monster speeds/AI

[Gilgamesh]

I just started here and wanted to comment on something that doesn't seem t2a accurate to me. I was running along the road that starts off of the ferry from Skara Brae trying to kill some animals for skills and money. A troll walked up and started attacking me so I ran away, and he followed me much faster and much longer than anything I remember from t2a. I ran several screens away and he stayed locked on me and caught up, and his movement towards me was (rough guess) twice as fast as it should have been.

I remember in t2a monsters AI was pretty poor and if you ran off a screen or screen and a half they lost track of you and stopped following; and you could "run away" from them at walking speed. In other words the speed a monster approached you was slightly slower than your characters walking speed and therefore very much slower than your characters running speed. So it was pretty easy to get away from things. And they didn't track you very far at all.

I haven't checked anything else but I remember it was also easy to trap them behind walls and lines of rocks in dungeons and if it was more than two tiles of a wall they would just stay on the other side looking at you menacingly (or casting spells if you aggro'd them and they are magical).

Anyway just my first post so hello all I'm hoping this shard is what I've been looking for, which is a free shard with the actual goal of being t2a accurate not just calling itself a t2a shard like others I've tried.

[TwoTon]

I just started here and wanted to comment on something that doesn't seem t2a accurate to me. I was running along the road that starts off of the ferry from Skara Brae trying to kill some animals for skills and money. A troll walked up and started attacking me so I ran away, and he followed me much faster and much longer than anything I remember from t2a. I ran several screens away and he stayed locked on me and caught up, and his movement towards me was (rough guess) twice as fast as it should have been.

I remember in t2a monsters AI was pretty poor and if you ran off a screen or screen and a half they lost track of you and stopped following; and you could "run away" from them at walking speed. In other words the speed a monster approached you was slightly slower than your characters walking speed and therefore very much slower than your characters running speed. So it was pretty easy to get away from things. And they didn't track you very far at all.

I haven't checked anything else but I remember it was also easy to trap them behind walls and lines of rocks in dungeons and if it was more than two tiles of a wall they would just stay on the other side looking at you menacingly (or casting spells if you aggro'd them and they are magical).

Anyway just my first post so hello all I'm hoping this shard is what I've been looking for, which is a free shard with the actual goal of being t2a accurate not just calling itself a t2a shard like others I've tried.

this shard is about 87% accurate to that of T2A

[Derrick]

Welcome to Second Age Gilgamesh.

Yes the AI here is a little different. It's been refined some, but AI changed quite a bit in era too so I don't think we're going to nail it to everyone's liking.

Feedback on speeds is also appreciated, It's something we're still looking at as well.

this shard is about 87% accurate to that of T2A

I thought we were doing a lot better than that
Way to put the pressure on me TwoTon

[Gilgamesh]

I won't call myself an expert but I can say that I only really played during t2a so anything I remember is only from that era. I quit a few months into UO:R and didn't really pvm or even pvp much, just complained on crossroadsofbritannia.com and couldn't deactivate my account cause I was attached.

So for AI I know for certain that during all of t2a they were dumb dumb dumb. That's the only way you could kill something like a balron. You used to get it to stay on the other side of the corner down there and cast a poison field and just poison it to death. And then there was the rocks you could teleport into if you were in danger.

Also blood elementals in Shame level 4. I distinctly remember being able to easily keep them on the other side of the rock lines that are in that area so as to be able to cast energy vortex's on them.

And the following thing, I'm not sure if "smarter" monsters can do it farther, but definitely their abilities were pathetic. I'm sure that's why they changed it after UO:R because people thought it was too easy. I would agree save for the fact that in dungeons you have to deal with players as well so easy monsters doesn't mean an easy dungeon experience.

In fact I remember at the onset of UO:R they started going around corners following you and stuff like that.

One more thing, did you guys ever play on or hear of Novus Opiate Seclorum? That was the best t2a shard I've ever seen, it's down now but the forums are still up and the guys there would probably help out if you wanted information. They spent quite a few years working on it, which was also it's downfall because while they were perfecting their shard others like IPY and Metropolis were grabbing all the players up.

[TwoTon]

Welcome to Second Age Gilgamesh.

Yes the AI here is a little different. It's been refined some, but AI changed quite a bit in era too so I don't think we're going to nail it to everyone's liking.

Feedback on speeds is also appreciated, It's something we're still looking at as well.

this shard is about 87% accurate to that of T2A

I thought we were doing a lot better than that
Way to put the pressure on me TwoTon

i say 87% but that was a typo i meant 97%

[Derrick]

i say 87% but that was a typo i meant 97%

Thanks for clarifying. That's more my feeling too.

[Gilgamesh]

So is this going to be looked at? I noticed today that skeletons at the Britain Graveyard were chasing me much slower than that troll before did. As I continue to play I'll check out other monsters chasing abilities.

[Derrick]

So is this going to be looked at? I noticed today that skeletons at the Britain Graveyard were chasing me much slower than that troll before did. As I continue to play I'll check out other monsters chasing abilities.

We've actually had speeds on the list for quite a while, but when players mentions these things their priority gets bumped up some. It's a big task to get the speeds right. I do believe that trolls do indeed move faster than skels, but not by much.

[Gilgamesh]

Ok the skeletons now that I've played more are a wee bit faster than my memory, and their following ability is like the trolls in that you have to run seriously far away to get away.

[Gilgamesh]

Another thing, magic monsters did not cast spells on you until either A) you double clicked them in war mode or B) you did damage to them (physical or magic) or C) they got next to you and took a swing (they didn't have to connect I believe)

So if you're running around and a lich sees you and aggro's you and you keep running away, or hell even walking away, it would just walk after you but not cast spells until it either caught up to you and did a melee attack, or you attacked it with weapons or spells.

[alatar]

You used to get it to stay on the other side of the corner down there and cast a poison field and just poison it to death.

way to prove yourself wrong, during no time in UO could you poison a balron.. they've been immune to all poison since UO was created..

[Gilgamesh]

You used to get it to stay on the other side of the corner down there and cast a poison field and just poison it to death.

way to prove yourself wrong, during no time in UO could you poison a balron.. they've been immune to all poison since UO was created..

Well first off no need to use that kind of typing voice. Or to put it in your words "way to make yourself seem like an ass."

Second I remember for a fact poisoning balrons in t2a on Catskills. It was the only way to kill them for a tank mage, they destroyed energy vortexes in a few hits.

[TwoTon]

You used to get it to stay on the other side of the corner down there and cast a poison field and just poison it to death.

way to prove yourself wrong, during no time in UO could you poison a balron.. they've been immune to all poison since UO was created..

Well first off no need to use that kind of typing voice. Or to put it in your words "way to make yourself seem like an ass."

Second I remember for a fact poisoning balrons in t2a on Catskills. It was the only way to kill them for a tank mage, they destroyed energy vortexes in a few hits.

true i remember going to balron room with like 20 people everyone killing it

[Derrick]

Another thing, magic monsters did not cast spells on you until either A) you double clicked them in war mode or B) you did damage to them (physical or magic) or C) they got next to you and took a swing (they didn't have to connect I believe)

So if you're running around and a lich sees you and aggro's you and you keep running away, or hell even walking away, it would just walk after you but not cast spells until it either caught up to you and did a melee attack, or you attacked it with weapons or spells.

Aye. We do plan to implement this. It's especially a problem with reapers.

[brandonsantacruz]

yeah I don't know how many times I've run by a reaver and been hit with exp fs or just fs fs. Nasty little buggers