Spellcaster AI

[Mikel123]

Interesting. RunUO wasn't based on any original UO code, right? It was just trying to emulate it?

[nightshark]

Interesting. RunUO wasn't based on any original UO code, right? It was just trying to emulate it?

Just trying to emulate it.

[Faust]

Definitely not saying the way RunUO has it code is correct. Was mainly just trying to point out how dispel is somewhat random but not in the way you thought it worked on here.

RunUO is an emulator that does get 'some' things right but time has shown that majority of what they have is not right. Obviously, they are emulating a different era than what we are trying to replicate that produces a lot of this incorrect mechanics. However, even some things that have stayed resilient to the many screw up features that EA implemented was coded wrong by them.

[Generic Player]

It isn't so much that the RunUO guys did it "wrong", it is just that they have no interest in things being accurate. From the start they chose to make the default behaviour of everything be how they wanted it to be, not how it worked on OSI servers.

Can anyone find any reference detailing exactly what AI changes came in with UO:R. The only things I have seen mentioned are the pathfinding change, and spellcasters being able to cure and teleport. But nothing like an official list of changes that would confirm that dispel was not a UO:R change.

[Mikel123]

Right, Faust, I was just trying to assess whether it was something we could try to break down code-wise.

But, the 75% thing sort of speaks to my point, right? If RunUO was trying to implement what they saw in practice, and they saw monsters dispelling these summons immediately, with the first spell they cast, whenever they had 20+ mana, then why on earth would RunUO developers put that 75% thing in there?

GenericPlayer... this is speaking from memory, but here are the AI changes as I remember:

- monsters that are poisoned will always cure themselves with their next spell
- monsters that are fighting a summon will always dispel it with their next spell
- monsters that are low on HP will sometimes try to Greater Heal themselves
- pathfinding got MUCH better; it was still exploitable, but a lot of people died when fighting the new AI monsters due to underestimating their pathfind abilities

Again, I remember distinctly noticing that the monsters always cured and dispelled when appropriate. In T2A, it almost seemed like they dispelled by accident.

BTW... addendum... monsters are curing themselves on UOSA. Isn't this a bug? I thought someone posted that in T2A they never did this ever.

[Faust]

I still believe the chance was random when a creature was choosing the dispel spell but no where near 10% or lower. The chance was definitely sitting at least 75% or more for sure. There is just no way that creatures like Lich Lords at the Lich Lord Room dispelled that frequently when they dropped down the ledge sitting at a 10% or lower value. The level of intelligence could play a factor in the chance. However, we probably will never know for certain in all honesty... Auto dispel definitely did not exist during the t2a era though. Both features are completely different from each other.

[Generic Player]

That's just it, RunUO didn't try to recreate UO accurately, for any time frame. They made a server compatible with the UO client that behaves how they want it to. So how runuo behaves by default isn't a useful indication of anything.

Yes, I am almost positive monsters couldn't cure or heal during t2a era. But as always, all you can really find reference to is "monsters will be smarter about curing themselves" in the intentionally vague patch notes. Nothing concrete like "monsters will now be able to cure themselves". But the discussions you see from people during that time certainly make it sound like curing and healing were new. Note that you don't find people talking about new dispel behaviour when the UO:R ai change happened.

[Generic Player]

Auto dispel definitely did not exist during the t2a era though. Both features are completely different from each other.

Right, auto-dispel was added way later, and isn't them casting dispel, they either dispel on hit or have a dispel aura, making it so even if you run them out of mana you can't BS/EV them.