UO Second Age

Were they supposed to behave like what we have now back at the old days? I seriously doubt. They seem to lock ONLY at you, r a r e l y they go for the monsters, in fact they are wandering around in peace with the other monsters(most of the times like 2/10 doing absolutely nothing until they go *puff*) and of course at the time you get close to them they attack you ASAP. I casted A LOT of them and watched their habits with my stealther several times.. I think they need further attention from Derrick.

Due to EVs will be my only way of farming here, I support this suggestion.

What are you fighting? Because during this time in game development EVs werent as viable as they were in the Great Lord days(best way to kill and avoid a count).

The general rule is the EV would attack the monster/person with the highest Intelligence in the area, same goes for Blade Spirits attacking the strongest in terms of Strength in the immediate area.(EX Ogre Lords)

The catch22 at one point I dont remember when but most monsters that were smarter than you would just dispel the EV, so the old way to do it was to drain the Smart monster(EX a Lich Lord) mana then cast the EV.

This latest patch just made EVs era accurate.

It is pretty wacky how they will attack me, at 100 intelligence, from 7 tiles away, but will sit two tiles from a 125(?) intelligence dragon and do nothing until they expire.

I agree that they were often unpredictable - like, if I was 7 tiles away and a dragon was 5 tiles away, they'd probably target the dragon 60% or 70% of the time, but often would come after me. But the behavior as it stands is pretty wacky - it is like they are literally only looking for human targets, unless they happen to be directly adjacent to a monster.

In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they are only seeking player characters, and only happen to attack monsters because their curse radius hits them and the monsters swing back.

They arent useless. If you have an EV and a monster attacking you they generally wind up on adjacent tiles and aggro one another that way assuming you arent also within one tile. Just kite the EV a bit and itll do its job. I haven't had a problem.

Balrons will dispel them almost instantly even if the Balron is provoked on something else. I imagine Wyrms will as well. If you're EV farming you might want to avoid these things as it's not all that efficient.

Foopy wrote:They arent useless. If you have an EV and a monster attacking you they generally wind up on adjacent tiles and aggro one another that way assuming you arent also within one tile. Just kite the EV a bit and itll do its job. I haven't had a problem.

Have you tried to do that recently?

abercoby wrote:

Foopy wrote:They arent useless. If you have an EV and a monster attacking you they generally wind up on adjacent tiles and aggro one another that way assuming you arent also within one tile. Just kite the EV a bit and itll do its job. I haven't had a problem.

Have you tried to do that the last days?

Yeah, I haven't had a problem. I'm not saying you're totally wrong. Whenever I cast an EV, unless it's cast directly next to a monster and usually only on the opposite side from me will it aggro that monster.

More often than not it attacks me but all you have to do is path it by the monsters and it will switch it's aggro.

edit: also whenever the EV kills a monster it'll do nothing special until you kite it past another. Sometimes the EV and monsters with happen to path across one another and aggro but it's usually more expedient to force the issue by kiting it.

Sounds smart but still I am wondering if EVs are behaving as they should and I doubt. However I will try the crossing paths trick, thanks.

abercoby wrote:Sounds smart but still I am wondering if EVs are behaving as they should and I doubt. However I will try the crossing paths trick, thanks.

I wasn't speaking to era accuracy and I have no idea whether they are or not. But that should work like a charm here and now. Places that offer you a ledge or a wall like the Deceit Lich Lord room will allow you to path your ev with no risk.

Foopy wrote:More often than not it attacks me but all you have to do is path it by the monsters and it will switch it's aggro.

This, I never remember having to do. I remember them being unpredictable, but not "predictably bad" like this. Just my .02 though.

It's been a long time, but I remember them to be perfectly useless.

Mikel123 wrote:

Foopy wrote:More often than not it attacks me but all you have to do is path it by the monsters and it will switch it's aggro.

This, I never remember having to do. I remember them being unpredictable, but not "predictably bad" like this. Just my .02 though.

Yeah, they are 100% predictable here..

if monster is within 1 tile and player is not within 1 tile >> attack monster
else if player is within 6 tiles >> attack player
else >> do nothing

nightshark wrote: Yeah, they are 100% predictable here..

if monster is within 1 tile and player is not within 1 tile >> attack monster
else if player is within 6 tiles >> attack player
else >> do nothing

That's exactly what I mean.

What's the basis for your statement, Braden?

I'm surprised there's been no further substanciation that they are working correctly now. The description of them above is "as intended". I will try to further document this behavior soon; I'm still playing catch-up on forums.