Lets say some elf soldiers are guarding a post. Not any more elves than need to are going to get up from their post if its a single guy, because it could be a diversion. That could matter at control points, for instance.

 

Mobs that just stand around are part of the problem. Their responses do not seem realistic when a group stands by watching their friend get jumped by a player.

Placing more of them on patrol routes, with a larger agro range, might make for a better game of timing attacks.

 

I agree, Garriott has mentioned this many times during interviews on the subject of Tabula Rasa, so he is well aware of it, in those interviews, just to summarize, he basically says Tabula Rasa wasn't like most games that treat monsters like cattle, cattle that just stand there and do nothing until you walk up to them. He elaborated on the amazing monster NPC system in Tabula Rasa that invades towns, and doesn't simply stand there. So the invading towns thing seems like it is in the future. But as the OP points out, there's an important part of behavior involving doing something other than just standing there. So there should be an in-between feature. In-between Standing-There-Monster-NPCs, and Town-Invading-NPCs. An in-between that causes monster NPCs to have a type of an unpredictable schedule that can't be easily seen by the players, unpredictable enough to appear to be the monster NPCs doing anything other than standing like cattle waiting to be slaughtered, and other than a very obvious robotic walk in a circle, or walk up and walk down schedule. But, I'm sure these things are complicated.

 

I'm would like to see players with a reputation system with the enemy.

After player X kills so many undead, dragons or other intelligent monster a negative reputation gets built up and then they start hunting the player or possibly a guild.

I think it would be neat to have the monsters attack us in our POTs as revenge/aggressive defense.

 

Monsters fleeing to get help sounds like a valid concept on the surface, but it's insanely annoying when a game where enemies have substantial hitpoints and usuallycan't be dispatched in seconds does this, because you'll end up spending more time chasing fleeing enemies than actually fighting them. Enemies actually going for help tends to cause a chain reaction where the player ends up having to fight the entire zone at the same time. That kind of thing can be OK in a game that is build for non-stop action, but in a more slow paced roleplaying experience it tends to be more satisfying when fights have definitive conclusions and you have a chance to plan your next move.

Since it's a multiplayer roleplaying game there are always lots of enemies and they always have lots of hitpoints, and that means the "speed vs. survivability" ratio is such that moving targets can cover a lot of ground even while under full scale attack.

 

I believe this applies to all the NPC's in the game. Don't they sleep at night? Attacking an elven camp at night should give me a great advantage, as some of them aught to be sleeping! Don't they go hunting? Why aren't the elven archers concerned about the plenty of good food wandering near their camps? Why aren't the wolves harassing these camps as pack trying to pull an unlucky sleeping elf away into the dark forest to devour?

I would love to see these things in my game .

 

It seems to me that spiders at least enjoy to swarm to their friend's assistance... sometimes from asinine distances (or maybe I'm just that unlucky).

 

I see npc's battling all the time.

 

NPC behaviors. I think all intelligent NPCs should be able to track resources in their area. Perhaps each type of NPC would be interested in a specific type of resource. So Elves perhaps could care less about gems, but love to gather trees and garlic and other reagents. Maybe refine it down to the class, so an Elf mage can't resist a nearby reagent resource, and will often walk to it and gather from that resource.

This can do two things. It allows players to catch NPC's while they are busy gathering, giving us a slight advantage to successful hits while they are caught 'off guard', but also, any NPC we kill, we can loot the resources they gathered from the node from their corpse. Meanwhile, NPC's should be able to loot resources we've gathered from within the zone from our corpse when they kill us as well.

I think allowing NPCs to actually gather from the nodes in the zone will be a huge step in the right direction.

 

This is true, and a great start. However, it is all based on random proximity.

At least it appears that way. I will mention one instance of a bear chasing a rabbit EVERY time I go to solace bridge, maybe this is scripted? Maybe they're just spawned in very close proximity to set it up, can't say for certain.

 

Depends on your definition of scripted.

But it's not hard coded. Instead it is based on aggro range and LOS combined with some random movement.

You can see this in some scenes like Plains of Righ Inis where if the skellies turn right they will attack one foe while if they turn left they will attack another foe, while if they don't turn they will attack you.