Current Pet Issues 2009/08/30

[Archived Post]

This particularly applies to gadgeteer pets.

* Attacking pets will attack environmental objects, even to the point of perfering them over living targets (that are attacking the pet's owner). Pet controls should have an "attack my target" option that will refocus the pets on the owner's current targets. Pets should never attack environmental objects on their own, unless instructed by the owner.

* Healing pets will heal the oddest things. They'll heal wounded NPCs, which is neat. They'll heal other PCs (even if they aren't on my team). They'll heal eachother. This is all well and good, except when they're healing anybody except me. Again, a "heal my target" option, that will refocus the the pets would be handy. Additionally, the pets need to have some kind of priority assigned. The priority should be: 1) Assigned heal target, 2) Pet Owner, 3) Teammates, 4) Themselves, 5) Anybody else

* Pets will sometimes stay in place while in Assist mode, even if the pet owner is out of combat.

* Healing pets will also get stuck in some doors, forcing the owner to desummon -all- pets in order to resummon them. Either they need to learn how to maneuver around walls properly, or a "call pets" option needs to happen to force them to the owner.

* Separate options for pet groups would be handy. Example: I'd like to be able to dismiss just my healing pets, or just my attack pets.

* BUG: Bots will occasionally not be dismissed when instructed by the owner.

* Field Drones do not exit combat (preventing out-of-combat health regen) after enemies are defeated.

* Field Drones do not come to help the owner until several seconds of combat have elapsed and the owner's health is severely depleted. When they do arrive, they prioritize the munitions bots over the bot owner.

* Damage and healing from Munitions Bots and Field Drones are not modified by INT as stated in the info for the stat

Filed bug #160778.

[Archived Post]

Haha, I ran into that at the end of Beta. In Renaissance Park, fighting destroids, then my munition bots would go on a killing spree and destroy every chair within 100 feet of me.
I think what *may* have happened was that I may have done some aoe damage that hit the chairs and possibly marked them as enemies, which is why the bots attacked them.
I consider it a bug, but it IS funny.

[Archived Post]

I have been experiencing the same issues. Every time I open up with my cone based energy builder, I seem to hit 1 or 2 random objects. This in turn causes my pets to shoot that item and in turn, hit 1 or 2 random object with the weapons they use. They then shoot those 1 or 2 items.... well, you see where this is going.

Temporary fix, click passive and then assist again. It will sort of reset them but this is a very craptastic option if you are in a big fight.

As for the pets not following properly... I see it with the Munitions Bots quite a bit (they decide to just stand around and watch the sky) but that is not nearly as troubling as the heal bots. They will lose all power and just float in one spot for extended periods. Some time they must be unplugged just to get any response from them.

Temporary and craptastic fix for both... I release and re summon my bots... A LOT.

Devs, any way to get an updated Operating System in our bots? The current seems to Blue Screen way too often. Thank you!

[Archived Post]

Hi just as i see it..how do i release my pets ? Especially the munibots...my petbar does absolutley nothing..no matter what i click...no response from the bar or the pet :( . Is this a known issue ?

[Archived Post]

Oh, my mistake, that's another thing to add to the list... "Dismiss option occasionally doesn't work".

Best solution on the dev's side of things for the Munition Bots of DOOM is, again, to restrict them to ignoring objects as kill targets UNLESS said object happens to be targetted (and actively attacked by) the bot owner. Because often, the bots will completely ignore my current kill target.

And last night, I again experienced my healbots wandering off to heal some other guy... meanwhile, the two or three mobs currently on me merrily ripped me apart.

[Archived Post]

Haha, I ran into that at the end of Beta. In Renaissance Park, fighting destroids, then my munition bots would go on a killing spree and destroy every chair within 100 feet of me.
I think what *may* have happened was that I may have done some aoe damage that hit the chairs and possibly marked them as enemies, which is why the bots attacked them.
I consider it a bug, but it IS funny.

If it's by design, it's by bad design. :(

[Archived Post]

"my owner is attacking a chair with the blast of one of his attacks! it must be the GREATEST THREAT EVER!"

[Archived Post]

Man my poor gadgeteer is gonna get sued, her bots have blown up like three or four cars, a couple of trucks, and a bunch of payphones, benches, and lamp posts. :(

I can see the headlines now... "Luciana Testarossa: Threat or Menace?"

[Archived Post]

/signed

I was just about to make a post on this very same subject.

Please add pets follow okay when I am flying then when I stop they fall down and then re-appear next to me then fall down.... they will do this until they are dead.

I re-rolled a toon had pets again (Gadgeteer) picked super jump. They got so far behind they just disappeared altogether.

I found that when I used Teleport, They are just as dumb.

Hate jumping into a mob with no support. because they are still trying to jump over a bench (munitions bots)


I would like to know if they are ever planning on fixing these issue in this thread... or is this how you intended for pets to work?

[Archived Post]

"my owner is attacking a chair with the blast of one of his attacks! it must be the GREATEST THREAT EVER!"

haha so true.

Don't mind me pets, I'm being attacked by 4 dudes. You just keep shooting that trash can while I get the hell beat out of me. Drones? Where are you, why are you healing that guy 500 yards away!

[Archived Post]

To describe the pets in this game as having an AI is to insult every poorly implemented Pet AI in the history of MMOs... The "I" implies intelligence, which there is none whatsoever. In fact, I think pets in this game instead have "AS" (artificial stupidity).

Healer bots are hilarious. Fighting without having that skill and suddenly two little bots come out of no where to heal me... roflmao.

What ****es me off more than anything else... well two things I suppose:

1) Pets charging after mobs that are NOT aggroed and that I was NOT targeting. Basically, the pet AI seems to make pet attack weakest target first. If the weakest target is some mob pathing or standing nearby (but not aggro), suddenly you get to enjoy the thrill of having twice as many mobs to deal with!

2) Healing with pets up is a freaking nightmare. Why does the game automatically detarget my enemy, then automatically target a pet when I click heal? With no friendly target, I want the heal to heal ME not my freaking pet (or any other ally).

Running around the lands with pets is like a blind man going full speed through a glass factory with a rollerblade on the left foot and a skateboard on the right foot.

[Archived Post]

haha so true.

Don't mind me pets, I'm being attacked by 4 dudes. You just keep shooting that trash can while I get the hell beat out of me. Drones? Where are you, why are you healing that guy 500 yards away!


What would icing on the cake if you Healing Bots flew over and healed the chairs and baddies since they heal everything else but you.

[Archived Post]

1) Pets charging after mobs that are NOT aggroed and that I was NOT targeting. Basically, the pet AI seems to make pet attack weakest target first. If the weakest target is some mob pathing or standing nearby (but not aggro), suddenly you get to enjoy the thrill of having twice as many mobs to deal with!


I wondered about that and glad to see I'm not the only one. I tried the desert last night (instead of Canada like usual) and built a Gadgeteer. I never died so often in my life and that was even well teamed up. I thought that land was Enemy Spam city since every battle started out with 2 or 3 enemies and next thing I know, we have 10+ attacking. I started to realize that anytime I had my pets out, they were aggroing or something to call every enemy in a 10 block radius.

Oh, and after aggroing, they would generally promptly run off to go heal some random person that isn't part of the team....

I fully beg that Cryptic fix the pet issue. Go play some of the other MMO's with pets (**Cough** WoW **Cough**) and look at the controls. AI aside, with other games, I can hot key my "Attack my target" and "Return to me" so that my pets literally do exactly what I want and no more, no less. Changing "Attack my target" to "heal my target" would be appropriate for the healing bots as well.

Lastly, give us a bar which shows their stats (ie., Life bar/Energy bar) so I can just glance and see "Oh, healing/munition/toy bot 1 just died" and resummon my bot group again instead of going, "Where the *Bleep* is my bots?!" and discovering they died, but still are standing there making me THINK they are alive... Or wandered off to the point where they just unsummon on their own...

[Archived Post]

I agree with the life bar idea. I hae my M. Bots and H. Bots out. If my M. Bots die I don't know because the bar is the same for no matter how many things I have out.

I tried this out in Open Beta. when they let us turn 40. I grabbed every pets type I could. Only one bar and no way to know who and when they died.

[Archived Post]

yea pets are almost worthless, I would go and respec them, but alas i dont have 50silver or whatever it is

[Archived Post]

I posted on this as well here: I am having the same issues as the OP and others.

http://forums.champions-online.com/showthread.php?t=47769

[Archived Post]

yea pets are almost worthless, I would go and respec them, but alas i dont have 50silver or whatever it is

I am not gonna give up just yet, they have such potential :cool:

[Archived Post]

2) Healing with pets up is a freaking nightmare. Why does the game automatically detarget my enemy, then automatically target a pet when I click heal? With no friendly target, I want the heal to heal ME not my freaking pet (or any other ally).
This is probably because of the way the system picks a default target. If you're targeting an enemy and cast a heal (or shield), the heal defaults to the enemy's target instead of "self" (even though "self" is more intuitive and less frustrating). With pets, I noticed that this happens when I target a loose mob that I may not have aggro on. There was a thread on this during beta, but it was probably archived.

[Archived Post]

Bump for robo-pet justice.

Yes, please fix the Gadgeteer pets! Nothing is more frustrating than dying because my pets are off healing some random hero that happened to run by with low HP. The worst part is that they followed him so far away that they despawned themselves. They do a great job of healing, they just get a little overzealous about it.

Next thing I am waiting for are my attack bots letting their rage out on some poor environmental item while the heal bots heal said item, and I am getting my rear handed to me by whoever I am fighting ;) .

[Archived Post]

I am not gonna give up just yet, they have such potential :cool:

Complaints aside, I fully agree. :)

If anything, aside from the above issues, I found them to be very effective if planned well.

Many times, I would summon the heal & munitions bots, change them to machine gun mode and wait for the enemy or shoot it to get it to come over to me. While I just stood there in blocking mode the creature(s) would beat on me, largely ineffectively, while the machine guns would just mow them down and the healing bots would ensure I didn't die.

Not the most "heroic" manner of winning a fight since I basically just stood there screaming, "Not in the face! Not in the face!" but I was taking out groups solo with minimal risk. Course, on the rare occasion that an AOE attack was done and took out both guns, well.... Let's just say that quickly turned ugly and didn't end pretty for me. :)

That aside, does not mean they are effective. They have major issues since that is not how they SHOULD be played. I would much rather have better control over my pets and be able to actually use them in battle fighting alongside me as I fire my gun rather than stand there soaking up blocked enemy hits.

[Archived Post]

Complaints aside, I fully agree. :)

If anything, aside from the above issues, I found them to be very effective if planned well.

Many times, I would summon the heal & munitions bots, change them to machine gun mode and wait for the enemy or shoot it to get it to come over to me. While I just stood there in blocking mode the creature(s) would beat on me, largely ineffectively, while the machine guns would just mow them down and the healing bots would ensure I didn't die.

Not the most "heroic" manner of winning a fight since I basically just stood there screaming, "Not in the face! Not in the face!" but I was taking out groups solo with minimal risk. Course, on the rare occasion that an AOE attack was done and took out both guns, well.... Let's just say that quickly turned ugly and didn't end pretty for me. :)

That aside, does not mean they are effective. They have major issues since that is not how they SHOULD be played. I would much rather have better control over my pets and be able to actually use them in battle fighting alongside me as I fire my gun rather than stand there soaking up blocked enemy hits.

I found that kiting the enemy away from my bots is pretty effective to prevent them from getting AOE'd. Apparently all the threat from the damage and healing of my bots is applied to me directly, so despite all the healing and cannonspam that goes on, I can "tank" for my pets fairly well. :)

Most of the time, though, I do actually fight alongside my bots, firing my sonic gun and basically tearing stuff up.

[Archived Post]

----------------------------

[Archived Post]

/Signed

Pets are too buggy as hell right now. And the current pet command/interface system isnt' exactly the most brilliant design.

I would like to suggest the following solution:

1. Pet only attacks objects if the owner of the pet is actively attacking it. Right now the pets seems more interested in beating up on chairs, tables, trash cans than the villains that is attacking the owner.

2. A 'heal me' button for the healing drones. When commanded the drones would immediately go heal the owner, not someone else a mile away, not the party nor other npcs nearby. The command last until player's health is full.

3. A 'heal other' button for the healing pet. If commanded healing pet like the drones would go to the targetted ally or npc ally and heal them. If none are selected they would default to healing the nearest ally or npc ally.

4. Pet indicator. There should be a mini pet bar that shows you how many pets you have active under your character's HP bar. It will show the pet's overall status and health. If you take a look at WoW's pet portrait that's how you should do it.

5. Resummon pet button. I hate having to dismiss/resummon my whole set of pets just because 1 of them has died. This button will resummon the dead pet (at the appropriate energy cost).

6. Pressing the 'pet assist' command should force the pet to teleport to the owner's location if they are far away.

[Archived Post]

And bot behavior is even WORSE, at least as of when I last played yesterday.

NEW issues include:

* Field Drones do not exit combat (preventing out-of-combat health regen) after enemies are defeated.

* Field Drones do not come to help the owner until several seconds of combat have elapsed and the owner's health is severely depleted. When they DO arrive, they prioritize the munitions bots over the bot owner.

These are serious and, for Gadgeteers especially, gameplay-breaking. It's not fun at all to die every other pull. :(

[Archived Post]

-------------------------------

[Archived Post]

Problem still exists, and it's even worse. Gadgeteers are pretty much unplayable in the current state. I'll die to a single mob now because my bots are either off fixing someone else, or just floating around doing nothing.

Can we please get a dev or tester or GM to look at this?

[Archived Post]

Updated first post with additional symptoms and issues, and a filed bug number for this issue.

[Archived Post]

/signed i'm finding the same problems as everyone else

[Archived Post]

Another problem with munitions bots.

INT does not increase munitions bots damage, at all.
Superstats does not increase bots damage at all.
apparently no stats modify the bots damage, that's why they suck. Very easy to test.

[Archived Post]

Another problem with munitions bots.

INT does not increase munitions bots damage, at all.
Superstats does not increase bots damage at all.
apparently no stats modify the bots damage, that's why they suck. Very easy to test.

I am glad you brought this up, I actually chose something with INT on it specifically for this purpose. Guess it is time to change that out as well.

Couple of minor things to add to all of these things which are still active:

Could you please add a feature that allows us to control how far away the bots are from us? Like another game I loved (****) there was a way to set pet "behavior"; ie, ranged, melee, heal, etc. I found that my field drones are following me into the fray as I drop my mini mines and alot of the time they get blasted by villian AE damage. I would like to set them to stay at least a medium distance away from me so this does not happen.

Also, could you please stagger the bots after they move? Half the time I cannot tell if there is one or two because they are always standing right on top of each other. That makes it ridicuosly time consuming when I am trying to augment my field drones and either heal them or heal my munitions bots with empathic healing. Kthx!

[Archived Post]

I agree with all of this and share in the misery.

Also, the pets used to teleport with us as we travelled. Now they just desummon. Which sucks since they often times will not follow us anyways causing them to desummon quite a bit.

Oh, and not a huge deal, but they increased the cost of the heal drones. I now have to enter combat to raise my power a bit before summoning the heal drones. So, not only do they not heal us for a short while, but I have to get beat on while I build power, beat on while I summon, and beat on until the drones decide I'm worthy enough to be healed. But wait, that's not all. Before they decide if I'm worthy enough to be healed or not they'll first try to find some bots that are damaged, or another hero that's damaged. THEN they'll decide whether or not they'd rather heal me or just hover doing nothing.

This can't be how the devs intended things to work.

[Archived Post]

I also noticed these issues, though the attacking objects that the owner attacks makes sense.

My character's dps is crappy and it takes awhile to blow up objects solo.

It needs priority like was mentioned before based on whoever is attacking the owner first.

The power that summons two wolves also has pathing trouble. They'll jump over curbs that are 1 meter high, but won't run over a bump in the ground that is 3inches high.

[Archived Post]

/signed

Although I dont find my gadgeteer impossible to play its is...Challenging.
I suggest copy/pasting the bot UI and AI from the COV MasterMind and all probs are fixed. :D

Seriously devs fix this please.

thx

[Archived Post]

Anyone notice how much better the Action Figure AI is over the Gadget pets? At least as far as following you goes.

[Archived Post]

I agree with all of this and share in the misery.

...I now have to enter combat to raise my power...

This can't be how the devs intended things to work.



There's a stat called regeneration (REGEN) that raises your equilibrium so you got more power to start. Maybe you need to invest a few points in it. Yah, balancing your stats so you can do what you want to do is part of the game.

[Archived Post]

There's a stat called regeneration (REGEN) that raises your equilibrium so you got more power to start. Maybe you need to invest a few points in it. Yah, balancing your stats so you can do what you want to do is part of the game.

The problem isn't with the summoning cost, or energy reserves, the problem is with the bot behavior. I'll summon my bots before a pull, anyway. But whether I summon them mid-battle or before a pull, they'll generally just sit there and do nothing useful at all. Ever.

Oh, and by the way, the stat is called Recovery (REC), not Regeneration.

[Archived Post]

It seems the pet issue has gotten even worse since the patch. Not only are the field drones not healing the owner they rarely heal anything and just float doing nothing. When you move they do not follow either. My main toon has become quite unsurvivable as a result of Monday's patch following the prerelease. I'm patiently waiting those retcons. Please hurry.

[Archived Post]

Quite fancied rolling a Gadgeteer but I think I'll wait :)

Good luck with getting them fixed, this is one of the few threads on these forums with positive information for the Devs to use instead of the I QUIT rage on most of the others :)

Keep telling them what's not working and in what cicumstances and hopefully they'll sort it.

[Archived Post]

Quite fancied rolling a Gadgeteer but I think I'll wait :)

Good luck with getting them fixed, this is one of the few threads on these forums with positive information for the Devs to use instead of the I QUIT rage on most of the others :)

Keep telling them what's not working and in what cicumstances and hopefully they'll sort it.

Believe me, I've wanted to ragepost. :) But I'm also a software tester by profession and know that solves nothing. So, useful information is the key!

[Archived Post]

/signed

issues aren't quite as bad a some people are having, but still bad enough with the behavior.

beyond frozen bots and drones, there is a significant delay between my movement and the server moving the pets. Often I only have to move some 100 ft or less sometimes to cause my bots to despawn. which is annoying. Hate to refer to COH/V but the pet ai is a lot better, even with the flaws they still havn''t fixed.

[Archived Post]

Found this in the PTR patch notes

* Field Drones: Radius for healing allies dropped to 20' around owner, drones give preference to healing owner if below 90% health. Drones given an "Attack" command at a friendly target will attempt to heal that target. If the owner of the drones is below 90% health, the drones will do a single healing attempt on the target and then return to heal the owner. Drones flight power was adjusted to allow them to navigate better indoors.
* Munitions Bots, Attack Toys, Command Animals, Tyrannon's Familiar: Fixed AI bug where the creatures could lock up in combat when used in conjunction with Field Drones due to being passed a friendly attack target. Critters in assist mode now properly attack the owner's attack target if the owner initiates the combat. If a critter in assist mode is attacked while out of combat, it defends itself normally.

Thanks, devs, for listening to us. :)